News of the Week for Dec. 31st<\/sup>, 2018<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NYT Reporters Advocate Tracking Gun Purchases Made With Credit Cards<\/a> Gun Owners Of America Formally File Lawsuit Against Bump Stock Ban <\/a> Police struggle to stop flood of firearms into UK <\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nancy Pelosi Announces Plans For A House “Climate Crisis” Committee After Flying Thousands Of Miles To A Hawaiian Resort<\/a> House Democrats Are Lining Up Behind What Could Be The Largest Expansion Of Government In Decades<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n New Mexico’s Radical Assisted Suicide Legislation<\/a> It Sure Looks Like This Obamacare Program Has Led to More People Dying<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chinese Hawk Admiral: Strike at What the U.S. Fears<\/a> Satellite images reveal Beijing’s new weapon installed in South China Sea<\/a> Putin: I have this new hypersonic missile, you know…<\/a> German ISIS Bride Charged with Murder of 5-year-old “Slave”<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Supreme Court calls time out on Mueller’s magical mystery subpoena<\/a> Transgender Rage: You Can’t Have a Women’s Symbol at a Women’s College<\/a> Americans’ faith in faith is failing<\/a> Jerry Brown Grants Pardons to Immigrants Facing Deportation Due to Criminal History<\/a> The Congressional Workload and Deadlines of 2019<\/a> It’s official. California moves up its primary<\/a> Montana State faces trial for punishing student who is “uncomfortable with transgender lifestyles”<\/a> Democratic Senators vs. the Knights of Columbus<\/a> Mizzou official: Asking a smaller woman on a date violates Title IX <\/a> Suspended MSU student sues college for gender bias in rape trial<\/a> Washington could become the first state to legalize human composting<\/a> OWU offers ‘social justice’ major with mandatory ‘activism’ work<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A stunner: National debt interest will soon exceed national defense spending<\/a> Jerry Brown Blasts “Rural Areas” for Not Liking Gas Tax That Disproportionately Harms Them<\/a> A Response to Wilkinson about Socialism<\/a> How Income Share Agreements Are Better than Government College Loans<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How the Europhiles are blowing up Britain<\/a> Nicaragua news director accused of terror after station raid<\/a> Desperate women fleeing Venezuela sell hair, breast milk, sex to get by<\/a> Without ISIS, Mosul Ladies and Men Flock to Salons for Makeovers<\/a> Oh, great. Russia takes over Venezuela\u2019s oil industry<\/a> As predicted, Erdogan is “determined” to drive the Kurds out of Syria<\/a> Peru enforces tough measures for Venezuela migrants<\/a> 7,648 cracks in Ecuador’s socialist delusion<\/a> Mysterious 6,500-year-old Culture in Israel Was Brought by Migrants, Researchers Say<\/a> Angela Merkel: “Nation-states should be willing to give up their sovereignty today”<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Newsboy.jpg\" "\\"News")
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<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nThe New York Times published an article on Monday suggesting that credit card companies surveil cardholders who purchase firearms.<\/p>\n
\nImmediately after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced its decision to rescind its approval of the bump stock, the Gun Owners of America announced its plan to file a lawsuit to try and overturn the move.<\/p>\n
\nSenior officer warns supply of guns has increased in the past year and will continue to do so in 2019<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &
\n“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that Democrats would create a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis in 2019, which will be headed by Florida Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor.<\/p>\n
\nDemocrats are increasingly lining up to support a “Green New Deal,” which, while vague on details, could end up being the largest expansion of government in decades.<\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nAssisted suicide advocates pretend they just want a very limited death license, a “safety valve,” as they put it, for suffering in the terminally ill that cannot otherwise be alleviated (almost always, a false premise).<\/p>\n
\nUnder the health law, Medicare started penalizing hospitals for too many readmissions. Now mortality rates are up.<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nLuo Yuan, rear admiral in the People’s Liberation Army Navy, the deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, and a well-known hawk, was invited to attend a meeting in Shenzhen on December 20 and delivered a speech regarding the current Sino\u2013U.S. relationship.<\/p>\n
\nWhile our backs were turned, China quietly installed a sophisticated new network of devices in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n
\nWhile most of you were opening up gifts around the Christmas tree this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin was unwrapping another “present” for the people of his nation. It came in the form of an apparently successful test launch of their new Avangard hypersonic missile system. While questions remain over precisely how functional this new weapon is, claims that it has an intercontinental range at speeds in excess of Mach 5 have military observers rightly concerned. And why Putin would want to engage in this sort of saber-rattling, potentially violating standing missile treaties, remains something of a mystery.<\/p>\n
\n“Authorities said that Jennifer W. and her husband, also a jihadi, bought a 5-year-old girl as a household slave in 2015.”<\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\nIt’s not a decision, or even a grant of certiorari, but the mystery corporation subpoenaed by Robert Mueller won a momentary victory for its pocketbook at the Supreme Court. Yesterday, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the Department of Justice to respond by New Years Eve to the appeal from the target from a unanimous DC Circuit court decision upholding the subpoena. While they wait, the order stops the clock on fines imposed on the company for non-compliance<\/p>\n
\nMount Holyoke College is a “prestigious” women’s college, in the sense that “prestigious” is a synonym for expensive ($64,658 a year, including room and board). It\u2019s one of the so-called “Seven Sisters” colleges of New England, so if you’re rich and your daughter is a radical lesbian with a mania for social justice, Mount Holyoke is the place to send her. (When I jokingly called it the “Western Massachusetts Marxist Lesbian Indoctrination Camp,” some students at Mount Holyoke adopted this as an unofficial slogan and actually printed it on T-shirts.)<\/p>\n
\nAlthough Americans’ church attendance is declining and they believe its importance in national life is dwindling, nearly three-quarters of them maintain that faith is important to them.<\/p>\n
\nCalifornia Gov. Jerry Brown’s Christmas granted 143 pardons and 131 commutations for Christmas, including a handful of refugees and immigrants that he hopes to spare from deportation by scrubbing their criminal histories.<\/p>\n
\nIn today’s Morning Jolt, I wrote about how the U.S. Senate will need to take time early in the year for confirmation hearings and votes for a new attorney general, a new secretary of defense, a new secretary of the interior, a new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and a new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n
\nWe talked about this a few weeks ago when the measure was still being debated, but now it’s a done deal. Outgoing California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill into law which will move California’s 2020 presidential primary election up to March 3rd, the earliest date possible for anyone besides Iowa and New Hampshire. Due to the state’s already “generous” voting possibilities, that means that Californians will have the option of voting at the same time as the early states, raising questions of how and where candidates will spend both their time and money in the early going. <\/p>\n
\nSuspended based on a single, disputed, private conversation<\/p>\n
\nTwo Democratic senators – Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Kamala Harris of California – are making an issue of a district-court nominee’s membership in the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic social and charitable organization founded in 1882. The organization has heretofore been roughly as controversial as the Rotary Club.<\/p>\n
\n“Power or authority” not limited to supervision and evaluation<\/p>\n
\nMichigan State University suspended a student accused of rape for two years.<\/p>\n
\nWashington residents “are very excited about the prospect of becoming a tree or having a different alternative,” state Sen. Jamie Pedersen said.<\/p>\n
\nOhio Wesleyan University offers a “social justice” major to students with one course specifically focused on “activism.”<\/p>\n<\/a>Economy & Taxes<\/h1>\n
\nPresident Trump has harshly criticized the Federal Reserve in recent weeks for inching up the standard interest rate to guard against rising inflation and threatening the four percent economic growth rate the billionaire likes to brag about.<\/p>\n
\nThe California governor also compared fighting climate change to WWII<\/p>\n
\nI thank Will Wilkinson for his thoughtful response to my column about the trendy talk of socialism among Democrats.<\/p>\n
\nIt’s too bad that Uncle Sam ever got into the college-financing business. The feds have no constitutional authority to lend money to students (or anyone else) and millions of students have gotten themselves deeply in debt for education of dubious value. Easy federal loans were essential in fueling the “college for everyone” movement that has raised the cost and degraded the educational value of earning a degree.<\/p>\n<\/a>International<\/h1>\n
\nYou want to know what’s going on in British politics at the moment? Frankly, cousins, it’s a bloody shambles. <\/p>\n
\nThe director of a TV station critical of President Daniel Ortega was accused Saturday of inciting terrorism after authorities raided and shut down the station\u2019s offices in their latest salvo against independent media and nongovernmental organizations.<\/p>\n
\nAlthough the sun has barely risen, this border city with Venezuela is already bursting with chaos<\/p>\n
\nSalons give people a chance to achieve beauty goals, but also find comfort and friends after spending three years under ISIS.<\/p>\n
\nWe already learned that Russia was sending bombers to Venezuela for military exercises and supporting the country’s imploding economy. What could Vladimir Putin have wanted in exchange? We’re probably seeing the answer come into focus as Russia moves in to “help” Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro as we head into the new year. Putin is going to bail out Maduro’s failing government with some cash in exchange for establishing some measure of control over that nation’s vast crude oil reserves that are currently lying mostly dormant.<\/p>\n
\nEarlier this week we heard rumors that the President’s decision to pull out of Syria abruptly was reached during a phone call to Turkish tyrant Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At the time, I wrote, “The real danger to the Kurds comes from Turkey, where Erdogan has been hell-bent on exterminating them for quite some time. I’m somewhat less concerned with allowing ISIS in Syria and Iraq to slip the noose than abandoning the Kurds to a massacre.”<\/p>\n
\nPeru says that, after December, it will not offer work permits to the 2,000 Venezuelan migrants that are crossing the border daily, but will keep the border open.<\/p>\n
\nThe New York Times published an interesting story on Christmas Eve about continuing fallout from the economic decisions made by former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Correa is a socialist who served two terms between 2007 and 2017. His time in office was highlighted by a rejection of Ecuador’s debt (he defaulted) and American influence in the country. Instead, he invited China to come into the country and accepted $19 billion in loans for infrastructure projects in exchange for 90% of Ecuador’s oil production until the cost of the projects was paid off. The largest of the projects was the Coca Codo Sinclair dam. The dam was supposed to generate enough electricity to power a third or more of the country’s needs. But the reality has been something quite different.<\/p>\n
\nGenetic analysis shows ancient Galilean farmers warmly embraced blue-eyed, fair-skinned immigrants from Iran and Turkey in the late Copper Age<.p><\/p>\n
\nAngela Merkel calls for willingness to surrender sovereignty. Chancellor Angela Merkel advocated a reconciliation of interests at the international, parliamentary level.<\/p>\n