At Politico:
Obviously, the truth is making career staffers at State uncomfortable. That is not our problem. - @gastonmooney https://t.co/n1uTd9dtfP
— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) March 22, 2017
Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education - from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
Obviously, the truth is making career staffers at State uncomfortable. That is not our problem. - @gastonmooney https://t.co/n1uTd9dtfP
— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) March 22, 2017
Samuel Freeman reviews three new books on the lives and ideas of the Frankfurt School https://t.co/hvQCb6baBl
— NY Review of Books (@nybooks) March 13, 2017
The Guardian understands the initial working theories of the police investigation are the attacker was inspired by Isis and was most likely a “lone actor”. The attacker’s identity was already known to counter-terrorism officials. Rowley said investigators were trying to establish the attacker’s associates and his preparations for the attack.Apparently, "police refuse to name" the suspect, and that's apparently after a number of outlets identified the wrong person.
'ALARMED' AS DETAILS WIDELY DISSEMINATED... https://t.co/Y49xQXb9Ld— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) March 22, 2017
#BREAKING: Man shot by police outside Parliament. More details to follow. pic.twitter.com/aa8IVWpj5k
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
A policeman is understood to have shot an intruder three times at close range outside the Houses of Parliament https://t.co/oiCGGVWrPq pic.twitter.com/9f0qNpsg5z
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
Westminster in lockdown: Two people were seen lying within Old Palace Yard, immediately outside Westminster Hall https://t.co/oiCGGVWrPq pic.twitter.com/bGimxJPOKR
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
At least a dozen injured people on Westminster Bridge near UK parliament, a Reuters photographer reports https://t.co/oiCGGVWrPq pic.twitter.com/CJ86cc6W5a
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
Scotland Yard said it was called to a firearms incident on Westminster Bridge amid reports of several people injured https://t.co/oiCGGVWrPq pic.twitter.com/u9tQKvqXfj
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
An Air Ambulance outside the Palace of Westminster after an armed man was 'shot dead by police' https://t.co/oiCGGVWrPq pic.twitter.com/mmiFRk8bwP
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
Major security alert under way at Palace of Westminster: man reportedly shot by police outside Houses of Parliament https://t.co/oiCGGVWrPq pic.twitter.com/h3TCjMMn6v
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
House of Commons Leader David Lidington tells MPs a "police officer has been stabbed" and the "alleged assailant was shot by armed police" pic.twitter.com/dSvn86qdGD
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
The scene on Westminster Bridge. A major security alert is under way at the Houses of Parliament https://t.co/oiCGGVWrPq https://t.co/6jtXVsNJat
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
Staff inside Westminster were told to stay in their offices and the PM was reportedly bundled away from parliament https://t.co/oiCGGVWrPq pic.twitter.com/lp44TdIfrY
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 22, 2017
Police shoot 'knife wielding man' outside Parliament after car mows down five people on Westminster Bridge https://t.co/H6XQNCZRrs pic.twitter.com/QgEoj8PKs0
— Daily Mail U.K. (@DailyMailUK) March 22, 2017
Looks like they have stopped CPR on the intruder at Parliament
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) March 22, 2017
Intruder has been lifted onto stretcher and is being put in ambulance
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) March 22, 2017
A blanket has been put over person down who we think was police officer. First aiders have stopped treating them
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) March 22, 2017
Ambulance carrying intruder has left Parliament. The body of the person we think was police officer is dead, body covered by red blanket
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) March 22, 2017
Commons tannoy: "Due to security incident all buildings have been locked down - please stay in current location until further notice"
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) March 22, 2017
NEW: Metropolitan police say they're treating firearms incident "as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise." https://t.co/6ilOxFEvKs pic.twitter.com/XyEqRPnyRV
— ABC News (@ABC) March 22, 2017
#ParliamentAttack: "Witnesses describe 'Asian guy' in his 40s carrying eight-inch long knife": https://t.co/Z4TZ1k6Y0Q
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 22, 2017
#Sears owner says 'substantial doubt' it can stay in business: https://t.co/tJ5nYp8om3
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 22, 2017
"What's that crumbling noise?" #FakeNewsMedia @CNN the most Distrusted Name in News.. #BenGarrison #cartoons at https://t.co/x1pNN6ymoT pic.twitter.com/zrDJhZDV7W
— BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) March 21, 2017
There is more than one way to destroy a democracy. @RichardEvans36 on Volker Ullrich's new biography of Hitler https://t.co/f0cxQtlvTH— The Nation Bks_Arts (@BooksandtheArts) March 16, 2017
Ivanka now has an official office in the West Wing next to Powell, getting a security clearance + gov-issued phone: https://t.co/pUvRxreSdC
— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) March 20, 2017
I normally hate this genre of tweets, but: imagine if Chelsea Clinton got a West Wing office https://t.co/VJqh2Ouv0Y
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) March 20, 2017
If Hillary had won, she probably would have had one. https://t.co/2DqYvh0G7i
— Kathleen McKinley (@KatMcKinley) March 20, 2017
Democrats still haven't faced their God problem https://t.co/Aivj3h2S3Q via @nypost
— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) March 20, 2017
PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic Party has a God problem.Washo and Chism need to get real: The Democrats are a Marxist party. They've doctrinally abandoned God as a matter of ideology and politics. Any outward expression of faith on the part of Democrat office-seekers is artifice. I mean, c'mon. Abortion politics, to mention just one policy item, is predicated on the rejection of moral values and Biblical teaching: Jeremiah 1:5: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations..."
And over the last couple of decades, as its base became more educated, less religious and more urban, this problem has only grown.
Some of this has to do with lower church attendance in cities versus rural areas, and the Democratic Party’s increasing reliance on urban voters. Some of it is the divisiveness of social or cultural issues like abortion and gay marriage. And the divide has seemingly sapped Democrats’ ability to communicate to religious Americans.
Especially if those people of faith are white, according to Brad Chism, a longtime and respected Democratic strategist based in Mississippi.
“And that problem extends to the national media, who by and large are mostly Democrats, meaning you have these powerful forces who do not understand more than half of the people in this country,” he said.
Chism makes a crucial point about what this means for American politics: Some of the greatest moral advancements in our country’s history have been accomplished largely through the influence of the church and churchgoing people, especially through the 20th century.
“You look at women’s suffrage, civil rights, the abolition of slavery and all of these massive other changes — religion and religious people have played a role in moving society toward a higher plane,” said Chism.
“We’ve seen that recently as well, but a lot of progressives and liberal Democrats don’t see the role of religion in society, and that is a big mistake,” he said.
And it’s a mistake people like Kevin Washo are trying to rectify, though they feel like they’re swimming against the tide. A day before the Democratic National Convention opened here last July, Washo, a Catholic and prominent national Democrat, organized a private Mass led by a Jesuit priest in the conference room of a prestigious law firm in a shimmering Market Street skyscraper.
That imagery is a far cry from the 2012 Democratic convention, when the hall exploded in turmoil as Democrats voted to amend their party’s platform to include the word “God.” The platform initially had dropped previous platform language that referenced God. After an outcry, convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa returned to the stage to take a floor vote on a motion to reinsert the language.
The floor vote quite clearly failed as Villaraigosa repeated the roll call. Eventually he declared that “the ayes have it,” and loud boos exploded across the arena.
The headlines that came out of that debacle — “Democrats boo God” was a common one — ended up making matters worse for those, like Washo and Chism, who would like to see their party counter the perception of its estrangement from people of faith...
@JeffBezos "Why do I feel so much like #sigourneyweaver ?" @amazon #MARS2017 #openpodbaydoors 😬🤓 pic.twitter.com/HRRzmQtZbh
— Caleb Harper (@calebgrowsfood) March 20, 2017
I am a fan of Dioni Tabbers. I don’t really know all that much about her, other than the fact that she doesn’t really have much of a following, considering she’s been getting naked for photoshoots for at least 4 years…at least according to my documenting of her getting naked -> LINK HERE BUT TOO LAZY TO GO FIND IT.Heh.
A husband stood by his wife after her affair with a middle school kid https://t.co/PFojR41y7T pic.twitter.com/xe5rP3p8P3
— New York Post (@nypost) March 20, 2017
Fmr law student: Neil Gorsuch told ethics class firms should ask female applicants if they plan to have children https://t.co/e3mZtg2HNm
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) March 20, 2017
former law student of Gorsuch claims he said women manipulate employers by not disclosing plans to become pregnant https://t.co/9EIByGZeAI
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) March 20, 2017
.@michellemalkin @JammieWF now @NPR trying to walk it back, too late, they published a flimsy hit piece and should be held accountable pic.twitter.com/Z3Z573jcEy
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) March 20, 2017
Minor detail. "Former Female Student Making Allegations Against Gorsuch Has Ties to Obama, Democrats" https://t.co/xp50t0RsTo
— Kelsey Harkness (@kelseyjharkness) March 20, 2017
Chuck Berry was a dynamic force on the frenzied rock 'n' roll tours of the 1950s. He died at age 90. https://t.co/VfHehF0JOT pic.twitter.com/hKIqo7bXsJ— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 18, 2017
RIP Chuck Berry. The 1st song that @thebeatles performed at their 1st US concert was "Roll Over Beethoven."— George Harrison (@GeorgeHarrison) March 19, 2017
Watch: https://t.co/rFyPCranEw pic.twitter.com/8JSgALNjDY
It's Showtime: Leonard A. Leo Previews the Gorsuch Confirmation Hearing https://t.co/1uCK4TJnvD— The Weekly Standard (@weeklystandard) March 20, 2017
Senate battle over Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has been relatively mild, but that's about to change https://t.co/hNHOf7ShRo pic.twitter.com/i2BBSPtnt5— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 19, 2017
Mariah Carey puts on a VERY busty display while celebrating St Patrick's Day https://t.co/s0WX7T28uw pic.twitter.com/1hUn4TEPZM— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) March 18, 2017
Britney Spears models two thigh-skimming dresses and asks Instagram to choose the winner https://t.co/KZjcQl8DXO pic.twitter.com/aaRo419coP— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) March 18, 2017
‘Big Bang Star’ Mayim Bialik takes on Linda Sarsour’s anti-Zionist slur https://t.co/UdQuX3IU50— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) March 18, 2017
#LindaSarsour Highjacking #Feminist Movement, push Anti #Israel, #BDS Movement: wants women to attack Israel. #Islamic Left must be stopped pic.twitter.com/ORkBllpv4S— Ben (@benghand) March 18, 2017
#MayimBialik Contradicts Anti-#Israel #LindaSarsour: #Zionism, #Feminism Don’t Mix. Sarsour using feminism for #Islamic #Palestinian agenda pic.twitter.com/AjJpywaDxv— Ben (@benghand) March 18, 2017
This West Virginia newspaper front page should scare Republicans https://t.co/rSockUQ8aG pic.twitter.com/u7xwy5Fat9— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) March 17, 2017
.@TomiLahren explains why she's pro-choice: "Stay out of my guns and you can stay out of my body, as well." pic.twitter.com/0kFXJ7oL9L
— The View (@TheView) March 17, 2017
Dynamic freshman duo again carry the Bruins to victory https://t.co/6u34OwoxWj
— L.A. Times Sports (@latimessports) March 18, 2017
FINAL score presented by Sanyo: UCLA 97, Kent State 80.#KSUvsUCLA l #GoBruins pic.twitter.com/K8DWKeUm0Z
— UCLA Basketball (@UCLAMBB) March 18, 2017
TJ Leaf (23 pts), Lonzo Ball (15 pts) & Aaron Holiday (15 pts) powered UCLA past Kent State, 97-80.
— UCLA Basketball (@UCLAMBB) March 18, 2017
MORE: https://t.co/94W2Flb68i pic.twitter.com/r0XrFThWIV
— Mind-Numbed Robot (@mnrobot) March 18, 2017
A football kit has never looked so appealing... https://t.co/ubXX57eF8P pic.twitter.com/oQf9FC7rjg— Page 3 (@Page3) March 18, 2017
Geert Wilders and the Real Story of the Election https://t.co/Jx82X5jiwG— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) March 16, 2017
Has the “Patriotic Spring” sprung? What’s next for #Netherlands after elections, now @monkeycageblog https://t.co/KC0Cpre7Qg
— Joshua Tucker (@j_a_tucker) March 16, 2017
What does a coalition look like?
In multiparty countries, the absence of a clear majority winner means parties bargain over policy and government positions until a coalition emerges that can earn the support of a majority in parliament. In the Netherlands, once that bargaining is done, a more formal coalition agreement then names the prime minister and cabinet, which then draws up the Government’s Statement of policy priorities.
This coalition bargaining process in the Netherlands generally takes about three months. Large parties hold a bargaining advantage because they require fewer partners to form a majority.
Since World War II, the largest Dutch party has been either the centrist Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the social democratic Labor Party (PvdA), or the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Coalitions form around the leader of one of these three to be the prime minister.
As noted in Figure 1, the Labor Party (PvdA) suffered a loss of 26 seats. There are numerous parties of the left and center, along with smaller parties. But adding together the seats claimed by the PvdA, Green Left (GL), Socialist (SP), Christian Union (CU), Party for the Animals (PvdD), pensioners’ (50 Plus) and multiculturalism (DENK) parties falls far short of the necessary majority.
All the major parties during the campaign pledged not to work with Wilders, even though the PPV holds a sizable number of seats. In 2012, Wilders backed out of his governing arrangement with the VVD and CDA. That episode and his further radicalization and controversial statements may leave PPV out of the final coalition.
President Trump released a spending plan Thursday that would slash programs across government with a machete to pay for sharp increases in the military, veterans’ health and the construction of a wall along the southwest border.More.
On the chopping block: billions of dollars in research aimed at fighting diseases and climate change; job training programs; grants to local communities that pay for public transit and housing, heating oil for the poor; diplomatic efforts across the globe; and libraries.
Proposed for elimination: at least 19 independent agencies including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Trump argued that many of the programs he wants to slash are ineffective, outdated or duplicative. Beyond that, he says the budget is sending a message to reorder $1.1 trillion in the federal government’s discretionary spending around his “America First” agenda, putting defense and border security at the center while curtailing other government functions.
“We can't spend money on programs just because they sound good,” said Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget and a conservative former congressman from South Carolina.
In addition to proposing cuts across the spectrum, Trump would increase funding for school choice, counter-terrorism and the hiring of more border agents and immigration judges and prosecutors. But the biggest increase, by far, would go to the military in the form of an additional $54 billion in annual spending.
The budget, which lacks many details Trump and his agency leaders will add in the coming months, will not become law in its current form...
Harvard-educated man sentenced to 40 years for bizarre Vallejo kidnapping police had called hoax https://t.co/cVmFeM9NYn @brittny_mejia— Hailey Branson-Potts (@haileybranson) March 17, 2017
It had been nearly two years since Denise Huskins had been in the same room as the man who kidnapped her in the early morning darkness.Keep reading.
Standing at a podium in a Sacramento courthouse, she faced him. Then she turned her words against the man — a Harvard-educated former attorney — who had bound, drugged and raped her twice.
“Now we meet face to face, eye to eye,” Huskins told Matthew Muller. “I’m Denise Huskins, the woman behind the blindfold.”
Huskins’ family and friends grew teary eyed as she described her pain after Muller kidnapped her on March 23, 2015, and after the Vallejo Police Department, at one point, publicly portrayed the case as a hoax.
In an emotional scene, Huskins asked that Muller be sentenced to life in prison.
“I know, without doubt or hesitation, that as long as he walks free, there will be more victims,” she said.
At the sentencing, Muller’s defense attorney argued for a 30-year sentence, citing his client’s struggles with mental illness.
“I’m sick with shame,” Muller said, adding that he would accept whatever sentence was imposed.
His parents sat with their younger son and their family and friends, as they waited in silence for U.S. District Court Judge Troy L. Nunley to hand down his sentence:
Forty years in prison.
The kidnapping took place before dawn as Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, slept in the master bedroom of his home on Mare Island. The couple awoke to find a stranger standing in the room.
Using a stun gun and a water pistol made to look like a gun, Muller ordered the couple to lie still while he bound and blindfolded them and gave them a sleep-inducing liquid, prosecutors said. A recorded message played over headsets, threatening electric shock if the couple did not comply with his orders.
Muller placed Huskins in the trunk of Quinn’s 2000 Toyota Camry and moved her to the trunk of another car before driving her to his family’s South Lake Tahoe home...
MY take on Dutch elections. Headline by @nytimes doesn't really summarize different points made in it. #TK17 🇳🇱 https://t.co/9ZmoHAC936
— Cas Mudde (@CasMudde) March 16, 2017
The parliamentary election in the Netherlands on Wednesday was predicted to be the next populist show of strength after the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s election. The Dutch would be the first of a number of European countries to succumb to the right-wing populists’ siren songs in 2017, with the French not far behind.
It didn’t work out that way.
Geert Wilders, who is all too often described as a bleach blond or referred to as “the Dutch Trump,” did not defeat the conservative prime minister, Mark Rutte. In fact, he didn’t come close.
With more than 95 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or V.V.D., came first with 21.2 percent of the vote, compared to Mr. Wilders’s Party for Freedom, which took only 13.1 percent. Mr. Wilders barely improved on his margin in the 2012 election (where he took 10.1 percent) and failed to do as well as he did in 2010 (where he got 15.5 percent of the vote).
The real story in Dutch politics isn’t Mr. Wilders’s rise, it is the unprecedented fragmentation of the political system. Together, Mr. Rutte’s and Mr. Wilders’s parties look set to make up only 33 percent of the Parliament, with 11 more political parties constituting the rest. This splintering of Dutch politics is making effective governance of the country increasingly impossible.
While previous Parliaments have counted 14 or more factions, what has changed is the relative size of the parties. In 1986, the top three parties together won 85 percent of the vote. In 2003, it was down to 74 percent. Today it is just around 45 percent.
Because of its proportional representation system of voting, the Netherlands is an extreme case. But the trends are similar across Western Europe: The main center-right and center-left parties are shrinking, smaller parties are growing and unstable coalition politics are becoming the norm. There are many reasons for this — from secularization to deindustrialization to the emergence of new political issues, like the environment or immigration.
The consequences have been painfully visible across Europe for some time. It took Belgium 541 days to form a government after its 2010 election. Both Greece and Spain were in recent years forced to hold second elections after the first Parliaments failed to form coalitions. In the Netherlands, forming a government is not quite as difficult, but the next one will most likely be a coalition of four to six parties.
If the Party for Freedom is excluded — and almost all parties have pledged that they will refuse to serve in a coalition with Mr. Wilders — the government will probably consist of five or six medium-size parties that span almost the entire political spectrum. Given that the conservative V.V.D. and the Christian Democratic Appeal are ideologically closer to the Party for Freedom than they are to, for example, the Green Left party with which they will be governing, the government will be rightly perceived as an anti-Wilders coalition.
This will play right into Mr. Wilders’s hands. He has long argued that the Netherlands’ political parties are all the same. Being the leader of the largest opposition party against an internally divided, weak “anti-Wilders” coalition is undoubtedly his second most desired outcome of the elections — after, of course, winning an outright majority of the votes.
The only way to break this vicious circle is for the parties in government to come together to support a positive program, one that justifies their cooperation and their decision to exclude Mr. Wilders...
Professor Robert Kelly speaks to us again - now we can officially meet his wife & children 😉 https://t.co/SmwRdyPOd7 #BBCDad pic.twitter.com/smCE8iW431— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 14, 2017
FEAR AND LOATHING AT MSNBC! https://t.co/GxSx1DHubW pic.twitter.com/XWWdGXomav
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) March 15, 2017
Thank you Rachel Maddow, for debunking the myth that Trump hasn't paid any taxes in 18 years. pic.twitter.com/wRWNbQZzu1
— Elizabeth® (@MissLizzyNJ) March 15, 2017
And after the Dutch elections on March 15, 2017
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) November 6, 2016
I Will Make The Netherlands Great Again!#MakeTheNetherlandsGreatAgain pic.twitter.com/rZXo1QpOy0
.@BlazingCatFur Dutch Vote Watched Across Europe With a Finger in the Wind. https://t.co/X4huwf0rhg
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 15, 2017
In less than 24 hours, Dutch voters head to the polls. Here's where the race stands now https://t.co/J2kNtCMYVj pic.twitter.com/asKQa62gzS
— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) March 14, 2017
Marine Le Pen Smacks Down Reporter: ‘No One Trusts the Media’ - https://t.co/MCAzme6GWx pic.twitter.com/robZyew2XM— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) March 14, 2017
"Draggin' the Linel"
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