Sessions: Choice between national self-interest and globalism

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May 16, 2016

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Personal Liberty News Desk

Sessions: Election 2016 offers a choice between national self-interest and globalism

Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions is warning American voters to carefully consider their options when the presidential general election rolls around. The choice, he believes, has less to do with the candidates than it does the future of civilization in the United States.

Sessions says that members of his party who continue to doubt Trump’s conservative bona fides are missing the candidate’s “cautious approach to mass migration, transnational trade commissions and nation-building.”
The Alabama lawmaker says he believes President Trump will serve as a “forceful advocate” for America and implement policies that consider the best interests of U.S. citizens first.
If Hillary Clinton becomes president, Sessions says, Americans can expect the opposite.
“In Hillary Clinton, we have a committed globalist. Clinton was an ardent supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership — which surrenders American sovereignty to an international union of 12 countries — and has clearly left the door wide open to enacting the pact if elected,” the lawmaker writes in a recent op-ed.
Sessions also takes umbrage at Clinton’s immigration platform, which he describes as “the most radical in our history.”
“Clinton’s extremist proposal economically targets our poor African-American and Hispanic communities whose wages and job prospects are being steadily eroded by the huge influx of new foreign workers,” Sessions notes.
What American voters have to decide, the lawmaker concludes, is whether they want to live in a country that “serves our people.” Because, Sessions says, how the nation votes in 2016 will determine “whether we remain a nation-state that serves its own people, or whether we slide irrevocably toward a soulless globalism that treats humans as interchangeable widgets in the world market.”

Signs You’re Successful—Even If It Doesn’t Feel Like It

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Steve Balich

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May 15, 2016

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Signs You’re Successful—Even If It Doesn’t Feel Like It

May 8, 2016

If you’re ambitious, you’re bound to feel like a failure from time to time. Lofty goals lead to inevitable moments when you aren’t yet living up to your expectations.
We live in a world that reinforces this feeling. Though most people won’t admit it—other than the guy with the ‘He who dies with the most toys wins’ bumper sticker—in the back of our minds, we equate material possessions with success.
It’s a shame we fall prey to materialistic thinking because we certainly know better. A study by Strayer University found that 90% of Americans believehappiness is a bigger indicator of success than power, possessions, or prestige. Digging a little deeper, 67% defined success as “good relationships with friends and family,” and 60% said it is loving what you do for a living. Only 20% stated that monetary wealth determines success.
But saying and doing are two very different things.
When it comes to success, our eyes often lead us astray. It’s hard not to feel like the most successful people are those with the biggest houses, the most expensive cars, and the most influential friends. Regardless of what you achieve, there’s always someone with more, and this can make you feel like you’re losing. The problem isn’t your lack of toys; it’s believing that toys indicate true success.
Real success is about who you are and how far you’ve come. If you ever worry that you’re not as successful as you should be, you may be evaluating yourself against the wrong criteria. Sometimes you just need a reminder as to what you’ve really accomplished in life. The success indicators that follow will help you do just that.
You’re no longer the center of the universe. We all know “successful” people who act like they’re the center of the universe. It’s their world and the rest of us just live in it…right? That’s not success. True success requires the ability to feel empathy—to realize that other people’s feelings and dreams are just as important as ours, and we cannot succeed without them.
You stay positive. Hope and optimism are essential components of a happy life. If you dwell on the things that go wrong, you become bitter and resentful. When that happens, you fail—no matter what you may have achieved. Real success means always seeing the bright side and believing you have the power to make even the worst situations better.
You know that failure isn’t forever. You’ve learned that the only people who never fail are those who don’t try. When you fail, you don’t automatically assume that you’re a failure. Instead, you embrace each failure as an opportunity to learn something—and then you move on. If you still struggle with this at times, know that you’ll never experience true success until you learn to embrace failure. Your mistakes pave the way for your success by revealing when you’re on the wrong path. The biggest breakthroughs typically come when you’re feeling the most frustrated and the most stuck. It’s this frustration that forces you to think differently, to look outside the box and see the solution you’ve been missing.
You keep things in perspective. Sometimes bad things happen. It’s part of life. For most of us, however, our very worst day would seem like a vacation to somebody who has real problems—like not having enough to eat, or trying to survive a civil war. Locking your keys in the car—or even getting passed over for a promotion—aren’t that bad once you learn to develop perspective. If you’ve mastered the ability to keep your problems in perspective, mark it down as a huge success.
You ask for help when you need it. Refusing to ask for help, no matter how much you’re struggling, is a sign of emotional immaturity. Asking for help means that you no longer feel like you have something to prove by being perfect. It shows you aren’t afraid of people discovering your weaknesses and you understand no one succeeds alone.
You realize that life isn’t a zero-sum game. It’s not a see-saw, either. Just because somebody else achieves a big success, that doesn’t mean you suffer a loss in equal proportion. You just didn’t win that particular time. One sure sign of success is the ability to celebrate others’ achievements with sincere enthusiasm.
You can tell the difference between drama and excitement.
Remember the days when stable relationships were boring, and you quickly got tired of anyone who treated you as they should? If that kind of “drama” is a thing of the past, congratulations. If you prefer stability and depth to drama, you’re succeeding.
You no longer care what other people think. You only worry about what other people think when you still feel like you have something to prove. Conversely, you know you’ve “made it” when you don’t worry about that anymore—when you’re true to yourself and your principles, and satisfied with your life. You know you’ve made it when you understand that other people’s opinions are just that—opinions. They have no effect on reality. They don’t change who or what you are.
You accept what you can’t change and change what you can.
There’s a difference between pessimism and practicality. If there’s a hurricane headed your way, there’s nothing you can do to stop it. But once you accept that the hurricane is coming, you can start working to mitigate its effects. If your company downsizes and you get laid off, every moment you spend in denial just delays whatever is waiting over the horizon. You’re able to move on only when you start exploring your options and making plans to change what you can. Taking responsibility for changing the things you don’t like about your life is one of the biggest indicators of success.

Bringing It All Together

There’s no sense in feeling like a failure just because you think you should have a better job, a bigger house, or a nicer car. Real success comes from the inside, and it’s completely independent of circumstance.
What are some other indicators of true success? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the #1 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart, the world’s leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, TIME, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.

ILLINOIS BUDGET PROPOSAL

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Steve Balich

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May 15, 2016

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ILLINOIS BUDGET PROPOSAL WITH MULTI-BILLION TAX HIKES, CUTS SENT TO TOP OFFICIALS

KEVIN HOFFMAN

REBOOT STAFF

MAY 12, 2016 1473 2

rauner, illinois state budget, Illinois budget

With just more than two weeks remaining in the legislative session, a group of rank-and-file legislators Thursday sent a budget proposal to Gov. Bruce Rauner and the four legislative leaders that highlights ways the state can produce a balanced budget through a multi-billion-dollar mix of tax increases and spending cuts.

The plan — the first to surface in what is a historic 11-month budget stalemate — calls for a combination of $5.4 billion in tax hikes along with $2.5 billion in spending cuts.

Under the proposal, the Chicago Tribune reported, the state would bring in $5.4 billion in new revenue mostly through tax hikes, including raising the individual income tax rate to as high as 4.85 percent from the current 3.75 percent, expanding the sales tax base, likely to services and items not yet taxed, and eliminating some corporate tax breaks.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported the income tax rate proposed was between 4.5 and 4.75 percent.

The $2.5 billion in spending cuts would be achieved by ending pension-spiking costs, requiring schools and colleges to pick up pension costs for employees with annual salaries of more than $180,000, reducing health care spending for the poor and changing how the state purchases goods and services, the Tribune said. Another $450 million the state borrowed from special funds last year no longer would have to be repaid as part of the plan.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman, Steve Brown, said he hasn’t seen what was submitted to the governor and the legislative leaders, but said calling it a proposal was “getting ahead of yourself.” Brown said there most likely was a list delivered of new revenue and spending cut items that came out of private budget negotiations between a bipartisan group of rank-and-file lawmakers over the past month.

Madigan was asked by a reporter Thursday about his goals for the remaining two weeks of the spring legislative session and he said, “My goal for the remainder of the session is to continue to do budget-making without references to changes in collective bargaining, workers’ compensation and prevailing wage. And my further goal is not to agree with the governor to use the government to bring down the wages and the standard of living of middle class families, to send injured workers to the emergency room or to welfare, or to continue to hurt the vulnerable in our society. Those are my goals.”

The bipartisan group of lawmakers, some of whom serve on the state’s appropriations committees have been meeting privately for several weeks. State Journal-Register Statehouse Bureau Chief Doug Finke reports:

A member of the negotiating team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the plan would also borrow $5 billion to immediately pay down the state’s backlog of bills. The borrowing would be repaid over five years.

Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, told Finke he wouldn’t use the term “framework” to describe the proposal because it does not include any of the pro-business or labor union reforms on Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda,” some of which the governor says must be passed by the General Assembly before he will agree to any tax hikes.

Also from the Chicago Tribune:

But inside a Capitol stuck in the rut of a record-breaking 11-month impasse, many in the state’s political class eagerly welcome any emerging wrinkle, especially given that the budget framework talks were led by Rauner budget director Tim Nuding.
“There was no agreement in the sense that everybody said, ‘Yeah, I can sign onto things as is,’” said Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat and top deputy to Madigan. “So there’s lots of internal discussions still to be had, but the idea is here’s a framework, and it was enough of a framework for Nuding to feel comfortable taking it to the governor.”

Japan Economic experiment an example of what not to do.

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Steve Balich

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May 15, 2016

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Japan’s Carry Trade

By Geoffrey Pike
Written Friday, May 13, 2016

As Japan and other countries experiment with negative interest rates, the central bankers of the world may get more than they bargained for. Japan is the perfect experiment right now for Americans to watch. It should provide an example of what not to do.

Japan should be the dream of people like Paul Krugman, who think the answer to every problem is to create more money and run bigger deficits. Japan has plenty of that going on.
Japan’s debt-to-GDP far exceeds 200%, which makes Greece look like a fiscally responsible paradise in comparison. Japan has had its digital money-printing machine working overtime, while the central planners continue to push interest rates down.
The Bank of Japan has defied anything called a zero lower bound. Not only is the central bank imposing negative rates on banks, but it has managed to push the 10-year Japanese yield down to about -0.1%. You can turn your money over to the government in order to get less of it back in 10 years.
Negative interest rates only make sense up to the point of it acting as a storage fee. If you wanted to get a safety deposit box to store cash, the bank would charge you a fee for the safety deposit box. And speaking of safety deposit boxes, it is no surprise that sales are up in Japan for personal safes, as people would rather store their own money than pay a fee.
Only in a world of fiat currency and central banking would a negative interest rate exist. Most people would rather have a dollar today than a dollar next year.
Still, the Japanese people are not blameless in this. While the central bank has been buying a majority of the debt lately, Japanese investors have still been buyers of government debt over the years. With all of the monetary inflation and the ultra-low interest rates, it is amazing that anyone would keep buying.
I don’t know if some Japanese investors think it is their patriotic duty to buy their government’s debt, but how long will they keep this up? If the Bank of Japan doubles the money supply again, and if the debt-to-GDP goes to 300%, will that finally be enough for investors to sell? It seems the camel already has too many straws on its back, yet more keep being added.
Japanese Miracle Turns into Disaster
While the Japanese economy is a complete disaster right now, it is still a relatively wealthy country. Japan was considered a miracle in the 1950s and 1960s. After being devastated from World War II, the country recovered — and rather quickly — in becoming an economic powerhouse. If you recall, many people in the 1980s thought the Japanese were going to take over the world, at least economically speaking.
The miracle that happened after the war is called the free market. Japan and Germany both turned to relatively free market policies, which enabled savings and capital investment to quickly grow and create wealth.
Unfortunately, for the last couple of decades, Japan has largely turned against the policies that originally helped it become so rich. Of course, you could say the same thing about the U.S. and Germany as well.
Up until just a few years ago, the Bank of Japan actually maintained a relatively stable monetary policy without a lot of monetary inflation. Many people think Japan has been stuck in deflation for decades, but prices have been rather steady, with only short periods of mild price deflation. It is only deflationary by our standards.
Unfortunately, despite the somewhat sane monetary policy, the government has spent money like crazy. As I mentioned, Japanese investors were willing to buy debt at low rates. This enabled the government to run huge deficits, despite little buying from the central bank in the past.
Under Prime Minister Abe, things have gotten much worse. After taking office in late 2012, he declared that escaping deflation was the greatest and most urgent issue. He has been incredibly aggressive in implementing so-called government stimulus. This has meant even more government spending, along with massive monetary inflation.
For the central planners who think these are the answers to economic ills, we should ask them why the Japanese economy is not booming yet. Do they need to start doubling the money supply every six months? Do they need to implement interest rates further into negative territory?
What Goes Up
One of the consequences (we can’t say “unintended” anymore) of negative interest rates is the carry trade. This may turn out to be an exaggerated version of the carry trade.
A carry trade is when investors borrow money at low rates in order to invest in other assets for higher returns. This strategy is most common when dealing with currencies in the foreign exchange market.
The Japanese could borrow money and put it in stocks or other assets within Japan, and some certainly have. But if you think it is tough to find a good yield in the U.S., imagine what the Japanese people are facing. It would not exactly be a sound strategy to borrow money to buy stocks.
Interestingly, it was recently reported that Japanese investors are suspected of fueling a boom in Australian real estate investment trusts.
And why wouldn’t they? When the government and central bank have created an environment of virtually zero yield, people will get creative in order to find positive yield. Does anyone want to save money for 10 years only to have it earn nothing, or less, over that time?
While Australian REITs are one trend for Japanese investors, we can be sure they are pushing money in all different directions. It is almost surprising that we don’t hear more stories of Japanese putting money into American markets, whether in stocks or real estate.
This is what happens when you get massive monetary inflation, along with low (in this case negative) interest rates. Some people are naturally going to engage in the carry trade strategy.
There has been some volatility in the currency markets. The yen had not been doing well, but it recently had a period of gains with temporary weakness in the dollar.
It is not hard to imagine that the carry trade will build up more over time as rates stay in negative territory. This can be a major problem, as carry trades eventually unwind.
What goes up must come down. What gets wound must get unwound.
What happens when those Japanese investors have to pay back the loans they took out in yen? They will have to convert their assets back into yen. It makes for a more volatile currency market. If the Australian currency were to fall against the yen, this could mean major losses and defaults for some investors.
A Race to the Bottom
Of course, Japan is not the only country with negative interest rates, as this has become a widespread phenomenon across Western Europe as well. And most of the major central banks are engaging in monetary inflation. The one major exception right now is the Federal Reserve.
Still, while we compare currency exchange rates, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that we are comparing all fiat currencies that can easily be created by typing digits into a computer. The U.S. dollar is strong right now, but compared to what?
We have been in an environment of low interest rates and low price inflation. Consumer prices have stayed down due to economic fear, as well as a lack of bank lending.
It is easy to get complacent and think things will always be this way. It becomes the new normal. But debt-to-GDP ratios over 200% (and increasing) are not sustainable. Just a small increase in interest rates can change things quickly and dramatically.
Luckily for Americans, despite the major problems in the U.S., Japan is worse in almost every way. The Japanese will face the same crisis with retirees and massive unfunded liabilities. The government debt there is far worse, which more than offsets any good saving habits by some individuals. And the distortions from the monetary policy have to be massive.
When Japan blows up, we can only hope that the economic central planners will be discredited to such a large degree that Americans refuse to go down the same path and put a halt to these insane policies.
Still, we can’t be certain of any of this, so I am not betting on higher interest rates yet. That will be a play for another time. It is a time to sit tight and preserve wealth. As always, this should include owning some gold and silver in case the Fed decides to follow the lead of the Bank of Japan with endless digital money printing.
Until next time,
Geoffrey Pike for Wealth Daily

USS Cole commander blasts transfer of Al Qaeda Gitmo detainees to Saudi Arabia

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Steve Balich

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May 14, 2016

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USS Cole commander blasts transfer of Al Qaeda Gitmo detainees to Saudi Arabia

By Cristina Corbin
Published May 03, 2016

FoxNews.com

No longer a danger? ‘High risk’ Gitmo detainees released

The man at the helm of the USS Cole when it was attacked by an Al Qaeda cell in 2000 said last month’s release of a Guantanamo Bay detainee linked to the bombers denies justice to the 17 people killed aboard the ship.
Kirk Lippold, who was commanding officer of the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer when suicide bombers aboard a small fishing boat blew a hole in the side of the ship, told FoxNews.com Mashur Abdallah Ahmed al Sabri’s release was a mistake.

“I would have liked to have seen him receive a military commission where he was tried, convicted and sentenced and then his suitability for release determined under the laws of armed conflict,” Lippold said.
“From the perspective of the American people and my crew, he’s never been held accountable,” Lippold added.
In addition to those killed, 37 service members were wounded in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack, which came as the Cole refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden, nearly a year before Al Qaeda would register its signature attack, on 9/11.

Al Sabri, a 38-year-old Yemeni citizen who was born in Saudi Arabia, was at one point believed to have been a member of the terror cell behind the attack, although a subsequent assessment at Gitmo, like many done on detainees who have since been released, downplayed his role.
The Obama administration has acclerated the release of Guantanamo detainees to fulfill a campaign pledge to critics who say the suspected combatants are being held indefinitely without due process.
There was never enough evidence to bring under a military commission in al Sabri’s case. But a September 2008 report by the Department of Defense assessed al Sabri as “high risk” and “likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies.”

At that time, the reason for continued detention was listed as follows: “Detainee was a member of an Yememi Al Qaeda cell which was directly involved with the USS COLE attack. Detainee attended advanced training in Afghanistan after recruitment by a known Al Qaeda facilitator.”
A 2014 report, however, said al Sabri “may have” trained at a camp, was merely an Al Qaeda “associate” and “probably did not play a significant role in terrorist operations.”
Paul Rester, the former head of interrogations at Guantanamo, said the “language has softened” over the years in many terrorist detainee cases.
“The only thing that could have changed is someone’s perception that al Sabri or someone like him mellowed – that they don’t pose much of a threat anymore,” he said.
But, Rester noted, “we can’t run a jail indefinitely.”
“The problem with Guantanamo from Day One is the conflation of rule of law with law of war,” he said.
Al Sabri’s transfer April 16 to a Saudi rehabilitation program follows a long list of other detainee transfers since President Obama took office.
Obama promised during his presidential campaign to close the military prison, but lawmakers have so far blocked any plans to turn prisoners over to the U.S. penal system. Scores have been released over the last few years, typically sent to their homelands or to countries that have agreed to detain or monitor them, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Senegal and Uruguay.
The military prison once held more than 600 suspected terrorists, but there are now just 80, including 26 more who are expected to be sent to their homelands or to another country by the end of the summer.
Several detainees have returned to the fight against the U.S. once released, including Ibrahim al-Qosi, a Sudanese native who once served as Usama bin Laden’s cook, chauffeur and bookkeeper, and is now believed to be a senior Al Qaeda leader in Yemen. In March, a U.S. official told lawmakers that Americans have been killed by Guantanamo Bay detainees after they were released.
“What I can tell you is unfortunately there have been Americans that have died because of [Guantanamo] detainees,” Paul Lewis, the Pentagon’s special envoy for Guantanamo detention closure, said, though he declined to provide the GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee with details.
Maj. Gen. Jay Hood, who once oversaw operations at Guantanamo, said the Saudi rehabilitation program for militant Islamists is well-intended and should be applauded.
But, Hood said he has “little confidence in the Saudi authorities’ ability to monitor the movements of Yemeni GTMO detainees placed in their custody.”
“If history is a guide, we can expect to see some number of them back in the fight soon,” he said. “As a group, the Yemenis held at GTMO represented the most committed and violent of the Islamic extremist in US custody.”

For Lippold, a 41-year-old commander in October 2000, the memory of that morning is still fresh in his mind.
“We had pulled in on a beautiful, hot day for a brief stop for fuel,” the 57-year-old Lippold recalled, saying he expected to be in port for six to eight hours.
Forty-five minutes later, at 11:18 a.m., there was a “thunderous explosion” that violently thrust the ship up to the right, Lippold said.
“I knew instantly something had come along our left-hand side and exploded,” he said. “We were fighting for our lives to keep the ship afloat.”
“The crew responded as true heroes, exactly as they were trained.”

FBI won’t say whether it listens in through home automation systems

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Steve Balich

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May 14, 2016

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FBI won’t say whether it listens in through home automation systems

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Sam RolleyViews: 916

Alexa, tell me who’s listening.
Amazon recently came out with a nifty new home automation device called the Echo. The gadget is an innocuous looking speaker meant to sit in your home and listen for you to bark commands—things like “give me a recipe for borsht,” or “play back in the USSR”— at its integrated personal assistant, Alexa.
It’s always listening so that Alexa can cater to your every need. And in a perfect world, it would be the stuff of Jetsonian dreams—but in the modern big-government surveillance state, it’s simply a reminder of all the ways we’re willingly handing ourselves over to a dystopian future.
Back in March, Gizmodo editor Matt Novak filed a Freedom of Information request with the FBI to see if the agency had yet wiretapped an Echo to listen in on the private conversations of its owner.
He explained the reasoning behind his inquiry thusly:

In 2016, creepy perverts are hacking computer cameras and baby monitors all the time just to get their sick little rocks off. And we know that the NSA can still wiretap your phone even when it’s not turned on. So why wouldn’t law enforcement agencies or intelligence agencies hack your Echo (presumably with a court order) to catch the baddies?

The agency’s answer wasn’t very detailed— but, if you value your privacy, it says plenty. Here’s how the FBI responded:

Please be advised that, upon reviewing the substantive nature of your request, we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records responsive to your request pursuant to FOIA exemption … The mere acknowledgement of whether the FBI has any such records in and of itself would disclose techniques, procedures, and/or guidelines that could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law. Thus, the FBI neither confirms nor denies the existence of any records.

Translation, they have or they are working on figuring out how to wiretap Echo and similar devices but they don’t want to get all those pesky privacy advocates asking questions about things like court orders and legality.
While the FBI’s answer to the Echo question is frustrating, it should be in no way surprising to anyone who’s been paying attention to the government’s privacy-violating antics in this technological age.
Way back in 2014, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the government has the ability to listen in through devices that most of us carry constantly without a second thought. The government spy agency can even remotely access a smartphone’s camera and microphone when the device is switched off.

Emperor Obama Mandates Co-Ed Restrooms, Lockers–and More

Editors Note: When did a law become a law without a vote by the legislature? Why is the 10th Amendment to the Constitution ignored and our Elected Officials do nothing? Why does anything that destroys our culture, tradition, morality, ethics, small business, free speech, privacy and on and on pushed by this so called leader of the United States go un- challenged by Congress and majority of the States?
Why is the Rights of the majority sacrificed for the rights of a few?
Are we still a Republic or did we morph into a kingship with all the subjects bowing before any injustice the King sees fit????

Emperor Obama Mandates Co-Ed Restrooms–and More
Written By Laurie Higgins

“By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.”
The Obama Administration in yet another demonstration of its infinite hubris and, yes, wickedness has sent a joint “Dear Colleague” letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Education (ED) to all public elementary, middle, and high schools and universities ordering them to allow gender-dysphoric students to use opposite-sex restrooms—and more—or risk loss of federal funds. The DOJ and ED describe the letter as “significant guidance” (emphasis theirs). “Significant guidance” is Newspeak for “Imperial Command.”
The Department of Education issued a similar diktat to public schools in 2014 through another “Dear Colleague” letter, telling them that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination based on “sex,” requires schools to allow gender-dysphoric students to use opposite sex restrooms and locker rooms. Un-elected officials with no law-making authority in the ED simply decided that the word “sex” in the law no longer means just objective, immutable sex as manifest in biology and anatomy. They decided that it also means one’s feelings about one’s sex.
When Title IX said “sex,” however, it actually meant “sex.” For the dull of thinking, Title IX included this:
A recipient [of federal funds] may provide separate toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex.
If this newest imperious imperial command prevails, all public schools will be required to allow gender-dysphoric students as well as “gender fluid,” “gender non-binary” and “questioning” students to use whichever restrooms and locker rooms correspond to the sex with which the gender genie leads them to “identify.”
Here are just some of the requirements included in this imperial command:
1.) On school-sponsored, overnight trips, gender-dysphoric students must be permitted to room with opposite-sex students, and the actual sex of gender-dysphoric students must be concealed from the opposite-sex students with whom they’re rooming (unless all students are required to share their actual sex, which until recently would have been unnecessary). Further, schools maynot require gender-dysphoric students to stay in “single-occupancy accommodations.”
2.) In university dorms, gender-dysphoric students must be allowed to room with students of the opposite sex, and the actual sex of gender-dysphoric students must be concealed from their roommates (unless all students are required to share their actual sex).
3.) “School staff and contractors” must no longer use pronouns in accordance with sex but rather in accordance with feelings about sex. So, I guess that means teachers will have to use the linguistic inventions by which “gender fluid,” “gender non-binary,” and “gender-questioning” students may want to be referred (e.g., “zie,” “zim,” “zir,” “zirs,” and “zirself”). Big government is restructuring grammar. Astonishing.
4.) Gender-dysphoric students must be permitted to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to the opposite sex. Schools “may make individual-user options available to all students who voluntarily seek additional privacy.” Two important things to note: First, schools “may“—not must—make such options available. Second, this means if girls are not comfortable with a boy in their locker rooms, it is the girls who would have to “voluntarily seek additional privacy.
5.) Gender-dysphoric students must be permitted to take single-sex classes with opposite-sex students.
As I have written ad nauseum, this issue is not centrally about restrooms. It is centrally about the reality and meaning of sex differences, which the left seeks to eradicate. (Ironically, when homosexuals claim they are attracted only to persons of the same sex, they affirm and emphasize the reality of sexual differentiation. The left, however, is rarely constrained by foolish inconsistency.)
The left’s disbelief in the twoness of the sexes defies objective reality. The left’s belief that subjective feelings about objective maleness or femaleness must trump objective maleness and femaleness in every context from potties to pronouns is a philosophical, political, moral, and theological assumption—not an objective fact. And it’s certainly not true.
This, my friends, is something wicked.
Take ACTION:
CLICK HERE to send a message to your U.S. representative, urging him or her to rein in the unelected, leftist federal bureaucrats. Demand a stop to the federal takeover of bathrooms, locker rooms, overnight trips, etc.

https://www.votervoice.net/ILFI/Campaigns/46381/Respond

Dan Proft with Chicago FOP President Dean Angelo

By

Steve Balich

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May 13, 2016

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Chicago FOP President: Police Facing Unprecedented Level of Disrespect

On this edition of Against The Current, Dan Proft has a riveting conversation with Dean Angelo, Sr., President of Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7.

Angelo says the claim of systemic racism within CPD as presented in the report issued by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s task force is “ridiculous.”

Angelo predicts Chicago will “light up this summer” because, in part, of a level of disrespect being shown to Chicago police he hasn’t seen in his 36-year career in law enforcement.

Angelo adds that the result of people who have no idea how police do their job telling them how to do their job is “more people will die.”

Check out the explosive, wide-ranging discussion of police, street violence and politics with FOP President Dean Angelo, Sr., on this week’s ATC.

Clinton charity gave $2M to company owned by Bill’s ‘friend’

By

Steve Balich

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May 13, 2016

0

Clinton charity gave $2M to company owned by Bill’s ‘friend’

By Joe Tacopino

May 13, 2016 | 2:20am

Clinton charity gave $2M to company owned by Bill’s ‘friend’

Bill Clinton and Julie Tauber McMahonPhoto: AP; PatrickMcMullan.com

Bill Clinton’s foundation doled out $2 million to a power company partly owned by a wealthy blond divorcée — who some say is the frequent visitor to his home nicknamed “Energizer.”
The “commitment” to Julie Tauber McMahon’s firm from the Clinton Global Initiative was placed on its 2010 conference agenda at Clinton’s urging, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The initiative “commits $2 million to support the work of Energy Pioneer Solutions, a company founded to deliver energy savings to communities in rural America,” said a 2010 statement from the charity.

Clinton even went to bat for the company when it came to lobbying for federal funds. He helped steer an $812,000 federal grant to it by endorsing the funds via then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Journal said.
McMahon owns 29 percent of Energy Pioneer Solutions, which was given the money to make people’s homes more energy-efficient.
The fit, blond mother of three, who lives just minutes from Bill and Hillary Clinton’s home in Chappaqua, Westchester, is the daughter of Joel Tauber, a millionaire donor to the Democratic Party.
McMahon, 54, is rumored to be the woman dubbed “Energizer” by the Secret Service at the Clinton home because of her frequent visits, according to RadarOnline.
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Secret Service agents were even given special instructions to abandon usual protocol when the woman came by, according to journalist Ronald Kessler’s tell-all book, “The First Family Detail.”
“You don’t stop her, you don’t approach her, you just let her go in,” says the book, based on agents’ accounts.
“Energizer” is described in the book as a charming visitor who sometimes brought cookies to the agents.
The book describes one sun-drenched afternoon when agents took notice of the woman’s revealing attire.
“It was a warm day, and she was wearing a low-cut tank top, and as she leaned over, her breasts were very exposed,” an agent is quoted in the book.
“They appeared to be very perky and very new and full . . . There was no doubt in my mind they were enhanced.”
“Energizer” reportedly timed her arrivals and departures around Hillary Clinton’s schedule.
McMahon has denied in reports having an intimate relationship with Bill Clinton.
The payout to McMahon’s company raises red flags for the Clinton Global Initiative.

Federal law, tax-exempt nonprofits like Clinton’s are not supposed to act in anyone’s private interest, the Journal reported. Spokespeople for Bill and Hillary Clinton declined to comment.

A foundation spokesperson defended the payout as “a common practice in the broader philanthropic space.”

Obama’s to force suburbs to be less white and less wealthy

By

Steve Balich

-

May 13, 2016

0

Obama’s last act is to force suburbs to be less white and less wealthy

By Paul Sperry

May 8, 2016 |

Obama’s last act is to force suburbs to be less white and less wealthy

President Barack Obama and Housing Secretary Julian CastroPhoto: AP; Gregory P. Mango

Hillary’s rumored running mate, Housing Secretary Julian Castro, is cooking up a scheme to reallocate funding for Section 8 housing to punish suburbs for being too white and too wealthy.

The scheme involves super-sizing vouchers to help urban poor afford higher rents in pricey areas, such as Westchester County, while assigning them government real estate agents called “mobility counselors” to secure housing in the exurbs.
Castro plans to launch the Section 8 reboot this fall, even though a similar program tested a few years ago in Dallas has been blamed for shifting violent crime to affluent neighborhoods.
It’s all part of a grand scheme to forcibly desegregate inner cities and integrate the outer suburbs.

Anticipating NIMBY resistance, Castro last month threatened to sue suburban landlords for discrimination if they refuse even Section 8 tenants with criminal records. And last year, he implemented a powerful new regulation — “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” — that pressures all suburban counties taking federal grant money to change local zoning laws to build more low-income housing (landlords of such properties are required to accept Section 8 vouchers).

Castro is expected to finalize the new regulation, known as “Small-Area Fair Market Rents” (SAFMR), this October, in the last days of the Obama presidency.
It will set voucher rent limits by ZIP code rather than metro area, the current formula, which makes payments relatively small. For example, the fair market rent for a one-bedroom in New York City is about $1,250, which wouldn’t cover rentals in leafy areas of Westchester County, such as Mamaroneck, where Castro and his social engineers seek to aggressively resettle Section 8 tenants.

[The Section 8 reboot] is all part of a grand scheme to forcibly desegregate inner cities and integrate the outer suburbs.

In expensive ZIP codes, Castro’s plan — which requires no congressional approval — would more than double the standard subsidy, while also covering utilities. At the same time, he intends to reduce subsidies for those who choose to stay in housing in poor urban areas, such as Brooklyn. So Section 8 tenants won’t just be pulled to the suburbs, they’ll be pushed there.
“We want to use our housing-choice vouchers to ensure that we don’t have a concentration of poverty and the aggregation of racial minorities in one part of town, the poor part of town,” the HUD chief said recently, adding that he’s trying to undo the “result of discriminatory policies and practices in the past, and sometimes even now.”
A draft of the new HUD rule anticipates more than 350,000 Section 8 voucher holders will initially be resettled under the SAFMR program. Under Obama, the total number of voucher households has grown to more than 2.2 million.
The document argues that larger vouchers will allow poor urban families to “move into areas that potentially have better access to jobs, transportation, services and educational opportunities.” In other words, offering them more money to move to more expensive neighborhoods will improve their situation.
But HUD’s own studies show the theory doesn’t match reality.

President Bill Clinton in 1994Photo: Getty Images

President Bill Clinton started a similar program in 1994 called “Moving to Opportunity Initiative,” which moved thousands of mostly African-American families from government projects to higher-quality homes in safer and less racially segregated neighborhoods in several counties across the country.
The 15-year experiment bombed.
A 2011 study sponsored by HUD found that adults using more generous Section 8 vouchers did not get better jobs or get off welfare. In fact, more went on food stamps. And their children did not do better in their new schools.
Worse, crime simply followed them to their safer neighborhoods, ruining the quality of life for existing residents.
“Males … were arrested more often than those in the control group, primarily for property crimes,” the study found.
Dubuque, Iowa, for example, received an influx of voucher holders from projects in Chicago — and it’s had a problem with crime ever since. A recent study linked Dubuque’s crime wave directly to Section 8 housing.
Of course, even when reality mugs leftists, they never scrap their social theories. They just double down.
The problem, they rationalized, was that the relocation wasn’t aggressive enough. They concluded they could get the desired results if they placed urban poor in even more affluent areas.
HUD recently tested this new theory in Dallas with disastrous results.
Starting in 2012, the agency sweetened Section 8 voucher payments, and pointed inner-city recipients to the far-flung counties surrounding Dallas. As government-subsidized rentals spread in all areas of the Metroplex (163 ZIP codes vs. 129 ZIP codes), so did crime.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development used Dallas as a test — and the city is now experiencing much more violence.Photo: Getty Images

Now Dallas has one of the highest murder rates in the nation, and recently had to call in state troopers to help police control it. For the first time, violent crime has shifted to the tony bedroom communities north of the city. Three suburbs that have seen the most Section 8 transfers — Frisco, Plano and McKinney — have suffered unprecedented spikes in rapes, assaults and break-ins, including home invasions.
Although HUD’s “demonstration project” may have improved the lives of some who moved, it’s ended up harming the lives of many of their new neighbors. And now Castro wants to roll it out nationwide. Soon he will give Section 8 recipients money to afford rent wherever they choose — and if they don’t want to move, he’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Ironically, Hillary’s own hometown of Chappaqua is fighting Section 8 housing because of links to drugs and crime and other problems.
This is a big policy shift that will have broad implications, affecting everything from crime to property values. And it could even impact the presidential election, especially if Castro joins Hillary on the Democratic ticket.
Paul Sperry is author of “The Great American Bank Robbery,” which exposes the racial politics behind the home mortgage crisis.

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Hillary’s rumored running mate, Housing Secretary Julian Castro, is cooking up a scheme to reallocate funding for Section 8 housing to punish suburbs for being too white and too wealthy.

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