Illinois Review

Thorner: Lake County conservatives energized to oppose Leftist plans

Jeanne Ives at RALC

By Nancy Thorner - 

 

Jeanne Ives was the guest speaker for the June meeting of the Republican Assembly of Lake County on June 15, 2021.  Its purpose is to recruit, educate, train, and motivate individuals to run for public office who are irrevocably committed to uphold and fight for Constitutional principles and the preservation of the Republic, State and Country. 

 

Monthly meetings are held at the Republican Federation Headquarters, 15 Commerce Drive, Suite 109, Grayslake, IL 60030, the third Thursday of each month -- with the exception of those months when the RALC Ricnic, Reagan Dinner, or Christmas Party is scheduled.   RALC welcomes guests and new members.

 

The July 15th meeting will feature David J. Shestokas, Author/Attorney, who will speak about his first-hand experiences with election irregularities.

 

Jeanne Ives is a member of the RALC. She served three terms as an Illinois state representative from 2013 to 2018.  She ran in the Republican primary in the 2018 Illinois gubernatorial election, narrowly losing to incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner.

Andrzejewski: Chicago’s Civil Unrest And Pandemic Cost Taxpayers $630M In Extra Pay For Police And Fire

By Adam Andrzejewski - 

As civil unrest loomed and a pandemic raged last year, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot fully compensated police and other first-responder public safety employees.

However, new payroll data from Freedom of Information Act requests filed by our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com show that the number of regular police officers between 2019 and 2020 dropped by nearly 400 positions.

With fewer officers and more to do, the existing employees made a lot of money—but the city became less safe and, for taxpayers, more expensive.

Nearly 1,000 police and fire employees made between $200,000 and $430,000 during the year. Full-time first responders—including officers, firefighters, sergeants, lieutenants, and others—averaged $122,000. That’s cash compensation alone and does not include the cost of benefits.

Lightfoot poured $626.5 million into overtime, comp time, retroactive pay, fitness pay, duty availability pay, and 29 other compensation avenues for 20,615 employees in the police and fire departments. This was up from $482.3 million in extra pay during 2019.

More HERE

Houser: Life after the lockdowns: Re-embracing our social nature

Governments should have taken a laissez-faire approach to managing the pandemic, respecting the social nature of individuals while allowing communities to innovate their own responses.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, pressure was put on the federal government to override the rights of the states and impose sweeping lockdown policies. This was only partially the case, since most states underwent lockdown and quarantine measures of their own. Such policies soon went under the microscope of public opinion to determine their validity, and the results have been mixed, at best.

After numerous stimulus packages, massive unemployment benefits, and overly strict enforcement of mask-wearing, everyone has been through a lot in the past year. But, throughout this pandemic, something else was put under particular stress: the dignity and social nature of the individual.

More HERE

Why Illegal Immigrants Are Being Released Without Court Dates

(Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)

Under circumstances at the southern border created by Biden administration actions, the contentious “catch and release” of illegal immigrants has become a bit more complicated, as the Border Patrol is now releasing thousands of illegal aliens into the country without a court date. 

Generally, after apprehension, it’s the Border Patrol that processes the illegal border crossers and issues a notice for them to appear in immigration court. However, with the flood of migrants crossing the border, the Border Patrol instead has begun issuing them a “notice to report” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 60 days. 

More HERE

Beckman: The Travesty of Bigotry Hoaxes

Barack Obama's 2009 beer meeting - that included now-President Joe Biden | NY Daily News

By Hank Beckman -

Ft. Lauderdale’s Democrat Mayor Dean Trantalis bought a little victim street cred last week.

In the process he demonstrated to the entire country the rancid depths to which the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John Kennedy has sunk.

After a terrible accident at a LGBTQ Pride Parade where two people were run over by a parade participant in a malfunctioning pickup truck, Trantalis wasted no time in describing the incident as a terrorist attack.

“This is a terrorist attack against the LGBT community,” he told a TV reporter. “This is exactly what it is. Hardly an accident.”

Prager: If America Is Racist, Why Have Millions of Blacks Emigrated Here?

By Dennis Prager - 

If America is systemically racist, why have millions of blacks from Africa and the Caribbean come to this country over the past 50 years? Why would they and many millions more want to move from all-black societies to a white-dominated, racist one?

This is a question every black and white leftist should be asked. After all, no Jews moved to Germany in the 1930s. And why didn’t any? After all, many Jews were suffering terrible persecution and poverty in Russia and in Eastern Europe. Why didn’t any of them move to Germany after 1933?

We all know the answer: Because Germany was systemically antisemitic.

Even leftists know that answer.

More HERE

Democrats New Tactic to Expand Medicare

Americans as young as 50 could soon qualify for Medicare.

The Medicare at 50 Act, introduced in April by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and co-sponsored by 20 other Democrat senators, would lower the minimum age for government-funded healthcare for senior citizens. Americans have had to be at least 65 to qualify for Medicare since its creation in 1966.

Democrats claim the bill, which was previously introduced in February 2019, could help lower health care costs, reinforce the existing Medicare program, and strengthen the existing health insurance marketplace.

The economic consequences of such a plan would be devastating to the nation at large, says Robert Moffit, senior fellow of health care studies at The Heritage Foundation. “If employers respond by jettisoning coverage altogether, it will increase the tax burden on the working population and further aggravate the already high deficits and debt,” Moffit told Health Care News.

More HERE

High Court Needs To Restore Rights for the Religious

Americans need to live and let live. Let the LGBTQ activists practice their preferences, and let Christians live the Gospel.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that a Catholic Social Services adoption agency in Philadelphia could continue to place children only with heterosexual couples, consistent with the Gospel’s definition of a family.

Though The New York Times depicted the ruling as a setback for gay rights and “evidence that religious groups almost always prevail in the current court,” it was far from either.

Unfortunately, the ruling settled nothing in the culture war between traditional religion and LGBTQ advocates.

More HERE

Harsanyi: The Crusade to Destroy Jack Phillips Continues

(Photo: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/Getty Images)

By David Harsanyi - 

I’ve been writing about Colorado cakemaker Jack Phillips’ fight against cultural authoritarians for a long time. This past March, I noted that Phillips would probably be badgered into the grave. And this week, Denver District Judge A. Bruce Jones again found that the state could compel speech, claiming that Phillips had acted unlawfully when refusing to create a cake that celebrated the alleged gender transition of a Colorado activist.

When Phillips declined to participate in the wedding of David Mullins and Charlie Craig back in the summer of 2012—this was before Obergefell v. Hodges and before gay marriage was even legalized in Colorado—he made himself the target of harassment by activists and “civil rights” commissions that set out to destroy his business over a thought crime; by courts that set out to corrode religious liberty and free-speech protections; and by media that either don’t understand or don’t value free expression anymore.

More HERE

It Fair to Make Women Compete Against Transgender Athletes?

Lauren Hubbard, a New Zealand trans weightlifter - BBC photo  

As the Tokyo Olympics approach next month, more than half of Americans are against having women compete against transgender athletes.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 56% of American Adults think it is unfair to make women compete against transgender athletes. Only 25% think such competition is fair and 19% are not sure.

States surrounding Illinois are voting on measures to ban competition between women and transgender males. Five states have already passed restrictions on the competitions - including most recently Florida.

What do you think about the issue? 

Center Square reports: Illinois gas taxes to increase again next week

From CENTER SQUARE –

Illinois has some of the highest fuel gas prices in the country, and next week, taxes on fuel will increase.

On July 1st, the tax will increase about a half-cent per gallon, depending on the blend.

Gasoline prices are the highest they’ve been since July 2019, when the state gas tax doubled to 38 cents. At that time, lawmakers put in place an automatic gas tax hike tied to inflation.

Adam Schuster, senior budget and tax research director with Illinois Policy, said there is no accountability for politicians.

“What they should do is repeal the automatic increase in gas taxes and go back to a scenario in which if politicians want more of your money, they should have to be on the record and tell you why it is a good thing,” Schuster said.

More at CENTER SQUARE 

Rossi: The “Juneteenth” Distraction from America’s Real History of Freedom

By Randy Rossi - 

The tragedy of making “Juneteenth” a federal holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the U.S. is that it distracts from reality and an incredibly  important part of U.S. history in which slavery was actually ended in America. U.S. slaves were not made free on June 19, 1865 in Texas as “Juneteenth” suggests. They were first legally made free by Republican President Abraham Lincoln in his Emancipation Proclamation on September 1862 which freed all slaves in Confederate states as of January 1, 1863.

Every Northern Union state had already made slavery illegal by 1804. Then the Democrat Confederate Army surrendered to the Republican Union Army at Appomattox Virginia on April 9, 1865 which ended the tragic American Civil War which killed 650,000 Americans and wounded 1.2 million Americans to free the slaves held by Democrat slave owners in the South. That victory gave the Republicans the power to end slavery across America.

Then the Republicans passed the 13th Amendment on December 18, 1865 which made slavery illegal across America. Democrats voted against the 13th Amendment, but Republicans had the power and the votes to pass it. That legally freed all the slaves in America. That was the day that slavery became illegal across America thanks to Republicans. Democrats fought to keep slavery with everything they had but thankfully, they lost.

Top Ten Things Donald Trump Got Right

Think of the millions of lives lost and harmed as a result of these lies and this censorship.

“Reporting the news” means relaying what is happening in the world.  Humans do this.  Humans are biased.  So “reporting the news” has always been a biased business.

For whatever reason, nigh since its inception, “reporting the news” has been biased in an almost wholly Leftward direction.

Before electronic media – before electricity – newspapers were the news.  And newspapers were initially honest about their biases.  Because we used to be honest about humans and human nature.

More HERE

Napolitano: The Only Privacy the Feds Protect Is Their Own

By Judge Andrew Napolitano - 

Last week, The New York Times revealed that in late 2017 and early 2018, prosecutors in the Department of Justice persuaded a federal grand jury to subpoena the telephone, email and texting records of about 20 people, including two members of Congress and their families, staffs and investigators, and one of the minor children of a staff member. Also subpoenaed were the records of Donald F. McGahn II, then the White House chief counsel, and his wife.

In all, the government sought data on 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses. The subpoenas identified the targets only by telephone number and computer identification number.

The subpoenas were served on Apple, the custodian of these records. Also served upon Apple was a gag order signed by a federal judge instructing Apple not to tell anyone it had received the subpoenas. The government sought and obtained three annual extensions of the gag order. Such an order should have been challenged, as it is unconstitutional on its face.

The records sought and obtained were “metadata.” Metadata is not content; yet it is everything but. Thus, the records that Apple surrendered showed who spoke to whom and when, who emailed whom and when, and who texted whom and when, but it did not show what was actually communicated.

Can the DOJ engage in a fishing expedition looking for leaks? Can it obtain personal records of members of Congress? Can it silence those who know about this? In a word: No, no and no.

More HERE

If You Can’t Beat Them, Bully Them Into Joining You

For several decades now, politicians around the world have tried to curtail tax competition to make it easier for them to increase the tax burdens on their citizens without them fleeing to other lower-tax jurisdictions. The best way to achieve their goal is to create a global high-tax cartel. If implemented, the recent G7 countries’ agreement to impose minimum taxes on multinational companies would get them much closer to this shady objective.

It’s no mystery why politicians don’t like tax competition. In a global economy like ours, individuals and businesses are better able to work and invest in nations with lower tax rates. The ability to shift residences and operations from country to country puts pressure on governments to keep taxes on income, investment, and wealth lower than politicians would like. Politicians in each country fear that raising taxes will prompt high-income earners and capital to move away.

More HERE

GOP Leaders Reject Critical Race Theory in Military Training

Republican lawmakers say they will not allow critical race theory and other divisive indoctrination to be imposed on American military service members.

Led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), GOP members of Congress are speaking out and taking action against the use of CRT in military training.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AZ) confronted Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with concerns about political indoctrination in the military. Cotton said he has received many letters from service members complaining about the type of training they are receiving. Instead of learning military tactics, they are required to attend progressive diversity training sessions.

More HERE

Rabine comments on Dems' energy plans: Insider dealing and influence peddling cloud energy debate

Gary Rabine

SPRINGFIELD - A very important energy bill was placed on hold when the legislature paused last week. Gary Rabine, a candidate for Governor, issued the following statement on the ongoing efforts that would have a powerful impact on businesses in Illinois.

“Electricity is an essential part of modern life. Electricity heats and cools our homes. It saves lives in hospitals and powers essential modern tools such as computers, tablets, cell phones and automobiles. We all depend on electricity being accessible, affordable, and reliable. We in Illinois have been blessed with some of the best, most competitive energy in America, these blessings could end soon.

Rabine said the energy legislation being considered in Springfield will impact every person in Illinois.

"We all have a stake in this bill and we all should be very concerned about what the eventual outcome could be," he said. "The bill Gov. Pritzker is pushing is essentially a gift to extremists who want to close coal plants before we have any realistic energy alternatives. Our commitment to clean energy should not come at the expense of affordability and reliability. We need to give companies time to adjust to the transformation to clean energy."

Illinois residents simply want their energy costs to be competitive with or without alternative options, Rabine's statement said. "Working class families in Illinois are experiencing the highest cost in taxes in America, closing our most efficient energy producing facilities will increase our energy cost and our families cost of living. We must not accept that."

Rabine, who owns the Rabine Asphalt Company based in Schaumburg Illinois, is vying to be the Illinois Republican Party's gubernatorial nominee in 2022.

Kaifesh Op-Ed: Never Forget the November 3rd 2020 Election

“The Day Truth, Transparency and Justice was Abolished and America’s Future was threatened as Never Before”

By Larry Kaifesh - 

On 3 November 2020 during the election, there was an attack on our country to the likes we have never seen. It was an attack where the American people were robbed of truth, transparency and justice during a critical crossroad election.

As articulated by Victor Davis Hanson, it is the lack of truth and transparency that has destroyed civilizations from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union, not enemies at the gate, pandemics or even global warming or global cooling. It is the lack of trust in one’s government that has destroyed civilizations above all else and today, the level of trust in our government is at an all-time low, under 20% today.[i]

In addition, a poll from Rasmussen showed that roughly half the country thinks the election was stolen from Trump in some way.[ii]  This number would be significantly higher if it were not for a media that has become a propaganda arm for the progressive socialist left.  It is so bad, that even today, President Trump is banned for life on twitter and for two years on Facebook. This deliberate attack against free speech is an assault on our country, only surpassed by a stolen election.

Tracy: Illinois Democrats Launch a Cultural Revolution

By Don Tracy - Chairman, IL GOP

In these head-spinning times, first principles about government are all in play: what it’s for, and how it relates to the people.

Not long ago, Democrat and Republican politicians and activists differed over priorities: More guns or more butter?  Today, the parties differ more fundamentally over the purpose, role and function of government itself.

The foundational view that government should be of, by and for the people is rooted in the idea that each human being has equal standing, with the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This view, largely held by Republicans today, holds that government exists to serve people, not rule over them. We put our faith in the common wisdom of voters and believe representatives should serve the people who elect them.

By contrast, progressives believe that elected representatives should “lead” people, not serve them. They scoff at equality and believe some people are morally better, more enlightened, and awake to social injustices — and that government and activists composed of these people should drive change. This is evident in the progressive attitude toward common people (viewed as “deplorables” who “cling to guns or religion”) and the casual casting of moral aspersions at traditionalists (labeling them “racists,” “Nazis,” “haters”).

The Inflation Iceberg Beneath The Economic Waves

Source: AP Photo/Richard Drew

Despite assurances from the Biden administration that this new 'inflation' situation is only temporary, the ‘signs and portents’ suggest something much more ominous.

On May 12th there was finally some of that much talked about “unity” in the country. However, unity, like everything else in life, has to be judged from a perspective of good or bad. This unity came from both left- and right-leaning news outlets. It was good; in that they all agreed that something bad just happened. It was also bad; in that something bad just happened. That bad something was the 4.2% jump in “inflation” in April as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

More HERE

Biden’s Budget Proposal Includes Major Expansion of IRS

President Joe Biden’s budget proposal includes funding increases for several government agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Biden proposes to give the IRS $13.2 billion next year, an increase of $1.2 billion, or 10.4 percent, over this year’s appropriation.

The IRS collects taxes and enforces tax policy in the United States. The funding increase is intended to intensify enforcement efforts. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the funding request would make things “fairer.”

More HERE

Lifson: Is Fauci Now the Deep State's Fall Guy?

By Thomas Lifson - 

The writer, “Sundance” of The Last Refuge, looks into something that also puzzled me: why were multiple FOIA requests for the emails of Dr. Anthony Fauci all released at the same time, and why now?

Using his time-tested technique of constructing timelines and comparing the current FOIA release with another key FOIA release, he constructs a thought-provoking theory. As so often in the past, he sees a tacit plot behind the events that capture so much attention.

More HERE

Prager: The Single Best Thing Americans Can Do to Retake America

By Dennis Prager - 

The most frequent question people pose to me is: What can I/we do to fight back against the nihilistic anti-American destruction of virtually all the country’s major institutions?

There is an answer.

The single best thing Americans can do to counter the left-wing attack on America — against its freedoms, its schools, its families, its children, its governmental institutions, its sports, its news and entertainment media, its medical establishment, the CIA, the FBI, the State Department and the military — is to take their children out of America’s schools.

More HERE

Climate Realism: Western Drought Is Nowhere Near Historic

Yahoo News is promoting the false claim that human climate change is responsible for a historic drought covering California and the Western United States.

Although drought conditions have persisted for a couple of years now across portions of the Western United States, droughts in the dry West are common and research shows much larger, longer-term droughts have occurred there historically. Because current conditions are not outside the historic records of drought, there is no evidence human greenhouse gas emissions are contributing the current drought.

More HERE

America the Outlier: Voter Photo IDs Are the Rule in Europe and Elsewhere

Photo ID is common throughout the world. John R. Lott Jr. writes:

Democrats and much of the media are pushing to make permanent the extraordinary, pandemic-driven measures to relax voting rules during the 2020 elections – warning anew of racist voter “suppression” otherwise. Yet democracies in Europe and elsewhere tell a different story – of the benefits of stricter voter ID requirements after hard lessons learned.

A database on voting rules worldwide compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center, which I run, shows that election integrity measures are widely accepted globally, and have often been adopted by countries after they've experienced fraud under looser voting regimes.

Biden Budget Could Collapse U.S. Economy

President Joe Biden has released his budget for the new fiscal year. The price tag for Biden’s budget is a whopping $6 trillion, and it includes absolutely massive increases in domestic spending.

Among the laundry list of big-ticket items proposed by the Biden administration are $174 billion for electric vehicles, $100 billion to expand high-speed internet, $200 billion for “free” universal pre-K, and $109 billion for “free” community college.

To partially offset the gargantuan costs of these programs, Biden wants Congress to increase taxes by $3.6 trillion, including one of the largest tax hikes on corporations in U.S. history. (The corporate income tax rate would increase from 21% to 28%.)

The tax increases on corporations and some small business owners wouldn’t come close to covering the costs of Biden’s budget, and they might be enough on their own to trigger a recession. After all, America is, in case President Biden has forgotten, still in the midst of recovering from one of the largest economic catastrophes in world history. You don’t need to have a brilliant economic mind to know that raising taxes on job creators while millions of people are out of work doesn’t make much economic sense.

More HERE

We Deserve the Truth About COVID-19 Origin

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world -- possibly forever. Over the past year, Americans were forced to adhere to social distancing guidelines, an untold number of small businesses were shuttered, and social gatherings were basically eliminated. Together, these draconian rules (and many others, such as wearing face masks everywhere) attempted to create a “new normal.”

Thankfully, we are closer to the end of the pandemic than the beginning, principally due to Operation Warp Speed. Yet, many unanswered questions remain. Perhaps the most important of all is: What is the actual origin of COVID-19? And could another pandemic be in the offing?

Currently, the origin of the COVID-19 virus is unknown. But we do know there are substantial risks associated with gain-of-function research projects the U.S. government has funded in China for years. And there is growing concern COVID-19 could have been unleashed on the world due to a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.

More HERE

Di Leo: Our First Juneteenth as a Federal Holiday

By John F. Di Leo - 

On July 4, 1776, the United States of America declared themselves free and independent states, commencing a long journey to give the world a shining example of a nation in which limited government existed solely to secure the liberty of its individual citizens.

This journey took a long time to accomplish. First, a War of Independence, then an economic retooling of the nation, then a long fight to find some way to eliminate the inhuman way that one class of Americans – the slaves - were treated under the law.

Some call slavery “the original sin” of the American republic. This is unfair, as slavery had always existed in almost every country on earth, and still exists today in dozens and dozens of countries. The popular presentation of slavery as a peculiarly American crime against humanity is both utterly wrong and thoroughly malicious in its intent.

Central Illinois District 87 becomes center of controversy over "Woke" curriculum

Becky Swan (seated) confronted by retiring public school teacher at District 87 meeting

UPDATE: See Tweet below of what happened at Thursday night's (June 17th) meeting at the same School Board. 

BLOOMINGTON - When Bloomington District 87 Board issued a statement this past Monday reprimanding "a large group of citizens" that spoke out against mask mandates, sex education and critical race theory curriculum at the Board's June 9th meeting, they made it clear they intended to ignore those taxpayers, parents and concerned individuals. 

After applauding those that spoke up in support of their Board's positions, they dug deeper: "This tense board meeting will not distract us from carrying out our mission to promote mutual respect and an appreciation for student and staff diversity in order to provide a supportive learning environment in which all students can succeed." (Bold letters were included in Board's message) 

The public scolding was provoked by questions raised by an area mother, business owner and taxpayer Becky Swan, who was given five minutes during the Board's public comment period wherein she referred to the district's new sex education curriculum and a call for action distributed by a new action-oriented group called Breakthrough Ideas.

Thorner: Important Recommendations for Meaningful Election Reform

By Nancy Thorner - 

John Droz, Jr., a physicist and Environmental Advocate, puts out a free Media Balance Newsletter covering COVID to Climate as well as Energy to Elections.

Droz is the editor of the Newsletter, but it is a collection of materials received from many good people.  Check out the links for the Newsletter's 2020 archives and 2021 archives.  If you'd like to subscribe, simply email John at "aaprjohn" at "northnet" dot "org".

On June 9, 2021, Thorner received John's latest Newsletter informing her that his new "Post-Election Audits Report" had just been released.  The report is of great importance because the future of our nation depends on Election Reform.  It is not yet too late for states to:

1. genuinely audit 2020 election results, and

2. upgrade their laws to incorporate meaningful audits in the future.

Thorner: Explosive new book About Karl Marx sets forth the Left’s Plan for America

By Nancy Thorner -

 

Author Jim Simpson notified me last week that his paperback book, Who Was Karl Marx: The Men, the Motives, and the Menace Behind Today's Rampaging Left had been released. James Simpson is an investigative journalist, businessman and former economist and budget examiner for the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Since 1995, he has written non-fiction articles for various periodicals based both on his experiences in government and business, and a longstanding interest in public policy.

 

Amazon offers the following blurb about Who Was Karl Marx?

The Left is rampaging across our nation today. Portland, Oregon is burning and many other cities face continuous looting, rioting and destruction. And while the Antifa/Black Lives Matter mob is wreaking havoc, destroying businesses and neighborhoods, leaders in those communities have taken an inexplicable hands-off attitude, even to the point of restraining a police response. Meanwhile, the Democrat Party, Big Tech, the media and institutional Left have turbocharged censorship and vilification of their political enemies. How did we come to this, who caused it, what are their motivations and how do we stop it?

Rock Bottom

How progressive reforms helped level a historic part of black Detroit. Howard Husock writes:

The Supreme Court will soon consider whether to take up the long-awaited Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case, which pits Harvard’s race-conscious admissions process against a group of Asian-American applicants who don’t fit into Harvard’s idea of “favored minorities.” The central idea behind the case is whether Harvard’s use of race to create what it sees as a “diverse” class runs afoul of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

If there is one area in which the American elite seems to be moving in lockstep, it is increasing racial diversity. Many Fortune 500 businesses now operate Diversity and Inclusion offices. Every selective college is quick to tout its “diverse student body.” These initiatives sound good in theory, but the movement for racial diversity too often comes at the expense of hiring or admitting the most qualified candidate. Increasingly, the qualified candidate who gets denied is Asian-American—member of a minority group still considered, for diversity purposes, not in need of rescuing.

The ‘chicken and egg’ interplay of religious liberty and economic freedom

The contributions of religious life to economic prosperity are increasingly evident, prompting many to study the relationship between the two. A recent study from Canada found that religion adds billions to the economy. In the United States, research has shown much of the same, pointing to growth that outsizes that of the world’s leading companies.

What’s less explored are connections between the underlying freedoms themselves, which many believe to be mutually reinforcing and indivisible.

“Both economic and religious freedom tend to exist together in the same societies,” writes Jay Richards in Acton’s collection of essays, “One and Indivisible.” “They are both based on the same principles; they tend to reinforce each other; and over the long haul, they arguably stand or fall together. As a result, when Catholics and other Christians surrender economic freedom, they unwittingly surrender their religious freedom, as well.

In a new research paper, “Religious, Civil, and Economic Freedoms: What’s the Chicken and What’s the Egg?”, Christos Makridis of Stanford University goes a bit further down this path, exploring “whether religious freedom is the driver of economic freedom – or whether it is the other way around.”

More HERE

BREAKING: Illinois biz groups call on Pritzker to slow down costly energy proposal

While all businesses and most homeowners will be directly affected with higher energy costs, at least thirty Illinois business groups signed onto a letter Monday asking Governor Pritzker to "delay [the energy] legislation and meaningfully engage the consumers, business owners, organizations and municipalities that will be saddled with the costs."

At least one other group - the Technology & Manufacturing Association - is being added to the effort, the coordinator Ryan McLaughlin told Illinois Review: 

Dear Governor Pritzker:

In 1997, Illinois deregulated the energy market resulting in billions of dollars in savings for homeowners and businesses. Our low-cost energy prices and reliable grid have been cited by governors time and again as reasons why businesses should stay in or relocate to Illinois.

Twenty-four years later, instead of building on this strength, the proposed energy legislation being circulated will be the largest rate hike on consumers and businesses in history. At least as it has been described to us by several of those who have been fortunate enough to be included in the discussions.

People are quitting their jobs instead of returning to pre-COVID schedules

Today's hot topic in business circles are that people are quitting their jobs instead of going back to normal, after the pandemic caused many to reassess their life priorities.  Some estimate over 4 million have quit their jobs already this year - looking for something that allows more flexibility and/or less pressure. 

Here's a chart from a Wall Street Journal story dated June 13, 2021: 

Court documents suggest US government may have agreed with Big Tech to censor disagreeable speech

In case you missed it, documents filed last month in a Massachusetts lawsuit claims the US government may have made a formal agreement with the internet titan Twitter and possibly others to censor disagreeable speech. From the NC Daily Gazette: 

Nobody can deny that there has been a massive amount of censorship taking place in the social media arena but what some have only suspected to be true is that the government is behind it. That is, until now. The Montana Daily Gazette, one of our sister publications, first reported that Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai publicized court documents that prove the U.S. Government entered into a formal agreement with Big Tech to censor speech they did not agree with.

As Montana Daily Gazette reported, the combined federation of Big Tech companies is, effectually, a monopoly holding at least 90 percent of the current combined market share in social media. These would include such companies as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other tech companies that make sharing viewpoints in the public square available to its users.

The court documents are viewable here: https://u8z8g8c2.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/11889-Supplemental-Memorandum-Playbook-Filed.pdf  

Beckman: Is it okay to be white?

Istock photo

By Hank Beckman - 

Is it OK to be white?

The question is legitimate but asking it has our progressive friends very upset.

Persons unknown have in recent years been affixing that very statement on those ubiquitous “Hate Has No Home Here,” signs that began popping up all over the Chicagoland area in the wake of Donald Trump’s election in 2016. 

The sentiment has also been posted at various colleges sites around the country, prompting the usual wails of anguish from those triggered by an idea that hasn’t been approved by their school’s diversity czars.

I first heard about the phenomena shortly after the Bad Orange Man’s election when on my Facebook news feed there popped up a complaint about how affixing the question to the signs was “problematic.”

Illinois ranks as #2 state where Americans don't want to live

IllinoisReview.com photo 

CHICAGO - Two-thirds of those moving in the state of Illinois are outbound, and one-third are inbound, making it the #2 state where people don't want to live, the Vacation.com website is reporting Monday morning. 

Only New Jersey has a slightly worse ranking between those that are leaving the state and those moving into the state. 

"While some states are experiencing a phenomenon known as a 'brain drain,' meaning an exodus of highly-educated people, Illinois is actually experiencing the opposite. Tons of super smart people are deciding to start their lives in Illinois, along with thousands of people ages 18 to 34," the assessment says. 

But Illinois made it to the second to worst state on this list for other reasons.

Biden Divides Us. Here Are 12 Principles That Can Unite Us.

Photo: Martin Barraud/Getty Images

What unites us are the foundational principles of liberty, justice and equality – and policies rooted in that heritage that would make America a “more perfect union.” Charmaine Yoest, James Carafano, John Malcolm, and Jack Spencer write:

Americans are woke. They woke-up and realized President Joe Biden is no moderate. He is spearheading the most radical policies in modern history, policies that would transform this nation into an unrecognizable country—far less safe, more impoverished, and more unfree.

Nevertheless, the vital issues of the day pull us together. Conservatives share a common vision for maximizing human freedom and opportunity. They are primed to unite and fight. What’s more, many Americans who do not identify as conservatives share these goals. Any national leader who champions this unifying vision will win the support of a vast swath of centrist America, and will energize conservatives in the process.

Here are 12 issues that conservatives have answers for. Together, they make up a platform that a majority of Americans can rally around.

The Myth that Americans Were Poorly Educated before Mass Government Schooling

Parents the world over are dealing with massive adjustments in their children’s education that they could not have anticipated just three months ago. To one degree or another, pandemic-induced school closures are creating the “mass homeschooling” that FEE’s senior education fellow Kerry McDonald predicted two months ago. Who knows, with millions of youngsters absent from government school classrooms, maybe education will become as good as it was before the government ever got involved.

“What?” you exclaim! “Wasn’t education lousy or non-existent before government mandated it, provided it, and subsidized it? That’s what my government schoolteachers assured me so it must be true,” you say!

The fact is, at least in early America, education was better and more widespread than most people today realize or were ever told. Sometimes it wasn’t “book learning” but it was functional and built for the world most young people confronted at the time. Even without laptops and swimming pools, and on a fraction of what government schools spend today, Americans were a surprisingly learned people in our first hundred years.

More HERE

Lightfoot’s Lawyers Use Bizarre Defense for Racial Discrimination of White Reporters

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, Pool

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot came under fire when she announced that she would only allow one-on-one interviews with non-white journalists. In fact, the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) and Judicial Watch are suing her for this discriminatory practice.

Lightfoot’s lawyers are mounting a rather peculiar defense against the accusations of racial discrimination. “Attorneys for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot are arguing that a preliminary injunction against her for racial discrimination is unnecessary because she only racially discriminated against reporters for a strict two-day period,” according to the Daily Caller.

More HERE

Why the Early Progressives Rejected American Founding Principles

Progressive Era criticism of the Constitution came not from a few fringe figures, but from the most prominent think­ers and politicians of that time. Ronald J. Pestritto writes:

he Progressive Era was the first major period in American political development to feature, as a primary characteristic, the open and direct criticism of the Constitution. While criticism of the Constitution can be found during any period of American history from 1787 onward, the Progressive Era was unique in that such criticism formed the backbone of the entire movement.

Progressive Era criticism of the Constitution came not from a few fringe figures, but from the most prominent think­ers and politicians of that time. Readers are reminded, in almost any progressive text they will pick up, that the Constitution is old, and that it was written to deal with circumstances that had long ago been replaced by a whole new set of pressing social and economic ills.

America the Outlier: Voter Photo IDs Are the Rule in Europe and Elsewhere

Photo ID is common throughout the world. John R. Lott Jr. writes:

Democrats and much of the media are pushing to make permanent the extraordinary, pandemic-driven measures to relax voting rules during the 2020 elections – warning anew of racist voter “suppression” otherwise. Yet democracies in Europe and elsewhere tell a different story – of the benefits of stricter voter ID requirements after hard lessons learned.

A database on voting rules worldwide compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center, which I run, shows that election integrity measures are widely accepted globally, and have often been adopted by countries after they've experienced fraud under looser voting regimes.

Why did Facebook censor Chinese lab leak theories? Fauci emails to Zuckerberg may answer

Jim Jordan and James Comer, ranking members of judiciary and oversight committees, wrote letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

They demanded documents and information about contacts between Facebook and federal government

Their questions were triggered after release of Anthony Fauci's emails showed he was in touch with Zuckerberg

The Republicans accused the social media platform of collaborating with government to violate First Amendment protections

Facebook removed posts suggesting COVID-19 was human-made

But it reversed its policy when President Biden asked intelligence community to look again at pandemic's origins

More HERE

Ahead of Phase 5 reopening, some look to restrict governor’s power

(The Center Square) – What started as two weeks of restrictions to slow the spread lasted nearly a year-and-a-half. 

Now, with the state on Friday set to enter Phase 5 of the reopening plan he created, some want Gov. J.B. Pritzker to stop governing through disaster proclamations and executive orders.

After 18 gubernatorial COVID-19 disaster proclamations and dozens of executive orders, Illinois is about to enter a full reopening ahead of the weekend. That means for the first time in nearly a year and a half, conventions, concerts and other large group events can return to full capacity in Phase 5 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 reopening plan.

More at the Center Square 

Chinese mom chews out Loudoun County… ‘You are just like Communist Mao’…

Watch a brave parent who grew up in Mao’s China point out all of the identical traits b/n the Cultural Revolution and what LCPS, and really every school system, are doing through the use of CRT. pic.twitter.com/zH7XuyBmW6

— The Virginia Project UAC (@TVPUAC) June 9, 2021

Criminals may have stolen up to half of U.S. unemployment funds

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

Criminals may have stolen as much as half of the unemployment benefits the U.S. pumped out over the past year, Axios' Felix Salmon reports.

• Unemployment fraud during the pandemic could easily reach $400 billion, according to some estimates. The bulk of the money likely ended in the hands of foreign crime syndicates — making this not just theft, but a matter of national security.
• It is estimated that at least 70% of the money stolen by impostors ultimately left the country, much of it ending up in the hands of criminal syndicates in China, Nigeria, Russia and elsewhere, which were likely backed by their governments.
• Much of the rest of the money was stolen by street gangs domestically, who have made up a greater share of the fraudsters in recent months.

More HERE

Thorner: Part 2: Chicago election expert unravels Democrats' voting reform dream HR 1

By Nancy Thorner - 

Following are highlights from questions fielded by scientist Jay Lehr and Tom Harris to Chicago lawyer Joseph A. Morris about the "For the People Act", HR 1, during their one-hour radio program, The Other Side of the Story, on American Out Loud Talk Radio, live-streamed on Sunday, May 30, 202l.

As Joe Morris said about election law reforms:  "Whenever you hear from anyone who wants to sell a pack of election law reforms, get your guard up, because 99 times out of 100 it will favor the party in power."

“There is massive election fraud in Chicago, and it's a constantly evolving thing."

Diversity—Unless You’re Asian

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear a case concerning Harvard’s race-conscious admissions policy. Kenny Xu writes:

The Supreme Court will soon consider whether to take up the long-awaited Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case, which pits Harvard’s race-conscious admissions process against a group of Asian-American applicants who don’t fit into Harvard’s idea of “favored minorities.” The central idea behind the case is whether Harvard’s use of race to create what it sees as a “diverse” class runs afoul of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

If there is one area in which the American elite seems to be moving in lockstep, it is increasing racial diversity. Many Fortune 500 businesses now operate Diversity and Inclusion offices. Every selective college is quick to tout its “diverse student body.” These initiatives sound good in theory, but the movement for racial diversity too often comes at the expense of hiring or admitting the most qualified candidate. Increasingly, the qualified candidate who gets denied is Asian-American—member of a minority group still considered, for diversity purposes, not in need of rescuing.

Is Government Secretly Starting a UBI program?

Work contributes to a meaningful life in addition to providing access to material necessities and luxuries.

The Federal government has issued three rounds of COVID “stimulus” checks and boosted unemployment benefits, first by $600 and now $300 per month.  Is this the piecemeal start of a Universal Basic Income (UBI)?

Under a UBI (also called a basic income guarantee), the government pays all Americans every month, say $1,000.  Many would more than pay this back through taxes.

Although I am a small-government libertarian, a UBI is attractive as a replacement for all current government assistance programs.  Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute counts over 120 means-tested programs spending around $1 trillion, or over $20,000 for every American below the poverty line.  The assistance our current system delivers costs a lot.

More HERE