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by Lynn Foster “The Communist Manifesto” got a shoutout during the 2020 Oscars. Julia Reichert, the co-director of best documentary winner “American Factory,” which was produced by former President Barack Obama’s new film company, apparently quoted from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ infamous book during her acceptance speech on Sunday night. “Working people have it harder and harder these days — and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite,” Reichert said. The quote was a riff on the last lines of the 1848 political document, which are frequently translated from German as “Workers of the...

The votes being counted in Ireland today. Yesterday's projection as polls closed put the left-wing Sinn Fein Party in the top three of Irish political parties with its best showing yet in a southern Irish election. Early declared results show Sinn Fein a clear winner.... In Switzerland a law against "homophobia" projected to have won in a referendum..... More unusual activity related to Iowa's Democrat caucus last Monday. The Iowa Democratic Party today awarded the popular vote winner Bernie Sanders only 12 delegates to the national convention while the candidate who ran in second place, Pete Buttigieg, was given 14...

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As the Wuhan virus continues to spread across China unabated, Beijing authorities on Sunday evening (Feb. 9) announced that the city is being locked down. As the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) continues to rage across China, 80 cities have been locked down under "closed-off management" (封閉式管理) measures. On Sunday, Beijing authorities announced an "Epidemic prevention and control notice of strict closed community management" and declared that the city is going under lockdown (封城), reported the Beijing Daily.

Here are the winners at the 92nd annual Academy Awards that handed out Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood:Best PictureParasite (Neon) A Barunson E&A Production Kwak Sin Ae and Bong Joon Ho, ProducersActress in a Leading RoleRenée Zellweger Judy (LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions)Actor in a Leading RoleJoaquin Phoenix Joker (Warner Bros.)DirectingParasite (Neon) Bong Joon HoOriginal Song“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman (Paramount) Music by Elton John Lyric by Bernie Taupin Original ScoreJoker (Warner Bros.) Hildur GuðnadóttirInternational FeatureParasite A Barunson E&A Production South KoreaMakeup and HairstylingBombshell (Lionsgate) Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker Visual Effects1917 (Universal/Amblin...

MERRIMACK, New Hampshire — By Thursday morning it became clear that both Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders can plausibly claim victory in the Iowa caucus, Sanders having narrowed Buttigieg’s lead in the delegate count to just 0.1 percent and surpassed the former South Bend mayor in the popular vote by more than 2,000.These vote totals—along with claims of victory from both campaigns—came out Thursday just as Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez demanded a recanvass of the Iowa results amid confusion about the Iowa Democratic Party’s caucus system and growing tensions between the Sanders campaign and the DNC....

February 10 2020 Memorial of Saint Scholastica, Virgin Reading 1 1 Kgs 8:1-7, 9-13 The elders of Israel and all the leaders of the tribes, the princes in the ancestral houses of the children of Israel, came to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant from the City of David, which is Zion. All the people of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival in the month of Ethanim (the seventh month). When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark; they carried the ark of the...

By this point in awards season, Brad Pitt’s march toward a Best Supporting Actor Oscar seems all but inevitable. Not to say anyone’s complaining. In fact, the loudest knock against the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star is that his warm-up acceptance speeches at events like the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the BAFTAs have been a little too, well, perfect. [snip] Fenway Strategies is a speechwriting and communications firm founded by former Obama administration officials Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor. Although the firm’s most obvious connection is to the political arena, helping speakers prep TED...

The Washington Post editorial board is fed up with all of you people talking about the Democratic primary as some sort of internecine civil war between the far left and centrists. This week they point out that it’s simply not accurate to describe either Pete Buttigieg or Joe Biden as “centrists.” In fact, the entire field is chock full of socialists.Okay… they didn’t actually say “socialists” but that’s the general feeling they’re trying to get across. Everyone’s policies are way to the left, though some are a bit more left than others. IT HAS become an unchecked assumption about...

JACK (in comment section) The DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION SCHEDULE has been released. See below: 11:15 AM Free lunch, medical marijuana, and bus ride to the Convention. Forms distributed for Food Stamp enrollment. 2:30 PM Group Voter Registration for Undocumented Immigrants. 4:00 PM Opening Flag Burning Ceremony - Sponsored by CNN 4:15 PM Address on "Being the Real You" Rachel Dolezal, former Head of the Seattle NAACP and Caitlyn Jenner 4:30 PM "How to Bank $200 Million as a Public Servant and Claim to be Broke" - Hillary Clinton 4:45 PM “How to have a successful career without ever having a job,...

EAST ST. LOUIS – The East St. Louis School Superintendent Arthur Culver announced today that Flyers cheerleaders would be banned from performing the rest of the year after some of the team members broke out into a fight with Trinity Catholic High School’s cheerleading squad. The fight between the East St. Louis and Trinity Catholic cheerleaders happened Saturday in the Alton Shootout. The two were conducting dueling routines at center court when the melee erupted.

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China deployed its military aircraft on Sunday morning (Feb. 9) to the West Pacific by circling half of Taiwan, said the island nation’s Ministry of National Defense in the afternoon, adding that the authorities had responded immediately and appropriately to the Chinese military activity. China sent out a Shenyang J-11 fighter jet, a Xian H-6 bomber, and a Shaanxi KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft at around 11 a.m, and the planes flew through the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait — off the east coast of Taiwan — before returning to base, according to Taiwan’s...

Former New York City Mayor—and potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate—Michael Bloomberg called efforts to legalize marijuana "perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done." Speaking at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday, Bloomberg said on the subject, according to WBNG-TV: "We have a different kind of problem in America, for example. Last year, in 2017, 72,000 Americans [overdosed] on drugs. In 2018, more people than that are OD-ing on drugs, have OD'd on drugs. And today, incidentally, we are trying to legalize another addictive narcotic, which is perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done. We've got...

Gregory Timm made his first court appearance today and was ordered held on $500,000 bail. Timm faces two counts of aggravated assault on a person over the age of 65, which is a second-degree felony. If convicted, Timm could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison on each count. On the first-degree misdemeanor criminal mischief charge, which is for damage of more than $200 but less than $1,000, Timm faces up to a year in jail.

Liberal ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl told Clinton-ite and Democrat operative George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that the Democrat party does not look energized. The Democrats held a fundraiser in New Hampshire Saturday night and there were empty seats in the arena. This is the same arena in Manchester that President Trump packed to the brim with cheering supporters and many more in the overflow outside! The Democrat party is also fractured because of the infighting between Bernie Sanders supporters who can’t stand Pete Buttigieg. Biden has also been taking shots at Buttigieg and “Socialist” Bernie Sanders.

Migraine sufferers soon may have to seek relief elsewhere after GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced it temporarily halted the production of two popular Excedrin products. In a statement sent to Fox News, the company said it was not recalling either Excedrin Extra Strength Caplets and Geltabs or Excedrin Migraine Caplets and Geltabs, but that it had discovered “inconsistencies in how we transfer and weigh ingredients” in the products, and was temporarily suspending production and distribution. “Based on available data, GSK believes that the product does not pose a safety risk to consumers,” a GSK spokesperson said via email. “However, as a precautionary...

During his speech, Pitt also got political, calling out the Trump impeachment trial for blocking the testimony of former national security adviser John Bolton.

https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1226627073055318017

Posting this as a VANITY but hoping some media folks here pick it up. Amazing: SBA @SBANYPD Mayor DeBlasio, the members of the NYPD are declaring war on you! We do not respect you, DO NOT visit us in hospitals. You sold the NYPD to the vile creatures, the 1% who hate cops but vote for you. NYPD cops have been assassinated because of you. This isn’t over, Game on!

Labour MP Ben Bradshaw today told the House of Commons that "serious questions" will be asked about the Church of England's established status if it stands by its position on opposite-sex civil partnerships. A statement by the College of Bishops last month said that sex was for married heterosexual couples only. "For Christians, marriage – that is the lifelong union between a man and a woman, contracted with the making of vows – remains the proper context for sexual activity," the document said, adding that "sexual relationships outside heterosexual marriage are regarded as falling short of God's purposes for human...

Four US Senators, including Ted Cruz, penned a letter on February 6 to Jack Dorsey asking him to ban Iranian leadership from using Twitter as part of the US sanctions against Iran. Republican senators led by Ted Cruz in a letter Thursday suggested Twitter may be violating U.S. sanctions by letting Iranian leaders maintain accounts, which they asked company CEO Jack Dorsey to ban. The big picture: Twitter has become a major political target for Cruz and other Republicans, who claim the company and other Silicon Valley giants are biased against conservatives and the Trump administration. "While the First Amendment...