As conditions here in this nation steadily deteriorate I find it most disheartening that so few seem to care. Far fewer seem inclined to do anything to stop and roll back the progressive onslaught on the freedom and prosperity of the American people. This is most shocking considering the fact that hardcore progressives make up only a small percentage of the population of this nation. There are many reasons for this.
Only a small minority of American people actually know what is going on because the left has such a stranglehold on the lines of communication most of us rely on. With the exception of Fox News, all of the major news networks spout leftist propaganda. Newsmax and One America News are small potatoes compared to the others and Fox News is far from the Conservative powerhouse it was back in 2010, having been corrupted with progressive influence. Here in Massachusetts the local news is pure leftist tripe. Every time I watch I get nauseated. So few have access to the truth.
The progressive news media is so adept at casting everything from that side of the political spectrum in a purely positive light, while denigrating all things conservative and libertarian as pure evil. Because of this most of the more moderate leftists consider themselves to be on the right side of every issue.
Thanks to the widespread censorship of those on the right side of the political spectrum by the social media giants, most are unaware just how bad conditions are. Most are unaware that progressive policies have caused the carnage.
After several decades of progressive indoctrination at the college level, and a decade at the high and grade school levels, about half of all Americans do not value freedom and liberty. They mistakenly believe socialism is superior to capitalism.
Progressives have learned that fear is overwhelmingly powerful weapon when it comes to subjugating a populace. The Wuhan Flu pandemic was the perfect weapon to accomplish this. It was extremely disturbing to see most of the population meekly accept the trampling of their most important rights.
The deck is so unfairly stacked against us, yet we must wake up our friends and neighbors. Violence is not the answer. Communication amd peaceful resistance are our most crucial tools.
For all of you cynics who says there is no real choice in most elections, next month’s runoff race for Chicago mayoral election proves you wrong.
The unpopular and incompetent incumbent, Lori Lightfoot, finished third in last week’s first round of voting, collecting an anemic 17 percent of the vote in a nine-candidate field. Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas took first place with 33 percent of the vote and Cook County commissioner and Chicago Teachers Union organizer Brandon Johnson in second with 21 percent of the tally.
Chicago’s municipal elections are non-partisan, but the remaining candidates are Democrats.
Vallas has been largely successful in other education jobs, including posts in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Bridgeport, Connecticut–but he has butted heads repeatedly with teachers’ unions, most notably the far-left Chicago Teachers Union, which has strongly backed Johnson’s candidacy. And that’s not all. Johnson, who earns over $100,000-a-year as a Cook County commissioner, also has collected nearly $400,000 as a legislative coordinator for the CTU over the past five years.
So not only is Johnson in the pocket of the Chicago Teachers Union, the CTU is in Johnson’s pocket.
As of this writing, Johnson has not said if he will quit his CTU post and stop cashing that paycheck.
According to the Illinois Policy Institute, over the first two months of 2023, Johnson’s campaign was the recipient of over $4 million in contributions. Over half of that came from the Chicago Teachers Union and its affiliated unions. Of the rest, most of that cash was contributed by other unions, while just five percent of his campaign funds came from other sources.
Watch out, taxpayers.
Johnson favors, as does the CTU, an array of anti-business and anti-consumer taxes and fees, including the hated employee head tax that Mayor Rahm Emanuel eliminated in 2014, although Johnson only wants large companies to pay for a new head tax.
The 2020 riots devastated Chicago’s main shopping and tourism district, North Michigan Avenue. Johnson supports “new user fees for high-end commercial districts frequented by the wealthy, suburbanites, tourists and business travelers.” Such fees will finish off North Michigan Avenue and similar areas. I used to work in the hospitality industry, and Chicago’s hotel taxes, the highest in the nation, were frequently used by officials in other cities to lure conventions away–Johnson wants to hike those hotel taxes by 66 percent. The COVID-19 has devastated ridership on Metra, the Chicago metropolitan area’s public train system, Johnson wants to institute a suburban commuter tax for Metra riders.
Johnson also backs a real estate transfer tax on high-end homes, a financial transaction tax, and maybe, a 3.5 percent municipal income tax on wealthy Chicagoans. In regard to the city income tax, which the Chicago Teachers Union supports, he said that it was a mistake by another far-left group, presumably United Working Families, to wrongly says he backs it.
Fine, that very well may be true. But late last month, on his Fox Chicago Flannery Fired Up show, host Mike Flannery asked Johnson five times if he backs a city income tax. Johnson deflected–he refused to answer “Yes” or “No.”
Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, and St. Louis are among the failed cities with a municipal income tax.
Most Chicagoans believe that crime is the biggest issue in the city. Where does Johnson stand on crime and the police?
Since then, Johnson has waffled, he says many 911 calls are over domestic disturbances. Quite true. But the day after Election Day, a Chicago Police officer, Andre Vasquez-Lasso, was murdered by an 18-year-old gang member. Vasquez-Lasso was responding to a domestic disturbance call.
Last week, when former Chicago Police superintendant Garry McCarthy was asked by Amy Jacobson on WIND’s Morning Answer about Johnson’s support for sending social workers to respond to such domestic altercation calls, he replied, “We’re gonna end up with some dead social workers.”
And if Chicago elects Brandon Johnson mayor next month–remember, Vallas only received only one-third of the vote last week—get ready for an emptying city. The Detroit-doom scenario for Chicago is not far-fetched.
I’ll end with an apocryphal story about an Illinois governor, Adlai Stevenson, who twice was the Democratic nominee for president.
“Every thinking person in America will be voting for you,” someone remarked to Stevenson. The governor replied, “I’m afraid that won’t do—I need a majority.”
Let’s not go Brandon.
John Ruberry regularly blogs five miles north of Chicago at Marathon Pundit.
Remember last week when I spelled out the Navy’s way to stop bleeding people:
Not kicking people out for physical fitness test failures
Waiving darn near everything, from age to non-violent felonies
Asking people to pretty-please stay around a few more years
Opening OCS and other admissions
Raising bonuses
Make life better for officers
Reduce opportunities to leave early
Op-Hold people
From last weeks post
I said the Navy was already doing items 1 through 5. Item 6 won’t happen because the Navy doesn’t actually care about its Sailors. So…we’re now on item 7. From NAVADMIN 064/23:
4. SkillBridge is intended to provide transition assistance and skill development for Service members leaving the Navy. However, it is not an entitlement and participation does impact readiness. As such, the time allowed for program participation is now based on paygrade. If approved, SkillBridge must occur prior to any terminal leave or permissive temporary duty associated with separation, fleet reserve, or retirement. The following limits indicate the maximum amount of time prior to the actual separation, fleet reserve, or retirement date that SkillBridge participation can commence.
a. Tier one (enlisted E5 and below) - 180 days or less.
b. Tier two (enlisted E6-E9) - 120 days or less.
c. Tier three (officers O4 and below) - 120 days or less.
d. Tier four (officers O5 and above) - 90 days or less.
In case you don’t know, SkillBridge is a program where military members that are retiring or separating get to spend the last 90-180 days being trained in a civilian job before retirement. This helps military members get a jump on gaining practical skills before transitioning to civilian life. It happens at the end of their service, so theoretically they are already one foot out the door, and the Navy should already be planning to replace them.
As I pointed out before, plenty of Sailors have been denied SkillBridge because the command “can’t afford to lose them.” This is very prevalent at the junior enlisted levels. Now Navy is cutting the benefit for anyone that is retiring (it’s nearly impossible to retire below the rank of E6), and since junior Sailors already struggle to use SkillBridge, the end result is more erosion of the benefit.
I give it 6 months before Navy just starts OPHOLDing people. An Operational Hold (OPHOLD) is permitted in MILPERSMAN 1306-120. Basically, the Navy can keep a Sailor on sea duty for up to 12 months. I’ve seen this happen, and in general, it’s almost always a bad idea. The big problem is that while the Navy can force you to STAY, it can’t force you to WORK, so Sailors on OPHOLD simply do the bare minimum and the command doesn’t get the hard-working Sailor they once had. I’ve told at least one knucklehead in HR that “Your OPHOLD is only good until the Sailor says they are going to hurt themselves,” because saying you will commit suicide is the quickest way off sea duty.
Denying SkillBridge won’t work. You can’t make people work. Workers have to want to work, and unless they are motivated or fear punishment, you can’t make them work. By denying SkillBridge, all that will happen is people will purposely do less work in the time they should have been on SkillBridge. Anyone retiring was ALREADY not doing that much, SkillBridge simply recognized that and let them go early. A better option would have been to declare that SkillBridge participants have vacated their billet, so you can get a replacement in sooner. Denying SkillBridge is also a recruiting loser, because as the word gets out that Navy won’t actually uphold SkillBridge, fewer people will sign up to be in the Navy.
I continue to hate being right.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Please support the author by purchasing one of his books or donating to DaTechGuy!
In last week’s article, I documented the Biden regime’s scheme to cram the World Health Organization’s Pandemic treaty down the throats of the American people, without submitting the treaty to the Senate for ratification. In this article I will examine the contents of the treaty in detail.
Like the World Health Organization itself, the Pandemic Treaty is infected with a serious case of Marxism. Clause after clause of the treaty reeks of Progressivism, Socialism, and totalitarianism. It is a Leftist wet dream.
For this article I have selected the most ludicrous passages. After each one I will decode the Progressive doublespeak and offer commentary.
3. Recognizing that all lives have equal value, and that therefore equity should be a principle, an indicator and an outcome of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response,
The word equity is a one of the most crucial concepts in contemporary Marxist thought. It is bandied about with great regularity. In this treaty it appears quite often. Although it appears to be similar to equality, equity is the opposite. Equity is equality of outcomes rather than opportunities. Equity requires government force and coercion. It is the forced transfer of some type of good.
5. Each Party will take steps to address the social, environmental and economic determinants of health, and vulnerability conditions that contribute to the emergence and spread of pandemics, and prevent or mitigate the socioeconomic impacts of pandemics, including but not limited to, those affecting economic growth, the environment, employment, trade, transport, gender equality, education, social assistance, housing, food insecurity, nutrition and culture, and especially for persons in vulnerable situations.
This treaty will grant the World Health Organization the power and authority to take over just about every aspect of life here in the United States. It will transform the United States unto a Socialist hell hole.
15. Reaffirming the importance of diverse, gender-balanced and equitable representation and expertise in pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and health system recovery decision-making, as well as in the design and implementation of activities.
This treaty is so completely woke it is nauseating.
17. Recognizing the synergies between multisectoral collaboration – through whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches at the country and community level – and international, regional and cross-regional collaboration, coordination and global solidarity, and their importance to achieving sustainable improvements in pandemic prevention, preparedness and effective response,
After the treaty is implemented, the WHO will be able to gain control of all aspects of life right down to the most local level.
18. Acknowledging that the repercussions of pandemics, beyond health and mortality, on socioeconomic impacts in a broad array of sectors, including economic growth, employment, trade, transport, gender inequality, food insecurity, education, environment and culture, require a multisectoral whole-of-society approach to pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery of health systems,
This is another clause granting the WHO power over all aspects of life here in the US.
29. Recognizing that health is a precondition for, and an outcome and indicator of, the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
This treaty will enact the Green New Deal here, and in every nation that implements it.
34. Reiterating the determination to achieve health equity through resolute action on social, environmental, cultural, political and economic determinants of health, such as eradicating hunger and poverty, ensuring access to health and proper food, safe drinking water and sanitation, employment and decent work and social protection in a comprehensive intersectoral approach,
Every nation that implements this treaty will be transformed into a socialist wasteland.
(b) conduct regular social listening and analysis to identify the prevalence and profiles of misinformation, which contribute to design communications and messaging strategies for the public to counteract misinformation, disinformation and false news, thereby strengthening public trust
After implementation, all dissenting speech and opinions will be monitored and censored.
The WHO CA+ may be applied provisionally, in whole or in part, by a signatory and/or Party that consents to its provisional application by so notifying the Depositary in writing at the time of signature of the instrument, or signature or deposit of its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval, formal confirmation or accession. Such provisional application shall become effective from the date of receipt of the notification by the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
That last clause is the justification the Biden Regime is using to implement this treaty without submitting it to the Senate for ratification, in direct violation of the US Constitution.
The American people must be informed about the heinous nature of this odious treaty. We must stand strong and demand the Biden Regime refrain from implementing this sovereignty destroying farce.
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