CNN guest Tiffany Cross managed to turn the allegedly hoaxed hate crime by “Empire” star Jussie Smollett back on Trump supporters during a panel discussion Friday morning.
Cross, a co-founder of The Beat DC, admitted that what Smollett allegedly did to stage the crime is “sociopathic,” but then immediately turned her attention to deriding supporters of President Donald Trump — despite their apparent lack of involvement in the incident.
“I think we have to be honest about what the MAGA hat has come to represent, what the MAGA symbol has come to represent — I don’t know that I would conflate these two,” Cross said. “This is an actor, you know, allegedly feigning this whole attack, trying to get more money for his salary, that’s a separate conversation from what’s happening in society at large and the divide that’s happening in this country.”
“Didn’t he in fact attempt to paint the MAGA supporters as these racist and homophobic people?” CNN contributor Nischelle Turner questioned.
“But, Nischelle, I have to respectfully disagree. I think MAGA supporters have painted themselves as that,” Cross said. “When you look at footage, when you hear things they say, this is the honest truth and we have to be bold enough to call that out.”
An employee at the University of California, Berkeley, is facing backlash after expressing glee online at the news that a conservative activist was attacked on campus earlier this week.
Yuvi Panda, who works as a DevOps architect for Berkeley’s Data Science Education Program, tweeted Wednesday night that the reported attack against a Leadership Institute employee on campus made him feel “so much better.”
Hayden Williams, a Leadership Institute field recruiter, told university police that a man struck him several times while he was helping Turning Point USA recruit conservatives on campus. Several videos of the incident showed Mr. Williams being cursed at and punched in the face. Police are still searching for the suspect.
Mr. Williams told Fox News that the suspect is “being hailed as a hero by the campus community” and that people are refusing to give police any information out of solidarity with the assailant.
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele claimed Friday on MSNBC that President Donald Trump was ‘probably’ upset that law enforcement prevented a terror attack against prominent Democrats.
A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant was arrested earlier this week for allegedly stockpiling guns and ammunition with the alleged intention of carrying out a large-scale terror attack to “establish a white homeland.”
There are many good reasons to treat SPLC's work as nothing more than leftist pablum.
In the midst of the endless news cycle surrounding Jussie Smollett’s hate-crime hoax, our own Louis DeBroux highlighted just how prevalent such hoaxes are. Ask yourself a simple question: Do we really live in a nation filled with hate groups committing rampant hate crimes when the hip new thing is to perpetrate fake hate crimes to get attention?
The nation’s premier hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, laughably insists the answer is yes and that it’s getting worse under President Donald Trump. In its newest Intelligence Report (try not to laugh), the SPLC calculates that the number of “hate” groups in the U.S. supposedly increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2018. Citing the report, The New York Times warns, “The law center said the number of hate groups rose by 7 percent last year to 1,020, a 30 percent jump from 2014. That broadly echoes other worrying developments, including a 30 percent increase in the number of hate crimes reported to the F.B.I. from 2015 through 2017 and a surge of right-wing violence that the Anti-Defamation League said had killed at least 50 people in 2018.”
Two points about reports from the FBI and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). First, as we observed in November, the reason “hate” crimes are supposedly on the rise is because hundreds more law-enforcement agencies have begun reporting such a category. So if that category is to be taken seriously instead of dismissed as political and subjective, all it means is that we’re now keeping count. Second, assume for a moment that the leftist ADL’s numbers are even remotely accurate (they’re not). Fifty murders is 50 too many for any reason, but blacks kill 50 other blacks in American inner cities every week. Is it a worse crime when the race of the perpetrator is white?
Why are Millennials embracing socialism as an acceptable philosophical approach to markets? Why is the public at large not just laughing when the political Left attempts to tie the anti-Semitism and perversion of Christianity practiced by Nazis to the political Right? Why are we seeing a growing embrace of victimhood and weakness as honorable instead of achievement and deliberate pursuits of distinguished goals? Why do individuals who refuse to value citizenship but want socialism fail to see that those coming into America illegally do so either with nefarious intent or because they are fleeing big, socialist government?
Better yet, how’d we get here to this mess and how can we make an urgent, existential correction? Believing Thomas Jefferson’s statement to be true, Americans need to think through and understand the implications: “A nation has never been ignorant and free; that has never been and will never be.”
The Wall Street Journal opined last fall over the “embarrassing” number of Americans who failed the same civics test administered to those working through the naturalization process to become a U.S. Citizens. Writing about the abysmal 19% of individuals 45 years of age or younger who successfully answered enough questions about America’s history and government to pass, the editorial board blared that this “reflects the declining state of American public schools. None of this augurs well for the future of self-government.”
No, criticism of so many of America’s public schools and our government-run education is not excessively harsh.
Her mom was the candidate behind the most radical pro-abortion shift in the Democratic Party. Now, Chelsea Clinton wants everyone to know -- we haven't seen anything yet.
In an interview sure to put Americans' jaws on the floor, Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen sat down with Bill and Hillary's daughter and talked about abortion as casually as if they were comparing laundry detergents. This procedure -- this gruesome, deadly, wildly unpopular procedure -- Chelsea argued, "is part of the fabric of our country." Wen agreed, saying that we should approach this kind of health care "from a social justice lens, valuing each person and their choice." Unless, of course, that person happens to be inside the womb -- or seconds out of it.
In one of the sickest, most bizarre moments of their chat (and there were plenty), Wen had the gall to argue that killing children is actually "pro-life." "Our nurses," she went on, "our clinicians -- they're all here because we believe in life. Being pro-choice is being pro-woman. It's being pro-family. It's being pro-community. It's being pro-life." Whose life, no one is quite sure since the organization ended 332,757 of them in 2017 alone. That's like wiping out the population of St. Louis. Suddenly, the "fabric of our country" looks like a massive pile of burial clothes.
But Wen and Clinton persisted -- ignoring the overwhelming majority of Americans (77 percent) disgusted by their extreme positions. "First and foremost, it's about our safety. We know what happens when abortion is illegal." But do they know what happens when abortion is legal? When groups like theirs fight to keep monsters like Kermit Gosnell in business? Don't talk to us about safety when thousands of women are visiting third-world clinics with rusty instruments and blood-stained floors because Planned Parenthood is trying to stop state inspections and regulations. Thanks to Wen's organization, most moms are sitting in abortion clinics that are less regulated than a tanning salon. Legal doesn't make it safe. Planned Parenthood has seen to that.
Strawberries are more than scrumptious. Researchers have found that eating just a few of them each day may improve gut health and relieve inflammation associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
IBD is a painful condition that affects at least 3 million adults in the U.S., causing fatigue, diarrhea and other symptoms. IBD includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and is also a risk factor for colorectal cancer.
Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst discovered that adding less than a cupful of strawberries to your diet every day could potentially reverse the bothersome effects of IBD.
“The sedentary lifestyle and dietary habits of many people in this country — high-sugar, high-animal-fat, but low-fiber diets — may promote colonic inflammation and increase the risk of IBD,” says lead study author Hang Xiao, Ph.D., with the university’s Department of Food Science, in a release by the American Chemical Society.
Study authors say fruits and vegetables are known to lower the risk of IBD. Because of their popularity, strawberries have already been the focus of limited studies.
“But when you only test the purified compounds and extracts,” says study coauthor Yanhui Han, a Ph.D. student at the university, “you miss out on a lot of other important components in the berries, such as dietary fiber, as well as phenolic compounds bound to the fibers, that can’t be extracted by solvents.”
One of the benefits of studying whole berries, he says, is that this is the way fruits are usually consumed. More here
Newsweek’s initial coverage of the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax and the alleged assault that took place Tuesday on UC Berkeley’s campus drew skepticism Friday from many, though Newsweek defends its reporting as appropriately “cautious.”
Smollett alleged that two supporters of President Donald Trump assaulted him and poured a bleach-like substance on him while shouting racist and homophobic slurs last month. He was arrested for allegedly orchestrating the entire hoax earlier this week.
The article’s lede reads: “Empire actor Jussie Smollett was hospitalized Monday in Chicago after being attacked by two men who allegedly screamed praise to President Donald Trump.”
A Virginia Republican announced Friday that two of Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax’s accusers will testify to the state’s judiciary committee in April when the legislature is back in session.
While lawmakers in both parties have responded with words of concern, they have utterly failed to act and have stood idly by as Lt. Governor Fairfax has impugned Dr. Tyson’s actions as being politically motivated; verbally attacked Dr. Tyson and Ms. Watson; [and] threatened to file criminal charges against Dr. Tyson if she pursues criminal charges against him. … It now appears that the Virginia General Assembly lacks the political courage to establish a process by which Dr. Tyson and Ms. Watson’s serious allegations of sexual violence suffered at the hands of Lt. Governor Fairfax will be fully investigated. We ask the members of the Virginia General Assembly to consider what message such inaction sends to victims of sexual assault and rape, the statement from Dr. Tyson’s attorney said. In response, Delegate Rob Bell, chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee announced the panel will take action before the committee adjourns this weekend, reported Fox News.
The chairman of a congressionally created commission charged with reviewing the nation’s selective service registration system says a ruling by a federal judge in Texas spells doom for the current law, which requires only men to register for the military draft.
The ruling last week came as a result of a 2013 lawsuit filed by two draft-age men who argued requiring only men to register for the draft was a form of discrimination on the basis of sex and therefore a violation of the Constitution.
Donald Trump's talks with Kim Jong-un ended abruptly on Thursday as the president said he was forced to walk away after the North Korean dictator demanded that all sanctions be lifted in return for giving up only some of his nukes.
Trump said the final snag that caused the sudden breakdown was over sanctions – and Kim's push to have all of them lifted in exchange for a concession Trump and his secretary of state could not live with.
'Sometimes you have to walk away,' Trump told reporters at a press conference in Hanoi that was abruptly moved up after a breakdown in talks.
Trump said that he remains on good terms with Kim and continued to tout the 'enormous potential' of North Korea, not notably said there were no plans for a next summit meeting.
Trump candidly revealed that Kim wanted the sanctions off, but was not willing to give up his array of nukes, missiles, and additional sites he only alluded to vaguely.
Back, during a darker period of our nation’s history, it wasn’t unheard of for a white woman to falsely accuse a black man of raping her. Sometimes the lie was to cover up an affair. Sometimes it was a cry for attention. In either case, it’s pretty clear who the victim was in those circumstances, the innocent black man.
Oddly, when a progressive falsely accuses a Trump supporter of racism, sexism, homophobia, or any of the countless other epithets and false accusation that are reserved for conservatives, nobody can figure out who the victim is.
Jussie Smollett falsely accused white male Trump supporters of perpetrating a racist hate crime against a gay man. None it really happened, but that didn’t stop the progressive lynch mob from doing its job.
A Wyoming bill requiring Medicaid recipients to work a set number of hours per week to receive benefits moved forward Friday in the state House.
The bill, which passed its first reading in the state House by a slim margin despite it being destined for failure moments before the vote, would require all “able-bodied” Medicaid recipients who are not disabled or are caretakers for children under six years old to work at least 20 hours a week to receive benefits, the Casper Star Tribune reported.
A similar bill proposed in 2018 passed the state Senate but died in the state House, according to the Tribune.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a little-noticed report last week that confirms what Obamacare critics said from Day One: the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates for the cost and impact of the Affordable Care Act were off by enormous margins.
American voters should carefully consider this object lesson when evaluating all socialist promises. If socialists couldn’t predict the effect of Obamacare accurately, how can anyone trust their predictions for vastly larger and more complex government takeovers like “Medicare for All” or the “Green New Deal?”
The whoopsy-daisy analysis from CMS released last Wednesday would have been an atomic bomb dropped on Obamacare if it came out before the Affordable Care Act was signed, and it would have seriously derailed Democrat scaremongering during the Obamacare repeal battle of 2017, but as Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner noted, the truth was “literally a footnote” when it dribbled out in 2019. More
Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson revealed “there is a lot more evidence” going against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s version of an alleged hate crime.
Johnson said as of now, Smollett will still get his day in court, but he said physical evidence, video evidence and testimony “does not support the version he gave.”
“[T]here’s a lot more evidence that hasn’t been presented yet and does not support the version he gave,” Johnson told ABC’s Robin Roberts.
He added, “But there’s still a lot of physical evidence, video evidence and testimony that just simply does not support his version of what happened.”
It seems the college yearbook photo of Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) in blackface or a KKK robe may have sparked a new trend.
At Wake Forest University (WFU) in Winston-Salem, NC, a yearbook photo of Martha Allman, the school’s dean of admissions, surfaced showing her standing in front of a confederate flag hung on campus in 1982. Allman sent an apology to students, faculty, and staff after the photo was discovered via an email obtained by The Daily Wire.
“That flag was a symbol of pain and racism then just as it is now, and I understand that much differently in 2019 than I did in 1982,” Allman wrote.
“Thirty-seven years of life, experiences, relationships and education have made a difference in my way of understanding the world and my ability to empathize with those who are different from me,” she continued. “Throughout my career in admissions, one of my goals has been to create a more diverse and inclusive Wake Forest. It is my hope that I will be judged by my professional dedication to Wake Forest, my faith and civic involvement, and by my future work with the Wake Forest community.”
Dianne Feinstein caught a lot of flack over the weekend after an out-of-context video went viral. The clip shows Feinstein's exchange with a bunch of kids from a radical environmentalist group called the Sunrise Movement. The kids demand that Feinstein support the Green New Deal while the senator does her level best to educate the youngsters on the finer points of the legislative process.
The outraged masses claim that Feinstein was "disrespectful" and "rude" to the children. The full video clearly shows that she was enormously patient, at one point offering an internship to one of the kids. Even the short clip is favorable to Feinstein. She isn't the one who needs to apologize for her behavior. The impertinence was entirely on the part of the kids, who spent several minutes lecturing and scolding an adult. I'm old fashioned enough to still believe in respecting your elders. The parents of these children have clearly neglected to teach them that crucial lesson.
But the most disturbing thing about the footage, aside from the bratty behavior of those poorly-raised children, is the very real fear you can hear in their voices and see on their faces. They really believe that the world might soon end and the Green New Deal is the only thing that can pull us back from the brink. They believe such nonsense because that's what the adults in their lives have told them.
The testimony Wednesday by former Trump attorney and convicted perjurer Michael Cohen before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform did not produce the smoking guns that Democrats were hoping for, but it did produce a prodigious amount of fake news.
Several members of the committee noted beforehand and during the hearing the oddity of Cohen testifying before a congressional committee as he's headed to prison for lying to Congress:
But it seems that Cohen wasn't the only liar.
NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt was at the hearing and reported on-air about the proceedings. After Cohen's testimony, she made a flatly false assertion about a phone conversation between Trump confidant Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in response to a WikiLeaks tweet about Cohen's claims that Trump had foreknowledge of Wikileaks' DNC email drop.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed legislation Wednesday to abolish his state’s concealed carry permit requirement.
Oklahoma joins Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Vermont as the 15th state to declare the Second Amendment as an individual’s carry permit.
On December 14, Breitbart News reported that Oklahoma was on the verge of abolishing its carry permit requirement. Lawmakers tried to abolish the requirement under former Gov. Mary Fallin (R), but she vetoed their legislation. Stitt came into office voicing his support for eliminating the permit requirement.
One of the most remarkable things about the symbiotic relationship between the mainstream media and hate crime hoaxers is how long a particular pattern of reporting has been going on. When I first began my research, I half expected hate hoaxes to be a phenomenon unique to the social media era, the result of activists realizing that few things could get more likes than a YouTube video of a popular campus radical with a perfectly blacked eye ranting against racism. Not so. Laird Wilcox’s Crying Wolf, published in the mid-1990s, contains nearly as many cases of note as the data set I collected over a similar length of time. In fact, it would appear that the rate of hate crime hoaxes has been fairly consistent for at least the past twenty to twenty-five years. For that entire time and longer, mainstream media coverage of hoax incidents has followed the same template.
The general pattern of media coverage of fake or questionable hate crimes is (1) get wind of a sensationalist allegation of a hate attack; (2) dramatically report it, often on the front page or during prime time; (3) ignore growing evidence that the allegation is a hoax; (4) finally receive indisputable proof that the allegation is a hoax; and (5) run a retraction of the original front-page story on page twenty-six of the Leisure and Pet Cats section. This template accurately describes the coverage of Yasmin Seweid’s false claim that Trump supporters attacked her for wearing a hijab—but also the reporting on the infamous rape accusations against the Duke lacrosse team in 2006 and the 1992 claims of Azalea Cooley that “Burn N*gger Burn” had been painted on her house along with a swastika. Though this has been going on for at least three decades, it has apparently never occurred to many reporters and media executives to be suspicious of wildly unlikely hate crime allegations.
Methodology: We use a variety of factors to determine these rankings. To see our full methodology, click here.
There’s a lot to see and do in the relatively small state of Maryland — from the historic city of Annapolis where the naval academy is, the beautiful Chesapeake Bay full of delicious crabs, to Baltimore city with its lively nightlife and museums. That's not all though. You also have the sprawling mountains to the west, beaches on the Atlantic ocean, and dozens of historic Civil War sites. Maryland is such a historic state with so much to do, and it lends itself to being a relatively safe state overall.
Of the 25 safest cities in the state, the highest had a safety rating of 91.2 and the lowest was at 43.35. That is quite a big range, but keep in mind that the first 19 cities are over 70, and two of the cities are in the top 500 safest cities of the nation. It should also be noted that nearly all 25 cities that we ranked experienced a decline in property and violent crimes, most notably Bowie with a 20.4% drop in property crime and 14.8% drop in violent crimes.
Ocean Pines rated as the safest city in the state with a score of 91.2. There are 12,163 residents here, and is located on the Atlantic coastline. This city seems to be so safe due to having a mostly older population, with 66% of the population being over 45 years old. Therefore, most of the people are here to retire or live peacefully by the ocean, far from the noise of big city life.
A new report reveals that President Donald Trump’s cabinet is as diverse at Yale University’s cabinet.
In response to a slate of articles condemning the lack of diversity in the Trump administration, a report from The College Fix has revealed that Trump’s cabinet is no less diverse than Yale University’s cabinet.
Since the beginning of the Trump presidency, outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, and The Atlantic have attacked the Trump administration for a lack of diversity
Both Yale University’s cabinet and Trump’s cabinet include 16 white males. Of the 28 members of Yale University’s cabinet, only two are not white. Meanwhile, three members of Trump’s smaller 26 member cabinet are not white. Both Trump and Yale President Peter Salovey are white men.
During CNN’s special coverage of President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee, network anchor Jake Tapper pointed out that all of out CNN’s reporting contradicted Cohen’s statement that he did not want a job in the White House.
Political correspondent for CNN, Dana Bash said, “One potential problem that I thought Michael Cohen has is when he was asked if he wanted a job in the White House, and he said no. Our reporting, I know, Pam you have been told and I have been told by people in and around the process real time, he very much wanted a job in the White House.”
'Ever wonder what happens when a car is parked in front of a fire hydrant and a fire breaks out? Is a closer parking spot worth the broken windows and the citation and towing fees to @AnaheimPD? @City_of_Anaheim residents please do not park in fire lanes.'
'Tonight's vote isn't about protecting women—it's about scoring political points'
Democratic senator Sherrod Brown (Ohio) on Monday castigated Senate Republicans for attempting to protect children who survive abortions.
In a series of posts on social media, Brown lashed out for what he described as political posturing on the part of Republicans, specifically Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who brought a vote on legislation mandating babies who survive failed abortions are given the same medical treatment as children born prematurely.
"Tonight's vote isn't about protecting women," Brown tweeted. "It's about scoring political points at the expense of women's health and freedom to make their own healthcare decisions."
A suspended Virginia Tech football player has been charged with filming an unclothed woman without her consent.
The Roanoke Times reports 19-year-old Dwayne Lamont Crossen, known as D.J., was arraigned Monday on a misdemeanor charge.
Virginia Tech said in a statement earlier this month that Crossen was suspended from competition in September for unspecified violations of university policy.
The defensive back was allowed to practice throughout the fall, but received a university suspension at the beginning of 2019.
An arrest warrant says the video dates to February 8. But a search warrant from fall says a woman in September reported Crossen making a video of her without her permission while they had consensual sex.
RICHMOND, Va. (ABC7) — The Commonwealth's most powerful family is in the spotlight, again, after new allegations surrounding yet another racist incident.
The Commonwealth's first lady, Pam Northam, has been accused of handing out balls of cotton to black students during a tour of the governor's residence, according to the Washington Post. The first lady also asked the students on the tour to 'imagine being slaves.'
“The Governor and Mrs. Northam have asked the residents of the Commonwealth to forgive them for their racially insensitive past actions,” said Leah Dozier Walker to the Post. Walker oversees the Office of Equity and Community Engagement at the state Education Department.
“But the actions of Mrs. Northam, just last week, do not lead me to believe that this Governor’s office has taken seriously the harm and hurt they have caused African Americans in Virginia or that they are deserving of our forgiveness,” she wrote.
ATLANTA, GA—While Empire actor Jussie Smollett has been having a tough week so far, there appears to be a silver lining: cable news channel CNN has offered Smollett a job as an investigative reporter and on-air anchor after witnessing his skills at fabricating a story entirely out of thin air.
CNN producers were reportedly impressed throughout the ongoing saga of Smollett's apparent hoax attack on himself. They realized early on the facts didn't add up but were fascinated with how well the actor kept the narrative going. An HR rep quickly reached out to Smollett to see if he'd be interested in taking on a position at the news organization after news broke that the entire thing was probably fabricated.
"Smollett has exactly the kind of skills we look for at our fine organization," said CNN correspondent Brian Stelter. "He picked a narrative, made up all the relevant facts and details, and stuck with his story in spite of glaring holes in the plot. It's hard to find people who understand our core values here at CNN, but Smollett seems to be just the guy for us."
The actor has accepted the offer and is now undergoing training to learn how to weave even more intricate narratives ex nihilo, according to insiders.
Last night, Senate Democrats blocked a bill called the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act. The media tells us that this was an “anti-abortion” bill. The blood-drenched scumbags of NARAL call it an “extremist” and “anti-choice” bill. Elizabeth Warrencalls it an attack on women. It was none of those things.
The legislation would not restrict abortion at all. It had nothing to do with “reproductive rights” or “choice” or “fetuses” or any handy euphemism. The point was simply to protect those children who are born after a failed abortion. Let me emphasize: the bill in question would have given legal protection to born, living, infant humans. Under the law, had it passed, hospitals would have been required to deliver basic medical care to these children:
“If an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person for all purposes under the laws of the United States, and entitled to all the protections of such laws. Any infant born alive after an abortion or within a hospital, clinic, or other facility has the same claim to the protection of the law that would arise for any newborn, or for any person who comes to a hospital, clinic, or other facility for screening and treatment or otherwise becomes a patient within its care."
Michael Cohen, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, testified before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday that Clinton confidant Lanny Davis is representing him as co-counsel free of charge.
Cohen told lawmakers that progressive billionaire Tom Steyer, an activist seeking Trump’s impeachment, is not paying Mr. Davis, to his knowledge.
“In 30 years, I’ve never seen anything like this”: CEO of warehouse operator Pacific Mountain Logistics.
Sales at merchant wholesalers (except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices) fell 1% in December 2018, compared to November, to $497.2 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis, and inched up only 1% compared to December 2017, according to the Census Bureau estimates this morning.
But inventories at these wholesalers rose 1.1% from November and jumped 7.3% from December 2017, to $661.8 billion. Over the two-year period through December, inventories have risen 11%. This includes inventories of durable and non-durable goods (we’ll look at them separately in a moment):
As lawmakers and advocates try again to impose a surtax on incomes over $1 million, they’re confident a new attempt can survive a potential legal challenge and meet constitutional requirements.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in June 2018 derailed a proposal to amend the state Constitution to assess a higher tax rate on people with the largest annual incomes, erasing what had been eyed by Democrats on Beacon Hill as a new revenue stream to fund education and transportation projects.
The high court ruled that the ballot question, which had been on track to go before voters in November 2018, unconstitutionally mixed the two different spending priorities and a major change in tax policy.
“Regrettably, when we got to the finish line, we ran into a bump here and there and it was determined that our previous Fair Share Amendment didn’t meet constitutional muster, but that is not going to happen this time,” state Representative James O’Day (D-West Boylston) said at a State House briefing Tuesday, February 26 on a new version of the tax proposal. “We’re happy to have folks with us today that are going to put your mind at ease on that.”
O’Day and state Senator Jason Lewis (D-Winchester) refiled the surtax (Senate Bill 16, House Bill 86) — known as the Millionaires’ Tax or the Fair Share Amendment — this year as a legislative amendment instead of the citizen’s amendment version that was scuttled last year.
Unlike citizen’s amendments, legislative amendments are not required to contain only related or mutually dependent subjects, attorney Patrick Moore said.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is fining a Charlottesville, Virginia, firm hundreds of thousands of dollars for hiring foreign workers on H-1B visas instead of qualified Americans in its latest settlement, thanks to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative.
The Justice Department announced this week it will fine CFA Institute (CFAI) more than $320,000 for choosing to discriminate against qualified American workers by specifically hiring foreign workers imported through the H-1B visa program.
Every year, more than 100,000 foreign workers are brought to the U.S. on the H-1B visa and are allowed to stay for up to six years. There are about 650,000 H-1B visa foreign workers in the U.S. at any given moment. Americans are often laid off in the process and forced to train their foreign replacements, as highlighted by Breitbart News. More than 85,000 Americans annually potentially lose their jobs to foreign labor through the H-1B visa program.
The DOJ investigation revealed that CFAI, a nonprofit firm of investment professionals, hired H-1B visa foreign workers to administer an exam for financial analysists that provides them with a global certification if they pass. More
Important Legislation Provides Much Needed Relief To Maryland RetireesNote: Senate Budget and Taxation Committee to Hold Hearing on SB 875 on Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 1:00 PM
“We won’t stop fighting until the legislature has agreed to eliminate one hundred percent of all retirement taxes on our retired veterans. As long as I am governor, I will continue to be a tireless advocate, standing up and fighting for our veterans each and every day.” - Governor Larry Hogan, August 23, 2018
Income Tax - Subtraction Modification - Military Retirement Income
Governor Hogan’s Proposed Legislation Eliminates State Taxes On Military Retirement Income Received As A Result Of Military Service. “The subtraction under subsection (a) of this section includes:... for a taxable year beginning after December 31, 2019, but before January 1, 2021, 50% of the military retirement income received by an individual during that taxable year; and for a taxable year beginning after December 31, 2020, all of the military retirement income received by an individual during that year.” (“Senate Bill 875,” Maryland General Assembly, 2/8/19)
The Governor’s Proposed Legislation Will Provide Maryland Retirees With $91 Million In Tax Relief Over The Next Five Years. (Maryland Department Of Budget And Management)
Governor Hogan Has Consistently Fought To Eliminate Taxes On The Retirement Income Of Maryland Retirees
In 2014, Governor Hogan Campaigned On Working To Eliminate Taxes On The Retirement Income Of Marylanders. “Maryland Republican gubernatorial nominee Larry Hogan told residents of a large seniors community Tuesday that he would like to eliminate taxation of all retirement income once the state gets its fiscal house in order… ‘Once we get it under control, our plan — we can’t do it immediately — will be to completely eliminate state income taxes for pensions and retirement income,’ Hogan told the Charlestown residents.” (John Wagner, “Md. GOP Nominee Hogan Suggests Eliminating Taxes On All Retirement Income,” The Washington Post, 8/19/14)
In 2014, Governor Hogan Stated That He Would Fight To Eliminate Income Tax On The Pensions Of Military Retirees; Stated Veterans Deserve Better. “Republican Larry Hogan says he would push to eliminate Maryland’s income tax on military pensions, if he is elected governor. Hogan spoke Wednesday to the Maryland American Legion’s annual convention in Ocean City. He says veterans deserve much better than they have been getting from the state or federal government. Hogan says veterans have earned the tax break. He also says the tax is bad economic policy.” (“Hogan: Eliminate Income Tax On Military Pensions,”The Associated Press, 7/16/14)
This Is The Fourth Year That Governor Hogan Has Introduced Legislation To Eliminate State Taxes On The Retirement Income Of Military Retirees: 2015, 2017, 2018.
In 2017, Governor Hogan Enacted Legislation Precluding The First $10,000 Of Retirement Income From State Taxes From State Taxes; Last Session Governor Hogan Enacted Legislation Expanding The Exemption To The First $15,000.
Important Legislation Provides Much Needed Relief To Maryland’s Volunteer Emergency Services PersonnelNote: Senate Budget and Taxation Committee to Hold Hearing on SB 161 on Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 1:00 PM
“I have been moved countless times by the selflessness of our firefighters and first responders. You deserve and have earned our respect and our gratitude, and making sure you get that respect isn’t a political issue – it’s just common sense.” - Governor Larry Hogan, February 6, 2019
Income Tax - Subtraction Modification - Volunteer Fire, Rescue, And Emergency Medical Services Members
Governor Hogan’s Proposed Legislation Provides Tax Relief To Volunteer Maryland Fire, Rescue, Or Emergency Medical Services; Legislation Will Increase State Income Tax Exemption To $10,000. “An individual is a qualifying volunteer fire, rescue, or emergency medical services member for the taxable year eligible for the subtraction modification under the subsection if the individual… The amount of the subtraction under paragraph (1) of this subsection is equal to:... [$6,500] $8,000 for a taxable year beginning after December 31, 2020, but before January 1, 2022; and [$7,000] $10,000 for a taxable year beginning after December 31, 2021.” Note: Figures in brackets are proposed to be removed from existing law. (“Senate Bill 161,” Maryland General Assembly, 1/21/19)
Under The Governor’s Proposal, Volunteer Fire, Rescue, And Emergency Medical Services Personnel Will Receive A Total Of $7 Million In Tax Relief Over Five Years. (Maryland Department Of Budget And Management)
A photo from newly issued guidance on dress code policy at the Clerk of the Court's Office at Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. (Courtesy photo) Newly issued guidance on dress code at Anne Arundel Circuit Court outlines a policy that regulates men’s and women’s clothing in an effort the court’s clerk said keeps the office “professional and consistent.”
The policy outlined in a memo sent to employees of the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s Office by newly elected clerk Scott Poyer on Jan. 29 outlines how Poyer interprets what appropriate dress for the office is as dictated by state statute.
The EPA’s highest-paid employee and a leading expert on climate change was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison Wednesday for lying to his bosses and saying he was a CIA spy working in Pakistan so he could avoid doing his real job.
John C. Beale’s crimes were “inexplicable” and “unbelievably egregious," said Judge Ellen Huvelle in imposing the sentence in a Washington. D.C. federal court. Beale has also agreed to pay $1.3 million in restitution and forfeiture to the government.
Beale said he was ashamed of his lies about working for the CIA, a ruse that, according to court records, began in 2000 and continued until early this year.
“Why did I do this? Greed – simple greed – and I’m ashamed of that greed,” Beale told the court. He also said it was possible that he got a “rush” and a “sense of excitement" by telling people he was worked for the CIA. “It was something like an addiction,” he said.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has never been a moderate on the abortion issue. And as a candidate for president he would take those views to the White House.
He consistently has stood by the Democrats’ radical pro-abortion agenda, and rejected even moderate abortion regulations, such as a late-term abortion ban. All indications suggest he would continue to do so if elected president of the United States.
Sanders’ votes have been consistently pro-abortion when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable, defenselessness lives in America today.
The legislation had strong public support, but Sanders and his fellow Democrats killed it.Fifty-one senators (48 Republicans and three Democrats) voted to take the bill up for debate, but 60 votes were required to overcome Democrats’ filibuster.
Sanders’ famously couldn’t answer a question about if there was ever a time in pregnancy where he would ever limit abortions.
“Can you name a single circumstance at any point in a pregnancy in which you would be okay with abortion being illegal?” Bret Baier asked Sanders.
2018’s valuation records are astounding in that they show the S&P 500 to be more fundamentally over-valued than it was at the prior two historic stock market valuation peaks in 1929 and 2000, bona fide speculative manias.
Cycles are perhaps the most natural and common occurrence in the universe. The planets orbit the sun, seasons change, day turns to night and night back to day, humans are born, grow old and die.
Some of these cycles are more pleasant to think about than others, but their consistent occurrence remains factually unassailable. Indeed, it could be said that a human life itself consists of an endless series of encounters with various cycles. Cycles of the natural world and cycles created by humans themselves. Human created cycles are the focal point of today’s piece.
I’ve been writing a lot about cycles over the past few months since it’s become increasingly clear that the artificial economic cycle we’ve been living in for about a decade is on its last leg. In order to understand how significant this is, it’s important to recap what the last ten years actually represented.
It didn’t represent a healthy economic growth cycle, but rather an insanely irresponsible, and arguably criminal, manufactured bubble boom where central banks printed enormous amounts of money to inflate asset prices like stocks, bonds and real estate. In this deranged mission they succeeded, but at a great cost to social stability.
Kim Jong-un is using barbaric methods to 'purge' his officials and cling onto power, according to a damning South Korean investigation.
The dictator has had 421 officials executed and exiled since seizing power in 2011, with victims being fed naked to hunting dogs, blown up with anti-aircraft guns, burned alive with flamethrowers and hanged, the report claims.
In some cases, entire families of officials have been executed while others were imprisoned in concentration camps and 'erased from society'.
FALL RIVER — It’s not every day that a brand new job market just falls in your lap.
While many celebrated the 2016 legalization of recreational marijuana as an end of prohibition and a beginning of potentially millions of dollars in revenue for municipalities hosting dispensaries, it also represented the birth of an entire industry.
Depending on how many businesses are approved by the state’s Cannabis Control Commission to open, hundreds, and possibly thousands, of jobs in the Massachusetts marijuana industry could be created by the end of the year. It’s now up to each company to figure out how to fill these jobs when “relevant work experience” was considered illegal just a few years ago.
Fall River-based dispensaries like Northeast Alternatives and Hope Heal Health, which has yet to expand into recreational sales, are making efforts to hire locally, but that means very few applicants have employment histories in the cannabis industry. Because of this, Hope Heal Health President John Rogue said companies are looking for anyone with transferable skills.
“The truth is, you’re trying to qualify people without experience,” he said. “Someone who went to school and came out of an agricultural program is good. A lot of people who work well here came out of the restaurant business and have skill managing a large operation or working in fast-paced environments. People with any level of experience or desire is what we’re looking for.”
Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro stormed out of an interview with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos after being shown video of citizens eating food scraps from a garbage truck, the journalist said Monday evening.
Earlier Monday evening, Univision said Maduro temporarily detained six of its reporters, including Ramos, at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas after asking questions the disputed Venezuelan president “didn’t like.”
The network also reported the team’s recording equipment was confiscated before being released. The crew was released around three hours after the incident started, said the network.
“[W]hen I showed him these images, he said that the interview was over,” the Univision anchor said. “He didn’t like the things we were asking, about the lack of democracy in Venezuela, the torture of political prisoners, about the humanitarian crisis that they are living,” he added.
A conservative website, TruNews, had a commentator ridicule Mike Pompeo for claiming the Hezeb’allah was in Venezuela.
So Mike Pompeo, the other day -- I don’t know if you guys caught this. I had heard it, but it registered today -- that He said that Hezb’allah is making inroads into Venezuela -- TruNews on YouTube (4:18 -- set to right time)
Though Christian and conservative, TruNews is critical of Zionism; and it seemed absurd to the speaker that Arab terrorists could be infiltrating South America. For those unaware, it might indeed seem crazy that Hezb’allah would be moving into South America. The culture, the religion, and the history are seemingly quite foreign to Islamic interests.
However Arab influence is quite enormous in Latin America, and has been around for roughly a century. As early as 1947, the Palestinians in Chile were politically powerful enough to dissuade a pro-Zionist Chilean government from voting for a partition of the British mandate, allowing for a Jewish state.
Instead, Chile abstained.
Today, Honduras, El Salvador, and Chile all have sizable and powerful Palestinian populations. In Chile’s case, their influence has distorted the politics of the country. More here
Univision's star anchorman, Jorge Ramos, got a taste of what a real dictator is over in Caracas, when, after showing Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro a cell phone video of starving Venezuelans eating out of a garbage truck, found himself and his television crew shoved in a dark room for two and a half hours in detention, only to be released with their expensive television equipment and interview material stolen.
He's lucky they didn't break his nose (which in Maduro's Venezuela was done to a female dissident leader) or throw him in a dungeon for several years without trial (which was done to another top opposition leader). This is what dictators do. This is dictators up close. And this is a vicious dictatorship employing muscle directly from Cuba.
Touchy, touchy bastard.
This brings up the last time Ramos was in the news — getting thrown out of a press conference for interrupting other reporters and breaking the house rules, and then comparing President Trump to a dictator. A few months ago, he even said he wanted to return to Mexico because he was so unhappy with President Trump..
Over 16 percent of U.S. adults have high cholesterol, defined as 240 mg/dl according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Even the average level for Americans, 200mg/dl, is high, they say.
Many health organizations insist that high cholesterol puts people at increased risk for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States
But Dr. Ellen Kamhi, Ph.D., says this isn’t necessarily true. And other experts reveal information that runs contrary to what most of us have been told about cholesterol over the years.
“This stated fact scares millions of people into taking statin drugs to lower their cholesterol levels,” she says. “But cholesterol is actually an essential part of your body, used to produce cell membranes, steroid hormones, vitamin D and the bile acids your body needs to digest fat.
Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D.) filed an amicus brief in court cases where cities and counties in California are suing major energy production companies for damages related to climate change, but did not disclose he had taken political donations from the attorneys who are conducting that litigation.
Currently, persons or agencies that file such briefs aren't required to make such disclosures. However, Whitehouse has been one of the leading advocates for exactly that kind of transparency.
"In a Jan. 4 letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, [Sen. Whitehouse] chided the Court for accepting amicus—friend of the court—briefs from ‘special interest groups that fail to disclose their donors,'" wrote the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which broke the news. "He calls out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as well as think tanks and policy shops that receive money from right-of-center foundations. Mr. Whitehouse claims these ‘repeat-player' filers are unduly influencing the Court, even as they hide their ‘deep-pocketed corporate contributors.'"
"This is a familiar stand for Mr. Whitehouse, who has long tried to silence his political opponents," the editorial concluded.
Victor Sher and Matt Edling are the two named partners of the law firm Sher Edling, which is bringing suits on behalf of the cities of San Francisco and Oakland and other governments such as Marin and Santa Cruz counties against oil producers such as Exxon, BP, and Shell.
Federal Election Commission records show Sher and Edling have given $6,400 and $1,000 to Whitehouse's political campaign committee, respectively, since 2016.
Two federal agents stand on a desert highway in front of an open van, reviewing the scene of a massacre. Blood splatter and spent bullet casings litter the asphalt, as one agent describes how the van driver was shot in the back of the head.
“Just another Sunday in paradise,” the other agent says.
And it’s just another episode of the CBS drama “NCIS: Los Angeles,” complete with the graphic violence that has become routine for broadcast and cable television, according to TV watchdog groups.
Now those groups are cheering a directive tucked into Congress’s recent spending bill that requires the Federal Communications Commission to review its ratings system for TV content for the first time since it was implemented more than 20 years ago.
“We’re absolutely thrilled,” said Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council. “Never, ever once has there been any oversight as to whether this system is doing what is promised to parents.”
The 2019 federal spending package orders the FCC to report to Congress within 90 days on the status of TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring system, which went into effect in January 1997 to provide information about the content of television programs.
Former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova says civil discourse is over in America, and recommends voting and buying guns because "we are in a civil war."
Speaking with Laura Ingraham on her podcast, diGenova noted that the "all liberal" media has given a pass to both Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) and VA Attorney General Mark Herring for appearing in blackface, while similarly glossing over Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax's credible sexual assault allegation.
“There’s two standards of justice, one for Democrats one for Republicans. The press is all Democrat, all liberal, all progressive, all left – they hate Republicans, they hate Trump. So the suggestion that there’s ever going to be civil discourse in this country for the foreseeable future in this country is over. It’s not going to be. It’s going to be total war. And as I say to my friends, I do two things – I vote and I buy guns.”
Unless the Fed is going to start buying millions of homes outright, prices are going to fall to what buyers can afford.
There are two generalities that can be applied to all asset bubbles:
1. Bubbles inflate for longer and reach higher levels than most pre-bubble analysts expected
2. All bubbles burst, despite mantra-like claims that "this time it's different"
The bubble burst tends to follow a symmetrical reversal of very similar time durations and magnitudes as the initial rise. If the bubble took four years to inflate and rose by X, the retrace tends to take about the same length of time and tends to retrace much or all of X.
If we look at the chart of the Case-Shiller Housing Index below, this symmetry is visible in Housing Bubble #1 which skyrocketed from 2003-2007 and burst from 2008-2012.
Housing Bubble #1 wasn't allowed to fully retrace the bubble, as the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to near-zero in 2009 and bought $1+ trillion in sketchy mortgage-backed securities (MBS), essentially turning America's mortgage market into a branch of the central bank and federal agency guarantors of mortgages (Fannie and Freddie, VA, FHA).
These unprecedented measures stopped the bubble decline by instantly making millions of people who previously could not qualify for a privately originated mortgage qualified buyers. This vast expansion of the pool of buyers (expanded by a flood of buyers from China and other hot-money locales) drove sales and prices higher for six years (2012-2018).
Sussex County– The Delaware State Police in conjunction with the Dorchester County Narcotics Task Force, Caroline County Narcotics Task Force, Maryland State Police Heroin Investigative Unit, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Sussex Drug Unit (SDU), Governor’s Task Force (GTF), and the Seaford Police Department concluded a three month drug trafficking investigation that resulted in multiple search warrants and arrests, with one suspect still at large.
The three month investigation, concluded on February 23, 2019, when 33-year-old James M. Frazier of Cambridge, MD was taken into custody without incident by members of the Special Operations Response Team (SORT) in the Dover area, after a search warrant was executed on his vehicle, a 2018 Lincoln MKZ. Also in the vehicle and taken into custody without incident, was 37- year-old Trivette A. Jackson of Federalsburg, MD.
Four additional search warrants were subsequently executed in Sussex County at the following locations:
20300 block of Wesley Church Road, Seaford
22000 block of Hensley Road, Seaford
900 block of Woodland Mills, Seaford
37400 block of Burton Village, Rehoboth Beach
As a result of the search warrants at all locations, the following items were seized in total:
453.5 grams of Methamphetamine
261.23 grams of Cocaine
68.78 grams of Crack cocaine
42.82 grams of Heroin
19,549.82 grams of marijuana
Over $78,000 in suspected drug proceeds
4 firearms including:
Smith and Wesson .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol (reported stolen out of Kentucky)
Ruger .357 revolver
Smith and Wesson .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol (reported stolen out of Troop 7)
Beretta .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol
James Frazier was charged with the following:
Possession With Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance in a Tier 4 quantity (6 counts)
Possession With Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance in a Tier 5 quantity
Possession of a Controlled Substance in a Tier 5 quantity (5 counts)
Possession of a Firearm By a Person Prohibited (3 counts)
Receiving a Stolen Firearm
Conspiracy 2nd (3 counts)
Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
Frazier was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 3 and committed to the Sussex Correctional Institution on $809,000.00 cash only bond.
Trivette Jackson was charged with the following:
Possession of a Controlled Substance in a Tier 5 quantity
Possession With Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance in a Tier 4 quantity
Conspiracy 2nd
Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
Jackson was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 3 and released on $21,000.00 unsecured bond.
Donisha Holland, 25, of Seaford was taken into custody without incident upon the execution of the search warrant on Hensley Road where three children were present. Holland was charged with the following:
Possession With Intent to Deliver a controlled substance in a Tier 4 quantity
Possession of a Controlled Substance in a Tier 5 quantity
Possession With Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance in a Tier 2 quantity
Possession of a Controlled Substance in a Tier 3 quantity
Possession of a Firearm By a Person Prohibited
Receiving Stolen Firearm
Conspiracy 2nd
Endangering Welfare of a Child (3 counts)
Holland was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace Court 3 and committed to the Delores J. Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution on $50,500.00 secured bond.
Troopers have been unable to locate 49-year-old Reginald L. Sample, of Seaford who currently has active warrants for the following:
Possession With Intent to Deliver a controlled substance in a Tier 4 quantity (4 counts)
Possession of a controlled substance in a Tier 5 quantity (4 counts)
Possession of a Firearm By a Person Prohibited (3 counts)
Receiving Stolen Firearm
Conspiracy 2nd
Reginald L. Sample
Anyone with information in reference to the whereabouts of Sample is asked to please contact Troop 4, Sussex Drug Unit, at 302-856-5850. Information may also be provided by calling Delaware crime stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333 or via the internet athttp://www.delaware.crimestoppersweb.com
