| Trump turns to Pence to calm fears over coronavirus, but leaves many questions unanswered Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:50 PM PST  President Trump announced that he was putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the U.S. response to coronavirus.
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| Man gets life for kidnapping stepdaughter, holding her captive for 19 years Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:36 AM PST  Henri Michelle Piette kidnapped his victim in 1997 when she was 12 and subjected her to nearly 20 years of physical and sexual abuse before she escaped.
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| Iran Can’t Hide Its Coronavirus Explosion, But It’s Trying Hard—and Putting the World in Danger Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:26 AM PST  Iran's deputy health minister was drenched in sweat at the press conference on Monday where he vehemently denied Tehran was covering up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak. He kept wiping his brow with his handkerchief and was in visible distress as he said quarantines were a "Stone Age" way to address the problem, and Iran doesn't need them. Then, sure enough, that night he tested positive for the virus himself and put himself in quarantine. The irony of Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi's case would be funny almost, were Iran's conspicuous bungling of the coronavirus threat not a menace to the whole region and, indeed, to the world. As The Daily Beast's partner publication, IranWire, revealed in an exclusive report Thursday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has tried to address the epidemic by telling doctors to shut up about it, much as Chinese authorities in Wuhan did, disastrously, when the disease was just starting to spread last December.The "official figures" from Iran give the game away. At last count, 16 people have died from COVID-19, but only 95 cases had been confirmed. As Wired UK points out, that would be a death rate of about 17 percent, when the data available from China, where there are huge numbers to work with, suggests the death rate is closer to 2 percent. The statistics don't add up. Canadian researchers cited by Wired suggest the Iran outbreak probably involves more than 18,000 people, and counting.* * *SILENCING THE DOCTORS* * *Following is the full IranWire article written by Aida Ghajar:IranWire can exclusively report that Iran's Revolutionary Guards have threatened Iranian medical specialists with reprisals if any of them were to disclose information regarding the spread of coronavirus in Iran.A group of specialist doctors met with Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi on Feb. 22, during which they reported on the latest findings regarding the spread of coronavirus in Tehran and other Iranian cities. But soon after the meeting, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) approached the doctors through the health ministry's security office and warned the doctors not to leak any information from their discussions. The doctors were told that, if any details did leak, they would be held responsible and would suffer the consequences.Despite these threats, the information received by IranWire shows the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak, especially in Tehran. The doctors who were present at the meeting offered Harirchi their assessment of the official news and figures and told him that the figures published by the government do not match the reality of the situation.As one of these doctors—whose name is withheld because of the threats from the Revolutionary Guards—told IranWire: "The statistics published by the government have nothing to do with reality of the situation and the number of infections is much higher than what the media reports. If things go on like this and if the Islamic Republic does not cooperate with the World Health Organization, we must expect a great disaster in the coming months and, only in Tehran, tens of thousands will be infected by coronavirus. This scientific estimate does not even include other epicenters like Qom. If we cannot come up with a framework to cooperate with the World Health Organization, our situation will become many times worse than in China."This doctor pointed out that, right now, a number of clinics in Tehran have been quarantined and the government's attempts to keep the reality of the situation a secret is a "crime" in the legal sense of the word."Refusing to divulge real information to Iranians and to the international community is officially a crime because it endangers the lives of people not only in Iran but in other countries as well."Donald Trump Takes Coronavirus So Seriously He Just Put Mike Pence in ChargeIn many countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Canada, Iraq, Turkey, and Lebanon, the first cases of coronavirus infections were brought in by Iranian citizens or by travelers who had visited Iran. This has led many countries to close their borders with Iran, in the air and on the ground.According to this doctor, the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran occurred just after the outbreak in China. "But the problem started when we did not recognize that this virus is the same as China's coronavirus," the doctor said. "We made a mistake when we identified it as a variant of influenza viruses.… But, after it became known that it had been a mistake, [officials] continued as before and did not disclose the facts."* * *THE GOVERNMENT IS CLUELESS* * *The doctor said Iran's government has no plans for containing the crisis. Officials have "no other choice except secrecy," he added. "This will disgrace the Islamic Republic, if it becomes known that its government is clueless. But this can lead to a humanitarian disaster."According to this doctor, after the meeting with the health minister was over, the Revolutionary Guards contacted each doctor who had been at the meeting. "They told us that we will be held responsible for even the smallest leak. But I could not keep silent anymore," he said.On Monday, two days after the meeting and after the doctors were threatened, Gen. Hossein Salami, the top commander of the Revolutionary Guards, called Health Minister Saeed Namaki and announced that the Guards were ready to provide any and all assistance in fighting coronavirus and preventing its spread.On Feb. 25, in a televised speech, President Hassan Rouhani asked people to trust only statements by the health ministry for information about coronavirus.The Iranian Cyber Police have meanwhile reported that they have arrested a number of "rumor-mongers" about coronavirus since Feb. 21. Gen. Hossein Rahimi, commander of Tehran's Cyber Police, announced the arrests."Persons who want to create trouble for the people by spreading rumors and lying in cyberspace must know that the police surveils their behavior and will act against them decisively," he said.Earlier on Feb. 21, Gholamreza Jalali, commander of Iran's Civil Defense Organization, accused foreign media of "creating panic" by publishing inaccurate or misleading figures about coronavirus infections. He emphasized that coronavirus must not be turned into a "political crisis."Jalali is the same official who, after floods had inundated many parts of Iran in early 2019, made strange statements about extreme weather, accusing Israel of "cloud stealing." He claimed that "joint committees of Turkey and Israel" had stolen moisture and snow from the clouds over Iran.With the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Guards turning the coronavirus outbreak into a security issue, by treating infection figures as state secrets, by arresting people for "rumor mongering" and, now by threatening doctors whose duty is to tell the truth about infectious diseases, it seems the experts may be proved right about the likelihood of a humanitarian disaster. If the Islamic Republic continues in this way, we must expect a much bigger disaster than what is happening in China—not only for Iranians but for the world.The Russian Models Instagramming From China's Coronavirus CapitalRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| The US Navy orders ships in the Pacific to stay at sea at least 14 days between port calls over coronavirus concerns Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:24 PM PST  Ships have been instructed to remain at sea for at least 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the coronavirus.
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| U.S. CDC aggressively evaluating whether coronavirus survives on surfaces: agency chief Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:10 PM PST |
| Warren thanks Cherokee Nation citizens for holding her 'accountable' for falsely identifying as Native American Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:51 AM PST  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) again apologized Wednesday for previously incorrectly claiming tribal heritage and releasing DNA results that claimed to reveal she had Native American ancestry. The most recent apology was in response to a letter from several members of the Cherokee Nation, as well as members of other tribes standing in solidarity, calling on her to go beyond acknowledging her mistakes and do her part to dispel beliefs spread by white people claiming Native heritage.The letter asked Warren to unequivocally state she and her ancestors are white, explain that "only tribal affiliation and kinship determine Native identity," and that "Native people are the sole authority on who is — and who is not — Native."In a response letter, Warren affirmed she understood all three of those points, and thanked the Cherokee Nation for holding her "accountable," while also highlighting actions she has taken as a lawmaker as well as provisions she has included in her presidential campaign plans with tribal interests in mind.Warren did push back in one instance, however. The signatories of the letter said Warren's actions were part of a "long and violent history" of "white members of fake 'tribes'" being rewarded federal contracts "set aside for minority business owners." Warren said she "appreciated my incorrect identification as Native was loaded given the history," but distanced herself from the aforementioned cases because she "never benefited financially or professionally" from her claims. Read the Cherokee Nation's letter here and Warren's response here.More stories from theweek.com CPAC speaker instructs crowd to boo Mitt Romney 'every time his name is mentioned' Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Trump freaks out about all the wrong things
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| Strike Fast! Japan Develops a Mach-5 Aircraft Carrier-Killer Missile Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:33 AM PST  The Japanese military is considering developing a hypersonic anti-ship missile with a special warhead for penetrating the decks of Chinese aircraft carriers.
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| Coronavirus: latest developments worldwide Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:54 PM PST  The list of countries hit by the coronavirus grows. Mecca suspends entry for pilgrims. Several countries close their schools, stock exchanges plunge.
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| Limbaugh and Trump fuel coronavirus conspiracy theories Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:28 PM PST  Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is telling his listeners that the coronavirus is a plot to bring down President Trump and attacked the CDC official who warned on Tuesday that the virus will spread in the U.S.
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| Missing Mennonite woman, 27, found dead 250 miles from home Posted: 27 Feb 2020 08:09 AM PST  Authorities quickly found the missing woman's vehicle at a church near her home, but she was nowhere to be found.
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| Betsy DeVos orders probe after USA TODAY finds college evidently without faculty, students Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:29 AM PST  Betsy DeVos has launched an Education Department investigation after a USA TODAY report showed a college apparently had no faculty or students.
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| Republicans Break with Barr on FISA Renewal, Urge Reforms before Reauthorization Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:57 PM PST  Republicans in both the House and the Senate are unhappy that attorney general William Barr wants a simple reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with sources telling National Review that GOP critics of FISA are "adamant" that serious reforms must be implemented before the reauthorization.Barr reportedly told GOP senators during a lunch Tuesday that they should move to reauthorize the expiring portions of FISA's surveillance powers as he continues to implement internal reforms. The intelligence community also supports a clean reauthorization prior to the implementation of significant reforms.Barr's position is also backed by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), but other Republicans are more skeptical following inspector general Michael Horowitz's December report on "at least 17" abuses in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, which relied heavily on FISA warrants.House sources told National Review that "a long list" of Republicans support "significant reforms" to FISA before it is reauthorized."Given the tremendous abuses in 16-17, a clean reauthorization is totally unacceptable," one House aide said.Congressman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and Mark Meadows (R., N.C.) added their concerns on Wednesday, tweeting within four minutes of each other about how a reauthorization without reform was a mistake.> Comey's FBI misled the FISA Court 17 times.> > We can't simply reauthorize the system that allowed those lies and omissions to happen.> > Now is our chance to fix it.> > -- Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 26, 2020> Former FBI officials in 2016-17 gravely abused the FISA process and lied to the FISA court 17 times> > Now, some members of Congress want to do a clean reauthorization of FISA anyway> > Totally unacceptable. Should NEVER happen.> > -- Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) February 26, 2020Senator Mike Lee (R., Utah), an outspoken advocate for FISA reform, tweeted after the lunch that he had "made a long case against a simple reauthorization of the FISA program. Some are arguing the program needs no reform and that DOJ can put in place internal quality control mechanisms. That's not good enough."Lee's office told National Review in December that Republicans were planning "new legislation with major reforms to be introduced and hopefully incorporated into the program before it expires in March."Reached for comment Wednesday, Lee's communications director Conn Carroll confirmed that the Utah Republican had held conversations with other FISA critics among the GOP."Waiting to see how the House mark up finishes today before we strategize further," he told National Review in an email.The House Judiciary Committee postponed a meeting Wednesday to review markups to its FISA reform bill, after Representative Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.) proposed last-minute amendments to strengthen reforms — which senior House Democrats dismissed as "poison pills" that would doom the legislation due to a lack of bipartisan support.House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) told CNN Wednesday — before the delay — that he would not support a clean reauthorization of FISA, as his committee reviews mark-ups to legislation to renew the surveillance powers by its deadline.A Senate Republican aide suggested to National Review that House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) was behind the stalling on Nadler's bill."There was a decent reform bill that Nadler had that Schiff forced him to water down. No civil liberties group signed off on it. It is a Schiff wish list," the aide said. "Lofgren has been perfectly transparent about wanting amendments, amendments that have strong bipartisan support. Which is why Schiff doesn't want to vote on them."Conservative-libertarian advocacy group FreedomWorks condemned the decision to delay the bill's markup, saying in a statement that "the very idea that the Judiciary Committee might produce a bill that would address some of these problems was apparently too much for Chairman Schiff today.Last week, Representatives Doug Collins (R., Ga.) and Devin Nunes (R., Calif.) — ranking members of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, respectively — sent a letter to Nadler urging serious reforms."The Democrats' bill does not address the serious issues in our FISA system, as highlighted by Inspector General Horowitz. I'm not at all surprised that all Republicans, and apparently even some Democrats, agree," Collins said in a statement after the news of the delay. "The status quo is unacceptable. We cannot reauthorize these counterterrorism provisions without instituting critical safeguards that protect the civil liberties of all Americans."The Trump administration remains divided over how best to approach FISA, which the president often criticizes due to its use in the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation into his 2016 campaign. Over the weekend, reports broke that the White House Domestic Policy Council was pushing for a serious overhaul of FISA, but faced opposition from the National Security Council."A lot will happen between now and March 15. We may do a placeholder and take it past March 15. We've got to get this right," Senator John Kennedy (R., La.) told Politico.
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| Biden says he's not worried about Trump refusing to leave if defeated in November Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:40 AM PST  Joe Biden says he isn't worried about the prospect of President Trump refusing to leave his post if he's defeated in November.
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| A former Microsoft engineer stole more than $10 million from the company and used it to buy a $1.6 million lakefront home and a Tesla Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:26 PM PST  He stole $10 million-worth of "currency stored value," like online gift cards, and resold them online in exchange for bitcoin, a court ruled.
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| Nigeria's Islamists targeting Christians to provoke religious war, says minister Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:20 AM PST  Islamist militant groups in Nigeria have begun targeting Christians in an attempt to provoke a religious war, the information minister said on Thursday. Islamist insurgents in Nigeria have killed around 35,000 people and displaced at least two million in the past decade, driven first by Boko Haram and more recently by its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). "They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos," he told reporters.
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| Bloomberg campaign reportedly trying to recruit Andrew Yang Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:58 PM PST  Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may be looking for a bump from the Yang Gang.The Bloomberg campaign has been seeking an endorsement from entrepreneur and former 2020 candidate Andrew Yang and even floated him as a potential running made, The Wall Street Journal reports. "Aides to the former New York City mayor reached out to discuss ways the two entrepreneurs-turned-politicians could work together as Mr. Bloomberg seeks the Democratic nomination," the Journal writes, although Yang reportedly "didn't commit to join forces."The Bloomberg campaign told the Journal that Yang isn't being seriously considered to be his running mate, and a senior Bloomberg aide denied to NBC's Josh Lederman that he never was. Since dropping out of the race, Yang has been a contributor for CNN. He recently took part in a CNN discussion about Bloomberg's debate debut, during which he said the former mayor came across as "lethargic and uninterested" and was not "properly prepared." Yang also theorized Bloomberg has no one on his team "who could be like, 'That was terrible. This is going to potentially damage your campaign to a very, very high degree.'" Meanwhile, Bloomberg in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday said he'd "consider everybody" to be his running mate should he win the Democratic nomination, but when asked who he's talked to, he shot back, "Why would I tell you?" More stories from theweek.com Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Turkish official: Airstrike in Syria kills 29 Turkish soldiers What it's like to be in Venice during coronavirus lockdown
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| How deadly is coronavirus and what are the symptoms? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:26 AM PST  The CDC says COVID-19 symptoms can appear in as little as two days or as long as two weeks after initial exposure.
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| Trump Pardon Won’t Erase Arpaio’s Criminal Past in Comeback Bid Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:47 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio will have to pursue his comeback with a guilty verdict on his resume.The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday refused to expunge the criminal contempt finding made against Arpaio for defying a judge's orders related to his crackdown on undocumented immigrants.The 87-year-old lawman -- once known as "America's toughest sheriff -- is again vying for the job that he held for 24 years in Maricopa County. He lost the 2016 election and was found guilty the following year. A month after the verdict, he became the first person to be pardoned by President Donald Trump.The three appellate judges, one who was appointed by Trump and two by George W. Bush, were unanimous that Arpaio's guilty verdict had no legal consequence because technically he was never convicted."Here, the issuing of a presidential pardon, and Arpaio's acceptance of the pardon, preempted his sentencing," the panel said. "Thus, there is no final judgment of conviction in this case."After he was pardoned, Arpaio asked the trial judge to set aside his guilty verdict. She refused -- a ruling that was upheld by the appeals court which said it could never be used against him in a future case.Arpaio's lawyer Jack Wilenchick declared victory, saying that has exactly the same effect as an order "vacating" the guilty finding."The court gave us exactly what we asked for, which is a finding that the guilty verdict is legally meaningless," Wilenchick said in a statement. "The trial judge's final order had said just the opposite; it had indicated that the guilty verdict may, or even should, be used against Arpaio in the future in a court of law."Arpaio made a name for himself targeting Latinos in the Phoenix area with traffic stops only on the suspicion they were undocumented immigrants. In 2017, a federal judge convicted him of criminal contempt of court for violating orders to stop.The case took an unusual turn after the U.S. Justice Department, which had started the proceedings against Arpaio under the Obama administration and secured his conviction, said it wouldn't fight Arpaio's appeal.That prompted groups of civil rights organizations, legal scholars and members of Congress to ask the court to appoint an independent prosecutor as well as to challenge the underlying validity of Arpaio's pardon.A judge found the pardon was valid, but Arpaio fought on to try to get his offense expunged from court records.Read More: 'America's Toughest Sheriff' Wants More From Trump PardonTo contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Blumberg at pblumberg1@bloomberg.net, Joe SchneiderFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Jay-Z helps 150 inmates at Mississippi prison sue over 'barbaric conditions' Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:45 AM PST  Inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman "live a miserable and hopeless existence confronted daily by imminent risk of substantial harm," the suit said.
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| Belarus leader says nation being forced to merge with Russia Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:26 AM PST  The president of Belarus said Thursday that his country is "being forced into integration" with Russia and insisted that real integration of the two countries' economies implied "sovereignty and independence" for Belarus. "We remain committed, as always, to real integration without being forced into integration," President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting with Mikhail Myasnikovich, chair of the Eurasian Economic Commission.
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| Dozens of Turkish soldiers killed in strike in Idlib in Syria Posted: 27 Feb 2020 05:33 PM PST  US condemns attack which Turkish official says killed 33 of its soldiers, in Ankara's worst day of the conflict so farDozens of Turkish soldiers have been killed in an airstrike in Syria's Idlib province, in a dramatic escalation in the battle for control of the country's last opposition stronghold.Turkish officials said at least 33 of its military personnel were killed in the attack on Thursday night. Military sources among moderate and jihadist rebel factions fighting in the northwestern province bordering Turkey said the deaths followed a precision strike on a two-storey building in the village of Balioun.A Turkish convoy, part of reinforcements sent to the area to aid rebel groups earlier this month, was subjected to heavy shelling on Thursday morning. The soldiers had taken cover in Balioun, basing themselves in the local council building.Rahmi Dogan, the local governor of the southeastern Turkish province of Hatay on the border with Idlib, said ambulances streamed from a Syrian border crossing to a hospital in the nearby town of Reyhanli on Thursday night. Turkish officials have blamed the Syrian regime for the attack, but several sources in Idlib and unverified footage of the nighttime strike suggested it had been carried out by the Russian air force, which has helped Damascus conduct a ferocious three-month-old offensive on Idlib.Map of turkey, syria, idlibAfter the attack the United Nations called for urgent action in northwest Syria, warning that "the risk of greater escalation grows by the hour."Nearly a million civilians have been displaced in Idlib near the Turkish border since December as Russia-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, marking the worst humanitarian crisis of the country's nine-year war.Although Ankara and Moscow share important trade, energy and defence links, the relationship has already been sorely tested by the recent violence in Syria, where they back opposing sides.Turkey responded with airstrikes on "all known" Syrian government targets, said the country's communications director Fahrettin Altun early on Friday, according to state-run Anadolu news agency. Altun said authorities had decided to "respond in kind" to the attack."All known targets of the regime have come and will continue to come under fire from the air and ground," Altun, said in a statement."We urge the international community to fulfil its responsibilities" to stop the regime's "crimes against humanity", he said. "We cannot stand by and watch as past events in Rwanda, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are repeated today in Idlib."Turkey's activities on the ground in Syria would continue, he added.The US state department has said it is very concerned about the attack: "We stand by our Nato ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces," a spokesperson said.The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan chaired an emergency security meeting overnight, Turkish officials briefed reporters that Ankara had decided it would no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land and sea – a move calibrated to win EU and Nato support for its operation in Idlib.Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials have already been ordered to stand down, Turkish officials added.Almost one million people are camped out in desperate conditions on Idlib's border with Turkey in winter weather as they flee the swift advance of Bashar al-Assad's army and allied militias backed by Russian airpower.Turkey has expressed unwillingness to take in any more Syrians on top of the 3.6m refugees it already hosts. In an effort to secure its southern border, Ankara took the unprecedented step of sending thousands of troops and convoys of equipment to Idlib in the past three weeks, leading to direct clashes with regime forces for the first time.While Idlib province and the surrounding countryside are technically protected by a de-escalation deal brokered in 2018, the agreement broke down last year after control of most of the area was wrested from more moderate rebel groups by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate.Despite warnings from the UN and aid agencies that fighting in Idlib would put 3 million civilians at risk, Damascus launched an attritional and then full-scale campaign on the province, arguing that HTS was not covered by the de-escalation deal.Turkey has helped rebels to retake one town but had already lost 17 military personnel in the campaign before a strike on Thursday morning killed three, and the evening strike killed at least 22, marking the biggest single day of losses for the country's forces.Turkish attempts to broker a ceasefire, and growing international calls for a halt to the violence, have so far been met with indifference from the Kremlin. Erdoğan has vowed Ankara will not take the "smallest step back" in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib, giving the regime until the end of the month to pull back.US senator Lindsey Graham called on Thursday for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Idlib and called on Donald Trump to help stop the violence against civilians there."The world is sitting on its hands and watching the destruction of Idlib by Assad, Iran, and the Russians," Graham, a Republican and an ally of Trump, said in a statement."I am confident if the world, led by the US, pushed back against Iran, Russia, and Assad that they would stand down, paving the way for political negotiations to end this war in Syria."Kay Bailey Hutchison, the US ambassador to Nato, said Thursday's events should show Turkey "who is their reliable partner and who isn't" and prompt it to drop its purchase of a major Russian missile defence system, which Washington says threatens the western alliance.
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| Seattle Is Socialism’s Laboratory, and It’s Not Pretty Posted: 27 Feb 2020 05:16 AM PST  Democratic socialists are in the middle of a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party. Led by the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and the "squad" of newly elected congresswomen, the hard-left coalition has laid out an ambitious agenda to transform the United States into a democratic socialist nation. While many commentators have dismissed the rhetoric around the Green New Deal, Housing for All, and End Cash Bail as pie-in-the-sky abstraction, in Seattle, the socialist coalition is quickly translating this agenda into a political reality.After the socialist Left's stunning victory over business-backed moderates in last year's municipal elections, Seattle has effectively become the nation's laboratory for socialist policies. Since the beginning of the year, the socialist faction on the Seattle City Council has proposed a range of policies on taxes, housing, homelessness, and criminal justice that put into practice the national democratic-socialist agenda. In the most recent session, socialist councilwoman Kshama Sawant and her allies have proposed massive new taxes on corporations, unprecedented regulations on landlords (including rent control and a ban on "winter evictions"), the mandated construction of homeless encampments, and the gradual dismantling of the criminal justice system, beginning with the end of cash bail.Seattle's socialists have established a narrative that provides the rhetorical basis for their policies. They argue that the corporate-technological elite, led by companies such as Amazon, has hoarded the rewards of the digital economy and created widespread misery for workers, renters, and people of color. As Seattle-based commentator and Marxist theoretician Charles Mudede has written: "We are in the 21st century. We are in one of the richest cities on earth. And yet, the old war between those who employ labor and those who sell their labor is still very much with us."In the socialist vision, the "new class war" is now entering a more direct phase of conflict. They have launched a political campaign to dramatically curtail the power of corporations, landlords, and traditional neighborhood interests, and to build a coalition of socialists, progressives, unions, and the dispossessed that is capable of achieving power. In short, the solution to the class war is to win the class war.While conservatives and moderates have typically dismissed the socialist movement as a "big-city problem," the new socialist agenda is no longer confined to the municipal boundaries of places such as Seattle, San Francisco, and New York. Increasingly, the hard-left coalition has turned these cities into "laboratories for socialism," with the goal of eventually commercializing their policies through the national Democratic Party. Already, Bernie Sanders, the current front-runner in the Democratic primary, has proposed a nationalized version of the Seattle agenda: Tax Amazon, enact national rent control, construct public housing, and end cash bail.But Seattle's socialists have gone one step further. In order to consolidate their newfound power, the progressive-socialists have begun to manipulate the democratic process in their own favor: first, by providing all Seattle voters with $100 in taxpayer-funded "democracy vouchers," which are easily collected by unions, activists, and socialist groups; and second, by implementing a ban on corporate spending in local elections by companies like Amazon. At the same time, black-bloc activists and Antifa militants intimidate any potential opposition by disrupting events, vandalizing homes, and even orchestrating death threats against political adversaries.What can opponents of socialism do? First, recognize that it must be fought on all fronts. While the socialists form a small minority of the national electorate, they have demonstrated the capability of seizing power in America's major cities, which are home to much of the digital "means of production" in tech, media, advertising, entertainment, and research. The business sector in cities such as Seattle must recognize that the progressive-socialists are no longer interested in gaining reasonable concessions; they intend to overthrow capitalism itself.Over the past decade, the dominant corporate strategy has been to quietly advocate for neoliberal economic policies, while pandering to the cultural mandates of "diversity and inclusion." That era is now over. As the experience in Seattle reveals, the socialist Left cannot be appeased on cultural issues — they are fighting a war against capital and they intend to win it.If the business sector wants to protect its own interests, it must rapidly adapt to this new reality. It's no longer enough for local Chambers of Commerce to drop leaflets before local elections; they must build a permanent counterbalance to the progressive-socialists. They must begin by commissioning original policy research, funding local neighborhood groups, and building a political alliance of conservatives, moderates, and old-line liberals. In other words, they must reestablish a balance of power in America's cities.If nothing is done, the laboratories of socialism in America's cities will become a national problem. It's time to shut them down.
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| Mom Enlisted Son to Murder Husband, Daughter for Insurance Money: Prosecutors Posted: 27 Feb 2020 01:08 PM PST  A New Jersey woman faces murder charges after allegedly enlisting her son and his friend to brutally kill her daughter and husband 25 years ago by promising them a cut of his life-insurance policy. Dolores Morgan, 66, and her 47-year-old son, Ted Connors, were indicted by a grand jury Wednesday evening on seven counts, including murder and conspiracy, in relation to the 1994 stabbing death of Ana Mejia and the fatal shooting of Nicholas Connors in May 1995, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office told The Daily Beast.Prosecutors allege that while Connors murdered his father and sister with his best friend, Jose Carrero, Morgan was the true mastermind behind the scheme. After her husband was killed, Morgan allegedly collected a $200,000 life-insurance policy and moved to Florida with her son.Suspect in New Jersey Family's Torching Is Brother and Business Partner to Victim"Killing for money and drugs, the state's position, you cannot get more violent," prosecutor Meghan Doyle said at the pair's detention hearing after their original arrest in January. "[Morgan] has done nothing but hide her involvement and manipulate the system to ensure she was protected."Last week, Carrero, 48, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, admitting that both murder plots were hatched on Morgan's New Jersey kitchen table and that he had witnessed both of the slayings. He is expected to be sentenced to up to 20 years in state prison for his role in the gruesome schemes and has agreed to testify against his former accomplices.Carrero told Superior Court Judge Ellen Torregrossa-O'Connor in February that Morgan offered him up to $3,000 to kill her daughter, Meija, because she believed the 24-year-old had alerted police about her drug dealing, according to the Asbury Park Press. The 48-year-old admitted he held Mejia down and covered her face with his hand, while Connors stabbed his sister to death. Her two children, ages 3 and 1 at the time, were present at the apartment but were left unharmed.Mejia, 24, was found dead inside her Long Branch apartment on Dec. 8, 1994, where she had been stabbed 23 times, authorities said. A white substance was found smeared across her mouth and nose—which was eventually determined to be baby formula, prosecutors said.Estranged Husband, Girlfriend of Missing NYC Teacher Charged With MurderFive months later, Carrero said Morgan asked for his help again: to help her son murder her husband so they collect his life-insurance policy. Prosecutors said that Nicolas Connors, 51, was found dead on a sofa in his Long Branch home with "multiple gunshot wounds to the head" on May 14, 1995. According to Carrero, Conners retrieved a gun and cut a hole through the screen door to make the crime look like a robbery gone wrong. "Dolores Connors wanted him killed for insurance purposes,"' Carrero said.After the murder, Morgan allegedly cashed the $200,000 insurance policy—which Carrero said she originally believed was worth $1 million—and moved with her son to Florida. Morgan, Connors, and his then-girlfriend traveled to the Dominican Republic after the second murder, prosecutors said. During the trip, Connors' ex-girlfriend told authorities that Morgan said, "We already have two deaths on our hands. We can't afford another. We can't afford the police snooping around our house again."Morgan's attorney, Jason Seidman, told The Daily Beast on Thursday his client has been cooperative with police "to help capture the killer or killers who took her husband and daughter" and maintains "her innocence as she has for over 25 years.""She has waited for 25 years to have those responsible brought to justice," he said, noting that while he normally does not comment on ongoing cases, the state's decision to put "every moment of this case before the media thus far" has compelled him to speak out. Seidman insisted that Carrero's "completely inconsistent" confession does not accurately state the chain of events."They have chosen to run with his story, and turn a blind eye to facts and reason," he said. "There are no less than 8 people who had either greater motive or better opportunity to commit these murders, including several drug dealers who were out large amounts of money or drugs, based upon the actions of the victim and her boyfriend one week prior to her murder." Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Clorox and Lysol wipes may help to keep the coronavirus off surfaces, but they aren't the best way to protect yourself Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:00 AM PST  Household cleaners like bleach, Clorox and Lysol probably kill the coronavirus on surfaces, but the more likely source of infection is between people.
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| The Senate Sits on Commonsense Gun Reform While Americans Die Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:57 AM PST  An estimated 38,000 Americans have died in gun related deaths since the House passed a bill on gun reform. Why won't the Senate act?
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| Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:24 PM PST  Israel on Wednesday became the first country to officially warn its citizens to avoid any international travel amid fears over the coronavirus outbreak.Several airlines have canceled flights to China, where the respiratory virus originated, and governments have issued warnings about travel to certain countries, but no country has actively urged their citizens avoid traveling abroad at large until now. "If you don't genuinely have to fly — don't do so," Israel's health ministry said in a statement.Although the majority of cases remain in China, the virus has spread to several other countries. In response to criticism that the country was stoking panic and could cause both economic and diplomatic damage, the health ministry said they'd rather deal with the inconveniences now than be sorry later, The Times of Israel reports.The only confirmed Israeli cases so far involve people who were on a cruise ship that was quarantined in Japan, although South Korea — which is experiencing one of the larger outbreaks beyond China — reportedly informed Israel over the weekend that a members from a group of pilgrims returned to South Korea from Israel and tested positive for the disease. Read more at The Times of Israel.More stories from theweek.com Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Turkish official: Airstrike in Syria kills 29 Turkish soldiers What it's like to be in Venice during coronavirus lockdown
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| Democratic candidates' drilling ban would cost U.S. economy $7 trillion: oil group Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:36 AM PST  Banning hydraulic fracturing and halting new drilling on federal land would cost the U.S. economy $7 trillion in the next decade and kill millions of jobs, the U.S. oil industry's main lobby group said on Thursday in a report targeting the climate plans of top Democratic presidential candidates. The report from the American Petroleum Institute underscores mounting concern in the U.S. drilling industry over the possibility a candidate in favor of rapidly ending the fossil fuel economy to fight global warming will win the Democratic Party's nomination to face Republican President Donald Trump in the November election.
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| Grandfather of toddler who died in cruise ship fall to plead guilty Posted: 26 Feb 2020 06:44 AM PST  Salvatore Anello, Chloe Wiegand's grandfather, will change his plea in a deal to avoid jail time, a family attorney told NBC News.
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| Gambia Admits ‘Shortcomings’ After Lifting Ban on Media Outlets Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:51 AM PST |
| Bloomberg tumbles heading into Super Tuesday Posted: 27 Feb 2020 01:30 AM PST  Sources close to Bloomberg's campaign acknowledge his polls are not looking good.
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| Lawyers: New evidence backs Loughlin, Giannulli's innocence Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:58 PM PST  Lawyers for "Full House" actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, said Wednesday that new evidence shows the couple is innocent of charges that they bribed their daughters' way into the University of Southern California. An attorney for the couple said in a legal filing that prosecutors provided the defense with notes written by the admitted ringleader of the college admissions cheating scheme that support the couple's claim that they believed their payments were legitimate donations, not bribes. The filing came on the eve of a status hearing in the case scheduled for Thursday at Boston's federal court in the sweeping college admissions bribery case.
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| AOC says she feels unsafe because Trump’s 'wack job' tweet with her is fueling white supremacist threats Posted: 26 Feb 2020 04:14 PM PST  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has admitted she feels unsafe in Washington D.C. over her home in the Bronx, New York — which is fueled, in part, by the threats she's received after President Trump tweeted against her.
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| People can get the coronavirus more than once, experts warn — recovering does not necessarily make you immune Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:51 AM PST  People who have gotten the coronavirus before could still get it again. This happened to a tour guide in Japan.
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| No, Michael Mann, You Aren’t Going to ‘Ruin’ this ‘Filthy Organization’ Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:48 PM PST  A few days before launching his lawsuit against what he called "this filthy organization," Michael Mann wrote that there "is a possibility that I can ruin National Review." Nearly a decade later, we are still fighting his attempt to do precisely that.From the beginning of this affair, National Review has maintained that the case that Mann filed is frivolous, malicious, corrupt, and lacking entirely in legal justification. We maintain that still. The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment is predicated upon "a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open," and that matters of political dispute are in consequence exempt from superintendence. By attempting to litigate against his critics, Michael Mann has chosen to stand firmly on the other side of that national commitment. Were he to prevail, he would set a host of terrible precedents against free inquiry and open argument, and in favor of censorship.That this case has been open-and-shut from the start was obvious not only to National Review, but to all who believe in the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press — which is why the amicus briefs that have been filed in our behalf range so widely across the political spectrum.We've said we'd use every tool and argument at our disposal to defeat Mann, and that's what we've done. Mark Steyn posted the blog item in dispute in July of 2012. Mann sued in October of that year, and we filed our first motion to dismiss in December of 2012.When that was denied by the trial court, we filed a motion to reconsider. When that, too, was denied, we appealed to the D.C. Court of Appeals — twice. This brings us to 2014. After oral arguments, the Court of Appeals sat on the case for two years. Then, the court denied our appeal. This was in December of 2016. Because the opinion had myriad obvious flaws, we petitioned for a rehearing. Incredibly enough, the court then delayed for yet another two years. When the court finally issued an amended opinion, all it did was add one footnote and amend another.Because the amended opinion didn't fix any of the flaws of the original opinion, we petitioned for a rehearing yet again. This, too, was denied. Then, last May, we filed a cert petition before the U.S. Supreme Court. All indications are that the court seriously considered it, before denying the petition (with Justice Alito issuing a strong dissent).Now, we are back in the trial court, with expensive and time-consuming discovery underway.Mann's plan to "ruin" us, as he put it in an email produced under discovery, is plainly to get to a trial with a politically sympathetic D.C. jury and hope that the finer points of the law and the First Amendment are lost. (Short of that, he is surely happy for the case to drag out further, draining us of energy and resources.)But it's clear that the case should never get to that point — hence our latest motion. Under the First Amendment, Mann has to prove that National Review published the Corner post with "actual malice." That would require him to show that National Review actually believed that the post was "false" (or likely false) at the time of publication. That is absurd for a number of reasons, including -- given the nature of The Corner -- we didn't even know about the post until after it was published. The case against National Review is thus nonsensical at its core. It is also barred by a federal statute, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online publishers for hosting content posted by outside contributors.To be clear, the content of the post itself is also plainly protected First Amendment speech, as we have argued consistently and at length from the first letter our lawyers wrote in response to Mann's initial legal threat to our brief before the Supreme Court.So far, the courts have, to quote Churchill, elected to "go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent." They brushed past the anti-SLAPP statute that was designed to prevent this from happening. Our hope is that the same won't happen with Section 230, which is also meant to protect the free-speech rights of online publishers.It is a matter of considerable irony that the only "malice" that the discovery process has uncovered is that exhibited by Michael Mann. When planning his suit, Mann described National Review as a "threat to our children," beholden to "greedy fat cat corporate masters." His stated intention was to bring us "down for good." Needless to say, this is not how a country with a First Amendment or a culture of free speech is supposed to work. It's past time that this suit is dismissed as incompatible with both, and a failure on the facts and the law.
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| Pelosi accuses Trump of "playing politics" over coronavirus response Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:39 PM PST  House Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy called for bipartisanship...then quickly pivoted to attack their respective opposing parties.
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| US Army, Marines want to make the Hellfire missile replacement more deadly at sea Posted: 27 Feb 2020 01:45 PM PST  After working out kinks related to the Hellfire missile replacement's lethality in a maritime environment, the Army and Marine Corps are heading into more tests of the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile against targets at sea.
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| The Double-Act That Wants to Take Over Germany Posted: 25 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- When two people gang up, it's usually bad news for the third. So it was on Tuesday morning in the race to become the next boss of Germany's Christian Democratic Union, the center-right party of Angela Merkel, which is indirectly also a campaign to replace her as chancellor. The three leading candidates abruptly scheduled back-to-back press conferences in the same room. In the first, two of them showed up as a "team," as they kept emphasizing. In the other, the third candidate fended for himself, looking rather forlorn.The first event involved Armin Laschet, 58, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia and leader of the largest CDU delegation, and Jens Spahn, 39, Merkel's up-and-coming health minister. They've been at odds in the past, but now Spahn has sacrificed his own candidacy to support Laschet, who at a stroke becomes the front-runner to clinch the CDU leadership at a party conference slated for April 25.Their surprising alliance amounts to a "cartel to weaken competition," quipped the third candidate, Friedrich Merz, 64. He, too, had been invited in recent weeks to become part of a Laschet-led team. But Merz, citing his good poll numbers, decided to reach for the top spot.Laschet and Merz would represent fundamentally different directions for the party, country and continent. Laschet is a jovial figure, bordering on lightweight. He wants to show voters that "governing can be fun," he said. He hasn't signaled any abrupt policy changes from the Merkel era and gets along well with the present chancellor, which means he could survive the awkward year or so when he would run the party, she the government.From Merz's point of view, that's precisely Laschet's weakness. The choice for the party, he said, is between continuity and stagnation (Laschet) or "a new start and renewal" (Merz). That might seem a bit rich coming from the oldest candidate, one who was last prominent in politics in 2002 when Merkel ousted him from a top job. He's since had a good career in investment management at BlackRock, but yearns to get even with Merkel and the whole wobbly centrism she represents.What Merz really means is that he would steer the CDU rightward to bring back many former supporters who've defected to a party on the extremist fringe, the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Merz's notion of the right is being: good for business; hawkish on monetary, fiscal and euro-area policy; and above all tough on law and order, specifically anything to do with migrants.In divining Laschet and Merz's relative chances of success, Spahn has made an interesting choice. He represents a new and woke generation, being youngish and gay. But he's cultivated a profile as an arch-conservative who's skeptical of Merkel's wishy-washy middle course. Ideologically, he should be closer to Merz than to Laschet.So why is he standing beside Laschet instead? Because he's calculated that Laschet has more hope of going all the way. If his gamble is correct, Spahn can rise alongside Laschet as his deputy, burnishing his stature until his own time comes for the top job.The main reason why Spahn gives better odds to Laschet is that he's a proven uniter, whereas Merz tends to have a tin ear for other people's sensitivities. "We had our differences," Spahn said about Laschet, "but that's exactly what this is about: building bridges." He's talking about bridges between CDU delegates and between rivals, and bridges to potential coalition partners, above all the environmentalist Greens. These will all have to be crossed to get to a Laschet cabinet in 2021 (when Merkel steps down and a national election is held), in which Spahn would be prominent.Even before that, another bridge needs building. It's to Markus Soeder, the premier of Bavaria and leader of the CDU's sister party, the CSU. By tradition, the two organizations always form one bloc in national politics, with one joint candidate for chancellor. And Soeder might want to be that candidate himself. He's already made clear that what gets decided on April 25 is only the leadership of the CDU. The choice of joint candidate happens later, in consultation with him.If Merz becomes CDU leader, he would face a tense standoff with his old nemesis, Merkel, which could weaken him enough for Soeder to claim that the CDU-CSU will only prevail in the 2021 election if it fields Soeder for the chancellery. If Laschet gets the party chair, the transition will be smoother. Above all, Laschet — being Laschet — will immediately embrace Soeder (the two have already been in constant talks) to secure his support in the same way he got Spahn's. Or, as Laschet put it on Tuesday, the CDU and CSU will jointly make the decision, "as for 70 years, in great love and conviviality."To contact the author of this story: Andreas Kluth at akluth1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andreas Kluth is a member of Bloomberg's editorial board. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Moscow rounds up stray animals, kills rats over coronavirus fears Posted: 27 Feb 2020 03:48 AM PST  Moscow authorities are rounding up stray animals and exterminating rats as a precaution against the new coronavirus, actions that animal rights campaigners decried as cruel and scientifically groundless. Russia has imposed an array of measures to stop the virus gaining a foothold in Russia, ranging from restrictions on flights to China and South Korea to visa curbs for Iranian and Chinese citizens. "We are currently carrying out a large-scale complex (of measures) for the total deratization of the city, catching wild animals, strays," Elena Andreeva, the Moscow head of the Rospotrepnadzor consumer health watchdog, was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency.
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| 'He fought us every single step of the way': How Bloomberg embraced stop-and-frisk as mayor Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:50 PM PST  "He dug in and fought us all the way to his last day in office," an activist who opposed stop-and-frisk recalled.
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| A man convicted for killing his high school girlfriend was freed by decades-old DNA evidence. Now he's on a mission to find the real killer. Posted: 27 Feb 2020 03:14 PM PST  Leah Freeman's shoes were the only clue police had in her murder — and the only evidence that her high school boyfriend Nick McGuffin wasn't her killer.
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| Crime Against Humanity: China Has Never Forgotten Japan's Bloody Assault On Nanking Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST  A combination of factors led to some of the worst atrocities in history.
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| One of Iran's vice presidents has been infected with coronavirus Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:20 AM PST  Ebtekar, one of Iran's vice presidents, was the English-language spokesperson known to the media as "Mary" during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.
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| The Sinister Sanders Child-Care Plan Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:35 PM PST  Bernie Sanders announced a "universal child care" proposal at the end of his wide-ranging 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper. The plan would guarantee "every child in America free full-day, full-week, high-quality child care from infancy through age three," and the campaign estimates that it would cost taxpayers 1.5 trillion dollars over ten years. But aside from being prohibitively expensive and distressingly vague, the plan looks an awful lot like social engineering.Start with the price tag. After failing to explain how he would pay for his expansive agenda — "I can't rattle off to you every nickel and every dime," Sanders told Anderson Cooper in a disastrous moment of candor — the Sanders campaign released a partial list of pay-fors the day after the interview, laying out the cost of the senator's major proposals alongside the tax hikes a Sanders administration would pursue to finance its domestic agenda. The campaign pegged the child-care proposal at a $150 billion annual price tag, more expensive than current federal outlays on unemployment insurance and the SNAP program combined.Add the child-care initiative to the bevy of programs Sanders has already promised to enact as president, and the fiscal feasibility of a child-care proposal grows more uncertain.The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released their analysis of Sanders's universal child-care plan yesterday, and raised concerns that the Sanders campaign was overestimating federal receipts from its proposed "tax on extreme wealth":> Based on the work of economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the Sanders campaign estimates this wealth tax would raise $4.35 trillion. This would be enough to finance Senator Sanders's $1.5 trillion universal child care and pre-K plan, his $2.5 trillion housing plan, and $350 billion of his Medicare for All plan (note that our analysis previously assumed he would dedicate $800 billion, not $350 billion, to Medicare for All).> > In our assessment, however, Senators Sanders's wealth tax is likely to raise significantly less than advertised due to high levels of tax avoidance and the erosion of taxable wealth over time. We believe the wealth tax is likely to raise roughly $3.3 trillion. Assuming the proceeds are distributed evenly, that would leave the universal child care and pre-K plan nearly $400 billion short.As a point of reference, that $400 billion shortfall is larger than the sum total currently allotted to all federal welfare programs combined.While Sanders's innumeracy was perhaps to be expected, the senator's defense of the child-care plan on the merits was surprising. For a candidate with well-documented disdain for corporate America, it was strange to see how much of Sanders's child-care proposal was concerned with the "career outcomes" of "mothers" who — heaven forfend — make "career sacrifices in order to care for their children." The Sanders campaign presents female labor participation growth as one of the central selling points for its child-care scheme: "Mothers," the campaign proclaims, "are 40 percent more likely than fathers to report a negative impact on their career outcomes due to child care considerations," making the institution of a government-funded child-care scheme a "moral responsibility." The campaign presents the welfare of the children whose stay-at-home parents enter the workforce as an ancillary concern.The Sanders campaign hardly seemed to consider — or, worse, seemed to have considered and proceeded to ignore — the possibility that those mothers making "career sacrifices" might want to raise their own children. As a 2015 Gallup poll found, 56 percent of mothers with children under the age of 18 said they would rather remain at home than enter the workforce, if given the choice. Instead, the socialist appears eager to incentivize more mothers to join the workforce, whereupon they will be presumably "exploited" by the "greedy" corporations the senator has spent a lifetime deriding.Most alarming is the power the senator's plan vests in the federal government to insert itself into the child-rearing process. Sanders proposes a one-size-fits-all, government-funded child-care model, with no provision for those parents who wish to remain at home. If the Sanders campaign were simply concerned about the costs associated with raising children — both in the home and at a day-care center — it could have proposed a subsidy that also conferred benefits to stay-at-home parents or to relatives providing child care. But the social-engineering component of the plan is unmistakable, as Sanders would essentially create a scheme to augment the "career outcomes" of mothers who might otherwise raise their children at home, thereby boosting enrollment in government-funded child-care centers. Of course, all of those child-care centers will be subject to "quality standards" concocted in Washington.The implications of Sanders's child-care agenda are clear enough. Right in the heart of the proposal, the Sanders campaign acknowledges that "ages 0 through 4 are the most important years of human life intellectually and emotionally." Parents ought to be the ones to impart their values to their children in such a formative window, not a Sanders-administration functionary.
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| Coronavirus: How Fox News and other right-wing media endanger our health Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:04 PM PST  Despite steady warnings from health organizations worldwide, right-wing media are clogging airwaves with conspiracy theories and inaccurate reporting.
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| Duterte says Philippines can 'survive' without America Posted: 27 Feb 2020 07:36 AM PST  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said his country's security forces can fight insurgents and Muslim extremists without American military help, in a defense of his recent decision to terminate a U.S. security pact.
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| CDC says to prepare for the coronavirus. How? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:36 PM PST  "We should plan as if a big storm was coming," said CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus.
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| Vladimir Putin inspects Russia's answer to Disneyland before grand opening Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:24 AM PST  President Vladimir Putin inspected Russia's answer to Disneyland on Thursday, the country's first large-scale indoor theme park which Moscow says will be the biggest of its kind in Europe when it opens on Saturday. The theme park, called "Ostrov Mechty" - or Dream Island - is built in the shape of a toy castle that spreads across 30 hectares in an industrial neighbourhood in southern Moscow and is filled with rides, attractions and restaurants. Joined by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Putin strolled through the park inspecting a scale model of the facility and stopping to take pictures with a group of disadvantaged children brought in for his visit.
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| ‘The View’ Warns Warren About Going After Bloomberg: ‘Be Very Careful’ Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:50 AM PST  The View's Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar appeared to rally to Michael Bloomberg's defense on Wednesday, telling his rival Democratic candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren to be "very careful" when attacking the ex-mayor because he could easily use the "Pocahontas thing" against her.Discussing Tuesday night's chaotic Democratic primary debate, in which Warren confronted the former mayor on his company's treatment of women and comments he allegedly made to a pregnant female employee, Goldberg seemed to side with Bloomberg's longtime partner Diana Taylor saying people need to "get over it" as it was just part of "bro culture" and happened a long time ago."What are people expecting to happen?" Goldberg asked before referencing Bloomberg's release of three ex-employees from non-disclosure agreements. "They said you need to release this, I thought he did. Is it taking too long for people to read it, or what is it?"Goldberg went on to say that she doesn't think Taylor is trying to excuse Bloomberg's past behavior before wondering aloud why people are "upset" about this.Conservative co-host Meghan McCain, meanwhile, said she believes "people want you to fall on the sword with these issues," noting that she appeared to be standing by her partner and explaining that "he's atoned for that."Elizabeth Warren Brings Her Bloomberg Knockout Punch to 'The View'Behar then stepped in to credit Bloomberg for apologizing for his past behavior, invoking the public apology he made just before entering the presidential race over his much-maligned stop-and-frisk policy."Think that he has actually learned—as opposed to a lot of people in politics, who never apologize or backed off," she declared. "I think he has really learned from that stop and frisk thing, I think.""And he's atoned for it, I think, to Meghan's point," co-host Sunny Hostin added.After Hostin said that not all men embraced "bro culture" in the workplace decades ago, Goldberg jumped in to note that there was a "whole TV show" that proved "it happened"—referencing Mad Men—before asking, "What do you have to do to prove that you're sorry?"McCain replied that Bloomberg's team needs to get their "talking points straight" on this issue because Warren is going to keep "going for the jugular" on it."Elizabeth Warren needs to be careful," Goldberg responded. "She needs to be very careful with this.""To his credit, he didn't turn around and say, 'What about that "Pocahontas" thing?' He did not," Behar added, referencing President Donald Trump's favorite slur against Warren.The liberal co-host went on to say she was a bit miffed that Bloomberg had donated money to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in the past, prompting Goldberg to say he was a "different guy" back then."When you have a lot of money, I think you have to see who appeals to what you believe in," she stated. "As most people know, in reality, no one is one thing.""To that point, if you want somebody who reaches across the aisle, Bloomberg's your guy," Behar concluded.Stephen Colbert Booed for Brutal Takedown of Bloomberg's Debate PerformanceRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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