| 'Have Fun in Prison!' The Republican National Committee Just Taunted Michael Cohen in a Video Posted: 27 Feb 2019 08:53 AM PST  He previously served as deputy national chairman of the RNC
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| Airlines Reroute Flights as India, Pakistan Fighters Downed Posted: 27 Feb 2019 02:56 PM PST  A United Continental Holdings Inc. flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Delhi was re-routed to London and later canceled, while a Newark-Mumbai flight was shifted to Frankfurt. An Air Canada flight from Toronto to Delhi turned back Tuesday night over Ireland and was scrubbed when it arrived back in Canada.
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| Why the Case against Cardinal George Pell Doesn’t Stand Up Posted: 26 Feb 2019 02:07 PM PST  With the lifting of the trial judge's order banning coverage of the conviction of Cardinal George Pell this past December on charges of "historical sexual abuse," the facts can finally be laid out for those willing to consider them. (Disclosure: Cardinal Pell and I are longtime friends.)Victoria police commenced an investigation one year before any complaints had been filed. During that investigation, the police took out newspaper ads seeking information about any untoward behavior with minors at the St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne —without any hint of such misbehavior having been received by the authorities.Once charges had been laid and Cardinal Pell had returned to Australia from his post at the Vatican, a committal hearing (to determine whether the charges were capable of being tried) was held. The committal-hearing judge threw out several charges but allowed others to go forward — even though she observed that she would not vote to convict on several charges, she thought they should be tried anyway.In Cardinal Pell's first trial, held under the media-suppression order, the defense dismantled the prosecution's case while shedding light on the inadequacy of the police investigative process; that trial resulted in a hung jury, which voted 10–2 for acquittal. The foreman and several other members of the jury were in tears when the verdict was read.During the retrial, the defense demonstrated that, in order to sustain the charge that Pell had accosted and sexually abused two choirboys after Mass one Sunday, ten improbable things would have had to have happened and all within ten minutes:• Archbishop Pell abandoned his decades-long practice of greeting congregants outside the cathedral after Mass.• Pell, who was typically accompanied by a master of ceremonies or sacristan when he was vested for Mass, entered the carefully controlled space of the vesting sacristy alone.• The master of ceremonies, charged with helping the archbishop disrobe while removing his own liturgical vestments, had disappeared.• The sacristan, charged with the care of the locked sacristy, had also disappeared.• The sacristan did not go back and forth between the sacristy and the cathedral sanctuary, removing missals and Mass vessels, as was his responsibility and consistent practice.• The altar servers, like the sacristan, simply disappeared, rather than helping the sacristan clear the sanctuary by bringing liturgical vessels and books back to the sacristy.• The priests who concelebrated the Mass with Pell were not in the sacristy disrobing after the ceremony.• At least 40 people did not notice that two choirboys left the post-Mass procession.• Two choirboys entered the sacristy, started gulping altar wine, and were accosted and abused by Archbishop Pell — while the sacristy door was open and the archbishop was in full liturgical vestments.• The abused choirboys then entered the choir room, through two locked doors, without anyone noticing, and participated in a post-Mass rehearsal; no one asked why they had been missing for ten minutes.Before the trial, one of the complainants died, having told his mother that he had never been assaulted. During the trial, there was no corroboration of the surviving complainant's charges. Other choirboys (now, of course, grown), as well as the choir director and his assistant, the adult members of the choir, the master of ceremonies, and the sacristan all testified, and from their testimony we learn the following: that no one recalled any choirboys bolting from the procession after Mass; that none of those in the immediate vicinity of the alleged abuse noticed anything; that indeed nothing could have happened in a secured space without someone noticing; and that there was neither gossip nor rumor about any such dramatic and vile incident afterward.Notwithstanding this evidence of Cardinal Pell's innocence (an innocence affirmed by ten of the twelve members of the first trial jury), the second trial jury returned a verdict of 12–0 for conviction. Observers at the trial told me that the trial judge seemed surprised on hearing the verdict. The verdict and the finding of the first, hung jury suggest that, in the media circus surrounding Pell, a fair jury trial was virtually impossible. That point was recently conceded by the attorney general of the State of Victoria, who suggested that the law might be amended to permit bench trials by a judge alone in such cases — an option not afforded George Pell. (Shortly before the media-suppression order was lifted on February 25, the Victoria prosecutors dropped two more charges against Cardinal Pell, of even greater dubiety and dating back some four decades.)Cardinal Pell's lawyers will of course appeal. The appeal will be heard by a panel of senior judges, who can decide that what is called in Australia an "unsafe verdict" — one that the jury could not rationally have reached on the basis of the evidence — was rendered and that therefore Pell's conviction is null and void. For Cardinal Pell's sake, and for the reputation of the justice system in the state of Victoria, one must hope that the appellate judges will do the right thing.
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| Porsche to make electric SUV: the Porsche Macan gets an overhaul Posted: 26 Feb 2019 10:52 AM PST ![Porsche to make electric SUV: the Porsche Macan gets an overhaul]( "Porsche to make electric SUV: the Porsche Macan gets an overhaul") The Porsche Macan is getting an electric makeover. The Porsche SUV will be converted into a battery-powered model, the VW luxury brand announced.
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| Trump and Kim to meet for dinner at colonial-era Hanoi hotel Posted: 26 Feb 2019 02:10 PM PST  The White House said Trump would meet Kim at Hanoi's French-colonial-era Metropole Hotel at 6:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) and have a 20-minute one-on-one conversation before a dinner scheduled to last just over an hour and a half. Trump flew into Hanoi on Air Force One late on Tuesday. "Just arrived in Vietnam," he wrote in a Twitter post.
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| US financial regulatory agency says Musk violated deal Posted: 25 Feb 2019 10:06 PM PST  The US Securities and Exchange Commission accused Tesla founder Elon Musk on Monday of failing to comply with a court-endorsed deal between the electric automaker and the regulatory agency. According to the SEC, a tweet from Musk on Tesla's 2019 production levels violates the deal, under which his tweets had to be reviewed prior to being published. On "February 19, 2019, Musk tweeted, 'Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019.' Musk did not seek or receive pre-approval prior to publishing this tweet, which was inaccurate and disseminated to over 24 million people," the SEC said in court filing in New York federal court.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says it is 'legitimate' for people to not want children because of climate change Posted: 26 Feb 2019 07:24 AM PST  Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argues that it is a "legitimate question" to ask whether it's moral for people to have children with the looming threat of climate change continues to exacerbate global conflicts. "There's scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult," Ms Ocasio-Cortez said during an Instagram livestream. Ms Ocasio-Cortez, a co-sponsor of the progressive Green New Deal resolution, said the clock is ticking when it comes to reversing the effects of global warming within the estimated 12-year deadline the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported last fall.
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| The Latest: Security Council sets open meeting on Venezuela Posted: 25 Feb 2019 07:38 PM PST  BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The latest on Venezuela's political crisis (all times local):
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| Paul Manafort Seeks Mercy From D.C. Judge Who’ll Punish Him Posted: 25 Feb 2019 07:21 PM PST  "Mr. Manafort has been punished substantially, including the forfeiture of most of his assets," attorneys for the former international political strategist told U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in a court filing Monday. Manafort, 69, pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts before Jackson in September, avoiding a second trial only weeks after being found guilty of eight felonies by a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia.
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| Justice Department loses appeal to block AT&T-Time Warner merger, won't appeal again Posted: 26 Feb 2019 05:02 PM PST ![Justice Department loses appeal to block AT&T-Time Warner merger, won't appeal again]( "Justice Department loses appeal to block AT&T-Time Warner merger, won't appeal again") The Justice Department, which lost its latest attempt to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger, will not appeal the U.S. District Court of Appeals ruling.
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| Boeing unveils unmanned combat jet developed in Australia Posted: 26 Feb 2019 05:10 PM PST  Boeing Co on Wednesday unveiled an unmanned, fighter-like jet developed in Australia and designed to fly alongside crewed aircraft in combat for a fraction of the cost. The U.S. manufacturer hopes to sell the multi-role aircraft, which is 38 feet long (11.6 meters) and has a 2,000 nautical mile (3,704 kilometer) range, to customers around the world, modifying it as requested. The prototype is Australia's first domestically developed combat aircraft since World War II and Boeing's biggest investment in unmanned systems outside the United States, although the company declined to specify the dollar amount.
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| Rep. Ilhan Omar deletes the controversial tweets that drew charges of anti-Semitism Posted: 26 Feb 2019 01:10 PM PST  Rep. Ilhan Omar apologized for the tweets the next day.
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| The 9 Best 2019 Cars for Less Than $20,000 Posted: 26 Feb 2019 07:51 AM PST |
| Mother allegedly killed her baby daughter before throwing her toddler son off a balcony Posted: 26 Feb 2019 09:14 PM PST  Tierra Ortega, 24, from California is expected to be booked on charges of suspicion of homicide, attempted homicide and child abuse resulting in death for allegedly killing her baby daughter and throwing her toddler son off a second-story balcony.
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| Southwest gets FAA OK for flights to Hawaii from California Posted: 27 Feb 2019 02:45 PM PST  DALLAS (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it has granted Southwest Airlines approval to begin flights between California and Hawaii, capping the airline's effort to extend its reach 2,400 miles (3,800 kilometers) across the Pacific.
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| Here's Why Kim Jong Un May Have Opted for an Arduous Train Journey to Reach Vietnam Posted: 26 Feb 2019 01:42 AM PST  Kim Jong Un opted not to fly to Vietnam for his second summit with President Trump
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| Why Did Senate Democrats Refuse to Protect Infants? Posted: 27 Feb 2019 03:30 AM PST  A moral catastrophe unfolded on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Monday. Forty-four Democratic senators voted against legislation that would have required doctors to give the same care to infants who survive abortion procedures that they would give to any other infant.One after another, Democratic senators took to the floor to smear the bill as an attack on women's health care, a baseless criticism that they failed to substantiate. In the process, they revealed their belief that allowing unwanted infants to perish after birth constitutes a form of women's health care.Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) reintroduced his Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act in direct response to Virginia governor Ralph Northam's endorsement of permitting mothers and doctors to let infants die of neglect. "The infant would be delivered," Northam said, explaining a hypothetical case in which a woman in labor wanted an abortion. "The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother."This "discussion" is what Democrats voted on Monday to preserve — a discussion not about health-care options for women but about whether or not to extend health care of any kind to newborn infants. With their votes and their speeches, 44 U.S. senators embraced Ralph Northam's position, which, despite attempting to clarify, he has never retracted."I want to ask each and every one of my colleagues whether or not we're okay with infanticide," Sasse said at the start of floor debate on Monday. "This language is blunt. I recognize that. It is too blunt for many people in this body. But frankly, that is what we're talking about here today. Infanticide is what [the bill] is actually about."Though Sasse's bill failed to pass, it succeeded in forcing Democrats to take a stance on infanticide, and though they refused to do so explicitly, the reality of their disgraceful position was abundantly clear.During floor debate, Senator Tina Smith (D., Minn.) said that the bill "puts Congress in the middle of the important medical decisions that patients and doctors should make together without political interference."Democratic senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said it represents the idea that "the moral judgment of right-wing politicians in Washington, D.C., should supersede a medical professional's judgment and a woman's decision.""It makes no sense for Washington politicians who know nothing about these individual circumstances to say they know better than the doctors, patients, the family," said Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.). "The bill is solely meant to intimidate doctors and restrict patients' access to care and has nothing, nothing, nothing to do with protecting children.""This is how our medical system is supposed to work," Smith added later in her remarks. "Physicians and patients making decisions together based on patients' individual needs."Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois labeled the bill an effort to "bully doctors out of giving reproductive care." And Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.) said the legislation "would interfere with the doctor–patient relationship and impose new obstacles to a woman's constitutionally protected right to make her own decisions about her reproductive health.""Conservative politicians should not be telling doctors how they should care for their patients," Hirono said. "Instead, women, in consultation with their families and doctors, are in the best position to determine their best course of care."All of these statements take as their premise a fundamental lie about the legislation. No part of the born-alive bill limits abortion access or regulates abortion methods in any way. It involves abortions only to the extent that the infants in question survived them. Nor does the bill mandate any particular kind of care for these infants; it merely requires that these nearly aborted newborns be afforded "the same degree" of care that "any other child born alive at the same gestational age" would receive.But these statements from Democrats are more than mere falsehoods. They expose a sinister reality: There is no daylight between their argument and that of Ralph Northam. They have admitted that they believe that denying medical care to infants can constitute legitimate women's health care, classified under the untouchable umbrella of "reproductive rights."That was the ultimate triumph of the attempt to pass the born-alive bill. Though Democrats managed to block the legislation, it forced the moral equivocators of the Democratic party to step out from behind their smokescreens. It demanded that they put their name to a vote permitting doctors to turn a blind eye to dying babies. It compelled them to defend Ralph Northam's indefensible comments.This — and not because it would impede women's "reproductive rights" — is why Democrats were so afraid of Ben Sasse's bill. They knew that nothing in the text restricts access to abortion. But they knew, too, that it would expose them.To support the bill would betray a logical and philosophical inconsistency — Democrats would affirm the dignity and rights of a newborn infant, even as they dehumanize that same life, at the same stage of development, inside its mother's womb. To oppose the bill would reveal the ghastly, consistent principle of the abortion-rights movement — that a child's rights depend not on her size or location, but on whether she is wanted by her mother.The Democrats chose consistency, and consistency means infanticide.
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| Photos of the 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE53 Posted: 27 Feb 2019 09:10 AM PST |
| Commercial flights to and from Pakistan, India disrupted as tensions rise Posted: 27 Feb 2019 06:44 AM PST  Several airlines, including Emirates and Qatar Airways, suspended flights to Pakistan on Wednesday after the South Asian nation closed its air space following heightened tensions with neighbouring India. Etihad, flydubai, Gulf Air, SriLankan Airlines and Air Canada also suspended services to the country and flight tracking portals showed Singapore Airlines, British Airways and others were forced to reroute flights. Airlines flying over India and Pakistan to Europe, the Middle East and Asia were disrupted and some flights were routed through Mumbai on India's western coast, so they could head further south and avoid Pakistan air space, an Indian government official told Reuters.
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| Buhari Triumphs in Nigeria Poll as Opposition Rejects Result Posted: 27 Feb 2019 10:18 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari easily won a second term as president of Africa's biggest oil producer with promises to revive an anemic economy and tackle security threats including a devastating insurgency by Islamic State. His main opponent rejected the results.
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| Steven Avery attorney: 'We won!'; court to hear new evidence in 'Making a Murderer' case Posted: 27 Feb 2019 11:34 AM PST  Kathleen Zellner, attorney for "Making A Murderer" subject Steven Avery, tweeted "We won!" after the Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision.
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| At least 4,500 abuse complaints at migrant children shelters Posted: 26 Feb 2019 06:45 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment of migrant children in government-funded shelters were made over the past four years, including scores directed against adult staff members, according to federal data released Tuesday.
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| Zarif goes back to work after his resignation is rejected Posted: 27 Feb 2019 02:39 AM PST  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejected on Wednesday the resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, as it was against national interests of the Islamic Republic. Saskia O'Donoghue reports
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| Was the media biased against the Covington students? Posted: 27 Feb 2019 05:12 AM PST  Conservatives accuse media organizations of trafficking in stereotypes that Trump supporters are bigots. Two recent incidents have strengthened conservatives' belief that liberal journalists are implacably opposed to Donald Trump and his supporters: the 18 January encounter between a group of Kentucky students and a Native American activist on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the claims by Jussie Smollett that he had been attacked by hoodlums shouting racist and anti-gay slurs.
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| US Denied Tens of Thousands More Visas in 2018 Because of Travel Ban Posted: 26 Feb 2019 03:26 PM PST  Tens of thousands more visas were denied in 2018 than previously because of President Trump's travel ban on certain countries, according to data released Tuesday.According to Reuters, the State Department said it rejected over 37,000 visa applications last year because of the travel ban restrictions, many times more than the 1,000 blocked in 2017, before the ban kicked in completely.The ban mostly affects the Muslim-majority countries Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Visas issued to those countries are down 80 percent since 2016. About 14,600 visas were granted to applicants from those five countries from October, 2017 to September, 2018, down from the 72,000 approved the year before.The ban also restricted visas for those from Venezuela and North Korea.Last year, the government rejected 15,384 applications for immigrant (permanent resident) visas because of the ban, as well as 21,645 short-term visit applications.After Trump announced the ban in January, 2017, citing terrorism concerns from the countries listed in the order, it faced challenges in several federal courts over whether the ban was illegally discriminatory against Muslims. The administration tweaked the order, and the Supreme Court approved the implementation of most of it in December, 2017. The Court upheld the current version of the ban last summer.The U.S. denies close to 4 million visa applications every year for a laundry list of reasons, including criminal activity and not qualifying for the particular visa sought.
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| Univision team deported from Venezuela after Maduro interview Posted: 26 Feb 2019 09:38 AM PST  Venezuela on Tuesday deported a team from U.S. television network Univision after anchor Jorge Ramos said authorities detained them at the presidential palace because President Nicolas Maduro was upset by their interview questions. The six-person team was held for more than two hours and had their equipment confiscated, Ramos told reporters on Monday evening after arriving back at his Caracas hotel which was surrounded by intelligence agents. Ramos left the hotel on Tuesday morning guarded by personnel from the U.S. and Mexican embassies while intelligence agents escorted them to Caracas' Maiquetia airport.
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| Flights Canceled as India-Pakistan Conflict Closes Airspace Posted: 27 Feb 2019 03:47 AM PST  Among global carriers, Singapore Airlines Ltd. is aware of the airspace closure, which may affect some flights, the airline said in an email Wednesday. Singapore Air's Flight 308, headed for London, changed course to avoid flying over Pakistan, the FlightRadar24 website showed. SriLankan Airlines canceled flights to the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore on Thursday following the airspace closure, it said in a statement.
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| Man who bought $540 of Girl Scouts cookies is arrested Posted: 27 Feb 2019 02:00 AM PST ![Man who bought $540 of Girl Scouts cookies is arrested]( "Man who bought $540 of Girl Scouts cookies is arrested") GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man who bought more than 120 boxes of Girl Scouts cookies to help the scouts escape the cold has been arrested on drug charges.
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| This man won't go into a nursing home. He'll spend his 'golden age' at the Holiday Inn Posted: 26 Feb 2019 09:13 AM PST  Instead of dreading the day he has to move into a nursing home, one Texas man plans to live his "golden age" with thrifty style.
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| La Tragicommedia è Finita Posted: 27 Feb 2019 03:30 AM PST  Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, a play in which two men sit around and wait for someone who never shows up, has been claimed by just about everyone: Freudians, Christians, existentialists.Who's right? I haven't a clue.But I have lived, all of us have lived, through a similar tragicomedy (a word Beckett added to the subtitle for the English version of his play). We've been waiting for Mueller. And waiting.For some, the waiting is the hardest part. But by historic standards, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been working at a blistering pace. Kenneth Starr's investigation into the Whitewater scandal wasn't fully closed down until 2001. It started in 1994. The average running time for special investigations is 904 days. Tuesday marked the 650th day since Mueller was appointed.Most independent counsels take a year to file their first criminal charges, if they file any at all. Mueller hit that milestone a little more than five months in, and he has racked up more than 30 other indictments or guilty pleas since then.And yet, for the "get Trump media" (as Alan Dershowitz and others call it), it's never enough. Whenever news breaks in the probe, or when news doesn't break, for that matter, the response tends to be the same: "Remember, we don't know what Mueller knows." Watch CNN or MSNBC for a few minutes and someone will say this — gleefully when the news is already bad for Trump, reassuringly when the news is disappointingly good for Trump."Always keeping in mind that Mueller knows so much more than he has shown," former CBS newsman Dan Rather told CNN's Don Lemon. "If you think [Michael Cohen's guilty plea and Paul Manafort's conviction] was a shock to our democratic system, just stay tuned. Because the other things Mueller is working on, and sooner or later we'll find out what they are, is going to make yesterday pale by comparison."Well, what if it doesn't? One of the reasons we keep hearing that "Mueller knows more" is that he has delivered less. For all of the drama and the embarrassments, Mueller has yet to file a single charge on the core allegation that justified the launch of the probe in the first place — the allegation that Donald Trump "colluded" with Russia.Sure, the gaudy remoras that attached themselves to Trump's hide have had a rough time of it. Manafort, who made a career of colluding with horrible regimes, may never have another meal not thwacked from a large spoon onto a prison tray. Roger Stone may join Cohen in the Stoney Lonesome as well. And obviously, Trump has made things worse for himself by seeming like he's got a lot to hide.But it looks more and more likely that Mueller's dance of a thousand veils will end with . . . more veils. The Mueller obsessives want him to be a deus ex machina who delivers irrefutable grounds for impeachment and I-told-you-sos. But that Mueller may never arrive. He may never even say a word about it in public at all.That's in part because the Russia piece of his portfolio is under the rubric of a counterintelligence investigation, not a criminal one. This means he's under no obligation to file any public report at all. He could submit a report to the newly confirmed attorney general, Bill Barr, but Barr can reveal whatever he wants to the public, assuming the president says it's OK. Or he can reveal nothing at all.But waiting for Mueller to prove himself a savior may not pan out, for the simpler reason that he can't find what doesn't exist. To say that Trump was morally capable of colluding with Russia is not the same thing as saying that he did.If you listen very closely to former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, there was never hard evidence of Trump's colluding beyond the president's weird statements and behavior in response to the Russia probe. The problem is that you don't need an international conspiracy to explain why Trump says and does weird things — unless you've already decided he's guilty.That's why this tragicomedy will not come to an end with the end of the Mueller probe. The audience, on both sides, had already decided what it was about when they entered the theater.Copyright © 2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
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| Detailed Photos of the 2019 McLaren 720S Spider Posted: 26 Feb 2019 04:01 PM PST |
| All-New 2020 Toyota Corolla First-Drive Review Posted: 26 Feb 2019 04:00 AM PST  All-New 2020 Toyota Corolla Adds Sizzle, Still Sensible The redesigned 2020 Toyota Corolla sedan joins the Corolla hatchback (which we've already tested), and it is offered for the first time as...
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| Lawsuit accuses Trump of kissing campaign worker without her consent Posted: 25 Feb 2019 07:12 PM PST  Alva Johnson said in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Florida's Middle District, that the alleged incident was "part of a pattern of predatory and harassing behavior towards women" by Trump. "This accusation is absurd on its face," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts." Trump has denied charges by a number of women who said he groped and kissed them over a period of years without permission.
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| U.S. disrupted Russian trolls on day of November election: report Posted: 26 Feb 2019 12:35 PM PST  The U.S. military disrupted the internet access of a Russian troll farm accused of trying to influence American voters on Nov. 6, 2018, the day of the congressional elections, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. The U.S. Cyber Command strike targeted the Internet Research Agency in the Russian port city of St. Petersburg, the Post reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials. The group is a Kremlin-backed outfit whose employees had posed as Americans and spread disinformation online in an attempt to also influence the 2016 election, according to U.S. officials.
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| Wells Fargo Sees ‘Possible’ Legal Losses Rising by $500 Million Posted: 27 Feb 2019 02:35 PM PST  The higher estimate for "reasonably possible" legal losses -- essentially a worst-case scenario -- shows risks grew as the bank and authorities examined abuses in recent months and discussed potential penalties. The change stems from "a variety of matters," including probes of its sales to retail customers, Wells Fargo wrote Wednesday in an annual regulatory report.
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| Why Do Some People Wish the Attack on Smollett Happened? Posted: 26 Feb 2019 03:30 AM PST  The reactions of many on the left to the case of Jussie Smollett prove two important things: 1. There is little racism in America. 2. The Left -- white and black -- is morally and psychologically impaired.There is no doubt that most Americans on the left, including black Americans, are distraught over the fact that Smollett faked the "racist" attack on him. Apparently leftists, Democratic leaders, and, most depressingly, many of his fellow blacks wish Smollett had been attacked by white racist homophobes.Representative Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.), a white leftist, tweeted, "I hope this was not something that Mr. Smollett did to himself, or created."Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart told MSNBC there has been "an atmosphere of menace and hate" since Donald Trump was elected president, which made "people want to believe" Smollett's story. Exactly. Capehart, a black leftist, wanted to believe that racists yelling "This is MAGA country" beat up blacks.Another black leftist who writes hate columns for the Washington Post, Nana Efua Mumford, wrote: "I wanted to believe Smollett. I really did." Again, exactly. Mumford wanted to believe that racists yelling "This is MAGA country" beat up blacks.Corey Townsend, the social-media editor of The Root, a black-oriented website (founded in 2008 by Harvard black-studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.), opened his column on his private doubts that Smollett was attacked as he claimed with the words, "I wanted to be wrong." Three paragraphs later: "But still, I wanted to be wrong."This should tell you a great deal about how morally and psychologically sick the Left is. And their reactions prove how little racism there really is in America.Here's the proof of both these assertions: When American Jews, even most left-wing Jews, heard of the mass killing of Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue, how many were hoping the shooter was truly an anti-Semite, and how many were hoping he was a mentally deranged individual who could have just as easily shot up a church? Or, if a well-known Jew had been beaten at 2 a.m. on a Chicago street, how many American Jews would have wanted the attackers to be Jew-haters, and how many would have wished they were just thugs who wanted money?As a Jew who has been deeply involved in Jewish culture all my life, I am pretty certain the majority of Jews -- certainly liberal and conservative Jews, and even most left-wing Jews -- would have wished that neither the Pittsburgh synagogue nor the theoretical attack on a Chicago street I conjured up were perpetrated by anti-Semites.Why is that? Why do almost all Jews wish attackers of Jews not be anti-Semites, but so many blacks and so many white leftists wish Smollett had been attacked by racists?Because Jews want to believe there is little anti-Semitism in America while most black leftists and most white leftists want to believe there is a lot of racism in America.And why is that? Because the Left and many American blacks are politically and personally dependent on one of the greatest mass libels in history -- namely, that America is a racist country. If just one one of five black Americans woke up tomorrow and announced, "You know, this a great country for anyone, including a black person, to live in, and the truth is the vast majority of white Americans bear no ill will toward blacks (or any other race or ethnicity)," that would end the Democrats' chances of winning national elections. The Democratic party is dependent on nearly universal black acceptance of the leftist libel of America.And what about the personal? Why do so many black Americans, living in the freest country for all its citizens -- and in the least-racist multiracial, multiethnic country in history -- want to believe America is racist? That is one of the most important questions all Americans need to address at this time.And there is another one, which I posed in my column last week: Does the Left believe its own lies?
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| Tensions Between India and Pakistan Are at Their Highest Point in Decades. Here's What to Know Posted: 26 Feb 2019 10:40 AM PST  Indian fighter jets bombed Pakistani-controlled territory on Tuesday in a dispute over the long-contested region of Kashmir.
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| High-stakes trial starts in Roundup weed killer cancer claim Posted: 25 Feb 2019 07:05 PM PST  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A jury in federal court in San Francisco will decide whether Roundup weed killer caused a California man's cancer in a trial starting Monday that plaintiffs' attorneys say could help determine the fate of hundreds of similar lawsuits.
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| Miami-Dade cop caught on tape slapping suspect Posted: 27 Feb 2019 07:11 AM PST  Two Miami-Dade Police officers are facing charges after surveillance video appeared to show one sergeant slapping a teenager who was handcuffed and another trying to destroy evidence.
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| The New Peugeot 208 Hatchback Exploits Our Love for French Forbidden Fruit Posted: 26 Feb 2019 06:24 AM PST  Peugeot's latest subcompact has a sci-fi design and a new all-electric variant, and we wish it was coming here.
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| India builds bunkers to protect families along Pakistan border Posted: 27 Feb 2019 06:52 AM PST  On Tuesday evening, Pakistan used heavy caliber weapons to shell 12 to 15 places along the Indian side of the de facto border known as the Line of Control (LoC) that divides the disputed Kashmir region, a spokesman for the Indian defense forces said. The Indian army retaliated with its own shelling of the Pakistani side, he said. There have been frequent exchanges of fire along the actual and de facto borders in recent months, but Tuesday's firing marked a major escalation after India carried out an air strike on what it said was a training camp run by an Islamist militant group in Pakistan.
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