Illinois Review

Maine governor sued on behalf of 2000 health care workers over mandated vaccine policy

AUGUSTA, ME – Liberty Counsel has filed the reply in support of a preliminary injunction on behalf of more than 2,000 health care workers against Governor Janet Mills, health officials of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and five of Maine’s largest hospital systems.

Gov. Janet Mills’ executive order purports to override both Title VII employment law and the First Amendment Free Exercise clause. Her discriminatory order mandates the shots and states health care workers cannot raise religious exemptions claims. The hearing is set for Monday, September 20 in the U.S. District Court.

On August 12, 2021, Governor Mills announced that Maine will require health care workers to accept or receive one of the three, currently available COVID-19 shots to remain employed in the healthcare profession. This edict would force numerous doctors, nurses, medical professionals, and other health care workers to choose between the exercise of their sincerely held religious beliefs and their employment.

Di Leo: Fire-Roasted Tomato Soup with Basement Joe

Illinois Review is proud to be sharing samples of IR columnist John F. Di Leo's popular soup series - one he's been writing since January 2021 - when President Joe Biden was first sworn into office. John's new book is available on Amazon.com. 

By John F. Di Leo - 

Introduction: Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe in which a confused old man - Joe Buckstop - stumbles into the presidency, and spends his entire term in his basement. Each evening, an aide walks downstairs and serves him his bowl of soup, and engages him in conversation about current events, in a losing effort to keep him hale. Tonight's episode is an excerpt from the ongoing series, "Evening Soup with Basement Joe," a fictional chronicle of the events of 2021, available in paperback or eBook from Amazon.

"Good evening, sir. I trust you're ready for a bowl of soup?"

"Wait! Don't come in!"

"Oh, sorry, sir, okay, I'll wait... hmm... I'll put the tray down here on the table for a minute..."

"Yeah! That's it! I'm on fire!"

"Beg your pardon, sir? Are you okay, sir?"

"Huh? Yeah, never mind, never mind... just working here.... gimme a minute ... YEAH! Take THAT! Man... a little closer... a little closer... mmm... pick up some health... mmm... some gems... that'll help... YEAH! That's it!"

Woke Companies Need to Wake up on ESG Scores

Prevailing ‘ethics’ models ignore vital energy, environmental, labor and human rights issues.

Growing numbers of companies, banks, universities and investment houses are adopting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards and disclosure rules. They’re pressured to do so by activists, legislators and regulators. Many expect to get rich via taxpayer-subsidized “renewable” energy projects.
 
Nearly all hope to “greenwash” their reputations, by claiming they’ll “make the world a better place,” by reducing fossil fuel emissions, and thus planetary temperatures and extreme weather events.
 
They recently got a boost from the US House of Representatives. It voted 215-214 party-line to pass a bill supporting Securities and Exchange Commission plans to impose new ESG rules requiring publicly traded companies to disclose “climate risks” allegedly caused by oil, gas and coal production and use. Some think the SEC might now give greater scrutiny to ESG climate claims and misconduct, but that seems unlikely.
 
Regardless, woke organizations need to wake up to climate, renewable energy and ESG realities.

More HERE
 

Lawmakers Demand Answers on State Nursing Home Deaths

A number of state legislators and U.S. Senate Republicans are demanding answers to nursing home deaths after COVID-19 lockdowns and other preventative measures under blue state governors.

After the U.S. Department of Justice dropped investigations on the nursing home deaths in Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and fellow Senate Republicans sent a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, demanding congressional oversight.

“The decision not to pursue potential civil rights violations in states with high profile Democrat governors raises serious concerns that the Biden administration is acting based on politics, not the law,” the senators wrote in the letter.

Meanwhile, investigations continue at the state level, with many Americans wondering how accountable governors can be once they leave office.

More HERE

The Left Controls "Acceptable" Vernacular

“The terms, they are a-changin’” – S.T. Karnick

In this day and age, thoughtful college students are besieged by the intellectual left.

I suppose it begins when a supposedly woke professor, quite like his or her counterpart government functionary or mainstream media talking head, chooses to avoid punishment.

More HERE

Thorner: Time for open, honest dialogue about treating coronavirus - Part 1

By Nancy Thorner - 

"Yep, you're COVID positive. Go home and stay home until you're negative. Call 911 if you can't breathe." 

That's about the extent of what those stricken with COVID over the past 18 months have been told on how to treat the virus symptoms. Little, if any, other help is offered to keep one from ending up in the hospital. It's a dilemma that has baffled anyone observing the pandemic. 

But the question is "Why?" And why is the media slapping down any possible treatments that some find that work? 

In a report published by Liberty Counsel on Sept. 14, 2021, Ivermectin: Scare Tactics Unfounded, the report begins as follows: "The media is attempting to paint a picture in our minds that ivermectin is a 'horse wormer' and isn’t for human consumption. There are in fact two different forms of ivermectin. One is for livestock and the other is for human beings. As for safety, over four billion doses have been given to human patients since 1998."

“In 2015, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, in its only award for treatments of infectious diseases for six decades prior, honored the discovery of ivermectin, a multifaceted drug deployed against some of the world’s most devastating tropical diseases. Since it came on the market, it has been used off-label for other diseases and conditions such as Systemic Lupus and Papulopustular Rosacea. In 2018, a patent was filed to treat certain autoimmune disorders.”

 

Said Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Stacer: “The FDA, CDC, Fauci and Biden are deceiving the American people in support of Big Pharma. We need open and honest dialogue, not propaganda sponsored and directed by Big Pharma. The censorship and misinformation must end. ivermectin has been proven time and time again to be a viable option in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.”

Don’t Be Evil

A Google employee program claims that America is a “system of white supremacy” and that all Americans are “raised to be racist.” Christopher F. Rufo writes:

Technology giant Google has launched an “antiracism” initiative that presents speakers and materials claiming that America is a “system of white supremacy” and that all Americans are “raised to be racist.”

I have obtained a trove of whistleblower documents from inside Google that reveal the company’s extensive racial-reeducation program, based on the core tenets of critical race theory—including “intersectionality,” “white privilege,” and “systemic racism.” In a foundational training module called “Allyship in Action,” Google’s head of systemic allyship Randy Reyes and a team of consultants from The Ladipo Group train employees to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, and then rank themselves on a hierarchy of “power [and] privilege.” The trainers then instruct the employees to “manage [their] reactions to privilege”—which are likely to include feelings of “embarrassment, shame, fear, [and] anger”—through “body movement,” “deep breathing,” “accessing [their] ‘happy place,’” and “cry[ing].”

Democrats' New Plan to Restrict Your Gun Rights

President Joe Biden’s State Department announced new sanctions banning the importation of ammunition and firearms from Russia, a decision that comes in the midst of a large ammunition shortage that has forced U.S. retailers to depend on foreign suppliers to meet demand. Since 2019, ammunition imports have increased by about 225 percent.

President Biden and his elitist allies in woke banks and investment firms know that severe restrictions on Second Amendment rights aren’t possible given the current composition of the Supreme Court, thanks in large part to President Trump. So they are turning to other tactics instead, most of which aren’t being covered by the press, to get the job done. It’s working.

More HERE

Federal Court issues restraining order in New York medical workers' religious exemption case

NEW YORK - Chicago-based Thomas More Society, representing a group of New York medical workers, won a temporary restraining order against the new governor of New York on behalf of the non-profit legal group's clients Tuesday.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York granted a Temporary Restraining Order against the governor of New York and her administration at the request of a group of New York medical workers in Dr. A, et al. v. Kathy Hochul, et al. on September 14, 2021.

The seventeen health professionals, including doctors and nurses, are suing the state of New York for violating their Title VII and Constitutional rights with the Covid-19 vaccination mandate while disallowing religious exemptions.

Center Square: JCAR unanimously demands rule from ISBE over Pritzker’s mask mandate

(The Center Square) – Four public schools and nine private schools in Illinois have not complied with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mask mandate.

The public schools are on probation. The private schools’ recognition has been stripped.

A body of state lawmakers says the Illinois State Board of Education may be overstepping its authority by revoking recognition of schools, public and private, because of masking policies.

“There is a concern that policy outside of rule may exist and [Joint Committee on Administrative Rules] encourages ISBE to place all guidance and policy in rule,” the clerk for JCAR read during Tuesday hearing.

READ the rest of this important story on The Center Square - with a video of the JCAR hearing. 

Pritzker signs into law Green Energy bill

CHICAGO - A press release from Governor Pritzker’s office offers details of SB 2408, passed by the Illinois General Assembly earlier this week, which he signed into law Wednesday:  

Ensures Equity is Prioritized in Just Transition to Green Economy

CHICAGO – Delivering on principles previously laid out, Governor JB Pritzker signed landmark legislation into law that puts the state on a path toward 100% clean energy, invests in training a diverse workforce for the jobs of the future, institutes key ratepayer and residential customer protections, and prioritizes meaningful ethics and transparency reforms. Illinois is the first state in the Midwest to enact legislation to combat the climate crisis and build an economy for the future.

“We can’t outrun or hide from climate change – not to the north, where the Boundary Waters burn; not to the south, where Ida swallows lives and livelihoods in the blink of an eye,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “There is no time to lose. Thanks to the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, Illinois is taking action in the fight to stop and even reverse the damage that’s been done to our climate. As of today, Illinois is a force for good, for an environmental future we can be proud of. With economic growth and jobs woven into its fabric, this new law is the most significant step Illinois has taken in a generation toward a reliable, renewable, affordable and clean energy future in a generation.”

American Systems Mirror China's

Corporate Social Responsibility, ESG Scores, and China’s latest foray into totalitarianism via its recently introduced Social Credit System share significant commonality. Each system engenders the same erosion of individual liberty via the propagation of a singular “morality” unilaterally determined by an authoritarian overseer. That the governance structure surrounding the former is made up of economic elites operating from a relatively free society, while the latter is made up of high-ranking governmental officials in a significantly less free society, is immaterial.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined by Investopedia as “a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable -- to itself, its stakeholders, and the public… to engage in CSR means that, in the ordinary course of business, a company is operating in ways that enhance society and the environment.”

Environmental, Social, and Governance Scores (ESG) are defined as “a set of standards for a company’s operations that socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments.” ESG scores are most commonly used to assess investment risk; a high ESG score is theoretically supposed to indicate a low risk level. However, the score consists of a set of metrics that are highly subjective, and arbitrarily determined by a small group of elites rather than any sort of democratic process.

More HERE

The Case for Electric Vehicles Loses Its Charge

By Kenneth Green - 

I’m not a climate skeptic. As an environmental scientist/engineer by training, I think climate change is real. But it’s like every other environmental issue: a more-or-less routine engineering challenge, rather than a world-altering disaster justifying the fever-dreams of the radical greens.

Electric Vehicle Skeptic

I am, however, an electric vehicle skeptic. Or, more broadly, I’m skeptical that electric vehicles, adopted either voluntarily or via government mandates (increasingly the norm), will do much of anything to address the risk of climate change or to significantly reduce any other environmental problem that one might point out.

I’m solidly convinced that shifting away from the internal combustion of hydrocarbons to battery-stored electricity (generated from pretty much any source) will likely make environmental problems worse, not better.

Along the way, the push to force EVs onto the public will come with a bunch of social injustices that will only compound the environmental challenges society faces.

More HERE

Transforming America in 17 Days

Democrats rush to pass their cradle-to-grave entitlement agenda with little debate or scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board writes:

Congress is back in session, and don’t blink or you may miss the plan to transform America in 17 days. Never mind Sen. Joe Manchin’s “strategic pause.” Democratic leaders are moving to ram into law their $3.5 trillion plan for cradle-to-grave entitlements with the narrowest of majorities before Americans figure out what they’re doing. As Nancy Pelosi famously said about ObamaCare, Congress will pass the bill so people can find out what’s in it.

GOP Senators Rezin and Curran vote "yes" on energy bill

UPDATE: Yesterday, we mistakenly overlooked that not only Republican State Senator Sue Rezin, but also GOP State Senator John Curran of Lemont voted for HB 2408.

SPRINGFIELD - Needing 36 votes to pass the energy bill in the Illinois Senate, 35 36 Democrats voted "yes," but two one Republicans senators also voted "Yes": State Senator John Curran of Lemont, IL and State Senator Sue Rezin of Morris, Illinois ... 

Here's Senator Rezin's statement on her SB 2408 vote: 

Springfield, IL – On Sept. 13, Senate lawmakers returned to Springfield to vote on a comprehensive energy package that preserves the state’s nuclear fleet. State Senator Sue Rezin (R-Morris) issued the following statement after Senate Bill 2408 passed with a 37 to 17 vote:

“For over two years, we have spent countless hours fighting to preserve our state’s entire nuclear fleet. On the day that the Byron Generating Station was scheduled for decommission, we finally passed a bill that makes that a reality.

“While I don’t agree with everything that is included in Senate Bill 2408, it does keep our nuclear plants online, saves thousands of Illinois jobs, and puts our state on a realistic path to 100 percent clean, carbon-free energy.

“Without this bill, any hope of bringing a carbon-free energy future to Illinois by 2050 will be all but impossible and thousands of good-paying jobs would be lost throughout our state.”

Governor Pritzker says he will sign the measure into law. 

Pritzker says "science has prevailed" with passage of green energy bill

SPRINGFIELD — Governor JB Pritzker released the following statement on the Senate passage of the comprehensive energy package, Senate Bill 2408, that he says "puts consumers and the climate first", while the Illinois Chamber of Commerce says it will bring the largest electric rate hike in the state's history: 

“Today, with the Senate passage of SB 2408, the State of Illinois is making history by setting aggressive standards for a 100 percent clean energy future. After years of debate and discussion, science has prevailed, and we are charting a new future that works to mitigate the impacts of climate change here in Illinois.

“SB 2408 puts the state on a path toward 100% clean energy and invests in training a diverse workforce for the jobs of the future. Illinois will become the best state in the nation to manufacture and drive an electric vehicle, and equity will be prioritized in every new program created. SB2408 puts consumers and climate at the forefront, prioritizing meaningful ethics and transparency reforms, and institutes key ratepayer and residential customer protections.

IL Chamber of Commerce blasts energy proposal as "largest electricity rate hike in Illinois history"

UPDATE: SB 2408 passed the Illinois Senate Monday, and Governor Pritzker promised to sign it into law. 

SPRINGFIELD - The concern about the skyrocketing cost of energy the Democrats' "green new deal" will put into effect could devastate the state's already struggling economy, says the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. 

The group just issued the following dire warning to Illinois customers: 

As the Illinois Senate returns to Springfield today to take up a comprehensive energy proposal, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce urges legislators to oppose this flawed proposal that will dramatically increase costs and call reliability into question. Senate Bill 2408, introduced by House Democrats and passed just last week, includes extensive language that needs significant reworking. In addition, there are a number of provisions which the Chamber believes are extraordinarily troublesome. Those include:

Di Leo: The Global Supply Chain and the Bottleneck Archipelago

By John F. Di Leo - 

"Sorry, ma'am, we've been out for months. They're on order from Asia."

 

"Yes, sir, I know we're out of them. They've been shipped from Asia, sir; they're on their way... but it's taking forever.  No, sir, I don't know why."

 

Most retailers have had to make the above statement dozens of times each day for the past six to nine months.  Sadder still is that even American-made goods are also unavailable, because so many American-made products are dependent on components or raw materials from Asia.

 

Why?  Why on earth does international shipping take so long nowadays?

Thorner: Updating Biden's Vaccine Mandate

By Nancy Thorner - 

Taking a page right out of tyrant's playbook, President Joe Biden last week declared himself a medical dictator over America, claiming he alone has absolute power to bypass states' rights, nullify state governors and force the American people to take experimental "vaccines." 

As part of his dictatorial decree, Biden declared that he would remove governors from power if they don't comply with his vaccine mandates. In my opinion, his decree is an act of treason and war against the United States of America.

On Thursday, September 9, 2021, Biden declared that his patience with the 80 million Americans that haven’t gotten the COVID vaccine is wearing “thin,” whereupon Biden announced his most unconstitutional act of federal overreach to date. He is seeking to mandate large employers to vaccinate their employees, even though the federal government has no such authority to issue this mandate.

Left Doesn’t Just Want to Censor You on Social Media. It Also Wants to Close Your Bank Accounts.

(Photo: Pablo Monsalve/VIEWpress/Getty Images)

It is becoming increasingly clear that political leaders on the left and Big Tech are joining arms to not just de-platform dissident voices from social media, but to bar them from the digital space entirely, including from having the ability to make and receive payments online.

In the latest example, Chase Bank reportedly planned to close the credit card account of former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Sept. 18, stating that “continuing the relationship creates possible reputational risk to our company.” While as of Aug. 31, a Chase spokesperson said that they had “made an error and apologized for any inconvenience caused,” the initial gesture can’t be ignored.

This comes just a couple months after Wells Fargo made the “business decision” to close 2020 Republican Delaware Senate candidate Lauren Witzke’s account. Two of the more prominent digital payment services, PayPal and Stripe, have also become active cancel culture participants.

PayPal has admitted to closing accounts flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2019, now, PayPal has announced a partnership with the left-leaning Anti-Defamation League to focus on “further uncovering and disrupting the financial pipelines that support extremist and hate movements.”

In their joint statement, neither PayPal nor the Anti-Defamation League explicitly define what they mean by "extremist" and "hate movements," but it would be naïve to think that mainstream conservatives will escape the crosshairs of this new partnership.

More HERE