WCCO wrote:
....

Despite the cost, the FEC doesn’t require congressional or presidential campaigns committees to pay states or cities back for rally-related expenses....

They can use campaign funds to reimburse security costs, but they aren’t required to.

“Mainly it was just in place because campaigns generally did give back the money, or reimburse, for the most part, not always, so it wasn’t a big deal and it was expected,” said Tim Lindberg, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

Lindberg says candidates pay for the rally venue rental. Cities and local taxpayers are shelling out for security. Police, fire and emergency service agencies can expect overtime costs....

Taking a look back at previous political rallies in Minnesota, the city of Chanhassen paid the $14,000 bill after a 2004 visit by President George W. Bush.

At the time, Former Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan estimated a 2009 Health Care Rally at Target Center by then-President Barack Obama cost his department about $20,000....

Jacob Frey wrote:
....
When the president learned that Minneapolis was seeking reimbursement, he did not call me directly to discuss details. He did not seek to better understand the terms of the contract. He took to Twitter to make threats, inflame his base ahead of the event and lash out at me and the diverse city I represent.

Having seen the strain his rallies have placed on other municipalities, I decided to stand up for Minneapolis taxpayers. That meant pushing Trump to do something that is both fundamental to society and antithetical to the way he operates: pay what he owes.

At this point, the matter remains a stand-off: The booking agent is still seeking payment from the Trump campaign, and our position continues to be that the city should be reimbursed....

https://tinyurl.com/y62xn9dg

Question of values?

Jason Nark wrote:
....
....Wolves, she found, were a proxy for other fears, such as fading traditions and a loss of control to Seattle progressives. "Sometimes," she says, "a dispute has surface-level issues, and that can be taxes or climate change or, in this case, wolves. But it's all about identity."

In the end, Madden spent 200 days in Washington state and 7,000 hours on the phone. (For 3 1/2 years of work, the state paid her nonprofit, with a staff of two, more than $1.2 million.) Conservationists eventually agreed that wolves could be culled if they preyed on livestock. For their part, ranchers agreed to try nonlethal methods, too. Like young apprentices, they learned Madden's ways, and when problems arise they can go back to the "tool kit" she left for them. "Things would be far worse had she not come out here," says Paula Swedeen, policy director of the Seattle-based Conservation Northwest. "I've built relationships with people. I'm definitely a western Washington, progressive Democrat, but I've figured out how to make friends in eastern Washington."...

https://tinyurl.com/y68fdu6n

But, QC, the Johnson amendment did give churches a good reason to stay out of politics as a church oh, and if you read it, it serves that purpose. LBJ certainly had his failing, the Vietnam war was a good example. but like the present President --whom he shares some characteristics--Johnson did some good things as well.

"...it is true that John doesn’t involve himself in politics, at least compared to some contemporary evangelicals. He’s committed to two things in his ministry: the church’s mandate from Christ (Matt. 28:18-20) and his God-given priority as a pastor/teacher (Eph. 4:11-16). Since God left the church on earth to make disciples (not Democrats or Republicans), John believes the best way a pastor can spend his time, energy, and influence is by preaching God’s Word. The proclamation of the gospel unleashes the power of God to produce the miracle of regeneration."

ProCon.org wrote:
During the 19th Century, opposition to churches retaining property tax exemptions was expressed by at least three US presidents: James Madison, James Garfield, and Ulysses S. Grant. President Grant submitted a 900-foot long petition containing 35,000 signatures to Congress in 1875, demanding “that churches and other ecclesiastical property shall be no longer exempt from taxation.” Grant told Congress that “in 1850, the church properties in the U.S. which paid no taxes, municipal or state, amounted to about $83 million. In 1860, the amount had doubled; in 1875, it is about $1 billion. By 1900, without check, it is safe to say this property will reach a sum exceeding $3 billion….so vast a sum, receiving all the protection and benefits of government without bearing its portion of the burdens and expenses of the same, will not be looked upon acquiescently by those who have to pay the taxes."

BBC wrote:
• Turkey's Syria offensive explained in four maps. https://tinyurl.com/y2ehsvy8
• Who are the Kurds? https://tinyurl.com/yxh7bwlh
• Turkey v Syria's Kurds explained. https://tinyurl.com/y56y9abr

The Turkish offensive and US withdrawal has drawn an international outcry, as the SDF were the main Western allies in the battle against IS in Syria.

But Turkey views elements of the Kurdish groups within the force as terrorists and says it wants to drive them away from a "safe zone" reaching 30km into Syria.

It also plans to resettle more than three million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey within the zone. Many of them are not Kurds. Critics have warned this could lead to ethnic cleansing of the local Kurdish population.

https://tinyurl.com/y5mms3j2 (Turkey-Syria offensive: Kurds reach deal with Syrian army)

Quite true, Christopher.

https://www.raptureready.com/would-jesus-vote-republican/

https://tinyurl.com/y22qbt5e (In 928 days, President Trump has made
12,019 false or misleading claims) I think he's wearing the fact checkers down. So where are you getting the fact on the falsehoods of Hillary Clinton?

This was written back in 2016 and and would have fallen into the amusing category if the better candidate Hillary had won. Of course she did win the popular vote as it should be noted.

ProCon.org wrote:
A ban on church intervention in political campaigns became law in 1954 with the passage of then-Senator Lyndon Johnson’s amendment to Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 501(c)(3), which covers tax-exempt charitable organizations in general. The amendment was passed with no recorded input from churches or any other charitable groups. Under the amended IRC, churches and all other 501(c)(3) charities are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office” if they are to remain tax-exempt. [IRC 8] Contributions to political campaign funds in support or opposition to candidates are also prohibited, but pastors may campaign as individuals without the imprimatur of the church, and churches may speak out on public issues so long as they don’t “devote a substantial part of their activities to attempting to influence legislation.”

https://tinyurl.com/y4opvd5v

Rapture Ready wrote:
Jesus would never be invited to be keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, that’s for sure!

Jesus Would Not Be a Republican

We can say with equal certainty that Jesus would not be a card-carrying member of the Republican Party. The Grand Old Party may share many values that can be traced back to the Bible, but it is still the GOP, not the GOD party. Because the party is run by corrupt man, a perfect and Holy God would never lend His credibility to that or any other earthly organization.

The Republican Party has been branded by the Democrats to be the “party of greed.” This label is not stamped without a degree of legitimacy. Man is a greedy being in his fallen state. Politicians within both major parties use the love of money to step on the backs of those they are supposed to serve. There are few innocent of power-grabbing for riches within the American political process.

When it gets down to the bare facts, the only advantage the Republican Party offers is that it is the lesser of two evils....[not anymore it isn't ❗👎]
....

Come to think about it, some other churches should lose their tax exempt status for meddling in politics.

ABC News Radio Online wrote:
Ohio University has suspended 20 student organizations, including all of its fraternities, over hazing allegations that are roiling the campus.

The public university received reports of hazing last week against nine fraternities, prompting the school to suspend all 15 of its fraternities, spokesman Carly Leatherwood told ABC News on Friday....

https://tinyurl.com/yx9pfafr

Carl Joling wrote:
The judge in that case concluded that courts lack scientific, economic and technological resources that agencies can use to determine climate policy and it was best left in their hands.

I got news for that judge he isn't going to get the information from any government agencies either or some of the more important ones

Phil McCausland wrote:
....
Now, as the EPA prepares its report on those standards later this month, 20 of those scientists are meeting independently to release their own assessment of current air pollution levels, with a focus on the particles from fossil fuels that can make people sick.

These scientists and researchers, former members of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) on particulate matter, said the EPA has stripped the panel down to its core seven members, who are ill-equipped to set air quality standards and don’t have the time to do it...

Keith E. Whittington wrote:
....
Is it constitutionally acceptable for the House speaker to initiate an impeachment “by means of nothing more than a press conference”?
https://tinyurl.com/yyg9grwwa
In short, yes....

https://tinyurl.com/y3xpml7n

Of course what is politically wise can be a whole different story ❗

The truth of many articles are fairly self-evident, Mike, as is the untruth. If you don't like what you see check another source.

Eastern rites priests of the Catholic Church and Anglican priests who became Catholic.

The RCC need people to perform the "magic" act of the Mass

John MacArthur wrote:
....
Scripture does not waver on the finality of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. He came to make a one-time offering for sin, never to be repeated. It was a contrast to the Mosaic covenant, which necessitated a system of near-constant sacrifices. But none of the Old Testament sacrifices could actually atone for sin. They could only serve as a reminder of God’s deliverance and foreshadow Christ’s final sacrifice which would conquer sin.

In the practice of the mass, the Roman Catholic Church has reinstituted an unbiblical system of repeated sacrifices, blaspheming Christ and perverting His work on the cross.

How important is the mass to Catholicism? The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to it as “the source and summit of the Christian life.” That is to say, it is the origin and the high point of the Catholic faith. It’s not peripheral—it’s the heart and soul of the entire system....

https://tinyurl.com/y68c78yr (Martin Luther's Sacramental Gospel)❗

Joanna Kakissis wrote:
....
"It's a blessed location," says Nouchoutidis, 67, reminiscing in his living room, under a watercolor painting of a ship. "It's across from the Suez Canal. It's deep enough for big ships. And it's my home. My father worked here," he says. "We didn't have machines back then. We used to load everything onto the boats with our own hands — bags of clothes, leather goods and knitwear made in Greece, all bound for North America and Australia."

But by the time Nouchoutidis retired, in 2010, the port was about to take on a new identity: China's main gateway to Europe. That's the year the state-owned China Ocean Shipping Co., known as COSCO, started buying stakes in the port of Piraeus. Six years later, the company controlled the port....

In September 2017, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker proposed new investment screening measures for foreign state-owned companies that want "to purchase a European harbor, part of our energy infrastructure or a defense technology firm."

"It is a political responsibility to know what is going on in our own backyard so we can protect our collective security," Juncker said....

John MacArthur wrote:
Spurgeon went on to say, “Popery is contrary to Christ’s gospel and is the Antichrist. And we ought to pray against it. It should be the daily prayer of every believer that Antichrist might be hurled like a millstone into the flood, and for Christ because it wounds Christ, because it robs Christ of its glory, because it puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement and lifts a piece of bread into the place of the Savior and a few drops of water into the place of the Holy Spirit, and puts a mere fallible man like ourselves up as the vicar of Christ on Earth. If we pray against it, because it is against Him, we shall love the persons though we hate their errors. We shall love their souls though we loath and detest their dogmas. And so the breath of our prayers will be sweetened because we turn our faces toward Christ when we pray.”

Carlos Mureithi wrote:
....
Rwanda’s telecommunications regulator revoked the license of Mr. Schoof’s radio station in 2018 after it had aired a sermon in which a pastor was heard denigrating women, by calling them evil, the regulator said. Rwanda has exerted strong control over the media since the 1994 genocide, which was partly incited by inflammatory radio broadcasts.

Mr. Schoof took the matter to court, but he said that the case has not been heard. In his statement, Mr. Schoof said that the pastor’s sermon about “evil” women had been taken out of context. He said the pastor had been preaching about bad churches — not bad women — and that the local media had parroted the government’s mischaracterization....

https://tinyurl.com/yxjntcf3