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Author: Mary Chastain

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Mary Chastain

Mary is the resident libertarian. She covers stories in every vertical, but her favorite thing to do is take on the media. She saw its bias against the right when she was a socialist.

Mary loves the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, tennis, cats, Oxford comma, Diet Coke, and needlework.

I shared Becket Adams' piece on Rep. Nancy Pelosi's comments to the press on Facebook and said that hell froze over because I actually agreed with her on something. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I needed to write about it. Pelosi told the press:
“I wish the press would spend a lot more time on what we need to do here to meet the needs of the American people instead of morning, noon, and night allegations against the president,” said Pelosi, D-Calif.

In December 2017, The Washington Post reported how the Office of Compliance for Congress paid over $17 million for 264 settlements and awards over various violations, including sexual harassment. Now Congress has agreed on a bill that members of Congress will be responsible for their own settlements instead of the tax payer. As of now, "settlements are paid through taxpayer-funded accounts members use to pay for office salaries and expenses."

For some reason, Sports Illustrated chose Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who this summer accused Supreme Court nominee (now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh of a sexual assault 40 years ago, to announce the magazine chose former gymnast Rachael Denhollander to receive its Inspiration of the Year award. Denhollander became the first gymnast to speak out against former Michigan State and USA gymnast doctor Larry Nassar for sexual assault. WHY?! Now everyone is paying attention to Ford instead of Denhollander and other Nassar victims.

An investigation by Tablet magazine on the Women's March has exposed the anti-Semitic beliefs and ties to Nation of Islam that many of us on the right have known about. But now that it's out in the open (again), will anyone pay attention and dump these leaders so many of them prop up? The racist beliefs came out from the very beginning, but many members decided to hide them:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) finally decided to pick up the criminal justice reform bill, the FIRST STEP Act, that has the approval of President Donald Trump. From The Washington Examiner:
“At the request of the president and following improvements to the legislation that have been secured by several members, the Senate will take up the recently-revised criminal justice bill this month,” McConnell said in a Senate floor speech. “I intend to turn to the new text as early as the end of this week.”

Federal authorities arrested and charged an Ohio man for planning an ISIS-inspired attack on a synagogue. The man allegedly told undercover agents that the attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue inspired him to the same thing. The Department of Justice stated:
Damon M. Joseph, 21, of Holland, Ohio, was charged today in federal court with one count of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, for allegedly planning an attack on a synagogue in the Toledo, Ohio area. Joseph was arrested Friday evening after he took possession of two semi-automatic rifles.

The Supreme Court delivered a blow to the pro-life movement when it decided not to hear cases from Louisiana and Kansas that would allow the states to block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding. From The Washington Examiner:
Planned Parenthood will continue to receive Medicaid funding in Louisiana and Kansas after the Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear cases in which the states sought to stop the organization from participating in the program. The Supreme Court's decision not to take up the case leaves intact lower court decisions that allowed Planned Parenthood to continue to receive Medicaid funding.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has told the House of Commons that she will defer the vote tomorrow for her Brexit deal after many within her own party wouldn't support her deal due to the backstop. The Guardian reported that "the backstop is a device intended to ensure that there will not be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, even if no formal deal can be reached on trade and security arrangements."

Economists expected 198,000 in November, but the economy only added 155,000. While expectations fell short, there's some positivity within the report and stocks traded higher on Friday morning. Experts told The Wall Street Journal that fears of a recession may have been overblown:
Friday's jobs report shows that the market's volatility and lingering uncertainty over the U.S. and China's trade relationship hasn't stopped businesses from hiring workers, said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist and managing director at MUFG, in an email.

President Donald Trump will nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to take over as UN Ambassador to replace Nikki Haley. From The Washington Examiner:
“Heather Nauert will be nominated [for U.S. ambassador]. She's done work with Nikki Haley to replace Nikki at the United Nations. She will be ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before departing for a trip to Kansas City, Mo.