The Pentagon has released the names of the three American soldiers slain in the latest “insider attack” by an Afghan soldier on Saturday against U.S. troops.
Sgt. Eric M. Houck, 25, of Baltimore, Md.; Sgt. William M. Bays, 29, of Barstow, Calif.; and Corporal Dillon C. Baldridge, 22, of Youngsville, N.C., were the latest victims of an all-too common occurrence overseas. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The news comes as Trump administration officials are considering sending thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan in an attempt to stabilize the government there. There is currently about 8,000 American military personnel in the country.
The “green-on-blue” murders mark the 100th insider attack by Afghan soldiers against coalition forces (the vast majority of whom are American) since 2008, according to data compiled by the Long War Journal.
Since Jan. 1, 2008, 155 coalition troops have been killed in insider attacks, and almost 200 wounded.
The Taliban has long encouraged its fighters to infiltrate the Afghan National Army and conduct covert attacks against Americans. However, the Taliban only accounts for about 25 percent of insider attacks, according to estimates.
Not only is the allegiance of the Afghan army to coalition efforts largely suspect (even with the U.S. dumping billions of dollars into arming and training the group), the ground warfare branch of the Afghan Armed Forces has completely failed in the face of the Taliban insurgency.
Corruption is rampant within the Afghan military industry. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report added that Washington is paying millions in salaries to “ghost soldiers” who do not exist, enriching the coffers of Afghan officials to the detriment of regional security. “At a minimum, they’re playing defense and are not taking the fight to the Taliban,” SIGAR head John Sopko said in January.
The security environment in Afghanistan continues to unravel, and the Taliban now controls or contests around 40 percent of the country.
The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history; U.S. troops have now been there for 16 years. It has taken thousands of American lives and cost American taxpayers $1 trillion.
The war in Afghanistan commenced as an effort to take out Osama bin Laden and his vast al-Qaida terrorist network inside the country. But now, in 2017, the current mission in Afghanistan is seemingly without an end goal.
There are no objective markers for what would signal the accomplishment of American goals there. The long war continues indefinitely, without an exit plan — much to the detriment of vulnerable U.S. troops stationed in the wilds of Afghanistan. (For more from the author of “Afghan Murder of US Soldiers Marks 100th Insider Attack Since ’08” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Marksmanship_training_1-1-1.jpg10131519Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-06-12 22:56:212017-06-12 22:56:21Afghan Murder of US Soldiers Marks 100th Insider Attack Since ’08
President Donald Trump slammed Democrats on Tuesday, saying they wouldn’t even support the “the greatest bill in the history of the world on health care,” amid the ongoing political fight over amending Obamacare. However, doubtful as it is that the Senate has concocted a bill even close to the greatest ever, it’s going to be a while before anyone knows what it looks like, as Senate Republicans are keeping their version of the bill close to the vest.
Pres. Trump: “If we had the greatest bill in the history of the world on health care we wouldn’t get one vote from the Democrats.”
A draft of the Senate bill is expected to be finished soon, with no immediate plans to let the public see what’s in it, according to a Monday report at Axios, citing two Senate GOP aides.
“We aren’t stupid,” one of them told Axios. “We are still in discussions about what will be in the final product so it is premature to release any draft absent further member conversations and consensus.”
Not only are Senate Republicans currently taking flak for the secrecy around the bill, but the lack of an open process for the first version of the bill in the House of Representatives was one of the leading factors behind the original health care legislation’s failure earlier this year.
And during the months-long debate over Obamacare almost eight years ago, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., slammed the cloak-and-dagger tactics that led to the bill’s passage.
Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, has previously said that there will be a health care vote before the now-contested August recess, but the current goal appears to be before the July 4 recess, according to the Axios report.
In either case, with Congress’ notoriously light work schedule, it leaves precious little time for the Congressional Budget Office to score the legislation and then even less for the Senate to deliberate it before a vote. (For more from the author of “Report: Senate GOP to Hide Health Care Bill From Voters” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Donald_Trump_by_Gage_Skidmore_2-2.jpg31684752Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-06-12 22:47:422017-06-12 22:47:42Report: Senate GOP to Hide Health Care Bill From Voters
Ken Shefveland’s body was swollen with cancer, treatment after treatment failing until doctors gambled on a radical approach: They removed some of his immune cells, engineered them into cancer assassins and unleashed them into his bloodstream.
Immune therapy is the hottest trend in cancer care and this is its next frontier — creating “living drugs” that grow inside the body into an army that seeks and destroys tumors.
Looking in the mirror, Shefveland saw “the cancer was just melting away.” A month later doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center couldn’t find any signs of lymphoma in the Vancouver, Washington, man’s body. (Read more from “New Frontier in Cancer Care: Turning Blood Into Living Drugs” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/doctor-1461911723OIY.jpg12801920Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-06-12 22:42:122017-06-12 22:42:12New Frontier in Cancer Care: Turning Blood Into Living Drugs
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is preparing to face former Senate colleagues over his role in the controversy around ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, part of an escalating investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.
Sessions is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence committee and is due for sharp questioning. It is not yet known whether the hearing will be public or closed. . .
Fellow Republicans, meanwhile, pressed President Donald Trump to come clean about whether he has tapes of private conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey and provide them to Congress if he does — or possibly face a subpoena. It was the latest fallout from riveting testimony from Comey last week of undue pressure from Trump, which drew an angry response from the president on Friday that Comey was lying. (Read more from “Sessions to Testify as Republicans Push for Tapes” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Senate_Judiciary_Committee_Chairman_Sen._Jeff_Sessions_R-AL_makes_opening_remarks_to_a_panel_of_Department_of_Homeland_Securit.jpg29074296Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-06-12 22:38:192017-06-13 03:20:45Sessions to Testify as Republicans Push for Tapes
The story of secret Russian agents effectively swaying the U.S. election, or colluding with Donald Trump, has petered out into nothingness. For months we heard dark suspicions recklessly spread by news organizations. We learned of selective leaks from inside the Deep State — Obama holdovers or NeverTrumpers determined to wreck his presidency.
Now there’s almost nothing left. Democrats hope to impeach the president for procedural improprieties. For clumsily firing a waffling and partisan FBI director. Still have Putin on the brain? You’ll have to settle for fevered claims by the likes of Louise Mensch that the Russian president, not ISIS, is behind the London terror attacks.
But that doesn’t mean there are no international conspiracies. There are global actors with billions of dollars and vast webs of connections. They are trying to sway U.S. elections. Even worse, some want to hijack Christian churches. Their goal: to dismantle traditional Christian teaching, practice, or prudence on critical public issues:
Sexuality. Does “male” and “female” refer to a fact of mammalian biology? Or are those fleeting preferences with which we can “identify” during the work week? (Then we can switch off on the weekends.) Are there two genders or forty? Should parents lose custody of their children if they won’t dose their pre-adolescents with the opposite sex’s hormones?
Marriage. Is this a primordial human institution, the bedrock of society? Is it the union of man and woman for the sake of rearing children? Or is it a temporary sex contract that can include two men, two women, or multiple members of shifting, temporary genders? Should Christians at least be free to cleave to the traditional and rational definition? Or must the state punish them and close down their businesses?
Immigration. Jesus told us to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. Beyond just minting coins and collecting taxes, does that also include securing a nation’s borders? Selecting the best number and mix of immigrants for the sake of a country’s common good? Or are wealthier nations obliged to accept all comers — even those who break the law or favor sharia? This issue isn’t going anywhere. As CNS News just reported, “Nearly 710 million adults worldwide want to migrate to another country and 147 million of those specifically want to come to the United States, according to a newly released survey by Gallup.” Does the Gospel requires us to stand back and wave all those people in? Or are we obliged as citizens to do what is best for our neighbors and our families, here at home?
Is it the role of government to protect our rights, including property rights, and punish fraudulent businessmen? To foster growth, innovation, and prosperity? Or must we employ appointed bureaucrats to manage our every business relationship? Should the state make eliminating economic inequality the first goal of public policy? Sure, socialism has failed spectacularly everywhere it has been tried. But is that just because we weren’t trying hard enough? Because the state didn’t have enough power, and didn’t work together with other states through globalist institutions?
How to Rent an Evangelical “Mascot”
George Soros thinks he knows the answers to all those questions. A financial speculator who has made billions in part by gaming currency markets, he has embraced radical politics. He supports using global institutions, such as the United Nations, the European Union, and “non-profit” pressure groups to override the votes of citizens in nations around the world. He spent big to influence the U.S. election in 2016. And where he can’t win elections, he pours money into organizations that try to delegitimize and destabilize those regimes that resist him — for instance, the conservative government in his native Hungary.
Even more troubling are Soros’ efforts to infiltrate, hijack, and control Christian churches. Soros’ army of employees is expert at identifying allies within those churches, and pouring money into them to increase their influence and reach. His employees are on record (see video below) as calling these allies “mascots,” part of their program to “rent-an-evangelical.”
The Bishops Who Want to “Disrupt Trump”
Soros spent $400,000 to help Latin American Marxist Catholic groups spin Pope Francis’ U.S. visit as a campaign tour for pro-abortion Democrats. More recently, one of Soros’ pet groups, PICO, helped organize the event at which 24 U.S. Catholic bishops and a cardinal close to Pope Francis (Peter Turkson) pledged to “disrupt Trump,” and to use Catholic church facilities to thwart U.S. immigration laws.
In Protestant circles, Soros has funded the pacifist, anti-borders activism of Sojourners magazine, and the Evangelical Immigration Table.
Soros’ other money fills the coffers of pro-abortion, LGBT, and pro-Islamist activists. The long list of radical groups he funds could fill up this article.
Almost Half-Billion-Dollar Slush Fund
As Capital Research just reported, “In 2015 alone, Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society made a total of $431 million in contributions and grants to far-left groups and causes around the world.”
No surprise, one of the main focus of Soros’ efforts has been to exploit and distort Christian charity and hospitality. The goal? Open-borders policies. To flood European countries with aggressive, pro-sharia Muslims. To flood the U.S. with poor, strongly Democrat-leaning Latin Americans. By these means Soros hopes to overwhelm conservative politicians. He came within a hairsbreadth of having as U.S. president his ally Hillary Clinton.
The Video Liberal Pastors Don’t Want You to Watch
I urge you to watch the following eye-opening video. It’s from the American Association of Evangelicals. It exposes Soros’ efforts to undermine national sovereignty, Christian morals, and the market economy around the world. It lists the dozens of front organizations that serve the same radical agenda that has already prevailed in Western Europe.
Please watch and share. Wait for the next time you hear a Christian leader attack almost 2,000 years of church teaching, or wise Christian statesmanship, on a crucial public issue. Then go ahead and ask him, in public: “Do you take money from any organization funded by George Soros? If so, I can’t really hear you over the jingling of those 30 pieces of silver.”
(For more from the author of “George Soros Is Trying to Hijack Christian Churches” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Inside_Laurel_Hill_Presbyterian_Church.jpg480640Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-06-12 22:26:212017-06-12 22:26:21George Soros Is Trying to Hijack Christian Churches
A baby born at 22 weeks and weighing only one pound and four ounces reached stability Monday after defying the odds of surviving.
Austin Douglas of England was born so early that his skin was translucent, organs visible, and ears and lungs undeveloped. He is the first baby to be born so early, weigh so little and survive.
Now, at 10 weeks old and after surviving two lung infections, his parents — Helen and Rhys — hope to take their baby home in the next month, reported Leicester Mercury.
Most full-term babies are born around 40 weeks, which means Douglas was only half way through full development when he was born.
Despite being only part way through the length of a normal pregnancy, his mother gave birth naturally at Leicester General. (Read more from “Despite All Odds, One-Pound Baby Survives” HERE)
The abortion pill has been around for years and has become a highly common form of abortion.
Now, it appears an antidote medication has arrived, and it is already saving hundreds of babies.
The abortion pill (mifepristone, more commonly known as RU-486) has been shown in a new systematic review of literature to be effective at killing an embryo if given in doses ranging from 200 milligrams to 600 milligrams.
But an updated case series, soon to be published, will highlight the success rate of a little-known therapy called the “abortion pill reversal.” This therapy has a 60 to 70 percent success rate in reversing the effects of the abortion pill after it has been taken.
The therapy has already led to healthy births in 250 cases after mothers had taken the abortion pill, and there are currently 100 more pregnant women on this regimen after having taken the abortion pill and changed their minds.
U.S. medication abortions have been on the rise since 2000, when the Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone under President Bill Clinton.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, medication abortions have increased from 6 percent of all abortions in 2001 to 31 percent in 2014, despite the overall decline in the number of abortions in the U.S. during that same period.
In addition, medication abortions account for nearly half (45 percent) of all abortions committed prior to nine weeks gestation.
In 2016, the FDA under President Barack Obama expanded the timeframe for the use of mifepristone to 10 weeks gestation. That move put women’s health and safety at further risk, since the abortion pill regimen is less effective the further along the woman is and carries a higher risk of major adverse events.
With the increase in state pro-life laws placing limits on abortion, and with fewer abortionists now in the medical field, medication abortion has become a convenient alternative to surgical abortions for the abortion industry.
The industry is intent on making medication abortions more widely available. Just in 2014, medication abortions were available at 87 percent of all non-hospital abortion providers.
The Procedure
Medication abortions involve two drugs in order to fully abort the baby—mifepristone and misoprostol.
The first drug, mifepristone, acts to block progesterone, a hormone that not only allows the embryo to implant but also stimulates the delivery of essential nutrients to the growing baby within the mother’s uterus. Without progesterone, the baby starves to death and the placenta separates.
Misoprostol is then taken about 36 to 72 hours after taking the mifepristone, causing contractions that are meant to expel the dead baby.
This process may take a few hours or up to a few days. The mother delivers the dead baby at home without the supervision of a doctor.
In order to work, the abortion pill reversal technique must be started generally within the first 24 to 72 hours of taking mifepristone and before taking misoprostol.
This innovative procedure was discovered by Dr. Matt Harrison in 2006. He realized that if he gave women extra progesterone, it competed with the effects of mifepristone and could save the baby’s life by allowing nutrients to once again reach the growing baby.
Since 2009, Dr. George Delgado has also been involved in the abortion pill reversal. Delgado and others established the Abortion Pill Reversal hotline in 2012. Now, there are more than 350 providers nationwide who are equipped to do the abortion pill reversal technique.
A Growing Movement
The women who have undergone successful reversal therapy are amazing testaments to the efficacy of the procedure.
Take for example Rebekah Buell, who at 18 years old realized she had made a mistake soon after taking mifepristone in the spring of 2013.
The new option of a reversal allowed Buell to save and give birth to her healthy son Zechariah, who is now a precocious 3-year-old.
Andrea Minichini experienced a similar miraculous reversal. Minichini, then 21 years old, desperately searched for a way to save her preborn son from the moment she swallowed the first abortion pill under pressure from her doctor and her boyfriend.
Although she underwent the abortion pill reversal at approximately 48 hours after taking mifepristone, the progesterone therapy was successful, and she too gave birth to her healthy son Gabriel, a thriving 2-and-a-half-year-old today.
Thanks to courageous mothers and the ingenuity of doctors who are using medicine for good, 250 babies have been miraculously saved from the grip of abortion and have been born healthy. And as mentioned, there are 100 more pregnant women currently undergoing the abortion pill reversal technique.
The abortion pill reversal truly gives moms a second chance at choice and their babies a chance at life. (For more from the author of “This Medication Could Reverse a Third of Abortions” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/diet-pills-1328804_960_720-1.jpg635960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-06-12 22:14:202017-06-12 22:18:42This Medication Could Reverse a Third of Abortions
A New Jersey high school scrubbed pro-Trump slogans displayed on clothing students wore for their yearbook photos.
Multiple Wall Township High School students came forward to express outrage after they noticed their clothes had been altered in the photos, reported CNN Monday.
“TRUMP: Make America Great Again” was removed from junior Grant Berardo’s shirt while student Wyatt Dobrovich-Fago had the word “Trump” taken off his vest. Another student claims that a quote she included under her picture from President Donald Trump was taken out.
A New Jersey high school scrubbed pro-Trump slogans displayed on clothing students wore for their yearbook photos.
The superintendent for Wall Township Public Schools plans to investigate the censorship. (Read more from “High School Removes Students’ Pro-Trump Slogans From Pictures” HERE)
“Wonder Woman” is a feminist movie conservatives can embrace.
It’s a fun movie that truly embraces the “girl” in “girl power.” Yes, the heroine Diana is a powerful fighter—and she’s raised on an island of Amazons, all of whom seem to excel at hand-to-hand combat and shooting arrows.
But she’s also a woman who is thrilled when she catches sight of a baby. And while she’s not a mom herself, her genuine sorrow and pity when she realizes the plight of women and children living through World War I makes her as much of a “mama grizzly” as Sarah Palin. In fact, she starts fighting—ignoring the men who urge her to wait—precisely because she is unwilling to tolerate losing the civilians she sees suffering.
Nor does “Wonder Woman” contain any of the anti-men sentiments so many feminists seem to feel a need to embrace. Thanks to being a superhero, Diana Prince is, quite simply, a better fighter than the men she encounters—but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t appreciate their company or their own skills. (And yes, Diana fights—but no other woman in the movie is seen on the battlefield. There’s no attempt here to push a male-female army.)
In fact, in the ultimate crisis of the movie, Diana is roused to action because she’s inspired by a man.
The climactic scene of “Wonder Woman” comes when Diana, who discovers she is actually a goddess, is urged by her brother Ares, another god, to allow war to continue.
Ares, who was the Greek god of war, urges her to see all the evilness and ill will in humanity and pushes her to realize that man doesn’t deserve peace and happiness. Humans, he essentially says, are so evil they merit the discord and horror of war.
Diana, who was not raised among humans, is certainly tempted by Ares’ argument. Her short time in the real world, a saga begun when a spy makes a crash landing in the ocean near the Amazons’ island, has been dispiriting. She’s realized that humans, far from being the wonderful creatures she originally thought they were, are decidedly a mixed bag—and sometimes not good at all.
In a way, Ares’ argument echoes some of the liberal themes we see in our modern conversation. Just consider the concern about humans’ impact on the environment touted regularly in climate change arguments, or the fears about overpopulation. Ares’ pessimism about whether humans contribute anything significantly positive to the earth seems to be a real mindset among some.
Yet Diana ultimately rejects it—because of the spy she met. That spy, Steve Trevor, is Diana’s love interest—but he’s also her introduction to the complicated emotional dynamics of the “good guys.”
Steve is not the starry-eyed idealist Diana is, and when she first is devastated by humans’ decisions, Steve ultimately concedes that she’s right: Some people may not deserve to be rescued or saved. But that doesn’t mean he won’t do it, anyway—and not long after, Steve knowingly and willingly gives up his own life to protect the lives of many others.
And is that sacrifice which makes Diana, even with her new understanding of mankind’s very real flaws, willing to fight Ares—and not settle for a world where humans are pushed into war and destruction.
I had my doubts about “Wonder Woman” going into the movie theater—especially since I’d read that the original Wonder Woman character was inspired in part by the niece of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.
I don’t know about the original comic-book character of the 1940s, but this version is instead someone who embraces life, including cherishing babies. In her horror at the destruction of war and her willingness to sacrifice for the lives of others, this Wonder Woman is very much a woman who shows, even at the cost of great sacrifices, that the lives of men and women are worth saving. (For more from the author of “The Hopeful Feminism of ‘Wonder Woman'” please click HERE)
Testifying in front of the Senate Appropriations’ defense subcommittee last Wednesday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley was characteristically blunt.
When asked, he told the assembled senators that in his opinion, the Army does not have enough soldiers to accomplish the missions it has been assigned.
Acknowledging that Secretary of Defense James Mattis is currently conducting a defense strategy review, Milley gave his assessment that to accomplish the Army’s portion of the defense strategy, the active component size of the Army should be between 540,000 and 550,000, the National Guard between 350,000 and 355,000, and the Army Reserve between 205,000 and 209,000.
In the active component, after enduring four years of debilitating Obama-era force reductions, the active Army now stands at 476,000, the National Guard at 343,000, and the Army Reserve at 199,000.
To regrow the Army to the level recommended by Milley in the active component alone will require an addition of a minimum of 64,000 soldiers, which will be costly, difficult, but in his judgment, necessary.
In making his assessment, Milley and acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer reminded the committee that the U.S. faces a much more dangerous international situation than it did five years ago.
They highlighted the growing capabilities of Russia, characterizing it as “formidable;” an “increasingly dangerous” North Korea; China’s “assertive actions;” and a host of challenges in the Middle East ranging from Iran’s missile threat to the terrorist threat from the Islamic State and its ilk.
Milley’s recommendation on Army force structure generally aligns with statements made by President Donald Trump, who has pledged to regrow the Army back to 540,000.
But to the surprise of many, Trump’s 2018 defense budget request unveiled last month did not include a request for any additional soldiers for the Army. Instead, it seeks to maintain the levels authorized in 2017.
Administration representatives endeavored to explain that the rebuilding of the military’s size and equipment will await the completion of Mattis’ strategy review that is now underway, but which is not expected before the fall of 2017.
The Army’s list of unfunded priorities, submitted at the end of May to meet a new requirement in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, does however include a requirement to increase the strength of the Army, with a request for 10,000 active, 4,000 National Guard, and 3,000 in the Army Reserve.
The Congress acted correctly and courageously in 2017 to begin to regrow the Army by adding 17,000 active-duty soldiers to President Barack Obama’s proposed request for 460,000. There is near consensus that the last four years of strength cuts have reduced the Army’s ability to execute its missions and significantly raised strategic risk to the country.
Now faced with a similar situation for fiscal year 2018, Congress should act again to incrementally increase the size of the Army and authorize the prudent growth requested in the Army’s unfunded requirements list.
Mattis’ strategy review is a necessary assessment, but there is no danger of “over-growing” the Army. The addition of the requested 10,000 soldiers on the Army’s list would bring them to 486,000, still well below what the chief of staff of the Army believes is needed.
The Army today is too small. Milley and Speer related that today soldiers and units are being deployed at a grueling and relentless pace, stressing service members and their families.
Congress should not allow a “pause” in the rebuilding of the Army. It should instead continue to reverse Obama’s ill-advised cuts to the Army. (For more from the author of “With Army Stretched Too Thin, Military Buildup Should Begin Right Now” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_www.Army_.mil_262-1.jpg16322464Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-06-12 22:00:092017-06-12 22:00:09With Army Stretched Too Thin, Military Buildup Should Begin Right Now
