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[Catholic Caucus] Papal Standards – and Questions We know that Pope Francis is a believer in the value of criticism from his extensive remarks on the plane ride back from his recent apostolic visit to Africa. He said: “First of all, criticism always helps, always. When someone receives criticism, that person needs to do a self-critique right away and say: is this true or not? To what point? And I always benefit from criticism. Sometimes it makes you angry. . . . But there are advantages.”He wants critics to come forward with their arguments and be ready for a dialogue...

By now, Shaun King should be used to the drama. After all, the accusations King has faced are legion. People have accused him of not being black, of being a government operative inserted to dismantle the movement, of being an egomaniac who centers himself in the movement, a plagiarist who co-opts the work of black women, a bully who uses his influence and large following to silence those who question him, a fraud who starts multiple activism ventures that never come to fruition—and the biggest most frequent accusation: a thief who benefits financially from the fundraisers he promotes. The activist,...

Donald Trump didn’t learn anything from 2016. Not only has he still not acknowledged Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Not only has he still not admitted his campaign’s multiple contacts with Russian operatives. Not only does he disagree with fellow Republicans who say: “We can’t allow foreign interference in an American election ever again.” Trump welcomed foreign influence in 2016 and now he’s doing his best to make it happen again, in 2020. This time with a different country. Not Russia, but Ukraine. There’s a lot we still don’t know, but we know enough to be alarmed. Here’s...

Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s grandmother, Muftia Tlaib, expressed her disdain for America in an interview with USA Today, revealing what she really felt about the country.“Even if I get an invitation from Trump to travel to the U.S., I won’t go,” she said.“Even if my husband returns from the grave and tells me to go, I refuse,” she continued.“I don’t like it there,” she added, according to USAToday.

China’s top technology hub Hangzhou plans to assign government officials to work with 100 private companies including e-commerce giant Alibaba, according to state media reports, in a move likely to raise concerns over the growing role of the state. The step underscores how Chinese government and party authorities are growing more deeply integrated into the private sector, as its economy sputters amid an intensifying trade war with the United States. The city of Hangzhou, home to Alibaba, will designate government officials to work with 100 local companies in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the local government said on its website.

Looking for Schism in All the Wrong Places Pope Francis boldly declared last week that he’s unafraid of “pseudo-schismatics”: a clique of (mostly American) rigorist prelates and journalists whom Francis regards as a kind of loyal opposition to his papacy. But why should he have been afraid to begin with? A pseudo-schismatic is, by definition, not a schismatic. Pontiffs need no more fear pseudo-schismatics than exorcists need fear little boys who dress up as Harry Potter for Halloween—or, as the Holy Father might call them, pseudo-sorcerers.Or maybe I’ve misinterpreted him. Francis could have meant to call them wannabe schismatics. Maybe...

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who says she was recruited as an underage “sex slave” for Jeffrey Epstein and trafficked to other powerful men within his orbit, revealed in her first on-camera interview that she was allegedly trained to find the “youngest-looking” girls for the wealthy financier. It all started when she was 16 and working as a locker attendant at Mar-a-Lago, she told Dateline NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in an interview that aired Friday night. “I get approached by this beautiful, well-spoken, well-mannered woman with an English accent," Giuffre said. "She told me her name was Ghislaine Maxwell, and she...

A Florida lawyer whose work for WikiLeaks landed him before the Mueller Commission and a small group of supporters of President Donald Trump just dropped on social media a humorous pro-MAGA video on the riffs of the 1970s disco anthem YMCA. Released about noon Monday, the video starts in the same fashion of The Village People's original song with vintage views of the Manhattan's old YMCA building -except that in his version, the real neon sign was replaced with MAGA. In the parody by the fake band The American People, the faces of the original singers dressed to look like...

Abstract Wind energy has emerged as a promising alternative to fossil fuels, yet the impacts of wind facilities on wildlife remain unclear. Prior studies estimate between 10,000 and 573,000 fatal bird collisions with U.S. wind turbines annually; however, these studies do not differentiate between turbines with a monopole tower and those with a lattice tower, the former of which now comprise the vast majority of all U.S. wind turbines and the latter of which are largely being de-commissioned. We systematically derived an estimate of bird mortality for U.S. monopole turbines by applying inclusion criteria to compiled studies, identifying correlates of...

The Trump administration is reportedly considering another plan to divert billions in dollars in military funding to pay for more border wall construction. The White House is once again (FY 2020) looking to divert $3.6 billion in military funds to pay for more wall construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, according senior administration officials who spoke to the Washington Post... If the administration does not get the $5 billion in wall funding it requested via the Department of Homeland Security budget, officials are reportedly ready to once again reallocate money from the Pentagon construction budget. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives remains...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — The Bureau of Land Management is moving its headquarters to an office building in Colorado that also houses oil and gas organizations, drawing criticism from environmental groups. The building’s other tenants include two oil and gas companies as well as a state oil and gas association. The BLM regulates oil and gas leases and development on the land it oversees. The Denver Post reports representatives of environmental groups are concerned about the close association between oil and gas interests and the agency.

Published on Sep 23, 2019 Trump Considers Releasing Ukraine Transcript Causing Speculation About "4D Chess." Republican Trump allies have added to the choir of Democrats calling for transparency in Trump's dealings with Ukraine amid the Joe Biden and Hunter Biden scandal. But if it was the case that Trump abused his power to go after political rivals why would they entertain the idea of releasing the call transcript. Why would Trump even admit to the call when it turns out the "whistleblower" wasn't even actually a whistleblower. The news stories have begun shifting to Biden and what he was accused...

1779. Off of Flamborough Head on the Yorkshire coast of England, Captain John Paul Jones commanding Bonhomme Richard engages HMS Serapis in a brutal 4 hour battle. At one point in the battle, Pearson called for the Americans to surrender. Captain Jones answer was "Sir, I have not yet begun to fight." In the end Bonhomme Richard is fatally damaged, but Captain Richard Pearson strikes his colors to the Americans. Jones transfers his surviving crew to Serapis and takes Serapis to the Netherlands. A good short article can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flamborough_Head 1944: USS West Virginia BB-48 steams into Pearl...

General Motors is playing hardball with striking UAW members. The company is pulling the plug on the healthcare coverage effective Tuesday, Sept. 17. That means the tab will have to be picked up by the union for workers to continue coverage. The same fund that pays workers $250 a week strike pay, and there's a total $750 million in the fund. “How I look at it is, we’re here for the company, we were here for them during all the downturns," said Stephanie Carpenter, a 22-year employee of GM who was picketing in front of the company's headquarters Tuesday. "They...

In an angry and emotional speech at the United Nations climate summit on Monday, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg tore into world leaders for failing to act. "This is all wrong," Thunberg said, reading from a piece of paper. "I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you come to us young people for hope. How dare you." "People are suffering," the 16-year-old continued through tears. "People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about...

'Thieves Steal More than $350,000 in Jewelry from Trump Tower, Suspected to Have Been Inside Job""" Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry has reportedly been taken from apartments in the New York skyscraper that bears President Donald Trump's name. The New York Post reported that more than $350,000 worth of valuables had been taken from two apartments in Trump Tower in two separate incidents. Sources told the paper that they believe the thefts were inside jobs as there were no signs of forced entry and the residences had not been turned inside out. Insurance fraud is also not...

2020 Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney claimed Monday the party's front-runners are at risk of losing to President Trump in the general election and said they must scale back their rhetoric to win over moderate voters. "Our three front-runners... most Democrats know, are inherently vulnerable," he said on "America's Newsroom." "And that’s a real problem... Our top three candidates, I think, have significant weaknesses in a general election." Delaney said the candidates' platforms are moving too far left and will end up scaring away voters who favor private insurance and economic growth. "Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are fundamentally running...

   Judge Tammy Kemp took the rare step of sequestering the jury, shielding them from outside influence and local news coverage. Photograph: Tom Fox/APThe judge in the murder trial of a former Dallas police officer charged with shooting and killing a black neighbor has taken the rare step of sequestering the jury.Former officer Amber Guyger, who is white, has told investigators in Texas she mistook Botham Jean, 26, for an intruder after she mistakenly entered his central Dallas apartment one floor above hers.The shooting in September last year, one of a series of high-profile killings of unarmed black men and teens...

The whistleblower who sparked a mounting controversy over President Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine’s president did not have “firsthand knowledge” of the conversation, a person familiar with the situation told Fox News -- even as the issue fuels impeachment calls from Democrats. The source said that it is made clear in the complaint itself that the whistleblower did not have direct knowledge of the July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. * * * Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma in April 2014, two months after Ukraine's Russia-friendly president was ousted by protesters and as his...

In one corner, we have Ivanka Trump and Attorney General William Barr. And in the other, we have Donald Trump Jr. These are the two sides warring for Trump's favor in an ongoing debate over gun restrictions, Politico reports. Ivanka Trump's faction is reportedly looking for increased restrictions on gun sales and stronger background checks, while Donald Trump Jr.'s is warning him against it — but neither side seems to have curried the president's favor just yet. As more and more mass shootings make headlines, and as gun violence continues to be an epidemic across the U.S., two sides have...