Taxpayers pay millions per year for multiple retirement plans serving already wealthy legislators

Critics of taxpayer-funded retirement plans for members of Congress wonder why their representatives are allowed to double-dip into taxpayer-funded plans, especially when the median net worth of a U.S. member exceeds $1.1 million.

The Golden Horseshoe is a weekly designation from Just the News intended to highlight egregious examples of wasteful taxpayer spending by the government. The ward is named for the horseshoe-shaped toilet seats for military airplanes that cost the Pentagon a whopping $640 each back in the 1980s.

This Independence Day weekend, our award is going to the United States Congress for billing taxpayers millions of dollars, in perpetuity, for multiple cushy pension and savings plans for their members.

Members of Congress are eligible for 401(k)-equivalent plans, in addition to generous pension plans. Members of Congress (and other federal employees and members of the uniformed services) are eligible for the Thrift Savings Plan, which is essentially the same as an employer-backed 401(k) retirement fund, except that in this case, the “employer contribution” is actually funded by U.S. taxpayers. The Thrift Savings Plan offers a 5% match rate and competitively low administrative fees, making it widely viewed as one of the best deals around. As of 2019, more than 5.5 million Americans were Thrift Savings Plan participants.

Critics of taxpayer-funded retirement plans for members of Congress wonder why their representatives are allowed to double-dip into taxpayer funded plans, especially when the median net worth of a U.S. member exceeds $1.1 million.

Nancy Pelosi, for instance, is speaker of the House of Representatives. Accordingly, she earns the highest salary in Congress at $223,500 annually. Her net worth is also estimated at between $50 million and $72 million. Taxpayers have contributed $282,965 to Pelosi’s Thrift Savings Plan over her 34-year congressional career, and when she retires her pension will be worth $106,363 annually, in addition to the $47,604 yearly in social security payments she will be eligible to receive, according to calculations by Open the Books.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is the third-longest-serving member of the Senate, and has an estimated net worth of $22 million. Today, McConnell takes home $193,400 annually. Over the years, taxpayers have put $273,700 into the majority leader’s Thrift Savings Plan, which, if invested in an S&P 500 index fund, would be worth $1.1 million. But McConnell is also eligible for a pension plus annuities plan of $142,902 annually, should he retire.

Members of Congress are, on average, significantly wealthier than the average American and, typically, are presented with opportunities to grow their bank accounts and investment funds when they leave office. They have every right to do just that, but should American taxpayers also be footing the bill for multiple substantial retirement plans?

https://justthenews.com/accountability/waste-fraud-and-abuse/americans-pay-millions-each-year-multiple-retirement-plans

MP calls for a national body to take charge of future disaster response money after bushfire relief donations are stonewalled

New South Wales state MP Andrew Constance has called for a national all-encompassing body to take charge of Australia's future disaster relief efforts after bushfire ravaged communities were left without access to the half billion dollars raised in donations from charity fundraisers.

Constance has been one of the most vocal critics of what he says is a slow and sloppy response from charities in the wake of the summer's disaster, with his electorate of Bega ravaged by the fires.

"The first thing that needs to happen is that those funds need to go to those that at a local level that can make the right decisions, not be centrally based around a board room," he told 60 Minutes reporter Tom Steinfort.

"I think a national disaster relief fund, it wouldn't matter if it's a cyclone in Queensland or a flood in Victoria or a fire in New South Wales, you've got that capacity and that ability to help."

Constance says the slow response and hold-up of funds continues to be incredibly frustrating for the devastated communities – many of who are still living in caravans as they wait to rebuild their homes.

"Only half the money's gone out, and yet we've got people basically in caravans in the freezing cold, on their blocks, not getting the money they need to get by," he said.

"I think it's tough to see hundreds of caravans littered across the region as people try and rebuild their lives."

The charity response to Australia's bushfire crisis was unprecedented, with Australians and those overseas contributing more than $500 million in donations.

Latest figures show that well over $100 million-worth of that money is still being held back by charities more than six months on from the fires.

Andrew Constance told Steinfort it's simply unacceptable.

"The Red Cross and these organisations are saying, 'oh, we're holding back the money for another three years,' and 'oh, were going to do some community building,' but that's not good enough when Australians are doing it so hard right now," he said.

He has also called out the lack of communication between Australia's major charities, including the Red Cross, St Vincents De Paul and the Salvation Army.

https://9now.nine.com.au/60-minutes/mp-calls-for-a-national-body-to-take-charge-of-future-disaster-response-money-after-bushfire-relief-donations-are-stonewalled/24fba36f-3965-4834-9d58-b1d1d51f2ba6

PM extends Mossad chief tenure by 6 months

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that Cohen’s tenure would be extended from January 2021 to June 2021.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he has extended the tenure of Mossad Director Yossi Cohen for six months “due to the security challenges confronting the State of Israel.”

Cohen’s tenure would be extended from January 2021 to June 2021, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Cohen was appointed in January 2016 for the standard term of five years, meaning his tenure would have expired in less than six months without the change.

June 2021 is significant because it means Netanyahu gets to select Cohen’s successor before the November 2021 planned unity-government rotation shift in which Blue and White’s Benny Gantz is set to become prime minister.

Cohen clearly has been Netanyahu’s favorite Mossad chief to work with out of five chiefs.

From 1996-1999, Netanyahu worked with Danny Yatom, who later became a Labor MK and had a very different ideology.

Next, Netanyahu worked with Efraim Halevy, who once again, had different views than Netanyahu on a number of issues and primarily got the green light after helping the prime minister fix the Khaled Mashaal assassination scandal.

When Netanyahu became prime minister again in 2009, he inherited Meir Dagan, who was already a legendary figure.

Dagan helped block any potential attempt by Netanyahu to attack Iran.

Netanyahu appointed Tamir Pardo director from 2011-2016, but Pardo made or leaked multiple statements contradicting Netanyahu regarding the severity of the Iranian threat and the pressing need to make peace with the Palestinians.

In contrast, Cohen served as Netanyahu’s national security adviser for about three years and views both the Iranian and Palestinian issues similarly to Netanyahu.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/netanyahu-asks-mossad-chief-to-extend-time-in-office-633955

COVID-19 is close to losing its epidemic status in the U.S., according to the CDC

The percentage of coronavirus deaths in the country has been declining for ten straight weeks.

Coronavirus deaths in the country have nearly reached a level where the virus will cease to qualify as an epidemic under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rules, the federal agency reported on Friday.

The CDC qualifies a disease outbreak as an "epidemic" if the number of deaths attributable to the disease exceeds a certain percentage of total deaths per week. That threshold for pneumonia, influenza and COVID-19 fluctuates slightly depending on the time of year, ranging from around 7% at the height of flu season to around 5% during less virulent months.

CDC data indicate that deaths from those ailments began skyrocketing in the country around the second week of March, hitting a peak around early May and then plummeting quickly after that.

The latest data show that the percentage of deaths in the country attributable to those factors had as of the last week in June reached its lowest point since the end of last year, becoming "equal to the [current] epidemic threshold of 5.9%," the CDC said.

The agency notes that the official tally of deaths "will likely change as more death certificates are processed, particularly for recent weeks." Yet the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19, pneumonia and influenza have been declining for 10 straight weeks, the agency said on its website, suggesting COVID-19 may cease to qualify as an epidemic in the next few weeks.

The welcome news comes as fear over a "second wave" of the virus has gripped the U.S., with some states experiencing fresh surges of COVID-19 along with increased hospitalizations.

Though infections are significantly up in some places, deaths throughout the country have remained flat, due likely to several factors including a younger cohort of infections as well as improved treatment methods.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/covid-19-close-losing-its-epidemic-status-us-according-cdc

Soros Set to Double 2016 Spending, Pouring $40 Million Into Super PAC

Liberal billionaire George Soros is on pace to double his 2016 election spending as he works to oust President Donald Trump, public records show.

Soros's big investments in the 2020 race have gone into the coffers of the Democracy PAC, a super PAC that passes money to other liberal PACs working to defeat Trump and congressional Republicans. The super PAC has received $40 million—double the $20 million Soros spent on Democratic efforts during the 2016 election cycle—from both Soros and a nonprofit in his sprawling network.

The megadonor's torrent of spending highlights the extent to which liberal donors are committed to getting Trump out of office. Many groups financially backed by Soros have launched multimillion-dollar attack ad campaigns in swing states to reach moderate voters who backed Trump in 2016. A network of liberal donors, including Soros, has pledged hundreds of millions on 2020 election efforts.

Republicans have noted that many Democratic candidates who lambast big money in politics benefit from the billionaire's cash. "While Democrats across the country sanctimoniously rail against the influence of dark money in politics, their party’s largest donors are bankrolling a massive web of liberal organizations to get them elected," one operative said. "George Soros's unprecedented spending further highlights just how dependent Democrats are on contributions from billionaires, despite their hypocritical rhetoric."

Soros has directly provided $5.5 million to his super PAC. Another $35 million came from his Fund for Policy Reform, a nonprofit in his Open Society Foundations network that reported having $750 million in the bank on its most recent tax forms. This arrangement allows Soros to keep his name from the top of lists highlighting the biggest donors to political committees while he gives tens of millions indirectly. Factoring in the money from the nonprofit, Soros's election spending eclipses that of any right-leaning donor this cycle. It also puts him on par with fellow liberal billionaire Tom Steyer, who has pumped $40 million into 2020 elections and is ranked as the largest donor this cycle.

Democracy PAC has so far pushed $25 million to other liberal PACs. Its biggest expenditures include a $7 million donation to the Senate Majority PAC, a committee tied to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.); $5 million to Priorities USA Action, the largest outside pro-Biden PAC; and $2.5 million to the left-wing Win Justice coalition. Democracy PAC has also spent big on state campaigns and passed money to another Soros PAC focused on electing far-left prosecutors.

Many of the groups that receive money from Soros are top spenders backing massive anti-Trump campaigns. Priorities USA is the biggest outside spender this cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, having spent more than $28 million. Its efforts include anti-Trump advertisements focused on criticizing the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/soros-set-to-double-2016-election-spending/

80% Of NYC Restaurants Couldn't Afford June Rent

The majority of restaurant owners around the city did not pay their entire rent in June, with 36% skipping out on it altogether, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to make it harder for eateries to survive, a new survey found according to Commercial Observer.

The nonprofit New York City Hospitality Alliance surveyed 509 restaurateurs around the city and found four out of five didn’t pay the full June rent. Of those, 90% said they paid half or less last month.

"Rent is putting enormous financial pressure on restaurants, bars and clubs after four near-fatal months of economic disaster in which many have already shuttered for good,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance

"Pre-pandemic, it was incredibly difficult to run a successful restaurant,” added Rigie. "These conditions, the longer that it goes on, is going to make it more and more challenging for small businesses to ever recover. The vast majority of small businesses will not be able to pay back months of missed rent."

As the report further notes, the survey also found that landlords have been unwilling to give restaurants a break: 60% of restaurant owners said their landlords refused to give them deferments during the pandemic, while only 10% were able to renegotiate their leases. In total 73% of landlords — also under economic stress — refused to waive rent payments for their restaurants, bars and clubs in June, the poll found.

"Our small businesses urgently need support on rent, so government officials, landlords and banks need to work together to find a solution. Whether it’s direct rent subsidies, deferring rent and extending payment schedules to the back end of lease agreements, and other creative ideas, we are in the midst of a rent crisis and need action now,” Rigie said adding that restaurant owners are "hanging on by a thread and they’re exhausting their personal savings in the hope of one day getting their business up and running again."

Even with the challenges and debts piling up, owners said most aren’t looking to close up shop.

“The idea of walking away right now is not something that most folks want to do,” said Karl Franz Williams, the owner of Harlem’s 67 Orange Street cocktail bar who was able to get a rent break from his landlord. “They want to figure out how to make it through. [Owning a restaurant is] not something most of us are doing just for the fun of it.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/80-nyc-restaurants-couldnt-afford-june-rent

Russian-born scholar: False allegations of affair with Flynn used as pretext for FBI probe

Cambridge-based intelligence historian Svetlana Lokhova said she met the then-DIA director once, and strongly denounced allegations that she had an affair with him or that she has any affiliation with the Russian government.

Svetlana Lokhova's life flipped upside down when she became ensnared in what she describes as a completely false narrative that she had recruited Michael Flynn to work with the Russian government.

Lokhova, an immigrant from Russia to Britain who worked as an academic at the world-renowned Cambridge University, found herself facing allegations that she had been involved in an affair with Flynn. A new mother at the time, Lokhova described herself as "absolutely gobsmacked" by the allegations.

She explained during an interview on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast that she met Flynn once in 2014 when he visited Cambridge while he was serving as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

She was seated across the table and one seat down from Flynn at a 2014 dinner that was held after Flynn had delivered a presentation, she said. During the dinner, Lokhova spoke about a postcard written by a young Joseph Stalin in 1912 that she had discovered in the Soviet archives. Flynn viewed the document on her iPad and requested that Lokhova email him a copy. She obliged, emailing it to Flynn and copying Flynn's assistant. When Flynn left the event, Lokhova said, she remained and spoke with others about "how successful the dinner was."

During the podcast, Lokhova recalled an incident when an American man at Cambridge named Stefan Halper fell asleep and snored during a presentation that she gave.

But despite his apparent lack of interest in her, Halper in 2016 wanted to have dinner with her. Halper requested "through my professor to have a private dinner with me at my professor's house," Lokhova said. She declined to attend, and said that this occurred shortly after Flynn was announced as a Trump campaign adviser.

Lokhova said that an FBI memo revealed that Halper told the FBI that he witnessed Lokhova departing the Cambridge dinner in a cab with Flynn and boarding a train along with him. She said Halper also claimed she was affiliated with Russian intelligence.

Lokhova said all of those allegations are false and that Halper did not even attend the dinner.

"But based on this completely false statement that I somehow seduced General Flynn, they start investigating General Flynn for espionage," she said.

"The whole thing is a farce," she said, noting that Flynn and her own family have "been tortured" with these allegations for years.

"So I believe that Christopher Steele and Stefan Halper worked together," she said, suggesting that they sought "to make it look like they had intelligence coming from different sources whereas in fact they were the same lies just recycled."

A lawyer for Halper called Lokhova's allegations "bizarre" and declined to provide further comment.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/svetlana-lokhova-says-false-allegations-formed

Students Demand Pitt Eliminate Free Speech Protections

Student group coalition calls for firing of professors it deems "racist"

Activists are demanding that the University of Pittsburgh fire any employee deemed racist or discriminatory by students, a move that First Amendment advocates say amounts to the elimination of academic freedom.

Black Pitt, a coalition of black student groups, is demanding that the university fire any employee dubbed "racist" by a black-only student council and end employee speech immunity, a core principle of academic freedom and First Amendment protections for academics at public universities.

"Faculty and staff with one incident or complaint of racial bias, excessive force, or unlawful arrest/detainment should be terminated and banned from the University campus immediately if found at fault," the letter reads. "During the time of the investigation, the faculty/staff should be disclosed by name and banned from the University campus until its completion."

Discrimination and racial bias policies already exist on Pitt's campus, but as a public university, there are few restrictions the school can place on a professor's right to free speech. Katlyn Patton, spokeswoman for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, told the Washington Free Beacon that Pitt is bound by the First Amendment when disciplining professors for their commentary.

"As a public institution, the University of Pittsburgh is bound by the First Amendment in its decisions concerning when to discipline a professor," Patton said. "While these students are free to express their concerns and propose ideas, Pitt, like any public college or university, must consider the protections afforded to professors by the First Amendment and the principles of academic freedom in evaluating allegations of racial bias based on speech."

Black Pitt, which did not return a request for comment, went further than merely targeting speech on campus. The list of demands includes a black-only graduation, an overhaul of university curriculum to be more "inclusive and comprehensive regarding the plight and triumphs of black people" and to "include the black narrative," an established master's and Ph.D. program in "black studies," and for the university to sever ties with the city of Pittsburgh's police department.

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police told the Washington Free Beacon that it has no position on which entities the university chooses to invest in or divest from, including its own police force. The University of Pittsburgh police department did not respond to requests for comment.

Pitt has long sided with liberal demands on campus. In 2018, the university levied a $5,546.52 security fee on the College Republicans two days before conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was scheduled to speak on campus. The fee came after liberal students opposed Shapiro's appearance, calling him a "white supremacist," "misogynist," and "fascist." The Young America's Foundation threatened to take legal action against Pitt if they did not drop the fee.

The University of Pittsburgh did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Pat McMahon, a university spokesman, told Pitt News the university is giving the document "serious consideration." Black Pitt called on university administrators to implement all of its demands by the start of the 2020-2021 school year.

https://freebeacon.com/campus/students-demand-pitt-eliminate-free-speech-protections/

SYRIA UPDATE

Turkish Forces Targeted Civilian Truck On M4 Highway In Northeast Syria

On July 5 morning, Turkish forces targeted a civilian truck on the M4 highway in Syria’s northeastern region for unclear reasons.

The truck was hit with a projectile, which may be a tank shell or an anti-tank guided missile, near the town of Hawshan, 5 km to the west of the town of Ain Issa in northern Raqqa. The truck was completely destroyed.

https://youtu.be/vM2Oubg5MeU

https://southfront.org/turkish-forces-targeted-civilian-truck-on-m4-highway-in-northeast-syria-video/

Military Situation In Syria On July 4, 2020 (Map Update)

A brief overview of the recent developments in Syria:

A civilian was killed and another one was wound due to an explosion of explosive device planted in a car in Afrin;

The Russian Military Police conducted a patrol in the vicinity of Tal Tamr in northern Hasakah;

3 explosions were heard in Tal Abyad after mortar shells landed in the town center;

A Turkish military convoy entered Syria via the Kafr Lusin border crossing and moved towards Idlib. The convoy consisted of at least 25 armored vehicles;

The Russian President declared that it’s needed to find wats to support Syrian people despite the US and EU sanction pressure on Syria.

https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-syria-on-july-4-2020-map-update/

Large amounts of weapons and ammo prepared to be smuggled to terrorists in Idleb countryside seized

SANA reporter in Homs said that the competent authorities seized large and various weapons and ammo while an attempt to smuggle them to Idleb northern countryside by members of weapons smuggling network, indicating that all the members of network were arrested.

The reporter said that the seized weapons included a large amount of medium and light ammunitions, hand grenades, automatic rifles, anti-armor missiles, medium machineguns, PKCs in addition to RPGs and rounds.

https://sana.sy/en/?p=196450

SDF Commander-in-Chief Says Damascus Wants Raqqa, Deir Ezzor In Exchange For Settlement

Şahin, whose is known by his nom de guerre Mazlum Abdi, made his remarks while he was attending a rare meeting with Arab tribal leaders from Raqqa in al-Hasakah city.

“There are no solutions to the Syrian crisis looming at the moment, despite the fact that many meetings were held in Geneva, Astana and Sochi, but they did not work,” the North Press Agency quoted Şahin as saying.

https://youtu.be/iOwod7eWcII

https://southfront.org/sdf-commander-in-chief-says-damascus-wants-raqqa-deir-ezzor-in-exchange-for-settlement/

New Explosion Rocked Turkish-Occupied Afrin. Casualties Reported

An improvised explosive device, which was planted under a SUV, exploded on July 5 morning. The explosion took place near a headquarter and jail of the Turkish-backed Hamza Division in Afrin’s city center.

According to the North Press Agency, the SUV’s driver, whose identity is yet to be revealed, was killed in the explosion. Two other people were reportedly injured.

https://southfront.org/new-explosion-rocked-turkish-occupied-afrin-casualties-reported/

Virginia Officials Order American Flag Removed from Construction Site

An American flag was removed from a construction site in Richmond, Virginia, on Friday after officials claimed it was a potential target for protesters.

“Over the past month we’ve seen buildings and structures around Capitol Square vandalized and flags, dumpsters, a bus and other items set ablaze during demonstrations around the city,” spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of General Services Dena Potter said in an email, according to the Hill.

“When we saw the flag, we were concerned that it could become a target, so we told the contractor to remove it,” she continued.

However, the decision reportedly angered a subcontractor whose fireproofing company made the approximately one-story tall flag out of tarps, according to NBC 12.

In a Facebook post Thursday, Eric Winston of American Coatings Corp. shared a picture of the flag and said, “the straw just broke the camels back!”:

“This is the flag that our company made out of tarps we use on buildings,” he explained in the caption.

Winston continued:

We thought it would be a good idea to hang it, which we did this morning at the new General assembly job, downtown Richmond. Early on it got great reviews by all, and thank you to the GC for allowing us to do it… BUT the GC got a call and we now have to remove it. It seems the “State” deems it a target this weekend for protestors. Since when is this flag, on this weekend, IN THIS COUNTRY, a Target!! Let me guess, if I had a black lives matter flag it would be “ok”!?

“The American Flag is a symbol of Freedom! Many men and women died to maintain this freedom, many more fought and still fight to keep this freedom, and you make us remove it??” he stated.

However, Potter said there was no problem with the standard-sized American flag flying on a crane above the object, but the bigger flag that hung a few stories above the ground was easier to reach and could potentially be a target.

“They were very responsive when we asked them to remove it,” she said of the Gilbane Building Company, adding that the worker’s safety was their top priority and also preventing the flag from being damaged.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/07/05/virginia-officials-order-american-flag-removed-construction-site/

Never Trump Republicans Plot to Give Democrats the Senate Majority

Never Trump super PAC the Lincoln Project and other anti-Trump Republicans continue to plot to not only take down President Donald Trump, but also the Senate Republican majority, according to a report released on Saturday.

Never Trump Republicans believe that preventing a second term for Trump is insufficient, and that Senate Republicans must also pay the price of backing the 45th president.

Steve Schmidt, who works for the Never Trump Lincoln Project, said, “The analogy would be in the same way that fire purifies the forest, it needs to be burned to the ground and fundamentally repudiated. Every one of them should be voted out of office, with the exception of Mitt Romney.”

To wage their war on the Republican Party, the Lincoln Project announced six-figure ad buys against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Martha McSally (R-AZ). The latter three senators face competitive Senate races this November.

Breitbart News reported in June that the Lincoln Project endorsed Montana Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock’s bid to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT).

“Bullock represents the best of America’s ideals,” John Weaver, one of the Lincoln Group’s cofounders, said. “He cares about his constituents and works every day to make sure their lives are better. The Lincoln Project is proud to support Steve Bullock and usher in a new era of decent, fair, and honest leadership.”

Jennifer Horn, a former New Hampshire GOP chairwoman who advises the Lincoln Project, said that Senate Republicans had the “authority and the ability” challenge Trump, but chose not to.

“The only way to make sure that Trumpism doesn’t continue to rule the Republican Party for years to come is to make sure that we defeat not only the president, but those people who have enabled him,” she added.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), who launched a failed bid for president this cycle, said that he plans to announce his Bravery Project next week, which will target Republicans in battleground states such as Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Walsh said:

Trump has to lose and every Republican senator up for reelection has to lose because they’ve enabled. Do I want the Democrats to take control of the Senate? No. But I have no choice. To me, these Republicans like Martha McSally and Thom Tillis and Susan Collins have breached their office.

It means the Democrats will be in control of D.C. and they will try to push policies I disagree with. That will leave someone like me fighting against their policies. I don’t look forward to that, but that will be the necessary result.

Bill Kristol — a Never Trump neoconservative, former editor of the Weekly Standard, and adviser to the Republican Voters Against Trump — said that helping give the Democrats the Senate majority would be restrained by their own, more moderate members.

“Life is full of imperfect choices. Even if Democrats have 52 senators, several are going to be John Hickenlooper, Mark Warner, Michael Bennet, who are pretty moderate Democrats,” Kristol said.

He added, “They still believe in a free market system. I think the cartoon version of the Democratic Party on Fox News and conservative outlets ?— that’s not going to be the party that governs.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/07/05/never-trump-republicans-plot-give-democrats-senate-majority/

Dutch Government to Eliminate Gender Field From IDs

Gender remains a requirement on passports due to existing EU regulations. At the same time, the Netherlands is not the first European state to manipulate gender options in domestic documents.

The Netherlands Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Ingrid van Engelshoven, has notified the country's parliament that the government is planning to remove the 'gender' field from all forms of IDs beginning 2024 or 2025. The change will affect all newly issued IDs.

In her words, the measure, the implementation of which is rooted in an agreement of a government coalition, is needed to remove unnecessary gender registrations. The minister argued that the removal of gender will have little impact on authorities' daily operations, but is important for non-binary people.

The latter, according to van Engelshoven, currently can pick a third option, to a gender registered as "not defined", but must file an appeal in court to do so. At the same time, these people still have the 'gender' graph in passports, per EU regulation requirements.

The Netherlands is not the only European country to undertake gender-related changes to its documents. France has replaced the fields 'mother' and 'father' in documents with 'parent' 1 and 2, while Germany has introduced a third gender option for those born with both genders' phenotypes.

https://sputniknews.com/europe/202007051079802679-dutch-government-to-eliminate-gender-field-from-ids-/

Suspected case of BUBONIC PLAGUE registered in China, days after Mongolian outbreak

A suspected case of bubonic plague has been registered in China’s north, according to local health authorities. The news comes after two similar cases were detected in neighboring Mongolia.

The case was registered at a hospital in China’s Inner Mongolia region, its health commission said in a statement on Sunday.

This prompted a third-level warning of a potential epidemic in the region. The alert comes into force immediately and will be in place until the end of this year. It’s believed the patient in question is suffering from the bubonic form, which causes swollen lymph nodes, and is considered to be the most easily treated variant of the disease.

It’s believed the patient in question is suffering from the bubonic form, which causes swollen lymph nodes, and is considered to be the most easily treated variant of the disease. The plague also has a pneumonic and an extra-deadly septicemic form that can kill a victim within a day.

Earlier this week, two people also tested positive for the bubonic plague in neighboring Mongolia.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage, the potential return of the dreaded plague is definitely the last thing the world needs. So far, Covid-19 has infected nearly 11.5 million people, killing more than 530,000 of them.

Yet the toll from coronavirus is dwarfed by that of the plague, which has caused pandemics at least three times in the course of history. It has an extremely high mortality rate, at around 95 percent, and caused the deaths of tens of millions before healthcare evolved enough to treat it. The last such pandemic was in the 19th century, and it hit China and India particularly hard.

Between 1,000 and 2,000 cases of the plague are still registered worldwide each year, with many of them originating in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

https://www.rt.com/news/493871-china-suspected-ubonic-plague/

A.I. Glitch in the Matrix: (July 11th) BBC Predicts Ghislaine Maxwell Will Get COVID 19 While in Prison

The Artificial Intelligence that controls the way the media releases their stories so that everyone is on the same page had a Matrix Glitch and posted a BBC story (that was captured by Internet sleuths) and it shows Ghislaine Maxwell being moved to intensive care in a hospital and is being treated for COVID 19. Funny thing is I was predicting that she would be getting the Corona and would not be suicided because the Pandemic would take her out. Unbelievable Really.

https://youtu.be/7a-4PzcZmWI

How the Left Creates Fake Studies to Fabricate Right-Wing Terrorism

After weeks of violence, Democrats have some public relations needs to redirect attention away from the awfulness of leftism.

Insert the latest report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which concludes that the greatest domestic threat comes not from leftists or Muslims, but from right-wing terrorists!

The CSIS study's findings are not new. The New America Foundation (NAF) and the Center of Investigative Reporting (CIR) have published similar studies with the same conclusions.

Each study is fake, but the most recent CSIS study is the most pathetic of them all — partly because the CSIS doesn't provide a list of incidents to fact-check. Just trust them.

There's an art to creating this type of propaganda, which provides the Democrat narrative a halo of credibility. A tremendous volume of subtle manipulation is concocted within studies on right-wing terrorism, and each demonstrates variations of the same basic formula.

1. Use "incidents" as a key metric

Written in the methodology of the CSIS study is this: "We coded threats of violence as attacks rather than plots, even if the threat turned out to be a hoax."

This statement is an incredible admission. The CSIS includes threats of violence as terrorist attacks — even if the threat was a hoax.

Such low standards for terrorism allow the authors to leverage vaguely defined "hate crime" data from the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center to inflate right-wing occurrences.

This way, NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace's paranoia could be counted as a terrorist threat.

1. Manipulate definitions

Each study is careful about the definitions for terrorism. The CIR defines right-wing terrorism as follows: "militia movements, as well as white supremacist, anti-government, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-abortion extremists, including radical Christians."

These are standard terms Democrats use to attack conservatives — which is the point. The definitions are deliberately vague to increase subjectivity.

The NAF study uses the same broad criteria as the CIR.

The latest CSIS study casts an even wider net for right-wing terrorism by including, "incels," "misogyny," and "hatred based on sexuality or gender identity; and/or opposition to certain policies such as abortion."

Notice that they do not suggest merely opposition to abortion policies — but opposition to certain policies such as abortion. Basically, right-wing terrorists are defined as anyone who opposes the left, plus incels.

For Muslim terrorists, the variables are much more rigid. The CIR criteria for Islamic terrorism is as follows:

We use the term "Islamist" to describe theocratic extremists inspired by groups such as the Taliban, al-Qaida and the Islamic State. We chose the term "Islamist," rather than "Islamic," in an effort to uncouple the Muslim faith from the political ideology of Islamism.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/07/how_the_left_creates_fake_studies_to_fabricate_rightwing_terrorism.html

THE OPEN DOOR

fucking board

grrr