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October 2017

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 23, 2017 21 Comments
People. Grow up. Due to the enormous amount of death threats thrown at EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the government has amped up his security. Congress has asked if this is a waste of money, but it seems a legit concern. From CNN:
The EPA's inspector general's office, which investigates threats, says Pruitt has received more death threats than any of his predecessors. The office has launched more than 70 investigations into threats against Pruitt and others, the agency said.

Posted by New Neo on October 23, 2017 43 Comments
Actress Mayim Bialik of "The Big Bang Theory" waded into the Harvey Weinstein scandal by stating that she conducts herself in a manner that is neither immodest nor flirtatious.  Bialik has since felt the wrath of social media for expressing her position on female modesty she notes is rooted in her Jewish heritage and faith. As a result of the backlash to her statements, Bialik has apologized for her statements.
In [a NY Times] op-ed Friday, written [by Bialik] in response to allegations of sexual assault against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, the observant Jewish actress said she has long made decisions that she considers “self-protecting and wise.” “I have decided that my sexual self is best reserved for private situations with those I am most intimate with,” Bialik wrote. “I dress modestly. I don’t act flirtatiously with men as a policy.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 23, 2017 15 Comments
Be careful for what you wish for because it may go your way, but it may also come back to bite you. The left has pressured for an investigation to find collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia, but now that investigation has brought in one of their own. Mueller's investigation now includes the Podesta Group, headed by Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta...the brother of John Podesta, failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. The inclusion came after Mueller looked into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's finances.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 23, 2017 14 Comments
The Hill has reported that FBI records from 2009 and 2010 show that people within the Kremlin attempted a campaign to move spies close to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Bill Clinton, and those close to them. This happened when Rosatom, a Russian nuclear company, wanted to purchase the Canadian company Uranium One, "which controlled 20 percent of America's strategic uranium reserves."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 22, 2017 34 Comments
The "progressive stack" is a method to order speakers and participants by race and gender along a "social justice" hierarchy. Women "of color" come first, men "of color" next, then white women, and at the back of the line, white men. The progressive stack is all over the news the last few days because a graduate student Teaching Assistant at the University of Pennsylvania, Stephanie McKellop, bragged on Twitter about using the progressive stack in class, as we reported in U. Penn Teaching Assistant Calls on White Male Students Last, Because “Social Justice”:

Posted by Petra Marquardt-Bigman on October 22, 2017 4 Comments
For years, the Palestinian activist Issa Amro has told credulous journalists that he is “inspired by Gandhi” and firmly committed to “non-violent resistance.” One of the most recent examples is a puff piece by the Washington Post’s Ishaan Tharoor, who describes Amro as an admirable “nonviolent dissident” and suggests he might even be considered a “Palestinian Gandhi.” But as I will show, it would have taken only a quick look at the recent social media activity of Amro and his group Youth Against Settlements (YAS) to realize that the image he presents to journalists may just be a flimsy façade that hides an intense hatred of Israel and a burning ambition to see the world’s only Jewish state replaced by yet another Arab-Muslim majority country.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 22, 2017 16 Comments
James Carville famously salvaged Bill Clinton's political career by focusing on economic problems people were facing during the 1992 campaign. The term "it's the economy, stupid," attributed to Carville as Clinton's campaign strategist, became the mantra for a generation of Democrat politicians and political strategists:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 22, 2017 51 Comments
When he left office, Obama, having made the world much less stable and far less safe during his tenure, was well on his way to his goal of depleting our military to pre-World War II levels. President Trump campaigned on rebuilding our military and refocusing its mission on military matters rather than on political correctness and voracious down-sizing.  He also campaigned on destroying ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism. In aid of these twin campaign promises and goals, Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) permitting the United States Air Force to recall up to one thousand retired pilots.  The cap lift applies to all branches of the military. The left's response was an epic meltdown.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 22, 2017 19 Comments
It would be difficult to imagine a more wretched hive of incompetence and boobery than the California Republican Party leadership. From the amazing implosion of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) as a politician and human being, the initial support of a tax-raising proposition that was only rescinded after the rise of the Tea Party, and the continued lack of effective push-back against progressive shenanigans, California has become a one-party state (where our choices range from Midnight Blue to YInMn Blue in key, state-wide elections).

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 22, 2017 1 Comment
It is getting lonely for Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel on the European stage as another EU member country elects an anti-establishment government. Less than a week after the stunning electoral performance by  Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party, the Czech Republic has elected the anti-EU candidate Andrej Babis and his party in yesterday’s general election. Often described by the media as ‘Czech Donald Trump,’ 63-year-old Babis, the country’s second-richest man, won 30 percent of the vote, securing him the Prime-ministership in the next coalition government. Despite an ongoing criminal investigation over his business dealings and the lingering allegations of his collaborating with the Czechoslovak communist-era secret police, many Czech voters preferred voting for Babis than other pro-EU career politicians.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 22, 2017 27 Comments
Last month, I blogged how Congress floated around making changes to 401(k) retirement plans in order to make up for lost "revenue" due to tax cuts. That change was taxing the earnings before a person places money into the fund. Another idea has come up and it's even worse. Now they are thinking about changing the pre-tax limit to $2,400 instead of $18,000. That's an 87% change and could force people to put even less into their retirement. It also adds fuel to Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) opposition to the Senate budget bill that passed, which allows a clearer path to tax reform, but didn't cut spending enough. Common sense tells us that he is correct.
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