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Bill Gates at the IMF/World Bank spring meeting in Washington, D.C., in 2018. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters) There are still friends of the ultra-wealthy in our politics. They just aren’t whom you’d imagine them to be. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE ‘T oadies for billionaires” is how one excitable correspondent describes the Republican Party. But nobody seems to have
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Taliban forces patrol in front of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 2, 2021. (Stringer/Reuters) My reader who’s trying to get his company’s former employees out of Afghanistan learned that the U.S. State Department has temporarily stopped processing Special Immigrant Visas for the government’s Afghan allies. (For background on this reader and his
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New York National Guard Lieutenant Colonel William Snyder with an interpreter instructing a group of Afghan soldiers how to drive a Humvee in 2008. (Lieutenant Colonel William Snyder) ​​William Snyder still remembers the acrid smell of burning jet fuel and crushed concrete mixed with the dust, soot, and ash that covered virtually everything at Ground
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Former president George W. Bush attends an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoystown, Pa., September 2021. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters) Vice President Kamala Harris and former president George W. Bush praised the “courage” of passengers on United Flight 93, who attempted to wrest control
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An American flag and red rose at the edge of the south reflecting pool of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in lower Manhattan in New York City, September 8, 2021. (Mike Segar/Reuters) I have no memory of September 11, 2001. I was two years old when
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Members of Congress and their aides are exempt from Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers. Since Joe Biden’s executive order applies to federal workers in the executive branch, members of congress and staffers in the legislative branch are exempt. Newsweek reported: President Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandates for federal employees don’t apply to members
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(Jason Lee/Reuters) Qin Gang, China’s new ambassador to the United States, has a decidedly undiplomatic message for the Biden administration. “If we cannot resolve our differences, please shut up,” he said during a private Zoom meeting hosted by the National Committee on United States–China Relations (NCUSCR) late last month. Qin, who arrived in Washington in
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Joe Biden and his handler wife Jill delivered remarks on ‘school safety’ and vaccines at Brookland Middle School in Washington DC on Friday. A reporter asked Biden what his message is to Republicans vowing to fight his unconstitutional vax mandate. On Thursday Joe Biden declared war on the unvaccinated and threatened GOP governors when he
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A man walks through the 9/11 Empty Sky memorial at sunrise across from New York’s Lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, (Gary Hershorn/Reuters) Dear Weekend Jolter, Moments of national unity are as fleeting as they are rare. September 12, 2001, was one of them. It’s become something of a
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Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education unanimously approved a measure on Thursday mandating Covid jabs for all students 12 and up. “The science is clear — vaccinations are an essential part of protection against COVID-19,” Interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly said in a statement following the vote. “The COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective
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A U.S. flag flies over Ground Zero before the start of ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, September 11, 2011. (Gary Hershorn/Reuters) We should be grateful that one horrible day didn’t really change the American spirit. On September 11, 2001, I stopped at
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A view of Manhattan, N.Y., near sunset on September 11, 2001. (Brad Rickerby/Reuters) I can’t quite wrap my mind and heart around the anniversary. Parts of the day and days around that Tuesday morning seem so vivid; others blurry, but not distant. I was asked, so I wrote a reflection here. What I didn’t mention
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Evacuees wait to board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 30, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps/Staff Sgt. Victor Mancillal/Handout via Reuters) 1.  An Afghani Christian pleads for help:  He says the Taliban executed his father. And his brother. Now, they are hunting for him. “Please
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Mona Charen’s words should be read and be a rallying cry: It would be far healthier for our society if citizens were asked to debate and decide these matters for themselves, in their own states, without the help of nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. These are exactly the sort of issues that free people
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President Joe Biden speaks during a briefing in Hillsborough Township, N.J., September 7, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) And do it now. Mr. President, tear down this travel ban. Seriously, tear it down. Nix it. End it. Bring it to a close. Relegate it to history. Send it six feet under. Arrange its termination. Dispatch it. Dispose
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