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The following telegram from Joseph Stalin to Czechoslovak President Klement Gottwald on 27 August 1950 raises new questions about the origins of the Korean War. Did Stalin purposefully seek to entangle the United States in a military conflict on the Korean Peninsula? Did Stalin expect an intervention by the Chinese communists from virtually the beginning of the conflict? First published in the original Russian in Novaya I Noveishaya Istoriia in 2005, two experts, Beijing University Professor Donggil Kim and University of Georgia Professor William Stueck, provide an initial assessment of this potentially significant new finding. Kim argues that the document...

For the clusters of onlookers, besuited power players and three former presidents who had all traveled to Washington National Cathedral, the muggy day was a historic opportunity to memorialize the life of Senator John McCain, who was remembered as a deeply patriotic war hero, a former Republican presidential candidate and a scrappy, humanly flawed, ultimately idealistic lawmaker. For President Trump, it was Saturday. In the many discussions about how to mark his life that Mr. McCain had with his staff and family before he died, he had made clear he did not want Mr. Trump to participate in anything they...

Cardinal Blase Cupich has instructed Chicago-area priests to deliver a statement at Mass this weekend slamming a local TV news report that he calls “misleading,” saying it was edited to suggest he and Pope Francis were downplaying the ongoing clergy sex abuse scandal.The clip came toward the end of a two-minute segment that aired Aug. 27 on NBC5 about the Archdiocese of Chicago cooperating with Illinois Attorney Gen. Lisa Madigan’s review of abuse allegations across the state. Since the interview aired, Cupich has been castigated across the internet for being seemingly insensitive to the sex abuse crisis.“Our story on the interview...

The FBI and Department of Justice partnered on a secret program aimed at flipping Russian oligarchs with potentially damaging information about the Trump campaign's alleged involvement with the Kremlin, according to a New York Times report Saturday. Justice Department official Bruce Ohr worked with the FBI to attempt to turn one of those oligarchs, Oleg V. Deripaska, who is close to the Russian government. At one point, FBI agents made a suprise, "uninvited" visit at Deripaska's home in New York and questioned him on whether Paul Manafort, then-chairman of Trump’s campaign, "had served as a link between the campaign and...

Americans were outraged Saturday after John McCain’s funeral turned into a Trump bashing session. Speaker after speaker, from Meghan McCain, to George W. Bush, to Barack Obama took turns to rip President Trump in words of anger.Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were in attendance.They looked sad and embarrassed at the nonstop abuse.Meghan McCain took the occasion of her father’s death to slam President Trump numerous times Saturday in Washington DC.What a sad and petty woman.It’s no secret to Americans why the third most unpopular US senator is being hailed as a hero. He hated Trump.Meghan McCain spoke at her father’s funeral...

"It is no secret that Russia seeks any opportunity it can find to drive a wedge between the United States and our Central Asian partners, including Afghanistan," Nicholson added. Aid to Taliban U.S. and Afghan officials have previously accused Russia of meddling in Afghanistan by providing Taliban insurgents with both weapons and training. Moscow has rejected the allegations, saying it has only political ties with the Taliban. Still, Russia has faced growing suspicion from the U.S. and its allies, who say the Kremlin has been increasingly working to expand its influence in Afghanistan and beyond.

Conservatives are scratching their heads hard on this one: former President Obama is set to receive an ethics award for his time serving in the White House. According to a report from the Daily Wire, Obama will be visiting the University of Illinois next week to accept its Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government. The University describes the award is granted to individuals who exemplify “the understanding and practice of ethical behavior in public service.” Daily Wire describes the award as ironic and offered a number of reasons Obama does not exactly qualify for an ethics award: :snip:...

Democrats on Saturday slammed what they described as a “Friday night document massacre” after the White House withheld more than 100,000 pages of Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s records, citing presidential privilege. Former President George W. Bush’s attorney Bill Burck told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a letter Friday that it has mostly completed its work ahead of next week’s planned confirmation hearing. Kavanaugh, who has been tapped by President Trump to replace Anthony Kennedy on the nation’s highest court, served in the White House Counsel’s office during the Bush administration. The letter said that Bush told them to...

Video Link I watch a huge amount of British detective videos and, of course, Downton Abbey and the like.Plus, I am fascinated with accents and dialects.If you are also an accent/dialect nerd like me, this video is for you.As an aside, I grew up in South Georgia. Lot's of thick accents.I think they were used by locals to say something about their being locals (like virtue signalling with the Radical Left). They are saying that they are members of the local club. Lot's of "ha bad it" 's (that means "how about it") and "I heard dat" (yep, that means...

Mars, NASA NASA Is Preparing A 17 Year Old Girl To Become The First Human On Mars Lauren WebberJuly 10, 2018, 10:15 amJuly 10, 2018 The 17-year-old is training to be on the first NASA trip to the red planet, where she’ll spend two to three years. (Photo: NASA Blueberry) Alyssa Carson fell in love with space when she was only 3 years old and now is making it her life’s work to be the first human to land on Mars.The 17-year-old is training to be on the first NASA trip to the Red Planet, where she says she’ll...

Gáspár Orbán, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 25 year old son, used to be known most for mirroring his father’s deep affinity for football and for being a professional football player...When Gáspár was born in 1992, (his father) Mr. Orbán was, by all accounts, not religious at all. Those days are over...Gaspar Orban is making a new name for himself as the leader of a Pentecostal church community, where he speaks in tongues, asserts that Jesus heals people through him during intensely emotional worship services and he proselytizes. Journalists of the 24.hu news site spent six weeks with Gáspár Orbán in...

A sermon by Fr. Peter Heers on the sin of cremation in the light of the traditional Christian belief in the Incarnation, the Resurrection and the sanctification of both the body and soul as evidenced by the holy relics of the saints.

Enough already will the love fest farce of the McCain deep swamp death gig!!! My message is directed to Republican, Governor, Doug Ducey of Arizona. Sir, you have shortchanged & openly neglected your duties by remaining silent since last, December, 2017, when Republican, Senator, John McCain became absent and unable to cast his vote in the U.S. Senate, therefore rendering him incapable of effectively representing the seven million citizens that reside in Arizona. I am urging you to do your duty and responsibility and appoint Ms. Kelli Ward...immediately to fill the remaining length of McCain's term. This charade and cover...

Peter Baker, the chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times, wrote a September 1 article in his newspaper about the memorial service for the late Senator John McCain. However, there was another person who was uppermost in Baker's mind judging from his story. Need I really spell out who that person was?  You can see the name that caused Baker to become so deranged over his mere existence that his McCain memorial service ended up really being not so much about the senator but about the one who was the bookend of his story title, "In McCain Memorial Service, Two...

The decision stemmed partly from the lack of participating students. The team started the season with 18 players. After losing its first game 41-0 and then being shut out 61-0 in its second game, two players quit. Then two more dropped off the team, followed by the team’s quarterback on Monday. That was when Head Coach and Healdsburg HS Athletic Director Dave Stine had the kids make a decision. “We decided to do a blind vote and seven of the thirteen said no, they didn’t want to move forward,” said Stine. “So we went ahead and disbanded the varsity team...

by Jeff Foust — August 30, 2018 Soyuz MS-09 The ISS crew traced the leak to a small hole in the orbital module, the top section of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. Credit: NASA WASHINGTON — As the crew of the International Space Station worked Aug. 30 to fix, at least temporarily, a minor air leak, the incident illustrated the growing orbital debris risk to the outpost and strains in American and Russian approaches to ISS operations. NASA, in a statement early Aug. 30, said that controllers first noticed a minor drop in air pressure within the station at around 7...

This is a monthly posting of Twitter follower growth for the past month for 2020 presidential candidates. Last Month's Post here Yes, it's still early to be doing this. But I want to get a few months of data behind me before the 2020 Presidential campaign kicks off in earnest this coming spring. In the meantime, it will be fun (for some of us) to start gauging who the contenders might be in 2020. So what I'm doing here is taking a snapshot of Twitter followers for each of these possible challengers to President Trump and seeing what the growth...

Kathryn Jean Lopez I wanted to make sure you saw the letter that some women who love the Catholic Church and her teachings organized put online yesterday. Since midday yesterday, it’s gathered about 15,000 [now over 25,000] signatures and counting. The goal of it is to get it to the Holy Father as a plea to help us in trying to know what went wrong so that we can get things right. In reads, in part: We are Catholic women deeply committed to our faith and profoundly grateful for Church teachings, the Sacraments, and the many good bishops and priests...

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to publish a memoir of his years in the White House, the Jewish Insider claimed. In it, Kerry claims Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu leaked details regarding a confidential peace agreement with the Hamas ...

Whether I'm right or whether I'm wrong Whether I find a place in this world or never belong I gotta be me, I've gotta be me What else can I be but what I am I want to live, not merely survive And I won't give up this dream Of life that keeps me alive I gotta be me, I gotta be me The dream that I see makes me what I am That far away prize, a world of success Is waiting for me if I heed the call I won't settle down, won't settle for less As long...