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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., got emotional on Friday as she discussed how climate change affected her own personal outlook on life. “I speak to you not as an elected official or a public figure, but I speak to you as a human being," the freshman congresswoman told a climate summit in Copenhagen. "A woman whose dreams of motherhood now taste bittersweet, because of what I know about our children's future," she added, apparently choking back tears. She was giving her keynote address at the C40 World Mayors Summit which recently approved a global version of her "Green New Deal." Ocasio-Cortez...

. @IlhanMN and her lover Tim Mynett were part of the violent Antifa mobs outside @realDonaldTrump ’s Minnesota rally. Both covering their faces. See below video too

The United Nations (UN) is facing its “worst cash crisis” in nearly a decade because almost one-third of its member states have not paid their annual dues, according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Speaking in front of the UN’s budget-setting Fifth Committee on Tuesday, Guterres said the situation was so desperate that last month’s General Assembly in New York was only possible because of emergency spending cuts made earlier in the year. “The organization is facing a severe financial crisis,” Guterres said. “To be more specific, a severe liquidity crisis. The equation is simple: without cash, the budget cannot be properly...

egendary cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space — an experience that almost killed him — and later the commander of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that docked with a NASA Apollo capsule, symbolizing a historic thaw in the Cold War, has died after a long illness, the Russian space agency confirmed Friday. He was 85. An accomplished amateur artist and a widely respected statesman in the international space community, Leonov remained a lifelong friend of his Apollo-Soyuz Test Project crewmates and a source of inspiration to a younger generation of cosmonauts who carried his photo to the...

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr made some absurd comments Thursday night about the Chinese dictatorship and gun violence in America. The NBA and China have been in the news nonstop ever since the Houston Rockets GM tweeted support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. You’d think expressing support for democracy instead of communism would be a winning idea. However, the NBA has been dealing with the fallout ever since, and not everybody seems to be on the same page. Kerr isn’t just not on the same page, but he seems to be under the impression that gun violence in...

Rory Cooper has always enjoyed tinkering and competition. As a kid growing up in Southern California, he ran track and cross country, and he often worked in his parents’ garage, making improvements to skateboards and bicycles. He brought these skills to his work in the U.S. Army, but then an accident changed his life forever and set him on a path to become an inventor, engineer, and bronze medalist. Rory Cooper: When I was first injured, I was told by the doctors that, you know, “you’d probably have a 10-year lifespan…” And I could’ve just said, well then I’ll just...

OBAMA REIGN REVISITED--CIRCA 2014 Investing in the ObamaFund; Treasury rolls out a new savings plan without a Congressional vote. wsj.com ^ | 12/29/14 / FR Posted by Liz EXCERPT—--the WH wants you to consider a retirement plan that will invest in nothing but US government debt. Any financial professional who advised this—would be sued for malpractice. But asset allocation is merely one of the problems with the new “myRA” fund rolling out this month. A form of Roth IRA that allows people to save after-tax dollars and watch them grow tax-free until retirement, the new myRA offers a single investment...

Staff for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) refused to meet with a group of ten senior citizens opposed to the impeachment of President Donald Trump at his district office in Burbank on Thursday, citing a “new policy” on “security.”

Cornell Law School professor Josh Chafetz wrote in a Thursday New York Times op-ed that House Democrats should consider arresting associates of President Donald Trump and his administration officials to move forward with an impeachment inquiry.

Add white to North Idaho’s fall colors. And don’t blame those beautiful leaves for shivering when there’s no wind. Wednesday’s high in Coeur d’Alene was only 39. Lows in the lower 20s were forecast for this morning. Better get used to it, said Press Climatologist Cliff Harris, who in 2014 predicted — in print, no less — that 2019-2020 could see record snows. “This has led to the earliest winter we’ve ever seen,” he said Wednesday after dusting off from Cd’A’s second snowfall in less than two weeks. “We had icicles on our house at 10 a.m. today,” Harris lamented....

Washington, D.C. city council members rushed to approve legislation renaming Columbus Day "Indigenous Peoples' Day" this week before its Oct. 14 commemoration, citing similar moves by several states and a slew of cities in recent years.

Philadelphia raised the flag of China at city hall last week to honor the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.  Mayor Jim Kenney announced last Tuesday the observation of “The People’s Republic of China Flag-raising Day,” according to Xinhua, China’s official state-run press agency.The City of Philadelphia released photos of the event, showing a small crowd of attendees watching as the flag of China is raised.The Epoch Times reported that local community groups had strongly opposed the raising of the Chinese flag, viewing it as an endorsement of the communist nation’s oppressive regime.“Raising this flag, a symbol of the birth of the Chinese Communist...

A lawyer for Jean-Luc Brunel said that her client is willing to cooperate with officials in Paris who are investigating his former friend and business partner, Jeffrey Epstein. Prosecutors in Paris are looking into possible charges of rape and sexual assault against Epstein, both for crimes that he allegedly committed on French soil, as well as ones that he may have committed in other countries involving French citizens. Brunel's attorney Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt denied that he is 'on the run' and said that he has made himself available to authorities ever since the launch of this latest probe. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7547629/Jeffrey-Epstein-associate-Jean-Luc-Brunel-cooperating-prosecutors-Paris.html

A Bay Area news station likely wants a do-over after using a facepalm-worthy racially insensitive headline in its coverage of the Atlanta Braves being bounced out of the MLB postseason. KTVU, the Bay Area’s Fox affiliate, recapped the St. Louis Cardinals’ win over the Braves in Game 5 of the National League Division Series with a chyron that read, “Braves Scalped.” That’s straight out of the yikes factory. Particularly given the conversation that’s surrounded the Braves recently. A Cardinals pitcher of Native American descent objected to the Braves’ infamous Tomahawk Chop and the team responded Wednesday by toning down its...

Recycling plastic uses up a lot of resources, and after all the hauling around, sorting, and processing of bottles and containers, it often ends up getting thrown away or burned. MIT business researcher Andrew McAfee says we'd be better off putting our plastic waste into well-managed landfills. He argues we should spend our "mental budget for thinking about the Earth on more high-impact changes," like carbon taxes on major polluters and nuclear energy.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is taking the Green New Deal global. The New York Democrat posted an Instagram story Tuesday afternoon showing herself walking through the airport as she headed for her first trip abroad as a freshman lawmaker. She’s off to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the C40 World Mayors Summit. “After a very busy week in district, I’m headed to Copenhagen for a global C40 conference where mayors and a lot of other public servants are going to be convening to discuss what we’ll be – what actions we need to take for the climate crisis,” she told her followers. Mayors...

It’s not just federal tax changes that drive residents from high- to low-income tax states – turns out hiking statewide taxes on the wealthy drives them out in droves, too. A new study published on Monday showed that when California raised its income tax rates it caused a “substantial one-time out-migration response” among wealthy residents, who left for lower-tax destinations. The study looked at increases to state income tax rates approved by California voters in Nov. 2012 (Propoisition 30) of one to three percentage points for upper-income households. It raised the top marginal tax rate to 13.3 percent for incomes...

Organizers say millions of youth around the world have joined the Fridays for Future student walkouts to protest climate change. They have hailed its founder, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden, who is currently on a North American tour to join protests and speak out on the alleged emergency facing the world, including at the United Nations last month. And while Thunberg has been careful to cater to indigenous groups and their activist supporters – she has claimed some protests are taking place on indigenous land – many are now turning on her, claiming that she is getting attention because she...

Democrat presidential hopeful and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro escorted a group of migrants to the United States-Mexico border, but they were all returned to Mexico.

Whatever you do, don't call Austrian Green Party politician Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek a "corrupt oaf" or "lousy traitor of the people" on Facebook. If you do, the European Union (E.U.) has ruled that Facebook can be forced to take your comments down, regardless of where you are in the world. In all likelihood, you have no idea who Glawischnig-Piesczek even is, but you should definitely worry about today's ruling and how it impacts your ability to express your opinions about politicians online. I blogged about this case back in June when the E.U. was first considering it. Glawischnig-Piesczek is a retired...