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Air travel should be taxed more and EU funds redirected to pay for a dramatic reforesting of Britain’s countryside, the government’s climate change advisers have recommended. Farmers should be incentivised to plant 100 million new trees a year and consumers encouraged to eat a fifth less lamb, beef and dairy to cut sheep and cattle grazing by 10 per cent, the Committee on Climate Change has said.

Hunter Biden is "just the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to examining corruption within the Biden family during the time that Joe Biden was vice president, investigative reporter and author Peter Schweizer said Tuesday. Appearing on "Fox & Friends" with host Pete Hegseth, Schweizer said that in his new book, "Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America's Progressive Elite," the Bidens -- who he reports benefitted from having a family member in the White House -- are dubbed the "Biden Five." "There [are] five Biden family members that got very, very good deals while Joe Biden was...

Joseph Stalin gets some advice from Roy Acuff & His Smoky Mountain Boys in Advice To Joe. The tune was recorded in Nashville on Jan. 16, 1951. THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

An African intellectual sets the record straight. Michele Antaki—a former UN interpreter, journalist, and translator—has written and sent me the following exclusive summary of a recent speech given in French by Ernest Tigori, an Ivorian intellectual and political activist, exiled in France, and winner of the 2017 Nelson Mandela Prize for Literature. In his new book “L’Afrique à désintoxiquer” (“Detoxifying Africa”), he explains why it is crucial to lead Europe out of repentance for its alleged crimes in Africa, and lead Africa out of infantilization. He presented it to great acclaim at a recent patriotic forum in Paris. Antaki’s write-up...

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the congressman known for falsely claiming for years he had evidence of Trump campaign 2016 collusion with Russia and for putting a fabricated Trump phone transcript in the congressional record, has gone off the deep end this time, says talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh. In his opening statement Wednesday in the impeachment trial of President Trump, Schiff charged that the results of elections cannot be trusted and Americans who vote are too stupid to make such decisions."He actually said it. The son of a ... actually said it," Limbaugh told his listeners. Schiff said the Senate...

Tax proposals from two leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), would raise less revenue than the campaigns say they would, according to analyses released Thursday by the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM). The analyses were released less than two weeks before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. PWBM released three analyses Thursday. One looked at Sanders’s wealth-tax proposal, and a second looked at Sanders’s proposal to expand the estate tax. The third examined nine tax changes proposed by Biden. Sanders’s wealth tax proposal would create a progressive tax that starts with a...

The Trump administration is at the point of finalizing reform of antiquated Cold War rules which were used to target gunsmiths and small gun manufacturers. Included in the reforms is the transfer of responsibility for the export of most firearms and ammunition from the Department of State to the Department of  Commerce. In 2016, the State Department, under the Obama administration, “clarified” the definition of “manufacturers” who were required to register under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). The registration fee was $2,250 per year.  PNJ.com reports the actions of the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC):...

Last year, the nation received good news. Two new reports both indicated that the U.S. abortion rate continues to decline. In September, the Guttmacher Institute released 2017 abortion data and in November, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released abortion data from 2016. The trends were very similar. Both data sources found that the U.S. abortion rate has fallen by around 20 percent since 2000. Furthermore, both data sources indicate that the U.S. abortion rate has fallen by approximately 50 percent since 1980. Good news! The decline in the U.S. abortion rate is more noteworthy then people realize. After...

§ 18.2-152.7:1. Harassment by computer; penalty. If any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person, shall use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act, he shall be is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. A violation of this section may be prosecuted in the jurisdiction in which the communication was made or received or in the City of Richmond if the person subjected to the act is one of the following...

For the past 40-odd years, two narratives have guided American Middle East policy. Both were invented by the Carter administration. One relates to Iran. One relates to Israel. Both narratives reject reality as the basis for foreign policy decision-making in favor of delusion. Over the past two months, President Donald Trump has rejected and disavowed them both. His opponents are apoplectic. As far as Iran is concerned, as journalist Lee Smith explained in Tablet online magazine this week, when Iranian “students” seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, they placed...

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words . . . Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge” (Proverbs 23:7-8, 12).

Davos, Switzerland hosts the annual World Forum. For the first time, its participant is a former comedian, and now President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. On Wednesday evening, January 22, Zelensky spoke to the audience. More precisely - almost in front of an empty room. At a speech by the President of Ukraine, the audience was only a few people. At that time, for example, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, who spoke to Zelensky, gathered a full house. World leaders seem to have realized that Zelensky is an empty suit as a politician and an extremely hollow person. In...

1922 Jan 23, The first successful test on a human patient with diabetes occurred when a 2nd dose of insulin was administered to dangerously ill Leonard Thompson (14). Following the birth of an idea and nine months of experimentation, and through the combined efforts of four men at the University of Toronto, Canada, insulin for the treatment of diabetes was first discovered and later purified for human use. Rural Canadian physician Dr. F.G. Banting first conceived the idea of extracting insulin from the pancreas in 1920. He and his assistant C.H. Best prepared pancreatic extracts to prolong the lives of...

... The House seeks to expel Mr. Trump because he acted “for his personal political benefit rather than for a legitimate policy purpose.” Mr. Trump’s lawyers responded, “elected officials almost always consider the effect that their conduct might have on the next election.” The president’s lawyers are right. And that behavior does not amount to an abuse of power. Politicians pursue public policy, as they see it, coupled with a concern about their own political future. Otherwise legal conduct, even when plainly politically motivated — but without moving beyond a threshold of personal political gain — does not amount to...

We are currently in the throes of an impeachment trial because the Democrats dislike the President’s foreign policy in general and are appalled by his Ukraine policy in particular. They prefer the Obama administration’s approach to foreign policy with respect to Russia/Ukraine which, if I recall correctly, entailed Obama getting a message to Putin that he would “be more flexible after the election.”And when Russia invaded Crimea and threatened Ukraine there was Joey B, bragging about withholding Ukrainian aid until the prosecutor investigating Burisma was fired. That’s some fine standup foreign policy for you. “I said, ‘You’re not getting the...

Far too much ink has been spilled in describing the parallels between a resurgent British nationalism -- a la Brexit -- and the social currents underlying President Donald Trump's MAGA movement. Both have been described as the culmination of a backlash against forces of globalization that created a glamorous, globetrotting elite on one hand and, on the other, a wasteland of economic decline and deprivation in both nations' heartlands. The savior, as prescribed under both the Brexit and MAGA theories, is to throw off the chains of globalization and go it alone. Hence, Britain chose, quite unequivocally, to repudiate the...

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon spoke with CNBC's "Squawk Box" from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

Switzerland has minted the smallest gold coin the world has ever seen, state-owned Swissmint announced Thursday. The 2.96-millimeter (0.12-inch) gold coin, weighing only 0.063 grams (¹⁄500th of an ounce), is so small the viewer needs to squint closely to see world-famous physicist Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out. The coin has a nominal value of ¼ of a Swiss franc (26¢, €0.23) and can be ordered online. According to Swissmint, 999 of the coins have been made, and a single coin will be sold for 199 francs and accompanied with a special magnifying glass so owners can see Einstein. …

House Democrats charged with prosecuting the impeachment case against President Trump on Wednesday scaled back their fiery language following a rare scolding from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., as they began laying out their case for Trump’s removal from office for pressuring Ukraine to help him win reelection. But as Democrats softened their tone if not their message, Trump and his fellow Republicans dialed up their partisan rhetoric, with GOP senators largely ignoring Roberts’s admonition and leveling scathing attacks against the trial’s prosecutors.... The Republican barrage was led by Trump himself, who in Davos, Switzerland, called the top House...

"Am I the Same Girl?" is a popular song written by Eugene Record and Sonny Sanders. First recorded in 1968 by Barbara Acklin, "Am I the Same Girl?" had its most successful incarnation via a 1992 remake by Swing Out Sister, recorded for the album Get in Touch with Yourself. The group's vocalist Corinne Drewery has acknowledged Dusty Springfield as a major influence; however, it was a chance hearing of the original Barbara Acklin version at a Manchester disco specializing in Northern soul that convinced Drewery and her Swing Out Sister partner Andy Connell to remake "Am I the...