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For the diversified portion of countless investors' portfolios, the key choice has been ETFs vs. mutual funds for years now. For many investors, the choice boils down to this: Exchange traded funds tend to be cheaper than mutual funds. So shouldn't investors simply stick with ETFs? X In fact, shouldn't you dump your mutual funds for ETFs?You might be tempted to switch since many financial advisors and independent investment strategists now focus on using ETFs rather than mutual funds to build clients' portfolios. That's mainly because of cost, flexibility, transparency and tax efficiency:ETFs cost less. Most ETFs have lower...

Frustrated that he was unable to prevent President Trump from holding a campaign rally in Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey took action to bar porta-potties from being set up outside the arena for use by the overflow crowd or those there to demonstrate against Trump. “The provision of portable toilets is the very definition of treason in the US Constitution,” Frey contended. “And I quote…Treason against the United States, shall consist of giving enemies aid and comfort. The whole purpose of these facilities is to give aid and comfort. In fact, they are also known as ‘comfort stations.’ Since Trump and...

Today's Morning Joe offered up another example of what we at NewsBusters label "Sudden Respect," the phenomenon in which a person formerly despised by the liberal media suddenly earns its respect by doing something to liberal liking. Joe Scarborough has been a fierce critic of John Bolton, as illustrated here, here, and here. Scarborough actually excoriated President Trump's appointment of Bolton as his national security adviser as "a fitting coda to conservatism’s failures." But suddenly this morning, Scarborough overflowed with praise for Bolton, saying he would be putting his photo up on his wall next to that of Robert Mueller,...

Officials in Ukraine reportedly opened an investigation into an energy company that employed former Vice President Joe Biden’s son long before President Donald Trump’s July 25 nothing-burger of a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that spurred the Democrats’ haphazard, increasingly Kafkaesque impeachment inquiry. The time element of the revelation, devastating as it is to the 2016-election-nullification push disguised as an impeachment process, has been largely ignored by the mainstream media which is overly preoccupied –as usual— attacking President Trump. The information came last week from investigative reporter John Solomon, who recently was hired as a Fox News...

[Catholic Caucus] Giani Was Fired for Having Executed Francis’ Orders Domenico Giani, the Vatican Gendarmery's ex-commander, is a victim of palace intrigues, Marco Tosatti writes (October 16).The October 1, raid Giani’s gendarmery performed at the top-secret economic section of the Secretary of State was only the opportunity to get rid of him.This section administers more money than the Vatican Bank. According to Tosatti, not even Francis has access to it.The raid was ordered by Francis who has a history of disavowing those who execute his orders, Tosatti writes.He lists Cardinal Pell whom Francis named a Secretary for the Economy in...

Apple became a trillion-dollar company again last week, as rumors of a China trade deal drove the Cupertino tech giant's shares to a new 52-week high. But Apple's under-the-table dealings with China's communist bosses have some of the company's biggest and most public supporters angry as hell. Last Thursday, after Apple banned the HKmap.live app, which allowed Hong Kong protestors to track (and avoid) massed riot police, well-known tech blogger and Apple developer John Gruber wrote, "I still haven’t seen which local laws it violates, other than the unwritten law of pissing off Beijing." He added, "Capitulation is a bad...

Harold Bloom, a giant of literary criticism, died in New York yesterday at the age of 89. The author of dozens of books and editor of hundreds more, Bloom taught at Yale University for five decades, beguiling his students and angering his critics who accused him of racism and sexism for his eurocentric views.Bloom got into trouble for his unabashed praise of Western literary giants like Shakespeare, Kafka, and Chaucer. And, he was unapologetic about it.NPR: Bloom had a photographic memory, and claimed he could recite all of Shakespeare, all of John Milton's "Paradise Lost" and copious swaths of...

FULL TITLE: Bolton wanted White House lawyers alerted to Ukrainian efforts, called it 'drug deal,' witness tells Congress ============================================ Former national security adviser John Bolton was so disturbed by the efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate President Donald Trump’s political opponents that he called it a “drug deal,” former White House official Fiona Hill reportedly told Congress on Monday. Hill, the former top Europe expert in Trump’s White House, testified that Bolton told her he wanted no part of the effort that involved acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a person in the room for Hill’s testimony...

Charles Barkley claims that those who criticize the NBA for not taking a stance on China are hypocrites (and worse). He says people ripped Colin Kaepernick for taking a stance on race relations and the police in America, yet want the NBA and its players to take positions about what happens in a foreign country. Barkley is wide of the mark. First, Kaepernick was ripped not for taking a position on race and the police, but rather for refusing to respect our National Anthem. I haven’t heard anyone say that NBA officials or players should kneel when the Chinese anthem...

Megyn Kelly will make her first appearance on Fox News since leaving in 2017 to speak with Tucker Carlson Wednesday, the primetime host announced Monday evening. Kelly left Fox for NBC News after working at the outlet from 2004-2017. She was anchor of “Megyn Kelly Today” from September 2017 to October 2018 at NBC. This will also be Kelly’s first television interview since she parted ways with NBC in January after making comments about blackface and Halloween.

Jacob Frey, the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, may want to rethink his recent reaction to the backlash he saw after a dust-up with President Donald Trump. Taking to social media, the “lightweight mayor” essentially said Trump supporters made him feel like a woman. “Weird week. My DMs are trash, which gave me a small glimpse into what I assume it must be like for…any woman on the Internet?” Frey tweeted on Friday, Weird week. My DMs are trash, which gave me a small glimpse into what I assume it must be like for…any woman on the Internet?https://t.co/Ie1mWroBvr — Jacob Frey...

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Summary As presidential candidates debate whether illegal immigrants should receive government health benefits, it is important to understand how immigrants (both legal and illegal) currently benefit from Medicaid, the public healthcare program for the poor. Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, this report finds that 42 percent of immigrant-headed families had at least one member who was enrolled in Medicaid during 2016, compared to 26 percent of native-headed families. The average immigrant family created $2,796 in Medicaid costs, compared to $1,983 for the average native family. Immigrants are costlier not because they have any special appetite for welfare,...

Brussels is concerned by the constraints on freedom of expression and demonstration rights under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This is despite the German carmaker arguing the country is a candidate for EU membership. German Green Party politician Reinhard Bütikofer, revealed the decision “caused dismay” within the European Parliament. He said: “In view of the increasingly deteriorating situation of the rule of law, media freedom and democracy under President Erdogan, the decision of the VW Group head is causing dismay.” The location decision is also said be a breach of EU competition rules. While Turkey has committed to complying with...

It's rather a miracle, actually, that Trump was able to negotiate anything with so many domestic enemies out to get him 24/7. It couldn't be more obvious that most Democrats and their media shills would rather Trump not succeed with China (or anything) if that meant his reelection. Forget the prosperity and peace of the nearly two billion citizens of both countries, not to mention the rest of the world, linked inextricably as they are to the two largest economies. Orange Man must go. Trump Derangement Syndrome has turned into a pathology more severe than paranoid schizophrenia. It's as if...

Hunter Biden pointed to his experience on the board of Amtrak to justify his position on the board of a Ukrainian gas giant, despite not having "extensive knowledge" of natural gas or Ukraine. In an interview that aired on Tuesday, he also admitted to ABC News anchor Amy Robach that he most likely would not have been on the board if he were not the son of Joe Biden, then the vice president of the United States. "You didn't have any extensive knowledge about natural gas or Ukraine itself," Robach told Biden in an interview on Good Morning America. "No,...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/dan-wolken/2019/10/14/lebron-james-daryl-morey-china-hong-kong-tweet/3982436002/

The SEC takes football a little bit more seriously than the rest of the country. Let Connor Bruce Croll serve as an example. The 19-year-old Alabama freshman has been arrested, accused of calling in a threat to LSU’s Tiger Stadium during its Saturday night showdown against the Florida Gators, the Tuscaloosa News reports. The nature of the alleged threat hasn’t been disclosed. But if the allegations are true, then this die-hard Crimson Tide fan went to extreme measures to disrupt a game between two of Alabama’s biggest rivals.

The “lazy river” at Louisiana State University is often held up as an example of wasteful non-academic university spending, a frivolity intended to attract students who aren’t the studying type or who simply pay higher tuition. But it’s also siphoning away money from core academic maintenance, as suggested by a CBS News report on how universities use “lavish perks” to entice students. When “CBS This Morning” co-host Tony Dokoupil visited the taxpayer-funded university, he noted some of the library building “was literally falling apart,” plus water in the basement and “rugs from another generation.”

Posted on October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope A Solemn Warning from St. Paul Within his many letters, St. Paul occasionally gives us a glimpse of early Christian hymns and sayings. While he may have been their author, it is more likely that he is quoting or summarizing others. Here are some of the hymns he includes in his letters: Hymn of Christ and Creation (Colossians 1:15-20)Hymn of the Humbled and Exalted Christ (Philippians 2:5-11)Hymn of Redemption in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-12) St. Paul also refers to “sayings” in some of his letters (e.g., Titus 3:8, 1...