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Sad news for salad fans who enjoy the peppery bite of arugula over other lettuces: there's a national shortage. The shortfall is due to the "unexpectedly cold and wet winter weather facing growers throughout the Southwest," according to the New Food Economy. Those harsh conditions "paved the way for the spread of a fungal disease called downy mildew," which has made it difficult to produce healthy crops, the article further explained. The shortage has already been felt by shoppers, purveyors and and diners across the country. In New York, the fast casual Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava posted signs Monday saying...

The Iowa Caucus, the real start of the 2020 presidential primaries, is next week. Who's favored to win? Sadly, as I write this, the smart money says it's the candidate who's promised Americans the most "free" stuff. Six months ago, my staff and I tallied the candidates' promises. All wanted to give away trillions -- or more accurately, wanted government to tax you and spend your money on the candidates' schemes. At that point, Senator Kamala Harris led. Fortunately, her promises did not bring her sustained support, and she dropped out. Unfortunately, now the other candidates are making even more...

Our tune today is Ashes of Love by Johnnie & Jack (1951). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

3D Printed Gun Hysteria Individuals have been making their own firearms for the entire history of the United States and before. Homemade guns are not as popular as factory-made guns, because factory-made guns are easily and cheaply available in the United States. The Second Amendment has guaranteed that right.It is a part of the right to keep and bear arms to be able to procure arms. A basic and fundamental way to procure arms is to make your own. Most home manufacture of firearms is for hobby or experimental purposes, although considerable homemade guns are produced in localities with extreme...

Shortly before Tuesday's trial session got underway, Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) got busted by the Senate floor staff for bringing a bottle of chocolate milk into the chamber. Mr. Romney retreated to the Republican cloakroom after the staff member appeared gently to chide him. Politico has identified chocolate milk as Mr. Romney's vice. The brand he brought to the Senate floor on Tuesday was from Mr. Romney's alma mater, Brigham Young University, according to an aide.

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Hong Kong (CNN)The number of confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus has overtaken the 2003 SARS outbreak inside of mainland China, as multiple countries evacuated their citizens from the city at the heart of the outbreak.As of Wednesday, there were 5,974 confirmed cases of the virus in mainland China, including 132 deaths, according to China's National Health Commission (NHC). The number of cases grew by almost 1,500 from Tuesday, a more than 30% increase. The figures do not include Hong Kong and Macau, both of which have reported a small number of cases. There have been more than 80 cases...

Every year, between five and 10 movies compete for the Oscars’ Best Picture trophy. It’s the most prestigious award that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gives out every year, announced right at the end of the ceremony. And there aren’t any set rules about what constitutes a “best” picture. It’s the movie — for better or worse, depending on the year — that Hollywood designates as its standard bearer for the current moment. But it obviously struck a massive nerve with audiences as well as with the industry, which has heaped praise on it beginning with the...

This week, the world marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Allied forces during World War II. Politicians of all stripes dutifully tweeted, "#NeverAgain." Meanwhile, many of those same politicians continued to forward the worst sort of anti-Semitism, blithely ignoring the fact that anti-Semitism isn't a relic of the past but a thriving part of the present. Take, for example, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Omar has, in the past two years alone, sponsored an anti-Semitic resolution that likened boycotts of Israel to boycotts of Nazi Germany; rejected a Democratic-sponsored resolution backing a two-state solution in order to...

The rapid spread of the coronavirus to the United States from an open-air meat market in China confirms again the deadliness of globalism. The international elite should acknowledge how difficult it is to contain and eradicate a virus in a world of open borders. “Everyone is in a state of panic,” Scott Liu said from a self-imposed quarantine at his home in Queens, New York.  “The coronavirus is the No. 1 threat to financial markets currently as global investors are becoming jittery on the uncertainty,” the New York Times quoted investor Nigel Green as observing.But while this deadly virus was...

This is a perilous time for a fair and passionate judge to leave the bench. By doing so, they risk having Donald Trump appoint their replacement, and considering Trump’s policies and beliefs, that new appointee is pretty likely to have a harsh anti-immigration stance. But dozens of immigration judges have reported that despite their efforts to stick out the presidency, they’ve just reached their breaking points. The Los Angeles Times spoke with dozens of judges who are quitting or taking early retirement because they simply cannot stomach having to enforce Trump administration policies on immigrants. Immigration Judge Charles Honeyman served...

In years gone by there existed an understanding that one’s personal information surrendered to private companies was a voluntary choice – the “cost,” if you will, to obtaining the benefit of a company’s goods or services. Importantly – and constitutionally – such a “trade off” was far different from the government obtaining personal and private information by way of surveillance or other information-gathering actions undertaken without a warrant. There was a relatively clear line between private company collection of personal information voluntarily provided, and the government gathering such information without one’s knowledge or consent. Today, that “line” has been blurred...

"They think you are a joke. Prove them wrong in November."

Adam Schiff has been carrying the water for the Deep State for decades. Let’s travel back to 1990 when Adam Schiff was working as a federal prosecutor for the Justice Department who was hell bent on prosecuting a FBI Agent for “espionage” which by today’s standards would look like a weak shoplifting case. Schiff was chasing FBI Agent Richard Miller for trading a secret FBI manual to the Soviet Union for sex, money and a Burberry trench coat. Yes, that is it. Imagine those headlines today? Miller’s case wouldn’t even get a sniff in the Andrew McCabe era. After three...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Over two dozen people stormed into former Vice President Joe Biden's Des Moines headquarters looking for answers on health care Monday night. Their singing and demanding action led to the arrests of five people, including John Reardon and William Floyd. "We have seen some of our members die because they didn't have access to health care and so we wanted to bring that urgency that we face every day," said Floyd. Both 22-year-olds live in the metro and were among those arrested and charged with trespassing in their attempt to speak with Biden about his opposing...

ormer White House national security adviser John Bolton was recently spotted wandering the streets of Qatar for reasons unknown, sparking questions about why the mustachioed neocon war hawk was in the Middle East. A video of Bolton reportedly walking on a sidewalk in Doha, Qatar was posted to Twitter on Wednesday. https://rightedition.com/2020/01/16/former-national-security-adviser-john-bolton-caught-on-film-in-qatar/

As the defense lawyers for President Trump ended their three days of arguments in the impeachment trial in the Senate, the Los Angeles Times reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California became the first Democrat to suggest that she might vote to acquit him. “Nine months left to go, the people should judge. We are a republic, we are based on the will of the people — the people should judge,” Feinstein said Tuesday. “That was my view and it still is my view.”

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s identical twin brother Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, a senior ethics lawyer for the NatSec Council is in charge of reviewing book approvals, according to sources who spoke to Breitbart News. Recall, Alexander Vindman, who leaked Trump’s call to the whistleblower because he disagreed with Trump’s foreign policy, showed up to testify in the House hearings against Trump in his uniform. Vindman testified that his twin brother witnessed Trump officials move the transcript of Trump’s call to Zelensky to a top-secret server. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/vindmans-twin-brother-in-charge-of-nscs-process-reviewing-book-approvals/

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Tuesday called on former national security adviser John Bolton to hold a press conference to expand on a New York Times bombshell report that claimed Bolton wrote in his upcoming book that President Trump explicitly tied $391 million in Ukrainian military aid to investigating the Bidens. “John, you’ve kind of thrown the country into a ditch here,” Graham told Fox News' Martha MacCallum. “Just come forward and say what’s on your mind, hold a news conference and we’ll consider what you’ve got to say if you think it’s that important."... He added that even if what...

Jan. 29, 2020 - 4:57 - Reaction and analysis from investigative journalist Lee Smith and Fox News contributor Sara Carter.