Judicial Watch announced recently that a federal court ordered the deposition of a representative of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office in a lawsuit over her discriminatory interview policy. The court granted the request for discovery during a hearing this morning. In doing so, the court rejected arguments by the mayor’s lawyers against discovery and to dismiss the legal challenge.
More HERE
By Randy Rossi -
Last week was a tragedy for America’s honor and reputation and it was a serious threat to world peace. President Biden’s horrific decision to withdraw America’s troops from Afghanistan before removing our civilians, our Afghan allies that risked their lives for America, not informing or getting consent from our NATO allies, and removing or destroying $85 billion of American weapons that the Taliban will now use against us is nothing short of a total catastrophe. The Taliban now has $85 billion of weapons that U.S. taxpayers paid for that it will use to slaughter our allies, Afghan women and children, and possibly even American troops and civilians! President Biden’s disastrous speech on the Afghan disaster last week was filled with obvious dishonesty and irrationality and has caused massive damage to America’s honor and trust both here in America and throughout the free world. China, Russia, and Iran could not be happier because President Biden has clearly signaled that under him, our allies can not count on America to stand with them and to keep its promises.
Continue reading "Rossi: Biden’s Afghanistan Catastrophe Exposed" »
David French has alienated those of us “fake” conservatives who don’t buy into the progressive framing of racial issues. Bradley C. S. Watson writes:
America’s Founders understood that political change is inevitable. They thought it must come about through constitutional mechanisms, with the consent of the governed, and must never infringe on the natural rights of citizens. Progressives – rejecting the idea that any rights, including the right of consent to government, are natural – accept no such limits. Progressivism insists that the principled American constitutionalism of fixed natural rights and limited and dispersed powers must be overturned and replaced by an organic, evolutionary model of the Constitution. Historical progress should be facilitated by experts dedicated to the expansion of the public sphere and political control – especially at the national level. As progressivism has grown into modern liberalism, the commitment to extra-constitutional “progress” is broadly shared across elite political, academic, legal, and religious circles. Politics is thus increasingly identified with a mix of activism, expertise, and the desire for “change.”
Progressivism insists that the principled American constitutionalism of fixed natural rights and limited and dispersed powers must be overturned and replaced by an organic, evolutionary model of the Constitution.
Continue reading "How Progressives Rewrote American History" »
One explanation for the shameful failures of this past week is that those in authority began to believe some of their own lies. The other explanation is almost unthinkable – a gross negligence or indifference to the horrible human cost to American citizens, soldiers, and allies of this chaotic withdrawal.
The situation in Afghanistan is difficult and there are no easy and ready-made solutions, but we can be confident that “a truthful witness saves lives.” (Proverbs 14:25). In the face of despair and tragedy, truth is our only way forward.
More HERE
Understanding the origins of the administrative state goes a long way towards grasping how policy is really made today in American government. Ronald J. Pestritto:
The principles and policies of America’s original progressives have received renewed attention over the last decade, both in academia and in public discourse. Today’s progressive politicians and intellectuals have pointed to their roots in the original progressive movement; moreover, the connections between the original progressive calls for reform and the language and shape of our politics today have become increasingly obvious. In what follows, the relevance of original progressivism to government today will be more fully explored. There is no better place to begin than with our administrative state. This essay deals with the general principles of the administrative state and its roots in the original progressive movement.
The term “administrative state” has come to have a variety of meanings, but at its core it points to the situation in contemporary American government, created largely although not entirely by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, whereby a large, unelected bureaucracy is empowered with significant governing authority. The fundamental question for many of those making reference to an “administrative state” is how it can be squared with government by consent and with the constitutional separation-of-powers system.
The War on Terror began with men plunging to their deaths from the highest floors of skyscrapers hit by airplanes; it ended with men plunging to their deaths from the undercarriage of a US airplane taking off from what's left of "Hamid Karzai International Airport" (the signs will be coming down even as you read this).
America is a global laughingstock right now, but that's no reason not to give Chairman Xi and Putin and every up-country village headman in Helmand a few more yuks.
More HERE
Democrats and Republicans are right to blame each other for the fall of Kabul. It’s a loss for America’s bipartisan foreign policy establishment as a whole. For nearly two decades Washington sent thousands of Americans to their deaths and spent trillions of taxpayer dollars to wage a strategically pointless war. And because both sides of the political divide should be held accountable, military as well as civilian officials, too, it is unlikely that anyone ever will be. Since everyone is to blame, holding anyone accountable implicates everyone.
The reality is that America lost its war in Afghanistan more than a decade ago, roughly around the time when CIA officers began bribing aging warlords with Viagra. The Americans knew all about the young boys the tribal leaders kept in their camps; because the sex drug helped Afghan elders rape more boys more often, they were beholden to America’s clandestine service. Losing Afghanistan then is the least of it. When you choose to adopt a foreign cohort’s cultural habits, customs for which the elders of your own tribe would ostracize and perhaps kill you, you have lost your civilization.
More HERE
Continue reading "Thorner: FDA-approved Pfizer vaccine now called "Comirnaty" " »
Sheffield Telegraph image
By Hank Beckman -
The debacle currently unfolding in Afghanistan is the single most embarrassing foreign policy performance by an American President in my lifetime.
As resolutions to untenable situations go, nothing else even comes close; not the Bay of Pigs disaster, not the humiliating withdrawal from Vietnam, not the Iranian hostage crisis, nor any number of lesser crisis were handled this poorly by an American President.
The sight of Joe Biden stumbling through a press briefing—let’s not even call it a press conference—and hurrying out of the room like he was late for dinner reservations at some posh DC restaurant, coupled with administration officials contradicting his view of how the tragedy is unfolding, should be cause for serious reflection about what type of people we are sending to Congress and the White House, who’s running our foreign policy establishment, and just where many of the people reporting on this have been for the last decade.
John Kennedy ransomed the Cuban prisoners taken at the Bay of Pigs, Gerald Ford got our civilians out of Vietnam, and Jimmy Carter attempted an ill-fated helicopter rescue of the hostages.
Continue reading "Beckman: Disgraceful, but Not Surprising, Debacle in Afghanistan" »
CHICAGO - Parents throughout Illinois have been attending local school board meetings to voice their objection to three policies their local public schools are implementing this school year: COVID mask mandates, Critical Race Theory and explicit Sex Ed curriculum - all supported and promoted by the Pritzker Administration.
Indeed, despite pleas from parents at school meetings over the past few months, the governor signed into law SB 818 late last Friday afternoon - opening the way for a sex education curriculum that Bloomington parent Becky Swan began opposing in June. At that time, she predicted the governor would sign the measure.
"I'd like to see Governor Pritzker veto SB 818, but let's be honest, I don't think he will. The next step is that the superintendents and the school boards in every district must pass a resolution to denounce this bill and say they will not teach this...," she told Illinois Review. "If they don't do that, we need to have our teachers wear body cams. We want our police officers to be accountable - so should the teachers if they insist on moving forward."
With the new sex education standards enacted, parents will be able to "opt out" - which means they must notify the schools of their desire for their children to not be included in the classes. If there is no notification from parents, it will be assumed they approve of their children's participation in the classes.
Continue reading "Gov. Pritzker signs into law two controversial sex ed bills" »
WOODSTOCK - Gary Rabine, candidate for Governor, says the fact Governor JB Pritzker chose to sign the controversial sex education bill late on a Friday shows even he knows how insidious this legislation is for the children of this state.
“As Illinoisans across the state were gearing up for Family Day this weekend at the State Fair, our Governor signed legislation to effectively declare war on Illinois families,” Rabine said. “There is no justifiable reason to sexualize kindergartners. Signing this legislation is beyond irresponsible. Our children need to be protected and understand that their privacy is essential. Governor Pritzker should be ashamed of himself.”
The new (SB 818) would require schools to adopt the National Sex Education Standards beginning in kindergarten. Under the latest iteration of the standards, students starting in 6th grade will be taught how to define the meaning of oral and anal sex and third graders will be taught concepts such as masturbation. The bill passed without a single Republican vote.
Continue reading "Gary Rabine: Governor Pritzker should be ashamed of himself" »
WATERLOO – Paul Schimpf, Republican candidate for Governor of Illinois, issued the following statement in response to Pritzker's signing of SB 818:
"By signing SB 818, a bill that authorizes sex education as early as kindergarten, Governor Pritzker has shown an unwillingness to listen to the common sense views of parents who want schools to focus on teaching academics, rather than social engineering. Now, more than ever, we need an Illinois Governor who understands that parents, not the government, should make decisions about their children's education, healthcare, and maturation into adulthood. With his misguided action today, Governor Pritzker proves once again that he is too extreme to lead our state."
About Paul Schimpf: Paul Schimpf served as a State Senator for the 58th Senate District, was the Minority Spokesperson for the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and, during his time as an active-duty Marine Corps officer, was the chief American attorney advisor to Iraqi prosecutors in the trial of Saddam Hussein. For more information on Senator Schimpf, please visit Schimpf4Illinois.com.
By Nancy Thorner -
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Ben Franklin.
There was Jimmy Carter's Iran incompetence, Hillary/Obama's Benghazi ineptitude, and now President Biden's junior high antics at Kabul.
Thousands of Afghans are struggling to ensure the physical safety of their families after the Taliban took control of the country have an additional worry. It is that biometric databases and their own digital history can be used to track and target them.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of “chilling” curbs on human rights and violations against women and girls. On Monday, August 16, 2021, Amnesty International said thousands of Afghans – including academics, journalists and activists – were “at serious risk of Taliban reprisals.”
After years of a push to digitize databases in Afghanistan and introduce digital identity cards and biometrics for voting, these technologies can now be used to target and attack vulnerable groups.
Continue reading "Thorner: Could Biden's Taliban takeover be used by COVID Stasi? " »
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
The FBI has reportedly found little evidence that the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, was part of an organized plot to overturn the results of the election.
Reuters reported Friday morning that multiple law enforcement officials have told them that despite hundreds of arrests made by the FBI, “the FBI at this point believes the violence was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups or prominent supporters of then-President Donald Trump, according to the sources, who have been either directly involved in or briefed regularly on the wide-ranging investigations.”
More HERE
Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to Advocate Health Care (also known as Advocate Aurora Health) regarding its unlawful religious exemption form that excludes protected legal religious beliefs regarding the undeniable association between COVID-19 injections and aborted fetal cell lines. Liberty Counsel is prepared to file a lawsuit if the medical organization does not respond by today (Monday, August 23, 2021), and revise its form and honor these federal protections and entitlements to accommodate those employees who have already submitted their forms and been denied.
Advocate Health, the largest health system in Illinois, employs over 70,000 employees in the state and elsewhere. Many of these employees are requesting religious exemptions and accommodations from the “Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policy” which makes false claims about the use of aborted fetal cell lines in the injections.
However, all three of the currently available COVID injections are produced by, derived from, manufactured with, tested on, developed with, or otherwise connected to or “associated” with aborted fetal cell lines. There is no question about the accuracy of this determination, and Advocate Health is categorically false in its contrary directive to employees.
Many of the employees have sincerely held religious beliefs that because life is sacred from the moment of conception and abortion is the murder of an innocent human in violation of Scripture. Many also hold sincere religious beliefs against taking any “vaccines” or taking those derived from aborted fetal cell lines or those sold by companies that profit from the sale of products derived from abortion.
Continue reading "Illinois' Advocate Health Care Must Revise Illegal Exemption Form" »
CHICAGO - Employees and staff of the Chicago Archdiocese are now required to get the COVID vaccination and pastors are not to grant religious exemptions, an email shared with Chicago Crain's said Thursday. From the report:
“We have made this decision convinced that this is the best way to stop the spread of this deadly illness,” Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said in a Thursday email to clergy and staff. “Following the lead of Pope Francis, we encourage everyone to be vaccinated as an act of charity. … Religious exemptions to vaccination cannot be supported by Catholic teaching and I have instructed our pastors not to grant them.”
Unvaccinated people will be required to get tested weekly and wear masks in Archdiocese facilities at all times, according to the policy. Additionally, unvaccinated people may be prohibited from entering the facilities, or unable to use certain amenities, like lunchrooms.
Earlier this week, Pope Francis issued a statement saying getting the vaccine is "an act of love."
The vaccine has yet to be fully approved by the Federal Drug Administration, and is being distributed with the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization.
More on the story at Crain's
By Nancy Thorner -
Republicans and Democrat lawmakers and former Obama officials have criticized Biden's handling of the Afghanistan situation. A former ambassador to Afghanistan under Obama, Ryan Crocker, said the Biden administration had "a total lack of coordinated, post-withdrawal planning" and is now suffering a "self-inflicted wound."
Jihad Watch Editor, Robert Spencer pointed out: "If Sharia were as benign as Islamic spokesmen and Leftists in the West insist, no one would be desperately trying to get out of Afghanistan."
On Monday, August 16, 2021, thousands of desperate Afghans attempted to flee at Kabul's international airport. Videos on social media show people running across the tarmac as U.S. troops fired warning shots in the air. Another shows Afghans who had clung to a C-17 transport plane plunging to their death as it took off. See people clinging to U.S. jets leaving Afghanistan disaster.
Biden's plan for withdrawal (if he ever had a plan) was unconscionable. Biden should have first taken out American citizens. Now Biden is sending back troops to rescue American citizens.
Continue reading "Thorner: Afghan refugee challenge confronts Europe and U.S." »
By Mark Weyermuller -
Several thousand people attended the funeral for Chicago Police Officer Ella French Thursday in Chicago. She was shot and killed two weeks ago while performing a traffic stop. Two suspects have been arrested and charged.
(All photos and video by Mark Weyermuller)
Continue reading "Weyermuller: Thousands honor fallen Chicago PD Officer Ella French" »
While racialized politics has infused every corner of American life, the moral stakes in the health care arena go far beyond, say, the perceived slights called microaggressions. John Murawski writes:
Part One of a Two-Part Series (Part Two Here)
The national racial reckoning over reparations and critical race theory is taking over the world of medicine and health care. Prestigious medical journals, top medical schools and elite medical centers are adopting the language of social justice activism and vowing to confront “systemic racism,” dismantle “structural violence” and disrupt “white supremacy” in their institutional cultures.
Continue reading "Medicine's Getting Major Injections of Woke Ideology" »
The Biden administration realizes the border crisis it has created is a political disaster, and it’s spinning furiously. Mark Krikorian:
I thought for sure the arrest numbers at the border would go down a little in July, if only because of the brutal summer heat.
I was wrong.
Border “encounters” continued their climb under the Biden administration, reaching about 213,000, up 13 percent from June. Of those, about 200,000 were Border Patrol arrests (the rest were illegals at ports of entry).
Perhaps most alarming is that the illegal surge continues to globalize. The share of Border Patrol arrests of illegals not from Mexico or the Northern Triangle countries of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) has doubled over the past six months, from about 15 percent in March to 29 percent in July. (See all the numbers here and here.)
(Photo: krisanapong detraphiphat/Getty Images)
David French has alienated those of us “fake” conservatives who don’t buy into the progressive framing of racial issues. GianCarlo Canaparo writes:
In a recently published blog, David French, a Christian conservative commentator, argues that “systemic racism” is real and that Christians have an obligation to cure it. This is true, he claims, even if they are not themselves intentionally racist, because they are inadvertently perpetuating the racism of their ancestors.
Citing several Old Testament examples where God commanded the Israelites to confess and make amends for the “sins and iniquities of their fathers,” French says that Christians have an “intergenerational” obligation to “ameliorate systemic injustice” by embracing the “solutions” found in sociology, history, and economics.
Continue reading "Sloppy Thinking About ‘Systemic Racism’" »
(Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra violated federal law when they told the Justice Department to drop a lawsuit against a hospital that forced a nurse to assist an elective abortion, 84 Republican lawmakers say.
In a letter last week to the high-ranking Biden administration officials, first obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, 21 senators and 63 representatives demand to know why Becerra and Garland acted to drop the lawsuit the Justice Department filed in December under the Trump administration.
More HERE
SPRINGFIELD - State Representative Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) says despite numerous attempts, the Illinois Department of Public Health has failed to provide the number of cases and hospitalizations of children affected by COVID-19.
“The official representing Dr. Ezike and the IDPH, Dr. Sarah Patrick, publicly promised that she could provide those numbers within two days, and it has now been eight days so far and no real data,” declared Rep. Adam Niemerg. “This refusal to provide transparency to parents and school boards is unacceptable and the taxpayers of Illinois deserve to know the facts!”
Rep. Niemerg’s request of the actual number of cases by region of the state will help local education officials, parents, and school boards know the real level of mitigation possibly needed in school settings and the data could either confirm or refute the attempted mandates by the Governor, the IDPH and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) on children, the press release says.
Niemerg's letter in its entirety is below:
Continue reading "State rep calls on IDPH to provide COVID-19 facts about Illinois children cases" »
WASHINGTON DC - Biden Administration health officials released a statement Wednesday saying a third dose of the COVID 19 vaccine will be needed for those who've had the Moderna or Pfizer products, while yet another booster is expected for those who've had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
"Protection against SARS-CoV-2 begins to decrease over time," the statement says. The federal government will be paying for the boosters.
The COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States continue to be remarkably effective in reducing risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death, even against the widely circulating Delta variant. Recognizing that many vaccines are associated with a reduction in protection over time, and acknowledging that additional vaccine doses could be needed to provide long lasting protection, we have been analyzing the scientific data closely from the United States and around the world to understand how long this protection will last and how we might maximize this protection. The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time following the initial doses of vaccination, and in association with the dominance of the Delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease. Based on our latest assessment, the current protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death could diminish in the months ahead, especially among those who are at higher risk or were vaccinated during the earlier phases of the vaccination rollout. For that reason, we conclude that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Franklin Graham is going through the heart of America to offer people a message of God's love. He is holding an evening of music and hope in eight cities along historic Route 66, and he's kicking off the opening night in Joliet.
"I think this is where the strength of our country lies, and I'm coming to remind people that God loves them," said Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. "There are a lot of people who are afraid. People have lost their jobs. Many people have been sick and loved ones have died. I just want people to know that God hasn't forgotten them."
On Sept. 19, Graham will launch the Route 66 God Loves You Tour in Joliet. The festive, family-friendly event is free and everyone is invited to attend. It begins at 4 p.m. at the Chicagoland Speedway.
Continue reading "Rev. Franklin Graham to start Route 66 Tour Sept 19 in Joliet " »
The Fed continues to pump more money into the economy while the stock market, business activity, and inflation all move higher. Conditions are fairly stable at present, but there are warning signs of trouble ahead.
More HERE
(Photo: Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
Another day, another instance of a Big Tech company censoring content it doesn’t like.
This time, YouTube—owned by Google—took down a video by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in which he discusses face masks and COVID-19. YouTube also banned Paul from its platform for a week.
“We removed content from Senator Paul’s channel for including claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19, in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies,” YouTube said in a public statement.
Notably, YouTube’s policy cites the World Health Organization and “local authorities” as its source of what’s correct about COVID-19.
Yet the WHO not only flubbed its early response to the disease, it was criticized and defunded by then-President Donald Trump for its connections with China and general dysfunction.
But this is only one bad part about YouTube’s decision.
More HERE
(Photo: Maskot/Getty Images)
By Emily Smith -
Gen Z-ers on TikTok declared a war on thrift shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that middle- and upper-class people shopping at thrift stores contribute to gentrification and limit opportunities for lower-income individuals to buy affordable clothes.
This argument is completely misguided. I know from personal experience.
I have thrift shopped for as long as I can remember. Growing up in a lower-income family, thrift shopping helped me save money and taught me budgeting skills.
As a former undergraduate student and now as a graduate student, I have continued the habit, with about 95% of my wardrobe coming from thrift shops.
It’s not because I want to deny anyone else the opportunity to buy affordable clothing. I don’t judge anyone who shops at the thrift shop or at yard sales—whether out of need, frugality, or taste in fashion. I shop at thrift stores to save money.
More HERE
Continue reading "Thorner: Mandatory Digital Health Passport More Than a Pipe Dream" »
Video reportedy shows two desperate Afghans dropping from US Air Force cargo plane
PEORIA IL – Congressman Darin LaHood (IL-18), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement on Afghanistan:
The evacuation of the United States Embassy in Kabul and the fall of the Afghan government into the hands of the Taliban is deeply disappointing but predictable given the Biden Administration's approach.
For months, the White House and President Biden have ignored the warnings about the situation in Afghanistan by many in Congress and the defense communities. Despite the warnings, the Administration pushed ahead with an ill-advised, poorly planned, and needlessly rapid complete drawdown of America’s presence in Afghanistan in an attempt to seek a political victory before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The world is looking to America as Afghanistan descends into chaos. Instead of taking responsibility for the situation, President Biden and his Administration continue to play politics and blame others.
Continue reading "LaHood: Biden owns the horrific scenes to come from Afghanistan" »
Afghans beg to be allowed on US Air Force cargo plane out of Kabal Airport
By John F. Di Leo -
After fifteen years of constant war in Afghanistan, President Trump believed it was time to try our best to end it. He believed that the goal of extending our involvement beyond punishment for the 9-11 attacks into the concept of nation-building was wrong from the start, and we needed to wind down our presence and depart. He was in fact elected, in 2016, in large part, upon this philosophy - of maintaining a powerful military that is used sparingly (rather than a weaker military, stretched too thin through global meddling).
Even so, President Trump did not take office in January 2017 and close up shop in Afghanistan six months later. The Trump administration did its best – to the extent possible – to support our mission of leaving a trained and strong ally in place, a government that could defend itself when America someday pulled out. The Trump administration proposed a date for our departure in 2021, conditional upon the Afghan government being strong enough to defend itself.
By contrast, the Biden/Harris regime announced an intent to withdraw all US forces unconditionally by September 11, 2021, delivering a clear victory to the Taliban on the 20th anniversary of their evil 2001 attacks. The Biden/Harris regime gave orders to various units to exit the country in the dead of night, without even telling our Afghan allies, leaving airfields and billions of dollars worth of American military hardware for the Taliban to grab before our Afghan allies could even secure it.
Continue reading "Di Leo: Liberal Theory Meets Harsh Reality in Afghanistan" »
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it is re-imposing strict Obama-era water use standards on showerheads and other home appliances.
Before the Trump Administration rolled back the regulations in December of 2020, the old rule capped the rate of water released by all showerheads or nozzles combined in multi-head devices at only 2.5 gallons per minute. The Trump DOE revised the rule allowing each showerhead nozzle individually to spray at that rate.
In a December 15th, 2020 press release when DOE changed the rules to allow more water to flow through showerheads, then-Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said the rules would give consumers more choice appliances they can keep in their homes.
More HERE
The Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) declared its belief that schools should be shut down again if the India Variant of the coronavirus, also known as the “Delta variant,” continues to spread, as reported by the Daily Caller.
In a letter published on Thursday addressed to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D-Ill.), the union demanded that the mayor “acknowledge the changing dynamics of the COVID-19 virus” and make further bargains with the CTU regarding conditions for possibly returning to school.
More HERE
(Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Pro-amnesty nonprofits bankrolled in part by billionaires such as George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg were farm teams for five officials who now run the Biden administration’s immigration policy, The Daily Signal has learned.
In some cases, Biden administration officials were senior staff at those nonprofits, in others they did consulting work for groups advocating a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal immigrants such as America’s Voice and FWD.US, according to White House financial disclosure forms and other public sources.
More HERE
By Randy Rossi -
Democrat President Biden has only been in office for just 7 months and he has already done more damage to America and the world than any previous president. In today’s news we are hearing that just a few weeks after pulling out American troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban has conquered at least 12 regional capitals in Afghanistan and is about to capture Kabul the capital of Afghanistan in a matter of days or weeks. For 20 years Americans and our allies have shed their blood to stop the Taliban from conquering Afghanistan and Biden has destroyed that investment in people and billions of dollars of tax payer money in just a few weeks after making his terrible decisions. Both the US military and our allies advised President Biden not to withdraw our troops so quickly without a plan to protect the Afghan people from the barbaric Taliban. President Biden ignored their advice. But why should anybody be surprised? When Biden was VP under President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that “Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past 4 decades”. Biden’s Afghanistan debacle is just one more example of that. Yet supposedly a majority of Americans voted for him for president.
Continue reading "Rossi: President Biden’s Endless Debacles Are Crushing America & the World" »
CHICAGO - The same Governor Pritzker that demands all students in public and non-public schools wear masks when they return to school signed into legislation Friday a measure that will protect the rights of Illinois students to wear their hair anyway they please. The reason? To stop "hair bias" in schools, the press release says.
Dress codes that have restrictions like this will no longer be permitted: "Letters, symbols, and designs beyond a single straight line which draw attention to an individual shall not be permitted. The administrator/supervisor reserves the right to determine if a hairstyle is disruptive to the educational process."
Illinois schools will not be able to enact dress code policies restricting hairstyles like that anymore.
A must read, directly from the governor's office:
Continue reading "Gov. Pritzker Signs Landmark law to "prevent hair bias in Illinois schools"" »
UPDATE x1: State Rep. Chris Miller responds, saying Pritzker is a "dictator"... see below
SPRINGFIELD - Parents unhappy with mask mandates at the local government schools report finding a viable option in area private and religious schools last year that worked well for their children. That option will not be available, according to a new executive order issued by Governor Pritzker that will remove a non-public school's recognition by the state if the school refuses to mandate masks for their students, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
Numerous surrounding states have no similar requirements for public or private schools, and Illinois parents have been voicing outrage over mask policies to their local school boards.
Executive Order 2021-18, issued by Governor Pritzker on August 4th states:
Illinois Superintendent of Education, Dr. Carmen I. Ayala wrote to Timothy Christian Schools, who reportedly was considering an optional mask policy, that the State would use the teeth provided in law to enforce the mandate.
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Friday reported 21,334 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 92 additional deaths since reporting last Friday, August 6, 2021.
The above graph shows the waves of COVID cases in Illinois since March of 2020. More information can be found HERE.
Currently, 76% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 59% of Illinois adults are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Continue reading "Illinois Public Health Dept reports current COVID surge similar to April 2021" »
By Mark Weyermuller -
Wednesday night over 2000 people attended a prayer service Chicago Police Officer Ella French. She was shot and killed Saturday night during a traffic stop. Her partner was also shot and is in serious condition at the hospital. Two suspects were arrested and are being held without bond.
The Chicago Tribune reports:
Two brothers have been charged in connection with their alleged roles in the shooting: Emonte Morgan, who faces charges including murder and attempted murder, and Eric Morgan, who faces weapons charges and obstruction of justice. Cook County prosecutors say Emonte Morgan shot the officers, then handed the gun to his brother, who ran to a nearby yard where he was held by residents until police arrived.
Continue reading "Weyermuller: Prayer Vigil for fallen CPD Officer Ella French" »
(Photo: Marcus Ingram/Getty Images)
Historians note that applying the 1619 Project’s standards for evaluating historical racism could prove especially awkward for Democrats. Mark Hemingway writes:
Democrats who advanced a bill in June to remove statues of white supremacists from the U.S. Capitol ignored a central fact about those figures: All of them had been icons of their party, from Andrew Jackson’s adamantly pro-slavery vice president, John C. Calhoun, to North Carolina Gov. Charles B. Aycock, an architect of the white supremacist campaign of 1898 that ushered in the era of Jim Crow.
At a time when governments, sports teams, schools, and other bastions of American society are rushing to expunge legacies of slavery or racism, this was another instance of the Democratic Party’s failure to acknowledge that it did more than any other institution in American life to preserve the “peculiar institution”—and later enforce Jim Crow-style apartheid in the Old South.
Continue reading "Bias by Omission: 1619 Project Ignores Democratic Party’s History of Racism" »
Rather than pursue policies to reduce inflation and encourage people to go back to work, the Biden administration and its Democratic Party allies in Congress have done everything in their power to exacerbate these problems. They've done so by expanding and/or extending a slew of welfare, unemployment, and stimulus programs.
Federal student loan repayments remain frozen (this could continue well into 2022), and tens of millions of families are now being given up to $300 per child per month under the American Rescue Plan’s expanded child tax credit provision — including families who earn as much as $150,000 per year.
Those programs are just the tip of the iceberg. Congress is getting closer to passing a $1 trillion infrastructure package. Democrats are pushing a $3.5 trillion climate, education, and welfare bill. The $3.5 trillion plan would, among many other things, create huge new "green" energy tax credits, subsidies for childcare, and a universal prekindergarten program, as well as expand Medicare benefits to cover dental and other health care services.
The risks are real.
More HERE
At California’s top private school, diversity, equity, and inclusion is the new core curriculum. John D. Sailer:
Some schools deny that they teach critical race theory, but the College Preparatory School, California’s top-ranked independent high school, leaves no room for ambiguity. According to its seven-page curricular update, revised on June 25, the Oakland school added readings in critical race theory to its constitutional-law elective. “These new readings,” the update announces, “were designed to challenge the law’s propensity to categorize people in ways that silo marginalized groups and to get students to think about how legal advocacy might operate from a more intersectional framework.”
The Nuremberg Code was created in 1947 to make sure the world never repeated the dark history of the Nazi experiments on human subjects. Its 10 principles have been recognized worldwide. A growing segment of the US population is saying forcing the COVID shots violates every one of these timeless standards.
The FDA and the COVID vaccine Fact Sheets clearly state that each person has the "option to accept or refuse" the shots. The FDA and the NIH websites also have the Nuremberg Code, a set of international principles to prevent forced experimental medical testing on people without their consent, posted for reading.
NONE of the COVID-19 shots have full FDA approval as of this date. The FDA website makes clear these drugs have ONLY "Emergency Use Authorization" (EUA)—meaning they are, by definition, "experimental" and "investigational."
But the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) has twisted the "option to accept or refuse" to mean you don't have the "option to refuse." This is absurd and a violation of the law.
More HERE
SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois Department of Public Health has set up an online digital vaccination record system that they say will be only accessible to individuals to check on their own COVID-10 records and share via their phones that they have had the COVID-19 vaccination. The identification system, Vax Verify, can be accessed at https://idphportal.illinois.gov
The system demonstrates that the state has developed a state-owned and state-controlled centralized system of reporting those who've chosen to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Illinois Review has requested from the IDPH whether the system includes folks that have filed religious or medical exemptions. We will report when they respond.
UPDATE: IDPH spokesperson Melaney Arnold responded: "Vax Verify has information about what vaccines an individual has received; not those they have not."
From a press release issued Wednesday morning:
Continue reading "Illinois sets up online digital COVID-19 vaccination passport system" »
By John F. Di Leo -
On Tuesday, August 10, AD 2021, the U.S. Senate passed an “infrastructure” bill, of which less than half was actually infrastructure, and which contains a siphon clause that enables the administration to largely disregard the law entirely and spend the money on whatever it wants to. It is less a spending bill than a blank check bill.
But the part of this operation that may need the most comment is the aspect that furthers the so-called Green New Deal, both in this bill and a follow-up spending bill, also inaccurately being passed off as an infrastructure bill.
The issue at hand is energy, as political a commodity as there has ever been.
Continue reading "Di Leo: The Biden/Harris Budget-Breaker and the Power of Energy" »
(The Center Square) – Parents across Illinois are sending their kids to school. Some kids are being suspended for not wearing masks.
The school year has started in some districts and schools are requiring masks, per Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s recent order. He said Tuesday the mask mandate is temporary, but necessary with rising COVID-19 case rates.
“This is a vital part of keeping people safe and healthy across the state,” Pritzker said.
For Marlena and Ben McCoy in Marion, they had their children politely refuse to wear masks Monday, saying it’s not healthy for them to breathe their own air for eight hours a day.
Read the rest of the story at The Center Square
DUPAGE - The DuPage County Auditor's election that took place in November 2020, is still not settled - and the previous auditor, Republican Bob Grogan, is seeking a recount that he will have to raise over $56,000 by August 27th in order to enact. A Go Fund Me page has been set up for donations.
Monday morning, the DuPage County judge overseeing the appeal ruled on the Clerk’s request that Grogan pay almost $300k for the court-ordered recount.
"The judge reduced the likely costs to $112,614.59, he then went in to say that because of the anomalies I have found would overturn the election in the DuPage County Auditor’s race, it is essentially a tie," Grogan wrote on his Facebook page. "As such the amount i have to pay is reduced to 50% of the costs, which comes out to $56,307.25."
Grogan has until August 27th to deposit the money with the Clerk.
Continue reading "Go Fund Me page set up to fund Grogan recount; deadline August 27th" »
By Ben Shapiro -
Two weeks to slow the spread.
That was the original rationale for the lockdowns, masking and social distancing: Prevent transmission of the coronavirus so that Americans could be assured that we would not overwhelm hospital capacity, causing needless death.
Wait until a vaccine is available.
That was the next goal post: an admonition to continue to take precautions to avoid spreading the coronavirus until a vaccine could be developed. Despite the warnings of COVID-19 pessimists that a vaccine would take years to develop, despite the unjustified alarmism of figures like Vice President Kamala Harris that the Trump administration would skew the vaccine protocols to achieve political ends, vaccines were miraculously developed.
Wait until every adult has a chance to get the vaccine.
That was the final rationale for caution.
More HERE
