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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 October 30, 2017 23 Comments
On Sunday night, BuzzFeed published an interview with actor Anthony Rapp, who accused Kevin Spacey of making a sexual advance on him when he was only 14-years-old over 30 years ago. Spacey stated he did not remember the incident, but also used the opportunity to officially come out as a gay man, which has been speculated for many years. Now many, especially in the LGBT community, have blasted Spacey for using his sexuality as cover for his alleged sexual misconduct. They have a point because I noticed a lot in the media making the story about Spacey's sexuality instead of Rapp's claims.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 30, 2017 18 Comments
President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday that he has never seen so much "anger & unity" among Republicans over the "lack of investigation" into Hillary Clinton's connection to a dossier developed in the 2016 presidential race to smear him. Trump made the comments after Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairman of the House Oversight committee, said on Fox News Sunday that he has concerns over Hillary's campaign paying a law firm over $12 million for the dossier.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 29, 2017 8 Comments
The New York Times reported that the Navy has opened an investigation to determine if two members of the Navy SEAL Team 6 strangled a Green Beret in Mali last June:
Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar, a 34-year-old veteran of two deployments to Afghanistan, was found dead on June 4 in the embassy housing he shared in the Malian capital, Bamako, with several other Special Operations forces assigned to the West African nation to help with training and counterterrorism missions.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 29, 2017 7 Comments
FIFA has decided to reject a request from the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to sanction Israel due to athletic activities that take place in the West Bank. From The Jerusalem Post:
"The FIFA Council takes note of the documents adopted by international governmental bodies concerning the relationship between Israel and Palestine – such as United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which comprises recommendations without sanctions – but has decided that it should not take any position on their contents," the statement read. "The FIFA Council acknowledges that the current situation is, for reasons that have nothing to do with football, characterized by an exceptional complexity and sensitivity and by certain de facto circumstances that can neither be ignored nor changed unilaterally by non-governmental organizations such as FIFA."

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 28, 2017 4 Comments
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has made a trip to South Korea and the DMZ where he made it known that North Korea has accelerated itself as nuclear threat. From Fox News:
“North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs,” Mattis said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 27, 2017 14 Comments
In a largely symbolic vote, the Catalonian parliament voted for independence from Spain on Friday, which caused the Spanish Senate to allow Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy direct rule over the region. From The Wall Street Journal:
The separatist legislators said Catalan voters gave them a mandate for the declaration in an Oct. 1 referendum on independence. Catalan authorities say around two million voters cast ballots and that the vast majority voted in favor of secession. However, opposition parties boycotted the vote and the Spanish government declared it illegal. The vote was also marred by clashes with the police.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 27, 2017 5 Comments
Despite two massive hurricanes, the GDP, which is the measure of goods and services produced in America, grew to 3% in the third quarter. Experts estimated a growth of only 2.5% because of the natural disasters, but the "increase in inventory investment and a smaller trade deficit" helped offset the slow spending after the hurricanes. The White House economists have also said that if the proposed changes to corporate taxes go through the GDP could jump between 3 and 5 percent in a few years.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 27, 2017 16 Comments
The government released some more of the files pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Harvey Lee Oswald along with files about Oswald's death at the hands of Jack Ruby. I scoured through a handful and noticed one particular name kept coming up: Arnold Johnson, the public relations director of the Communist Party the USA (CPUSA). In three instances that I have found so far the files stop when the documents are about to go into the substance of a Johnson speech or his correspondence with Oswald. I also found a file that documents a conversation between Oswald and a KGB agent.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 26, 2017 38 Comments
Two big items happened today concerning the IRS. No, the agency still exists and we have to pay taxes. However, the agency has apologized for targeting conservative groups due to their political beliefs during President Barack Obama's administration. Also, it's now official that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen will leave in November as President Donald Trump announced a new leader.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 26, 2017 7 Comments
The GOP-controlled House passed the budget on Thursday by a slim margin of 216-212. With the House and Senate budgets in sync, the lawmakers have activated a procedure that will allow a tax bill pass the Senate without a filibuster. The majority of Republicans that voted no hail from high taxed states since tax writers are toying with the idea to do away with state and local tax deductions.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 26, 2017 16 Comments
Last week, The Hill reported that an FBI undercover agent in Russia accused President Barack Obama's DOJ of blocking him from speaking to Congress “about conversations and transactions he witnessed related to the Russian nuclear industry’s efforts to win favor with Bill and Hillary Clinton and influence Obama administration decisions.” His lawyer Victoria Toensing, who served as a Reagan DOJ official and chief counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee, explained she was trying to free her client of the confidentiality agreement. It worked. The DOJ and FBI freed the informant from his confidentiality agreement, which means he may now speak to Congress about what he witnessed.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 25, 2017 19 Comments
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the Democrats and failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton funded the now-debunked Trump Dossier that has allegations of collusion between now-President Donald Trump and Russia. Today, the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that claims Hillary's campaign and the DNC violated campaign finance law over payments for the Trump Dossier.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 25, 2017 36 Comments
The mysteries continue to pile up when it comes to Stephen Paddock, the man who slaughtered over 50 people in Las Vegas earlier this month. Authorities still have no motive and it seems that everything new that pops up brings more questions. ABC News has reported that Paddock's laptop does not have its hard drive, meaning the authorities don't have access to a possible direction to a motive. Also, authorities in Los Angeles arrested his brother Bruce on child porn charges.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 25, 2017 21 Comments
I've been keeping an eye on tax reform and ideas to make changes to 401(k) retirement funds have caught my eye. At first, tax writers wanted to tax your earnings before you place money in the fund. Then over the weekend they floated the idea of changing the pre-tax limit to $2,400 instead of $18,000. Of course this has caused an uproar, which led President Donald Trump to tweet out on Monday that tax reform will not include changes to your 401(k). House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) has said not so fast and the option remains on the table.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 25, 2017 22 Comments
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, claims that he has a "smoking gun" email that proves the Department of Justice under President Barack Obama directed funds from settlements away from conservative groups. From Fox News:
“It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday. “Here, we have it.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 24, 2017 5 Comments
In August, Iowa officials submitted a request to make changes to its Obamacare market as it faced doom due to high premiums and insurance companies dropping out. Officials wanted to make changes that would "provide consumers with age- and income-based tax credits as well as using a reinsurance mechanism for insurers for costly medical claims. Now Governor Kim Reynolds (R) and Iowa Insurance Division Commissioner Doug Ommen have announced that the state withdrew its request since it "cannot be approved under terms that would be workable for Iowa."
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