Schultz seems unfazed. And in fact, he’s doubling down, not only refusing to exit a race he has yet to officially enter, but blasting one of the most popular Democrats to come along in years by slamming one of her signature policies.

The former coffee purveyor who is worth an estimated $3.4 billion is now revealing why he thinks he has to run as a third-party candidate.

“Schultz says he can’t run for president as a Democrat because he doesn’t like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to slap a 70-percent marginal tax rate on income above $10 million,” The Daily Beast reports.

“I respect the Democratic Party,” Schultz, formerly a life-long Democrat, said Monday. “I no longer feel affiliated because I don’t know their views represent the majority of Americans. I don’t think we want a 70 percent income tax in America,” he explained.

Political commentators say that it is unusual for the Queen, who normally takes a rigorously neutral political role, to make such a statement and are decoding what she might have meant when she drove at high speed to Westminster, stormed the House of Commons, grabbed the ceremonial mace and ordered all MPs to be taken to the Tower of London by the Household Cavalry.

Although the government is technically ‘Her Majesty’s’, all power resides in elected members of parliament and the last monarch to do anything other than be a ceremonial figurehead, rubber-stamping parliament’s laws, was Queen Anne in 1707, which makes the current intervention an unusual action from a monarch more used to limiting her political statements to a particular colour of hat.

The Queen was last seen tearing up the Magna Carta and giving herself the divine right to rule on the grounds that she wasn’t a fucking twat who couldn’t organise a fucking traffic jam on a fucking motorway.

Nancy Pelosi’s approval rating has doubled since the start of the US government shutdown, according to a new poll.

The Democratic House speaker, who has been instrumental in blocking Donald Trump's demands for $5.7bn border wall funding, is seen to be doing a good job by 34 per cent of voters, according to Monmouth University survey.

In November 2018, a month before the shutdown, her approval rating was 17 per cent – a figure that had remained static since July the previous year. The earlier polls were conducted when Ms Pelosi was minority House leader.

The United States slid four points lower on a global corruption index in 2018, dropping out of the top 20 countries for the first time since 2011, watchdog Transparency International said in a report that cited growing threats to democracy worldwide.

The group said its latest report on business leaders’ perceptions of corruption put the United States at 71, down from 75, on a scale of 0-100.

That sounds a “wake-up call” about the need to tackle conflicts of interest, undue influence of the private sector and widening gaps between rich and poor, said Zoe Reiter, the watchdog’s acting representative to the United States.

The Trump administration has appointed a new U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, Elliot Abrams. If that name rings a bell it’s because oh, about 30 years ago, Mr. Abrams was convicted of lying to Congress in order to hide the massacre of about 1,000 men, women, and children by U.S.-trained El Salvadorian forces. This is a man who, as President Ronald Reagan’s assistant secretary of state for human rights, helped perpetrate an immoral AND illegal triangulation of war crimes. If you don’t remember him for being that specific war criminal, you might remember how he was pardoned by Bush Sr. and subsequently became a pro-Iraq War, pro-Venezuela coup adviser to President George W. Bush.

The appointment was announced Friday by Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said “Elliott will be a true asset to our mission to help the Venezuelan people fully restore democracy and prosperity to their country.” He also remarked how Abrams hadn’t technically had a job in government for the past 30 years. I wonder why? Oh, right … war criminal.

1. Black suspect shot in back 16 times.

TUCKER CARLSON: "Boo-hoo. Why'd that 11 year-old act so guilty?"

2. White suspect taken alive pursuant to a grand jury indictment and served through the court by FBI knocking?

TUCKER CARLSON: "OMG! A lawless violation of suspect rights!"