The Rev. Al Sharpton is organizing a resistance movement comprised of black civil rights leaders to protest the presidency of Donald Trump.
He showed up Tuesday at Sen. Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing for attorney general. In an interview with The Daily Signal, Sharpton rehashed allegations of racism against the Alabama senator, claiming they were “found to be substantial.”
Here’s what Sharpton had to say—and The Daily Signal’s examination of the facts.
(For more from the author of “Al Sharpton Makes Some Serious Charges Against Jeff Sessions. Here Are the Facts.” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/1080px-Al_Sharpton_by_David_Shankbone.jpg10241080Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-10 20:17:252017-01-10 20:17:25Al Sharpton Makes Some Serious Charges Against Jeff Sessions. Here Are the Facts.
The California Legislature is hiring former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to represent the state in expected fights with the new Trump administration over environmental, immigration, and criminal justice issues.
But based on Holder’s track record, don’t expect to see California racking up legal victories.
Although nobody is questioning the skills of the attorneys at Holder’s firm Covington & Burling, hiring Holder as, essentially, California’s outside counsel seems like an odd choice given that the Justice Department under Holder (and continued under Loretta Lynch) has one of the worst records of any modern presidency before the highest court in the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, losing far more cases than either of the Justice Departments of the prior Bush or Clinton presidencies.
Holder is also the only attorney general in history to be held in contempt by Congress for withholding documents related to Operation Fast and Furious, the most reckless law enforcement operation ever conducted by the Justice Department. That operation has resulted in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, as well as many Mexican citizens.
That also reflects poorly on Holder’s legal judgment.
Some may say that California is just preparing to do what other states like Texas have done in successfully suing the federal government during the Obama administration. But those cases are very different than what California is apparently planning to do.
The states have been suing to stop unconstitutional conduct by the executive branch when President Barack Obama failed in his duty to “faithfully execute” the law or acted unilaterally in ways that improperly changed the law.
The president does not have the authority to change, rewrite, or ignore federal laws he does not like. And federal agencies do not have the power to issue regulations outside the bounds of the statutes authorizing their conduct.
Stopping that type of misbehavior is the opposite of states attempting to obstruct enforcement of federal law or force the federal government to act outside its limited power.
For example, 26 states were successful in obtaining an injunction against Obama’s immigration amnesty plan because no president has the power to alter federal immigration law to provide amnesty and government benefits that have not been authorized by Congress or to decide that he will wholesale not enforce the law.
But California is going to try to prevent the new administration from enforcing federal immigration law despite the fact that the Constitution clearly gives Congress plenary authority over immigration and imposes a duty on the president (and thus the executive branch) to enforce the law.
Similarly, one of the reasons for California’s economic decline and severe budget shortfall problems is that it has been rated as the worst state in the country to do business in for the past 12 years in an annual survey of CEOs by the Chief Executive Network because of its high taxes and burdensome regulations.
As one CEO said in the survey, “California has been running businesses out of the state for years, and in fact, their policies are getting worse.”
Yet the state is hiring Holder to start a crusade against any efforts by the Trump administration to reduce the severe federal regulatory burden that adds to the negative effects on businesses and consumers that California already imposes.
Furthermore, the news that the California Legislature is hiring Holder came only a day after Gov. Jerry Brown nominated Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, to be California’s new state attorney general.
Neither Brown nor Kevin de Leon, the Democratic leader of the state Senate who was quoted in a New York Times article praising Holder’s retention, seemed to realize the complete lack of confidence retaining Holder shows in Becerra’s legal ability to carry out his role as attorney general—which is defending the state of California and its interests in environmental, immigration, and criminal justice issues.
This is particularly humiliating for Becerra given that he had told the Los Angeles Times that he intends to protect California’s “progressive” policies on immigration, Obamacare, energy, and criminal justice.
Becerra has already challenged the federal government, saying that “If you want to take on a forward-leaning state that is prepared to defend its rights and interests, then come at us.”
Looks like he is not going to get that chance, however, even if he is confirmed as the attorney general. Those cases will instead be handled by Holder and an entire team of lawyers at Holder’s private law firm, Covington & Burling, a premier Washington, D.C., law firm not exactly known for its low billing rates.
There is little doubt that California taxpayers, who are already living in a state with high taxes and huge budget problems, are going to get soaked for a lot of legal costs in addition to the price they already pay for the Office of the State Attorney General, which has 4,500 lawyers, investigators, police officers, and other staff.
Apparently, however, the California Legislature doubts their ability to fulfill their duties of defending the state’s interests.
All of this illustrates that the California Legislature has made a poor—but no doubt a very expensive—choice that will hurt the state.
But it is hardly surprising, I suppose, that the state would hire a former attorney general whose Justice Department did everything it could to defend the mountain of new, out-of-control regulations issued by the Obama administration in order to try to keep those economically costly regulations in place.
Nor is it shocking that an attorney general who did everything he could to avoid enforcing federal immigration law during the Obama administration will now try to help California obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law during the Trump administration.
Holder’s goals seem to have stayed the same; it’s just the playing field that has changed. (For more from the author of “California’s Embarrassing Hire of a Failed Attorney General to Take on Trump” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/5244271413_722b8e245c_b.jpg7311024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-05 20:55:162017-01-05 20:55:16California’s Embarrassing Hire of a Failed Attorney General to Take on Trump
Leave it to the media, which spent the latter half of 2016 highlighting how outrageously expensive Obamacare premiums were becoming, to suddenly shift gears in 2017 and stress the health law’s many “pluses.”
Such was the case in a recent interview with Heritage President Jim DeMint, in which CNN anchor Carol Costello suggested that lawmakers would need to preserve the so-called benefits of Obamacare if they repealed it.
In Costello’s words:
For example, this is according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Reserve in Dallas. Preventative care provided by Obamacare … saves money and health care costs overall. In 2015, the cost of health care services increased 0.5 percent. The typical price increase before Obamacare, it was around 3 to 4 percent. Obamacare will lower the deficit by $143 billion over the next 10 years. So, there are pluses to Obamacare. So, how do you keep the pluses and get rid of the minuses?
DeMint shot back that those “facts” could fall “under the category of fake news.” This set Costello off to correct him that the numbers had come from the Congressional Budget Office.
Well, here’s what the Congressional Budget Office actually said about the cost of preventative care in 2009: “Although different types of preventive care have different effects on spending, the evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall.”
For Americans paying premiums, this year’s price increases speak for themselves. According to the Obama administration, on the exchanges, the average increase this year in the benchmark plan premium is 25 percent across the 39 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform. Certainly this cannot be considered a “plus,” even by the law’s most zealous supporters.
It is true that the Congressional Budget Office did originally say that the law would reduce the deficit, but that analysis was always based on questionable assumptions and the double-counting of Medicare savings.
Indeed, in 2014, the Senate Budget Committee went back and used the Congressional Budget Office’s same scoring conventions and found that Obamacare would increase the deficit by $131 billion over the next decade.
Although the details of this year’s repeal bill are not yet known, the Congressional Budget Office’s latest score of an Obamacare repeal—based on the reconciliation bill passed by the last Congress, which repealed the law’s major spending provisions and tax increases—was projected to reduce federal deficits by roughly $516 billion over the 2016-2025 period, accounting for the economic benefits that would result.
But on CNN, Costello wasn’t finished. “So, all those 20 million people enrolled in Obamacare, they’re all going broke and it’s not working for any of them?” she asked. Actually, 20 million is a debatable enrollment figure, given that it is based on survey data that can be off by millions of people.
Using actual insurer enrollment data, which is only available through the end of 2015, there was an increase in coverage of only 14 million Americans from 2013 to 2015, with the vast majority (11.7 million) being pushed into Medicaid coverage.
Moreover, the actual net increase in private coverage during this period was only 2.3 million due to a decline in employment-based coverage, which offset the increase in the individual health insurance market.
Furthermore, Costello forgot about all of the people (over 10 million) who purchase coverage in the individual market and receive no Obamacare subsidy. These people have been getting hammered by premium increases caused by Obamacare every year and have to pay the full cost on their own.
Costello asked, “How do you take care of people much better than they’re taken care of now?”
Considering that many Americans are now facing fewer insurer options, higher insurance deductibles, and higher premiums than prior to Obamacare, the need for real cost relief is immense.
The first step in providing relief is to quickly repeal the law and then do the legislative work that will allow for patient-centered reforms. (For more from the author of “Don’t Let the Media Confuse You: Obamacare Is a Policy Failure” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/obamacare-7.jpg8001200Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-04 20:06:512017-01-04 20:06:51Don’t Let the Media Confuse You: Obamacare Is a Policy Failure
The story of Yvette Castillo is a testament of God’s love and pursuit of his children — even children who, like Yvette, have struggled with drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, abortions, suicidal thoughts and even a pact with the devil.
Lasting Pain and a Pact with the Devil
Yvette was 3 years old when she was molested. As Yvette tells her own story on YouTube, her alcoholic father and “disappointing” mother failed to protect her, and the act of selfishness that took her innocence set her up for a life of self-destruction, Yvette said in her testimony on YouTube.
One day, alone in her bedroom, Yvette invoked satanic power. “I said, ‘Give me the power to hurt everyone, to stop people from messing with me. … I didn’t know that I was making a pact with the devil. I knew who I was talking to, but I didn’t know how serious it was.”
Her life spiraled downhill from there. She began cutting, using drugs, fighting at school and disrespecting teachers. Given multiple opportunities to change, she refused each time. At 14 years old she gave birth to her first child — but being a new parent couldn’t change her. “Not even my child stopped me from doing bad things,” she says. “It was a force that had taken over me, and nobody could stop me.”
She became involved with an abusive boyfriend — and says she felt like she deserved every hit. She had two abortions; then one day her boyfriend kicked her out and she became homeless. Pregnant once again, Yvette continued to use drugs and drink alcohol. She ended up in a crack house where she was raped. “I was trusting the drugs instead of trusting God to make me happy. I thought it was an easier solution, but it wasn’t.”
No Heart
“I no longer had a heart,” she says. “I couldn’t love my kids, I couldn’t love myself. I was so drained.”
A new boyfriend accepted Christ and began attending church. He asked Yvette to go with him. For a while she went, but became disenchanted with “older Christians whose lives she thought didn’t align with Jesus’ teachings.” She left the church and Christianity — saying, “God I’m sorry, but this is not going to work.”
“Little did I know that this was the enemy messing with me. I ran from God for five years.”
Yvette returned to her partying ways, but soon experienced depression, anxiety and panic attacks. She began hearing voices. At one point she heard the devil laughing: “This is where I wanted you. We’re going to destroy you and your children.”
‘You and God are Good’
In this moment of desperation Yvette cried out to God. She returned to church, initially thinking she would just drop off her teenage daughter, who was also struggling. Convinced by friends to stay, Yvette ended up walking to the altar following the service for prayer. Out of the blue, the preacher came up to her and said, “God just wants you to know that you and Him are good. He doesn’t hold anything against you.”
Those words broke through the hardness of her heart and tears rolled down her face. “I felt so much lighter. It was crazy. Something awoke inside of me that God spoke to me and said, ‘I love you.’” She cried out, “I’m sorry God!”
But a real moment of surrender came on a Thursday morning as she walked in a park. After years of struggling with drugs and praying for deliverance, she felt the atmosphere change. “Something spoke to me: ‘Worship God. Lift up your hands and worship God.’ That voice kept coming and got so overwhelming.” She looked around and felt embarrassed, but did it anyway. “As soon as I lifted up my hands, something began to happen. I started to cry and couldn’t stop crying. I started feeling the presence of God, his holiness, his love, his mercy. It was like I wasn’t even at the park. I was in front of His throne. It was God.”
A New Creation
She says God’s forgiveness and mercy were beautiful to her then, that God truly made her into a new creation. “God told me: You are no longer bound to sin, to addiction, to anxiety. I have rescued you from darkness.” She envisioned Jesus descending and wrapping her in His robe. “When I saw that, I was in tears because I knew that God had made me clean,” she said, “It was such a beautiful experience.”
Yvette went home and threw out all of her drugs. She had no desire for them anymore — in fact, they made her nauseated. “Never am I going to put that inside of my body again. I’ve abused the temple of the Holy Spirit. God delivered me. God brought me back even stronger.”
“His grace … I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t deserve His love, I didn’t deserve His grace,” she says. “Even though I walked away from God, God loved me so much that He brought me back again.”
(For more from the author of “God’s Relentless Pursuit: One Woman’s Journey From Darkness to Light” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/woman-570883_960_720.jpg639960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-03 22:45:062017-01-03 22:45:06God’s Relentless Pursuit: One Woman’s Journey From Darkness to Light
When I questioned Interior Secretary Sally Jewell at her confirmation hearing, she promised me President Barack Obama would not designate a national monument unless there was widespread support from the local population.
Unfortunately, Obama ignored that promise and designated a monument in San Juan County yesterday.
But this is no time despair. This is a time to double our efforts and make San Juan County great again.
I pledge to you today that I will do everything I can to work with Congress and the incoming Trump administration to undo this monument designation.
But I am not going to stop there. I am then going to do what I can to repeal the Antiquities Act so that future President Obamas can not do this to rural communities ever again.
But I am not going to stop there. I am then going to continue our fight to return power back to the American people. Everyone suffers when we allow power to accumulate in the hands of the few.
This is not the end. This is just the beginning. We will fight this battle together, and we will win. (For more from the author of “Obama’s Land Grab Will Not Stand. I Will Fight It.” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Mutual_respect_-_Barack_and_Michelle_Obama.jpg13612048Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-01-01 19:03:492017-01-01 19:03:49Obama’s Land Grab Will Not Stand. I Will Fight It.
The 37-year-old from Utah is a Gold’s Gym fitness instructor for those with special needs — like himself. You see, James has Down syndrome.
“One thing I like about this class is it makes my heart work faster,” James told KSL. “I like to do weights and cardio and mix up the workout.”
James’ younger brother Evan described for KSL how James got into fitness, back when he weighed 200 pounds. “His health was compromised,” Evan said. “He’s a short dude, so a little bit of weight gain is a big deal.”
James assists Evan in teaching a class at Gold’s Gym. Those who take part in the class, including James’ “sweetheart” Lisa Wilson, love it.
“They’re all so happy, and they just love being able to come here and be able to improve,” Kyle Scoville of Gold’s Gym said. James has been an employee at the Ogden gym for eight years, working on the maintenance team. He is a stellar employee, having earned the Gold’s Gym’s Legacy Award, given to the “most inspirational employee” out of 700 Gold’s Gyms worldwide.
“A Gold’s Gym could have anywhere from 50 to 200 employees, so multiply that by 700, I mean, that’s huge. He inspires people,” Scoville said. People at the gym frequently come up to James and tell him how awesome he is.
“I think he loves that,” brother Evan said. “I think the Down syndrome thing, people expect less when really he can be as much as he wants to be.”
People certainly do, especially those in the abortion-on-demand crowd. On the 2016 campaign trail, Hillary Clinton stumped in opposition to an Indiana bill that sought to ban the abortion of children with fetal abnormalities (like Down syndrome).
According to a study reported by the Lozier Institute, abortions of prenatal children diagnosed with Down syndrome may have reduced the community by as much as 30 percent. Do these children deserve to die? Is the burden of caring for them too great? Is their quality of life so poor that it is a life not worth living?
That doesn’t seem so, for James Fitzgerald. (For more from the author of “Trying to Get Fit for the New Year? Meet the Man With Down Syndrome Who Will Inspire You” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Free_Weights.jpg6651000Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-12-30 23:23:002016-12-30 23:23:00Trying to Get Fit for the New Year? Meet the Man With Down Syndrome Who Will Inspire You
Her Majesty the Queen, in her annual Christmas address, said she draws strength from ordinary people doing extraordinary things and takes her example from Jesus Christ.
“At Christmas, our attention is drawn to the birth of a baby, some 2,000 years ago,” said Queen Elizabeth.
It was the humblest of beginnings and his parents, Joseph and Mary, did not think they were important. Jesus Christ lived obscurely for most of his life and never traveled far. He was maligned and rejected by many, though he had done no wrong. And yet billions of people now follow His teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them because Christ’s example helps me see the value of doing small things with great love. Whoever does them, and whatever they themselves believe, the message of Christmas reminds us that inspiration is a gift to be given as well as received. And that love begins small but always grows.
While she praised the efforts of the British Olympians and Paralympians, she made it clear that it isn’t just the gifted or famous who can do great things for others. These Olympians inspire others, said the queen, but she recently saw inspiration “of a different kind,” when she met doctors, nurses and EMTs. Heroes, however, do not have to save lives or win medals, but just do extraordinary things for others with great love.
Sometimes we think we cannot do anything of significance, said the Queen, but the cumulative effect of small acts amount to quite a lot.
More than Paralympians or EMTs, the Queen said she is inspired by the life of Jesus Christ and the selfless acts He did many years ago, and through His example, encouraged others to perform “small acts of goodness.”
(For more from the author of “Queen Elizabeth: I Follow Christ’s Example of ‘Doing Small Things With Great Love” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Bible_paper.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-12-27 22:41:072016-12-27 22:41:07Queen Elizabeth: I Follow Christ’s Example of ‘Doing Small Things With Great Love’
Carlos and Calvin Battle grew up in the poorest neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where nearly two-thirds of children are living in poverty. In 2016, only 42 percent of students attending the local public high school graduated.
In an attempt to get her sons a better education, their mother, Pam Battle, enrolled Calvin and Carlos in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
The program provides low-income families vouchers to send their children to private schools, and has shown a promising ability to increase graduation rates. However, many—including teachers unions, the Obama administration, and the education establishment—have worked to shut down the program.
Watch the video to see how the program influenced the Battle family, and to hear why Calvin and Carlos think programs like it could help others succeed not just in school, but in life. (For more from the author of “They Grew up in a Poor Neighborhood. How School Choice Changed These Brothers’ Lives.” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Japanese_high_school_classroom-3.jpg9601280Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-12-26 21:20:342016-12-26 21:20:34They Grew up in a Poor Neighborhood. How School Choice Changed These Brothers’ Lives.
This 7-year-old is putting all of us to shame this Christmas.
Trenton Gardner, hailing from Bicknell, Indiana, is the newest employee at his local McDonald’s. So great is his work ethic, he begged for a job there, despite his young age.
“He asked for a job and they told him he was too young, and he burst into tears because he was so upset,” General Manager Rhonda Butler told WTHI. But Trenton persisted. He kept coming back and asking for a job until he was hired as an “honorary employee.”
Now Trenton cleans tables for just $1. And he loves it. “You see, when I wipe tables and customers are at the tables, I get paid for it,” he said, “It’s the coolest job I’ve ever done.”
His manager loves it too.
“Just to see someone so young have that kind of ethic, and just want to help and be a part of something, and he’s like ‘McDonald’s is the best place ever!’,” Butler said, “So it’s good to know that hey, this could be one of my future employees.”
But the coolest part of this story is Trenton didn’t want a job for himself. He’s saving the money he makes to buy Christmas presidents for less fortunate children in his community. His family has even donated his own toys to the Toys For Tots charity.
“When Toys For Tots bins started coming out, he wanted to know what it was,” Trenton’s mother explained. “Me and his dad explained to him that not every kid is fortunate enough to get toys like he did for Christmas, and that made him very upset and very sad.”
“We’ve always raised Trenton that not everything in life is handed to you and you have to work hard for what you get,” she said, “So low and behold that led him to asking his Grandpa Terry if he could take him to McDonald’s to get a job.”
Wow. What a great kid. His parents should be proud. (For more from the author of “This 7-Year-Old Got a Job at Mcdonald’s. The Reason Why Will Inspire You” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/New_McDonalds_restaurant_in_Mount_Pleasant_Iowa-3.jpg7441024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-12-22 23:49:022016-12-24 23:12:45This 7-Year-Old Got a Job at Mcdonald’s. The Reason Why Will Inspire You
You did it. You all did it. Everyone who subscribed to the Louder with Crowder Mug Club during the Crowder Christmas Waterboarding Telethon made Ben Shapiro’s Christmas dreams come true.
CRTV’s Steven Crowder got waterboarded by Tim Kennedy. And it was awesome.
So what’s it like getting waterboarded? Crowder says he felt “like [he] was gonna die.”
Here's the thing. Waterboarding absolutely sucks. I FELT like I was gonna die. But because I KNEW I wouldn't, I could handle it. Brilliant. https://t.co/jmTI2P4O1I
If you want to see the rest of the telethon, in which Michelle Malkin, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klavan, and more hang out with Crowder, look no further:
Poor NotGayJared gets tased and had to eat two live crickets. Dude deserves a raise. (For more from the author of “Steven Crowder Got Waterboarded Live. And It Was Awesome!” please click HERE)
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