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... This year, American workers and their employers owe a combined 12.4 percent on Social Security payroll taxes for income up to $132,900 (rising to $137,700 in 2020). They owe nothing on earnings above that level. Some Democrats in the thick of the presidential race and on Capitol Hill now seek to change or eliminate that cap — potentially placing a new double-digit tax on high earners, with several plans focusing on earnings above $250,000. ... The result would be a large tax increase on high earners, even before other changes a Democratic administration might contemplate, such as increasing income...

Politico reports. "Of course she should get out," said one leading Democratic strategist who declined to speak on the record. "But who's gonna tell her?" Harris is struggling in the polls, but has reportedly told California insiders that she's not planning on dropping out of the race at least until after the Iowa caucus. But there are fears that even that could be too late and harm her reputation in the long run. "It's not happening," a leading grassroots organizer told Politico on the condition of anonymity. "She has her chance [to leave the race] ... she should take it."

‘Cytotron’, a medical invention by Bengaluru based scientist Rajah Vijay Kumar to help in cancer treatment has got the honour of being called a ‘breakthrough device’ in cancer care by the USA’s Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Centre for Device and Radiological Health ‘Cytotron’ aids in tissue engineering of cancer cells, altering how specific proteins are regulated to stop these cells from multiplying and spreading, reported Times of India. “It is a great feeling that after so many years of hard work against all odds, an institution like the USFDA is designating our work as a breakthrough in the treatment...

**SNIP** Although none of the Democratic candidates explicitly rebuked Mr Obama's comments, Mr Sanders mounted the strongest defence of his policy platform. Answering questions on a forum aired by Univision , a Spanish-language TV network, he was asked whether Mr Obama was "right" to say voters didn't want systemic change. Mr Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist and progressive, laughed and said: "Well, it depends on what you mean by tear down the system." "The agenda that we have is an agenda supported by the vast majority of working people," he said. "When I talk about raising the...

Fed on an anti-infidel diet from childhood, Pakistanis no matter where they are born, grow up ready for jehad. Even Muslims with a nominal Pakistani connection are beyond help. Pakistan is a country where the arrow of time is travelling backwards. In the 'Land of the Pure', Prime Minister Imran Khan promises to create a mythical seventh century Riyasat-e-Madina (1) yet Islamic demagogues such as Maulana Fazlur Rehman call him a Jewish agent. Rehman and hundreds of thousands of his frenzied followers are protesting nationwide, seeking Khan's resignation. With the corrupt, cowardly and jehadi generals of the Pakistan Army choreographing...

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is failing to garner significant support for his longshot presidential bid nationally, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week shows. Bloomberg, who signaled his intention to jump into the crowded Democrat primary field this week by filing paperwork to appear on the ballot in Arkansas’ March 3 presidential primary, is failing to see any sort of significant support nationally, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll, which surveyed 2,235 adults between November 12–14, 2019, showed only three percent of Democrats and independents supporting the former New York City mayor. Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and Sen....

You’ve probably seen this viral video circulating on Twitter. The camera pans up through a hole in the ceiling to reveal ... creatures of some kind. Are they aliens? Ghosts? No. They're owls. Really, really creepy owls. If you’re not entirely convinced that the hissing trio are indeed birds, you’re not alone. (I showed the video to one friend, who replied: “That cannot possibly be real.” Others have displayed similar skepticism online.) When the video first hit the internet in 2017, multiple sources reported that construction workers stumbled across the scraggly birds, known as eastern barn owls, at a site...

An Indian man is being investigated for gambling his wife away before assaulting her when she refused to go with the winner. The incident took place in the district of Banka in the north-eastern Indian state of Bihar when Binod Kumar Shah lost a bet who could not afford to pay, according to local media. To cover the debt, he allegedly offered his wife Chanda Devi to the other man.

The Democratic Party’s internal dispute over Medicare for All has reached this battleground state, and so far, supporters of a single-payer health care system are finding a tough audience. Union members in this labor stronghold state have expressed unease with Medicare for All, fearing they would lose health benefits that were hard-won over years of negotiations. A survey of 600 likely voters commissioned by the Detroit Regional Chamber this summer found that a majority opposed a Medicare for All proposal that would eliminate private health insurance, as proposed by Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Kamala Harris, a...

Women who live in America’s suburbs are supporting President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, says a new report at OpenSecrets.org, that shows Trump is benefiting from a surge in large-dollar donations from women in suburbs – more than any Democrat candidate. While mainstream media are reporting some polls that suggest Trump is losing the support of women, the report by Open Secrets, part of the Center for Responsive Politics, shows the president has over 10,500 large-dollar contributions from women in suburbs, and has received $8,293,135 from them – the largest amount than any of the Democrat 2020 candidates. “Suburban women, who...

The latest Quinnipiac poll of New Hampshire shows Joe Biden with a narrow lead in a close four-way race: Biden 20 Warren 16 Buttigieg 15 Sanders 14 The RealClearPolitics average of New Hampshire polls similarly shows a tight race: Biden and Warren are tied at 19.7 percent, Sanders is at 19.0 percent, and Buttigieg is at 11.3 percent. As for the bottom-tier, Quinnipiac finds Kamala Harris posting her worst polling result of 2019 in New Hampshire a couple weeks after the California senator fired her campaign staff and closed campaign offices in the state in order to redirect her diminishing...

President Bloomberg @Bloomberg4USA Replying to @KamalaHarris Warren has this covered FYI.

Michael Bloomberg’s official 2020 website unveiled the new campaign’s logo Friday night, but the near universal ridicule it received online was almost perfectly described by Bloomberg’s own tagline: “Owning It Together!”

Iran has discovered a new oil field in the country’s south with over 50 billion barrels of crude, its president said Sunday, a find that could boost the country’s proven reserves by a third as it struggles to sell energy abroad over U.S. sanctions. The announcement by Hassan Rouhani comes as Iran faces crushing American sanctions after the U.S. pulled out of its nuclear deal with world powers last year. Rouhani made the announcement in a speech in the desert city of Yazd. He said the field was located in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province, home to its crucial oil industry....

White House hopeful SeN. Kamala Harris's (D-Calif.) campaign shared footage Friday of the candidate addressing campaign staff from the night President Trump was elected in 2016. “We’re gonna have to figure out a way to go out there and give people something to believe in,” Harris tells a room full of campaign workers. She goes on to tell the staffers that her godson, Alexander, went up to her on November 9, 2016, and told her, through tears “I don’t want Trump to win. Did he win?” “And he’s crying. And so the tears of joy we shed when we elected...

Kamala Harris has dismissed claims that Black voters are less likely to support Pete Buttigieg as “nonsense.” The presidential candidate was responding to comments over the weekend from South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn, who told CNN that there was “no question” that Buttigieg’s sexuality was a problem for older Black voters. "I know of a lot of people my age that feel that way," Clyburn said. "I'm not going to sit here and tell you otherwise. I think everybody knows that's an issue." But Harris rejected that claim, speaking with CNN not long after. “I’m never going to buy into...

The Democrats believe that Trump, who is the president of the executive branch, is not allowed to discuss anything with the US Attorney General without their permission. Senate Democrats are now seeking documents over an alleged request by Trump for US Attorney General Bill Barr to hold a press conference to clear him of any wrongdoing with Ukraine. The Washington Post earlier this week reported that President Trump asked Bill Barr to hold a presser clearing him of wrongdoing and affirm that no laws were broken during his July 25 phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Bill Barr was...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Iran sparing over the incident involving a woman working for the International Atomic Energy Agency..... Iran says it shot down a drone from a foreign country near a southern port city.... A US-led naval coalition officially launching its mission of protecting shipping in the Persian Gulf..... In the country neighboring Iran, Iraq, anti-government protests continued Friday..... The Russian military beginning helicopter patrols along the Syrian-Turkish border..... Russian and Syrian aircraft launching airstrikes against jihadist positions in northwestern Syria today... The US Secretary of State taking aim at Russia and China..... A volatile Indian...

India's Supreme Court have today ruled in favour of a Hindu group in a long-running battle over a centuries-old religious site also claimed by Muslims, in a verdict that could raise tension between the two communities. The ruling paves the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site in the northern town of Ayodhya, a proposal long supported by Prime Minister Narenrda Modi's ruling Hindu-nationalist party who described the decision as a 'milestone'. The dispute over land ownership has been one of the country's most contentious issues, and was inflamed when the 16th-century Babri Masjid mosque was...

In a bid for black votes, Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer came out strongly in favor of slavery reparations. “The 400 years of unfairness toward blacks must be offset with 400 years of favoritism toward the descendants of the victims of slavery and oppression.” Steyer acknowledged that “it may not be possible to sort out the whites who were responsible for the crimes against blacks from the whites who worked, fought, and died to end these crimes. Neither can we identify blacks who contributed to the crimes by capturing people in Africa to sell to slave traders or who were,...