Photo Credit: Associated Press Two new books are deepening a Vatican scandal with tales of mismanagement and greed, such as sainthood causes that can cost up to a half-million dollars and a monsignor allegedly breaking down the wall of his next-door neighbor – a sick, elderly priest – to expand his already palatial apartment.
Pope Francis has made it a top priority to reform the Vatican bureaucracy known as the Curia, a hive of intrigue and gossip. He appointed a commission of eight experts in 2013 to gather information and make recommendations after an earlier expose helped drive his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to a historic resignation.
The leaks in the new books are seen as part of a bitter internal struggle between the reformers and the old guard. This week, the Vatican arrested two former members of the commission in an investigation into stolen documents. (Read more from “Vatican Scandals Heat up With Revelations of Greed, Intrigue” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-04 00:58:402016-04-11 10:56:34Vatican Scandals Heat up With Revelations of Greed, Intrigue
Republican Matt Bevin, a businessman and Tea Party favorite, beat Democrat Jack Conway on Tuesday to win the race for Kentucky governor — becoming only the second GOP governor in the state in four decades.
The off-year election, one of many state and local contests held Tuesday across the country, was seen by some as a test for outsider candidates at a time when several such candidates are seeking the GOP presidential nomination. Bevin, who has run as an outsider ever since he unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Mitch McConnell last year, was declared the winner over state Attorney General Conway in the gubernatorial race shortly after polls closed Tuesday evening . . .
The office is currently held by a Democrat. Bevin’s election gives Republicans control of the state’s executive branch along with a commanding majority in the state Senate. Democrats still have an eight-seat majority in the state House of Representatives.
Throughout his campaign, Bevin cast himself as an outsider, in both government and politics. The 48-year-old investment manager has never held public office and was shunned by the state’s Republican political establishment when he challenged McConnell in the 2014 Senate primary. He never took any meaningful steps to repair those relationships after the race, often deflecting assistance from party officials and likely affecting his fundraising ability.
He relied more on the details of his personal story — his Christian faith and his four adopted children from Ethiopia — than his political policies. (Read more from “Republican Bevin Wins Kentucky Governor Race” HERE)
One year out before the 2016 general election, Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson are tied in a hypothetical matchup, but Clinton leads three other major Republican candidates, according to brand-new numbers from the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Clinton is ahead of Republican Donald Trump by eight points among registered voters, 50 percent to 42 percent.
She leads former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush by four points, 47 percent to 43 percent.
And Clinton holds a three-point advantage over Sen. Marco Rubio, 47 percent to 44 percent, though that’s well within the poll’s margin of error of plus-minus 3.4 percentage points.
But against Ben Carson, who is now leading the GOP horserace in the NBC/WSJ poll, Clinton finds herself in a tied contest, 47 percent to 47 percent. (Read more from “Poll: Clinton Ties Carson in 2016 Matchup, but Tops Other GOP Candidates” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-04 00:48:302016-04-11 10:56:34Poll: Clinton Ties Carson in 2016 Matchup, but Tops Other GOP Candidates
Parents everywhere are stumped by another Common Core math problem. This time, the third-grade assignment in question fueled a viral Reddit debate on what 5 x 3 equals.
The student wrote 15, because “5 + 5 + 5” equals 15. The teacher marked it wrong because of how the student arrived at the answer; the correct answer, according to the repeated addition problem is: 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 equals 15 . . .
Under Common Core, which was launched in 2009 and currently in use in 42 states, you have to read 5 x 3 as “five groups of three” instead of “three groups of five.” (Read more from “The Third-Grade Math Question That’s Baffling Parents” HERE)
The rise of the Tea Party and a rowdy 2016 Republican presidential primary has done little to boost conservative speech on the nation’s college campuses where right-leaning students say they feel intimidated and their views sneered at.
In a poll sponsored by Yale University’s William F. Buckley Jr. program, 800 national undergrads said that by a nearly two-to-one margin, colleges were more tolerant to liberals. Pollster Jim McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Associates, found that 37 percent felt school more tolerant of liberals views, just 20 percent of conservatives, and 36 percent equally tolerant.
And while students believed their schools do a good job to bolster intellectual diversity, half, or 49 percent, said they have “often felt intimidated to share beliefs other than their professors.” And 50 percent felt intimidated to share their thoughts with students whose views differ.
And just in case there is any question that the liberal view is important and dominant on campus, consider this other poll result from McLaughlin’s survey: 30 percent of liberal students believe the First Amendment is “outdated.” Only 10 percent of conservative kids think that.
He said in an interview that some students are protesting with their feet, transferring to schools where they do feel free to express their views. (Read more from “Zip It: GOP Students ‘Intimidated’ on Campus, Say Views Less Tolerated” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-04 00:46:202016-04-11 10:56:34Zip It: GOP Students ‘Intimidated’ on Campus, Say Views Less Tolerated
By Kevin Whitson. When it comes to Olympic medals, the winners are clearly the ones wearing gold medals. Runners-up wear silver, and third place finishers don the bronze medal. When it comes to Obamacare, it seems that everyone is a loser. The Daily Caller News Foundation, in their investigative reporting of the costs of the Affordable Care Act, have concluded that the costs are much higher than the government claims.
The government claims that the cost for healthcare insurance will only rise by 7.5 percent. However, the Daily Caller News Foundation dug a little deeper into those claims and has concluded that the costs are much higher. The government’s claim, that the costs have only risen by 7.5 percent, is based on an averaging of the cost increases of the healthcare exchanges from 37 participating states and only looked at their Silver level plan. Depending on where one lives, the increases can be higher than 45 percent. Also, the 7.5 percent increase reported by the government does not take into consideration increases in all available plans, only the Silver-level plans. The Daily Caller News Foundation claims that if one averages all the increases from all available plans, then the cost increases to 20.3 percent. In other words, the government only reported on the cost increases of one plan, apparently in an effort to portray the ACA as a success. The losers, in the case of the ACA and healthcare coverage premiums, are the consumers who will be forced to pay much higher premiums and co-pays in the government run healthcare insurance exchanges.
The reason why the increases are happening is because the insurance companies are losing money. Only 36 percent of the insurers made money through the ACA exchanges. The other 64 percent of the insurers lost money, and 28 percent of those insurers reported losses of over 10 million dollars each. (Read more from “EXPOSED: There’s a Big Cover-Up With Obama’s Pet Project He Won’t Want You to See” HERE)
___________________________________
Obamacare’s ‘Cheap’ Plans Just Got Even More Expensive
By Dan Mangan. “Cheap” could cost you more for Obamacare next year.
People who buy the cheapest health plans on the biggest Obamacare exchange without getting financial assistance are facing the largest increases for premiums and out-of-pocket costs in 2016, new analyses show.
Average prices of the so-called bronze plans on the HealthCare.gov marketplace are rising 11 percent for nonsubsidized customers over 2015 prices. Average deductibles for individuals are increasing by the same percentage, to $5,731, according to a study by HealthPocket.com, an insurance comparison site.
Average premiums for the most popular types of plans, known as “silver plans,” are going up nearly as much — 10 percent — for HealthCare.gov customers who are unsubsidized, HealthPocket found.
Silver plan deductibles, however, are rising more modestly next year, by 6 percent for an individual, to $3,117. (Read more from “Obamacare’s ‘Cheap’ Plans Just Got Even More Expensive” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-03 00:42:372016-04-11 10:56:34EXPOSED: There’s a Big Cover-Up With Obama’s Pet Project He Won’t Want You to See
Hillary Clinton and other State Department officials were apparently warned by overseas U.S. diplomats about blaming the 2012 Benghazi terror strikes on an “inflammatory” Internet video, according to an email released Saturday by House Republicans probing the fatal attacks.
The email was sent three days after the fatal Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, and two days before then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice went on TV to say the attacks were inspired by the anti-Islamic video.
The email — released by the GOP-led House Select Committee on Benghazi — was sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, to the State Department, which Clinton led from 2009 to 2013. But the names of the exact sender and receiver have been redacted.
“The film’s not as explosive of an issue here as it appears to be in other countries in the region,” the unknown sender wrote. “And it is becoming increasingly clear that the series of events in Benghazi was much more terrorist attack than a protest, which escalated into violence.
“It is our opinion that in our messaging, we want to distinguish, not conflate, the events in other countries with this well planned attack by militant extremists.” (Read more from “According to Email, Hillary Was Warned About Blaming Benghazi Attack on Video” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-03 00:41:282016-04-11 10:56:35According to Email, Hillary Was Warned About Blaming Benghazi Attack on Video
There seems to be a grievance group that has successfully attracted the attention of all or a portion of the political class for any perceived injustice under the sun. But why is it that nobody in the political class finds a need to act with urgency to protect American lives from violent illegal aliens? Why are American victims of violence from illegal aliens the only group that garners no attention from the media or politicians?
Yesterday, a group of families who’ve lost loved ones at the hands of illegal aliens met in Yorba Linda, California for their annual “National Remembrance Day,” an event sponsored by The Remembrance Project – the only organization that gives voice to these grieving families. While all lives cut short at the hands of murderers are “stolen lives” and represent a tragedy for those families and our nation, deaths at the hands of illegal aliens are even more egregious because they are so preventable. In fact, all too often these murders are the direct result of federal or state malfeasance, sanctuary city and sanctuary nation policies.
On Friday, the Obama Justice Department began releasing the first tranche of 6,000 felons from federal prison, which will include 2,000 criminal aliens. How many more Americans will be killed or injured as a result of this policy?
We need not speculate. Obama has already released 66,000 criminal aliens in FY 2013 and 2014. Who knows how many more he has recently released. The released illegal immigrants had a total of 166,000 convictions on their collective rap sheets: 30k DUIs, 414 kidnappings, 11,000 sex assaults, 395 homicides. At least 121 of them went on to commit more murders after being released.
According to DHS, there are an estimated 179,027 illegal aliens with criminal convictions at large in the country who have already been ordered deported. And those are just the ones ordered deported. There are an estimated 2.1 million illegal and legal immigrants convicted of crimes in this country, but 1.2 million criminal aliens remain at large in the U.S. Imagine how many more criminal aliens have never been arrested, convicted, or ordered deported?
There is no greater threat to our public safety and our sovereignty than the growing population of criminal aliens, yet Obama is continuing to encourage more illegal immigration and is refusing to deport even criminal aliens. A recently revealed report from Customs and Border Protection shows that most recent arrivals have come here under the impression that they will never be deported and will be entitled to the full array of benefits.
As an aside, this report blows up the false choice propagated by the open border crowd of mass and complete deportation vs. amnesty. If we simply enforced the laws and reasserted congressional plenary power over the harmful acts of the executive branch and the lawless courts, the incentive that invites illegal aliens would evaporate.
Meanwhile, the courts are granting illegal aliens the right to bail, even though they represent a consummate flight risk. A number of these individuals have gone on to commit more heinous crimes, including one case in which an illegal alien beat a two-year-old girl to within an inch of her life. They have tossed out state laws passed by Arizona to prevent violent aliens from being released on bail. Now they are violating congress’ plenary power over immigration and the people’s control of their own sovereignty by mandating the release of even more criminal aliens.
Where is Congress? Where is Paul Ryan? Why is this not a national emergency?
As noted last week, it’s not enough for Ryan to merely promise not to add lighter fluid to the fire by passing legislative amnesty. He must lead the fight to put out this raging fire. Yet, just today, Congressional Quarterly has published an article titled, “Obama, Ryan Speak Same Language on Criminal Justice Overhaul.” Meaning, not only won’t he fight Obama’s mass prison break, which includes a substantial number of illegal aliens, he will champion it.
In the coming weeks, look for Ryan to focus on stand-alone conservative fiscal policy, now that he has caved on all the must-pass bills which could have been used as vehicles to force some fiscal changes. Now, there is no leverage to pass these bills and we lack the bully pulpit of the presidency to promote major tax and welfare changes. But it is too much to ask that Republicans in Congress harness this 90-10 issue of criminal aliens and protect public safety from those who are prohibited from being in this country?
If conservatives don’t push for a major funding fight in December against Obama’s release of criminal aliens, more innocent Americans will die on the altar of political correctness. (For more from the author of “The Criminal Alien Emergency: American Lives Matter” please click HERE)
Watch yesterday’s interview with the author below:
If a giant solar flare hit the Earth, it could knock out the entire power grid, meaning no more new Justin Bieber singles, no more televised presidential debates, and no more Facebook photos of babies . . .
That’s why the White House released its National Space Weather Strategy on Thursday . . .
The six-step plan requires government agencies, schools, the media, the insurance industry, nonprofits, and more to work together. In other words: We might be doomed. “This is a real and present danger,” the White House’s assistant director for space weather tells the Post. Back in 1859, a huge solar storm did impact Earth and caused some sparking telegraph lines. The National Academy of Sciences says something like that today could mean a $2 trillion economic hit. Something like that almost did happen in 2012, when NASA says we were nearly hit by two large plasma clouds. “If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,” one physicist says. The White House’s new plan calls for the US to get better at predicting space weather, shore up our infrastructure against EMPs, and more, the Chronicle reports. It’s a plan we may truly need: The Post quotes NASA as stating there’s a 12% chance of a giant solar flare in the next 10 years. (Escape doomsday in a luxury missile silo.) (Read more from “The White House Is Preparing for Catastrophic Solar Flares” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-03 00:40:312016-04-11 10:56:37FINALLY: White House Preparing for Catastrophic Solar Flares
They arrived in an unceasing stream, 10,000 a day at the height, as many as a million migrants heading for Europe this year, pushing infants in strollers and elderly parents in wheelchairs, carrying children on their shoulders and life savings in their socks. They came in search of a new life, but in many ways they were the heralds of a new age.
There are more displaced people and refugees now than at any other time in recorded history — 60 million in all — and they are on the march in numbers not seen since World War II. They are coming not just from Syria, but from an array of countries and regions, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, even Haiti, as well as any of a dozen or so nations in sub-Saharan and North Africa. They are unofficial ambassadors of failed states, unending wars, intractable conflicts.
The most striking thing about the current migration crisis, however, is how much bigger it could still get.
What if Islamic State militants are not beaten back but continue to extend their brutal writ across Iraq and Syria? What if the Taliban continue to increase their territorial gains in Afghanistan, prompting even more people to flee? A quarter of Afghans told a Gallup Poll that they want to leave, and more than 100,000 are expected to try to flee to Europe this year.
There are between six million and eight million people displaced in Syria, along with more than four million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. (Read more from “A Mass Migration Crisis, and It May yet Get Worse” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-03 00:39:362016-04-11 10:56:37A Mass Migration Crisis, and It May yet Get Worse
