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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.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 31, 2018 62 Comments
What do you consider the most historical moments of the 20th century? I'd say the Russians raising the Soviet Union flag over the Reichstag when they conquered Berlin (damn, I so wish it was the American flag, though). Liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act. The Miracle on Ice in 1980. The Berlin Wall tumbling down. President Bill Clinton sending the first presidential email to space to Senator  John Glenn. There's obviously one more that happened in 1969. A Gallup poll from December 1999 asked the people that same question and America placing men on the moon came in at #7. I cannot imagine that feeling watching Neil Armstrong walk down the ladder and placing the American flag on the moon. ICONIC. HISTORICAL. Yeah, well, Hollywood has decided to water down history and omitted that iconic piece of history from the Neil Armstrong movie First Man.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 30, 2018 15 Comments
The Department of Labor's Job Corps program receives an annual budget of $1.7 billion dollars. You'd think a program that is a sacred cow to people on both sides of the aisle and with that budget pushes out success after success. Nope. This Great Society program birthed by JFK's brother-in-law R. Sargent Shriver has turned into a money pit, a waste of that taxpayer money, according to those close to the program who spoke to The New York Times:
“Job Corps doesn’t work,” said Teresa Sanders, a former teacher at the North Texas center who quit in frustration in 2015 after a rash of violent episodes inside the center, but who keeps in touch with dozens of former students through a Facebook page. “The adults are making money, the politicians are getting photo ops. But we are all failing the students.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 29, 2018 49 Comments
Over 100 Facebook employees have spoken out against the social media giant's "intolerant" political culture after one of them posted about the problem on the company's internal message board. Senior Facebook engineer Brian Amerige posted a two-page memo titled "We Have a Problem With Political Diversity," which claims that employees "are quick to attack—often in mobs—anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology."

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 29, 2018 40 Comments
Tuesday had a bunch of primaries, but Florida and Arizona caught my eyes. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), managed to win the Democrat primary for the Florida governor race and is the first black nominee for the position. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ), defeated former state senator Kelli Ward and former Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the Republican primary to take over retiring Sen. Jeff Flake's seat.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 28, 2018 7 Comments
Overall the jobs reports during President Donald Trump have shown stellar economic growth with low unemployment and almost more jobs than job seekers. More jobs means more money for people, which means more money poured into the economy. More news came out today as the research group The Conference Board revealed that consumer confidence is the highest its been since October 2000.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 28, 2018 13 Comments
Just when I thought it couldn't get worse for Lanny Davis, the lawyer for President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, it has and yes it includes CNN. It all goes back to that explosive CNN report in July when "sources" told the network that Cohen claimed Trump knew about the "dirt" meeting at Trump Tower with Russians. BuzzFeed reported on Monday night that source was Davis himself. Here's the buried lede: Davis came out as the source of the story, but CNN's report stated that Davis declined to comment on the story.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 27, 2018 24 Comments
Last Thursday, Lanny Davis, the lawyer for President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that Cohen was present at a meeting where Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. discussed the Trump Tower meeting. A few hours later, Davis contradicted himself while talking to Anderson Cooper and insisted that Cohen doesn't have information that Trump knew about the meeting before or after it happened. Davis now finds himself in another contradictory situation. He told reporters last week that Cohen's “knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Mr. Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and even cheered it on.” Davis once again has changed his story.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 25, 2018 5 Comments
On August 25, 1988, a tragedy struck in Iran, one that most people do not know about. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa that led to the execution of 30,000 Iranian political prisoners. That fatwa led to "the biggest massacre of political prisoners since World War II." Khomeini targeted members and those loyal to the opposition group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK).

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 24, 2018 9 Comments
In June, the Argentine soccer team, which includes superstar Lionel Messi, canceled a friendly against Israel in Jersualem after players received threats "that exceeded those of the Islamic State." Video even captured Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub threatening Messi. Due to these actions, FIFA has banned Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub for one year.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 24, 2018 65 Comments
The family of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has announced that he will end treatment for brain cancer. From The Washington Examiner:
“Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: he had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious. In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict,” the McCain family said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 24, 2018 16 Comments
A new election model from a conservative polling group has Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley ahead of incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill, 53 to 47 percent. From The Washington Free Beacon:
The model, created by WPA Intelligence and shared with the Washington Free Beacon, was based on predictive data available for each of Missouri's 4,101,062 registered voters and found Hawley to have a six-point advantage over McCaskill, 53 to 47 percent. The model uses available consumer data, voter history, and demographic information to assign each voter with a predictive score.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 23, 2018 30 Comments
Data from Swedish state TV station, SVT, revealed that 58% of men convicted of rape and attempted rape in Sweden were born abroad. From the BBC:
The Mission Investigation programme, due to be broadcast on Wednesday by SVT, said the total number of offenders over five years was 843. Of those, 197 were from the Middle East and North Africa, with 45 coming from Afghanistan.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 23, 2018 18 Comments
Back in July, Kemberlee blogged about CNN's "explosive" report that, according to "sources," President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen claimed the then-presidential candidate knew about the June 2016 meetings at Trump Tower between Donald Trump, Jr., and Russians. Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis appeared on CNN on Wednesday night and directly refuted the story.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 22, 2018 30 Comments
On Tuesday, authorities in Iowa believe they discovered the body of 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts, who went missing on July 18 while on a jog. A medical examiner still needs to conduct an autopsy, but the authorities arrested an illegal immigrant and charged him with first degree murder. CNN host John Berman asked Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) about immigration laws and she responded with some sympathy for Tibbetts' family, but then went on an attack on how illegal immigrants are treated at the border.
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