Moms Inadvertently Expose Daughters to Predators on Instagram in Quest for Money and Fame, Investigation Reveals

Instagram User

Mothers are inadvertently exposing their young daughters to male predators on Instagram in a quest to garner money and fame, an investigation published by The New York Times on Thursday found.

The accounts, numbering in the thousands, reveal how social media platforms are altering the definition of childhood and the increasing commodification of young girls, the NYT found. In some cases, mothers managing the accounts actively sell photographs, previously worn outfits and chat sessions with their underage daughters.

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Accused Wisconsin Pedophile Allegedly Recorded and Shared Sexually Explicit Videos of His Own Adopted Son

Adam Westbrook

The charges against accused pedophile Adam Westbrook, an alleged member of a Wisconsin chapter of the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” reveal that the victim—a prepubescent little boy—is his own adopted son.

Westbrook is facing charges of possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child, four counts each. The case was dismissed at the state level in a procedural move that transfers it to the U.S. Attorney-Western District of Wisconsin Office as a federal crime.

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Yale University Reinstitutes Standardized Testing in Admissions

Yale University

Another elite university in the U.S. has backtracked on its decision to eliminate standardized testing in admissions after years of following the practice.

Yale University announced Thursday that it would be instituting a “flexible testing policy,” which allows students to submit several different test scores for admissions, including ACT, SAT, International Baccalaureate, and Advanced Placement scores, according to a Yale website. The university said that after performing extensive research, they found that “test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s future.”

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Commentary: Endless Lawfare Against Trump is Driven by Marxism and Fear

Donald Trump

The latest in Democrat lawfare against President Trump is nothing more than a disgusting sham. The “ruling” in the New York civil trial, where a leftist judge, who has allegedly donated exclusively to Democrats, told Trump, at the behest of a state Attorney General whose sole purpose is to be a “real pain in the ass,” that he must pay $355 million and not do business in the state for three years as punishment for a made-up “crime,” is nothing short of totalitarian.

It has been argued by many as to why the case is meritless, namely because there was no crime committed and no damaged entity, as the banks who loaned Trump money did it happily on their own and were paid back. They assessed Trump’s net worth independently, which is apparently standard practice in the New York State real estate market.

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Appellate Court Eliminates Obama Moratorium on Coal Leasing

Coal Mining

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday to essentially axe an Obama-era rule that prohibited new leasing for coal mining on federal lands.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a previous 2022 court decision that allowed for the reinstatement of an Obama-era regulation that banned new coal mining leases on federally-controlled lands. The 2022 decision overturned Wednesday found that the Trump administration did not conduct an adequate environmental review when it decided to axe the Obama regulation, but the appellate court determined that the case is now moot because the Biden administration revoked the Trump-era reversal at the heart of the case anyways.

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Cellphone Data Raises Questions about Start of Willis-Wade Relationship

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Nathan Wade appeared to make almost three dozen visits to the Hapeville neighborhood where Fani Willis was living before the district attorney hired him to lead Fulton County’s election interference prosecution, according to cellphone data included in a court submission filed Friday. The filing, by attorneys for Donald Trump, raises fresh questions about the relationship between the two prosecutors, which the former president and other defendants argue has tainted the case against them and should result in Willis and her office being disqualified. Trump’s lawyers relied on data collected from Wade’s cellphone and cellphone tower transmissions to track his movements. It seems to contradict Wade’s testimony last week in which he said he had visited Willis at her condo in Hapeville no more than 10 times before he was hired in November 2021. It also indicates Wade twice arrived late at night at the condo and left early the next morning in the months before Willis and Wade said their relationship became romantic early in 2022. READ THE FULL STORY     

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Trump Pledges to Defend Christianity Against the Left, Which He Says Wants ‘To Tear Down Crosses’

Breitbart News Former President Donald Trump promised to use a second term in the White House to defend Christian values and even suggested he’d shield the faith’s central iconography, warning a convention of religious broadcasters on Thursday night that the left wants “to tear down crosses.” “Remember, every communist regime throughout history has tried to stamp out the churches, just like every fascist regime has tried to co-opt them and control them. And, in America, the radical left is trying to do both,” Trump told hundreds of cheering attendees at the National Religious Broadcasters International Christian Media Convention in Nashville. “They want to tear down crosses where they can, and cover them up with social justice flags,” Trump added. “But no one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration, I swear to you.” READ THE FULL STORY    

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Left-Wing Dark Money Network Quietly Added a New Arm to Move Millions in Anonymous Funds

Money in case

The nation’s most prolific left-wing dark money behemoth quietly added a new organization to its network of nonprofits, newly surfaced documents reveal.

The Telescope Fund became the seventh organization managed by the shadowy for-profit firm Arabella Advisors in 2021, joining a network of organizations notable for pouring hundreds of millions of untraceable dollars into left-of-center political and advocacy groups, The Washington Free Beacon reported. The new nonprofit will offer donor-advised funds (DAFs), a type of charitable account that allows donors to obscure their giving by routing donations through a DAF.

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Red States Considering Sex Ed Bills That Would Require Students to Watch Pro-Life Video

Multiple legislatures are considering bills that would require students to watch a video of an infant’s development in the womb as part of their sex education.

Live Action, a pro-life activist organization, created a three-minute video, which shows an animated infant named Olivia go through the developmental process from conception to full term at nine months. Bills have been proposed in Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia to include an animation “comparable” to the Live Action video for students from high school to as young as third grade.

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New York City Law Allowing Non-Citizens to Vote Ruled Unconstitutional

Vote Here Sign

A New York City law that would allow non-citizens to vote in local elections was deemed unconstitutional by a state appeals court on Wednesday.

The law would have allowed roughly 800,000 green card holders and individuals with federal work authorization living in the Big Apple to vote in the city’s elections, including in mayoral and City Council elections. Democratic and Republican elected officials have been in a drawn-out legal battle over the law, and the court’s ruling Wednesday hands Democrats a defeat.

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Report: CBS News Seized Files, Computers and Records of Fired Journalist Catherine Herridge

Catherine Herridge

CBS News has reportedly “seized the files, computers and records” of fired investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, including information on privileged sources.

“The network grabbed Herridge’s notes and files and informed her that it would decide what, if anything, would be turned over to her,” George Washington University law Professor Jonathan Turley reported at the Hill on Thursday. “The files likely contain confidential material from both her stints at Fox and CBS.”

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Nashville Transgender Shooter Not a Left-Wing Extremist Because She Called Victims ‘F****ts,’ ADL Says

The Anti-Defamation League claimed that right-wing extremists committed “all” the extremist-related murders in 2023, discounting the apparent extremism of Audrey Hale, the transgender shooter who killed three adults and three students in March at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

Conservative commentator Steven Crowder released three pages of the shooter’s manifesto, which police confirmed were legitimate, in November.

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Joe Biden’s Brother Switched Up Story on China Deal After Lawmakers Showed Him Receipts, Source Says

James Biden altered his story during a closed-door interview with lawmakers on Wednesday after congressional investigators presented him with evidence directly contradicting his claims, according to a source familiar with the interview.

Joe Biden’s younger brother, in closed-door testimony to the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees, initially told his interviewers that he was not part of a business deal involving Hunter Biden and several of his associates, according to a source familiar with the interview. However, after investigators showed him an agreement that featured his signature alongside those of Hunter Biden and his business partners ,James Biden then told legislators that he did not remember signing the agreement.

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USDA Colludes with Left-Wing Group to Turn Out Voters Under Biden Order, Documents Reveal

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working with a left-wing advocacy group to boost voter turnout as part of President Joe Biden’s executive order directing federal agencies to get involved in elections.

The USDA worked directly with Demos, a New York-based group that helped draft Biden’s Executive Order 14019, according to records obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet.)

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Mortgage Applications Fall as Interest Rates Remain High

Paper Work

Mortgage applications sank last week as high prices and rising mortgage rates have increased unaffordability for average Americans, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The total volume of mortgage loan applications for homes declined 10.6% in the week ending Feb. 16 compared to the previous week when seasonally adjusted, while the purchase index fell 10% in that same time, according to a release from the MBA. The drop in applications follows an increase in the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for homes under $766,550 to 7.06% from 6.87% the week prior, intensifying housing unaffordability.

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‘Serious Problems’: Global Plague of Recessions Could Infect U.S., Experts Say

Office Meeting

The recessions currently plaguing several major countries around the world could be what drags the U.S. into an economic downturn of its own, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Germany announced on Monday that it fell into a technical recession in the fourth quarter of 2023, after reporting its second month in a row of negative growth, following several other top nations experiencing economic difficulties. While the U.S. has managed to avoid a recession due to its size and diverse industries, foreign economic malaise may drag the U.S. economy down through changes to trade and global inflation that would lead to a loss for American businesses, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Nonprofit ‘Building Bridges’ Between China and U.S. Heartland Has Deep Ties to Communist Party Influence Network

Farm House

A politically-connected Midwestern nonprofit focused on “building bridges” with China has extensive ties to groups and individuals who are affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence arm, the Daily Caller News Foundation has found.

The Missouri-based United States Heartland China Association (USHCA), a 501(c)3 bipartisan organization, characterizes its mission as “building bridges and promoting opportunities” between U.S. officials and businesses in Midwestern states and China. USHCA runs a number of U.S.-China programs, including agricultural roundtables, business seminars, student forums and political junkets to China.

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Commentary: Liberals Want Americans to House Illegal Immigrants

Illegal Immigrants

The Office of Global Michigan is encouraging “everyday Americans” to volunteer to house illegal immigrants and “make a difference by welcoming refugees from around the world.”

“Volunteers [are] needed” to “support refugee resettlement efforts in Michigan,” says the office’s website, which was recently launched by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Development.

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Report: Girls Basketball Team Forfeits After Three Players Injured Against Team with 6 Foot Tall Male Player

Girls Basketball with Trans Athlete

by Debra Heine   A girls’ basketball game between two Massachusetts high schools was cut short earlier this month after three female players were injured while playing against a six foot tall trans-identified biological male. On February 6, the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell forfeited against KIPP Academy after only 16 minutes of play, ItemLive reported. KIPP was leading the February 6 game 31-14, but the game reportedly went into the books as a 10-0 forfeit win for KIPP. A video posted on YouTube by “Inside Lowell” shows a Collegiate Charter School girl being dragged to the ground like a ragdoll while wrestling for a rebound with the much larger biological male player from KIPP Academy. The girl can be seen grabbing her back and wincing in pain as she tried to get back up off the floor. According to ItemLive’s sources, the biological male player is “more than 6 feet tall with facial hair.” He has reportedly been on the roster since the beginning of the season. “A man hitting a woman used to be called domestic abuse. Now it’s called brave,” said former competitive swimmer Riley Gaines on X. “Who watches this and actually thinks this is ‘compassionate, kind, and inclusive’?” Prior…

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AG Sues NGO for Assisting Unlawful Migration

Dallas Express Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Tuesday that he has filed a lawsuit against a nongovernmental organization to revoke its operations authorization for allegedly facilitating unlawful migration. The lawsuit was filed against Annunciation House, a Catholic organization in El Paso that “operates several houses of hospitality” for the “migrant, refugee, and economically vulnerable peoples of the border region.” A news release from the Office of the Attorney General claims that it requested documents from the organization pertaining to potential legal violations but was denied access to the records. READ THE FULL STORY    

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Israeli Rape-Crisis Group Report Finds ‘Systematic’ Sexual Violence on and After Oct. 7

New York Times An Israeli organization that supports survivors of sexual abuse released a report on Wednesday concluding that acts of sexual violence against Israelis during and after the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 were “systematic and widespread.” “The report finds that the Hamas attack included brutal acts of violent rape, often involving threats with weapons, specifically directed towards injured women,” said the group, The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, an umbrella organization of nine such organizations in Israel. The report added that many incidents involved gang rape. “Often, the rape was perpetrated in front of an audience — partners, family or friends — in a manner intended to increase the pain and humiliation of all present,” the report said. READ THE FULL STORY    

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Catholics Demand Exorcism of St. Patrick’s Cathedral After Trans Activists Hold ‘Blasphemous and Sacrilegious’ Funeral

Cecilia Gentili Funeral

A Mass of Reparation was quietly held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan over the weekend after a depraved funeral service for a renowned transgender activist scandalized parishioners. Some Catholics, however, say that’s not enough and are calling for an exorcism to be performed at the cathedral.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has condemned the heavily attended February 15 funeral of Cecilia Gentili, a biological male who identified as a female.

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Musk’s SpaceX Has Deep Ties with U.S. Intelligence Agencies

Space X Building

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has forged a close relationship with the U.S. military and intelligence community and plans to expand contracts with the government, including a secretive project known as Starshield, The Wall Street Journal reported.

SpaceX has rocketed past the U.S. military and other commercial firms to become a leading entity in the space launch competition, and its success has attracted the attention of major U.S. military and intelligence agencies, according to the outlet. Starshield, just one example of the deepening ties between the commercial and government space, supplies government clients with satellites capable of secure communications and data collection with different kinds of observation units, the WSJ reported, citing a website made public in 2022.

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Boston Removes Residents from Community Center to Make Room for Illegal Aliens

Melnea Cass Recreation Complex

Residents of the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts are furious with local officials after the city forced residents out of the local community center in order to make room for more illegal aliens.

As Breitbart reports, the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Community Center was once a meeting place for various sports games and community events, including Little League games and volleyball players. But the center is now lined with cots for illegals to sleep on.

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Biden Admin Reportedly Set to Greenlight Rule Change That Could Spike Gas Prices — But Not Until After the Election

Gas Station

The Biden administration is expected to ease seasonal restrictions on ethanol-gasoline blends but has delayed the change until after the 2024 election to avoid a price spike, according to Reuters.

The rule change stems from a 2022 request from the governors of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin to allow the sale of gasoline with 15% ethanol year-round, known as E15 gasoline, lifting current seasonal restrictions that aim to reduce smog in the summer months, according to Reuters. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had originally set an effective date of April 28, 2024, for the changes when the agency sent the proposal to the White House in December, but that is now expected to be pushed back to 2025.

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Commentary: Voters Want China Out of American Farmland

China Farmland

Americans firmly reject the Chinese agenda of acquiring U.S. assets, especially vital strategic ones like American farmland. Battleground polling reveals that this issue provides an opportunity for patriotic populist candidates to protect the heartland, provide a stark contrast vs. the leftist big business globalists, and reap substantial political benefits in November’s elections.

Of course, Chinese companies and nationals buy substantial real estate across the board in America, not just farmland. According to National Association of Realtors data, China remains by far the largest source of foreign purchases of U.S. homes. Last year, the Chinese bought $13.6 billion in American homes, more than double the $6.1 billion they spent the year before.

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Teacher’s Assistant Sues Union, Ohio School District for Illegally Withholding Dues from Her Paycheck

Perry High School

An Ohio teacher’s assistant who helps special needs students is suing her school district and former union because the district withheld union dues from her paycheck even after she left the union and formally asked it to cease taking her money.

“Using the coercion of government to take money from a government employee and give it to a union without the employee’s consent is not only egregious, but the Supreme Court has held that it’s unconstitutional,” Jeffrey Schwab, a senior counsel at Liberty Justice Center who represents the Ohio teacher’s assistant, told The Daily Signal in a written statement Monday.

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Republican Businessman Challenges Vulnerable Democrat Senator in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Senate Race

Republican businessman Eric Hovde launched his highly anticipated campaign against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin on Tuesday.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) recruited Hovde, who had been weighing a campaign for months, after other prominent Republicans like Reps. Mike Gallagher and Tom Tiffany declined to jump into the race. Hovde announced his campaign in a social media video posted on X, and called for the country to unite to “find common sense solutions to restore America.”

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Trump Dominates Nikki Haley in South Carolina Poll Just Days Ahead of Primary

Haley Trump South Carolina

Former President Donald Trump holds a commanding 28-point lead over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley just days ahead of her home state’s primary, according to a Tuesday poll.

Trump is beating Haley 63% to 35% among those who are “very likely” to vote in Saturday’s Republican primary, a Suffolk University/USA Today survey found. The poll also indicated the former president held double-digit leads over Haley among each age group, both men and women, those with a college degree, high school graduates and voters in military families.

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Elon Musk Says His Brain Chip Allowed Patient to Move Object with His Mind

Surgery

Billionaire Elon Musk says his company Neuralink’s first human brain chip patient is not experiencing any negative effects and is controlling a computer mouse using their mind.

Neuralink successfully implanted the patient in January, Musk announced on X, formerly known as Twitter. He provided an update on the patient during an X Spaces conversation Monday that the patient has recovered well and is able to control a computer mouse with his mind.

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‘I Would Love to See the Monument Go Away’: Rancher Suing Biden Over Arizona Land Grab Sounds Off

A rancher, who is suing President Joe Biden over the creation of a national monument in Arizona blocking the use of nearly 1 million acres for mining and other uses, told the Daily Caller News Foundation he wants to see it “go away.”

President Joe Biden created the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in August 2023, hailing it as a step forward in the effort to “protect tribal lands.” The Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit to overturn the designation on behalf of rancher Chris Heaton, who the DCNF interviewed on Wednesday, on Feb. 12, according to a release.

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Commentary: Non-Citizens Have Been Voting Since 2008

Why would a president running for reelection refuse to meet with the Speaker of the House to discuss a national crisis that most voters blame on the president himself? This would be regarded as bizarre behavior under any circumstances, but it’s particularly perverse considering that the crisis in question is illegal immigration — the signature issue of Biden’s probable challenger in November. Moreover, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, 63 percent of the voters disapprove of the way he has handled immigration. Yet Biden refuses to discuss the problem. It’s almost as if he thinks it somehow works to his advantage.

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Fani Willis Appears to Suggest She’s Under Divine Protection in Church Sermon After Heated Court Hearing

Fani Willis

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appeared to suggest in a sermon Saturday that God is protecting her from “weapons” that have “formed” against her, adding that they will not “prosper.”

Willis’ sermon follows a Thursday and Friday hearing on whether she should be disqualified from her election interference case against former President Donald Trump. Willis allegedly gained financial benefits from appointing special prosecutor Nathan Wade to the case, but they both testified that their relationship commenced after the appointment and that she always reimbursed him in cash for their vacations and outings.

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University Hospital: Trans-Women’s Breast ‘Milk’ Just as Good as Biological Women’s

Baby with Parents

A UK university hospital system has claimed that milk produced by trans-women “is as good for babies” as biological women’s breast milk.

The Telegraph reports a University of Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust’s (USHT) “letter to campaigners” noted that “after a combination of drugs,” trans-women’s milk is “comparable to that produced following the birth of a baby.”

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Commentary: Chronically Absent Students Need an Alternative

Empty Chairs

It’s no secret that chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed since the pandemic. As The 74s Linda Jacobson writes, a new analysis of federal data released in late 2023 shows the problem may be even worse than previously understood.

The report from Johns Hopkins University shows that two out of three students were enrolled in schools with high or extreme chronic absenteeism rates during the 2021-22 school year—more than double the rate in 2017-18. (Students who miss at least 10% of the school year, or roughly 18 days, are considered chronically absent.)

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Foreign Billionaire-Backed ‘Climate Power’ Pressuring Broadcasters to Censor Ads Critical of Biden’s EV Mandate

President Joe Biden

A green nonprofit that is indirectly funded by a foreign billionaire is pressuring broadcasters to drop advertisements that criticize the Biden administration’s massive electric vehicle (EV) agenda.

Climate Power wrote to numerous broadcasters this week demanding that they stop airing American Fuel and Petrochemicals Manufacturers (AFPM)-funded advertisements in swing state markets that rail against President Joe Biden’s plans to impose widespread EV adoption in the coming years. The charitable organization affiliated with Hansjorg Wyss, a Swiss health care mogul and billionaire philanthropist, donates millions of dollars to the Fund for a Better Future, which was the fiscal sponsor for Climate Power until 2023, a spokesperson for Climate Power previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Commentary: Progressives’ Cunning Blueprint to Possess the Levers of State Power

by Joshua Bandoch   Illinois public-sector unions are perfecting and promulgating a model for subjugating Americans to union interests. Their model has three steps: control the kids, control politicians and control the law. It’s highly effective, and toxic to the future of any state that embraces it. Kids are at the heart of Illinois unions’ domination strategy. After all, in Animal Farm, Napoleon the pig (representing Josef Stalin) says, “education of the young was more important than anything that could be done for those who were already grown up.” Illinois strives to be avant-garde in controlling kids through forced consumption of pro-union propaganda in schools. Behold House Bill 4417, in many ways the logical consequence of years of union domination. This bill, which is currently working its way through Illinois’ House of Representatives, would force all public high schools to “designate and observe ‘Workplace Readiness Week.’” This innocuous-sounding bill is sinister. Rather than preparing high school students to communicate professionally or interview successfully, students would be forced to consume information on the right to organize a union. Schools can even spread this propaganda “during special events after regular school hours.” Perhaps the next step will be testing students on their ability to regurgitate…

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