[The Federalist] The evidence continues to mount that during the Obama administration, the FBI used George Papadopoulos as a prop to legitimize launching its investigation into the Donald Trump campaign. While the FBI claimed it initiated Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016 in response to reports that Russian-linked individuals told Papadopoulos the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, that story seemed shaky from the start.
Since then, text and email messages between former MI6 spy and Fusion GPS dossier author Christopher Steele and twice-demoted Department of Justice attorney Bruce Ohr raised the possibility that information Steele fed the FBI through Ohr was the true justification for the the FBI targeting the Trump campaign. A Wednesday tweet from Carter Page gives further credence to the suggestion that the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier served as the basis for the FBI’s interest in the Trump campaign.
In his tweet, Page included a screen grab of a July 2016 text message from Washington Post reporter Damian Paletta (who was then working for the Wall Street Journal) asking the former Trump campaign advisor about his supposed meeting in Moscow with Igor Sechin, and another meeting Page reportedly had with "a senior Kremlin official‐Divyekin‐and he said they have solid kompromat on Clinton as well as Trump."
[Wash Times] An estimated 1.4 billion people globally don’t exercise enough, increasing their risk for a number of diseases including diabetes, heart attack, stroke and some cancers, according to a global report published Tuesday.
Rates of physical activity are largely unchanged since 2001, in some cases worsening and with large disparities between men and women, the report said.
"Unlike other major global health risks, levels of insufficient physical activity are not falling worldwide," Dr. Regina Guthold of the World Health Organization, the study’s lead author, said in a statement. "Over a quarter of all adults are not reaching the recommended levels of physical activity for good health."
Accepted recommendations of movement per week are 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity. Yet among the global population, one in three women (32 percent) and one in four men (23 percent) fail to meet these requirements.
High-income countries had insufficient physical activity two times higher than low-income countries and that rate increased by five percent between 2001 and 2016.
In Kuwait, American Samoa, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, more than half of all adults have insufficient physical activity.
[Hot Air] We knew (or at least feared) that this was coming, but Friday saw the finalization of the new biofuels ‐ specifically ethanol ‐ blending requirements for 2019 and 2020. And true to the promises that President Trump made to Iowa politicians, we did not see any significant reductions in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates. In fact, they went up, much the same as under Obama’s EPA. (EPA website)
On November 30, 2018, EPA finalized volume requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program for 2019 for cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel, and biomass-based diesel for 2020. The final volume requirements are listed in the table below.
Here are the final numbers, for those interested in such depressing news.
BLUF:
In any event, it appears that nothing is going to change on this front and Iowa politicians are still holding the nation’s fuel supply hostage. And we have absolutely nobody in any position of power willing to take them on. Oh, and if you’d like one more thing to sour your morning coffee, there’s another push for a carbon tax taking place this month and they’ve even got some Republicans onboard.
[The Hill] With a new Congress set to take office, the most recent projections have the U.S. budget deficit reaching nearly $1 trillion in 2019, or more than double the level of 2015.
The deficit is a perennial topic of discussion for politicians, reporters, pundits and economists, yet many people have difficulty understanding why it’s a problem.
Spending more than we take in sounds irresponsible, but how does the deficit actually impact the life of average Americans? The downside is especially hard to see when deficit spending generates immediate benefits, while the costs occur well into the future.
The recent debt default in Greece, along with the lingering deficit crisis in Italy, has highlighted the danger of excessive public borrowing. Those countries lack their own currency, however, which makes their situation very different from that of the United States.
The fact that our government is able to print money means that outright default is extremely unlikely; rather, the cost of excessive borrowing shows up in more subtle ways.
These costs can, for example, show up in the form of some combination of inflation, tax increases and spending cuts. Given the political difficulty of cutting popular entitlement programs, future tax increases are more likely than spending cuts. This option imposes a burden on the private sector of the economy.
#1
Deficit was unsustainable before Obama doubled it, but now GOP is in charge folks are finally noticing. Good, put heat on Congress, they control the budget.
#2
I think the national debt is now insurmountable. The USA is the best in a barrel of rotten apples. It seems like every other country's national debt is even worse.
#3
National debt is payable with the full weight of a photocopier.
Of course, right sizing the state and kicking the rent-seekers off the taxpayers backs is good for the economy, but those rent-seekers have a lot of wealth and own the media to lie to you about negative effects of cutting their loot.
#4
The national debt isn't really a problem in the way that most people assume that it is. Most people seem to assume that the government will break itself trying to pay it back. It won't. The government will, like every other government in history, tell the people who foolishly lent it money, to get bent, and laugh all the way back to the Senatorial Palace. There is always risk in lending idiots money.
#5
The real risk is the financial collapse after banks realize that they will not be able to get back the money they have lent idiotic governments like the US and EU for generations.
[Freedom Outpost] As Democrats and Trump-opposing Republicans stand poised to engage in actions against Trump in hopes of a "win", the only winners will be establishment, charlatan, political shills while the losers will once again be the American people. This story staring Trey Gowdy.
America, enjoy the Christmas season, remembering why Christmas is celebrated in the first place, and then fasten your seat belts for the rough ride coming in January as Democrats are poised to take over the House. With the vitriol Democrats have pumped out against President Trump and his supporters, expect the wrinkle-lipped Democrats who have been sucking on sour grapes to do nothing except engage in investigations into the president, his administration and his 2016 campaign. But, Democrats are not the only threat Trump faces in the upcoming House turnover. According to a hypothesis developed by Rush Limbaugh, Republicans are expected to betray Trump by joining Democrats to oust the 45th president.
#3
They should gang up on him and start cutting teh budget. Cut everything by 25%, cut entitlements, blame Trump while you can but start cutting.
Note to the House: If you don't cut, everything collapses and you can no longer buy your seat in Congress with pork hand-outs. If you cut now, and cut deep, you can blame Trump and be able to dole out pork for decades to come.
[Washington Examiner] Political pundit books are a dime-a-dozen nowadays. Too often, they only exist as a written extension of the author’s current show or very basic beliefs. Instead of revealing a deeper insight, they end up being nothing more than fodder for a fan’s online Christmas wish list. But like Tucker Carlson often seems to do, his writing takes readers to a new level, a fresh perspective, of the current state of affairs in Washington and America.
Known for schooling uninformed liberals in TV debates, Carlson transfers that same primetime entertainment to the pages of Ship of Fools. Page after page, he eloquently exposes the hypocrisies of the Washington elite while providing a balanced history lesson in which he analyzes the current state of our nation, how we got to where we are, and where we go from here.
Many in the media claim to speak truth to power, yet they cower and look the other way when it comes to holding the super-elite accountable. To Tucker, truth and facts outweigh the prestige and position that anyone holds. Whether it’s Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, or the Clintons, he does not shy away from presenting the untethered accuracy of actual events.
Ship of Fools explains to readers what most of us who’ve worked in Washington already know: Many of the leaders who run our country don’t value the electorate ‐ you, the voter. "Countries can survive war and famines and disease. They cannot survive leaders who despise their own people," he writes. Donald Trump was elected president because he was an unconventional "politician" who actually listened to what the voters were saying and campaigned on it. As Tucker points out, Trump’s election "was a throbbing middle finger in the face of America’s ruling class."
In a pithy and hilarious manner, he pokes holes in the arguments of the Left’s clandestine agenda. Calling them out for being the party of the rich, who have turned a blind eye to several humanitarian issues that would have undoubtedly mobilized them in the past. Issues such as oppressive workforce conditions, harmful social media addictions, a drop in the life expectancy of "native-born" Americans, an increase in war-hungry Democrats, and the list goes on. He rightly turns the tables on liberals who have attempted to continually point fingers at the Right in order to distract from these hypocrisies.
[Legal Insurrection] President-elect Bolsonaro';s choices for his new administration indicate a prosperity-oriented direction for Brazil.
The last time we checked on Brazil, Jair M. Bolsonaro, the nation's President-elect who is often referred to as the "Brazilian Trump," announced plans to move the country's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Israel's capital, Jerusalem.
Now, in the mode of the American President, Brazil is canceling its plans to host a UN climate change summit.
Brazil has withdrawn its offer to host a large UN conference on climate change next year, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, leading environmental groups to question the government's commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
Brazil pulled its offer to host the 2019 climate change conference because of "the current fiscal and budget constraints, which are expected to remain in the near future," the foreign ministry said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.
Environmental groups interpreted the decision as a nod to President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who promised during his campaign to pull Brazil out of the Paris accord on climate change.
As an extra bonus, and in keeping with his vision for the new, prosperity-oriented direction for his nation, Bolsonaro chose a Trump-admiring diplomat who claims climate change is a plot by 'cultural Marxists' as his new foreign minister.
Bolsonaro's pick of career diplomat Ernesto Araujo, 51, underscored Brazil's sharp turn to the right and the reversal of nearly a decade and a half of diplomacy under leftist Workers Party governments that focused on alliances with South American allies and ideological partners ‐ including Cuba.
...Araujo, a career diplomat, is currently head of the foreign ministry's United States and Canada department.
In his blog, Metapolitia Brasil, Araujo claims his goal is to "help Brazil and the world liberate themselves from globalist ideology".
In a post last month he writes: "This dogma has been used to justify increasing the regulatory power of states over the economy and the power of international institutions on the nation states and their populations, as well as to stifle economic growth in democratic capitalist countries and to promote the growth of China"
Araujo isn't the only appointment that has earned the ire of green justice activists.
His pick as agriculture minister is the head of the farming lobby, Tereza Cristina Dias, who conservationists have nicknamed the "Muse of Poison" due to her enthusiastic support for relaxing controls on agro-toxins.
She and her colleagues are said to be gutting the responsibilities of the environment ministry before its new head is appointed. The environment institution is likely to be so subservient that insiders joke there will soon be two agriculture ministries in Brazil.
I predict that Bolsonaro Derangement Syndrome should begin shortly.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/03/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Brasil has bottomed out. The only place to make any kind of living is a government job. I know a military officer, which technically is a government job, who had to take a second government job, teaching chemistry at a college to make ends meet for his small family.
#3
A Brazilian guy I know snarks that Brazil is the country of the future... and always will be. Bolsonaro gives me hope for the place A lot of wasted potential there.
[Breitbart] It is a mistake to downplay the seriousness of homosexuality, Pope Francis said in an upcoming book, insisting that homosexuals have no place in the priesthood.
In the book, the pope recounts an interview he had with missionary Fernando Prado, who asked him whether homosexuality was a problem, suggesting that it is not a big deal for priests to be homosexual since it is "just an expression of an affection."
"That’s a mistake," Francis replied. "It’s not just an expression of an affection. In consecrated and priestly life, there’s no room for that kind of affection."
The pontiff reiterated Church teaching "that people with that kind of ingrained tendency should not be accepted into the ministry or consecrated life. The ministry or the consecrated life is not his place."
The pope’s words were his strongest to date on the problem with homosexuality in the priesthood and follows on serious allegations that the Church’s problems with sexual abuse are rooted in the presence of a "homosexual network" among clergy and bishops.
In a bombshell report last August, former papal nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò tied the abuse crisis in the Church as well as cover-ups by bishops to an extensive "homosexual network" in the Church.
#1
Since there is 'no room' for sex in the Priesthood it should go without saying that homosexual sex would also be out. I'm glad he's finally looking at his own realm of responsibility but this shouldn't need to be said.
Posted by: Harry Guelph4423 ||
12/03/2018 8:48 Comments ||
Top||
#5
You know what's really hilarious? People still think that the Catholic Church has ever been anything but a criminal organization that has separated guilty rulers and obedient peasants from their cash. Every Attila needs his Witch Doctor, as Ayn Rand would say.
#6
AH9418, the enforced celibacy is (and has been) financial in nature, not so much the scriptural aspects. A Bishop once told me that we'd see women priests in the church long before married ones.
The parishes historically provide housing and transportation, plus a small salary for food and necessities. And the US 2017 maximum salaries for a RC priest ranged from $29,744 in the West region to $44,417 in the Midwest (don't know about the east coast or southern folks).
If you start adding the housing/food/other costs for spouses and children into the mix, the parishes would revolt.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/03/2018 17:19 Comments ||
Top||
#7
"... Pope Francis said in an upcoming book..."
since the book doesn't have a publication date or even apparently a title, basically this is just speculation
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/03/2018 18:15 Comments ||
Top||
#8
parishes would revolt.
Protestant and Jewish congregations manage to pay their religiious staff enough to support families without fussing, Mullah Richard, as do Orthodox Christians. And Orthodox Christians, like the Catholics, fund priestly education, whereas Protestants and Jews pay their own way. It’s all a matter of expectations.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran has always used ideological discourse as a tool to interfere in the internal affairs of Arab countries.
Compare that to the Ottomans of Turkey, who used swords and cannons to persuade the Arabs to accept their argument, dear Al Arabiya editorialist.
Ideological mobilization, supported by security and military systems along with religious and sectarian devices, have allowed the Iranian regime to expand its influence and control that are characterized by the ability to control the decisions of official authorities.
For a relatively long period, the regime was able to establish organizations and arms in these countries and linked their system of political interests to it. The ideological discourse provided a wide scope for the growth of these wings of influence overcoming national affiliation or identity.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Federalist] The evidence continues to mount that during the Obama administration, the FBI used George Papadopoulos as a prop to legitimize launching its investigation into the Donald Trump campaign. While the FBI claimed it initiated Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016 in response to reports that Russian-linked individuals told Papadopoulos the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, that story seemed shaky from the start.
[Hot Air] We knew (or at least feared) that this was coming, but Friday saw the finalization of the new biofuels ‐ specifically ethanol ‐ blending requirements for 2019 and 2020. And true to the promises that President Trump made to Iowa politicians, we did not see any significant reductions in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates. In fact, they went up, much the same as under Obama’s EPA. (EPA website)
If Gowdy has proven anything with his long-winded droning, he's clearly proven that... "motion does not equal progress." 
[Breitbart] It is a mistake to downplay the seriousness of homosexuality, Pope Francis said in an upcoming book, insisting that homosexuals have no place in the priesthood.
