Free Speech Isn’t Facebook’s Job ... My instinct as a First Amendment teacher is to be outraged at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Microsoft for knuckling under to European Commission pressure to ban hate speech on their platforms. But after sleeping on it, I think it’s fine. Here’s why: These social media giants are private actors, not the state. -BloombergWe disag...Read More

Musk: We intend to launch people to Mars in 2024 ... Elon Musk will send a mission to Mars without people on it - on the Flying Dragon version 2 rocket - starting in 2018 and launch a rocket headed there every 26 months. – CNBCElon Musk and Jeff Bezos believe that the final frontier of space will soon be penetrated.Musk (see excerpt above) intends to send people to Mars in eight years'...Read More

Shady accounting underpins Trump's wealth ... The GOP nominee is rich. But how rich depends on odd accounting and subjective criteria ... Donald Trump claims he is worth $10 billion - but financial experts dispute that. -Politico Is Donald Trump less wealthy than claimed?And if so, as the above Politico article excerpt suggests, then perhaps this complicates his political motivations. Perhaps,...Read More

Hillary and Trump Leave Americans with Angst, Malaise and Little Confidence ... A new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that the choice of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump for president leaves Americans feeling frustrated, angry, helpless - suffering from angst and malaise, with little confidence with our political system. -Red State We covered this AP-N...Read More

UK voters shift towards ‘Out’ as EU referendum nears ... British voters have moved towards voting to leave the European Union in next month’s referendum according to two surveys by polling firm ICM, surprising investors and sending sterling sharply lower. -ReutersIs Brexit going to win? Is Britain going to vote to leave the EU?We didn’t think it was possible at first, b...Read More

Moon Landing Hoax | “Moon Buggy” LRV is a Willys Jeep - Lift the VeilThe "moon buggy" that NASA astronauts drove around on the lunar surface seems to be, in actuality, a stripped down jeep.This sounds hard to believe considering development of the “lunar rover” is said to have taken years and cost tens of millions.We would encourage readers to go HERE and watch a short vid...Read More

What the President Does ... By Jonathan Bernstein Turns out maybe Donald Trump doesn't want to be president after all. Oh, he wants to run for president. Almost certainly wants to win. Probably wants to be inaugurated. But doing the actual job? That's something else. At least according to Paul Manafort, Trump's strategist and campaign chairman, in an interview with HuffPost's Howard Fineman. -...Read More

Elizabeth Warren Is Good at Her Job ... Elizabeth Warren has a rare talent for distilling political messages. In 2011, as she was running for the Senate seat that she won the next year, the former Harvard law professor delivered the kind of concise, pointed rationale for public investment — and the taxation to support it — that the White House had been striving to master for the previo...Read More

Speculative traders abandon gold in latest week ... Gold prices fell Monday, moving in the opposite direction of the U.S. dollar, which soared after comments by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen last week indicated an interest-rate hike could come this summer. -MarketWatchToday, gold prices have been clinging to around $1,200 against the dollar. It is becoming increasingly obvious...Read More

Over 450 Writers, Including Stephen King And Michael Chabon, Sign Petition Against Trump … Pulitzer and National Book Critics Circle winners call out Trump's "nativism and bigotry." -Huffington PostThis is an amazing effort considering the many things that writers could complain about when it comes to the US.But it is Donald Trump that seems to have aroused these writers.Published on Lit...Read More

Economists overwhelmingly reject Brexit in boost for Cameron ... Poll shows 88% of 600 experts fear long-term fall in GDP if UK leaves single market, and 82% are alarmed over impact on household income. -GuardianOnce again, economists remind us that that their profession is at least a questionable one.Presumably healthy economies are based in private competition not public regulation. Economi...Read More

Ap-Norc Poll Finds Bare Confidence In Government, Elections ... Few Americans have much confidence in the U.S. political system, the government in general, or in either political party. Most say they’re interested in the 2016 presidential election, but they also feel frustrated, helpless and even angry with the way the election is going, a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public...Read More

A European army is exactly what the EU and UK needs Whether or not Donald Trump wins the US presidency, American sentiment is for the Europeans to do much more to help themselves ... Under Nato Euope’s defences remain incomplete and necessitate US involvement - UK IndependentGeorge Orwell's 1984 is coming to pass.It is not enough that the US has faux face-offs with Russia and China. Now...Read More

Gold on Track for Eighth Losing Session U.S. GDP data revision seen bolstering case for interest-rate increase ... Gold prices edged lower Friday, on pace for an eighth straight losing session, amid mounting evidence of improving economic growth in the U.S. that would strengthen the case for an interest-rate increase. -Wall Street JournalGold went up by 16 percent in the first quarter of 2016 an...Read More

After almost a century of making cars and selling them in more or less the same way, automakers (and others) are getting the sense that the business of automotive transportation might be about to change radically. Here's Toyota executive Shigeki Tomoyama on the Uber deal: "Ridesharing has huge potential in terms of shaping the future of mobility." – BloombergSoon it may become much more d...Read More

Katie Couric Regrets 'Poor Decision' to Insert Pause in Gun Documentary Interview ... Katie Couric is upset that an eight-second pause inserted into an interview she did with gun rights activists in the documentary "Under the Gun" has drawn criticism. – TheWrapYahoo’s Katie Couric has just released an anti-gun documentary with a manufactured pause that mocks pro-gun interviewees. Thi...Read More

WikiLeaks releases latest documents from TISA negotiations ... The classified annex to the draft “core text” of the Trade in Services Agreement is part of what is being secretly negotiated by the U.S., EU and 22 countries. The website WikiLeaks released on Wednesday classified documents from the Trade in Services Agreement, or TISA, which is a huge trade agreement being negotiated in...Read More

The Fed’s Amazing Self-Fulfilling Forecast ... The Federal Reserve's track record of economic forecasting is a lot better than many observers recognize. It might also offer some insight into the central bank's approach to managing the recovery. -BloombergThis Bloomberg article makes the point that the Federal Reserve is competent.Worrisomely, such articles tend to appear at the top of the...Read More

Russia has no plans to deliver US astronauts to ISS after 2018 - US wants ISS program extended through to 2024 - Russia has no intention of concluding more contracts for delivering US astronauts to the International Space Station after 2018, the deputy chief of the state-run corporation Roscosmos, Sergey Saveliev, has told the media.Maybe the Russians don't want to participate anymore because NA...Read More

No One Hates the IRS More Than House Republicans ... Pity John Koskinen, who agreed to take one of the worst jobs in America and is now being punished for it. In 2013, President Barack Obama asked Koskinen to take over at the Internal Revenue Service amid budgetary chaos, deteriorating morale and a simmering scandal. House Republicans are now trying to impeach him. – BloombergWe don't pi...Read More