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Vice President Kamala Harris is promoting a broad set of economic proposals that would offer new tax breaks and lower the cost of living for Americans, aiming to address the financial concerns that are at the top of the mind for voters and that Republican Donald Trump is trying to lay at her doorstep. ...

Except for tiny Luxembourg, the United States spends more money on education than every other OECD country and exceeds the OECD average by over 50 percent. This is not just true of absolute levels of expenditures: As a share of GDP, combining federal, state and local expenditures, the US also spends more on education than its peers. In 2021, the US spent about 5.6 percent of GDP on education, compared to the OECD average of 5 percent, 4.5 percent in Germany, 3.5 percent in Japan, and 5.2 percent in France. Over the past two decades, this continual increase in spending...

Amid last-minute rule changes, widely reported ballot irregularities, and an unprecedented movement away from secure, in-person voting, the 2020 election that installed Joe Biden became one of the most hotly contested in American history. Given this uncertainty, Donald Trump and his allies, including a number of highly qualified attorneys, raised their concerns in the avenue provided by the Constitution: our court system. For this, Trump’s lawyers have been smeared relentlessly in the media, dragged through costly and damaging professional reviews, and bullied into silence or retreat. That persecution did not happen organically. The intimidation campaign against Trump’s lawyers, and against...

The head of a Russian private militia has called on the army to overthrow Vladimir Putin in what is potentially shaping up to be the biggest threat of revolt the Kremlin has faced since the Wagner mutiny last year. Georgy Zakrevsky is the founder of the Paladin PMC, one of many shadowy military groups like the former Wagner militia, that are loosely linked to the Kremlin. The private military company (PMC) has around 300 members and has fought in wars around the world, including in Syria and Africa. Zakrevsky launched a blistering attack on the Russian president during a video...

Last week, RMG Research had the 2024 national race tied at 49 percent between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Today, Trump leads by two points, 49 to 47 percent. The week prior to that, in this same poll, Kamala was beating Trump by five points, 47 to 42 percent. Without including leaners, Trump has gone from being down five points to being up by one. That’s a six-point gain. When leaners are included, Trump has gone from being down one point to being up by two points—a three-point gain.

Stunning exchange between the gal and the owner

CHICAGO — A number of businesses in the city’s business district have covered windows and doors with plywood to better protect the buildings should demonstrations during next week’s Democratic National Convention turn unruly. Crews with a business called Chicago Board Up Services say they’ve boarded up at least a dozen locations around the West Loop, downtown and Daley Plaza and have plans to work on additional businesses weekend. “If you feel you’re in any type of line where you feel there’s going to be a lot of commotion — we’re not pushing it — we’re hoping the city will be...

KYIV, Ukraine — The success of Ukraine’s secret incursion into Russia is clear. Ukrainian forces pushed past two lines of Russian defenses in the southwestern region of Kursk and moved through Russian highways and villages with little resistance. Since the operation began 11 days ago, they have gone beyond Kursk to the neighboring region of Belgorod, putting other communities on edge and rattling Moscow.The ultimate strategy and goals of the invasion, though, are still murky. Western allies, including the United States and Germany, say they are watching and monitoring the situation but letting Ukraine lead the way. Even the Ukrainian...

According to a Science Norway report, exploration of the historic Bispevika fjord area of Oslo has yielded traces of a rare medieval iron gauntlet. Håvard Hegdal of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage said that such a battle glove would have been very expensive, and that iron objects that were no longer in use were usually reforged. "[But] on the seabed, no one could have gotten hold of it," he explained. Just a small part of the metal gauntlet survived, but it was enough to trigger a metal detector during a search of the historic harbor area. The rest of...

The Pentagon is now conducting an expedited review of the awards of Medals of Honor to soldiers who took part in the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee, during which Seventh Cavalry soldiers killed an estimated 150-300 members of the Sioux Native tribe. The fact that it is being incredibly rushed and requires the results to be submitted no later than October 15, 2024—three weeks to the day before the election—

DNA analysis of human remains unearthed in the twentieth century in northwestern Mexico at the Mogollon culture site of Paquimé, or Casas Grandes, suggests that the individual's parents had been closely related, according to a Newsweek report. The study of the bones, led by Jakob Sedig of Harvard University, determined that the boy had lived locally, and was between the ages of two and five at the time of death, which occurred between A.D. 1301 and 1397. Discovered beneath a roof support beam, the child was thought to have been a member of an elite family who was sacrificed to...

Cosmos Magazine reports that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge, which weighs more than six tons, may have been transported to southwestern England from Scotland. The Altar Stone currently rests under two toppled sarsen stones at the site. Anthony Clarke of Curtin University and his colleagues analyzed the composition of the minerals in the Altar Stone with mass spectrometry, and found that it has a distinct chemical fingerprint matching rocks in Scotland's Orcadian Basin, which is located more than 460 miles away. "Given its Scottish origins, the findings raise fascinating questions, considering the technological constraints of the Neolithic era, as to...

Chicago businesses are already boarding up their storefronts downtown ahead of Monday’s opening of the Democratic National Convention in anticipation of mass rioting and violence. Plywood shielding first began showing up Thursday morning as the city’s shopping district opened for business. “As we know, this city has a poor track record when it comes to protecting businesses,” Scott Shapiro, owner of Syd Jerome, told Chicago’s WLS-TV. “We felt it was more prudent to board up, since our customers and their employers have told them to stay home throughout the convention for their own safety,” Shapiro added. It makes perfect sense...

-snip- After my first trip to Ukraine, a few readers wrote in or left comments urging me to check out the assessments of retired colonel Douglas Macgregor, contending he had the real scoop. I wasn’t familiar with Macgregor, but a bit of digging illuminated the retired colonel’s very consistent assessment of how the war is going: March 4, 2022: “The first five days Russian forces I think frankly were too gentle. They’ve now corrected that. So, I would say, another ten days, this should be completely over.” March 15, 2022: “The Ukrainians are being crushed. Even the Washington Post and...

Australian police have launched an appeal over CCTV footage which shows an alleged arsonist dropping and rolling after setting themselves on fire during an attack on a barber shop. The footage, taken just before midnight on July 6, shows two individuals pulling up to the ‘Gold Blade’ barber shop in Gungahlin, Canberra, on push bikes. During the frantic exit, the individual can be seen diving through the smashed glass panel and onto the pavement, before rolling over several times in an attempt to stop the flames from spreading.

The Democratic National Convention meets next week to nominate Kamala Harris for president, drawing renewed scrutiny to the party’s platform. Last month, the Democratic Party released a draft of its 2024 platform that vows to nationalize abortion-on-demand across all 50 states, support taxpayer-funded abortion, protect the predatory transgender industry, and continue “fighting” against parents who seek to keep pornography out of their children’s school libraries. The draft platform, released on July 13, places a high premium on abortion and extreme gender ideology. “The word abortion is mentioned 13 times. [The concept of] reproductive rights is mentioned 14 more times. The...

The replacement of Joe Biden on the Democrat ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris has led to the emergence of organizations with the aim of subverting the Evangelical vote for the Democrats. Last week, Evangelical Dark web showed how Christianity Today was touting the faith of Kamala Harris in a fluff piece. As we will show, the support of Christianity Today and other institutions runs much deeper. On August 14, Evangelicals for Harris has an event with many speakers, many of whom are familiar. Image (on link) Ekemini Uwan is the cohost of Truth’s Table a popular Black religious podcast....

Donald Trump could be blindsided by an 'October surprise' that would obliterate his chances at retaking the White House, a former Bush administration official has said. Legal scholar John Yoo sounded the alarm that the former president could wind up in prison - as soon as next month. Trump has been desperately seeking to hold off his sentencing hearing until after the election, following his conviction by a Manhattan jury of 34 counts of falsifying business records. But the controversial Judge Juan Merchan has consistently denied his appeals. While speaking to Fox News host Bill Hemmer on Thursday, Yoo said...

A Democratic National Committee employee filed a complaint this week to block the Green Party’s Dr. Jill Stein from appearing on the Wisconsin state ballot, arguing that the party cannot legally nominate electors. The same employee also filed a complaint against the Cornel West campaign. According to the Associated Press, the complaint against Stein was filed by David Strange, the Wisconsin deputy operations director for the Democratic National Committee. Strange claims that the Green Party lacks the authority to nominate presidential electors and therefore cannot legally put forward a slate necessary for Stein to appear on the ballot. He argues...

A new Emerson College Polling/RealClearPennsylvania survey finds 49% of voters support former President Donald Trump, and 48% support Vice President Kamala Harris for president in the Keystone state. With undecided voters’ support allocated, Trump extends to a two-point lead, 51% to 49%. With third-party candidates on the ballot, 47% support both Trump and Harris respectively; 3% support Robert F. Kennedy Jr. No other candidates received above .3% support.