Tuesday, 31 December 2019

Here’s who walked the red carpet at Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago – Raw Story


President Donald Trump’s New Yr’s Eve occasion featured a who’s who of right-wing personalities.

Noticed at his Mar-a-Lago occasion had been Donald Trump, Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Giulfoyle, who spent two years because the First Woman of San Francisco when she was married to Gavin Newsom.

The president’s protection lawyer, former New York Metropolis Mayor Rudy Giuliani was additionally noticed.

Eric Trump attended along with his spouse Lara, who’s working for her father-in-law’s re-election marketing campaign.

Listed below are a number of the photographs from the occasion.

Report typos and corrections to: [email protected].





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U.S. Population Growth In 2019 Is Slowest In A Century | NPR


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The annual inhabitants progress fee of america over the previous yr continued a decades-long decline, dropping to its lowest stage prior to now century.

In keeping with newly launched estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. inhabitants grew by 1,552,022 since 2018, a rise of one-half of 1 %.

That fee of progress is slower than in the course of the Nice Despair of the 1930s, a interval which had till the previous decade marked the smallest growth of the U.S. inhabitants because the general variety of inhabitants briefly dropped in 1918

A number of components assist clarify why the U.S. inhabitants progress fee is slowing:

Declining fertility charges, extra deaths
Forty-two states and the District of Columbia all had a drop within the variety of births recorded over the previous yr. And with the variety of deaths persevering with a gentle decade-long rise as an increasing number of post-World Battle Two child boomers attain outdated age, the variety of births outnumbered the variety of deaths nationwide by fewer than 1 million for the primary time in a long time.

That birth-driven improve in inhabitants didn’t happen this yr in West Virginia, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, all of which had extra deaths than births.

Fewer immigrants
The estimated variety of individuals transferring yearly to the U.S. from different elements of the world has steadily declined from the last decade’s highest whole of 1,046,709 in 2016, the ultimate yr of the Obama administration.

This yr’s anticipated whole of 595,348 immigrants can be the bottom but within the Trump administration, which has proposed new restrictions on immigration and slashed the variety of refugees being granted asylum.

Many states have additionally had residents leaving for different states. Over the previous 9 years, New York is the state with the most important out-migration, dropping 1,379,210 of its residents. They’re amongst greater than 2.5 million residents of the U.S. Northeast who’ve moved to different areas, making it essentially the most broadly deserted a part of the nation.

The Midwest has had the second largest exodus. Of the 1,666,043 Midwesterners who’ve left since 2010, 865,873 hailed from Illinois.

In distinction, the 912,038 individuals who moved away from California over the previous 9 years have been outnumbered by 1,021,544 transferring there from overseas.

Different states have had way more individuals transferring in from elsewhere within the nation than leaving. Texas has been a prime recipient, with 1,145,629 arriving from different states and one other 818,757 from overseas since 2010. It is practically matched by Florida, with 1,289,614 residents of different states transferring there and 1,107,039 extra coming from overseas.

These demographic shifts will seemingly have penalties when U.S. congressional districts are reapportioned based mostly on the 2020 census.

“From the calculations I’ve accomplished,” says William Frey, a demographer and senior fellow at The Brookings Establishment, “Texas might achieve three seats, Florida might achieve two seats. California pretty seemingly might lose a seat for the primary time in its historical past.”

Frey predicts the growing old of the workforce and the shrinking inhabitants progress fee may also have political ramifications.

“, loads of our decline of births, or no less than gradual progress of births, will be countered by immigration from overseas,” he tells NPR’s Right here and Now. “And so immigration goes to be a a lot greater a part of our progress. So that is one thing to concentrate to as we transfer forward into the subsequent decade. What’s our immigration coverage going to be? How are immigrants going to suit into the remainder of our society, in the remainder of our financial system?”

“The massive security valve in all of this,” Frey says, “is immigration.”

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see extra, go to https://www.npr.org.





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Margaret Court: Former tennis champion claims LGBTQ teaching in schools is controlled by ‘the devil’


Court docket, a Pentecostal pastor in Western Australia, made the feedback throughout a sermon on the Victory Life Centre church which she helped discovered.

Within the video of her sermon posted on the church’s Fb web page, Court docket hit out at individuals who change their delivery intercourse genders as a result of “God made us that means.”

“You realize, even that LGBT within the faculties, it is the satan, it is not of God,” the 77-year-old mentioned.

“Kids are making the choice at seven or eight years of age to vary their intercourse, no, simply learn the primary two chapters of Genesis, that is all I say. Female and male,” Court docket mentioned.

“It is so flawed at that age as a result of plenty of issues are planted on this thought realm at that age, they usually begin to query ‘what am I’.

Court with former Australian tennis player Rod Laver.
READ: Andy Murray to overlook Australian Open

“And you already know with that LGBT, they’re going to want they by no means put the T on the tip of it as a result of, notably in girls’s sports activities, they will have so many issues.

“You’ve got younger folks taking hormones and having modifications, by the point they’re 17 they’re pondering, ‘Now I am a boy and actually I used to be a woman.'”

Court docket received all 4 majors in 1970 throughout an illustrious profession that yielded a report 24 grand slam singles victories.

Her feedback come simply weeks earlier than she is ready to be acknowledged on the Australian Open to rejoice the 50th anniversary of her grand slam sweep.

Regardless of inviting Court docket to rejoice her achievement, Tennis Australia mentioned in November, 2019 it didn’t agree together with her “demeaning” private views.

“Publicly acknowledged views of intolerance and demeaning language about others can have monumental influence, and are notably hurtful and dangerous to those that consider they’re focused,” the governing physique mentioned in an open letter.

Court in action at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in 1973.
READ: Serena Williams’ smashed racket from the US Open sells for $20,910
Australian handball athlete Hannah Mouncey criticized Court docket for contributing to the “bullying, discrimination and drawback confronted by trans children.”

“48% of a latest pattern (of transgender youngsters) reported having tried suicide and it is not as a result of they’re trans, it is due to simply how badly society treats them,” the 2018 Victorian LGBT Sportsperson of the 12 months mentioned on Twitter.

“Certainly after all the pieces else, some vital steps must be taken to deal with this. In no way would this be remotely accepted if her feedback have been with reference to another minority group in our society.”

Court docket’s views prompted former rival Billie Jean King to name for the Australian’s title to be stripped from Melbourne Park’s Margaret Court docket Area finally yr’s match.

Nevertheless, Tennis Australia mentioned it will not “rewrite historical past”.

In her sermon, Court docket highlighted the issue of overtly discussing her non secular views.

“The satan will get in and the media and the political, the schooling, TV — he desires to regulate a nation so he can have an effect on folks’s minds and mouths,” Court docket mentioned.

“I can go on tv and if I say, ‘effectively, that is what the Bible says’, effectively, it is like opening a can of worms.

Go to CNN.com/sport for extra information, options, and movies

“My goodness, you have let a torpedo off or one thing. No, it is true, as a result of they hate the phrase of God.”

Court docket’s report of 24 grand slam singles titles is unmatched in each the boys’s and the ladies’s recreation. Serena Williams is second on the all-time record with 23, forward of Steffi Graf’s 22.

The Australian Open will likely be performed in January.





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Kim Jong-un signals North Korea will resume nuclear missile tests | World news


Kim Jong-un has signalled that North Korea will carry its moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile exams in a transfer prone to anger Donald Trump.

The North Korean chief instructed a four-day assembly of occasion officers in Pyongyang that the check ban, which Kim agreed to in talks with the US president, was not wanted, state media mentioned on Wednesday.

Kim additionally reportedly mentioned his nation deliberate to introduce a “new strategic weapon” within the close to future.

In response, Trump mentioned he had relationship with Kim and believed he would “hold his phrase” to chorus from nuclear and long-range missile exams.

Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, mentioned he hoped North Korea would select peace over battle. “So, seeing that reporting publicly, it stays the case that we hope that chairman Kim will take a unique course,” Pompeo instructed Fox Information in an interview. “We’re hopeful that … chairman Kim will make the suitable determination – he’ll select peace and prosperity over battle and battle.”

In an interview with CBS Information, Pompeo mentioned Kim ought to honour commitments he made in conferences with Trump final 12 months. “If chairman Kim has reneged on the commitments he made to president Trump, that’s deeply disappointing,” Pompeo mentioned. “He made these commitments to president Trump in alternate for president Trump agreeing to not conduct large-scale army workouts. We’ve lived as much as our commitments. We proceed to carry out hope that he’ll dwell as much as his as properly.”

North Korea has beforehand fired missiles able to reaching your entire US mainland and has carried out six nuclear exams.

A self-imposed ban has been on the centre of the nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington over the previous two years, which has concerned three conferences between him and Trump, however little tangible progress.

The US had made “gangster-like calls for” within the talks course of, Kim mentioned, together with persevering with joint army drills with South Korea, adopting leading edge weapons and imposing sanctions.

“The world will witness a brand new strategic weapon possessed by [North Korea] within the close to future,” Kim mentioned.

“We are going to reliably placed on fixed alert the highly effective nuclear deterrent able to containing the nuclear threats from the US and guaranteeing our long-term safety.”

Analysts mentioned the declaration amounted to Kim placing a missile “to Donald Trump’s head” however that escalation by Pyongyang would in all probability backfire.

Any precise check is prone to infuriate Trump, who has repeatedly referred to Kim‘s “promise” to him to not carry them out, and performed down launches of shorter-range weapons.

Negotiations between the 2 sides have been largely deadlocked because the breakup of their Hanoi summit in February.

The North Korean chief’s announcement on Wednesday got here after the US missed a year-end deadline for a restart of denuclearisation talks.

Kim convened the uncommon assembly of the ruling occasion’s policy-making committee on Saturday because the US had not responded to his repeated requires concessions to reopen negotiations, dismissing the deadline as synthetic.

The fifth plenary meeting of the seventh central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea



The Employees’ occasion’s fifth plenary assembly in Pyongyang on Monday (Kim in white on the far finish of the stage). {Photograph}: KCNA/KNS/AFP through Getty Photos

“There is no such thing as a floor for us to get unilaterally sure to the dedication any longer,” the official KCNA information company cited Kim telling prime ruling occasion officers.

“The world will witness a brand new strategic weapon to be possessed by the DPRK within the close to future,” he added, utilizing the acronym for the nation’s official title, the Democratic Individuals’s Republic of Korea.

The announcement preceded Kim’s annual new 12 months speech, a key second within the North Korean political calendar, reviewing the previous and setting out objectives for the long run. It will likely be Kim’s eighth such handle after he revived the custom began by his grandfather – North Korea’s founding chief, Kim Il-sung – however discontinued throughout his father’s rule.

Kim made clear to occasion officers that the North was prepared to dwell beneath worldwide sanctions to protect its nuclear functionality.

“The US is elevating calls for opposite to the basic pursuits of our state and is adopting brigandish angle,” KCNA cited him as saying.

Washington had “performed tens of massive and small joint army drills which its president personally promised to cease” and despatched high-tech army tools to the South, he mentioned, and stepped up sanctions in opposition to the North.

“We will by no means promote our dignity,” he added, saying Pyongyang would “shift to a stunning precise motion to make [the US] pay for the pains sustained by our folks”.

For months, Pyongyang has been demanding the easing of worldwide sanctions imposed over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, whereas Washington has insisted it takes extra tangible steps in the direction of giving them up.

“North Korea has, in impact, put an ICBM to Donald Trump’s head with a purpose to achieve the 2 concessions it desires most: sanctions aid and a few form of safety assure,” mentioned Harry Kazianis of the Middle for the Nationwide Curiosity in Washington.

“Kim Jong-un is enjoying a harmful sport of geopolitical hen,” he added.

“He’s playing that threatening one other demonstration of his means to hit the US homeland with a nuclear weapon will in some way push America into granting extra concessions.”

However the technique was unlikely to be efficient, he mentioned, as Washington was prone to reply with “extra sanctions, an elevated army presence in East Asia and extra hearth and fury threats coming from Donald Trump’s Twitter account”.

The US has already indicated that it’s going to react if the North carried out a long-range missile check.

An ICBM launch would even be prone to frustrate China, the North’s key diplomatic backer and supplier of commerce and assist, which all the time stresses stability in a area it regards as its yard.

However ties between Pyongyang and Beijing have warmed markedly previously two years, with the Chinese language president, Xi Jinping, paying his first go to to the North as head of state in June, and Beijing and Washington at loggerheads over commerce and different points.

In December China and Russia – one other key financial associate for the North – proposed loosening UN sanctions in opposition to Pyongyang, and analysts mentioned Kim is prone to search to take advantage of rivalries between Washington, Beijing and Moscow.



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2019 was a partisan year in Louisiana politics


NEW ORLEANS — From the Louisiana governor’s race to the impeachment proceedings, 2019 might be summed up in a single phrase: partisan. 

“It’s a political vendetta, but when they’ll via this Madame speaker, impeachment is not going to be only a stain on this Democratic majority, impeachment might be their legacy,” mentioned Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, through the Home debate earlier than the impeachment vote. 

“The longer we wait, the extra time we enable for this President to do irreparable hurt, to our nation and our democracy,” mentioned Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-Louisiana, through the Home debate earlier than the impeachment vote. 

Love him or hate him, it was uncommon for a day to go by with out President Trump within the headlines. 

Earlier within the 12 months, there was the buildup to the discharge of the controversial Mueller report on Russian interference and the 2016 Trump marketing campaign. 

Then got here the Democratic Presidential debates with the candidates attacking Mr. Trump whereas attempting to persuade voters they are often the one to beat him in 2020. 

“By the way in which, can we give President Trump a spherical of applause,” mentioned Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone throughout his concession speech in November.

2019 proved that not all politics is native. The president tried to steer the Louisiana governor’s race to Republican Eddie Rispone’s nook. 

He visited the state a number of instances to fire up assist for Rispone whereas attempting to undercut John Bel Edwards. It did not work. 

Edwards gained a second time period and stays the lone Democratic governor within the Deep South. 

In his victory speech, Edwards delivered perhaps probably the most well mannered and memorable political jabs to Trump this 12 months:

 “And as for the President, God bless his coronary heart,” mentioned Edwards in November. 

A brand new 12 months often requires optimism, however that is politics we’re speaking about.

With Republicans in charge of the Louisiana State legislature and a democrat as governor, most agreements might be preceded by arguments. 

And with a looming impeachment trial within the U.S. senate after which President Trump working for a second time period, 2020 might be much more partisan than the 12 months we simply endured.

RELATED: Partisans double down on impeachment

RELATED: Louisiana congressmen vote on social gathering strains as impeachment strikes to Home vote

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Anderson Cooper or Andy Cohen?


Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper had been initially arrange on a blind date. After one cellphone name, they determined to not exit however ultimately turned good mates.

For the previous few years, followers have watched them co-host CNN’s New Yr’s Eve protection from Instances Sq. in New York Metropolis and have had a couple of questions concerning the duo. A few of the most typical questions are: who’s older and who has a better internet price? Learn on to seek out out the solutions.

Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper
Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper | Rob Kim/Getty Photos

What’s Andy Cohen’s age?

The Watch What Occurs Stay host was born on June 2, 1968, in St. Louis to folks Evelyn and Lou Cohen.

From 1986 to 1990, Cohen attended Boston College and majored in communications. After commencement, he interned at CBS Information together with Julie Chen who was additionally an intern there on the time.

In 2004, Cohen turned the vp of unique programming at Bravo and three years later, he started internet hosting WWHL. In the present day, he’s the one brazenly homosexual man to host a late-night speak present. In an interview with Pleasure Behar, Cohen recalled what his mom stated to him the day she came upon he was homosexual.

“It was one of many scariest issues that I’ve ever accomplished,” he instructed Behar. “I’ll always remember that day. I left [a] letter truly out which I didn’t imply to, and my mother discovered it… The letter was to a pal of mine in London who I got here out too … She got here and stated, ‘I feel you’ve got one thing to inform me.’ I stated, ‘I don’t wish to inform you,’ and she or he stated, ‘You must,’ and I stated, ‘Properly, you already know…’ She stated, ‘You must say the phrases to be able to say it.’ So I stated it. I’m crying, crying, and about an hour later she stated, ‘ I might have hated your spouse anyway.’”

What’s Anderson Cooper’s age?

The AC360 anchor is one 12 months older than Cohen.

Cooper was born on June 3, 1967, in New York Metropolis to folks Wyatt Emory Cooper and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt.

Cooper attended Yale College the place he majored in political science. After graduating in 1989, he labored for Channel One earlier than transferring to ABC Information as a reporter and later co-anchor for World Information Now.

In 2001, Cooper joined CNN and has been with the community ever since.

Who has the upper internet price?

So who has the upper internet price? Properly in the event you guessed Andy Cohen you’re unsuitable.

Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper
Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper | Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Cohen not solely makes his cash from his late-night gig and touring with Cooper for his or her AC2: An intimate night with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, however most individuals affiliate him with the Actual Housewives. Cohen is the mastermind behind the favored franchise and hosts all of the reunion specials.

At Bravo, Cohen launched plenty of different actuality exhibits together with Venture RunwayPrime ChefThe Millionaire Matchmaker, and Queer Eye for the Straight Man. In the present day, he has an estimated internet price of $50 million, in keeping with Movie star Web Price. However even that hefty quantity doesn’t beat out his journalist buddy.

Along with his CNN information present and the AC2 tour, Cooper can be a correspondent for 60 minutes. He has hosted different applications for CNN as effectively together with CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute and the documentary Planet in Peril. In June 2019, after his mom died from abdomen most cancers Cooper inherited nearly all of her property and immediately has a whopping internet price of $200 million.

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Florida man with ‘hit list’ receives no-jail plea after shooting up a condo while pretending to be a cop – Raw Story


On Tuesday, The Each day Beast reported the saga of Ryan Flanzer, a person from Florida who fancied himself to be a police officer — and the way, regardless of terrorizing a number of individuals, he ended up avoiding jail.

Flanzer, 27, harbored a years-long “obsession” with police, donated over $200,000 to police departments, implied on social media that he labored for a Florida police division, and listed himself on LinkedIn as a “Crime Prevention advisor” for the Longboat Key Police Division. “i [sic] shield and serve me finance and curiosity #LongBoatKeyPolice , volunteer officer,” mentioned considered one of his Instagram posts, which confirmed a Sig Sauer handgun and a hid carry license in a case that resembled a police badge. In one of many extra disturbing facets of his police worship, he generated proceeds for police departments by promoting hoodies on-line depicting the Columbine Excessive College shooters.

However Flanzer was by no means an actual police officer — and his makes an attempt to fake he was one finally proved to be his undoing.

Flanzer, distressed about being disinherited by his philanthropist grandparents and affected by drug habit and psychological sickness, started compiling a “hit checklist” of individuals he believed had financially wronged him, together with “the trustee of Flanzer’s grandparents’ property, the trustee’s lawyer, and Longboat Key Police Chief Peter Cumming, who had lately accepted Flanzer’s $200,000-plus donation.”

He went to the house of one of many targets on his checklist, wearing physique armor, a faux badge, and a holstered pistol, and instructed bystanders he was a police officer. He then repeated the stunt on the apartment of the proprietor of a boating firm he was suing, opened hearth on the door lock, then barricaded himself in a resort — and finally surrendered after a standoff with SWAT officers.

In the end, Flanzer took a plea that allowed him to keep away from jail time — due to the time he spent in a rehab facility in Malibu, California. The individuals on his “hit checklist” stay frightened and lots of have taken out safety particulars, however his lawyer Stephen Romine insists he’s not a menace to the group and is now at UCLA making “straight A’s.”

You’ll be able to learn extra right here.

Report typos and corrections to: [email protected].



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Remembering Journalist Cokie Roberts Who Died This Year


Copyright 2019 NPR. To see extra, go to https://www.npr.org.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The folks we mentioned goodbye to in 2019 embrace Cokie Roberts. The NPR journalist and chief died at 75 this 12 months. It’s becoming that we recall her at 12 months’s finish as a result of we have now been marking anniversaries of milestones in ladies’s proper to vote. One in all Cokie’s final experiences on NPR talked about a kind of milestones. Let’s hear.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

INSKEEP: This week marks the 100th anniversary of an enormous second in voting rights. The Home of Representatives handed the 19th Modification to the Structure granting ladies the fitting to vote.

COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no granting, no granting. We had the fitting to vote as Americans. We did not must be granted it by some bunch of fellows.

INSKEEP: OK. That, we must always point out, is NPR’s personal Cokie Roberts correcting the introduction to this story. OK.

And that was Cokie in early 2019. Now, the 12 months about to start, 2020, marks one century since that constitutional modification allowed ladies to assert their proper to vote nationwide for the primary time. As a reporter and analyst for greater than 40 years, Cokie Roberts tracked ladies’s gradual progress in profitable elected workplace.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

ROBERTS: That is painful for me, Steve, since I used to be one of many reporters at all times declaring the 12 months of the lady when it wasn’t. However 1984 we thought is likely to be a 12 months of the ladies. 1990 we thought is likely to be a 12 months of the ladies. However ’92 truly was.

INSKEEP: In her later years, Cokie Roberts targeted more and more on the political roles of girls from earlier than her time, earlier than the fitting to vote even, writing a collection of common histories.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERTS: I really feel that, you understand, writing historical past, leaving out half of the human race…

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Precisely.

ROBERTS: …Is known as a distorted view of historical past. It isn’t correct, and it is also horrible for any younger individual, however notably a lady, to develop up pondering that ladies weren’t making super contributions to the founding of the nation and the continuation of the nation.

INSKEEP: Yr after 12 months, Cokie Roberts made certain that no one following her work may develop up pondering that. Transcript supplied by NPR, Copyright NPR.



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Alex Jones and Infowars ordered to pay $100,000 in fees for Sandy Hook case


Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son Jesse was killed within the mass capturing at Sandy Hook Elementary College in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, sued Jones and Infowars in April 2018 for making allegedly defamatory statements in opposition to him and different victims’ households. Jones “has repeatedly and unequivocally referred to as the Sandy Hook capturing a hoax,” in response to the lawsuit.

Earlier this month, Texas choose Scott Jenkins granted Heslin’s movement for sanctions and authorized bills after the defendants disobeyed a court docket order to supply a witness listing and documentation, and ordered the defendants to pay Heslin’s authorized charges, within the quantity of $65,825.

In a separate resolution, Jenkins dominated in opposition to the defendants’ movement to dismiss and ordered the defendants pay Heslin $34,323.80 in authorized charges.

Ex-Infowars employee says he was &#39;disgusted&#39; by Sandy Hook coverage, but laughed at when he raised objections

“Mr. Jones is studying there are extreme penalties for his refusal to take these lawsuits critically,” Mark Bankston, Heslin’s lawyer, stated in an e mail to CNN Enterprise.

Bankston instructed CNN Enterprise he expects a jury trial in opposition to Jones to be scheduled earlier than the tip of 2020. The swimsuit was filed in Travis County District Courtroom in Austin, Texas, the place Jones operates Infowars.

In an e mail to CNN Enterprise, Jones’s lawyer, T. Wade Jefferies, framed Jones’s statements as a matter of protected political speech, and stated, “the case ought to have been dismissed, however the trial court docket didn’t accomplish that. This faulty resolution will likely be appealed.”

Relating to the authorized charges, Jefferies stated that, by regulation, “among the lawyer charges award was required to be awarded to the prevailing celebration on the Motions to Dismiss” and that “the stability of the lawyer’s price award was for procedural issues dealt with by earlier out of state counsel” who has since been changed.

Jefferies denied his purchasers’ involvement within the discovery points resulting in the sanctions award, saying that “such points have been, or will likely be, cured.” He additionally stated that the quantity the court docket awarded for lawyer charges is “extreme.”

In October, Jenkins dominated the defendant pay greater than $25,000, Austin-American Statesman reported.
Heslin’s swimsuit was the primary authorized motion taken in opposition to Jones for his false statements in regards to the Sandy Hook capturing, nevertheless it’s not the one swimsuit in opposition to the conspiracy theorist presently pending. In Might 2018, households of 4 college students and two educators who died within the capturing filed a swimsuit in a Connecticut court docket. The case argues an affordable particular person would perceive Jones’s statements meant the Sandy Hook bloodbath was staged and the deaths had been fabricated. Jones denied the allegations. That lawsuit has been stalled, The New York Occasions reported. The defendants in that swimsuit are interesting to the Connecticut Supreme Courtroom the trial court docket’s ruling hanging their movement to dismiss.



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From the Brig to Mar-a-Lago, Former Navy SEAL Capitalizes on Newfound Fame


A 12 months in the past, Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher was carrying drab jail scrubs at a brig close to San Diego, dealing with homicide costs that might have despatched him to jail for the remainder of his life. Now he’s modeling his personal life-style clothes model, endorsing diet dietary supplements and positioning himself as a conservative influencer with shut ties to the person who helped clear him — President Trump.

Chief Gallagher was acquitted this summer time of costs that he shot at civilians and killed a wounded captive with a knife whereas serving as a platoon chief in Iraq. The punishment for his lone conviction — posing for a grisly trophy picture with the lifeless captive’s physique — was reversed this fall by President Trump, who has repeatedly praised him. At a political rally in Florida, he referred to as him “one of many final fighters.”

Now, Chief Gallagher is utilizing his controversial previous as a springboard to social media followers and branding alternatives. Past repping espresso beans and protein shakes, he’s making appearances at influential conservative gatherings and rubbing elbows with Mr. Trump’s internal circle at Mar-a-Lago.

Paul Rieckhoff, the founding father of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who has brazenly criticized Chief Gallagher, mentioned that the square-jawed, blue-eyed SEAL has been a worthwhile political weapon for the Trump administration.


Watch “The Weekly,” The Instances’s new TV present, on Hulu and FX.

Watch never-before-released video and confidential interviews with the Navy SEALs who accused Particular Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of struggle crimes.

The partnership is efficacious for Chief Gallagher, too, Mr. Reickhoff mentioned, as a result of in elevating his profile in conservative circles, he can money in on ebook offers, talking engagements and different enterprise alternatives.

Chief Gallagher has appeared often on Fox Information and different retailers, however declined by way of his lawyer to talk with The New York Instances about his present tasks. In an e-mail, his lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, mentioned: “Chief Gallagher is completely satisfied to answer inquiries by official journalists seeking to publish factual items, however has no time for propagandists who put out knowingly false statements masquerading as truth.”

On Instagram, the chief and his spouse have been outspoken, touting each the president and the varied client merchandise they’re backing. (Their Instagram account has twice blocked a New York Instances correspondent who has lined his case over the previous 12 months.)

“Brotherhood isn’t only a assertion, it’s a lifestyle,” Chief Gallagher mentioned in a press release explaining his attire line, referred to as Salty Frog Gear. Described as a “coastal life-style model with an edge,” it options T-shirts that learn “keep salty,” and hooded sweatshirts, with a customized entrance pocket designed to carry a beer bottle.

Following the lead of many micro influencers, Chief Gallagher’s Instagram account has additionally endorsed veteran-owned espresso beans and muscle-building dietary supplements with macabre names like Double Faucet and Whole Struggle. Like a sponsored athlete of the world’s most harmful sport, he often reveals off the logos and clothes of numerous right-wing veterans’ teams that push a definite model of patriotism, together with an attire model run by the SEAL veteran who made the knife Chief Gallagher was accused of utilizing to kill a captive. Together with all kinds of things emblazoned with the brand “KILL BAD DUDES,” the location sells a “Waterboarding Teacher” shirt.

Chief Gallagher and his spouse have additionally arrange a web-based store promoting T-shirts that mock the Navy and the SEALs who testified in opposition to him in court docket, calling them “imply ladies.”

Chief Gallagher’s lawyer mentioned the SEAL was writing a ebook about his profession, however declined to offer particulars about whether or not he had signed a publishing deal or with whom.

To make certain, Chief Gallagher is hardly the primary Navy SEAL to market his previous. So many SEALs have revealed struggle tales and booked public talking gigs in recent times that the satirical information web site, The Onion, revealed an article saying “Navy Types Elite New SEAL Group to Write Greatest-Promoting Inform-All Books.”

However Chief Gallagher is the primary to do it within the wake of a struggle crime court-martial, and the one one who has sought to tie his public persona so intently to a political get together and a divisive commander in chief.

Chief Gallagher, 40, typically glided by the nickname Blade throughout his 20 years within the Navy. He served eight fight deployments and was awarded repeated medals for valor underneath hearth.

However he additionally bumped into bother through the years. He was investigated for capturing a small woman whereas concentrating on a suspected Taliban member in Afghanistan in 2010, and was arrested and accused of assaulting a Navy police officer in 2014. In each circumstances, no legal costs have been filed.

Regardless of his previous, Chief Gallagher was revered within the SEAL groups as an aggressive operator. However when he was assigned to guide his first platoon in fight in 2017 in Mosul, Iraq, SEALs who served underneath him mentioned he grew to become fixated on getting in firefights, made weird and harmful tactical selections, appeared to not know find out how to do his job and killed folks with little regard to the principles of engagement.

In video interviews with investigators, a number of SEALs broke down in tears, describing their chief as “evil” and “poisonous.”

Typically he would go on solo “gun runs,” they mentioned, emptying a great deal of heavy machine gun hearth into neighborhoods with no obvious targets.

“I believe he simply desires to kill anyone he can,” Corey Scott, a medic from the platoon, instructed Navy investigators.

A number of members of the platoon finally turned him in for homicide.

Chief Gallagher has at all times denied costs of misconduct, saying he was accused by poor performers who couldn’t meet his excessive requirements. In a video posted on Instagram, he mentioned the federal government “threw me in jail for doing my job.”

9 Line Attire, the clothes firm he partnered with to make Salty Frog Gear, defended its collaboration.

“As somebody who served with Eddie and different members of SEAL group 7 downrange, I do know the reality in regards to the character of a person unjustly focused by a damaged investigation and corrupt prosecution,” the corporate’s founder, Tyler Merritt, mentioned in a press release. “Nike has their First Modification proper to make people similar to Colin Kaepernick their model ambassadors. We’ve got the precise to make patriots like Chief Gallagher one in every of ours.”

9 Line’s promotional pictures and movies for the brand new clothes line present Chief Gallagher capturing an AR-15 assault rifle. In closed on-line boards, a number of of the SEALs from his previous platoon who he had accused of not having the ability to meet his excessive requirements famous derisively that the holographic sight on his rifle had been placed on backward.

Mr. Trump has signaled he has few misgivings in associating with Chief Gallagher. He mentioned he want to have Chief Gallagher and different service members accused or convicted of struggle crimes marketing campaign for him, and even perhaps seem on the Republican conference in 2020, in keeping with The Every day Beast

Earlier this month Chief Gallagher attended the conservative youth group Turning Level USA’s Pupil Motion Summit along with his spouse, Andrea, the place he met with Donald Trump Jr. A short while later, he was at Mar-a-Lago with Mr. Trump.

Just a few days after that, Chief Gallagher posted a photograph of himself giving the thumbs up, carrying a KILL BAD DUDES muscle shirt, whereas holding a mug that reads, “I like after I get up within the morning and Donald Trump is president.”





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U.S. Population Growth In 2019 Is Slowest In A Century


The annual inhabitants progress fee of america over the previous yr continued a decades-long decline, dropping to its lowest degree previously century.

In accordance with newly launched estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. inhabitants grew by 1,552,022 since 2018, a rise of one-half of 1 p.c.

That fee of progress is slower than throughout the Nice Despair of the 1930s, a interval which had till the previous decade marked the smallest growth of the U.S. inhabitants for the reason that general variety of inhabitants briefly dropped in 1918.

A number of elements assist clarify why the U.S. inhabitants progress fee is slowing:

Declining fertility charges, extra deaths
Forty-two states and the District of Columbia all had a drop within the variety of births recorded over the previous yr. And with the variety of deaths persevering with a gradual decade-long rise as increasingly post-World Battle Two child boomers attain previous age, the variety of births outnumbered the variety of deaths nationwide by fewer than 1 million for the primary time in many years.

That birth-driven improve in inhabitants didn’t happen this yr in West Virginia, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, all of which had extra deaths than births.

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Fewer immigrants
The estimated variety of individuals transferring yearly to the U.S. from different elements of the world has steadily declined from the last decade’s highest complete of 1,046,709 in 2016, the ultimate yr of the Obama administration.

This yr’s anticipated complete of 595,348 immigrants could be the bottom but within the Trump administration, which has proposed new restrictions on immigration and slashed the variety of refugees being granted asylum.

Many states have additionally had residents leaving for different states. Over the previous 9 years, New York is the state with the biggest out-migration, shedding 1,379,210 of its residents. They’re amongst greater than 2.5 million residents of the U.S. Northeast who’ve moved to different areas, making it essentially the most broadly deserted a part of the nation.

The Midwest has had the second largest exodus. Of the 1,666,043 Midwesterners who’ve left since 2010, 865,873 hailed from Illinois.

In distinction, the 912,038 individuals who moved away from California over the previous 9 years had been outnumbered by 1,021,544 transferring there from overseas.

Different states have had way more individuals transferring in from elsewhere within the nation than leaving. Texas has been a high recipient, with 1,145,629 arriving from different states and one other 818,757 from overseas since 2010. It is practically matched by Florida, with 1,289,614 residents of different states transferring there and 1,107,039 extra coming from overseas.

These demographic shifts will doubtless have penalties when U.S. congressional districts are reapportioned based mostly on the 2020 census.

“From the calculations I’ve accomplished,” says William Frey, a demographer and senior fellow at The Brookings Establishment, “Texas might acquire three seats, Florida might acquire two seats. California pretty doubtless might lose a seat for the primary time in its historical past.”

Frey predicts the growing old of the workforce and the shrinking inhabitants progress fee can even have political ramifications.

“You realize, quite a lot of our decline of births, or at the least gradual progress of births, could be countered by immigration from overseas,” he tells NPR’s Right here and Now. “And so immigration goes to be a a lot greater a part of our progress. So that is one thing to concentrate to as we transfer forward into the subsequent decade. What’s our immigration coverage going to be? How are immigrants going to suit into the remainder of our society, in the remainder of our financial system?”

“The large security valve in all of this,” Frey says, “is immigration.”

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see extra, go to https://www.npr.org.



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Joints in C-U: $15 to $18, before tax | Politics


Native marijuana dispensaries are gearing up for potential crowds on New Yr’s morning, when leisure pot turns into authorized. How a lot will prospects be shelling out? And the way lengthy will provides final?

Employees author Julie Wurth requested the 2 native dispensaries.

What’s the costliest merchandise you should purchase?

Hash focus, for about $120, says Keith McGinnis, principal officer for NuMed in Urbana.

The priciest product listed on the brand new web site for Champaign’s Sunnyside/Phoenix Botanical dispensary on Monday was “Sherbert diamonds and sauce,” for $108.

What’s the most cost effective factor you should purchase?

NuMed listed particular person hot-cocoa and gummies for $7 or $eight on its web site Monday, however usually, particular person pre-rolled joints are the least costly merchandise, at $15 to $18, each firms mentioned.

Most gummy and chocolate merchandise will run $30 to $40, mentioned Jason Erkes, spokesman for Cresco Labs, which owns Sunnyside/Phoenix Botanical.

One phrase of warning from Erkes: costs don’t embody state and native taxes, which might attain 30 % or extra for leisure marijuana. Illinois imposed a 10 to 25 % tax (relying on efficiency) on hashish flower and different merchandise and 20 % on edibles; the cities of Champaign and Urbana added a three % tax of their respective cities, and the county imposed a tax of three % in integrated areas and three.75 % in unincorporated areas.

Will you let individuals camp out in a single day to order an area in line?

“I actually don’t have any management over it,” mentioned McGinnis, who expects some of us to reach within the wee hours Wednesday morning earlier than NuMed opens at 6 a.m.

NuMed will management how many individuals are allowed into the constructing at a time, and plans to supply sizzling chocolate and doughnuts to these ready exterior, he mentioned. Clients will likely be allowed to return inside to register, and their names will likely be referred to as when it’s their flip.

Erkes is anticipating huge crowds at Sunnyside and has “put the phrase out” that no strains can type till after midnight. The corporate will begin giving out numbers to these in line at four a.m., he mentioned.

To expedite the method, workers runners will work the strains to fill out preorders for patrons so their merchandise is prepared for pickup when it’s their flip, he mentioned.

Provides of marijuana “flower” — the dried buds of the plant used for smoking — are considerably restricted. Why, and the way a lot?

Cultivators centered on supplying hashish for medical sufferers till final Could, when Illinois voted to legalize leisure marijuana, McGinnis mentioned. It’s taken a while for them to broaden their amenities and ramp up manufacturing to fulfill the upper demand, he mentioned, including that it might not stabilize till April.

Shops are nonetheless getting provides delivered, so that they don’t know precisely how a lot they’ll have readily available, McGinnis mentioned. Marijuana flower is used for each medical and leisure prospects, so “we have now to verify we preserve our enough provide for medical sufferers first,” he mentioned.

Within the meantime, Erkes mentioned, any shortages will likely be short-lived, maybe simply a few days till firms can restock. Growers use a rolling harvest to maintain the provision shifting, he mentioned.

As with new iPhones or sneakers, “the primary couple of days with something, new there’s quite a lot of anticipation,” Erkes mentioned. “Assembly that preliminary launch demand is difficult. It would stage off fairly shortly. There must be loads of provide for day-to-day gross sales as soon as that preliminary thrust of 1000’s of consumers wears off.

“Everyone seems to be increasing. There will likely be much more provide coming to market.”



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Investigate Miami Christian megachurch pastor for hosting pro-Trump rally – Raw Story


In an announcement this Tuesday, the Freedom from Faith Basis (FFRF) known as on the IRS to research a Miami megachurch for planning to carry a rally for President Trump, Regulation & Crime studies.

Based on the group, the Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús’s (King Jesus Worldwide Ministry’s) rally is a violation of the Johnson Modification, which bars tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations from taking part in political exercise.

“IRS laws specify that 501(c)(3) organizations, which embody church buildings and different non secular organizations, are prohibited from ‘taking part in or intervening in any political marketing campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public workplace,’” FFRF’s Authorized Director Rebecca Markert wrote in a letter to the IRS’s Appearing Director of Exempt Organizations Examinations, Mary A. Epps. “Whereas leaders of church buildings or non secular organizations could specific their opinions on political issues as people, they’re, in response to this rule, precluded from making ‘partisan feedback in official group publications or at official capabilities of the group.’”

The church’s pastor, Honduran-born Guillermo Maldonado, says that his church was hand-picked by Trump to carry the upcoming “Evangelicals for Trump” rally, which can characteristic round 70 Christian pastors. Maldonado, whose followers embody many undocumented immigrants, stated that his undocumented congregants gained’t have to fret about being deported in the event that they attend the rally.

“I offers you an affirmation as your non secular father and your pastor,” he stated at this Sunday’s service. “First, somebody stated, ‘However how are you going to carry Trump to church if there’s individuals who don’t have papers?’”

“I ask you: Do you assume I’d do one thing the place I’d endanger my individuals? I’m not that dumb,” he added.

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The 2010s: Trends we loved and hated


First, the Razor scooters got here to chop everybody’s ankles off. Then round 2014, these bizarre contraptions took over, bridging the hole between scooters, motorized skateboards and Segways. Oh, and so they typically exploded. Throughout, a low level within the timeline of classy transport objects.
Increase your hand should you felt victimized by a long-running epic film, tv or e-book franchise this decade. “The Avengers”? “Sport of Thrones”? “The Starvation Video games”? “Star Wars”?! Everybody’s arms must be up. Oh, the extent of emotional funding is sort of too intense to consider.

Hated: Remakes for remakes’ sake

All the things outdated was new once more on the films. Certain, it made for some enjoyable, trendy takes; whether or not it was a dwell motion remake of an animated traditional or a jazzed-up CGI model. However someplace between 2015’s “Cinderella” and 2019’s “The Lion King,” it began to really feel like an exhausting money seize. Do not agree? Simply verify the opinions.

Beloved: Physique-positive advertising

Hey, you understand what’s good to see? Pores and skin texture! Stretch marks! Delicate components that really fold when folded! Flesh tones apart from beige! Completely different shapes and skills! , regular depictions of regular individuals on the planet round us. Whether or not it was in promoting, media and even the toy aisle, manufacturers began ditching the blur instrument and incorporating extra various (aka correct) representations of humankind.

Hated: Facetune

Whereas physique constructive advertising had its heyday, the rise of Instagram tradition ushered in a brand new sort of fakery. With filters, enhancing apps and a complete economic system constructed round perfection, individuals do not take a look at edited photographs anymore, they create them. With the ultra-smooth, uncanny valley look being tougher to separate from actuality, we may very well be hurtling straight right into a (very airbrushed) “Black Mirror” episode.

Beloved: The ALS Ice Bucket Problem

The ALS Ice Bucket problem, which gained traction in the summertime of 2014, was the right antidote to “slacktivism,” the notion that individuals can get a false sense of accomplishment simply by hitting the “like” button for causes they care about. The web problem did a complete lot of real-world good, and helped set the stage for the web to be a real crucible for change relatively than an impotent advantage signalling instrument.

Hated: Just about some other web problem

Whereas some individuals have been determining use social media to lift cash and consciousness for vital causes, others have been getting well-known by huffing cinnamon or pretending to eat Tide Pods. Hey, each coin has two sides.

Beloved: DoggoLingo

Doggos. Puppers. Borkers. Woofers. Cattos. Foolish meme speak or a full-on embrace of the healthful, childlike affections solely animals can encourage? We vote that this elevated mode of animal child speak, which went mainstream in 2017, is the latter.

Hated: Clowns

Keep in mind in 2016 when the entire nation was freaking out over a rash of unexplained (and principally unverified) clown sightings? Or the next 12 months when everybody weaponized that darkish animus by forcefully and collectively declaring their ardor for Invoice Skarsgard’s portrayal of Pennywise within the rebooted “It” film? It was a bizarre time. Let’s not try this once more.

Beloved: Outdated City Highway

It is okay to confess you did not perceive what the massive fuss was round “Outdated City Highway” once you first heard it. It is also okay to confess that, inside days, you have been sort of obsessed. A younger homosexual black memelord from Atlanta taking up the nation charts, bringing gymnasiums full of kids to their ft and opening up vital dialogues about style gatekeeping? All with Billy Ray Cyrus making some legendary dad strikes on the facet? This was precisely the bizarre but heartwarming factor we would have liked in 2019.

Hated: Pepe the Frog

Haha, memes are humorous! Till they completely turn out to be racist. Pepe the Frog lived a really regular meme life proper up till on-line trolls turned him right into a inexperienced factor of hate in 2016. It bought so unhealthy his creator symbolically killed him off in 2017. Here is a tip: If a bunch of individuals begin utilizing one thing as ironic hate speech, it is going to finally be used for unironic hate speech. Do not act stunned.

Beloved: Vine

Vine died the way in which Vine lived: Rapidly and confusingly. The six-second video app was launched in 2013 and shortly turned a hub for hilarious, weird, superb and actually absurd content material. Critically, there are multi-millionaires strolling round now who bought wealthy in these six-second increments. Nonetheless, the platform was shuttered in 2016, and younger weirdoes have been making an attempt to copy its chaotic power ever since. For now, Tik Tok will do.

Hated: Plantation weddings

Hear, there’s nothing improper with the entire barn wood-burlap-mason jar marriage ceremony aesthetic that Pinterest foisted upon the plenty this decade. However a worrying development that grew up alongside it was the plantation marriage ceremony — lengthy a practice, however now with an added fashionable social media sheen. Nonetheless, it seems individuals are getting clever to the issues surrounding former slave plantations as occasion areas: A number of main marriage ceremony media corporations cracked down on that includes plantation weddings in late 2019.

Beloved: The Gown

Why did this one silly gown seize the creativeness and emotion of everybody with eyes to see and a voice to argue about it? It was an ideal mixture: Controversial with out being political, irritating however not emotionally so, and endlessly attention-grabbing to consider. Plus, it bought everybody speaking about elementary distinction in notion — a dialog that definitely turns into extra disagreeable the extra topical it will get. And what’s much less topical than a gown?

Hated: RIP Harambe

To be clear, there is not any cause to hate the precise Harambe. After the silverback gorilla was shot and killed on the Cincinnati Zoo in 2016, individuals used “RIP Harambe” to… touch upon the irony of why we mourn animals however are fast in charge people? To make enjoyable of how upset individuals have been over the entire thing? “RIP Harambe” was a meme that took a disturbingly very long time to go away.

Beloved: Athleisure

As soon as upon a time, individuals went on lengthy Fb rants about how leggings aren’t pants. Within the 2010’s, the markets spoke: Leggings ARE pants, and sports activities bras are on a regular basis undergarments and going about your online business in full exercise gear is totally acceptable so long as it appears to be like prefer it was, you understand, sort of on function. Consolation will all the time win, and if it is retaining your legs and butt from being bare, it is pants. Case closed.

Hated: Minions

In 2010, “Despicable Me” launched us to a race of small, inept yellow creatures that will infect each toy store and meme-addled Fb feed for the subsequent 10 years. You must give them credit score, not often does a personality enchantment equally to four-year-old kids and middle-aged aunts posting tepid jokes and faux Oscar Wilde quotes on their timelines. However we reached essential minion mass about 5 years in the past, and so they nonetheless will not cease coming. Please, Common, have mercy.

Beloved: Child Shark

Deepest apologies to all of the dad and mom on the market. However the Child Shark craze was not solely a world development (such energy!), however it additionally managed to remain actually healthful. And should you for some cause know any corrupted or degenerate “Child Shark” variations, preserve them to yourselves. The world wants good issues.

Hated: Twerking

After Miley Cyrus’s ah, memorable efficiency on the 2013 VMAs, it looks as if everybody abruptly bought obsessive about twerking. This, in fact, was nothing new to cultures who had lengthy embraced the dance fashion, and that solely added an icky layer of appropriation onto the already-questionable mainstream development.

Beloved: Rainbow looms

Hear, any toy that does not should be charged, connect with social media or value $300 is a toy that must be celebrated. Certain, the little bands bought all over the place, however there was one thing sort of healthful about understanding that solidly analog fads nonetheless have a spot in our tech-crazed world. Plus, as an grownup, being gifted one of many vibrant, woven creations was the very best badge of honor.

Hated: Slenderman

The creepy determine was initially the invention of an in any other case innocent artistic web hivemind, however the determine took on rather more disturbing cultural relevance in 2014 when two ladies brutally attacked their good friend, saying later that the Slenderman creature had instructed them to kill her. The act kicked of months of mainstream debate concerning the risks of web storytelling and position enjoying video games.

Beloved: Bullet journaling

Let’s be actual. No less than 75% of individuals studying this proper now have in all probability purchased some form of journal to fill out within the coming 12 months. Better of luck to you! Creativity, group and journal-keeping are worthy resolutions, and one of the vital in style types of it proper now could be bullet-journaling. It is primarily free-form journaling and planning, however you get to purchase numerous cool tape and markers and stuff. Is it an enormous excuse for corporations to market to individuals desperately making an attempt to get their lives so as? Possibly. However…what if it really works?



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Trump blasts Biden's record in 'Hannity' exclusive interview

President Donald Trump speaks with Sean Hannity by way of telephone to debate the 2020 Democratic race, coronavirus outbreak and extra. #F...