Year: 2019

Newsweek

A Harvard psychologist questioned President Donald Trump’s mental health after the U.S. leader’s claim to have unmatched wisdom and his threat to destroy Turkey’s economy.

Trump made the comments amid bipartisan criticism of his military withdrawal from Syria, paving the way for Turkey to invade and attack the armed Kurdish groups that the U.S. had allied with against the Islamic State terror outfit. Turkey views Kurdish fighters as terrorists.  Continue reading “Harvard Psychologist Says Donald Trump’s Claims About Destroying Turkey’s Economy Would ‘Normally Trigger A Mental Health Hold’”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

In what looks like a dry run of the looming pension crisis facing corporate America, GE said on Monday that it would freeze pension plan benefits for 20,000 American employees with salaried benefits, WSJ reports. The company also plans to freeze supplementary benefits for roughly 700 employees who became executives before 2011 in an attempt to shave as much as $8 billion off its long-term pension deficit.  Continue reading “GE Freezes Pension Benefits For 20,000 Employees To Lower Debt Burden”

Breitbart – by Frances Martel

The Chinese government newspaper Global Times warned “global brands” to “make their members speak cautiously” on Chinese political issues Monday in response to an ongoing controversy following an NBA executive lending support to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey triggered a Communist Party-fabricated firestorm this weekend by simply tweeting “fight for freedom; stand with Hong Kong,” a message intended to lend support to the peaceful anti-communist movement that has held regular protests there since June.  Continue reading “China Warns Brands to Accept Communism, Freedom of Speech ‘Ridiculous’”

Breitbart – by Charlie Spiering

A Senior White House official clarified Monday that President Donald Trump was not immediately withdrawing troops from Syria, after Trump’s phone call with the Turkish president.

“This does not constitute a withdrawal from Syria. We’re talking about a small number of troops that will move to other bases within Syria,” the official noted, citing 50-100 troops in the region.  Continue reading “White House Clarifies: Donald Trump Moving 50 Troops Within Syria, Not Out of the Country”

Washington Examiner – by Anna Giaritelli

Nearly 1 million people arrived at the U.S. border with Mexico and were encountered by law enforcement over the past 12 months, marking a major spike from any year in the past decade, the country’s top border official announced Tuesday.

Just under 980,000 people were encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2019, which ran from Oct. 1, 2018 through Sept. 30, 2019, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which handles all border and trade affairs. A total 521,090 people were encountered along the southern border in fiscal 2018.  Continue reading “Nearly 1 million people encountered at Mexican border over past 12 months”

The Blaze – by Leon Wolf

De’andre Sommervile made a mistake that a lot of 21-year-olds have probably made at one point or another: He overslept for an important appointment.

Unlike most 21-year-olds, Sommerville got sentenced to jail for his mistake, and will now have a criminal record.  Continue reading “21-year-old Florida man sentenced to ten days in prison after he overslept for jury duty in a civil trial, causing a 45-minute delay”

Technology Review – by Sharon Weinberger

In July, when President Donald Trump was in the Oval Office with the Dutch prime minister, he took a few moments to answer questions from reporters. His comments, in typical fashion, covered disparate subjects—from job creation to the “squad” of congresswomen he attacks regularly to sanctions against Turkey. Then a reporter asked him about an obscure Pentagon contract called JEDI, and whether he planned to intervene in it.  Continue reading “Meet America’s newest military giant: Amazon”

Mises Institute – by Ryan McMaken

As 2018 came to an end, politicians and media pundits insisted that ” gun violence ” was growing and hitting crisis levels .

While a homicide rate of anything greater than zero is an measure of very-real human misery, it nonetheless turns out that fewer people were murdered in 2018 than in the year before. Moreover, 2018 was the second year in a row during which the homicide rate declined.  Continue reading “Homicides in the US Fall for Second Year as Murder Rate Drops in 38 States”

Times of Israel

It’s time for People of the Pod to bring you the Jewish angle on the origins of United States President Donald Trump’s impeachment case and JTA’s Europe correspondent Cnaan Liphshiz gives the background on Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.

In our weekly podcast, produced in partnership between the American Jewish Committee and The Times of Israel, we take you beyond the headlines and analyze global affairs through a Jewish lens.  Continue reading “Zelensky and the Trump call — good for the Jews?”

Reason – by Jacob Sullum

Shortly after 5 a.m. on November 5, 2018, two police officers arrived at Gary Willis’ house in Glen Burnie, Maryland. They were there to take away his guns. They ended up killing him instead.

According to the Anne Arundel County Police Department, the 61-year-old man, who at that hour presumably had just been awakened by the officers’ knocking, answered the door with a gun in his hand. Continue reading “States Are Depriving Innocent People of Their Second Amendment Rights”

Once again, the American voter has dutifully begun their quadrennial march to futility at the hands of another election cycle full of false prophets. None seem to realize or remember that the monocracy that they hold so sacrosanct is not- and has not been- a democracy for decades. Yet these societal lemmings, known as “voters,” again prepare to exert their media controlled, fact adjusted opinions at the polls while singing joyfully the praises of their one chosen new demagogue and praying that this time their candidate will, post-election, actually represent them from the Oval Office of American despair. Continue reading “The Most Important Presidential Election Question (That No One Ever Asks!)”