Illinois Review

Salvi releases new "funny if not so true" ad criticizing Duckworth's 87,000 new IRS agents

Kathy Salvi, Republican candidate for US Senate, challenges Democrat incumbent Tammy Duckworth's recent approval of 87,000 new IRS agents in a "funny if not so true" ad ... 

New Founding Builds a Commercial and Cultural Network to Fight Wokeness

Woke corporations are increasingly embracing the left’s political agenda and taking aim at the values we as conservatives cherish.

So what can we do about it?

New Founding is fighting back against woke corporations.

Since When Does Freedom From Discrimination Require Destroying Religious Freedom?

A recent op-ed in The Washington Post laid out how the left is attempting to dismantle what Congress once unanimously recognized as “undergird[ing] the very origin and existence of the United States”: religious freedom.

Specifically, Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, argues in the op-ed that the constitutional right to exercise religious faith always must yield to the civil right against discrimination.

Ironically, the ACLU was part of the Coalition for the Free Exercise of Religion, which helped develop and promote the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

More HERE

After 5 Red States Passed ‘Voter Suppression’ Bills, Voting Turnout Boomed

A left-leaning New York think tank sounded a familiar warning about Arizona’s “voter suppression bills” being “dangerously close to becoming law.” 

The Brennan Center for Justice added in a press release that Arizona was “taking center stage in the relent­less effort to rein in voter parti­cip­a­tion in the name of ‘elec­tion secur­ity.’” Pending bills, the think tank claimed, were “aimed at making voting by mail harder.”

That was in April 2021, before Arizona passed several reform measures that state legislators said they crafted to ensure secure and honest elections.

Little more than a year later, in August 2022, Arizona notched a record for high turnout in a primary election as 1.45 million voters participated, or 35.1% of those registered, surpassing the previous record in a 2000 primary by 7,000 ballots. 

Voter turnout in Arizona for 2018, the last primary in a non-presidential election year, was 1.2 million voters, or 33.4%. 

More HERE

Biden Energy Policies: Incoherent, Incompetent, Intolerable

They raise energy prices, hurt living standards, and impair our future as a law-abiding nation.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in West Virginia v. EPA is truly a landmark ruling. It decisively rejected the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempt to use vague, “previously little-used” language in the Clean Air Act to shutter America’s remaining coal-fired power plants and force the nation to switch to pseudo-renewable energy, in the name of ending the “manmade climate crisis.”

But the decision goes much further. The Court made it clear that federal agencies may not impose “major federal actions,” decide “major questions” or implement “transformative expansions” of their regulatory authority without specific statutory authority clearly conferred by Congress. 

In other words, federal agencies do not have the power or right to take unilateral actions that effectively transform or undermine major sections of America’s energy, economic or agricultural systems, its industries or its living standards, unless Congress has given them explicit authority to do so. 

More HERE

5G: Unfortunately, We Need Biden to Take the US-China Internet War Very Seriously

China is overtaking the United States - the traditional mastermind of international standards in information and communications technology - in setting the standards for 5G.

More and more of the Internet is becoming less and less wired.  Faster and faster wireless Internet obviously makes connectivity much easier, cheaper - and MUCH better.

As you undoubtedly know, we are currently mass-expanding the Fifth Generation (5G) wireless networks.  Which is much discussed - for some very good reasons:

“Fifth Generation (5G) cellular technology infrastructure is going to rocket wireless into the dominant best way to connect to the Web.

“The download and upload speeds on the new wireless network are going to approach 1 Gigabit per second.  This is approaching 20 times faster than today’s current speeds.”

Not having to dig quite so many trenches and lay quite so much cable - especially in a country as huge as the US - will definitely make things much easier, cheaper and better. 

The increasingly wireless Web is changing many important global dynamics.  Well, for people who actually pay attention to things like reality.  

Government, of course, loathes reality.

More HERE

Prepare to ‘Feel the Bern,’ Again, in 2024

While it seems like the 2024 presidential election is a world away, in reality, it will be here before you know it. Soon after the 2022 mid-term elections are finished, you can bet your bottom dollar that candidates on both sides of the political aisle will begin testing the waters for a presidential run.

So, where do things stand in terms of leading candidates for the 2024 presidential nomination for the Democratic Party? Well, according to a recent USA Today/IPSOS poll, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is polling ahead of the incumbent president. Sanders, a self-avowed socialist, has a 46 percent favorability rating, three points higher than President Biden. For good measure, former President Donald Trump also has a 46 percent favorability rating among potential GOP candidates.

So, could the third time be the charm for the socialist from Vermont? As of now, it certainly seems so. In 20 months on the job, Biden has been an unmitigated disaster. Of course, Americans who lean to the right think Biden’s foreign and domestic policy record has been abysmal. However, many Democratic voters think Biden has not been nearly progressive enough.

More HERE

Welcome to 2-Tiered America

Last week, this column focused on the eye-opening recent revelations from Missouri and Louisiana’s lawsuit, still ongoing, that exposes the depth and breadth of the collusion between the Biden regime and the oligarchs of Big Tech. Those lightly redacted documents, made public via a Twitter thread from Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, shine a spotlight on the extent to which numerous governmental agencies and high-ranking apparatchiks within the Biden administration worked hand-in-glove with Facebook and Twitter to censor and suppress dissident COVID-19 “misinformation” that threatened to destabilize the ruling class’s ill-gotten perch atop America’s social hierarchy.

The result of Schmitt’s revelation is to clarify the exigency of the present moment insofar as the collapse of any purported distinction between the “public” sector and the “private” sector is concerned. Though now crystallized for a mass audience, many on the right have intuited that urgency for a while now, going back at least as far as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ seminal concurrence last April in Biden v. Knight First Amendment Institute, in which Thomas suggested the legal framework of “common carrier” regulation as one possible remedy for our Big Tech woes.

More HERE

BlackRock Issues Feeble Response to ESG Critics

Over the past few months, more than a dozen attorneys general from throughout the nation have raised legitimate concerns about BlackRock’s crony capitalist investment scheme known as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics.

In fact, on August 4, 19 attorneys general signed a coalition letter stating, “BlackRock appears to use the hard-earned money of our states’ citizens to circumvent the best possible return on investment, as well as their vote. BlackRock’s past public commitments indicate that it has used citizens’ assets to pressure companies to comply with international agreements such as the Paris Agreement that force the phase-out of fossil fuels, increase energy prices, drive inflation, and weaken the national security of the United States. These agreements have never been ratified by the United States Senate. The Senators elected by the citizens of this country determine which international agreements have the force of law, not BlackRock.”

More HERE

Government, Big Tech Ran ‘Censorship Enterprise:’ State Attorneys General

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt says documents he and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry received as a result of a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) show there is a vast “Censorship Enterprise” between a multitude of federal agencies and social media platforms.

“We have already received a number of documents that clearly prove that the federal government has an incestuous relationship with social media companies and clearly coordinate to censor freedom of speech, but we’re not done,” said Schmidt in a news release on September 1.

The DOJ is withholding documents from discovery, says Schmidt.

“The Department of Justice is cowering behind executive privilege and has refused to turn over communications between the highest-ranking Biden Administration officials and social media companies,” said Schmidt. “That’s why, yesterday, we asked the Court to compel the Department of Justice to produce those records. We’re just getting started—stay tuned.”

More HERE

Exposed: Team Biden and Big Tech Worked Together to Censor Conservatives

New evidence: The past few weeks of whistleblowers and court discovery have revealed evidence of the Biden administration’s deliberate weaponization of the power of Big Tech. Among the revelations:

• More than 45 administration officials communicated with social media platforms about “misinformation.”
• Facebook employees took direct orders from government officials on which accounts to act against.
• Twitter de-platformed a reporter after White House officials explicitly requested his removal.

It will get worse: After President Biden declared war on 70 million “MAGA Republicans,” Americans can be certain that this censorship campaign will only grow.

Our take: “Only the force of law will be enough to restore integrity to political life online,” writes Jake Denton, a research associate at Heritage’s Tech Policy Center. Read more here.

Electric Cars Are Not “Zero-Emission Vehicles”

While praising California’s decision to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, Governor Gavin Newsom declared that this will require “100% of new car sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles” like “electric cars.” In reality, electric cars emit substantial amounts of pollutants and may be more harmful to the environment than conventional cars.

More HERE

ESG and Corporate Totalitarianism

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores are a Trojan horse for left-wing totalitarianism; yet, the American right was largely caught off guard by its sudden rise. The world's largest private capital firms, government institutions, and NGOs have discovered, seemingly in concert, the need to remake the global economy in the image of this arbitrary left-wing metric, which poses a serious threat to ordered liberty the world over.

Tellingly, the proponents of ESG value quixotic goals such as carbon dioxide emissions reduction above sensible environmental protections and conservation. ESG’s “social” goals are even more nebulous, as social justice itself is entirely subjective. However, the point of ESG is not actually to improve the environment or protect social justice. In reality, the point is to establish control over the many by the few.

What the radical Left could not achieve by force with the typical levers of government power, it is now poised to accomplish with nominally public-private enterprise partnerships. This new strategy has confused the conservative and libertarian response. If such heavy-handedness were attached to the arm of the state, free-market organizations and policymakers would mobilize quickly against it. Coming primarily from the private sector, however, has forestalled an effective response to the ESG agenda.

More HERE

According to newly released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans in 2021 once again spent more on average on taxes than they did on food, clothing and health care combined.

During 2021, according to Table R-1 in the BLS’ Consumer Expenditure Survey, American “consumer units” spent an average of $15,495.28 on food, clothing and health care combined, while paying an average of $16,729.73 in total taxes to federal, state and local governments.

More HERE

Why 'Educated' Liberal Women Are the Real Threat to Our Republic

When last Thursday night Joe Biden told America, "Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans" threaten "the very foundations of our republic," he missed the mark.  The real threat comes from the unlikeliest of suspects: educated liberal females, or "ELFs" for short.

These are the women who will proudly vote Democrat regardless of soaring inflation, rising gas prices, rampant crime in the streets, the unchecked flood of illegal aliens, and oppressive COVID policies that have irreparably damaged all children, the poor most notably.

If NBC's polling from April is to be believed, this is the only demographic cohort more favorably inclined to Democrats in 2022 than in 2018.  Unable to sell these women on his accomplishments — there are none — Biden last week appealed to their paranoia.  What made this pitch strategic is his target audience's proven susceptibility to fear-based propaganda.

At the core of the ELFs' vulnerability is their ignorance, if not at the top, certainly among the masses.  This should not surprise.  Everywhere and always, men have performed better on political knowledge tests than women (just as conservatives routinely outperform liberals and independents).  Researchers exploring this particular gender gap long ago gave up on questioning whether this was true and have focused instead on why.

Avoiding the obvious answer — namely, that men and women, being different, have different interests — researchers have spent millions of your tax dollars on the improbable and irrelevant.  Among the more popular hypotheses is that women are more risk-averse than men and thus, on tests, are less likely to "guess under conditions of uncertainty."  For some reason, it is more acceptable to stereotype women as "risk-averse" than as "politics-adverse."  In fact, women, writ large, are likely both.

More HERE

Di Leo: Hidden Meanings in proposed Amendment 1

Opponents' arguments against "Workers Rights" proposal aren't easy to find

By John F Di Leo -

Launch YouTube, Facebook, or a search engine in Illinois these days - or worse, make the mistake of turning on the television - and you will likely be deluged with television commercials about the so-called "Workers' Rights Amendment," which will appear on our ballot across Illinois next month.

Depending on the commercial, this amendment could be presented as being about anything from patients in a hospital being viewed as dollar bills, or dangers in a workplace, or a threat to a worker's right to unionize.

Talk about a proposed law being “all things to all people!”

In truth, this state constitutional amendment (referred to as Amendment 1) is indeed many things: on the one hand, it’s a big lie… In another way, it’s completely unnecessary… But worst of all, in yet another way, it is a Trojan horse for almost anything the activists or courts might want it to be.

Thorner: Does Illinois' 'Safe-T Act' Represent "Fairness and Equity?"

Illinois was a topic on the popular Fox News' Gutfeld show Friday night

By Nancy Thorner - 

The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, known as the SAFE-T Act, passed with the backing of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus in the early hours of Jan. 13, 2021.

The measure passed on razor-thin majorities in the lame duck session of 2021, which led to a brief effort by Republican super minorities to repeal the act that ultimately fell flat.

The bill was signed by Governor Pritzker and supported by Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. 

The broad-ranging measure abolishes cash bail beginning in January 1, 2023, reforms police training, certification, and use-of-force standards, expands detainee rights, and requires body cameras at all departments by 2025.

Proponents say the reforms are a step toward making the justice system equitable and fair for Black, Latino, and minority communities who have been disproportionately harmed by it.

How much will it cost to return to Illinois property taxpayers' $50 tax refund check?

Pritzkers' mega dollar home in Chicago

 

From Illinois Review:  Governor Pritzker's office announced that Illinois taxpayers could be getting a one-time check for $50 as a temporary offset to Illinois' high tax rates. Our question at Illinois Review is "Just how much in man hours, postage and accounting will it take to send qualified taxpayers this $50 check?" 

 

Here's the Governor's office press release verbatim ... Your opinion is welcomed in the comment section: 

CHICAGO - Income and property tax rebates will begin being sent to an estimated six million qualified taxpayers beginning today, September 12. The rebates are the result of Gov. Pritzker’s Illinois Family Relief Plan, which also provided grocery, gas, and school supply tax savings in addition to the direct payments.

 

The rebate payments, which will take at least eight weeks to be issued in total, will be sent automatically to Illinois residents who filed 2021 state income taxes and claimed a property tax credit. Those who have not filed can still access the rebates after completing additional filing.

Chicago Mayor Sends Bussed Migrants Out to the Suburbs

Democrats love open borders —until they have to deal with the consequences.

According to a report from Fox News, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot quickly redirected migrants arriving from the border to suburbs surrounding the Windy City. In other words: “you take em.”

From Fox News:

The migrants are staying at a Hampton Inn in Burr Ridge and a Holiday Inn in Countryside, according to reporting by WGN-TV. An estimated 300 migrants have been bused from Texas to Chicago in the past two weeks.  

While Chicago is a sanctuary city and Cook County is a sanctuary county, the migrants at the Burr Ridge Hampton Inn are in DuPage County. The county’s sanctuary status is unclear. However, Burr Ridge Republican Mayor Garry Grasso previously said he would work to secure the border and “defund sanctuary cities,” according to WGN-TV.

“I’m the mayor of the village, I should have been told. I’m as frustrated as Mayor Lightfoot was in her not being told,” Mayor Gary Grasso said. “I’m frustrated but we’re dealing with the situation and I’m going to keep my residents and my businesses apprised.”

More HERE

WATCH: Chicago Man Tries to Kidnap 5-Year-Old Girl From Mom After First Asking to Buy Her

In yet another example that the depth of depravity and evil that lives among us continues to reach new lows, a man in Chicago tried to buy a 5-year-old girl from her mother on a Chicago street in broad daylight. When the mother refused, the deranged man attempted to snatch the little girl away — by her hair.

More HERE

Op-Ed: Why I support Kathy Salvi for US Senate

Photo by Martha Ruppert

By Martha Ruppert of Hillsboro, IL - 

I am voting for Kathy Salvi because I have a big problem. I know I could rave on and on about nonsensical Democrat policies, failed programs, despicable behavior, crippling deficit, fear mongering and . . . you get the idea.

My big problem: I intensely dislike liars. I guess I am just tired of being lied to. I don’t like to be deceived. I am voting for Kathy Salvi because I CAN TRUST HER. She doesn’t need this job. She will make personal sacrifices to serve as our senator. She understands business. She loves her husband, children and grandchildren, and she loves her country. Kathy Salvi wants to serve the people of Illinois and I want someone I can trust to represent me--and my children and grandchildren.

So very many of us want change—for the better, please. (Not the changes we’ve endured since the 2020 election). I want my senators and members of Congress to be brave—to stand against policies and plans that hurt Americans. I want them to disagree with their own party, if necessary. I am convinced Kathy will do this. I know what I want from her—but can she count on any support from me? Am I willing to be brave on a much smaller scale?

I finally learned that I must do more than just vote—and complain. I must support candidates by talking to friends, campaigning locally, and by giving and raising money.

These small acts show support and encourage good people, like Kathy Salvi, who are working hard to be able to work for us. Thousands of us, donating small, affordable amounts, can fund campaigns of honesty!

Those who don’t know Kathy Salvi might think she is weak, but she is strong. Looks can be deceiving. And that’s just the kind of deception I like.    

Martha Ruppert is a Hillsboro mom, grandmother and volunteer for the Kathy Salvi for US Senate campaign 

Poll Asks: Does America Have A Two-Tier Justice System?

Americans fervently believe in equal justice for all, not just under law but within public institutions such as the media as well, polls in recent years have shown. And yet, one recent poll leads to a disturbing conclusion: That America is increasingly turning into a two-tiered system of justice based on politics and beliefs.

The Golden/TIPP Poll (TIPP is also Issues & Insights' polling partner) asked 1,310 voters online this summer the following question: "Generally speaking, do you agree or disagree with the statement: "There is a two-tiered system of justice in America depending on your political affiliation and ideology?"

The results of the poll, which had a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points, were lopsided: 63% agreed either "strongly" (28%) or "somewhat" (35%) that America is moving toward a two-tiered system of justice. Just 17% said they either disagreed "somewhat" (11%) or "strongly" (6%). (Numbers may not add up perfectly due to rounding of the data).

More HERE

Where Does Illinois Rank in Education Freedom?

The Heritage Foundation released its 2022 Education Freedom Report Card. Gillian Richards writes:

Florida ranks highest among the states in education freedom, while the District of Columbia trails behind all of them, according to a new “report card” from The Heritage Foundation.

The leading think tank’s 2022 Education Freedom Report Card, released Thursday, measures all 50 states and the District based on four broad categories: school choice, transparency, regulatory freedom, and spending. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)

Beckman: Mikhail Gorbachev RIP

By Hank Beckman - 

Mikhail Gorbachev died last week at 91 years of age, marking the official end of the Cold War era, one of the most consequential periods in world history and one in which the two superpowers and their allies at times came close to a devastating war.

The “Gorbasms” began almost immediately.

The late Rush Limbaugh popularized the term on his radio program to describe the fawning coverage given to Gorbachev by Western media, designed to make us believe that he alone was responsible for the ultimate implosion of the Soviet empire and the promise of a conflict-free world.

Most media outlets in the 1980s and 90s went to great lengths to avoid making any sort of judgement on the relative merits of the socialist and capitalist systems, unwilling to even consider that any credit should go to the efforts of the United States and our allies.

Emails: Government/Big Tech Colluded to Block Health Information

America First Legal Foundation (AFL) has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General to investigate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) collusion with big tech social media companies, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter, to covertly and illegally push COVID-19 propaganda.

The request was based on information disclosed in response to an AFL Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request after the White House admitted the Biden Administration colluded with its corporate allies to censor what it deemed COVID-19 “misinformation” and “disinformation,” on July 15, 2021.

The administration initially refused to respond to the FOIA request, triggering a lawsuit by AFL demanding the production of the public records. The CDC complied on July 17, 2021, turning over 286 pages of records.

“These records are damning,” stated AFL in a press release on August 3, 2022. “They prove that the Biden Administration and Big Tech knowingly and intentionally combined to mislead the public about the origin of COVID-19 information on social media; censor social media users who dissented from the government’s approved talking points; and conceal the government’s role in writing and publishing masking and vaccination talking points.”

More HERE

Policies Pushing Electric Vehicles Show Why Few People Want One

From the end of Covid restrictions to Elon Musk’s Twitter bid to the Dobbs ruling, startling developments threaten progressives’ grip on power. Bjorn Lomborg writes:

We constantly hear that electric cars are the future—cleaner, cheaper and better. But if they’re so good, why does California need to ban gasoline-powered cars? Why does the world spend $30 billion a year subsidizing electric ones?

In reality, electric cars are only sometimes and somewhat better than the alternatives, they’re often much costlier, and they aren’t necessarily all that much cleaner. Over its lifetime, an electric car does emit less CO2 than a gasoline car, but the difference can range considerably depending on how the electricity is generated. Making batteries for electric cars also requires a massive amount of energy, mostly from burning coal in China. Add it all up and the International Energy Agency estimates that an electric car emits a little less than half as much CO2 as a gasoline-powered one.

Planned Parenthood Isn’t On The Way Out, It’s Transitioning To Gender-Bending

Following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, states are passing stronger pro-life protections, and abortion businesses are shutting down. But it is worth noting that America’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood, is not going anywhere. Consider this: According to NPR, since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in June, no Planned Parenthood locations have closed. Their evolving business still relates to sex, but not always in ways you might think. 

Planned Parenthood has found something besides abortion to sell. Few people realize that, nationally, “Planned Parenthood is the second largest provider of hormone therapy” for “transgender and gender non-conforming patients,” it reports.

Even in states that have banned all or most abortions, Planned Parenthood affiliates are fighting to stay open under the banner of “gender-affirming care.” A term unheard of by most people as recently as a few months ago, “gender-affirming care” has become the umbrella term for addressing gender dysphoria, especially in children and young teens, through surgery, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones. It is better thought of as profitable, appearance-altering, experimental protocols, with very little oversight or regulation, though sometimes it is funded by taxpayers.

Activists push flawed studies to claim that if a youth with gender dysphoria is not fully supported in “transitioning,” he or she is at increased risk of suicide.

More HERE

Di Leo: How China is Handling Covid Nowadays

By John F. Di Leo - 

What do you do when there's an earthquake?

Well, the safety rules all depend on where you are.

If you're in a car, stop the car and stay inside.  If you're outside, find an open spot, far from power lines.  If you're inside, and your building is damaged, get outside right away, in case it collapses on you...

Unless you're in China, under lockdown, that is.  Then the safety rules don't apply.

Case in point: The politburo in Beijing dictated last week that Chengdu go into lockdown — maybe just for a few days, they said.  we'll see how it goes.

Then, on Monday, there was an earthquake in the area, estimated at 6.6 on the Richter scale. 

If you were in Chengdu, like many of the other 32 cities currently under various lockdowns, you couldn't leave your apartment building.  Doors are locked — in some cases, maybe even welded shut, just to be sure.

More, Here:

 

 

Out of Control Government and Isaiah’s Job

Those who value the free and prosperous society must continue to articulate the case for the limited government, free market system, even if it seems sometimes that few are listening.

It is very difficult to be a classical liberal or libertarian and not experience bouts of disappointment, frustration, and outright pessimism. The world around us seems to be going to hell in a hand basket. Government continues to grow and, apparently, is out of control.

For example, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its semiannual Budget and Economic Outlook, 2022-2032 in late May 2022. The CBO expects that when the federal government’s current fiscal year ends on September 30, 2022, Uncle Sam will have spent $5.874 trillion. Tax revenues from all sources will be $4.890 trillion, leaving a budget deficit for the fiscal year of $1.036 trillion. Total national debt held by the public will come in at $24.173 trillion, while the gross national debt (which includes Treasury securities held by other government agencies) will be more than $30.621 trillion.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to equal $24.694 trillion in 2022. So, this means that federal spending will 23.8 percent of GDP, while taxes will absorb 19.6 percent of GDP. The more than $1 trillion deficit will amount to 4.2 percent of GDP.

More HERE

Most US 'Green Energy' Subsidies - Go to Communist China

Almost all of the foreign portions of the fake “domestic” solar industry - happen in Communist China.

One of the very many inflation-increasing aspects of the woefully misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)” - is the approximately $100 billion thrown at allegedly “green energy.”

Let us set aside the fact that government spending $100 billion on anything - is antithetical to reducing inflation. 

Let us also set aside the fact that the entirety of the “green energy” industry - isn’t actually an industry.  It’s a giant welfare state. 

More HERE

Labor Market Rollercoaster

The labor market’s performance refutes a central element of Modern Monetary Theory’s license for government spending.

Unemployment fell to 3.5 percent in July, the same historically low level as February 2020.  The labor market remains strong despite high inflation and a seeming impending recession.  The labor market’s performance refutes a central element of Modern Monetary Theory’s (MMT) license for government spending.

The unemployment rate excludes persons not seeking jobs, so economists also consider the labor force participation rate and the employment to population percentage.  A smaller proportion of Americans work now than in 2020.  Labor force participation fell from 63.4 to 62.1 percent and the employment rate fell from 61.2 to 60.0 percent.

More HERE

 

U.S. Schools Get Bad Marx

My father was a liberal Democrat. He worshipped FDR and didn’t care much for the GOP. His parents were staunch Republicans, and the political discussions I remember from the 1950s were always entertaining – if not a bit confusing – to this eight-year-old. Importantly, while my dad was a liberal, he was a virulent anti-Communist, who saw them as evil as the Nazis he went to war to eradicate.

The reasons my father hated the Communists are neatly spelled out in The Naked Communist, a book written in 1958 by political theorist W. Cleon Skousen, who eerily predicted our current state of affairs. In a section titled “Current Communist Goals,” he elucidates the plan in 45 steps, explaining that “many loyal Americans are working for these same objectives because they are not aware that these objectives are designed to destroy us.”

Skousen is especially insightful on the cultural and educational strife we are now experiencing. For example, in Step 20, he writes, “Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.”

More HERE

de Rugy: Taking From the Working Class and Giving to the Laptop Class

By Veronique de Rugy - 

If you had any doubts that those in power have dropped the pretense of fighting for the working class, you can dispense with them after the Biden administration’s latest concessions to the laptop class. From student loan forgiveness to subsidies for people who drive pricey electric cars and profitable semiconductor company CEOs, this administration is working hard to shower its friends with handouts paid for by hardworking lower-wage Americans.

We learned of the most outrageous handout of them all, of course, when Biden announced that he will — unilaterally, mind you, and for no apparent reason that I can see — extend the pause on student loan payments until the end of the year and forgive up to $10,000 for those persons making less than $125,000 a year. This generosity with other people’s money extends up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.

As David Stockman, a former director of the Congressional Office of Management and Budget, reported recently, “Only 37% of Americans have a 4-year college degree, only 13% have graduate degrees and just 3% have a PhD or similar professional degree. Yet a full 56% of student loan debt is held by people who went to grad school and 20% is owed by the tiny 3% sliver with PhDs.”

More HERE

Harsanyi: Who Are You Calling a Fascist, Mr. President?

By David Harsanyi - 

President Joe Biden accused voters of the opposition party of turning to “semi-fascism.” This is probably the first time in American history a president has openly attacked the opposing party’s constituents in this way.

Then again, Biden, who once alleged that the chaste Mitt Romney was harboring a desire to bring back chattel slavery, is prone to stupid hyperbole. And it’s true that most people who throw around the word “fascist” fail to do so with much precision. These days, the word “democracy,” like “fascism,” has lost all meaning. According to Democrats, asking someone to show ID before voting is an attack on “democracy,” but so is the Supreme Court’s handing back power to voters on the abortion issue. When you have no limiting principles of governance, anything that inhibits your exertion of power is seen as anti-“democracy.” If students have loans to be paid, “forgive” them. If you can’t pass a bill, the executive branch should do it by fiat. If the court stops it, pack it. Power is only to be limited when the opposition holds it.

More HERE

Case of Polio Paralysis Raises Alarm

Health departments are debating how to respond to the news this summer of someone in Rockland County, New York who became paralyzed from a polio infection.

The news has raised alarm among some public health officials because the last transmission of polio was in 1979, according to an article in NPR on August 24, 2022. The article reports that few people with polio show symptoms and the fact that one person became paralyzed may suggest a more significant problem of people actively transmitting the virus.

“Clearly a confirmed case of polio in the United States is major news,” Irina Gelman, the. Commissioner of Health, in nearby Orange County, told NPR.

More HERE

 

Biden’s White House Colluded With Big Tech To Gag Covid Dissenters Like Alex Berenson

As far as the managerial class was concerned, Twitter’s permanent ban of journalist and author Alex Berenson in August 2021 was entirely justified. Indeed, most of the reaction to his ban consisted of mockery of the lawsuit he subsequently filed to force Twitter to reinstate him.

Since his ban, Berenson has not only been vindicated, but news surfaced that his silencing was the direct result of a request from the White House.

Documents Berenson obtained during the discovery phase of the lawsuit he filed against Twitter illustrate how the government actively works to shut down free speech on issues of public interest. Berenson’s criticisms of the Covid vaccines, which he claimed were ineffective and possibly harmful, came exactly at the time when the federal government, as well as many states and cities, were using every available coercive means at their disposal to force Americans to take them. As such, his speech was deemed extremist and needed to be suppressed to save lives during the pandemic. 

More HERE

Manufacturing group applauds 44 state lawmakers' pro-industry votes

 

SCHAUMBURG IL —The Technology and Manufacturing Association (TMA) based in Schaumburg, Illinois, is presenting its 2022 Champion of Small and Mid-Size Manufacturers Award to 44 state lawmakers that demonstrated their support for TMA members’ best interests during the 102nd General Assembly.

“In today’s difficult business climate, these legislators have been steadfast in their support of small and mid-size manufacturers,” said Dennis LaComb, TMA’s Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff. “They know manufacturing is the backbone of Illinois economy, and their votes in Springfield recognize that fact. We very much appreciate their efforts.”

The legislators receiving the Champion Award scored 70% or higher on the TMA’s annual Legislative Scorecard. The Scorecard highlights ten votes of significance to the TMA in the 102nd General Assembly. TMA’s position on these ten issues were designed to protect or advance small and mid-size manufacturing in Illinois. TMA represents 800 companies in Chicagoland and throughout the state.

Di Leo: Governor Newsom Speaks from his Heart

By John F. Di Leo - 

In California this week, there is a heat wave.

There have been heat waves before; it’s not unusual for the area. But the energy grid is no longer up to it; so California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, took to the airwaves, to make an impassioned plea.

“Everyone has to do their part to help,” Governor Newsom declares, in his new public service commercial.  He then goes on to list his expectations for the taxpayers of California.

The state already told people not to charge their electric cars. Now, Governor Sunshine says, you should wake up early and run your air conditioning early in the morning, to pre-cool your home. You should kick up the air conditioning to 78 or higher - yes, 78 - from 4:00 pm onward. You should close your blinds to keep the evil sun out (I always thought people moved to California so they could see the sun!). And one more thing: don’t use your large appliances. Right. That's what we said.  Just don't.

Weyermuller: On hand when IL GOP Lieutenant Governor candidate returns to Chicago roots

Stephanie Trussell, GOP candidate for Lieutenant Governor with Darren Bailey

 

By Mark Weyermuller - 

Last week, Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Stephanie Trussell running with Darren Bailey for governor returned to where she grew up - near the corner of Washington and South Pulaski in Chicago's Garfield Park neighborhood on the city's west side.  

 

"I'm running with state Senator Darren Bailey to RESTORE the great state of Illinois," Trussell, now living in Lisle Illinois, told reporters.

 

"Before I get started with my remarks, I want you to take a good look around you to see what is going on in our neighborhoods. We have boarded up businesses. There is trash on the streets and graffiti everywhere," she said.

 

"This is not the Chicago of my childhood.  Many of you know I grew up on the west side of Chicago. I proudly refer to it as the 'Best side' of Chicago," she said."I was 15 when I got my second job at a grocery store that was owned by my best friend's dad. Mr. Martin’s family owned a chain of Pick n’ Pay grocery stores. I worked at the location on 15th and Springfield. My other best friend’s dad Mr. Sullivan, owned a grocery store on 15th and Kostner."

There were a lot of locally owned businesses on the west side back then, she said.

New Jersey Standards: Sex Education for Second Graders

New Jersey standards in force this fall require sexual health and gender identity curricula for second graders.

A New Jersey public school district’s health curriculum forces second graders to learn about genitals and gender identity, according to the district’s guidelines obtained by a concerned parent organization.

Mahwah Township Public Schools proposed its new health curriculum, which includes teaching second-graders “how gender-role stereotypes may limit behavior,” according to the guidelines obtained by Parents Defending Education. Seven and eight-year-olds must be able to “list medically accurate names for body parts, including the genitals.”

The guidance pushes topics such as “gender identity” in the fifth and eighth grades as well.

More HERE

Bailey criticizes Pritzker’s SAFE-T Act as "Dangerous" and "Extreme"

Bailey (2nd from Left) with Fraternal Order of Police Illinois Corrections Lodge 263.

LOUISVILLE IL — Wednesday, state Senator and gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey criticized the Pritzker-signed so-called "SAFE-T Act" that Bailey says will make Illinois' communities less safe. He is once again calling for the repeal of Governor Pritzker’s "soft-on-crime" policies.

“Though Governor Pritzker likes to claim that the law simply diverts low-level drug offenders from sitting in prison before trial, the fact is that the SAFE-T Act will put hardened criminals back on the street,” Bailey stated. “Pritzker trumpeted the law as bringing Illinois closer to ‘true safety, true fairness and true justice.’ The exact opposite has occurred, and the warning signs came right from the start.”

Bailey noted Chicago crime is spiking again. Theft is up 65%, car theft is up 62%, burglaries are up 29%, and robberies are up 19% just over the past year. Illinoisans are unsafe under Pritzker’s failed leadership.

Illinois Policy Institute: Amendment 1 is bad for Illinois

SEIU workers were the first union to endorse the Green New Deal

The Wall Street Journal told readers last week that Amendment 1 is bad news for Illinois.

"Public unions already dominate government in Illinois, and Democratic lawmakers now want to amend the constitution to entrench that power and block reforms. Those are the stakes of Amendment 1, which will appear on the November ballot," writes the editorial board in the piece titled, "A Big Labor Takeover in Illinois."

I was lucky enough to spend hours talking with the Journal's team about thWae Amendment, which I've studied for the better part of a year. It's the first thing you'll see on your ballot this November, yet many Illinoisans still have little idea what Amendment 1 is – or does.

What is it, exactly? Unions have branded the constitutional question as the “Workers’ Rights Amendment,” and they’re spending millions of dollars on misleading TV ads to promote it. But Illinois voters won’t see the words “Workers’ Rights Amendment” at the top of the ballot. Instead, they’ll see a question labeled “Proposed Amendment to the 1970 Illinois Constitution.” That’s Amendment 1.

Thorner: Exposing the Fantasy of Wind and Solar Power to Fuel America’s Economy

By Nancy Thorner - 

As stated by Francis Menton, President of the American Friends of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, in his article posted at Gatestone Institute dated April 25, 2022,  A Mostly wind-and Solar-powered U.S. Economy Is a Dangerous Fantasy.  

The Biden Administration's proposed transition to "net zero" via wind and solar power is not only not easy but is a total fantasy. It likely cannot occur at all without dramatically undermining our economy, lifestyle and security, and it certainly cannot occur at anything remotely approaching reasonable cost. At some point, the ongoing forced transition will crash and burn.

Other salient points from Menton's article:

• At the current time, the government is paying little to no significant attention to the energy storage problem. There is no detailed engineering plan of how to accomplish the transition. There are no detailed government-supported studies of how much storage will be needed, or of what technology can accomplish the job, or of cost.
• It gets worse.  Ken Gregory calculated the cost of such a system as well over $100 trillion, before even getting to the question of whether battery technology exists that can store such amounts of energy for months on end and then discharge the energy over additional months.  And even at that enormous cost, that calculation only applied to current levels of electricity consumption.... For purposes of comparison, the entire U.S. GDP is currently around $22 trillion per year.

Menton's article ends with this thought: “No sane, let alone competent, government would ever be headed down this path.”

The 2022 Heatwave Debunked!

The US Environmental Protection Agency publishes information in graphical form (see below) purporting to show a steady increase in records relating to heat waves as having occurred from 1960 to present. But the untold story is what happened during earlier portions of the 20th Century that preceded that date. EPA’s graphs mislead the reader into believing that a calamitous rise in temperature may be about to unfold. It is untrue.

Of the 50 all-time high temperature records for the individual U.S. states, 32 (64%) were set before 1950 and 70 % before 1955. The U.S. Weather Bureau was created in 1890. The all-time national record high, 134 deg. F, was set in Death Valley, California, in 1913, one hundred and nine years ago!

More HERE

China Scraps Non-Existent Climate Cooperation After Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit

The Chinese Communist Party was deeply displeased with U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) well-publicized visit to Taiwan, reaffirming the United States’ commitment to the island’s continued independence from mainland China.

To demonstrate its displeasure—in addition to the usual rattling of sabers, sending of new naval ships into the area, flying jets into Taiwanese airspace, and test-firing missiles into the sea around the island—China announced it was suspending cooperation with the United States in the fight against climate change. Heaven forbid!

More HERE

The incalculable cost of Biden's student loan scheme

Since President Biden unveiled his plan to "cancel" $10,000 of student loan debt per borrower, several economic organizations have released estimates detailing the total cost of the plan.

For instance, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, the "total plan costs could exceed $1 trillion."

Other organizations, such as the National Taxpayers Union, "calculate that the average burden per taxpayer in the U.S. is $2,503.22."

While it is necessary to focus on the astronomical real-world economic costs of Biden's unprecedented executive action, it is also worthwhile to examine the moral costs of the president of the United States unilaterally deciding that contracts are no longer sacred.

More HERE

Brinkman & LaMorte: The Fight for the US House: A deep dive into races that may turn the tide

By Daniel Brinkman and Jack LaMorte - 

When you try and find something on the GOP’s odds to retake the house really all you can find are 30,000-foot projections for the entire country or lists of the districts that are rated to be “toss-ups” by RealClear or Cook or 270towin. None of them bother to show their math as to how they came up with these lists (mostly they’re derived from microdata read on the D/R/I splits into these districts) So my friend Jack and I decided to try and remedy that absence by researching each of these districts and talking about them individually as well as each race and both candidates.

 I have been working on campaigns every cycle since 2007 doing everything from write-in campaigns to getting a buddy elected for the library board to hustling delegates for a presidential candidate.  I got to know Jack LaMorte from working on Jeanne Ives’ campaign for Congress in 2020, and we have worked together quite a bit on other races since.

 In addition to these summaries, you can also listen to our full analysis that we will bring you each week on a program we are doing. We are hoping to bring a good conservative perspective to these races that will determine the trajectory of our country from more of a campaign lens from people who have done races at every level. Well, enough navel-gazing, let’s get to these races!

Wirepoints: More Signs That Illinois’ Green ‘Industrial Policy’ Is Failing

By Mark Glennon, Wirepoints - 

Whodathunkit?  Taxpayer assistance to relieve the pain of government failure.

On Wednesday, Gov. JB Pritzker proudly announced a whopping $300 million of cash assistance for Illinoisans struggling with energy bills. “Every Illinoisan deserves access to reliable energy—regardless of their economic status,” Pritzker said in his press release.

That’s just the latest result of Illinois’ foundering energy policy but, first, note that the new program is for natural gas, propane and electricity (only about 10% of which is from renewable projects). Those are the very energy sources that Illinois is in the process of deliberately trying to destroy.

Illinois plans to have 50% of its electricity production from renewable sources by 2040 and 100% from clean energy sources by 2050. That’s under CEJA (Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act), which became law last year and was correctly called by one of its sponsors “the most aggressive, most progressive climate bill in the nation.”

It’s all part of what two leading supporters openly call an “industrial policy.” That was in a Chicago Tribune op-ed last week by Kady McFadden, a former deputy director at Sierra Club “whose work was instrumental in passing” CEJA, and Ameya Pawar, a former Chicago alderman who was also active in forming Illinois’ energy policy.

More HERE

The New American System: Trade for Workers in the 21st Century

The following is adapted from remarks that former Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer delivered at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s “American Economic Forum” at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 2022. Lighthizer served as the 18th United States Trade Representative (USTR) in the Donald Trump administration.

It is a great pleasure to be here. The loss of our institutions to extreme liberalism is one of the great crises of our day. The work of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute to counter this decline is noteworthy and admirable. For almost 70 years the ISI has been on the front lines in defense of freedom and American values and I am honored to be here to speak to you today. I am proud to be a part of this battle and to work with you to retake our country.

I am of the age that grew up with William F. Buckley. I read his works, I watched his TV debates and I quoted his witticisms. He was wise and entertaining—no easy combination. I can remember the debates with Gore Vidal. Has there ever been a more perfect foil for a conservative champion? Those performances between two clever, brilliant men were fun and informative. Like so much in life they were about confirmation bias, and as a young conservative I always came away surer of my principles.

More HERE

Wall Street Journal Calls Out The Whopping Lie Behind The Pending Constitutional Amendment Illinois Is Ignoring

By Mark Glennon, Wirepoints - 

Finally, a member of the regular media has called out the fraud being perpetrated over the pending Illinois constitutional amendment that will be on November’s ballot. That’s Amendment 1, the so-called Workers’ Rights Amendment.

Amendment supporters are routinely claiming huge benefits for all Illinois workers would be guaranteed by the new constitutional right the amendment would create to drastically expand collective bargaining rights.

But that’s simply not so, for the reason a new Wall Street Journal editorial states:

The National Labor Relations Act already governs private workers and limits who can bargain about what. Illinois can’t expand the collective-bargaining rights of private employees beyond what federal law allows.

In other words, 86% of Illinois workers – those who work in the private sector – will not be covered by the amendment, despite supporters claims to the contrary.

More HERE