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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

BOOM! Governor of TEXAS Has 3- CHOICE WORDS for Hillary About Gun Confiscation

Political opportunist extraordinaire Hillary Clinton wasted no time in seizing the recent mass shooting at Umpqua Community College to show just how far she’s willing to go to take OUR guns away. Because… that’s freedom, right? That was sarcasm… but what Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had to say about it…is absolute TRUTH!

The Democrat presidential hopeful has gone so far as to openly declare her willingness to pursue gun control through executive action — Congress be damned — which is especially bold considering we’re still 15 months out before a new president would even take office. The fact that she’s already PLANNING to act as a monarch, not even pretending to respect our three-branch system of government, should send chills down every republic-loving American’s spine.

Equally frightening is the fact that no options appear to be off the table — not even such a Second Amendment-trampling concept as gun confiscation.

Thankfully, some strong Americans, like Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, are already standing up and saying NO WAY to even the mere suggestion of this.

As The Blaze reports:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said recently that a gun confiscation program like Australia’s 1996 and 2003 buy-back programs in which the government of that country collected more than half a million banned semi-automatic rifles and other firearms is “worth considering.”

However, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott says that’s not going to happen:

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32nd Annual Governor’s Service Awards to Honor Volunteers

 
15 Marylanders to be Recognized for Service
BALTIMORE - The Governor's Office on Service and Volunteerism will honor 15 Maryland residents with Governor's Service Awards on Monday, October 26, 2015. The winners will be recognized during a special ceremony at the Lowe House Office Building in Annapolis with First Lady Yumi Hogan and five-time All Star, Baltimore Orioles Center Fielder Adam Jones. (Please note the new date of the event, which was originally scheduled for October 2.)

This year marks the 32nd year a Maryland governor has recognized volunteers from around the state. The recipients reflect the diversity of Maryland and demonstrate our spirit of service. Over the past year, more than 1.3 million Marylanders have helped tackle some of the major challenges facing the state through the donation of their time and energy.

Poll: Support For Civilian Possession Of Handguns At Highest Level Ever

Gallup is running an article entitled Americans’ Desire for Stricter Gun Laws Up Sharply, and liberal gun grabbers (meaning, they want to grab Everyone Else’s guns, not their own), are crowing about this. They really love this poll

Fifty-five percent of Americans say they want laws covering the sale of firearms to be stricter than they are now, a distinct rise of eight percentage points from 2014. Fewer Americans than last year want the laws to be less strict, and the proportion who want the laws to stay the same has also declined slightly. (snip)

The rise in the proportion of Americans who want stricter laws on firearm sales can be attributed partly to an increase among certain demographic groups. Support rose among Democrats and especially independents from 2014, and among those who do not personally own a gun. However, support increased even among those who say they own a handgun, from 30% in 2014 to 36% this year.

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Income Inequality Is Irrelevant In A Country Like America

“It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.” – Aeschylus

The fundamental issue behind income inequality could be boiled down to a single question: Are poor Americans better or worse off because Bill Gates ($79 billion net worth), Oprah Winfrey ($3 billion net worth), Michael Jordan ($1 billion net worth) and Mark Zuckerberg ($40 billion net worth) are living in the United States?

Certainly, having them living in America creates more income inequality. It also hurts the poor by….oh wait, having them here doesn’t hurt the poor at all. None of these people made their money off the backs of the poor (How could they? The poor don’t have any money) and all of them pay exorbitant taxes because the United States already has the most progressive tax system in the Western world.

So, for example, whatever Bill Gates’ 1/319 millionth share of the cost for our street signs, police, roads, the military, food stamps, Social Security, Obama’s vacations and all the other various and sundry expenses our government racks up may be, he’s paying far more than that. In fact, Gates claims to have paid $6 billion in taxes. Then there are the taxes Microsoft pays (roughly $5 billion per year) and the taxes paid by all the people employed by Microsoft. Speaking of the people employed by Microsoft, the company has over 100,000 employees. That’s a lot of Americans Gates potentially raised up out of poverty. Then when you consider how much everyone from Bill Gates all the way down spends, there are obviously many businesses being kept afloat by Microsoft cash. On top of all that, Bill Gates has given away $28 billion since 2007.

Tell me how some poor family in Chicago or Detroit is being hurt by this in any way? What’s the downside supposed to be of entrepreneurs creating jobs and paying billions in taxes

Once again, you can read it all here.

The Richness Of 'Poor' Places, Captured In A Photo Contest

When you think of daily life in the developing world, what do you see?

Do you see the fierceness of a buffalo race in the jungles of Bali? Children climbing up a clay minaret in Burkina Faso? Families laid out like jewels across rooftops in India, searching for a respite in the summer heat?

With images like these, National Geographic's annual photo contest is changing our impressions. For the past five weeks, National Geographic editors have highlighted top entries on their website for the contest, which is divided up into people, places and nature. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 18; the grand prize is $10,000.

Our favorite photos from the contest so far illuminate the complexities, joys and frustrations of life in the developing world. Take a look at the pictures below, and if you're feeling inspired, enter the contest yourself.

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Baltimore Rite Aid Reopens After Riots

State and city officials marked the grand reopening of the Rite Aid destroyed during the April riots with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.

The store is located at 300 Martin Luther King Boulevard Jr. Boulevard in Baltimore. The event included a $10,000 donation from Rite Aid Foundation to nearby Historic Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School.

The company rebuilt its location after it sustained significant damage during the April riots. The rebuilt store features the company's highly popular Genuine Wellbeing store format. The store was actually remodeled a year and a half ago so the design now is different and newer.

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BREAKING NEWS: Person of interest in N.M. road rage shooting in custody

A person of interest in a road rage killing of a four-year-old girl has been taken into custody, Albuquerque police say.

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Gloria Steinem: 'If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would Be a Sacrament'

Steinem talks about Sheryl Sandberg, Hillary Clinton – and the new threats to women’s rights.

The pope is in town the morning I visit Gloria Steinem, staying a few blocks from her on the east side of Manhattan, a fact that tickles the 81-year-old activist. She is, needless to say, unimpressed by the pontiff’s liberal window-dressing. “I’m very glad that he cares about the environment,” she says drily. “And poverty. And dogs.” He has also relaxed the language around abortion, urging “forgiveness”, as opposed to damnation. Steinem, who is the nearest thing we have to a grande dame of feminism – a mantle she abhors – laughs. “Excuse me? Are you kidding me? Forgiveness?”
It is not easy to be an old hand in a political movement the very nature of which is, to some extent, to interrogate and reject the assumptions of what came before. When Steinem came of political age, in the late 1960s and early 70s, Betty Friedanruled the roost, urging women to shuck off their domestic duties and grab the economic reins of power, something her feminist descendants praised even while deposing her for the reactionary scope of her interests. (As Bella Abzug said at the time, Friedan’s proposals were in danger of replacing “a white, male, middle-class elite with a white, female, middle-class elite”, a caution Steinem echoed: “We wanted to transform the system, not imitate it,” she says.)

Suspect Accused of Knocking Out Woman in Sickening Viral Video Meets Karma

ATLANTIC CITY -- A city man arrested after a video posted on Facebook showed a woman being knocked unconscious now faces additional charges after an altercation in the county jail.

Ibn Hunter, 25, was arrested Monday morning after police saw a video of a man striking the woman in Brown's Park.

Hunter was brought to the Atlantic County Justice Facility sometime late Monday, and attacked an officer while he was being strip searched, Warden Geraldine Cohen said.

The unnamed officer was able to take down Hunter, whose mugshot shows an injury to his forehead he got when he hit the floor.

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7 Ways Police Will Break the Law, Threaten, or Lie to You to Get What they Want

Cops routinely break the law. Here's how.

Because of the Fifth Amendment, no one in the U.S. may legally be forced to testify against himself, and because of the Fourth Amendment, no one’s records or belongings may legally be searched or seized without just cause. However, American police are trained to use methods of deception, intimidation and manipulation to circumvent these restrictions. In other words, cops routinely break the law—in letter and in spirit—in the name of enforcing the law. Several examples of this are widely known, if not widely understood.
1) “Do you know why I stopped you?”
Cops ask this, not because they want to have a friendly chat, but because they want you to incriminate yourself. They are hoping you will “voluntarily” confess to having broken the law, whether it was something they had already noticed or not. You may think you are apologizing, or explaining, or even making excuses, but from the cop’s perspective, you are confessing. He is not there to serve you; he is there fishing for an excuse to fine or arrest you. In asking you the familiar question, he is essentially asking you what crime you just committed. And he will do this without giving you any “Miranda” warning, in an effort to trick you into testifying against yourself.

TX HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND MEMBERS SUSPENDED FOR ‘RACIST’ GIFT BASKET

Members of a marching band in Texas could be suspended over a fruit basket that school administrators say was racist.

According to Fox 8 in Houston, TX, the tradition for members of the Atascocita High School band is to exchange gifts with members of the rival bands on the field before varsity football games. The gifts are meant to promote good sportsmanship.

Friday’s gift, presented by seven members of the Atascocita band to Summer Creek High School band members, was a decorated bucket for Halloween, along with candy, a small watermelon, coconut, pineapple and watermelon gum.

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10 of the Most Common Ways World Hunger Is Misunderstood

Could the way people think about hunger be the greatest obstacle to ending it?
In troubled times, all of us seek ways to make sense of the world. We grasp for organizing beliefs to help us interpret the endlessly confusing rush of world events. Unfortunately, however, the two of us have come to see that the way people think about hunger is the greatest obstacle to ending it. So in this Backgrounder we encapsulate 40 years of learning and in-depth new research to reframe ten such ways of thinking explored in our latest book World Hunger: 10 Myths. We call them “myths” because they often lead us down blind alleys or simply aren’t true.
Myth #1: Too little food, too many people
Our response: Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world’s food supply. Even though the global population more than doubled between 1961 and 2013, the world produces around 50 percent more food for each of us today—of which we now waste about a third. Even after diverting roughly half of the world’s grain and most soy protein to animal feed and non-food uses, the world still produces enough to provide every human being with nearly 2,900 calories a day. Clearly, our global calorie supply is ample.
Increasingly, however, calories and nutrition are diverging as the quality of food in most parts of the world is degrading. Using a calorie-deficiency standard, the UN estimates that today roughly one in nine people is hungry—about 800 million; but adding measures of nutrient deficiencies as well, we estimate that a quarter of the world’s people suffer from nutritional deprivation.
Food scarcity is not the problem, but the scarcity of real democracy protecting people’s access to nutritious food is a huge problem. So, fighting hunger means tackling concentrated political and economic power in order to create new equitable rules. Otherwise hunger will continue no matter how much food we grow.

County Executive Bob Culver Announces Highly Successful Bond Sale

County Executive Bob Culver announced that on October 20, 2015 Wicomico County concluded a successful sale of $13,185,000 in new bonds at a true interest cost of 2.37% and refinancing of $6,530,000 of 2007 general obligation bonds at a true interest cost of 2.41%. The refinancing will save Wicomico County $363,201 in interest costs over the approximate 8 year remaining term of the issue. Settlement on the sale will occur on November 3,2015.

Principal holds up student election results because winners not diverse enough

There’s a big election controversy at a California middle school after the principal discovered that not enough black or Latino students were elected to office.

Principal Lena Van Haren’s decision to withhold the results of the student government elections angered parents and students at Everett Middle School in San Francisco.

“It’s not okay for a school that is really, really diverse to have the student representatives majority white,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle. “The easy thing would have been to announce the results and move on. I intentionally did not choose the easy way because this is so important.”

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Critical Missing Person In Worcester County


Critical missing person, Dorothy J. Zuger
5ft tall 190 lbs. Last seen in the Snow Hill area the morning of Tuesday October 20th. Please contact our office if you have any information on her whereabouts 410.632.1111


UPDATE: She has been located.

THE MEDIA IS (STILL) DYING

The decline of the mainstream media is something this website has followed with interest over the last few years. We’ve also followed how “news” has really become … well, something else.

It’s unfortunate.

The press (especially here in South Carolina) has become a subservient regurgitation platform at best – an apologist/ advocate for the status quo at worst.

One thing it’s not? And hasn’t been for a long time? An investigator of corruption or defender of the public’s interests.

And guess what: The already gutted investigative capability of the MSM is about to be diminished even further.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) latest “occupational outlook handbook,” there will be a 13 percent decline in “reporters, correspondents and broadcast news analysts” over the next seven years.

That equates to more than 7,000 lost media jobs … and the vast majority of them fall into the “reporters and correspondents” category.

What gives?

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Small fires set at two Grasonville churches

GRASONVILLE — The Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating two fires that occurred on Monday, Oct. 19 that it believes were deliberately set and appear to be related.

A small fire was reported in a single story concrete and wood frame vacant church building at 501 Grasonville Cemetery Rd. at 3:38 p.m., a statement from the fire marshal's office said. The building is owned by the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in America Jurisdiction Committee of Management, whose Most Honorable Grand Master John Green discovered the fire in the sanctuary, according to the statement.

It is also known as the Chosen Generation Deliverance, according to the Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office, which responded to both fires and found that someone had gained entry to the building and set the fire.

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Doc Wait Times Costing Patients More Time, Money: Study

Here’s something else to make your blood boil next time you’re sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for your appointment: New research shows patients are spending more time than ever booking and waiting for an appointment — and it’s costing us all money, as well as time.

The new study, by Harvard Medical School and published in the American Journal of Managed Care, calculates how many minutes patients spend seeking medical care — and the dollar value of their time lost from work. Among the findings:

A typical visit to a doctor consumes an average of 121 minutes of the patient’s time — 37 minutes in travel, 64 minutes waiting for care or filling out forms.

The average time spent with a physician: 20 minutes at most.

It costs the average patient $43 in lost time for each doctor visit — more than the typical out-of-pocket cost for the care itself (about $32), based on the average sum a person could earn if working during that time.

Americans spent 1.1 billion hours every year obtaining such care for themselves or others — time the researchers valued at $52 billion.

Ethanol Study Concludes the EPA’s Biofuel Standard Created ‘More Problems Than Solutions’

On the 10-year anniversary of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, a team of researchers released a study that concludes the policy created “more problems than solutions.”

The report issued last week — “10-Year Review of the Renewable Fuels Standard” — by Drs. Daniel De La Torre Ugarte and Burton English at the University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture takes a look at the environmental, economic and industry effects of the RFS.

“Our analysis shows that the RFS has created more problems than solutions, particularly with regard to hampering advancements in biofuels. Corn ethanol was presented as a ‘bridge’ to advanced biofuels and a means of reducing GHG emissions,” De La Torre Ugarte said in a statement, referencing a comment made by former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “However, the reality is clear that this policy has been a bridge to nowhere.”

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FBI: Law Enforcement Killings of 51 Almost Double Year Before

The FBI reported this week that 51 law enforcement officers were killed "as a result of felonious acts" across the country in 2014, nearly double the number of killings in 2013.

"Of the 51 officers feloniously killed, 11 were killed while answering disturbance calls, nine were conducting traffic pursuits/stops, seven were ambushed, seven were investigating suspicious persons or circumstances, five were conducting investigative activities (such as surveillances, searches, or interviews), four were killed in arrest situations, four were involved in tactical situations, and three were handling persons with mental illnesses," the FBI reported in the 2014 edition of "Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted."

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Porter Attorneys Seek Sequestered, Anonymous Jury

With the first of six officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray set to go on trial next month, there is a call to sequester the jury.

The call comes from attorneys for Officer William Porter who goes on trial November 30.

Porter is the first officer scheduled to go on trial.

In a motion dated last week, but posted Tuesday on the Court website, defense attorneys Gary Proctor and Joseph Murtha asked that the Court tell potential jurors their names and addresses would never be released to the media or public.

The defense believes only the judge, counsel and the defendant would know the names of the jurors.

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BREAKING NEWS: Biden not running for president

Vice President Joe Biden decides not to run for the Democratic nomination for president.

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NEW INFORMATION ABOUT ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULT ON SCHOOL BUS

click to enlarge photo

We have received updated information about the alleged sexual assault on the school bus that we posted yesterday. Even though it was called in as a sexual assault it has now been listed as telephone misuse. Below is a comment from one of our viewers about the matter.
Student was removed from the bus in handcuffs by police for calling 911, posing as a female, and reporting a false rape on the bus

Former Agent Bongino: Secret Service Knows Who's Threat, Who Isn't

As GOP presidential front-runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson appear on the verge of receiving Secret Service protection, former agent Dan Bongino tells Newsmax TV the agency can tell which threats are real.

"The Secret Service is very good at this," Bongino told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner. "The psychiatric and psychological community out there has recognized the Secret Service for a very long time, their agents' ability to distinguish non-credible threats from credible threats."

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Global Trade Is Collapsing As The Worldwide Economic Recession Deepens

It is just basic economics

When the global economy is doing well, the amount of stuff that is imported and exported around the world goes up, and when the global economy is in recession, the amount of stuff that is imported and exported around the world goes down.

It is just basic economics. Governments around the world have become very adept at manipulating other measures of economic activity such as GDP, but the trade numbers are more difficult to fudge. Today, China accounts for more global trade than anyone else on the entire planet, and we have just learned that Chinese exports and Chinese imports are both collapsing right now. But this is just part of a larger trend. As I discussed the other day, British banking giant HSBC has reported that total global trade is down 8.4 percent so far in 2015, and global GDP expressed in U.S. dollars is down 3.4 percent. The only other times global trade has plummeted this much has been during other global recessions, and it appears that this new downturn is only just beginning.

For many years, China has been leading the revolution in global trade. But now we are witnessing something that is almost unprecedented. Chinese exports are falling, and Chinese imports are absolutely imploding

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Trump Hits New High in NBC/WSJ Poll

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump had his highest showing yet in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, with Ben Carson running close behind him.

Donald Trump: 25 percent
Ben Carson: 22 percent
Marco Rubio: 13 percent
Ted Cruz: 9 percent
Jeb Bush: 8 percent
Carly Fiorina: 7 percent
Mike Huckabee: 3 percent
John Kasich: 3 percent
Rand Paul: 2 percent
Chris Christie: 1 percent
Lindsey Graham: less than 1 percent
Rick Santorum: less than 1 percent
George Pataki: less than 1 percent
Bobby Jindal: less than 1 percent
Jim Gilmore: less than 1 percent

Trump's support among Republican voters is up from 21 percent a month ago in the same poll. Carson's grew his support from 20 percent in September, while Fiorina has dropped from 11 percent last month.

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State’s Attorney’s Husband Eyeing Mayoral Run In Baltimore

BALTIMORE (AP) — The husband of the state’s attorney who is prosecuting six officers in the death of Freddie Gray is considering a run for mayor of Baltimore.

Democratic City Council member Nick Mosby wrote on his website that he would make “an important announcement about the future of Baltimore” on Sunday.

Mosby is the husband of State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. A spokesman for Nick Mosby would not elaborate on the statement Tuesday.

The Baltimore Sun obtained an email that it said was sent Tuesday to supporters with the tagline, “The best choice for a better Baltimore.”

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Federal Law: Title 18. Section 2071

What difference does it make?

A former United States Attorney General just reviewed federal law pertaining to Hillary's case.

His ruling?

Hillary Clinton may not be legally allowed to hold office if she is charged in connection with her use of a private email server to handle classified information.

Former United States Attorney General Michael Mukasey tells MSNBC that not only is Hillary Clinton's private email server illegal, it "disqualifies" her from holding any federal office.

Such as, say, President of the United States.

"If you do this or that bad thing, you've essentially disqualified yourself as being the leader of the free world," said Mukasey, referring to the illegal server and the illegal handling of classified materials.

Mukasey specifically points to one federal law, Title 18. Section 2071.

For those of us who do not have United States Code committed to memory, here's what it says:

Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term "office" does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Yes, it explicitly states "shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States."

Shouldn't voters know that?

The media won't tell them.

So it's up to us.

Wind: Still Two Or Three Times The Cost Of Conventional Energy, Whatever The Greenies Claim

Wind power now UK’s cheapest source of electricity – but the Government continues to resist onshore turbines.

That was the headline in the Independent this time last week. I’m not suggesting for a moment that you’re an Independent reader but suppose for a moment you were: what do you think your reaction might have been?

Mine, I suspect, would have been not dissimilar to that of the eight thousand readers who decided it was worth sharing – and indeed that of the two or three who used it to needle sceptics on Twitter.

“Take that, evil deniers!” I would have gone in my smug, Independent-reading way. And it would never have occurred to me to question the premise for a number of reasons.

1. It was written by the Environment Editor on a reasonably well-respected national newspaper. And people with responsible jobs like that don’t make shit up, do they?

2. The data came from Bloomberg New Energy Finance – “the world’s leading provider of information on clean energy to investors, energy companies and governments.” Well if they say so it must be true. Bloomberg – they’re kind of a big deal in financial information, right?

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Ron Paul: Enforce the Debt Ceiling and Defund the Welfare/Warfare State!

Cutting up its credit card is the only way to make Congress reduce spending

The US Treasury’s recent announcement that the government will reach the debt ceiling on November 3 means Congress will soon be debating raising the government’s borrowing limit again. Any delay in, or opposition to, raising the debt ceiling will inevitably be met with hand-wringing over Congress’ alleged irresponsibility. But the real irresponsible act would be for Congress to raise the debt ceiling.

Cutting up its credit card is the only way to make Congress reduce spending. Anyone who doubts this should listen to the bipartisan whining over how sequestration has so drastically reduced spending that there is literally nothing left to cut. But, according to the Heritage Foundation, sequestration has only reduced spending from $3.6 trillion to $3.5 trillion. Only in DC would a less than one percent spending reduction be considered a draconian cut.

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Texas students in trouble for giving 'racist' fruit basket to another high school

SAN ANTONIO (WOAI) - Seven high school students are in trouble over a gift that was determined by district leaders to be racist.

The students attend Atascocita High School in Humble, near Houston.

Before the school's football game against Summer Creek High School last week, student leaders from each school exchanged gifts.

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The Greatest Central Banking Con Job in History...

One of the greatest con jobs in history was convincing ordinary people that Central Bankers care about the “economy” or Main Street.
Aside from the complete lack of relevance that Main Street has for Central Bankers from a professional perspective (more on this in a moment), when do you think was the last time that Janet Yellen or her ilk spent an evening with non-banker/financial types? Years ago? Decades ago?

Yellen lives in a super-affluent, gated part of Washington DC. And even within that subset of the US population she lives in a higher echelon: her entourage of security annoys her wealthy neighbors… though I suspect part of the annoyance stems from jealousy.

Regarding professional significance… why would Janet Yellen care about ordinary people? They’re just data points in her financial models. Ordinary people didn’t place her at the Fed (the big banks did). And they didn’t place her as Fed Chair (the financial/ political elite did… with the express intent of gaining future favors).

Think of it this way… imagine there was a super cartel of English Professors who controlled what words you or I could use in daily conversation. These individuals literally could change the structure of the human language if they wanted… removing words or adding words at random.

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Clinton's 'Please Hack Me' Server

“I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry,” President-elect Obama said in early 2009. “They’re trying to pry it out of my hands.” The National Security Agency was so anxious about foreign intelligence agents gaining access to classified information that it assigned dozens of technologists to work for months before the inauguration to modify a BlackBerry Mr. Obama could use. The new president was told his device could safely communicate with fewer than a dozen other people, after their devices were loaded with special encryption.

His secretary of state took a different approach.

Hillary Clinton set up her own private email server. By avoiding use of government servers, she succeeded in keeping emails off-limits to information requests from congressional overseers and journalists—but American counterintelligence agents must now assume that Chinese, Russian and possibly other agents had full access. A Pentagon counterintelligence official told the Daily Beast that if he were in charge of a foreign intelligence agency, “I’d fire my staff if they weren’t getting all this.”

Mr. Obama jumped the gun on the FBI inquiry into Mrs. Clinton’s handling of classified material by saying earlier this month that “this is not a situation in which America’s national security was endangered.” The New York Times reported that Mr. Obama’s comments “raised the ire of officials who saw an instance of the president trying to influence the outcome of a continuing investigation.”

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Woodward: Hillary’s Server to Nixon Tape Comparison Becoming More Valid

Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” long-time journalist Bob Woodward doubled down on his comparison to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s private email server scandal to former President Richard Nixon’s recorder audio tapes scandal saying it is becoming “more and more valid.”

Exchange as follows:

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Who had a server at the basement?

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Hillary Clinton, she says things…

BRZEZINSKI: That are not true.

SCARBOROUGH: …on television that she knows are not true, that her staff knows is not true, that the press knows is not true, that the people following the story know is not true. And — and —like for instance other people that Collin Powell didn’t have a private server he ran all State Department and classified businesses threw —

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Panicked Establishment Gets Ready For War Against Trump

This weekend was an inflection point in the Republican presidential race — a moment in which some significant part of the GOP establishment came out of denial and realized Donald Trump might well become their party's nominee.

"The Republican establishment, for the first time, is saying, off the record, this guy can win," noted Joe Scarborough on MSNBC Monday morning. "I've heard that from everybody. I don't hear anybody saying he can't win the nomination anymore."

That doesn't mean Republicans have made their peace with a Trump victory. On the contrary — some are preparing to do whatever it takes to bring him down. Which could lead to an extraordinary scenario in which GOP stalwarts go to war to destroy their own party's likely nominee.

Over the weekend I talked to a leading conservative who opposes Trump. I asked what would happen if January comes and Trump is still dominating the race. Would he and other conservatives make their peace with Trump's candidacy, or would there be massive resistance?

"Massive resistance," was the answer. "He's not a conservative."

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Maryland Adds More than 28,000 Jobs Since January

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has released state jobs and unemployment data.

Compared with September 2014, Maryland jobs are up by 44,700. Maryland has added 28,700 total jobs since January 2015; our private sector gained 22,000 jobs. The September preliminary unemployment rate remained steady at 5.1 percent.

According to the survey data, Maryland’s preliminary jobs estimate for August remained unchanged with revision reflecting a gain of 2,700 jobs. Maryland‘s job totals decreased by 4,000 in September. Public sector jobs increased by 2,200 and the private sector jobs declined by 6,200 jobs over-the-month.

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California Churches Sue After the State Demands They Pay for Abortions

Liberals are trampling all over the Constitution once again, and they’re going after their favorite target: Christians. Who needs religious freedom? The state would rather force churches to pay for abortions.

A group of California churches filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the California Department of Managed Health Care — the agency that mandated churches must pay for elective abortions in their health insurance coverage.

The lawsuit — filed Friday by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal firm — contends that the mandate is “unsupported” and “unnecessary.” It lists as plaintiffs: Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino, Foothill Church in Glendora and The Shepard of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch.

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Baltimore Mom Who Slapped Son During Riots Still Fears for Her Children

Last April, Toya Graham made headlines when she slapped her 16-year-old son Michael in the face for joining Baltimore rioters protesting the death of Freddie Gray.

CBS interviewed Graham to mark the six-month anniversary of her confrontation with her son and found that she still fears for the safety of her children. She said, “Just this morning, I broke down. And you know, I — it’s just, it’s hard. It’s hard,” acknowledging that the family struggles to make ends meet. She continued, “I know a lot of mothers out here understand where I’m coming from. We’re struggling. We’re struggling, we’re just trying to make sure we keep food on our table for our children, keep them out harm’s way, keep them out of danger.”

Although she was feted on social media for her restraint of her son, when asked if she felt like a “hero mom,” she responded, “I don’t feel like a hero mom — I never did. You know, I never did. He’s my son. And so, if I have to be out there to stop him from doing things that he shouldn’t be doing, then that’s what I’m gonna do… I just don’t feel like a hero. This is a real struggle. When the cameras is gone, the reality of life is still there. It’s still there.”

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No Free Speech On Campus: Maryland College Student Denied Freedom To State Conservative Club, And Is Suing

Charles Krauthammer once said “what cannot continue will not continue,” and what’s going on in American higher education cannot continue.

Denying the freedom of assembly to conservatives? That can’t last without something changing soon.

A Maryland college student has filed a lawsuit against her community college after school officials denied her request to start a conservative club on campus — a choice that she said infringes on her First Amendment rights.

Moriah DeMartino, a 22-year-old political science major, said the fight with HCC began after she requested to launch a Turning Point USA chapter at Hagerstown Community College and was told by college administrators that if she wanted to start a group that was conservative in nature, a club specifically for Democrats would have to be started at the same time. The email to DeMartino also said that students cannot “start new clubs that duplicate the purpose and mission of existing clubs,” according to a blog post on Turning Point USA’s website.

According to HCC’s website, the public college’s only other political clubs include the Spectrum Club with a mission centered around LGBT issues, a National Organization for Women club that DeMartino said is more left-leaning and a general political science club.

Despite her numerous efforts and a letter from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education to get HCC’s administration to have a change a heart regarding a policy that DeMartino and FIRE called “unconstitutional,” the school does not seem to be budging. So DeMartino decided to sue using a private lawyer — a decision that she told TheBlaze was difficult to make.

“My ideal outcome would be that they reverse their policy and openly and willingly accept other students on campus for their views — whether it be political or not,” DeMartino said in an interview with TheBlaze. “I just want every student to see what’s going on on campus and realize that they not just have their rights, but can take legal action if they have to if it comes to that.”

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Chicago to Pay Gun Owners $100 to Turn in Guns

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a new $250,000 effort to take guns off the city's streets.

Under the new program, churches and neighborhood community organizations can apply to hold their own buyback events (with police help), as opposed to previous buybacks which were single, city-run events.

"We're going to try everything we can to bring a level of security and safety throughout the city of Chicago so that our families and our children have the opportunity to grow up free from violence," Emanuel said, according to CBS Chicago.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy explained that buyback attendees will be able to anonymously turn in a gun, no questions asked. Participants will earn a $100 cash card for returning a gun, meaning that the budget could fund the return of 2,500 guns. The money for the program will come from the Chicago Police Department's community policing program, according to ABC 7 Chicago.

Gun-rights groups have already come out against the program.

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4 new victims allege sextortion with Housing Authority of Baltimore

BALTIMORE —Four new victims joined seven others in a sextortion federal lawsuit against the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, alleging top officials within the agency were aware of complaints.

On Tuesday, amendments to the lawsuit detail new facts, including an affidavit from a victim who was a Baltimore Public Housing resident and who worked as an administrative assistant for the deputy executive director of the authority.

In her affidavit, she said that in May 2015 she told the deputy executive director about demands from maintenance men for sex in exchange for repairs to her public housing unit. This was in addition to complaints, which are already in the public record, to lower-level housing authority managers and investigators in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

According to the affidavit, maintenance men in Gilmor Homes left the woman and her daughter without heat for two winters because she refused to have sex with them.

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Federal Sharia Judge Colleen McMahon Rules Muslims Get Special Privileges

Last Wednesday, federal judge Colleen McMahon ordered New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to run a series of dishonest advertisements promoting Islamic agitprop in the subway – where our American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) pro-freedom ads are banned from running. This is not the first time Judge Colleen McMahon has shown favoritism to Muslims.

Back in June 2011, McMahon, a Clinton appointee, was the presiding judge in a case involving the Newburgh Four – a group of Muslims who had plotted to bomb a synagogue in the Bronx. She gave them twenty-five years in prison – the minimum sentence – and took the opportunity to blast not Islamic jihadists, but the government.

McMahon claimed that the jihad bombing plot was just a fantasy until the FBI stepped in. Referring to jihad plotter James Cromitie, she said, “The essence of what occurred here is that a government understandably zealous to protect its citizens from terrorism came upon a man both bigoted and suggestible, one who was incapable of committing an act of terrorism on his own.” She asserted that the FBI “created acts of terrorism out of his fantasies of bravado and bigotry, and then made those fantasies come true.”

In her most fantastic departure from reality, the judge even claimed, as she was handing out twenty-five year sentences for a jihad plot, that the plot didn’t exist at all: “The government did not have to infiltrate and foil some nefarious plot — there was no nefarious plot to foil.” Cromitie had conspired to use missiles to shoot down U.S. military planes.

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New York City police officer shot and killed in East Harlem

New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says Officer Randolph Holder, 33, a five-year NYPD veteran, was shot and killed Tuesday night while responding to a report of shots fired and an armed robbery. Holder is the fourth NYPD officer to die in the line of duty in the past 11 months.

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As Gas Goes Down, USPS Wants Priority Rates To Go Up 15.6%

The Postal Service wants to increase prices for the first time since 2013. The plan would bump the priority mail express price up 15.6 percent. It would not go into effect until Jan. 17, and would not apply to regular first-class mail. The increase must first be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission.