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Snowflakes and the flag

Snowflakes and the flag

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At the University of California-Davis, display of the American flag at Student Senate meetings is now optional.
Stating “patriotism is different for every individual,” the senate stressed the Stars and Stripes was not being banned. Its action merely eliminated the flag’s mandatory presence.
Also last week, during ceremonies opening the Atlanta Braves’ new home, SunTrust Park, dozens of Sun Trust Bank employees deployed a giant American flag that covered most of the outfield. Flags were also on display on the video message boards.
This prompted NBC News lead baseball writer Craig Calcaterra to tweet out on Easter morning — three days after the flag display — after he was sent a photo of the giant flag after it was unfurled during the ceremonies:

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After getting the expected pushback; everything from people wishing he contracted cancer to the standard, “America, love it or leave it,” Calcaterra wrote a column saying he was “sarcastically adopting the voice of one of the many ‘stick to sports’ people we’ve mocked around  here many, many times.”
Most people don’t believe exhibiting the flag is a political act. It should be an apolitical, bipartisan act. But as Calcaterra pointed out in his column:

“…patriotism and flag-waving are a huge part of political strategy and always have been. There are entire ideologies based on it. It is likewise used for other, non-purely-patriotic purposes. Brands routinely wrap themselves in the American flag to sell you stuff. Indeed, there are rankings of which brands best-leverage patriotism for commercial purposes.”

But it’s true; most Americans apparently do like sports to be politics-free. Just remember back to the Colin Kaepernick affair and see how that affected NFL attendance and viewership. And look at ESPN, which continues to see a downward ratings spiral.
Perhaps it’s that Americans want sports to be left-wing politics-free.

Want to understand the Deep State? Here is your Deep, Deep State

Want to understand the Deep State? Here is your Deep, Deep State

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Men behind the curtain?
Men who control the government and its policies from the outside?
Men who have immunity from prosecution?
Men who tell presidents what to do?
Men who can hide in plain sight? Men who don’t need to be elected to public office? Men who can laugh at their critics and call them conspiracy theorists and purveyors of fake news? Men who can determine financial and banking policy? Men who can set up corporate tribunals that nullify national courts? Men who can set virtually any national policy agenda they want to?
If an honest press existed, all this would be out in the open by now.
If, as many people are now saying, the CIA and NSA and neocons are the unelected Deep State, then the people I’m talking about would be the Deep, Deep State.
Read on.
Many people think the Trilateral Commission (TC), created in 1973 by David Rockefeller, is a relic of an older time.
Think again.
Patrick Wood, author of Trilaterals Over Washington, points out there are only 87 members of the Trilateral Commission who live in America. Obama appointed eleven of them to posts in his administration.
Keep in mind that the original stated goal of the TC was to create “a new international economic order.” Knowing that you have to break eggs to make an omelet, consider how the following TC members, in key Obama posts, could have helped engender further national chaos; erase our sovereign national borders; and install binding international agreements that will envelop our economy and money in a deeper global collective: a new world order:

  • Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary;
  • James Jones, National Security Advisor;
  • Paul Volker, Chairman, Economic Recovery Committee;
  • Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence.

All Trilateralists.
In the run-up to his inauguration after the 2008 presidential election, Obama was tutored by the co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski.
In Europe, the financially embattled nations of Greece and Italy brought in Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti as prime ministers. Both men are Trilateral members, and Monti is the former European chairman of the Trilateral Commission.
In the U.S., since 1973, author Wood counts eight out of 10 U.S. Trade Representative appointments, and six out of eight World Bank presidents, as American Trilateral members.
Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote, four years before birthing the TC in 1973, with his godfather, David Rockefeller: “[The] nation state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force. International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation state.”
Several other noteworthy Trilateral members: George HW Bush; Bill Clinton; Dick Cheney; Al Gore. The first three men helped sink the U.S. further into debt by fomenting wars abroad; and Gore’s cap and trade blueprint would destroy industrial economies, while vastly increasing the numbers of people in Third World countries who have no access to modern sources of energy.
Does all this offer a clue as to why the U.S. economy has failed to recover from the Wall Street debacle of 2008, why the federal bailout was a handout to super-rich criminals, and why Obama took no actions which would have brought about an authentic recovery?
A closer look at Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s circle of economic advisers reveals the chilling Trilateral effect: Paul Volker; Alan Greenspan; E. Gerald Corrigan (director, Goldman Sachs); and Peter G Peterson (former CEO, Lehman Brothers, former chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations). These men are all Trilateral members.
How many foxes in the hen house do we need, before we realize their Trilateral agenda is controlling the direction of our economy?
The TC has no interest in building up the American economy. They want to torpedo it, as part of the end-game of creating a de facto Globalist management system for the whole planet.
Any doubt on the question of TC goals is answered by David Rockefeller himself, the founder of the TC, in his Memoirs (2003): “Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure-one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”
Even in what many people mistakenly think of as the TC’s heyday, the 1970s, there were few who realized its overarching power.
Here is a close-up snap shot of a remarkable moment from out of the past. It’s a through-the-looking-glass secret—in the form of a conversation between a reporter, Jeremiah Novak, and two Trilateral Commission members, Karl Kaiser and Richard Cooper. The interview took place in 1978. It concerned the issue of who exactly, during President Carter’s administration, was formulating U.S. economic and political policy.
The careless and off-hand attitude of Trilateralists Kaiser and Cooper is astonishing. It’s as if they’re saying, “What we’re revealing is already out in the open, it’s too late to do anything about it, why are you so worked up, we’ve already won…”
Novak (the reporter): Is it true that a private [Trilateral committee] led by Henry Owen of the U.S. and made up of [Trilateral] representatives of the U.S., UK, West Germany, Japan, France and the EEC is coordinating the economic and political policies of the Trilateral countries [which would include the U.S.]?
Cooper: Yes, they have met three times.
Novak: Yet, in your recent paper you state that this committee should remain informal because to formalize ‘this function might well prove offensive to some of the Trilateral and other countries which do not take part.’ Who are you afraid of?
Kaiser: Many countries in Europe would resent the dominant role that West Germany plays at these [Trilateral] meetings.
Cooper: Many people still live in a world of separate nations, and they would resent such coordination [of policy].
Novak: But this [Trilateral] committee is essential to your whole policy. How can you keep it a secret or fail to try to get popular support [for its decisions on how Trilateral member nations will conduct their economic and political policies]?
Cooper: Well, I guess it’s the press’ job to publicize it.
Novak: Yes, but why doesn’t President Carter come out with it and tell the American people that [U.S.] economic and political power is being coordinated by a [Trilateral] committee made up of Henry Owen and six others? After all, if [U.S.] policy is being made on a multinational level, the people should know.
Cooper: President Carter and Secretary of State Vance have constantly alluded to this in their speeches.
Kaiser: It just hasn’t become an issue.
Source: “Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management,” ed. by Holly Sklar, 1980. South End Press, Boston. Pages 192-3.
Of course, although Kaiser and Cooper claimed everything being manipulated by the Trilateral Commission committee was already out in the open, it wasn’t.
Their interview slipped under the mainstream media radar, which is to say, it was ignored and buried. It didn’t become a scandal on the level of, say, Watergate, although its essence was far larger than Watergate.
U.S. economic and political policy run by a committee of the Trilateral Commission—the Commission had been created in 1973 as an “informal discussion group” by David Rockefeller and his sidekick, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who would become Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor.
Shortly after Carter won the presidential election, his aide, Hamilton Jordan, said that if after the inauguration, Cy Vance and Brzezinski came on board as secretary of state and national security adviser, “We’ve lost. And I’ll quit.” Lost—because both men were powerful members of the Trilateral Commission and their appointment to key positions would signal a surrender of White House control to the Commission.
Vance and Brzezinski were appointed secretary of state and national security adviser, as Jordan feared. But he didn’t quit. He became Carter’s chief of staff.
Now consider the vast propaganda efforts of the past 40 years, on so many levels, to install the idea that all nations and peoples of the world are a single Collective.
From a very high level of political and economic power, this propaganda op has had the objective of grooming the population for a planet that is one coagulated mass, run and managed by one force.
Deep State.
Trump, who squashed the Globalist TPP treaty as soon as he was inaugurated, has nevertheless appointed a significant Trilateral member to a major post. Patrick Wood writes (2/6/17):

“According to a White House press release, the first member of the Trilateral Commission has entered the Trump administration as the Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs, where he will sit on the National Security Council [as deputy director]:
“‘Kenneth I. Juster will serve as Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs. He will coordinate the Administration’s international economic policy and integrate it with national security and foreign policy. He will also be the President’s representative and lead U.S. negotiator (“Sherpa”) for the annual G-7, G-20, and APEC Summits’.”

Juster’s duties will take him into the heart of high-level negotiations with foreign governments on economic policy.
Note: In this article, I’m not listing Trump appointees who are members of another Rockefeller deep-state organization, the Council on Foreign Relations. Suffice to say, the CFR is a brother of the Trilateral Commission, and, when push comes to shove, the lesser brother. And finally, Goldman Sachs, whose people Trump has surrounded himself with, is a corporate member of the CFR…
Jon Rappoport

http://conservativeread.com/globalists-interviewed-they-admitted-they-controlled-the-government/

 

Trump News April 18, 2017

The White House
 

FEATURED
WHITE HOUSE MEMO
“Buy American and Hire American” is more than just a slogan, it is the cornerstone of President Donald J. Trump’s vision for a government that, for the first time in decades, answers to the American workers who built this country.
AFTERNOON:

  • 1:15PM CDT: President Trump arrives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  • 2:00PM CDT: President Trump tours Snap-On Tools
  • 2:20PM CDT: President Trump makes remarks at Snap-On Tools – Watch LIVE
  • 2:50PM CDT: President Trump signs the Buy American, Hire American Executive Order
OVAL OFFICE HIGHLIGHTS
President Trump and the First Lady host the 139th White House Easter Egg Roll.
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WHITE HOUSE UPDATES
Photo of the Day:

President Donald J. Trump joins participants at the Easter Egg Roll writing letters to the brave men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead).
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NEWS FROM VICE PRESIDENT PENCE’S ASIA-PACIFIC TOUR
Vice President Pence Celebrates Easter Sunday with the Troops.
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Vice President Pence and South Korean Acting President Hwang hold a joint press conference.
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Vice President Pence speaks with the troops at the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea.
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Vice President Pence speaks with the troops in Seoul, South Korea.
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PRESS ROOM
Watch yesterday’s press briefing with Sean Spicer:

Read Transcript
NEWS REPORTS
  • Washington Times: “Melania Trump nods to U.S. troops at White House Easter Egg Roll”
    Read More
  • Breitbart: “Trump Family Honors Troops, Welcomes Children at White House Easter Egg Roll”
    Read More

Illinois State Sen. Toi Hutchinson wants to tax your lawn.

Illinois lawmaker proposes taxing landscaping and snow removal
State Sen. Toi Hutchinson wants to tax your lawn.

SB 9 is part of the package of bills that make up the Senate “grand bargain,” which would have hiked taxes by $7 billion.
Just as summer weather rolls around, an Illinois state politician has proposed taxing landscaping services.
Senate Bill 9 gained infamy when state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Chicago Heights, filed an amendment to the bill March 2 proposing a 6.25 percent sales tax to cable TV and internet streaming services such as Netflix, but the proposal covers much more.
In fact, SB 9 would apply this 6.25 sales tax to services including:

  • mowing, watering, and aerating lawns
  • weeding
  • mulching
  • raking leaves
  • tree and shrub trimming and removal
  • planting of trees, shrubs, flowering and -flowering plants, and sod; spraying; fertilizer
  • applying chemicals; lawn and garden installation
  • constructing, remodeling, or repairing irrigation or lawn sprinkler systems, patios (other than asphalt, tar, macadam, or poured concrete), walkways (other than asphalt, tar, macadam, or poured concrete), fences, trellises, and retaining walls
  • grading (such as the filling or leveling of topsoil for lawns and gardens)

Hutchinson’s proposal would also apply the tax to snow plowing and removal.
SB 9 is part of the package of bills that make up the Senate “grand bargain,” which would have hiked taxes by $7 billion – including a permanent income tax hike. And the cost drivers that have gotten Illinois into its fiscal mess would have remained almost entirely unchanged.
Tax hikes aren’t the answer. The 2011 income tax hike brought in more than $31 billion in new revenue – and nearly 90 cents of every tax hike dollar went to pensions. Yet Illinois’ pension debt has exploded, and today stands at $130 billion.
Two polls Fabrizio, Lee & Associates conducted and the Illinois Policy Institute commissioned found that not only do the majority of likely Illinois voters want the state to close its budget deficit by only cutting spending, but they also support major reforms that would make that possible.
The polls found:

  • 67 percent of Illinoisans surveyed support a permanent property tax freeze that could only be broken by a local vote
  • 78 percent of respondents said current state workers should have the option to leave the pension system and enroll in 401(k)-style retirement savings plans
  • 80 percent of Illinoisans surveyed supported spending cuts as a vehicle to balance the state budget
  • More than half of Illinoisans said spending cuts should be the only tool used to close the budget deficit

Homer 33C 8th graders explore Land of Lincoln

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News Release
Homer CCSD 33C
Goodings Grove   Luther J. Schilling   William E. Young   William J. Butler
Hadley Middle   Homer Jr. High
 
Contact: Charla Brautigam, Communications/Public Relations Manager
cbrautigam@homerschools.org | 708-226-7628
 
For Immediate Release:
April 18, 2017
 
8th graders explore Land of Lincoln
Tour historic sites and Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum
 
 
Homer Junior High School eighth-graders were in Springfield recently, following in the footsteps of President Abraham Lincoln.
 
Students had an opportunity to visit the Old State Capitol where Lincoln served as a State Legislator, tour the home in which he raised his family, see the building that housed his law offices with partner William Herndon and stand at the train depot from which he left Springfield for the 1861 inauguration.
 
“The annual 8th grade field trip provides students with a fun, educational way to learn about Illinois history, especially about the great emancipator, President Abraham Lincoln,” said Karen Norville, who organized the trip.

 
The trip was optional for all Homer Junior High School eighth-graders, giving them an opportunity to visit the Land of Lincoln
 
In addition to seeing Lincoln’s old neighborhood, students visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, the New State Capitol and Lincoln’s Tomb.
 
Participants paid $108 for the day-long motorcoach tour on April 13. Several parents served as chaperones while a professional tour director served as the guide.
 
Lincoln lived in Springfield for 24 years, passing (in his own words) “from a young to an old man.”

 
Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homer33c?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
 

Trump Launches Currency War

By Luke Burgess
Written Friday, April 14, 2017
Donald Trump’s presidency is the best thing to happen for the gold market in years.
Everything Trump has done over the past week has been positive for gold. The Syrian airbase strike, increasing tensions with North Korea, and his comments on the U.S. dollar have all caused gold prices to swell nearly 3% in the past five days alone.
gold apr 13 20171
This is a trend we can expect to continue.
Increasing geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and… well, the entire world… will no doubt boil into military conflict somewhere. America’s involvement in Syria is not over by far, and North Korea is a willing foe. And if it’s not war with Syria or North Korea, be sure that someone will continue to challenge the Trump administration.
And remember, Trump is only 84 days into his presidency! So far Trump has only served 6% of his four-year term. He has plenty of time to make more political enemies through Twitter.
But geopolitical instability is just one of the catalysts preparing to launch gold prices into the stratosphere. In a Wall Street Journal interview on Wednesday, President Trump seemingly signaled he was also prepared to wage a currency war.
The U.S. dollar is already in troubled waters amid increasing distrust in the government and the Fed’s monetary policies. But add to this increasing trade disputes with foreign nations, and the result is toxic for the greenback.
In the WSJ interview on Wednesday, President Trump said the U.S. dollar was overvalued. He said, “I think our dollar is getting too strong, and partially that’s my fault because people have confidence in me. But that’s hurting — that will hurt ultimately.
With this comment, President Trump has seemingly launched into a campaign to do exactly what he condemned China for doing: competitively devaluing their currency, a.k.a. participating in currency war.
Many might wonder why a central bank would purposely devalue its own currency. But central banks like the Federal Reserve and PBOC need to control the value of their currency in both directions (devaluing and revaluing) to meet market conditions. Sometimes they want to increase the value of their currencies; sometimes they want to decrease them.
For a country, devaluing its currency increases the purchasing power of foreign buyers, meaning increased exports. The catch is devaluation also increases the cost of imports.
And it’s vice-versa for revaluing a currency. Increasing the value of a currency will decrease the purchasing power of foreign buyers, meaning lower exports. But it will also decrease the cost of imports.
trade apr 13 2017
All this works well and good, with a balance. But when one or more countries find themselves in desperate need of fixing their trade deficit (like today), this tinkering can lead to an all-out currency war.
A currency war works like a price war. It’s the repeated competitive cutting of prices below competitors’. In a currency war, central banks repeatedly devalue their currencies to undercut each other.
For some industries, like the airline industry, a price war can only drive prices down so far. But in the literal moneymaking business, a price war can lead currencies into oblivion because fiat money can be created infinitely.
Immediately following the release of Trump’s dollar comment, the U.S. Dollar Index dropped 0.7%.
Trump dollar comment apr 13 017
The drop was well justified.
President Trump has shown his willingness to wage battlefield war. And now, the WSJ interview shows his interest in fighting a currency war as well.
Despite being officially decoupled for over 45 years now, the price of gold still trades inversely to the U.S. dollar for the most part. Instability in the dollar will serve as a complimentary catalyst to geopolitical breakdowns that will continue to drive gold prices higher and the broader equity markets lower.
Despite recent upward movement, gold is still a buy. Here are three easy ways to invest right now…
Buy physical gold bullion: Physical bullion is the most direct way to invest in gold. It can be purchased from retail coin and bullion dealers as well as online. However, be aware that there are price premiums attached to physical gold. And be sure to first secure a place to sell your bullion when it comes time to divest.
Buy large gold mining stocks: Mining stocks provide greater investment yields than their underlying commodities but are also subject to more risk. Large, international gold producers like Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) and Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) reduce risk through global diversification of their assets and tend to be the safest among gold stock.
Buy gold royalty and streaming stocks: Gold royalty and streaming companies are not miners. Rather, these firms provide upfront financing to other companies developing gold projects in exchange for future royalty payments or streaming purchase agreements. For investors, large gold royalty companies like Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD) reduce much of the risk associated with the operation side of mining with a very diverse portfolio of royalties and streaming agreements from mines around the world.
 
Until next time,
luke signature

Trump to seek changes in visa program to encourage hiring Americans

Trump to seek changes in visa program to encourage hiring Americans

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By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday will sign an executive order directing federal agencies to recommend changes to a temporary visa program used to bring foreign workers to the United States to fill high-skilled jobs.
Two senior Trump administration officials who briefed reporters at the White House said Trump will also use the “buy American and hire American” order to seek changes in government procurement practices to increase the purchase of American products in federal contracts.
Trump is to sign the order when he visits the world headquarters of Snap-On Inc, a tool manufacturer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The order is an attempt by Trump to carry out his “America First” campaign pledges to reform U.S. immigration policies and encourage purchases of American products. As he nears the 100-day benchmark of his presidency, Trump has no major legislative achievements to tout but has used executive orders to seek regulatory changes to help the U.S. economy.
The order he will sign on Tuesday will call for “the strict enforcement of all laws governing entry into the United States of labor from abroad for the stated purpose of creating higher wages and higher employment rates for workers in the United States,” one of the senior officials said.
It will call on the departments of Labor, Justice, Homeland Security and State to take action to crack down on what the official called “fraud and abuse” in the U.S. immigration system to protect American workers.
The order will call on those four federal departments to propose reforms to ensure H-1B visas are awarded to the most skilled or highest paid applicant.
H-1B visas are intended for foreign nationals in “specialty” occupations that generally require higher education, which according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) includes, but is not limited to, scientists, engineers or computer programmers. The government uses a lottery to award 65,000 visas every year and randomly distributes another 20,000 to graduate student workers.

The number of applications for H-1B visas fell to 199,000 this year from 236,000 in 2016, according U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Companies say they use visas to recruit top talent. More than 15 percent of Facebook Inc’s U.S. employees in 2016 used a temporary work visa, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. Labor Department filings.
Facebook, Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc were not immediately available for a comment outside normal business hours.
A majority of the H-1B visas are, however, awarded to outsourcing firms, sparking criticism by skeptics who say those firms use the visas to fill lower-level information technology jobs. Critics also say the lottery system benefits outsourcing firms that flood the system with mass applications.
The senior official said the end result of how the system currently works is that foreign workers are often brought in at less pay to replace American workers, “violating the principle of the program.”
Indian nationals are by far the largest group of recipients of the H-1B visas issued each year to new applicants.
NASSCOM, the Indian IT service industry’s main lobby group, said it supports efforts to root out any abuses occurring in the H-1B system, but slammed allegations against the sector, saying the idea that H-1B visa holders are cheap labor, is inaccurate and a campaign to discredit the sector.
It warned that any onerous additional restrictions to the visa program would “hurt thousands of U.S. businesses and their efforts to be more competitive,” by hindering access to needed talent. NASSCOM said it would comment further when there are specific proposals under consideration.
The Indian commerce ministry, which has been liaising with the United States on the visa issue, declined to comment. A senior ministry official said it would wait for “actual action” before making any official comment. India had urged the U.S. to be open minded on admitting skilled Indian workers.
India’s No. 2 IT Services firm Infosys has said it is ramping up work on on-site development centers in the United States to train local talent in a bid to address the visa regulation changes under consideration.
Infosys also warned on an investor call last week that its operating margin forecast for fiscal 2018 may get impacted by onerous changes to U.S. visa rules.
Trump’s new executive order will also ask federal agencies to look at how to get rid of loopholes in the government procurement process.
Specifically, the review will take into account whether waivers in free-trade agreements are leading to unfair trade by allowing foreign companies to undercut American companies in the global government procurement market.
“If it turns out America is a net loser because of those free-trade agreement waivers, which apply to almost 60 countries, these waivers may be promptly renegotiated or revoked,” the second official said.
(Writing by Steve Holland and Euan Rocha; Additional reporting by Eric Beech in Washington, David Ingram in San Francisco, Sankalp Phartiyal in Mumbai and Manoj Kumar in New Delhi; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Himani Sarkar)

The Federal Reserve is, and always has been, politicized

The Federal Reserve is, and always has been, politicized

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Audit the Fed recently took a step closer to becoming law, when it was favorably reported by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. This means the House could vote on the bill at any time. The bill passed by voice vote without any objections, although Fed defenders did launch hysterical attacks on the bill during the debate as well as at a hearing on the bill the previous week.
One representative claimed that auditing the Fed would result in rising interest rates, a stock market crash, a decline in the dollar’s value, and a complete loss of confidence in the U.S. economy. Those who understand economics know that all of this is actually what awaits America unless we change our monetary policy. Passing the audit bill is the vital first step in that process, since an audit can provide Congress a road map to changing the fiat currency system.
Another charge leveled by the Fed’s defenders is that subjecting the Fed to an audit would make the Fed subject to political pressure. There are two problems with this argument. First, nothing in the audit bill gives Congress or the president any new authority to interfere in the Federal Reserve’s operations. Second, and most importantly, the Federal Reserve has a long history of giving in to presidential pressure for an “accommodative” monetary policy.

The most notorious example of Fed chairmen tailoring monetary policy to fit the demands of a president is Nixon-era Federal Reserve Chair Arthur Burns. Burns and Nixon may be an extreme example — after all no other president was caught on tape joking with the Fed chair about Fed independence, but every president has tried to influence the Fed with varying degrees of success. For instance, Lyndon Johnson summoned the Fed chair to the White House to berate him for not tailoring monetary policy to support Johnson’s guns and butter policies.
Federal Reserve chairmen have also used their power to shape presidential economic policy. According to Maestro, Bob Woodward’s biography of Alan Greenspan, Bill Clinton once told Al Gore that Greenspan was a “man we can deal with,” while Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen claimed the Clinton administration and Greenspan’s Fed had a “gentleman’s agreement” regarding the Fed’s support for the administration’s economic policies.
The Federal Reserve has also worked to influence the legislative branch. In the 1970s, the Fed organized a campaign by major banks and financial institutions to defeat a prior audit bill. The banks and other institutions who worked to keep the Fed’s operations a secret are not only under the Fed’s regulatory jurisdiction, but are some of the major beneficiaries of the current monetary system.
There can be no doubt that, as the audit bill advances through the legislative process, the Fed and its allies will ramp up both public and behind-the-scenes efforts to kill the bill. Can anyone dismiss the possibility that Janet Yellen will attempt to “persuade” Donald Trump to drop his support for Audit the Fed in exchange for an “accommodative” monetary policy that supports the administration’s proposed spending on overseas militarism and domestic infrastructure?
While auditing the Fed is supported by the vast majority of Americans, it is opposed by powerful members of the financial elite and the deep state. Therefore, those of us seeking to change our national monetary policy must redouble our efforts to force Congress to put America on a path to liberty, peace, and prosperity by auditing, then ending, the Fed.
–Ron Paul

Trump News April 17, 2017

The White House

SPECIAL EDITION
Today is the 139th White House Easter Egg Roll
Join us and watch all the festivities LIVE

 

WHITE HOUSE EASTER EGG ROLL THROUGH HISTORY
FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP
WHITE HOUSE UPDATES
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
President Donald J. Trump’s Weekly Address.
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President Trump Proclaims April 15 through April 23, 2017, as National Park Week.
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White House Commends Atlanta First Responders for Response to Interstate 85 Bridge Fire.
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Barickman files education funding legislation

Barickman files education funding legislation including true parity for schools

Fixing the state’s broken school funding formula could soon become a reality, due in large part to two pieces of legislation filed by State Senator Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington).
“This has taken years of bipartisan negotiations to get us to this point,” said Senator Barickman. “But I believe we finally have put together a good solution for all of our schools that will begin to reduce the inequity and inadequacy that has plagued the current system, and truly addresses questions of parity between schools.”
The legislation is based on the framework advanced by the Governor’s bipartisan Education Funding Reform Commission.
Barickman’s legislation establishes an evidence-based school funding formula that uses 27 different variables to set individual adequacy targets for each school district, based on the real costs of the districts, accepted best practices, and student demographics.
“There are more than 800 school districts in Illinois, from urban schools in Chicago to rural schools downstate, and they have a wide variety of different issues and demographics,” said Senator Barickman. “The evidence-based system represents the first time Illinois will have a formula that actually takes those differences into account, and it will drive dollars to where they are needed most and where they can do the most good.”
That data will be used to establish four tiers to ensure that additional funding goes to those districts that are most in need. Tier 4 would encompass the districts that are financially the strongest, with spending already exceeding their adequacy target, and Tier 1 containing the districts that are struggling the most severely, with spending far below their adequacy target.
In the case of future budget cuts, the four tiered system would also be used to protect the most vulnerable schools. This would end the regressive nature of proration, which is what has happened when school funding was cut in the past. Under proration, the districts with the most need would often see the largest cuts to their budgets.  “Eliminating the proration of GSA is a defining characteristic of this legislation,” said Senator Barickman.
All school districts would be protected through a hold harmless provision, which during the first year would be based on the amount the district received in FY17. In year two and thereafter, the hold harmless would be tied to the actual student population to better reflect need, with funding based on the amounts the districts received per student in FY17.
The legislation also repeals the controversial Chicago block grant and ensures equitable funding for charter schools. The plan would also put into place a panel to review the new formula every three years.
“This is an investment model, where lawmakers can see what they are spending money on and understand the outcomes that can be achieved for each school district. We will know the results of political decisions to spend more or less money in our schools, as well as how those budgetary decisions will impact in-class learning,” said Senator Barickman. “Taxpayers will have a better idea of how much funding their school needs, in terms of both state and local revenue.”
A second bill filed by Barickman would offer substantial mandate relief to all school districts, offering them various management tools that are currently granted only to CPS. These include cutting cost-prohibitive bureaucratic red tape involved in third-party contracting, flexibility on scheduling of physical education along with allowing student-athletes to replace P.E. hours with additional classes or study halls, and to allow citizens to discharge certain unfunded mandates from their districts via referendum.
Both bills would be tied to pension reform legislation filed by State Senator Michael Connelly (R-Naperville). As a package, the bills would eliminate the controversial Chicago Block Grant while offering pension parity to Chicago Public Schools (CPS), creating a single, uniform funding system for every school district in Illinois.
“Few people would say that it’s fair to create special deals for certain schools, particularly when they adversely affect other districts,” said Senator Barickman. “And while pension parity has been a much-talked about topic in Springfield, these bills offer real parity across the spectrum. They can finally get us toward an environment where all schools are treated similarly in terms of funding, pension costs and management flexibility.”

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