Vladimir Putin: Western sanctions 'harmful for everyone'

President Vladimir Putin has said Western sanctions against Russia are "harmful for everyone" and it is in everyone's interests to lift them.

Speaking in Austria, he said Russia had restored stable growth, despite the EU and US sanctions first imposed in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea.

Kanye West Calls Slavery A ‘Choice,’ Gets Schooled On History

Kanye West dropped by TMZ on Tuesday to tell the newsroom staff that he loves President Donald Trump and that he believes slavery “sounds like a choice,” only to get completely shut down by writer Van Lathan.

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years ... for 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” West said.

Paul Ryan says “death tax” hurts Wisconsin small businesses. IRS data shows otherwise

Does the estate tax really hurt small businesses? House Speaker Paul Ryan thinks so.

He revived this longstanding debate in a May 17 column in the Kenosha News, in which he defended the Republican plan to abolish the levy on inherited wealth. Ryan wrote that the “death tax” can “result in double, and potentially even triple, taxation on small businesses and family farms, both of which are prevalent in Wisconsin.”

GOP senator says ‘the Indians’ should ‘just take my word for it’ on sacred tribal lands

Speaking alongside Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke about the Trump administration’s order to review — and potentially shrink or eliminate — nearly 30 national monuments, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said Native Americans were “manipulated” into their support for the 1.35 million acre Bears Ears National Monument southeastern Utah.

“The Indians, they don’t fully understand that a lot of the things that they currently take for granted on those lands, they won’t be able to do if it’s made clearly into a monument or a wilderness,” Hatch said on Sunday. “Once you put a monument there, you do restrict a lot of things that could be done, and that includes use of the land… Just take my word for it.”

Virginia gubernatorial candidate blames the left for anti-Semitism

Virginia Republican Corey Stewart thinks that the left is to blame for rising anti-Semitism in the United States.

According to the Washington Post, Stewart, a gubernatorial candidate, was speaking at a Northern Virginia synagogue in Fairfax County Sunday night when he blamed progressives in the United States for an uptick in anti-Semitic incidents across the country.

Sen. Mike Enzi: A Guy Who Wears A Tutu To A Bar 'Kind Of Asks For It'

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) told a group of high school and middle school students last week that it’s fine to be a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer community ― but if you’re too open about it, don’t be surprised if you get picked on.

On Thursday, Enzi was speaking to students at Greybull High School and Middle School when a student asked him what he was doing to support LGBTQ people in Wyoming. Mathew Burciaga, an editor at the Greybull Standard, was at the event. The Standard published a rough transcript and audio of the event Tuesday evening.

Canada ‘Freeloading' Off American Innovation, Pfizer CEO Says

Canada and other countries with universal health care systems are keeping drugs cheap by “freeloading” off of American innovation, says the chief executive of one of the world’s largest pharma companies.

“Canada is cheaper because of (drug) ration(ing). And Canada is cheaper because ... it freerides off American innovation,” Pfizer CEO Ian Read said in an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. last week.

GOP congressman thinks poor people don’t want health care, ‘just like Jesus said’

In an interview with STAT, Rep. Roger Marshall (R-KS) says he doesn’t support Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion because he believes some poor people just don’t want health care.

“Just like Jesus said, ‘The poor will always be with us,’” Marshall, a doctor and first-term congressman, said. “There is a group of people that just don’t want health care and aren’t going to take care of themselves.”

The author of the STAT piece, Lev Facher, writes that he “pressed” Marshall on that point. But the congressman “shrugged.”

GOP Congressman: More Uninsured People Means More Freedom

As Republicans try to balance their promise to repeal Obamacare with the health law's increasing popularity, one GOP lawmaker employed a novel argument on Thursday: If fewer people are insured under the Republican replacement plan, that's simply a sign of greater freedom.

For one of the central policy fights facing Congress, health care reform won't get much discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual Republican confab held just outside Washington, DC. The topic was scheduled for just one short panel Thursday afternoon. But given the way that discussion went, it's understandable why organizers might not want to highlight the policy implications of their health care plans.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources deletes accurate climate science from agency webpage

A webpage run by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources used to explain to visitors that climate change is both occurring and is the result of human activity. Now, visitors to the same webpage will find false information claiming that the cause of climate change is still a matter of scientific debate.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the department, which is in charge of the state’s environmental policy, among other things, quietly scrubbed language from a page about the Great Lakes and climate change, striking out entire sentences about human contributions to climate change.

Trump Claimed Orlando Shooting Suspect Was Foreign-Born. Actually They Were Born In The Same City.

During a counterterrorism speech on Monday, Donald Trump claimed that Orlando shooting suspect Omar Mateen was born in someplace called “Afghan.” He then transitioned to discussing how his proposed ban on Muslim immigration would help prevent similar attacks from occurring in the future.

Those wacky federal Tories! Just how dumb do they think we are? (Hint: plenty)

Well, that was quick!

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Ontario's Crown prosecutors announced there would be no appeal of the acquittal of Sen. Mike Duffy, who had been found not guilty last month of 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery.

Yesterday -- that is to say, for those of you who read this later, on Wednesday -- The Globe and Mail reported that former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper will now resign as MP for the Calgary Heritage riding and slip out the back door of the Parliament Buildings a final time.

The Globe's story, and all the coverage of the same story since, seems not to have mentioned the elephant in the Parliamentary chamber, that is, the simplest explanation of why the humiliated ex-PM was sticking around so long after the Oct. 19, 2015, federal election when he obviously didn't feel much like it. To wit: He needed to preserve his Parliamentary privilege long enough to avoid being called to testify about the shenanigans in the Prime Minister's Office back in the days when the boys in short pants were trying to get then-Conservative Sen. Duffy to stop embarrassing the Harper Government.

Trump’s Bizarre Climate Beliefs Would Jeopardize Meaningful Global Climate Action

Donald Trump’s climate science denial and dubious deal-making skills just raised the stakes of this election to “existential.”

As Reuters reported Tuesday, the presumptive GOP nominee said he would seek to renegotiate the Paris Climate Agreement, “spelling potential doom for an agreement many view as a last chance to turn the tide on global warming.”

Paul Ryan has an idea for replacing Obamacare, and once you stop laughing I’ll tell you what it is

If it is a day ending in “y,” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan must be pretending the Republican Party is about to unveil its alternative to Obamacare. And only six years after Congress passed the Affordable Care Act. Impeccable timing! I can’t wait for next week, when Ryan introduces his alternative to the Smoot-Hawley tariff.

Republicans have, of course, been promising to unveil an alternative to Obamacare since the bill was being written in 2009-10. This plan is always said to be just about ready for a public rollout – before the holiday recess, before the next election, before next summer. The latest target date is just before the Republican National Convention this July. At this point, how any GOP legislator can make such a promise without a reporter laughing right in their face is beyond me.

Gov't Using Misleading Accounting at BC Hydro, Charges Dix

The British Columbia government has chosen to use misleading accounting at BC Hydro to fudge the province's finances ahead of the 2017 election, charges NDP energy critic Adrian Dix.

"They misled people about the state of B.C.'s finances, and they misled people about the state of BC Hydro's finances," said Dix, the MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway, in an interview. "This will affect every single person in the province."

Why The Oil To Tidewater Argument For Tarsands Pipelines Is Bunk

If you follow mainstream media and you haven’t heard "we need to get our oil to tidewater" ad nauseum, something weird is up.

Be it Natural Resource Minister Carr, Prime Minister Trudeau, Premier Notley or pipeline and tarsands industries, it’s a drum beat that’s building in intensity.

Here’s the thing... it’s totally wrong.

Barack Obama Never Said Money Wasn’t Corrupting; In Fact, He Said the Opposite

DURING THURSDAY’S DEMOCRATIC debate in Brooklyn, Bernie Sanders asked this question about Hillary Clinton: “Do we really feel confident about a candidate saying that she’s going to bring change in America when she is so dependent on big money interests?”

Clinton’s response was to invoke Barack Obama. “Make no mistake about it, this is not just an attack on me, it’s an attack on President Obama,” she said. “President Obama had a Super PAC when he ran. President Obama took tens of millions of dollars from contributors. And President Obama was not at all influenced when he made the decision to pass and sign Dodd-Frank, the toughest regulations on Wall Street in many a year.”

Who Has Two Thumbs And Is Wrong About The Financial Crisis?

Somebody is wrong on the Internet, and his name is Paul Krugman.

It is hard for liberal America when Krugman is wrong, because he is liberal America’s best — and most important — economic columnist.

In a column on Friday devoted to hitting Bernie Sanders for a long list of transgressions, Krugman said the financial “crisis itself was centered not on big banks but on ‘shadow banks’ like Lehman Brothers that weren’t necessarily that big.”

How the Trump Campaign Spread a Dirty Meme About Protesters Paid by Clinton, Sanders, and Soros

THREE WEEKS AGO, when Donald Trump called off a rally in Chicago because hundreds of protesters managed to crash the party, a more introspective candidate might have asked himself what he had done to inspire such loathing.

Instead, Trump seized on a more comforting explanation: The young people who refused to let him speak must have been dispatched by his rival insurgent, Bernie Sanders.

In a revealing interview, Trump predicts a ‘massive recession’ but intends to eliminate the national debt in 8 years

Donald Trump said in an interview that economic conditions are so perilous that the country is headed for a “very massive recession” and that “it’s a terrible time right now” to invest in the stock market, embracing a distinctly gloomy view of the economy that counters mainstream economic forecasts.

The New York billionaire dismissed concern that his comments — which are exceedingly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a major party front-runner — could potentially affect financial markets.