Saturday PM ~ TheFrontPageCover

TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~
A Fresh-Smell Environment 
by Jordan Candler
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US Ambassador Grenell Blocks $400 Million
Transfer From Germany to Iran
{ rickwells.us } ~ A transfer of nearly $400 million in cash to Iran has been blocked by Germany’s central bank in what appears to be a response to efforts by the U.S. ambassador to Germany... Last month, Ambassador Richard Grenell urged Berlin to prevent Iran’s withdrawal of large sums of cash from German bank accounts in an effort to offset U.S. sanctions that took effect following Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Deutsche Bundesbank, Germany’s powerful central bank, announced a new financial policy that would effectively bar the transfer of funds to Iran. A member of the European System of Central Banks, Deutsche Bundesbank is a powerful influence within the European Union. Grenell reportedly urged the German government to block the cash payment to Iran and it remains to be seen if the Merkel administration will undermine U.S. efforts and allow the $400 million in cash to be sent to Iran...    https://rickwells.us/grenell-blocks-400m-transfer/
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Fein-stein's driver groomed for spying by China
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{ wnd.com } ~ While serving as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Fein-stein, D-Calif., had a driver who was investigated for spying for the communist Chinese government... Politico Magazine reported that the staffer with Fein-stein’s San Francisco office was suspected of providing political intelligence to his handlers, though none of the information was classified. A former intelligence official told author Zach Dorfman that the suspected informant was “run” by officials based at the local Chinese Consulate, Politico said. A source familiar with the incident confirmed to San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross that the FBI alerted Fein-stein about five years ago that her driver was being investigated for possible Chinese spying. Along with driving duties, the staffer was a gofer and a liaison to the Asian American community. He even attended Chinese Consulate functions for the senator. The Chronicle’s source said that during a trip to Asia to visit relatives, the staffer was connected to someone with the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security...   https://www.wnd.com/2018/08/sen-feinsteins-driver-was-probed-for-spying-for-china/
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An amuse-bouche to the impending single-payer debates 
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{ aei.org } ~ Single-payer health care is back in the news this week thanks to a new cost estimate of Senator commie-Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare For All” proposal... While federal spending is predicted to skyrocket, supporters found vindication in its prediction of lower overall health care spending — a finding that hinges critically on the report’s assumption favorable to the commie-Sanders plan of aggressive and successful federal cost controls. Questions about the validity of that assumption will likely represent the front lines of impending single-payer debates. The white paper, by Charles Blahous of the Mercatus Center, estimated the budgetary impact of Senator commie-Sanders’  Medicare For All Act. Despite its name, the proposal bears little resemblance to the actual, real-life Medicare program. Instead, it calls for universal coverage without any deductibles, co-insurance, or co-pays, all while expanding the list of covered services. Unsurprisingly, Blahous estimates that the commie-Sanders plan would transfer tremendous costs to the federal government — to the tune of an extra $32 trillion over 10 years. Supporters of the plan, however, celebrated that total health care spending in the US was actually predicted by Blahous to fall by $2 trillion over the same time period. These figures are in the ballpark of estimates from the Urban Institute last year. Far more interesting than the final numbers is exactly how Blahous calculated Senator commie-Sanders’ plan would get there. In particular, how does such an expansive insurance plan with no cost sharing lower total health care spending?...   http://www.aei.org/publication/an-amuse-bouche-to-the-impending-single-payer-debates/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=theinsider&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVRNeFltRTNOR0kxWW1FMCIsInQiOiJGcHpES1VOME8yNUM4dXdKYWJQRG9TQXRWZ1o3aVBZZUZvTVREQnJIYk04SEIyUFwvekFES1M1endEU0VycWFkU01POXdOT0tSdmNyTXFRTUtqSURib3lVdGl3OUR6aldWNEZWSXZDZnZjbGQwczY2bkpwb3pIMnpvMnNxV3p0bGYifQ%3D%3D
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Federal Judge Rules That Albuquerque's Asset Forfeiture
Created an Unconstitutional Profit Incentive 
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by C.J. Ciaramella
{ reason.com } ~ A federal judge has ruled that Albuquerque's civil asset forfeiture program violated residents' due process rights... by forcing them to prove their innocence to retrieve their cars. Under civil forfeiture laws, police can seize property suspected of being connected to criminal activity, even if the owner isn't charged with a crime. The city of Albuquerque "has an unconstitutional institutional incentive to prosecute forfeiture cases, because, in practice, the forfeiture program sets its own budget and can spend, without meaningful oversight, all of the excess funds it raises from previous years," U.S. District Judge James O. Browning wrote in an order filed Saturday. "Thus, there is a 'realistic possibility' that forfeiture officials' judgment 'will be distorted by the prospect of institutional gain'—the more revenues they raise, the more revenues they can spend." The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm, filed the lawsuit in 2016 on behalf of Arlene Harjo, whose car was seized after her son drove it while drunk. "It's a scam and a rip-off," Harjo told Reason at the time. "They're taking property from people who just loan a vehicle to someone. It's happened a lot. Everybody I've talked to has had it happen to them or somebody they know, and everybody just pays." Harjo was one of thousands of Albuquerque residents whose cars were seized under the city's aggressive forfeiture program. While lawsuits have forced cities like Philadelphia to reform their programs, federal judges have for the most part been unwilling to directly address the issue of profit incentive...  https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/30/federal-judge-rules-albuquerques-asset-f/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=theinsider&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVRNeFltRTNOR0kxWW1FMCIsInQiOiJGcHpES1VOME8yNUM4dXdKYWJQRG9TQXRWZ1o3aVBZZUZvTVREQnJIYk04SEIyUFwvekFES1M1endEU0VycWFkU01POXdOT0tSdmNyTXFRTUtqSURib3lVdGl3OUR6aldWNEZWSXZDZnZjbGQwczY2bkpwb3pIMnpvMnNxV3p0bGYifQ%3D%3D
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liar-nObama lawyers 'kowtowed' to liar-Clinton over email evidence
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{ wnd.com } ~ Documents turned over Friday by the FBI show liar-nObama administration lawyers “kowtowing” to liar-Hillary Clinton’s legal team... over the release of evidence on a second private email server she used while secretary of state, tweeted Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. The documents were obtained as part of a Judicial Watch lawsuit. The “successor server,” hosted by Platte River Networks in Denver, was famously erased with the software program BleachBit.  National Security reporter Jordan Schachtel, as the Gateway Pundit blog reported, combed through the documents and found that liar-Clinton lawyers initially did not reveal to the FBI the existence of the second server. The FBI lawyers and liar-Clinton’s team then engaged in negotiations over what the bureau could and could not see. Schachtel, noting the extensive negotiations, asked: “Was she hiding something?”...
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A Fresh-Smell Environment 
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by Jordan Candler:  The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) annual “Our Nation’s Air” report is hot off the press.  Notwithstanding the ecofascists’ complaints to the contrary, the report underscores the impressive extent to which our nation’s air has been purified.

             Since 1990, air pollutant concentrations are astonishingly improved. Carbon monoxide eight-hour concentration is down 77%. Some other reductions include lead three-month average (80%), nitrogen dioxide (50% and 56% depending on the time interval), eight-hour ozone (22%), particulate matter (between 34% and 41% depending on the variable), and one-hour sulfur dioxide (88%). The report also notes that “from 1990 to 2014 emissions of air toxics declined by 68 percent.”
               This while the economy’s taking off. According to the report, “Between 1970 and 2017, the combined emissions of the six common pollutants … dropped by 73 percent. This progress occurred while the U.S. economy continued to grow, Americans drove more miles and population and energy use increased.” In fact, Investor’s Business Daily points out, “By comparison, during that time the U.S.‘ economy grew 262% and its population by 60%.
               IBD also offers this important sidebar: “Not included in the report, but equally if not more significant, is the fact that CO2 — the main greenhouse gas — overall has plunged 29% since peaking in 2007. That’s been the relentless focus of global warming activists and the left-leaning power elites from their policy perches.”
               And as for the ecofascists’ forthcoming demands for additional regulations in light of the demonstrable improvements made by past government oversight, IBD cautions, “The problem with this, of course, is that ‘tougher’ rules are often counter-productive. There’s something in economics called the 80-20 rule, or Pareto principle, that’s valid here. It says that 80% of the improvement in anything comes from 20% of the effort. The final 20% of improvement requires 80% of the total effort — often a waste of money and effort. That’s where we are with environmental improvements, unfortunately.”
               This is where, as John Stossel suggested last year, the EPA needs to declare victory and then take a backseat. As he noted, “The agency was necessary in 1970, when it was created. At the time, cities dumped whatever we flushed into nearby waterways — with no treatment. … Now, in a rational world, the EPA would say, ‘Stick a fork in it, it’s done! EPA now stands for "Enough Protection Already.”’ But bureaucracies never say they’re done. ‘Done’ means bureaucrats are out of work. Can’t have that.“
               The same goes for the environmental lobby. The air will never be clean enough for them — regardless of what the evidence says. But rest assure that, relative to the past, the air you breathe today is especially refreshing.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57509?mailing_id=3670&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3670&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

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