Documents Show State Department Links to George Soros' Open Society Foundation

Judicial Watch released 49 pages of new State Department documents showing top Soros representatives in Romania collaborating with the State Department in a program jointly funded by, among others, Soros's Open Society Foundations - Romania and USAID, called the "Open Government Partnership."

The documents were obtained thanks to a March 2018 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of State and USAID after it failed to substantively respond to an October 2017 request called the Center for Public Innovation, which describes itself as a "Spin-off" of Soros' Open Society Foundation Romania.

On April 19, 2016, Wetzler emails Romanian chancellery official and Open Government Partnership participant Radu Puchiu regarding a meeting with an "Open Society Romania colleague" regarding the possibility of Romania committing to open educational resources programs.

Since 1990, the Soros 's Foundation for Open Society was one of the main donors in Romania and other former communist countries, financing sociological research, education, social inclusion, good governance, civic culture and integrated community intervention.

"These government documents detail a close working relationship between the State Department and the Soros foundations' operations in Romania and Europe," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

In April 2018, Judicial Watch published an in-depth study of Soros' Open Society Foundation activities in Guatemala.

In a March 2017, letter to former Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, six U.S. Senators, Inhofe, Tillis, Cruz, Perdue and Cassidy (R-LA called on the secretary to investigate the relations between USAID and the Soros Foundations and how U.S. tax dollars are being used by the State Department and the USAID to support left-of-center political groups who seek to impose left-leaning policies in countries such as Macedonia and Albania.


https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-documents-show-state-department-links-to-george-soros-open-society-foundation-romania/

The Rise of 'Socialism': The People Who Love It Can't Define It Correctly

In a poll this summer, Democrats by a 10-point margin said they prefer socialism to capitalism.

Socialism is traditionally defined as the government owning the means of production, and it just as traditionally leads to authoritarianism.

As the Danish prime minister noted in a speech at Harvard in 2015: "Some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore, I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy."

If there's any good news about the increasing allure of socialism in the United States, it is that the problem stems less from a failure to consider the dangers of centralized power than from basic ignorance.

In September, Gallup asked Americans to define "Socialism." The most popular response was "Equality".

Six percent defined socialism as "Talking to people" or "Being social," which means 4 out of 10 Americans think socialism is just some form of making nice.

That's a big switch from 1949, when Gallup found that respondents identified socialism as state control of the economy over "Equality" by a three-to-one margin.


https://www.weeklystandard.com/tony-mecia/the-rise-of-socialism-the-people-who-love-it-cant-define-it-correctly

US Employment Costs Soar At Fastest Pace In A Decade

US employment costs surged more than expected in Q3. Up 0.8% QoQ, as increases in private wages and salaries accelerated, perhaps signaling that workers are gaining leverage in a tightening labor market.

Wages & Salaries rose 0.9% QoQ as benefits slowed.

On a year-over-year basis, Q3 is up 2.8%, the biggest annual jump since Q3 2008.... Government wages rose 2.3% YoY vs Private Workers 3.1% YoY gain.

As Bloomberg notes, the government's quarterly ECI reading - which covers employer- paid taxes such as Social Security and Medicare in addition to the cost of wages and benefits - offers a glimpse at how American workers are being compensated.

The latest reading shows momentum in worker compensation ahead of October wage figures due in Friday's monthly employment report.

With the world's equity market bulls hoping for weak economic data to give The Fed an excuse to pause its 'normalization', this data crushes that hope.


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-31/us-employment-costs-soar-fastest-pace-decade

ADP Employment Jumps Most In 8 Months, Small Business Struggles

Following September's big disappointment in BLS data, October saw no relenting in ADP's exuberance with a better than expected +227k.

September's +229k spike was revised down to +218k making October's +227k print the best since February.

Under the hood, small business rose the least with no cohorts seeing net job losses.... "Despite a significant shortage in skilled talent, the labor market continues to grow," said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.

"We saw significant gains across all industries with trade and leisure and hospitality leading the way. We continue to see larger employers benefit in this environment as they are more apt to provide the competitive wages and strong benefits employees desire."

"The job market bounced back strongly last month despite being hit by back-to-back hurricanes. Testimonial to the robust employment picture is the broad-based gains in jobs across industries. The only blemish is the struggles small businesses are having filling open job positions."

If projecting today's ADP data on to Friday's BLS payrolls print, bear in mind that last month was the biggest variance since Sept 2015.....

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-31/adp-employment-jumps-most-8-months-small-business-struggles

NYT: "We can replace them". Trump: Birthright citizenship canceled!

 President Trump gave a lengthy interview to Axios, during which he announced his plan to basically annihilate the whole anchor-baby thing, i.e. to issue an executive order aimed at repealing birthright citizenship.

To make a long story short, Trump said during the interview that: "It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? YOU DON'T!".

Circus or some random activist-judge from Hawaii or wherever to issue an injunction on Trump's anchor-baby executive-order, just like they did on numerous occasions previously.

By the way, Lindsey Graham applauded Trump's decision, and has said on Tuesday that he's ready to introduce legislation to address the issue of anchor-babies, which makes for an absurd policy in his view.

The United States is one of two developed countries in the world who grant citizenship based on location of birth.

The real prize would be retroactively stripping birthright citizenship.

Joke aside, Trump's proposal is just common sense, really.


http://www.investmentwatchblog.com/nyt-we-can-replace-them-trump-birthright-citizenship-canceled/

Hillary Clinton Gets a Pass, Megyn Kelly Gets the Axe

Contrast the treatment of Megyn Kelly for recent comments about Halloween costumes.

Later in the discussion, Kelly recalled Luann de Lesseps dressing up like Diana Ross.

Kelly "Had a long track record of racial demagoguery at Fox News," Powers wrote.

While with Fox, Kelly contended the New Black Panthers were a threat, agreed with Mark Fuhrman about "Anti-cop biases" and decried the "Culture of victimization." At NBC, "Kelly said blackface was fine on Halloween" and was "Apologizing for racist comments." For Powers, "Her meteoric rise could not have happened without the complicity of a system that is far too comfortable with racism, especially when it comes in a pretty white package." For some of her readers, this might have sounded strange.

Megyn Kelly apologized but NBC duly cancelled her segment of the "Today" show.

In 2018, NBC cans Megyn Kelly for speaking about blackface Halloween costumes.

Hillary Clinton says all blacks look alike but gets a pass.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271798/hillary-clinton-gets-pass-megyn-kelly-gets-axe-lloyd-billingsley

You can oppose the Second Amendment if you like, but you can’t rewrite history.

Over the past 50 years, a wide-ranging, well-funded political, cultural, and legal revisionism effort has been undertaken to erase much of the United States' history and culture of the gun and the Second Amendment.

I'll ignore Kristof's partisan contentions about firearm violence, gun control, and the National Rifle Association's lobbying, fundraising and scoring-much of it highly debatable-to point out three of the misleading historical assertions he embraces.

Second, the idea that "Gun control laws were ubiquitous" in the 19th century is the work of politically motivated historians who cobble together every minor local restriction they can find in an attempt to create the impression that gun control was the norm.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the N.R.A. favored tighter gun laws, and its president, Karl Frederick, said that the carrying of weapons 'should be sharply restricted and only under license.

' In 1934, the United States helped pioneer modern gun laws with the National Firearms Act, with the blessings of the N.R.A., and came close to banning handguns.

By the time the Gun Control Act of 1968 was proposed-a law that established a system for federally licensed gun dealers and set some restrictions on certain classes of firearms-the NRA was more involved.

Many of today's gun control advocates like to point to the "Cincinnati revolt" as the moment when a small group of radicals took over the movement, undermining true gun owners, who weren't interested in politics.

http://thefederalist.com/2018/10/30/new-york-times-botches-history-with-of-gun/

Pharmaceutical Industry Pays Price for Alliance With Obama Administration

So the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, the major industry association, worked closely with the GOP to protect its members from regulation.

They made patients and taxpayers the meal instead. The industry spent lavishly to promote the Obama plan, coordinating with the administration while contributing $150 million in advertising.

In 2015, the Obama administration flouted the industry agreement, taking aim at patent protection for biologics and proposing discounts for Medicare.

So far the pharmaceutical industry has contributed $12 million to candidates in both parties, 60 percent of that to Republicans.

Thus, the GOP should not go out of its way to protect an industry which sold its soul, and the American health care system, for mess of pottage.

As tempting as it is to protect the industry, since price controls and other government regulations create extensive collateral damage, it also is important for businesses that collaborate to pay a high price for their treachery.

In the meantime, no industry which helped the Obama administration nationalize the medical system should escape the consequences of doing so.

https://spectator.org/pharmaceutical-industry-pays-price-for-alliance-with-obama-administration/