Trump Just Made an Embarrassing Mistake in Church That Has Many Shaking Their Heads [+video]

/4 Comments/in , /by

While attending a church service in Iowa Sunday, Donald Trump momentarily mistook the silver communion plate for an offering plate and started to dig into his pockets for cash.

The candidate, who was attending the First Christian Church – Orchard Campus in Council Bluffs with his wife Melania, quickly realized his mistake and took the communion element instead . . .

Trump gave an offering to the church (which is part of the Four Square denomination) several minutes later, when the appropriate plates were passed, the Associated Press reported.

“As Trump was leaving, one of the church pastors put his hand on Trump’s shoulder and offered a prayer, ‘That Jesus would guide his decisions and that only Christ could guide his decisions,’ the pastor later said. Trump gladly accepted, bowing his head,” according to the AP . . .

Last summer, Trump spoke about partaking in Holy Communion. “When I drink my little wine — which is about the only wine I drink — and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed,” he said, according to CNN. “I think in terms of ‘Let’s go on and let’s make it right.’”

On Saturday, Trump released a new video with him holding up a Bible, which he said was given to him by his mother. “In fact, it’s her writing, right here,” he said opening to a page near the front of the Holy book. “She wrote the name and the address, and it’s just very special to me.” (Read more from “Trump Just Made an Embarrassing Mistake in Church That Has Many Shaking Their Heads” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

What’s That Word? Marijuana May Affect Verbal Memory

/3 Comments/in , /by

Years of smoking pot may have an effect on a person’s verbal memory, which is the ability to remember certain words, a new study finds.

For every five years of marijuana use, researchers found that, on average, one out of two people remembered one word fewer from a list of 15 words, according to the study.

Long-term use was not, however, significantly associated with decreases in other measures of cognitive function, such as processing speed or executive function, the researchers wrote in the study, published today (Feb. 1) in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Executive function includes skills such as planning and focusing.

To examine the effects of long-term marijuana use, the researchers studied participants who were enrolled in the long-running Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. The CARDIA study included more than 5,000 adults who initially enrolled in the study between ages 18 and 30. During a series of follow-up visits, the participants reported if they had used marijuana in the previous month. At the 25-year follow-up, the participants were given a series of cognitive tests that looked at verbal memory, processing speed and executive function.

While long-term marijuana use was associated with worse performance in all three tests, after the researchers adjusted for other factors (such as use of other substances and depression), they found that only the association between long-term use and verbal memory was statistically significant (meaning the associations between marijuana use and both processing speed and executive function may have been due to chance). (Read more from “What’s That Word? Marijuana May Affect Verbal Memory” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

‘This Was All Planned’: More Unbelievable Revelations Made About Hillary, State Department

/24 Comments/in , /by

By Paul Sperry. The State Department is lying when it says it didn’t know until it was too late that Hillary Clinton was improperly using personal e-mails and a private server to conduct official business — because it never set up an agency e-mail address for her in the first place, the department’s former top watchdog says.

“This was all planned in advance” to skirt rules governing federal records management, said Howard J. Krongard, who served as the agency’s inspector general from 2005 to 2008.

The Harvard-educated lawyer points out that, from Day One, Clinton was never assigned and never used a state.gov e-mail address like previous secretaries.

“That’s a change in the standard. It tells me that this was premeditated. And this eliminates claims by the State Department that they were unaware of her private e-mail server until later,” Krongard said in an exclusive interview. “How else was she supposed to do business without e-mail?” (Read more from “‘This Was All Planned’: More Terrifying Revelations Made About Hillary, State Department” HERE)

_______________________________

State Won’t Release 18 Emails Between Clinton and Obama That Were on Her Private Server—but Says They Are Not Classified

By CNSNews.com Staff. State Department Spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing on Friday afternoon that the State Department will not be releasing 18 emails exchanged between President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state that have been found on Clinton’s private email server.

Kirby, however, said that these emails between the president and secretary of state “have not been determined to be classified.”

The government emails that were on Clinton’s private server have been requested in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.

In the same briefing, Kirby said that the State Department also would not be releasing seven email chains including 37 pages because these emails contain what he called “a category of top secret information.” (Read more from “State Won’t Release 18 Emails Between Clinton and Obama That Were on Her Private Server—but Says They Are Not Classified” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Something Major Was Just Revealed About Ted Cruz’s Iowa Mailers

/18 Comments/in , /by

By Ryan Lizza. Ted Cruz’s Presidential campaign prides itself on being data-centric and on integrating insights from political science into its tactics. In 2008, academics at Yale published an influential paper showing that one of the most effective ways to get voters to the polls was “social pressure.” Researchers found that registered voters in a 2006 primary election in Michigan voted at a higher rate if they received mailers indicating that their participation in the election would be publicized. The mailer that had the biggest impact included information about the two previous elections and whether the recipient and his or her neighbors participated or not. “We intend to mail an updated chart,” the mailer warned. “You and your neighbors will all know who voted and who did not” . . .

After looking at several mailers posted online, I was more curious about how the Cruz campaign came up with its scores. On all the mailers I saw, every voter listed had only one of three possible scores: fifty-five per cent, sixty-five per cent, or seventy-five per cent, which translate to F, D, and C grades, respectively. Iowans take voting pretty seriously. Why was it that nobody had a higher grade?

In Iowa, although voter-registration information is free and available to the public, voter history is not. That information is maintained by the secretary of state, who licenses it to campaigns, super PACs, polling firms, and any other entity that might want it. So was the Cruz campaign accurately portraying the voter histories of Iowans? Or did it simply make up the numbers?

It seems to have made them up. Dave Peterson, a political scientist at Iowa State University who is well-acquainted with the research on “social pressure” turnout techniques, received a mailer last week. The Cruz campaign pegged his voting percentage at fifty-five per cent, which seems to be the most common score that the campaign gives out. (All of the neighbors listed on Peterson’s mailer also received a score of fifty-five per cent.) (Read more from “Something Major Was Just Revealed About Ted Cruz’s Iowa Mailers” HERE)

__________________________________

Donald Trump: ‘Ted Cruz Is a Total Liar’

By Jeremy Diamond. Donald Trump on Sunday repeatedly slammed his chief presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz as a “total liar” as the Texas senator and his allies have claimed in the final stretch to the Iowa caucuses that Trump favors government-run, universal health care.

Cruz, meanwhile, pressed forward Sunday with the line of attack, proclaiming: “A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for Obamacare.”

“Look, Ted Cruz is a total liar. I am so against Obamacare. I’ve been saying it for two years in my speeches, I’m going to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I don’t even know where he gets this.”

The back-and-forth comes as Trump has pulled ahead of Cruz in the final days of campaigning in Iowa, where Cruz had been surging until Trump began lobbing attacks at Cruz, most notably raising the issue of Cruz’s Canadian birthplace. (Read more from “Donald Trump: ‘Ted Cruz Is a Total Liar'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump, Cruz Trade Shots on Eve of Iowa Caucus

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Fox News. Leading Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz traded shots Sunday on the eve of the Iowa Caucus, hoping to persuade the remaining undecided voters in the first-in-the-nation voting.

Both candidates hammered on familiar points, with Trump again questioning Cruz’s citizenship and financial records. Cruz, meanwhile, asked whether Trump is indeed a conservative and suggested that his bluster covers his weakness on issues.

“He’s the height of chutzpah,” Cruz told “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s astonishing. He’s not honest.”

The Texas senator trails the front-running Trump by 5 percentage points, 28-to-23, with the caucus on Monday, according to a Des Moines (Iowa) Register poll released Saturday . . .

With Cruz and Trump essentially battling for the social conservative vote to win Iowa, Cruz told Fox News that he’s “thrilled” to be in second place, despite having led Trump in Iowa just a few weeks earlier. (Read more from “Trump, Cruz Trade Shots on Eve of Iowa Caucus” HERE)

___________________________________

Cruz: ‘A Vote for Marco Rubio Is a Vote for Amnesty’

By Curt Mills. Republican presidential candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ratcheted up his rhetoric Sunday against Sen. Marco Rubio, claiming a vote for his primary rival is tantamount to support for amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

“A vote for Marco is a vote for amnesty,” Cruz said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Cruz in a tight race with the Florida senator and frontrunner Donald Trump for the conservative vote and ultimately the party nomination also said “This race is a simple choice. A vote for Marco Rubio is a vote for amnesty. And a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for ObamaCare.The reason conservatives are uniting behind our campaign is because I am the only candidate in the race who has been a consistent conservative.”

Cruz has hit Rubio for months on the issue, saying he sided with Senate Democrats on comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Rubio originally supported the bill, then essentially distanced himself from the measure when conservatives did not support it. (Read more from “Cruz: ‘A Vote for Marco Rubio Is a Vote for Amnesty'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio Are Money Race Winners

/0 Comments/in , /by

For all the complaints from Democrats about the amount of big money in politics, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have raised a staggering amount of cash.

Clinton’s campaign raised $112 million in 2015, and top Democratic billionaire donor George Soros recently gave $6 million to her super PAC, according to new figures filed with the Federal Election Commission Sunday night. Sanders, for his part, raised roughly $73 million last year, but as his insurgent candidacy gains momentum, he continues to bring in cash. The Vermont senator raised more than $20 million in January, his campaign said Sunday.

On the Republican side, front-runner Donald Trump has lent his campaign more than $12 million through the end of 2015. Yet while he consistently states he is not raising money, his campaign recorded donations worth over $2 million in the fourth quarter, according to the filing. Trump boasted at the end of the year he would begin spending $2 million per week — that spending is not included in Sunday’s report.

Trump can easily self-fund his campaign, but GOP contenders Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz still must hit the donor circuit. Rubio did well in the fourth quarter, raising $14 million — twice that of his Florida rival, Jeb Bush. His super PAC also won major donations from conservative hedge fund billionaires Paul Singer and Ken Griffin. And Cruz ended the year in a strong position. He raised $20.5 million in the last three months of 2015, ending with $18.7 million. (Read more from “Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio Are Money Race Winners” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

‘Eyewash’: How the CIA Deceives Its Own Workforce About Operations

/2 Comments/in , /by

Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.”

Agency veterans described the tactic as an infrequent but important security measure, a means of protecting vital secrets by inserting fake communications into routine cable traffic while using separate channels to convey accurate information to cleared recipients.

But others cited a significant potential for abuse. Beyond the internal distrust implied by the practice, officials said there is no clear mechanism for labeling eyewash cables or distinguishing them from legitimate records being examined by the CIA’s inspector general, turned over to Congress or declassified for historians.

Senate investigators uncovered apparent cases of eyewashing as part of a multi-year probe of the CIA’s interrogation program, according to officials who said that the Senate Intelligence Committee found glaring inconsistencies in CIA communications about classified operations, including drone strikes.

At least two eyewashing cases are cited in the classified version of the committee’s final report, according to officials who have reviewed the document. In one instance, leaders at CIA headquarters sent a cable to the agency’s station in Pakistan saying operators there were not authorized to pursue a potentially lethal operation against the alleged al-Qaeda operative known as Abu Zubaida . But a second set of instructions sent to a smaller circle of recipients told them to disregard the other message and that the mission could proceed. (Read more from “‘Eyewash’: How the CIA Deceives Its Own Workforce About Operations” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Secret Fed Docs Show Obama Misled Congress, Public During Debt Limit Crises

/6 Comments/in , /by

Federal Reserve Bank of New York officials secretly conducted real-time exercises during the 2011 and 2013 debt-limit crisis that demonstrated the federal government could function during a temporary shutdown by prioritizing spending, even as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew publicly claimed many times that such efforts were “unworkable,” according to a new report by the House Financial Services Committee obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The staff report, to be released Tuesday, charges that Lew and other Obama administration officials deliberately misled Congress and the public during the federal budget and debt limit showdowns in both years. The committee will convene a public hearing on the report Feb. 2.

The report also states that the Obama administration crafted actual contingency plans to pay for Social Security and veterans benefits, as well as principal and interest on the national debt if the government was temporarily unable to borrow more money. The Committee concludes that over the last two years the Treasury Department has “obstructed” congressional efforts to get to the bottom of the administration’s real-time policy during the two showdowns.

The Constitution stipulates that only Congress can determine how much money the federal government can borrow. Presidents thus cannot unilaterally spend beyond congressional debt ceiling limits set. The committee — chaired by Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas — charged that during both confrontations, the Obama administration held the country’s creditworthiness “hostage” by claiming default was the only possibility if the debit ceiling was not raised. (Read more from “Secret Fed Docs Show Obama Misled Congress, Public During Debt Limit Crises” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

A Poll Just Revealed How America Really Feels About Trump – He’s Not Going to Like This

/10 Comments/in , /by

Most political and media commentators have at this point installed Donald Trump as the GOP front-runner on the eve of the first actual voting set to begin on Monday in Iowa. But this narrative tends to obscure the fact that Trump is the most unpopular candidate of either party when the entire U.S. population is taken into account — and that he has a higher unfavorable rating than any nominated candidate from either of the two major parties going back to the 1992 election when we began to track favorability using the current format.

At this point (two-week average through Jan. 27), 33% of Americans view Trump favorably and 60% unfavorably. It’s that 60% unfavorable figure that I can focus on here.

Hillary Clinton currently has a 52% unfavorable rating among all Americans, while Jeb Bush is at 45%, Chris Christie 38%, Ted Cruz 37%, Marco Rubio 33%, Bernie Sanders 31% and Ben Carson 30%. Trump’s 60% is clearly well above all of these. Putting his favorable and unfavorable ratings together yields a net favorable of -27 for Trump, far above the -10 for Clinton and for Bush, the next lowest among the major candidates.

I wanted to see how Trump’s unfavorable played out in the context of previous elections, so I went back to look at the unfavorable ratings of the major-party candidates from 1992 through the current election. The bottom line is that Trump now has a higher unfavorable rating than any candidate at any time during all of these previous election cycles, and that conclusion takes into account the fact that unfavorable ratings tend to rise in the heat of a general election campaign as the barbs, negative ads and heightened partisanship are taken to their highest levels. Gallup routinely reports favorable ratings based on national adults, but some of the favorable ratings in the final months of an election year that I discuss below are based on registered voters. (Read more from “A Poll Just Revealed How America Really Feels About Trump – He’s Not Going to Like This” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The GOP’s Condemnation of ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Is Surprisingly Awkward in Iowa

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Robert Samuels. Illegal immigration makes Bill Hartzell seethe. The memories are fresh from the afternoon in October 2013 when he saw his wife’s 93-year-old grandmother bloodied and unconscious, after being beaten and raped in her house by a 19-year-old Mexican who crossed the border and never left.

His outrage is driving Hartzell to vote in Monday’s Iowa presidential caucuses for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who has vowed to battle the “sanctuary cities” that refuse to help the feds deport illegal immigrants. Cruz has said that he would block these localities from receiving federal funds for law enforcement — an idea that makes perfect sense to Hartzell.

Except for when it applies to the place where he lives.

Pottawattamie County’s sheriff adopted a sanctuary policy in 2014. Hartzell knows the sheriff. He trusts the sheriff. And he is uncomfortable with how his county, which includes Council Bluffs, would lose at least a million dollars should a President Cruz carry out his threat . . .

With illegal immigration roiling the GOP electorate, the party’s presidential candidates have spent months blasting sanctuary cities as bastions of liberal naiv­ete and bleeding-heartedness gone awry. No place symbolized this mind-set better, they have said, than San Francisco, where last year, 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle was allegedly murdered by an illegal Mexican migrant. (Read more from “The GOP’s Condemnation of ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Is Surprisingly Awkward in Iowa” HERE)

__________________________________

Iowa Town Embodies Immigrant Divide

By Thomas Fitzgerald. At the 3 p.m. shift change Friday, compact cars rimmed with road salt and dirt rolled up to the JBS Swift meatpacking plant, ranchera and salsa music trickling from a few rolled-down windows.

Hundreds of mostly brown-skinned men walked double-time into the plant, part of the wave of Latino immigrants who, over the last two decades, have transformed this city from a traditional farming community to what could be the most diverse municipality in overwhelmingly white Iowa . . .

In the week leading to Iowa’s presidential caucuses, seven candidates from both parties descended on Marshalltown, about an hour northeast of Des Moines. After services at New Hope Christian Church last Sunday, the pastor and his wife handed out tip sheets listing each event and urged congregants to go.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a Republican, held a town hall in the church auditorium that day. Later in the afternoon, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, briefly the front-runner in the Iowa GOP race, spoke at the Best Western Regency Inn. In quick succession last week came Republicans: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and former high-tech CEO Carly Fiorina. (Read more from “Iowa Town Embodies Immigrant Divide” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.