Cuban Parliament Names Manuel Marrero to Be Country's First Prime Minister Since 1976

The Cuban parliament on Saturday confirmed Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero as the new prime minister of the Caribbean island nation.

"Cuba already has a prime minister: The National Assembly appointed, on proposal of the president of the Republic, Manuel Marrero Cruz, who served as minister of tourism," it announced on Facebook.

The legislature, which met for a regular session on Saturday, also appointed six deputy prime ministers and one secretary of the council of ministers.

Manuel Marrero, who served as a colonel in Cuba's armed forces before becoming the nation's minister of tourism over 15 years ago, has been named the new prime minister for a five-year term.

The post of prime minister was abolished in 1976 but was restored earlier this year after Cuba adopted a new constitution in a February 2019 referendum.

The last prime minister in Cuba was Fidel Castro, who held the position from 1959 to December 1976, before the name of the post was changed to 'president of the council of ministers.'

The Republic of Cuba will now have both a president, currently Miguel Díaz-Canel, and prime minister, at the same time. The PM is expected to manage the Cuban government, but under the supervision of the president.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201912221077706607-cuban-parliament-names-manuel-marrero-to-be-prime-minister/

Peter Schweizer: ‘The Left Is Churning Through Our Institutions, Traditions, and Constitutional Processes’ to Get Trump

Democrats and the broader left corrupt American tradition and institutions in their ongoing political campaign against President Donald Trump, said Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and senior contributor at Breitbart News, in an interview on Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.

Marlow noted the centrality of Schweizer’s research in the latter’s latest book, Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, to the Democrats’ ongoing push for the impeachment of Trump.

“The entirety of the impeachment started with you and your research into … something that Joe Biden did wrong,” noted Marlow.

Marlow remarked, “The president inquiring about your research into his son and obvious corrupt business deals that he had around the world really was what ended up getting him impeached, amazingly, even though [Donald Trump] asked about an investigation that was only dropped because Joe Biden strong-armed the Ukrainian government to fire the prosecutor. It’s all so unbelievable.”

Schweizer replied, “It’s rather stunning, and … it’s an example of what is a Joe Biden scandal being shifted into a Donald Trump scandal. That’s what the media is trying to do here, and that’s what the Democrats are trying to do here.”

Schweizer described Trump’s request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate possible corruption on the part of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden in relation to Ukrainian energy company Burisma as legitimate.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong or inappropriate at all in Donald Trump talking to President Zelensky of Ukraine about this issue, and the reason is very clear,” Schweizer said, “The corruption that took place involving the Biden family in Ukraine and China did not occur when Joe Biden was a private citizen. It occurred while he was vice president of the United States, so this is not a vendetta or a witch hunt [with Donald Trump] going after some political opponent just on some random issue. This is related to [Joe Biden’s] tenure as vice president of the United States.

Schwezer continued, “As far as I’m concerned, not only is there [nothing] wrong with Donald Trump doing this, it was highly appropriate for him to ask these questions, and the question simply was, ‘Would you look into this? Would you cooperate with my attorney general and look into this?’ [Donald Trump] didn’t say, ‘Dig up dirt,’ he didn’t say, ‘Make things up.’ He didn’t say any of those things.”

Schweizer added, “To me, it’s sort of a bizarre case of where what is a Joe Biden scandal is being turned by the media — or at least certain elements of the media — and Democrats, they’re trying to morph it into a Donald Trump scandal, and it’s not, as far as I’m concerned.”

Democrats are corrupting the process of impeachment of a sitting president, determined Schweizer.

“[Impeachment of a president] is another American institution that is in turmoil because of the dislike of Donald Trump,” estimated Schweizer. “You have presidents come and go, people disagree with them, they disagree with their policies, but what’s happening is the left is churning through our institutions, our traditions, our constitutional processes at a rapid rate in their desire to get this guy. Look at the body count of institutions and practices now that have been distorted and have been corroded because of this.”

Schweizer listed the FBI as among those institutions corrupted by Democrats and leftists across their political campaign against Trump.

Schweizer stated, “The FBI is an institution, I think, [that] a lot of us looked to for a very long time — not a perfect institution, by any means, you go back and you look at the years of J. Edgar Hoover, some of the things they did — but, by and large, an institution people had a lot of trust in. You look at what came out in [Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s] report. You look at the statement made by the FISA court.”

The “same kinds of corrosive [and] destructive] effects” seen within the FBI will be identified across intelligence agencies, speculated Schweizer, “in pursuit of Trump.”

Schweizer added, “There was this rush to say, ‘We’re finally going to get this guy.’ Very similar to what happened with the FBI, and I think what’s going to be apparent in the intelligence institutions. ‘We’re going to run roughshod over hundreds of years of American political tradition. We’re going to sort of shred the intention of the Founders to get this guy.'”

https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/12/21/peter-schweizer-the-left-is-churning-through-our-institutions-traditions-and-constitutional-processes-to-get-trump/

Blue States Will Turn To Supreme Court After Appeals Court Strikes Down Obamacare Mandate

California and a coalition of blue states defending the Affordable Care Act (ACA) told a federal judge Friday that they will appeal a lower court order striking down the individual mandate to the Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Wednesday a trial judge’s decision invalidating the mandate, saying it could no longer be justified as a tax because of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The mandate and the rest of the ACA will remain in effect, however, because the trial judge put his own decision on hold while litigation continues.

“In light of the ongoing uncertainty, confusion, and potential disruption caused by this litigation, the State Intervenor-Defendants plan to promptly seek further review of the Fifth Circuit’s decision in the United States Supreme Court,” the blue states wrote in a legal filing. “The State Intervenor-Defendants understand this Court’s prior orders as confirming that the ACA will remain in effect at least until the completion of appellate review of this Court’s partial final judgment.”

Friday’s filing was generally expected. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra strongly indicated he would seek Supreme Court review, pending consultation with other attorneys general.

Two individual plaintiffs and 18 red states led by Texas commenced the lawsuit in February 2018. The blue state coalition intervened in the dispute and took up defense of the ACA after the Trump administration refused to defend the law in court. That move was unusual, since the Department of Justice defends federal statutes in court.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/12/21/california-obamacare-supreme-court/

Why don't those pushing climate change ever ask?

The military to stop polluting the world?

Big oil to stop polluting the world?

Governments stop polluting the world?

Governments to stop poisoning We THE PEOPLE with chemtrails, poison in food, air, water?

If their plan was to address the cause why are they attacking the PEOPLE???

State senator who wore wire on fellow lawmaker failed to report $50,000 condo sale profit, records show

A Democratic state senator embroiled in a federal government corruption investigation failed to report a $50,000 profit from the sale of a Florida condominium as required on his state ethics form, the Tribune has found.

The 2016 real estate transaction involved veteran Lake County Sen. Terry Link, identified by a source as the unnamed senator who wore a wire on a fellow lawmaker. The recording, made in August, captured what authorities said was a bribery offer that led to criminal charges against then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo of Chicago.

Link, who has denied being the unnamed senator, ended up cooperating with the FBI after authorities discovered evidence that showed he’d cheated on his taxes, prosecutors have said in court filings. A source said Link’s undisclosed condo sale isn’t what spurred their investigation into his finances.

The buyer of Link’s Florida condo? The mother-in-law of a man who sources say is under investigation in the federal probe of state Sen. Martin Sandoval and SafeSpeed, the red-light camera company. Link said that tie is a coincidence.

On the same day Link sold his condo, he bought a larger unit in Florida, taking a personal loan from a Northbrook mortgage broker who was a campaign donor because Link could not qualify for a conventional mortgage at the time, the broker told the Tribune.

State law requires elected officials to disclose when they make more than $5,000 from selling any asset. The fourth question on the form asks officials to “List the identity (including the address or legal description of any real estate) of any capital asset from which a capital gain of $5,000 or more was realized during the preceding calendar year.”

Link offered the same response to that question as he did to the form’s other questions: “N/A," short for “not applicable.”

Asked recently about the ethics form omission, Link at first said he didn’t need to report the profit because he had immediately used the money to buy a bigger Florida condo and had not owed any taxes on the transaction.

Ethics experts, however, said federal capital gains taxation is irrelevant to the state requirement for officials to disclose such deals.

“Strictly speaking, he has violated the law,” election attorney Richard Means said.

After consulting with the Senate Democratic ethics officer, Link later told the Tribune he would be amending his statement of economic interests that covers 2016 to include the real estate deal.

“I’m glad you brought it to my attention,” Link said. “To me, it was something I never intended to skirt the issue.”

https://www.courant.com/ct-terry-link-ethics-statement-mortgage-home-sale-20191220-knt42jnyjrhgpjyp57fg2km7vi-story.html