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PITTSBURGH — A steady stream of boats headed up the Monongahela River toward the Hot Metal Bridge while a crowd of protesters clashed with supporters on the riverwalk Saturday. Hundreds of boats and thousands of people were expected to take part in a boat parade in support of President Donald Trump. Most supporting Trump were dressed in red, white and blue and didn’t have masks. As chanting escalated back and forth between Trump supporters and protesters, mounted police positioned themselves between the two groups. Tensions heightened as the two sides began yelling and cursing at each other on the riverwalk....

ITS GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME , , , On a cheerful note I am rereading a book titled "Its Getting Better All The Time: 100 Greatest Trends Of The Last 100 Years, by Stephen Moore and Julian Simon. Here are a couple of comments from the blurbs: "A refreshing breath of optimism and sanity amidst all the gloom and doom."__John Stossel ABC News ________ "This book is so chock full of good news that it's virtually guaranteed to cheer up even the clinically depressed. Moore and Simon dismantle the doomsday pessimism that's still so commonplace in academia and the...

... Gun violence exploded across the city after the NYPD disbanded its anti-crime unit of plainclothes cops on June 15, with three times as many shootings in the last two weeks of the month over the same period in 2019, police stats show. And the shocking rise in gunfire — to 116 incidents from 38 between June 15 and June 2, a 205 percent increase — meant scores more victims were hurt or killed by bullets this year over last year. Gunshot injuries skyrocketed to 157 from 47 in 2019, a 238 percent increase. With a total of 205 shootings...

On a very different Fourth of July, when many Americans are wrestling with the racist misdeeds of the country's heroes and confronting an unrelenting pandemic with surging cases, their commander-in-chief is attempting to drag America backward -- stirring fear of cultural change while flouting the most basic scientific evidence about disease transmission. In a jaw-dropping speech that amounted to a culture war bonfire, President Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore to frame protesters as a nefarious left-wing mob that intends to "end America." Those opponents, he argued, are engaged in a "merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame...

Click here for Trump's July 4 broadcast scheduled for 3:30pm PDT  

Video only of 'protestors' marching toward Stone Mountain GA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AWUr3lY34o&feature=youtu.be

In a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court Struck down a Louisiana law requiring that persons performing abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. In the majority opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer explained that “since the objective of an abortion is, of necessity, the death of the unborn baby it makes no sense to require that persons seeking this objective have recourse to aid that could only be intended to save a life. This applies to the doctor who has been hired expressly for the purpose of preventing the unwanted life and to the mother who has hired him.” Breyer...

VIDEO: Young Americans know nothing about 4th of July Campus Reform spoke with young Americans and students ahead of the 4th of July to see what they knew about the holiday. Most said America was a racist country but couldn’t answer simple questions about the country’s Independence Day.

Colin Kaepernick issued a fierce rebuke of Independence Day, slamming the 'celebration of white supremacy' and calling out America for 'centuries' of abuse against black people.'Black ppl have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized + terrorized by America for centuries, & are expected to join your commemoration of 'independence', while you enslaved our ancestors,' Kaepernick said in his tweet. 'We reject your celebration of white supremacy & look forward to liberation for all.

As of this writing, fines are being issued for not wearing a mask in Los Angeles, Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, New Mexico, with other states rapidly coming online. But none of these states care one whit about you wearing a mask, it is about you getting in line and obeying the order, so that when the vaccine comes, you will be too afraid not to take it. And if they can make you wear a mask, make you take the vaccine, then getting you to take the digital Immunity Passport will be a piece of cake, as the old saying goes....

**SNIP** Even Biden’s declining mental acuity wouldn’t concern me all that much. I’d be worried for one reason: Wile E. Coyote. Hear me out. The famous Looney Tunes coyote devoted all of his time to one mission. He was determined to catch and eat the Road Runner. Wile E. was cunning and persistent and yet he managed to fail miserably time and again. He constantly overcomplicated his mission. The harder he tried, the more ridiculous he looked. He was obsessed with hurting the Road Runner, but in the end he was always the one falling off a cliff. Does this...

PING LIST - Please contact me as needed... COVID-19 Update # 108 As of 07/03/2020 23:15 PDST     United States CDC - Provisional NumbersAs of 00/00/2020 23:45 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Capture Nations InformatonAs of 00/00/2020 23:45 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Capture Counties InformationAs of 00/00/2020 23:46 PDST     Johns Hopkins University - Process JHU DataAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Document Core NumbersAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Capture Nations InformationAs of 00/00/2020 23:59 PDST     WorldofMeters - Capture States InformationAs of 00/00/2020 00:00...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley is seeking to cut in half the budget for an in-house Pentagon think tank, citing in part dubious contracts awarded to Stefan Halper, the FBI’s main spy in its Trump-Russia probe. Mr. Grassley’s target is the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), which gauges foreign threats and the U.S. military’s ability to defeat them. Mr. Halper, whom the FBI wired and deployed to try to persuade Trump associates to implicate themselves in a Russia conspiracy, has received over $1 million in ONA contracts for various studies on China and Russia. “That office has lost its...

President Trump’s suspension of various visa programs and regulatory reforms is set to give American workers newly found leverage in the job market, a report details. The banking and technology industry, Sarah Butcher reports for efinancialcareers.com, may go into “bidding wars” to fight for American workers at higher wages and better benefits thanks to Trump’s suspension of the H-1B, H-4, H-2B, J-1, and L visas. Trump has also implemented vital regulatory reforms to the H-1B visa to prevent corporations from using the program to outsource cheap tech jobs to imported foreign workers. The visa suspension and reforms, Butcher reports, are...

For US National Security Advisor John Bolton warned that President Trump’s reelection could imperil Israel. Speaking with Israel’s Channel 13 in an interview which is set to be aired Thursday night, Bolton said he fears that if President Trump is reelected this November, it could create a ‘risk’ for Israel. Specifically, Bolton claimed that Trump is “eager” to open negotiations with Iran and could offer sanctions relief, something which would pose a “a danger”. .....

SEATTLE - Hundreds of protesters gathered in Magnuson Park Friday night before making their way to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s neighborhood. The crowd that marched to the mayor’s home was large enough to fill an entire city block, with an estimated two thousand in attendance. **SNIP** The crowd of protesters loudly marched into her neighborhood, chanting about their demands to defund Seattle police and reform justice, and demanding that she resign. The protesters also brought with them a large sound system, noisemakers, cowbells and music. After an hourlong rally, demonstrators paraded past the mayor’s gate where KIRO 7 was told...

President Donald Trump jetted to South Dakota on Friday to deliver a paean to what he believes to be is a forgotten America, in the shadow of Mount Rushmore. The speech laid out Trump's consistently grim vision for an America in which he is not its President as he engaged in his usual amount of fact-bending and breaking to serve his rhetorical and political purposes. I went through the transcript -- and pulled out the lines you need to see. 1. "Let us also send our deepest thanks to our wonderful veterans, law enforcement, first responders and the doctors, nurses...

OneRepublic and Jeep have extended their relationship with a new Super Bowl commercial, which the automaker has released ahead of Sunday's big game. The ad is called "More Than Just Words," and it's described as a "illustrative narration" of "The Star Spangled Banner." We see Ryan Tedder and the rest of OneRepublic entering a recording studio, where Ryan starts to sing, "Oh say, can you see." Each word he sings is illustrated by an image -- for example, as he sings "can," we see someone opening up the pull-tab of a soda can. When he sings "see," we see a...

The editor of The Boston Globe plans to give reporters and other staff members “the necessary time to look back six months and assess their work through a racial lens,” according to a memo he sent the newspaper’s staff earlier this week. Brian McGrory, the editor, wants reporters, columnists, editors, photographers, and video producers to count “how many people of color were subjects, how many were quoted as experts, how many were depicted in photographs and videos, and in what fashion?” It’s not a witch hunt, he said. “This exercise is not meant to embarrass or penalize anyone. It’s to...

For the tens of millions of Americans of faith who worship together regularly, the onset of COVID-19 has been a spiritual tragedy. Houses of worship of every faith and denomination have been emptied by government fiat. ... One person who wants to be in church is Major Daniel Schultz of the United States Air Force. A devout Christian, Major Schultz is active in his church and is a member of the worship team. He attends church each week because he believes gathering with his fellow believers is an essential practice of his faith. Major Schultz is currently assigned to a...