Illinois Review

Di Leo: Foreign Policy Errors, from May to September

New York Times photo 

By John F Di Leo - 

On September 11, 2001, four groups of terrorists, associated with Al Qaeda, hijacked domestic airplanes with the intention of crash-landing into four key symbols of the United States, both public and private landmarks.  While a patriotic group of passengers in the fourth plane foiled one of the four plans, by the time it was all over, 3000 innocent people in New York and Washington had been murdered, and billions of dollars in property were destroyed.

The islamofascist movement – call it what you will: muslim terrorists, Islamic extremists, jihadists, Satanists, whatever – jumped for joy around the globe.  Those of us old enough to remember that awful day will never forget the news coverage, as it showed crowds cheering in much of the middle east, in celebration that “their side” had landed a successful sucker punch on the United States of America.

The world would be plunged into recession immediately. These crowds and their own countries suffered too, in this worldwide recession, but they didn’t care.  The big deal for them was that “their side” had scored a blow on the West.

Thorner: The ‘Great Reset’ Looms Large in Obama/Harris Administration

By Nancy Thorner - 

Alex Newman, senior editor of The New American and author of the new book Deep State: The Invisible Government Behind the scenes, begins his article in the January 4, 2021 issue of The New American, The Great Reset: Deep State globalists taking over the world and you!, with the following words: 

“In the not-to-distant future, you will own absolutely nothing, but you will like it and be happy," according to the totalitarians and Deep State globalists pushing what they call the 'Great Reset.'  You will also have no privacy, they say.  Everything will change. And yet, somehow, the advocates of this communistic-feudalistic vision of the future--the World Economic Forum (WEF), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the British Royal family, and more -- have decreed that 'you'll be happy.'”

Mandating COVID-19 Digital Passports? Too Close to a Dystopian Novel for Me

Source: AP Photo/Frank Augstein

The draconian measures taken during this pandemic have shown that COVID-19 is being used as nothing more than a chance for the ruling class to grab more power. This is truly concerning now that a vaccine has been distributed to nearly 20 percent of the population. Knowing that the elderly and sick who obtain the highest risk factors of complications from the virus are being offered the vaccine first, one would think we are closer to the end than to the beginning of this pandemic.

Yet it seems that some politicians don’t ever want this “emergency” to end. Every day we are introduced to new ideas by power hungry politicians such as the recent onset of vaccine mandated cards being discussed as a requirement for travel and other public activities. 

Thankfully, a handful of politicians are speaking out against the madness. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said it best: “I say enough. I urge everyone to get the vaccine if you think you need or want it. And then I urge everyone in America to throw away their masks, demand their schools be open, and live your lives free of more government mandates and interference. Burn your vaccine passport if they try to give it to you and vote out any politician who won’t do the same.”

More HERE

Rossi: Our Founding Fathers Debate President Biden On Our 2nd Amendment

By Randy Rossi - 

Obviously Democrat President Biden did not do well in history while in high school because he simply doesn’t understand why our Founding Fathers gave us the wonderful gift of our Bill of Rights and our 2nd Amendment. When he announced his intention to use his executive power to limit the American people’s right to bear arms, he did exactly what our Founding Fathers warned us about. The goal of this piece is to allow our Founding Fathers to defend and explain their gift to us of the Bill of Rights and particularly the 2nd Amendment in their own words. Their explanations are crystal clear and frankly, quite simple and easy to understand. They completely decimate President Biden and the Democrats that want to take away our sacred 2nd Amendment rights.

First let’s let our Founding Fathers explain why we have a Republic with a Bill of Rights that protect our God given rights instead of a pure democracy ruled by men. In just three sentences, they explain that in such a simple way that even a Democrat should be able to understand:

Debunking Leftist Myths on Gun Control

In the wake of the Boulder supermarket massacre and other mass shootings, progressive activists, politicians, and journalists have misled the public about major aspects of these tragedies.

Within a week of blaming “white supremacy” for the murder of six Asian and two white women by a white man in Georgia, progressives are now blaming “assault weapons” for a mass shooting in which a Trump-hating Muslim immigrant with a history of violence, mental illness, and racial animus gunned down 10 white people in a Boulder, Colorado supermarket.

Beyond the duplicity of highlighting race only when the killer is white and the victims are not, progressive lawmakers, activists, and journalists are using a litany of falsehoods in an attempt to ban common semi-automatic guns used for home defense and hunting.

More HERE

The Tyranny of the Majority

“Which is better — to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or three thousand tyrants one mile away?” — Rev. Mather Blyes (1706-1788)

Does it really matter if the instrument curtailing liberty is a monarch or a popularly elected legislature? This conundrum, along with the witty version of it put to a Boston crowd in 1775 by the little-known colonial-era preacher with the famous uncle — Cotton Mather, addresses the age-old question of whether liberty can survive in a democracy.

More HERE

Solar Industry’s Reliance on Chinese Forced Labor Threatens Biden’s Green Economy

An unlikely coalition of Republicans, Democrats, and labor leaders are concerned by the solar industry's dependence on goods linked to Chinese forced labor camps, a development that threatens President Joe Biden's push for a green energy economy.

Western China's Xinjiang region—where China is forcing more than a million Uyghurs into brutal forced labor regimes—dominates the solar sector's supply chain. Nearly half of the world's polysilicon, a raw material crucial to producing solar cells, comes from Xinjiang. That economic dependency is attracting the attention of a bipartisan group of lawmakers and union heads, who cite credible reports linking the solar industry to the modern-day slavery regime.

More HERE

The Woke Revolution Is Powered by the Elites

(Photo: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Ed Bastian made $17 million in 2019 as chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines, Georgia’s largest employer. Bastian just blasted Georgia’s new voting law. He thinks it is racist to require the same sort of ID to vote that Delta requires for its passengers to check in.

Yet most Americans believe voting is a more sacred act than flying Delta and, moreover, may have noticed that Delta has partnerships with systemically racist China. Also, a recent Associated Press poll showed that 72% of Americans favor requiring photo ID to vote.

The most privileged CEOs of corporate America—those who sell us everything from soft drinks and sneakers to professional sports and social media—now jabber to America about its racism, sexism, and other assorted sins.

The rules of cynical CEO censure are transparent.

More HERE

Upset Glendale Heights voters plan protest Tuesday

Henry Ford College graphic

GLENDALE HEIGHTS - Consolidated Election voters in Glendale Heights are not happy with how their choice for village president was handled last week. They are so upset, in fact, that they're planning to protest in front of the DuPage County Clerk's office Tuesday, April 13th at 10 am.

They say their votes, and their voices, were ignored or are purposely being suppressed.

On Friday, April 2nd, the Illinois Supreme Court came down with a decision overturning three lower courts - objecting to the number of petition signatures five-term incumbent Glendale Heights Village President Linda Jackson and another candidate, Ed Pope, submitted for the April 6th election. The Supreme Court's decision tossed Jackson and Pope off the April 6th ballot four days before the election. 

The result was confusion at the polls, upset voters and a major loss for President Jackson. 

Glendale Heights resident Cheryl Swanson believes the people were cheated out of their right to choose their local officials.

McCullough at Townhall.com: Why Biden is Erasing America

Former Chicago suburbanite Kevin McCullough writes in Townhall.com today that President Joe Biden is "erasing America" with his overreaching executive orders of which few are paying attention: 

He’s attempting to undo American accountability in elections through his support of HR1. He’s attempting to undo our economic foundations with massive printing (read that: devaluing) of our currency. He’s attempting to destroy free enterprise and job growth with coming massive tax increases. He’s attempting to take away individual liberties with proposed mask mandates, and desired lockdowns. He supports any attempt to end the Senate filibuster—in order to push through horrific laws by the thinnest margins ever attempted. He’s attempting to overwhelm our security at our borders by encouraging 100’s of 1000’s of unverifiable persons of unknown origins to cross our borders without scrutiny nor penalty. He wants the police weakened. He is pledging to take guns away from law abiding owners. And he wants to pervert the justice system so dramatically that the Constitution becomes unrecognizable.

McCullough goes on to explain Biden's nation-changing moves ... HERE

Rossi: Heartbreaking Voter Apathy

By Randi Rossi - 

April 6 may have been the most important local elections in decades because so many people have suffered so much because of really bad politicians. Yet in Lake County Illinois, only 13% of registered voters bothered to do their civic duty and vote! The worst suffering is centered on our 55 million school age children that were kicked out of school for almost an entire year for no good reason. The CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics, and other scientific sources have told us for months that children must get back to school ASAP and keeping them out of school causes life long academic, social, and psychological damage. Ten times more school age kids have died from suicide than Covid. 3 times more have died from the annual flu. The odds of a kid 19 and younger surviving Covid is 99.9978%! Yet local school boards agreed to shut down our schools and cause massive suffering for our kids either out of ignorance or to curry favor with the Teacher’s Unions. And our kids have suffered enormously because of that.

How Georgia’s Voting Law Compares to 7 Blue, Purple States’ Laws

(Photo: Wang Ying/Xinhua/Getty Images)

Here are the facts about how the Georgia voting law compares to other states. Fred Lucas writes:

Democrats have repeatedly denounced the new Georgia election integrity law that requires IDs for absentee ballots, but seldom criticize blue states that have comparable laws on their books—or in some cases, laws making it more difficult to vote than in Georgia.

“Overall, the Georgia law is pretty much in the mainstream and is not regressive or restrictive,” Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told The Daily Signal. “The availability of absentee ballots and early voting is a lot more progressive than what’s in blue states.”

Biden’s ‘Jim Crow’ Label For Georgia Election Laws Is Insane. Here’s Why

Here's why comparisons of Georgia's election integrity law to Jim Crow are ridiculous. Gabe Kaminsky writes:

In his first press conference in March, President Joe Biden claimed Republicans seeking to ensure election integrity in Georgia and other states “makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle,” insinuating the GOP is worse than segregationists. The president has continued to parrot this illegitimate sentiment, claiming the newly passed Georgia election bill mandating voter ID for absentee ballots, among other things that should be uncontroversial, is “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” Speaking on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” Biden said the measure was “Jim Crow on steroids.”

“This is Jim Crow on steroids what they’re doing in Georgia and 40 other states. What is this all about? Imagine passing a law saying you cannot provide water or food for someone standing in line to vote,” Biden said. “Can’t do that? Come on. Or you’re going to close a polling place at 5:00 when working people just get off.”

Illinois Supreme Court decides to hear second NRA-backed case

The Illinois Supreme Court decided to hear an NRA-ILA backed case challenging the city of Deerfield’s so-called “assault weapon” ban under the state’s preemption statute. This is the second NRA-ILA backed case that the court has decided to hear in recent times.

When Illinois adopted its preemption statute, it gave localities a limited timeframe wherein they could pass gun-control ordinances. Deerfield passed its so-called assault-weapon ban outside of that timeframe. It argued that because it already had some gun-control ordinances passed within the timeframe, its new ban was just an amendment of the ordinances that were grandfathered in. The court of appeals sided with them.

Last fall, the Illinois Supreme Court decided to take another case challenging Cook County’s imposition of a supplemental tax on the purchase of firearms and ammunition. The county imposed a $25 tax on the sale of firearms, and a $.05 and $.01 tax per cartridge of center and rimfire ammunition respectively. Despite these taxes singling out and penalizing constitutionally protected conduct, the court of appeals upheld them.      

It’s a good sign that the Illinois Supreme Court decided to hear both of these cases. The Court has issued a number of favorable gun-rights rulings in recent years. And the common wisdom is that the Court would not have taken the cases unless it was going to reverse the court of appeals: if the Court supported the lower courts’ rulings, it would have let them stand.

The cases are called Guns Save Life, Inc. v. Village of Deerfield and Guns Save Life, Inc. v. Ali.

Thorner: Part 2 - Big Tech Curators of Content, Not Publishers

By Nancy Thorner - 

On Monday, March 22, 2021, The Heartland Institute and the Media Research Center held a Zoom webinar at 1:00 p.m. CST, on how to defeat Big Tech censorship, titled, Toe to Toe with Big Tech Titans: How states can protect freedom of speech. View the Zoom video here.

Part 1 featured Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center, as posted at Illinois Review on Monday, April 4, 2020.  Part 1: Brent Bozell Discusses the Greatest Threat to Freedom.

Part 2, to follow, will feature comments made by Heartland Institute experts James Taylor, President of The Heartland Institute, and Cameron Sholty, Heartland’s Director of Government Relations.

Staver: Rogue Chicago Mayor Plans Ruin, But God Brings Revival

By Mat Staver - 

One year ago, in a land founded upon religious freedom, many governors began banning or severely restricting worship in churches. When Americans refused to forfeit religious freedom, politicians turned up the heat.

Pastors faced arrest and churchgoers were put on the equivalent of 14-day house arrest, and those at Harvest Rock Church in California were threatened with one-year terms in prison.

And in Chicago, Illinois, Mayor Lori Lightfoot had the audacity to try to seize and destroy Elim Romanian Pentecostal’s beautiful church building. Her Notice of Summary Abatement against Elim still stands.

Mayor Lightfoot threatened to tear down Elim’s church buildings if more than 10 people met in its 1,300-seat sanctuary.

So, God gave Elim more attendees ... and a bigger church in which to worship!

Attendance at Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church of Chicago has exploded since the Illinois government began its persecution. Where officials once tried to force all but 10 people at a time from the church, God filled Elim’s sanctuary. When that sanctuary filled to overflowing, God gave them a larger sanctuary!

Beckman: Who’s Hating Asians?

By Hank Beckman - 

Steve Kerr, the socially-conscious coach of the Golden State Warriors, thinks that the way to stop hate crimes against Asian Americans is to engage the nation’s entire citizenry.

In the wake of the recent killings of six Asian women in Atlanta, Kerr tweeted that it “was on all of us” to combat the scourge of the recent rise of hate crimes committed against Asians.

What he means by this is anybody’s guess. The phrase really conveys a message no more detailed or informative than that the person making the statement is a decent, enlightened soul. That’s nice.

You hear the same call for the general population to employ some vague collective action or rhetoric to combat any number of societal problems; it’s on “all of us” Joe Biden once said to stop the “rape culture” crisis supposedly infecting our college campuses; the climate crisis can only be solved through collective action and sacrifice; discrimination against anyone is discrimination against everyone.

The Resegregation of America

The intellectual vanguards of wokeness and critical race theory demand that the most fundamental aspects of self-government and preservation of individual rights be abandoned to serve the cause of destroying “systemic racism.” Jarrett Stepman writes:

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore a growing, insidious ethos overtaking America’s most powerful institutions.

Individual merit and reasoned debate are out. “Lived experience” and the hierarchy of group grievance are now what matter most.

Even truth is considered meaningless. Narratives are everything.

The Long March Through the Corporations

The woke capital issue is about whether to politicize all areas of life or to maintain a line between public and private. Mike Gonzalez writes:

That all cultural institutions in America have been taken over by the Left is beyond question. The media, the academy, Hollywood—all are now in its clutches. Conservatives still cling to talk radio, just as tightly as they do to their guns and bibles, as President Obama so dismissively put it, but that is about the only redoubt of the “sense-making” institutions they still have.

New Poll Shows the Outrage Over Georgia Voting Law Is Absolute Nonsense

Georgia’s new election reform law has caused an absolute freak-out in the liberal media, among Democrat politicians, and in the bubble that is left-wing social media. Joe Biden himself has called the law “Jim Crow 2.0” despite clearly having no idea what is actually in it.

Ironically, the law actually expands the pre-pandemic voting environment. Drop boxes, which were not mandated prior, now are. Voting times are standardized, and reporting requirements for counties are strengthened to avoid the boondoggle we saw during the last major election. Given that, the left had no legitimate complaints to lodge so they just made some up. The issue of allowing strangers to give water to people in line has been beaten to death, and it’s completely misleading. People can bring their own water, or donate water to the polling place to be given out. Random strangers just can’t electioneer by setting up shop. Lots of states have electioneering protections, and there’s nothing especially unique about Georgia’s provision.

The other complaint is, of course, centering on voter ID. Yet, a new AP Poll blows up the narrative surrounding opposition to that provision as well.

More HERE