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WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back Friday against the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco's criticism of COVID-related restrictions, saying he should “follow science” rather than advocate for fuller in-person gatherings for Mass and worship. Asked about Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone's recent op-ed protesting limits on larger public gatherings, Pelosi, a practicing Catholic, said he should not be putting people's lives at risk. “With all due respect to my archbishop, I think we should follow science on this,” Pelosi said. The right to worship has become a fierce touchstone in the debate over state and local rules to stem...

Count Vlad is doing David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes." The Count's mom is also present. It's parody, it's campy, it's a fun fest for the eyes, ears and the golden years... 1950s sci-fi alert. If you like the music please subscribe to the channel.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris joined the nine other Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in calling upon Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz to investigate U.S. Attorney John Durham’s inquiry into the Russia investigation. “We write to request that you investigate whether U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation complies with Department of Justice policies, including policies that protect criminal investigations from political influence,” Harris and her Senate colleagues wrote to Horowitz in a (two-page letter) on Thursday. “The Department’s mission ‘to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans’ requires that its prosecutorial decisions be insulated...

During an interview with the BBC this week, Epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta reminded the audience that Wuhan Coronavirus is not a deadly disease for large swaths of the population and recommended allowing most people to get back to their lives. Further, she recommended mass testing be stopped and focused instead on vulnerable populations -- specifically on individuals who regularly interact with people who are high risk.  "It’s not deadly in a very large section of the population, so that presents us with this workable solution where by we can stop testing them, let them get on with their lives, let them...

Soybean prices have surged to their highest levels in more than two years, driven by heavy buying from Chinese importers. Most-active soybean futures trading on the Chicago Board of Trade closed Friday at over $10.43 per bushel, their highest level since May 2018. Soybean prices have risen more than 16% since the start of August.

Nuclear expert James Acton believes that we are entering into an era of what he calls “nuclear entanglement,” one that promises to be different from anything we’ve seen before. Its main characteristic: an increasingly blurry line between nuclear and conventional weapons. “During the Cold War, the nuclear and non-nuclear domains were largely distinct,” said Acton in an interview for the podcast, Press The Button. “Most delivery systems were nuclear or they were conventional, but they couldn’t accommodate both types of weapons.” The same goes for the threats facing nuclear weapons themselves. The majority of these, he explained, “came from other...

Chicago Police officers have waited more than three years for a new contract and the retroactive pay raise that comes with it. The first substantive offer they got from Mayor Lori Lightfoot was hardly worth the wait, according to their fiery union president. Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said he stormed away from Tuesday’s long-awaited negotiating session after the mayor’s team offered his members the same 10% pay raise over four years already awarded to Chicago firefighters in exchange for higher health care contributions — but tacked on 17 pages, including 40 disciplinary reforms. Catanzara was so insulted...

Is It Time To Decolonize Your Lawn? How is this real? Well we must get straight past that question because this is Not the Bee, where the seemingly unreal becomes very real every day. Now come with me on an adventure as we dive into this surreal gem of an article from the Globe and Mail to find out why, indeed, our lawns are racist and we are terrible scumbag colonizers for maintaining them.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that “five or six” more countries are close to following the UAE and Bahrain in signing peace deals with Israel. And although he wouldn’t reveal the identity of these countries, an official in the Palestinian Authority may have. According to Israel’s state run Kann News, Israel is in normalization talks with Oman, Sudan, Comoro Islands, Djibouti and Mauritania. All of those countries are Muslim and with the exception of Oman, all are African. Mauritania, a member of the Arab League, may not come as a surprise as Nouakchott said it trusts the “wisdom...

With the pandemic devastating state tax revenues, Gov. Andrew Cuomo quite rightly had his Division of the Budget hold back $4 billion in funds for local governments, nonprofits and school districts. But he’s declined to stint on the pork. As the Empire Center reports, that same Division of the Budget has ordered the Dormitory Authority (which, despite the name, dumps cash on all manner of projects) to release grants totaling a whopping $46 million from April through July. The 226 grants are funding by bonds issued without voter approval. Most of them were authorized via the State and Municipal Facilities Program, a $2...

The president of the American Psychological Association (APA), which represents psychologists in the United States, accused the United States of harboring a “racism pandemic,” and the president of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) stated, “Every institution in America is born from the blood of white supremacist ideology and capitalism—and that’s the disease,” according to the APA. Those statements were made by APA President Sandra Shullman and ABPsi President Theopia Jackson. Shulman stated: We are living in a racism pandemic, which is taking a heavy psychological toll on our African American citizens. The health consequences are dire. Racism is associated...

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin pledged on CNN Thursday not to go home to her district in Michigan without a deal in Congress to pass another round of coronavirus stimulus. Less than an hour later, Stolkin was spotted at Reagan National Airport and refused to answer questions.“I was not going to go back to my district and walk around and go to the grocery store and have people ask me again about the state of the latest COVID emergency bill and tell them because of politics we couldn’t get in a room together,” Slotkin said on air.Forty minutes later however, Slotkin...

Marshall University professor Jennifer Mosher was placed on leave this week after she was recorded saying that she hopes that Trump supporters die before the election of coronavirus. The university placed Mosher, a biology professor, on leave shortly after a clip of her comments circulated online. According to a report by Campus Reform, Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, has placed biology professor Jennifer Mosher on leave over disparaging comments she made about Trump supporters during a recent class session that was recorded by students. Speaking about a Trump rally, Mosher says in the clip: “Yesterday he held one inside....

Let’s squarely face an ugly possibility: President Trump could get elected a second time without winning the popular vote. Indeed, according to most experts, that’s the only way he could be re-elected. This would surely prompt another chorus of calls to scrap the Electoral College. I think that would be a mistake. I say that even as I acknowledge that Trump has undermined the Electoral College’s legitimacy—not because he owes his election to it, but because of how he has behaved since taking office. One of the Electoral College’s purposes is to broaden the president’s mandate and agenda by forcing...

There's been a lot of discussion around whether or not Catholics can support the Democratic Party. I laid out an introduction here and here as a background for examining their platform regarding those things a Catholic can never support: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, and homosexual marriage. Below, are the major party platforms and policy initiatives on these issues of life. Abortion"The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights—for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture—is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and...

Joe Biden is a straw man, a lightweight, a puppet, a clown. He belongs on a rocking chair in an old folks' home with an knitted afghan over his knees. The real enemy to our country is the cabal that is propping him up. It's time we set our sights on the ventriloquist, not the dummy. First, we need to expose the men behind the curtain, the people pulling the strings, the power behind the clone. Then, we need to destroy them with the most powerful weapon in our arsenal: truth. But that's not enough. And this is the hard...

Agroup of social workers, mental health professionals and concerned community members met outside Buffalo City Hall Thursday to denounce Mayor Byron W. Brown's proposal for a new police unit that would pair officers with social workers on mental health emergency calls. Brown first outlined plans for a behavioral health team Aug. 22. .. The mayor noted that mental health professionals routinely request assistance from the Buffalo Police when they receive a call for service in a situation that involves a person experiencing a mental health crisis, and said such a joint approach to assisting people in distress was endorsed by...

Celebrated with trumpet blasts, prayers, and festive meals, this holiday is a time for reflection and marks the start of the Jewish high holy days.Food, sound, prayer, reflection, celebration. Jewish people around the world will wish one another “Shanah tovah” (Hebrew for “good year”) during Rosh Hashanah, the observance of the Jewish New Year. Here’s what you need to know about the holiday, which takes place this year between sundown on September 18 and sundown on September 20 and kicks off the Jewish high holy days. Origins and meaning of Rosh Hashanah Jewish people welcome the new year in...

U.S. Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Broadway League renewed the call for dedicated federal funding for Broadway and other New York live venues today, reiterating the push for the $10 billion bipartisan Save Our Stages campaign. “Today we are fighting hard to keep stages alive, stories told and shows going on,” Schumer said at an outdoor press conference in New York’s theater district near the TKTS Booth. The senator joked that he would demand “a Lion King’s share of federal relief” for Broadway. Citing the $15 billion contributed by Broadway to New York’s economy last year, the 100,000...

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she'll withhold millions of federal dollars from Connecticut schools that won't withdraw from an athletic conference that allows transgender students to enter competitions based on their chosen gender. Students and parents have argued the some transgender students, particularly boys who identify as girls, have dominated sports like track and field, limiting playing time and opportunities for college scholarships. The move by the Education Department would withhold about $18 million intended to help schools desegregate, according to The New York Times. The department's Office for Civil Rights has warned officials at three Connecticut school districts several...