Chinese authorities demolished the $2.6 million building of a 50,000-member evangelical congregation in the country’s northern Shanxi province.
The order to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church in the city of Linfen apparently came from China’s top officials instead of the less-powerful local authorities, according to the Christian organization China Aid.
The group explained that the communist country’s notorious military police, which carried out the demolition Jan. 9, has been under the direct control of the central government since the head of the public security bureau was arrested last year.
It’s the second large church building to be demolished in the province in the past month.
People’s Armed Police forces used excavators and dynamite to destroy the building in Linfen, which had been financed by the congregation. (Read more from “Cops Destroy Evangelical Megachurch” HERE)
Walmart is raising starting wages for hourly employees to $11 and offering a one-time cash bonus of up to $1,000, the company said Thursday.
The retailer also said it was expanding maternity and parental-leave benefits, as well as creating a new benefit to assist with adoption expenses . . .
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the changes were a direct result of the new tax law.
“We are early in the stages of assessing the opportunities tax reform creates for us to invest in our customers and associates and to further strengthen our business, all of which should benefit our shareholders,” McMillon said in a statement. “However, some guiding themes are clear and consistent with how we’ve been investing — lower prices for customers, better wages and training for associates and investments in the future of our company, including in technology” . . .
The cash bonus will go to employees who don’t benefit from the new wage increases — meaning they are already paid more than $11 an hour. It will range from $200 to $1,000 depending on workers’ length of employment with Walmart. (Read more from “Walmart Gives Workers Pay Raise, Here’s Why” HERE)
Some folks are just lucky. This weekend, 50 Republican voters will choose a state senator for a district of roughly 40,000 people. And if you live in the Mat-Su, you could be one of the 50 just by showing up.
An unusual state law, and the resignation of two Alaskan legislators over the past couple of weeks means that small groups of voters will get the chance to elect not one, but two new legislators this month.
If you want to get in on the action, you first need to check which house district you live in here. If you live in House District 10, congratulations on being one of the lucky ones. Simply by registering for the District 10 meeting this Saturday, you will be able to play a part in selecting your next senator. I will be there. If you come, please find me on Saturday and say hello.
The process of replacing a senator can be a bit technical, but the general concept is fairly simple: Whenever a legislator leaves office before the end of their term, the local members of their party select 3 or 4 names to send to the governor, and the governor chooses one of them to be a legislator until the next election.
With the resignation of Senator Mike Dunleavy earlier this week, Republican voters in District 10 will meet this Saturday to choose up to 30 people who will get together on Monday night to choose names to submit to the governor. You can find information about Saturday’s meeting at the link above, or by contacting me here.
As the legislator for District 10, I will be able to vote on the names automatically. However, the other 30 people will all be elected this Saturday. Normally, those 30 people would already have been chosen far in advance. But in a strange quirk of fate, the election was already scheduled to take place this Saturday and their very first official act on Monday will be voting on who will step in to serve as their next state senator until this time next year.
Come join us this Saturday to take part in an historic event in Alaska history. And if you are currently out of state or can’t physically make it to the meeting, there will even be a way for you to cast your vote by phone. Lunch will be provided for free with your registration fee of only $10.
As it happens, most of the 30 positions have been sitting vacant for the past several years due to lack of interest. If you show up on Saturday, you will have an opportunity to take part in the process, and if you would like to fill one of the 30 positions, your chances of being able to do so are good, quite good in fact.
What can I say? Some folks are just lucky.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/IMG_1656.jpg30244032Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-01-11 20:07:062018-01-12 02:16:29Will You Take Part in Choosing Alaska’s next State Senator This Weekend?
By WND. A shocking video released by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas captures Twitter employees expressing their willingness to use their access to President Trump’s account to bring down the nation’s commander-in-chief.
Employee Clay Haynes, who has worked at the company since 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile, spoke to an undercover journalist from Project Veritas on Jan. 3. Haynes said the company would be “more than happy to help the DOJ with their little investigation.”
Haynes, a self-declared “bleeding-heart liberal,” also outlined specific ways the company could help take down the president, including providing every single tweet Trump has made, even those that have been deleted, as well as any direct messages . . .
Haynes openly declared his desire to end the Trump administration.
“He’s dangerous, I don’t like him and he’s a terrible human being and I want to get rid of him,” Haynes states in the video. (Read more from “Shock Video: Twitter Employee Offers Eye-Popping Intel in Trump Take-Down Plot” HERE)
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Twitter Responds to Project Veritas Video of Employee Talking About Trump’s Account
By Diana Stancy Correll. Twitter has distanced itself from comments by an employee about providing the Justice Department with President Trump’s tweets and direct messages which were caught on video and published by Project Veritas.
“The individual depicted in this video was speaking in a personal capacity and does not represent or speak for Twitter,” Twitter told International Business Times. “Twitter only responds to valid legal requests, and does not share any user information with law enforcement without such a request.”
“We deplore the deceptive and underhanded tactics by which this footage was obtained and selectively edited to fit a pre-determined narrative,” Twitter’s spokesperson said. “Twitter is committed to enforcing our rules without bias and empowering every voice on our platform, in accordance with the Twitter Rules.”
Project Veritas, a conservative group that attempts to expose media bias, released a video featuring a Twitter senior network security engineer, Clay Haynes, in a meeting. Haynes can be heard saying that Twitter is “more than happy to help the Department of Justice in their little investigation” by giving them “every single tweet that [Trump] has posted, even the ones he’s deleted. Any direct messages, any mentions.”
Trump’s campaign is being looked at by special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed by the Justice Department, for possible collusion with the Russians during the 2016 campaign. (Read more from “Twitter Responds to Project Veritas Video of Employee Talking About Trump’s Account” HERE)
It’s become fashionable among journalists and various politicos to discuss whether Democrats should attempt to remove President Donald Trump from office via the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, supposedly because he has become too mentally incapacitated to fulfill his duties.
After his televised meeting with top House and Senate leaders from both parties, the liberal fantasy that they can simply nullify the results from the last presidential election — bolstered by the discredited accounts from Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury” that made the president appear psychologically unstable — should no longer be entertained by the media any more than it already was.
No individual who is mentally unstable or dangerously unfit could have possibly ran an hour-long negotiation and discussion over complex policy solutions as the president did Tuesday.
Throughout the meeting, Trump not only seemed engaged and alert, but also served as a leader managing both parties’ desires.
Even an article in USA Today, whose editors wrote an editorial late last year titled “Will Trump’s Lows Ever Hit Rock Bottom?” called the meeting “extraordinary.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham called the negotiations “the most fascinating meeting I’ve been involved with in 20-plus years in politics.”
The president’s performance Tuesday afternoon raised further questions about how a Yale psychiatrist deemed it appropriate to deliver a warning to a group of Democratic lawmakers that they should consider removing Trump from office.
Nor does the president’s clear sanity and mental fitness — regardless of whether or not one agrees with him on policy issues — jive with Wolff’s assertion that the Twenty-Fifth Amendment is a subject of regular conversation within the White House.
In an interview on “Meet The Press,” Wolff told Chuck Todd that the Twenty-Fifth Amendment — which allows the vice president to take power in cases where the president dies or becomes incapacitated — is “alive every day” in the West Wing.
On top of being grossly inappropriate, any effort by Democrats or anti-Trump Republicans to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment going forward will have to reconcile with the fact that millions of Americans have now seen Trump publicly performing the duties of the office more than competently.
Of course, there are those who won’t ever be happy. A Vox article ran last weekend arguing that Trump needed a psychological evaluation “by force if necessary.”
Trump defended his mental state in a series of tweets earlier this week.
….Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star…..
The idea of essentially kidnapping a president because some tweets made a liberal writer uncomfortable was comically ridiculous before, but after today’s public meeting, it just seems like a pathetic attempt to kick a Republican out of office. (For more from the author of “While Everyone Is Freaking out Over Trump DACA Promise, He Just Did the Most Trump Thing Ever” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/170725-F-UU934-2048.jpg558780Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-01-11 00:13:202018-01-11 00:13:20While Everyone Is Freaking out Over Trump DACA Promise, He Just Did the Most Trump Thing Ever
By Jackie Salo. A 21-year-old bodybuilder’s family says they were shocked when the healthy, young man died within days of being diagnosed with the flu.
Kyler Baughman’s relatives are warning others about the dangers of influenza after he died of complications from the virus last week at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania, WXPI reported . . .
It first became apparent Kyler was sick when he returned home from work with a mild cough.
Within 48 hours, his health began rapidly declining, according to his family . . .
He was rushed Wednesday to a Westmoreland County emergency room and airlifted to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he died just hours later. (Read more from “21-Year-Old Bodybuilder Dies Just Days After Flu Diagnosis” HERE)
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California Girl, 12, Dies From Infection Misdiagnosed as Flu, Family Says
By Jennifer Earl. When Alyssa Alcarez was sent home from school after throwing up, her family thought she probably had a “bug” of some sort – maybe even a mild case of the flu.
The next day, Alcarez’s mother, Keila Lino, decided to take her daughter to a nearby urgent care, where doctors confirmed her suspicion: Alcarez had the flu . . .
When medication, rest and fluids failed, Lino rushed her daughter to urgent care. A physician told Lino the seventh grader’s oxygen levels were low, and Alcarez was rushed to Kaweah Delta Medical Center in Visalia, California . . .
The 12-year-old went into cardiac arrest, which, her parents say, was a result of septic shock from a strep infection in her blood – an infection she had no idea her daughter was suffering from. Within hours, Alcarez was dead . . .
The flu is now widespread in 46 states, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). California is being hit particularly hard. State health officials say at least 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in the state since October. (Read more from “California Girl, 12, Dies From Infection Misdiagnosed as Flu, Family Says” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/061128-F-9497Y-003.jpg309670Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-01-11 00:07:372018-01-11 00:12:4721-Year-Old Bodybuilder Dies Just Days After Flu Diagnosis
The unelected Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei — who rules the country with unchecked power — has unleashed a frenzied tweetstorm, accusing the U.S. and “Zionists” of being behind the ongoing protest movement in Iran.
The tweetstorm starts with a somewhat laid-back approach to the protests in Iran, in which many are calling for his dismissal — or even his demise.
Regarding the recent events, there has been various analysis. There is a correct point commonly made: that is separating people's honest and rightful demands from the violent and vandalizing moves by a certain group; these two must be separated. pic.twitter.com/3eaEsrP0cl
All moves against us, by the enemy, over the past 40 years are attacks on the Islamic Revolution. The Revolution politically eradicated the enemy from Iran.
He then takes to accusing foreign western nations of inciting revolution from within, linking the concerns of protesters to an unproven coup attempt, without revealing any evidence for his allegations.
Once again, the nation tells the US, Britain, and those who seek to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran from abroad that "you've failed, and you will fail in the future, too."
Next, he predictably loops the Jews (code word: Zionists) into the mix. Of course, the theocrats in Iran have a reputation for trafficking in anti-Semitic conspiracies. Khamenei and many top Iran regime officials are Holocaust deniers.
According to evidence of intelligence, there's been a triangle pattern activating these events. The scheme was formed by U.S. & Zionists. The money came fr a wealthy govt near Persian Gulf; the 3rd element were the henchmen. The butchers, MEK, were hired as minions for this plot.
The U.S. is utterly angry; they're not only angry at this humble person. They're angry at everyone and everything, the nation, the establishment, and the Islamic Revolution of Iran; because they've been defeated by your great movement.
US officials have started talking nonsense: US pres. says Iranian establishment's frightened by its ppl. No! Iranian establishment was born by these ppl, it's for ppl, relies on them.Why should it be scared of them? If it was not for these ppl, there wouldn't be an establishment.
The U.S. President says the Iranian establishment is terrified by their power. Well, if we were so terrified by you, how did we kick you out of Iran in late 70s and send you packing, out of the entire region, in the 2010s?
Khamenei then begins his attack on President Trump, who has used his social media platform and executive agencies to raise awareness about the plight of the Iranian people.
US President says the Iranian people are hungry. Don't they see the 50 million Americans, or more, starving in US? Iranian people have lived a life of dignity and honor, and by God's grace their economic problems will be solved!
US Pres. expressed concerns. Do you have no shame? US police killed about 800 people in 1 year! US used any means possible to suppress people during the OWS movement. You've killed innocent people. You had false suspicions of a mother/w her child in the car & killed her!
Khamenei then casually threatens action against the U.S. in retaliation for his unproven theory that the protests are a western plot.
U.S. officials should know that, firstly, they have missed their target: and if they target Iran again, they will fail. Secondly, they have inflicted damage upon Iran in recent days, and they should know this won't be left without a response.
Last, the ayatollah picks up on liberal media narratives and accuses President Trump of being mentally unstable.
Thirdly, this man who sits at the head of the White House— although, he seems to be a very unstable man–he must realize that these extreme and psychotic episodes won't be left without a response.
Since 1989, Khamenei has ruled over Iran with an iron fist. He has attempted to chip away at Iran’s Persian heritage, instead leveraging the nation as a home base for a revolutionary Islamic supremacist ideology. He succeed the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who came to power in 1979, following the overthrow of the Shah of Iran. (For more from the author of “Iran’s ‘Supreme Leader’ Has Conspiracy Meltdown on Twitter” please click HERE)
On the campaign trail in 2016, President Donald Trump promised to drastically scale back the Environmental Protection Agency, vowing to “take a tremendous amount out.” A new report from the Washington Examiner shows that after the first year of the Trump presidency, the administration is on schedule to reduce the EPA workforce by half.
“We’re proud to report that we’re reducing the size of government, protecting taxpayer dollars and staying true to our core mission of protecting the environment,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told the Examiner.
According to the report, if everyone scheduled to retire leaves by 2021, the EPA’s staff will have been reduced from nearly 15,000 employees to below 8,000, a 47 percent cut. To get these numbers, Administrator Pruitt has instituted a hiring freeze and has offered attractive retirement benefits to encourage people to leave.
“We’re happy to be at Reagan-level employment numbers and the future retirements shows a preview of how low we could get during this administration. It would be fair to say anywhere from 25 to 47 percent of EPA could retire during this administration,” an EPA official said.
Speaking at a 2016 Republican presidential primary debate in Michigan, Trump pledged that if he were elected president, there would only be “tidbits” of the EPA left. “Department of Environmental Protection: We are going to get rid of it in almost every form. We’re going to have little tidbits left. But we’re going to take a tremendous amount out,” he said.
Consider this another swamp-draining promise the president is on track to keeping. (For more from the author of “Report: EPA Staff Could Be Cut in HALF Under Trump Admin” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Flag_of_the_United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency.png12002000Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-01-10 23:49:352018-01-10 23:49:35Report: EPA Staff Could Be Cut in HALF Under Trump Admin
Some House Democrats are planning to invite sexual assault survivors as their guests to President Trump’s first State of the Union address, according to a new report.
An aide to Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) told NBC News that some Democrats are planning the invitations to bring awareness to the issue.
“Some members will be bringing survivors of sexual assault and advocates as their guests,” the aide told NBC News.
The report comes on the heels of Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) saying Tuesday that she and other female House members are inviting lawmakers to weak black to Trump’s State of the Union in solidarity with the anti-sexual harassment “Me Too” and “Time’s Up” movements . . .
Speier said the Democratic Women’s Working Group, which includes all of the female House members, was encouraging lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to wear black to the event, and that support is very high. (Read more from “Dems to Invite Sexual Assault Survivors as Guests to Trump’s State of the Union” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Donald_Trump_8566730507_2-1.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-01-10 23:46:312018-01-10 23:46:31Dems to Invite Sexual Assault Survivors as Guests to Trump’s State of the Union
U.S. immigration agents raided dozens of 7-Eleven stores before dawn Wednesday and arrested 21 people in the biggest crackdown on a company suspected of hiring undocumented workers since President Donald Trump took office.
Some 98 of the convenience stores nationwide — from Los Angeles to New York — were targeted by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose top official described the raids as a warning to other companies that may have unauthorized employees on their payrolls.
“Today’s actions send a strong message to U.S. businesses that hire and employ an illegal workforce,” ICE’s Acting Director Thomas D. Homan said in a statement. “ICE will enforce the law, and if you are found to be breaking the law, you will be held accountable.”
Homan did not say why ICE went after the Irving, Texas-based convenience store chain, which has 60,000 franchises worldwide and is famous for its Slurpee drinks. ICE hit stores in 17 states and Washington, D.C., and gave managers and franchise owners three days to provide the agency with the immigration status of their workers.
“Businesses that hire illegal workers are a pull factor for illegal immigration, and we are working hard to remove this magnet,” Homan said. “ICE will continue its efforts to protect jobs for American workers by eliminating unfair competitive advantages for companies that exploit illegal immigration.” (Read more from “Immigration Agents Raid 7-Eleven Stores Nationwide” HERE)
