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If you have played poker, you have played against a guy like my friend Woody. Woody talks a big game, makes big bets, relentlessly raises the stakes at all kinds of inappropriate times and usually walks away with the biggest pot at the end of the night. President Trump is like Woody. He would be a nightmare to play poker against. He is always on offense. He is always making a big show of his big bets. When he does fold, he does it so quietly, nobody really notices, because he is on with his next big bet. Predictability used...

Juba, South Sudan, Jan 6, 2020 / 02:25 pm (CNA).- Bari ethnic leaders in South Sudan have distanced themselves from critics of the newly-appointed Archbishop of Juba. The archbishop has faced controversy since his December appointment for several reasons, including that he is not a member of the region’s predominant Bari tribe. “Those indigenous clergy and faithful Bari who have rejected the appointment of the new Archbishop for Juba [do] not reflect the position of the entire Bari Community or their association i.e. the Bari Community Association,” Cornelio Bepo Lado Kenyi, chairman of the Juba-based association, explained in a Dec....

All: I'm starting a new book on the impact of cell phones, tablets, etc. on "da yuths" especially, looking at depression, despair, isolation, declining social skills, etc. If you have any contacts with professionals---psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, priests, educators, etc.---who work with kids in such circumstances who would be willing to be interviewed, please get in touch or freepmail me.

The UK’s independent regulator for doctors has said it will review its decision to close a case against a Christian doctor facing second-hand complaints of breaking professional conduct rules by discussing religion with patients. Tim Dieppe, head of public policy at the evangelical think tank Christian Concern, spoke in favour of Dr Richard Scott, the general practitioner in Kent accused of improperly discussing religion. “Dr Scott has been put through a lot of stress and anxiety from all these various complaints in what seems like a targeted campaign from the National Secular Society,” Dieppe told The Guardian. In Dieppe’s view,...

The parents of four black students in New York are planning to file a $12 million lawsuit against a school district after a teacher wrote the caption "Monkey do" above an image of their children, and then showed it to the class during a slideshow. In November, students at Longwood High School on Long Island took a class trip to the Bronx Zoo. During the outing, a teacher snapped a photo of four students standing behind each other with their arms on the shoulders of the person in front of them. The image was included in a slideshow played during...

'Your Eminence, can we passively witness the murder of the Church in China by those who should protect and defend her from her enemies?'ROME, January 8, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Joseph Zen, the leading voice for persecuted Catholics in China, has sent a letter to the College of Cardinals imploring them to denounce the recent agreement the Vatican signed with China’s communist government. Together with the letter, the 87-year-old bishop emeritus of Hong Kong has also shared with his brother cardinals several “dubia” that he gave to Pope Francis in July 2019, following the Vatican’s June release of new guidelines...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ PATRIOTIC TRIBUTE Members of the Oregon Army National Guard display the American flag on stage while the band Kiss performs the national anthem during the “Freedom to Rock” concert in Eugene, OR, July 9, 2016. The soldiers provided a color guard for the band’s patriotic tribute to U.S. military and veterans at the concert. Oregon National Guard photo by Maj. W. Chris Clyne Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before....

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD/DUBAI (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday tempered days of angry rhetoric and suggested Iran was “standing down” after it fired missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq overnight, as both sides looked to defuse a crisis over the U.S. killing of an Iranian general

A new bill requiring Tennessee students to play sports based on their birth certificate's gender identification is being called "demeaning" by activists and "proactive" by the bill's sponsor. Introduced last month, the bill would require student athletes to only compete against other athletes of the same biological sex. The bill would affect transgender athletes, who may be a gender different than the one assigned at birth. For example, a student's birth certificate could list the student as female, but the student identifies as male and present as so or vice versa. The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Bruce Griffey, called it...

NFL Live Thread: Divisional Playoffs Saturday, January 11, 2020 (All Times Eastern) #6 Minnesota Vikings at #1 San Francisco 49ers 4:35 pm NBC Levi's Stadium #6 Tennessee Titans at #1 Baltimore Ravens 8:15 pm CBS M&T Bank Stadium Sunday, January 12, 2020 #4 Houston Texans at #2 Kansas City Chiefs 3:05 pm CBS Arrowhead Stadium #5 Seattle Seahawks at #2 Green Bay Packers 6:40 pm FOX Lambeau Field

When police arrested Luis Melendez on drug charges, they found $2,928 in cash alongside drugs and weapons in his bedroom. The drugs and weapons became evidence in his criminal case, but prosecutors also went after the money in civil court using a common but little-understood practice called civil asset forfeiture. When Melendez fought to keep the money, they used his statements against him in his criminal case. New Jersey’s highest court on Wednesday declared this practice an abuse of power, though the ruling upheld Melendez’s conviction based on the other evidence against him. The decision places additional limits on New...

Google has been ordered to turn over actor Jussie Smollett’s emails and other private information to a special prosecutor investigating the allegedly staged attack reported by the “Empire” actor last year, The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday. A Cook County judge on Dec. 6 signed off on two warrants ordering Google to supply the information, according to a copy of the warrants obtained by the Tribune. Investigators’ reportedly sought Smollett’s emails, photos, location data and private messages from November 2018 to November 2019. The warrants are part of the investigation of special prosecutor Dan Webb, who was appointed to the case...

German cardinal warns that adapting to ‘spirit of the age’ would make Church useless A Church that adapts to the spirit of her time loses her 'prophetic mandate and mission' and 'would be of no use anymore': Cardinal Rainer Woelki January 7, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Rainer Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, warned Catholics in a homily yesterday that the Church adapting to the spirit of the age (zeitgeist) would make her lose her “prophetic mandate and mission” and would render her “of no use anymore.”  Cardinal Woelki made his remarks in a January 6 homily he delivered on...

The crash of a Ukrainian jetliner that killed 176 people in Iran touched off mourning Wednesday in both Ukraine and Canada — where many of the victims were from or were headed — and raised a host of questions about what went wrong. But U.S. intelligence officials said there was no immediate evidence it was shot down. This morning Iran refused to turn over the black box from the downed plane. Iran will not give the black box of the crashed Ukrainian airliner to planemaker Boeing, the head of Tehran’s civil aviation organization was quoted as saying on Wednesday. Ali...

President Trump on Wednesday gave the most honest, direct speech about Iran's dictatorship that has ever given by an American president. It was a refreshing break from the lies and self-deception that have characterized much of the American establishment’s efforts to avoid thinking about it. Watching the various reactions to the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, I have been struck by how historically ignorant most politicians and commentators are – and how our political-diplomatic language and mindset block us from reality. The reality is: Iran's dictatorship has been waging war against the United States for more than 40 years....

Sure, most of us can't afford a $600,000 condo in a trendy neighborhood, in one of the most expensive places to live in the country. But if you're homeless in Los Angeles, a condo can be yours! The new condo development is the first of 118 projects to be built over the next six years to house the homeless and other needy people in Los Angeles, California, according to the mayor's office.

For the millionth time today I encountered a product with a prominently-displayed label proclaiming: "WARNING: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS _________, WHICH IS KNOWN TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO CAUSE [choose any 3: CANCER, DEMENTIA, DANDRUFF, FATTY LIVER, HALITOSIS, THE HEARTBREAK OF PSORIASIS, BIRTH DEFECTS IN BABY MILLER MOTHS, etc etc...]" I've waited YEARS for the other 49 states to play catch-up and sign on to these warnings, but to date I've waited in vain. How is it they know so much more than the rest of us? Why are they so enlightened, while the rest of us are in the...

We just heard this over a Filipino TV channel we listen to

Clips tagged #Swamp House to vote Thursday to curb Trump's war powers on Iran House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House will vote Thursday to limit President Donald Trump's war-making powers on Iran in the wake of the administration's recent killing of a top Iranian general. Clinton poses with Epstein's 'pimp' & sex slave on 'Lolita Express' BILL Clinton poses side-by-side with suspected pimp Ghislaine Maxwell - as the pair board pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious private jet. The former US President is seen smiling on the steps of the plane – dubbed the Lolita Express - next to Maxwell, in...

He says that Ukrainian companies affiliated with Naftogaz's top management rather than European firms most often trade in Russian gas in Ukraine. "The scheme they earn on Ukrainians is as follows: Naftogaz's top managers sell Russian gas to Ukrainians, calling it European. And this 'renaming' has brought them $1.5 billion in revenue. The originators of the Naftogaz reform, including Mr. [Amos] Hochstein, who is fully accountable to Biden, could not help but know about the scam with Russian gas. And judging by the fact that part of the stolen money was wired to American companies, they also covered up that...