January, 2019

China posts slowest economic numbers since 1990 due to U.S. trade tensions and new policies. Makes so much sense for China to finally do a Real Deal, and stop playing around!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2019

As the gun control debate continues to rage, a survey released this month by the Department of Justice (DOJ) showed that armed criminals' primary source for guns is, by far, the black market.

The Yellow Vest anti-government movement started in France on November 17, when over 300,000 people across France protested a carbon tax on fuel that French President Emmanuel Macron touted as evidence of France's leadership when it comes to mitigating climate change.

What's more - the movement has gone worldwide.

The list includes:

• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Canada
• Croatia
• Egypt
• Finland
• Germany
• Iraq
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Pakistan
• Poland
• Portugal
• Russia
• Serbia
• Taiwan
• Tunisia
• United Kingdom

Conspicuously absent from the list? The United States.

As I’ve said many times, the U.S. media has become quite adept at expressing extreme indignation when people criticize them; when politicians conclude that it is advantageous to turn the U.S. media into their main adversary; and when people turn to “fake news” sites.

If, however, they were willing to devote just a small fraction of that energy to examining their own conduct, perhaps they would develop the tools necessary to combat those problems instead of just denouncing their critics and angrily demanding that politicians and news consumers accord them the respect to which they believe they are entitled.

A memo sent to Hillary Clinton that WikiLeaks made public in 2016 has not gotten the attention it deserves. Now is the time.

“Actions have consequences, and whether we’re in Syria or not, the people who want to harm us are there & at war,” Clinton tweeted in response to Trump. “Isolationism is weakness. Empowering ISIS is dangerous. Playing into Russia & Iran’s hands is foolish. This President is putting our national security at grave risk.”

Actions indeed have consequences. The memo shows the kind of advice Clinton was getting as secretary of state to plunge the U.S. deeper into the Syrian war. It takes us back to 2012 and the early phase of the conflict.

Two ships have caught fire while moving through the Kerch Strait separating Crimea from mainland Russia, after one of them was apparently rocked by an explosion. At least 11 sailors have died, Russian Maritime Agency said.

One vessel was “allegedly struck by a blast,” which caused the fire that then spilled over to another ship, an official with the Russian Maritime and River Transport Agency said.

The flight had originally left New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport for Hong Kong but was forced to make an emergency landing at Goose Bay Airport in Newfoundland due to a medical emergency.

Upon landing, emergency personnel arrived to transport the passenger to a local hospital, but one of the plane’s emergency doors reportedly malfunctioned due to below-freezing temperatures and could not be fixed, according to WCBS.

Furthermore, passengers were instructed that they could not leave the aircraft as there were no customs officials on duty at the time of the plane’s landing.

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Monday made a previously unannounced visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C., as the country commemorates the civil rights leader’s birthday.

Trump had no public events on his official White House schedule. However, the president departed the White House just after 11 a.m. for the memorial, where he laid a wreath.

Know the enemy. The arguments used by people driving the anti-vaccination movement have not changed in about a century. These arguments are effective because they are intuitively appealing — but they are also easily refutable. Instead of ignoring these arguments, an effective pro-vaccine campaign would confront them directly, over and over, for as long as it takes. Yes, there are chemicals in vaccines, but they are not toxic. No, vaccines can’t overwhelm your immune system, which already confronts countless pathogens every day.

The delusion and outright lies from the fake news media is outstanding. We'll do an analysis on this in the future to help expose this as the fake news media is getting way out of hand here. In the meantime, these fake news journalists should just make sure to get their own vaccinations to inoculate against the 'anti-vaxxers' themselves. Let's see how long they last. Maybe they'll end up like Martin Gore, 67, a pioneer cancer expert that suffered total organ failure soon after having a jab. Maybe then they'll get redpilled on a few things such as when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr said that Congress granted Big Pharma “blanket legal immunity” when it comes to vaccines. "Big Pharma became a law unto themselves. They can put toxic ingredients in your vaccines, they can seriously injure your child – but you cannot sue them. What you have to understand is that the vaccine regimen changed dramatically around 1989."

If you read the article, notice they put Bloomberg at the bottom of the list. Many media outlets will do that in order to give him the aura of an underdog as American's love that status the most.

‘Bloomberg’s kind of money buys a lot of loyalty — or at least silence. Anyone else would be toast.’

White. Male. Old. A Wall Street billionaire. At first glance, Michael Bloomberg would seem to have zero appeal in a Democratic Party where progressive populism is on the rise and activists and elites say it’s time for a woman or a person of color to win the White House. But unlike any of the other presidential hopefuls, Bloomberg plays a dominant leadership role on two of the top issues on the minds of progressives heading into the 2020 cycle: climate change and gun control.

Hannibal, Missouri, population 18,000, has stopped accepting recyclable plastics labelled with the numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7, such as yogurt containers and shampoo bottles.

Villages near Erie, Pennsylvania, no longer take glass.

And in Columbia County, New York, nestled in the Hudson Valley, residents soon will have to pay US$50 a year to dump their materials at one of the county’s recycling centres.

China, for decades the world’s largest importer of waste paper, used plastic and scrap metal, last year stopped accepting certain kinds of recyclables and tightened its standards for impurities in scrap bales.

The Israeli military carried out overnight attacks on Iranian targets in Syria, while Syrian state media reported the country's air defences shot down "hostile targets".

Russia's defence control centre was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying Syrian military air defences destroyed more than 30 Israeli cruise missiles and guided bombs during the raids.

An attack targeting an airport in southeastern Damascus killed four Syrian soldiers and wounded six, the military centre was quoted by RIA news agency as saying on Monday.

I think Disney needs to reconsider whether this guy is someone who well-represents what Disney is all about.

Carlos Martin Bringas was found in his car in a park in Torreon on January 18 after gunshots were heard nearby at around noon. He had a gun in his left hand which led investigators to believe he killed himself.

Bringas was from one of the richest families in Mexico which owns half of the Soriana Group, which owns a chain of grocery stores.

It has not yet been suggested why he would have wanted to kill himself and prosecutors have not said whether they suspect foul play or not.

The hosts of “Fox & Friends” on Monday apologized for showing a graphic saying Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is dead, blaming a control room error.
[...]
“We need to apologize. … A technical error in the control room triggered a graphic of RBG with a date on it,” co-host Steve Doocy said later in the program. “We don’t want to make it seem anything other than that was a mistake. That was an accident.”

Martin Luther King III, the oldest son of the iconic civil rights leader and a co-chairmen of the Drum Major Institute, met with Trump two years ago on MLK Day. During that meeting, the then-president-elect endorsed the idea of a national photo ID. This year, the group is calling on Trump to follow through.
[...]
“We want to make sure that no voter is left behind because of the inability to get a photo ID,” Wachtel told The Hill. “Most people spend their time fighting over who’s trying to keep people from not voting as opposed to finding solutions to make it possible for everyone to vote. That’s why Dr. King fought so hard for the Voting Rights Act.”

Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris announced Monday that she is officially throwing her hat into the ring and seeking the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2020.

I'm running for president. Let's do this together. Join us: https://t.co/9KwgFlgZHA pic.twitter.com/otf2ez7t1p

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 21, 2019

Global wealth inequality widened last year as billionaires increased their fortunes by $2.5 billion per day.

While the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth dwindle by 11%, billionaires’ riches increased by 12%. The mega-wealthy have also become a more concentrated bunch. Last year, the top 26 wealthiest people owned $1.4 trillion, or as much as the 3.8 billion poorest people. The year before, it was the top 43 people.