Source: Reuters

World News
December 8, 2019 / 12:41 PM / Updated 20 minutes ago

3 MIN READ

KIEV (Reuters) - Thousands of people gathered in the center of Kiev on Sunday to send a message to Ukraine’s president, who meets his Russian counterpart on Monday, that Ukrainians will not accept a peace deal at the cost of the country’s independence and sovereignty.

“We are here because we are not satisfied with the peace at any costs ... the peace at the costs of capitulation,” Inna Sovsun, a lawmaker of opposition Golos (Voice) party, told the rally.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin are meeting in Paris alongside the French and German leaders in a renewed effort to end a conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed forces in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014.

Zelenskiy, who won a landslide election victory in April promising to bring peace, said this week that his first face-to-face meeting with the Russian president would give Kiev a chance to resolve the more than five-year-old war in the Donbass region.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-rally/dont-cede-too-much-for-peace-at-paris-talks-ukrainians-tell-president-idUSKBN1YC0JI?il=0

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waiting for orange hair twittler to say something........................

By
Associated Press -
December 6, 2019 10:53 AM

Documents obtained by the AP show Ernst's campaign may have violated the spirit of campaign finance and tax law, if not the letter of it.

An outside group founded by top political aides to Sen. Joni Ernst has worked closely with the Iowa Republican to raise money and boost her reelection prospects, a degree of overlap that potentially violates the law, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

Iowa Values, a political nonprofit that is supposed to be run independently, was co-founded in 2017 by Ernst's longtime consultant, Jon Kohan. It shares a fundraiser, Claire Holloway Avella, with the Ernst campaign. And a condo owned by a former aide — who was recently hired to lead the group — was used as Iowa Values' address at a time when he worked for her.

Political nonprofits are often referred to as "dark money" groups because they can raise unlimited sums and are not required to reveal their donors. But they must take steps to keep their activities separate from the candidates they support. Additionally, while such tax-exempt groups can do political work, they can't make it their primary purpose.

The documents reviewed by the AP, including emails and a strategy memo, not only make clear that the group's aim is securing an Ernst win in 2020, but they also show Ernst and her campaign worked in close concert with Iowa Values.

https://americanindependent.com/joni-ernst-gop-senator-campaign-finance-violations-dark-money-group-iowa-republicans/




November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough...........................

By
Associated Press -
December 8, 2019 12:00 PM

Ballroom studios are having trouble attracting instructors, thanks to Trump's immigration policies.

When no Americans replied to her ads seeking a dance instructor, studio owner Chris Sabourin looked overseas. But she was stymied again by a federal tightening of visa application rules she and others contend is hampering the ballroom dance industry.

Sabourin had to eventually give up after a year and thousands of dollars trying to hire a top ballroom dancer from Greece to teach at her Fred Astaire studio in Orange, Connecticut, only to have the woman detained at New York's Kennedy Airport and sent back home.

"It would just be nice to know why we're having such a hard time," Sabourin said. "It's affecting our business, definitely."

With a steady interest in learning iconic dances like the foxtrot and tango, fueled in part by "Dancing with the Stars," studio owners like Sabourin say their efforts to hire professional instructors are hampered without overseas help.

https://americanindependent.com/donald-trump-immigration-ballroom-dancers-hurting-business-white-house/

By Ray Raphael / History News Network
December 6, 2019

Wealth taxes are on the current political table and hotly debated. All taxation was on the framers’ table as they considered a new constitution. What would they make of the measures we are considering now? And more to the point: does the Constitution they drafted allow Congress to tax a person’s overall wealth?

The short answer: yes and no. The longer answer requires historical context.

In the six months preceding the Federal Convention of 1787, Congress received from the separate states, which alone possessed powers of taxation, a grand total of $663—hardly enough to run the nation. Little wonder that the framers’ proposal, what is now our Constitution, granted Congress sweeping authority to levy taxes: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises …”

Although taxing authority was broad, the framers delineated only five specific types, each with a qualification:

“Duties, Imposts, and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”

“No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the Census or enumeration.”

“No Tax or Duty shall be laid on any Articles exported from any State.”

https://time.com/5745364/wealth-tax-constitution/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

-snip-

We have been through this before. In Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company (1895), the Supreme Court declared that taxing income derived from wealth (rents, interest, and dividends) was a direct tax and therefore had to be apportioned, while taxing income derived from labor (wages and salaries) was indirect and therefore did not have to be apportioned. This meant that Congress could tax working people readily, while taxing wealthy people would be unworkable. Workers cried foul. They pushed for, and got, the Sixteenth Amendment, which repudiated Pollock by lifting the apportionment requirement from all income taxes.

Today, facing rampant inequality, we can cry foul again—but we remain saddled with a provision of the Constitution geared to protect the slave-owning interests of Southern states in 1787. Even so, taxing income rather than wealth is always possible. There is no constitutional limit on the tax rate, so long as it is “uniform throughout the United States.”

By CALVIN WOODWARD and HOPE YEN 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — When certain associates and acquaintances of President Donald Trump get into hot water, he forgets he ever knew them. Various figures from the Russia investigation and the Ukraine matter as well as a British prince have fallen out of familiarity with the president in this way.

For a few days, the stock market suffered a similar fate when it dipped too low for Trump to boast about it. But he rediscovered the market by the end of the week when it rose back up.

A look at some remarks by Trump from the NATO summit in London and from back home as the Democratic effort to impeach him moves ahead:

https://apnews.com/0daf4a4e223e2d7e86fec6b680252f1d

A clear synopsis of what a malignant narcissist reads like................

November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.........................or Impeachment

Source: Associated Press

By YURAS KARMANAU an hour ago

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Several thousand people rallied Sunday in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to demand that the president defend the country’s interests in this week’s summit with Russia, Germany and France on ending the war in eastern Ukraine.

Many Ukrainians are concerned that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice, could be out-maneuvered by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit on Monday in Paris.

Zelenskiy is eager to make progress on ending the war with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed some 14,000 people since 2014. Russia wants to use the summit to increase pressure on Zelenskiy to fulfill the 2015 Minsk peace accord, which gives the rebel-held regions more autonomy in exchange for ending the fighting.

Germany and France helped to broker that 2015 deal, but it has been repeatedly ignored.

Read more: https://apnews.com/5221dd58f1a5421ba7a9c2a6fad856c0

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-snip-

Presidential spokeswoman Yulia Mendel said Zelenskiy would make tough demands at Monday’s summit.

“The first three steps that President Zelensky will take at a meeting in Paris: the terms and conditions of the return of captured Ukrainians; a real, not fake, ceasefire; and, of course, the withdrawal of foreign troops and bandit formations from the territory of Donbass,” Mendel wrote on Facebook, using a term for Ukraine’s eastern regions.

Local elections may be held after border control is returned and “when there are no foreign troops and illegal armed groups” in the area, she wrote.

ERIC TUCKER 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department’s internal watchdog will release a highly anticipated report Monday that is expected to reject President Donald Trump’s claims that the Russia investigation was illegitimate and tainted by political bias from FBI leaders. But it is also expected to document errors during the investigation that may animate Trump supporters.

The report, as described by people familiar with its findings, is expected to conclude there was an adequate basis for opening one of the most politically sensitive investigations in FBI history and one that Trump has denounced as a witch hunt. It began in secret during Trump’s 2016 presidential run and was ultimately taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The report comes as Trump faces an impeachment inquiry in Congress centered on his efforts to press Ukraine to investigate a political rival, Democrat Joe Biden. Trump also claims the impeachment investigation is politically biased.

The release of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s review is unlikely to quell the partisan battles that have surrounded the Russia investigation. It’s also not the last word on that investigation. A separate internal investigation continues, overseen by Trump’s attorney general, William Barr and led a U.S. attorney, John Durham.

https://apnews.com/3530610552ff2de85036d08066233b12

and get ready for twitter......................and other unsecured devices to be used...................especially "whining"

November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.........................or impeachment.................

Source: Associated Press

ERIC TUCKER 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department’s internal watchdog will release a highly anticipated report Monday that is expected to reject President Donald Trump’s claims that the Russia investigation was illegitimate and tainted by political bias from FBI leaders. But it is also expected to document errors during the investigation that may animate Trump supporters.

The report, as described by people familiar with its findings, is expected to conclude there was an adequate basis for opening one of the most politically sensitive investigations in FBI history and one that Trump has denounced as a witch hunt. It began in secret during Trump’s 2016 presidential run and was ultimately taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The report comes as Trump faces an impeachment inquiry in Congress centered on his efforts to press Ukraine to investigate a political rival, Democrat Joe Biden. Trump also claims the impeachment investigation is politically biased.

The release of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s review is unlikely to quell the partisan battles that have surrounded the Russia investigation. It’s also not the last word on that investigation. A separate internal investigation continues, overseen by Trump’s attorney general, William Barr and led a U.S. attorney, John Durham.



Read more: https://apnews.com/3530610552ff2de85036d08066233b12

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get ready for twitter..........................a unsecured device........................

It's not quite "little lady," but it's close. Doctors who are women are more often introduced by their first names than those who are men. Shocking, we know.
By The Conversation

Patricia Friedrich, Arizona State University

If you work in medicine, does it matter if you are called by your title? Is it all right if patients, colleagues, and others call you by your first name?

The answer of course depends on whom you ask. However, for many doctors who are women, that is not necessarily the central concern. It is more worrying that they and their male counterparts receive different forms of address. Women are more often referred to by first name, even when the situation of communication is formal. The same does not happen to doctors who are men.

Women in medicine may wonder whether or not those variations in how they are addressed might have far-reaching consequences for their careers. Do they reflect a systematic difference in attitude?

As a linguist, writer, and professor who teaches mostly sociolinguistics content, I have always been fascinated by the ways in which we use language. Linguistic categories and beliefs can affect different areas of our lives.

When my colleagues and I became curious about the use of titles, we conducted a study. It is part of a number of efforts by researchers interested in the social aspects of gender in medical fields. Our study shows that women are indeed less often called “doctor” than their male equivalent, and by a large margin.

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/12/whats-title-when-it-comes-doctor-more-you

Published 2 hours ago
on December 7, 2019

By Bob Brigham

Protesters clad in full-body furry costumes sang about Rep. Devin Nunes during a Saturday protest at the White House.

The protesters were dressed as cattle after the Fresno Republican sued a fake cow Twitter, @DevinCow.

The protesters changed the lyrics to the hit 1958 Chuck Berry song “Johnny B. Goode” to “Devin Nunes.”

Video of the protested was posted to Twitter by Democratic strategist Parkhomenko, who was targeted by Nunes in one of his lawsuits.

The lyrics to the 1958 Champs song “Tequila” were changed to “subpoenas.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/watch-a-band-in-cow-costumes-sing-about-devin-nunes-at-white-house-impeachment-protest/