Sun-Times attempts to smear Morrison using new tactic of ‘guilt by employment association’

In politics when you fight the entrenched status quo of government they will try everything to stop you and it starts with political hit jobs like the one against me that appeared in today’s Sun-Times newspaper. Here is my official response… FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Despite Sean Morrison firing of Anthony Martin from his corporate employment after assisting law enforcement in his arrest and prosecution for inappropriate communications with an underage girl, the Sun-Times printed a version of events which attempts to smear Sean using the new tactic of ‘guilt by employment association’. The Sun-Times was purchased in 2017 by a group led by an ultra-liberal former Democratic Chicago Alderman to further the goals of the new radical liberal organization called Our Revolution. As of today, their tactics now include trying to make a law and order conservative security professional like Sean Morrison appear to assist the very same criminal he helped apprehend, arrest and convict. They failed today and they will fail in the future.   Sean Morrison killed the “soda tax” and opposes any increases in spending, taxes and fees. His fight for more accountability and less patronage has earned him many liberal big government enemies. As long as Sean is the leader of the conservative government movement in Cook County they will continue to try to assassinate his character and he will continue to prove them wrong.  Below is the statement Sean Morrison sent to the Sun-Times. It appears at the very end of their story after they complete their attempted character assassination.    Statement Of Sean Morrison On The Arrest And Prosecution Of Anthony Martin “Morrison Security has over 800 employees and subcontractor employees nationwide. Anthony Martin was a veteran and former military policeman with no history or even rumored inappropriate behavior toward his fellow employees, customers or private citizens of any age or gender. When I learned he sent a very inappropriate text message to the teenage daughter of another employee, I immediately encouraged his arrest and prosecution. The only reason I did not fire him immediately was because my attorneys believed Martin could have the basis for a wrongful termination lawsuit and I did not want him to profit from his criminal activity by hiding behind labor laws. He continued his assigned work and his attorney drafted a letter required by the court to allow him to travel for employment reasons while his criminal case proceeded. I immediately fired him when he was accused of a similar offense while on duty in Colorado and I personally assisted police officers in apprehending Anthony Martin. While I fully support punishing people within the limits of the law as an elected official, I have no hesitation in stating that the convicted man should consider himself fortunate that his fate consists of just unemployment and incarceration. It is my understanding that he wisely decided to move away from Illinois after he was released.”

Sean Morrison

May meeting of the Palos and Orland Township Republican Organizations will be held on Tuesday, May 8th, 2018.

MAY MEETING

The combined May meeting of the Palos and Orland Township Republican Organizations will be held on Tuesday, May 8th, 2018.

At this month's meeting, we will discuss the many important races to keep an eye on as we move into summer. Specifically, my race for Cook County Commissioner; our statewide candidates for Attorney General, Treasurer, Comptroller and Secretary of State; and of course, the race for Governor of Illinois. We will also discuss the two candidates slated to run for Cook County Sheriff and Assessor, and how you can help make sure they are on the ballot in November.

We will be holding the meeting at Hackney's on 123rd and LaGrange Road in Palos Park at 7 p.m. Meetings are typically 45 minutes to an hour. All are welcome to attend.

Hackney's donates our meeting space. To support them in return, we ask that you consider dining at Hackney's before, during, or after our meeting. You can enjoy some of their great food and drinks.

Please check our website for updates and further information.  www.PalosTownshipGOP.com (click link).

And don't forget to like and follow us on Facebook! (click link)  Map

Another time bomb for Chicago taxpayers

Editorial Board

Maybe you think the worst is over for Chicago Public Schools: Springfield sprang for millions in budget and pension relief last year. Time to lean back and sip an icy beverage.

Sorry to interrupt this reverie, but there are 1 billion reasons that you’re wrong. That is, the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund is short another $1 billion, according to the fund’s consultants.

Or put differently: If these estimates prove correct, taxpayers are likely on the hook for another $1 billion to shore up the teachers pension fund.

Why is this happening? Because of new estimates that reduce expected investment returns over the next decades by a half-percentage point, from 7.75 percent annually to 7.25 percent. Even a relatively small tweak creates a big hole. Hence, the fund is now estimated to be $11 billion in the red, up from $10 billion.

Over the years, CPS officials and City Hall have taken a two-step approach to the district’s money problems. Step 1: Hold out hand to lawmakers in Springfield. Step 2: Stick other hand into the pockets of Chicago taxpayers.

So we aren’t surprised at the response of CPS CEO Janice Jackson to questions about how the district will cope with the threat of escalating pension costs: “I think the biggest plan is to continue to lobby for additional funding to support our schools.” That is, cue the first hand.

This is a familiar story in Illin-owe. Other distressed Chicago and Illinois public pension funds struggle with the prospect of insolvency — an inability to pay benefits as they come due. The state's unfunded pension liability is crowding out other priorities. Taxpayers can’t keep up. Some take the easy way out: They move. The exodus of residents from Chicago and Illinois continues briskly to other states with lower taxes.

We can’t prove that fear of an even higher tax burden will chase more Illinoisans out of state. But we do know that such dread is well-founded. Citizens who stick around almost certainly will suffer a bigger tax chomp to bail out a slew of public pension funds, local and state. Cue the second hand.

It’s inevitable for Chicagoans in particular because for many years, CPS foolishly deferred much of its required annual pension payment — with state complicity. Those liabilities don’t disappear. They mount. People still retire. They still expect pension checks.

Now the district faces enormous and ever-increasing pension payments because state law requires the Chicago teachers pension fund to be 90 percent funded by 2059. Its current funding is dismal — about 50 percent.

The more the fund earns in investments, the less it needs from taxpayers. Which brings us to the new math of investment earning expectations. The pension fund’s annual report shows a stellar return for the year ending June 30, 2017: about 12.53 percent. But the year before? That was a abysmal minus-0.27 percent.

Over the most recent 10 years, the fund has reaped about a 4.87 percent return. The 25-year return, encompassing years with higher interest rates, is better: 8.16 percent as of January 2018.

What will the next years hold? Who knows? As investment advisers always warn: Past returns aren’t a reliable indicator of future performance. And remember what former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in 2012 when his city’s chief actuary proposed lowering the assumed rate of return for the city’s five pension funds to 7 percent from 8 percent:

“The actuary is supposedly going to lower the assumed reinvestment rate from an absolutely hysterical, laughable 8 percent to a totally indefensible 7 or 7.5 percent,” billionaire Bloomberg scoffed. “If I can give you one piece of financial advice: If somebody offers you a guaranteed 7 percent on your money for the rest of your life, you take it and just make sure the guy’s name is not Madoff.”

Yet CPS is counting on 7.25 percent. Taxpayers, guess what that means for you.

(Scott Stantis)

Are you walking the line between prediabetes and a type 2 diagnosis?

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Virginia Tims-Lawson

Even doctors will tell you that type 2 diabetes is one of the most preventable diseases. But it takes willpower and commitment.

But let me ask you… would you rather work at eating better and being more physically active than resigning yourself to a lifetime of medication and possibly needles?

Well, if you’ve been told you’re teetering that fine line between prediabetes and a full-blown type 2 diagnosis, you are at a crossroads…

An old friend of mine, who happens to be a doctor, once told me that it’s easier to avoid disease than it is to cure it. That same doctor profoundly believed that food is medicine.

So if you decide to take a long hard look at your diet, for starters, I have some information you’re going to want to put to use…

Antioxidants are diabetes kryptonite

Of course, sugars and carbohydrates are the major foods you need to eat a whole lot less of, to put blood sugar spikes behind you. Every time your blood sugar spikes, you inch closer to that type 2 diagnosis.

Foods that help you maintain a healthier weight just so happen to also be the foods that can help you tame your blood sugar… like plenty of nutrient-rich fresh vegetables and lean meats. And don’t forget to avoid the processed stuff like the plague.

But to really ramp up your anti-diabetes diet, make the most of what you eat by choosing foods highest in antioxidants, and here’s why…

Several studies have shown that certain nutrients, such as vitamins C and E, lycopenes and flavonoids were associated with a reduction in type 2 diabetes risk. But most recently, a team at the Center of Research in Epidemiology and Population Health in Villejuif, France, suspected there might be a further dietary link.

Since these previous studies looked only at isolated nutrients, not at the total antioxidant capacity of the diet, the researchers set out to verify whether overall diet, according to its antioxidant capacity, is associated with diabetes risk.

They followed 64,223 women for 35 years. Each participant completed a dietary questionnaire at the beginning of the study, including detailed information on more than 200 different food items.

Using this information, together with an Italian database providing the antioxidant capacity of a large number of different foods, the team calculated a score for “total dietary antioxidant capacity” for each participant. The group then analyzed the associations between this score and the risk of diabetes occurrence during the follow-up period.

The results were clear.

Women with the highest antioxidant scores had a reduction in diabetes risk of 27 percent compared with those with the lowest scores.

In fact, diabetes risk diminished with increased antioxidant consumption up to a level of 15 mmol/day, which could be achieved through eating antioxidant-rich foods such as dark chocolate, tea, walnuts, prunes, blueberries, strawberries or hazelnuts… to name a few.

The foods and drinks that contributed the most to a high dietary antioxidant score were fruits and vegetables, tea and red wine (consumed in moderate quantities).

Getting more antioxidants in your diet

So, if you want to stay healthy and keep that type 2 diagnosis far, far away, it looks like getting more antioxidants in your diet could certainly help.

To do this, you’ll need to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

If you prefer your vegetables cooked, just remember these few things to preserve their antioxidant capacity:

• Don’t peel

• Minimize chopping

• Don’t soak in water pre-cooking

• Cook quickly at a high heat rather than slowly on a lower heat

• Don’t cook in copper pots (this reduces the amount of vitamin C)
• Frozen veggies are good sources of antioxidants
• Steam or microwave to retain the most nutritional value

You can also get a boost of antioxidant power from green tea or matcha (a type of green tea made from powdered tea leaves), which you can add to yogurt or your morning smoothie.

Another good way to up the amount of antioxidants you get in your diet is through a quality supplement. I get mine in Peak ResV+ Superfruits™.

Take charge with the power of antioxidants. Eat more fruits and vegetables, enjoy awesome antioxidant drinks like green tea and supplement wisely.

Sources:

sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171109224048.htm

This entry was posted in Alternative Medicine. Bookmark the permalink.

Revelations about Russian cyberattacks on the U.S. energy grid

Russian attacks on energy grid spark alarm

BY MORGAN CHALFANT - 03/25/18 08:19 PM EDT 

Revelations about Russian cyberattacks on the U.S. energy grid are sparking new fears in Washington about the growing threat to the energy sector.

The developments have some officials worried that Moscow or another nation state could execute a disruptive cyberattack targeting the U.S. power grid.

"The next Dec. 7 won't be airplanes and torpedoes coming at Pearl Harbor, it's going to be triggered with an attack on our energy grid with rolling blackouts and chaos," Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said this week. 

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security and FBI revealed last week that Russian hackers have staged cyberattacks against the energy sector and other critical infrastructure since 2016. They linked a coordinated hacking campaign the security community had been tracking for months to the Russian government.Officials issued a public alert describing how hackers penetrated commercial entities on the fringes of the energy sector to compromise their intended victims. They were ultimately able to gain access to information on industrial control systems, technology used to power critical services like electric power and water.

In one case, hackers remotely accessed a human-machine interface, a device used by individuals to operate large industrial control systems — meaning they could have shut off power.

"They were on machines that were on the operational network that had the control panel not only monitoring but also control for systems that were generating power, generating electricity," Eric Chien, technical director at cybersecurity firm Symantec, said.

Lawmakers and other officials in Washington have sounded the alarm about potential cyber threats to the energy grid over the last year, after attacks took down power in parts of Ukraine in 2015 and 2016. Moscow is suspected in both attacks.

Newly identified strains of malware targeting industrial control systems — which are very rare — have underscored the threat. Last June, researchers released details on the malware linked to the 2016 attack in Ukraine. And in December, security firms identified malware targeting safety systems manufactured by Schneider Electric that shut down operations at an unknown industrial plant in the Middle East.

Experts note that the decentralized nature of the U.S. power grid — which is itself comprised of many small grids — means that it would take several simultaneous cyberattacks to take down power across a wide swath of the country.

But the latest revelations of Russian attacks spurred new concerns about the ability of hackers to breach power systems and other critical infrastructure, which are largely owned and operated by private companies.

"I am very much concerned, not only [about] Russia but any enemy, domestic enemy or foreign enemy," Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told The Hill. "Our energy sector is very vulnerable to invasive attacks."

The alert issued last week suggests that the Russians were collecting intelligence on control systems that could ultimately be used to stage disruptive or destructive attacks.

Those threats have been noticed at the Department of Energy, which last month announced plans to create a new office devoted to cybersecurity and energy security. The department's cyber funds would get a boost under President Trump's proposed fiscal 2019 budget, amid cuts to other programs.

In recent months, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which sets mandatory standards for grid operators, has also proposed a series of new rules governing cybersecurity and cyber incident reporting.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry addressed the Russian cyberattacks on Thursday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Perry assured lawmakers the Trump administration was taking steps to stop attacks on the grid, though he refused to go into detail in a public setting.

"We're making, I think, every effort to protect the electrical grid from those types of attacks," Perry said.

When asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) if the attacks were an act of war, Perry said he would "tend to agree."

Protecting the grid requires the Energy Department to coordinate with private companies in the energy sector and the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for protecting critical infrastructure from cyber and physical threats.   

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), who heads the Homeland Security subcommittee focused on cyber issues, told The Hill that his panel would examine the Russian attacks as part of its oversight role. Still, he expressed confidence that Homeland Security is responding adequately to the threat, citing the cyber expertise of Kirstjen Nielsen, the department's new secretary.

"We're constantly following up when we get reports like that," Ratcliffe said.

"The Department of Homeland Security has never had more cyber expertise than it has right now," Ratcliffe added. "For all of the concerns about Russian meddling into our election and more generally into our critical infrastructure, we're better equipped to deal with it than we've been at any point in the past."

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on energy, in an interview said he plans to make cybersecurity a big focus of an upcoming April 12 hearing with Perry.

The Russian grid attacks have widely been viewed in the context of Moscow's interference in the 2016 presidential election. The Trump administration disclosed the energy sector attacks when unveiling new sanctions on Moscow for meddling in the election and executing the global NotPetya malware attack last summer.

Still, the threat to the energy sector extends beyond Moscow. 

On Friday, U.S. officials indicted and sanctioned nine Iranian hackers for breaching hundreds of universities and other organizations to steal information on behalf of Iran's government and for financial gain.

One of their targets, officials said, was the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

"That is the agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil," Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, said Friday.

"That agency has details of some of this country's most sensitive infrastructure."

Timothy Cama contributed.

TAGS KIRSTJEN NIELSEN JOHN RATCLIFFE DONALD TRUMP BOBBY RUSH RICK PERRY FRED UPTON CYBERATTACK CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE ENERGY GRID RUSSIA

ISRA Thursday Bulletin - March 29, 2018

ISRA Thursday Bulletin - March 29, 2018

Executive Directors Message If you watched the anti-gun demonstrations last weekend you may have noticed similarities with the Black Lives Matter and the Antifa demonstrations.  That is because they are related.  What we are seeing is a framework which has been in place for some time.  This framework is staffed by organizers and professional agitators designed to organize people to protests.  Professional agitators are in the background but they are the muscle.  They take advantage of naive people, using emotion, misrepresentation of facts and groupthink; that doesn’t matter because naive people vote too.  This is all funded by millionaires and billionaires with a political agenda that is designed to fractionalize and divide this nation by tearing away at our traditions, core beliefs and attack the Constitution of the United States.  We are facing the radical left; they are vicious and are capable of anything.  Their target is you, the individual gun owner, and the Second Amendment. These tactics are not new.  They have been used by left wing groups, whose numbers are small, but have been successful in overtaking the majority and seizing power in many countries around the world.  One of their goals is to take firearms away from all of the citizens, but not themselves. These are troubling times. All firearm owners need to stick together.  Recently, we have seen some firearm owners willing to sell out their fellow firearm owners so they can keep their firearms; this is known as appeasing the alligator. Translated, this means you feed to the alligator all your friends and neighbors in order to keep the alligator happy.  In the end, that only means you will be the last one eaten but, you will be eaten, never the less. There are some gun owners who think “they will never take my gun.”  The signs these people carry betray their true intentions.  Signs like “Yes, we are here to take your guns” and “Ok, we will pry it from your cold dead hands.”  There is no special dispensation for target shooters, hunters, collectors, those interested in self-defense, or anyone else - no exceptions. On Tuesday, March 27, 2018, the New York Times carried an op-ed written by Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment.  This is another sure sign of where the American Leftists want to go.  Stevens has pulled the mask off of the American Left and we can now see clearly what and who they are and where they want to go.  Of course, the left is denying everything.  Remember, what is unthinkable today can become law tomorrow. Think for a moment: much of the rights delineated in the United States Constitution are worthless without the Second Amendment.  I believe some of the millionaires and billionaires envision a cabal between themselves, a bureaucrat laden United States government and the left wing media.  Individual freedom will be toast.  An armed free people stand in their way.  I know, I am not supposed to think such thoughts. The number of FOID card holders and Concealed Carry Licensees increases every day.  As of a week ago, there are about 2,276,586 FOID card holders and 285,900 Concealed Carry Licensees in Illinois.  That means Illinois gun owners will go through 922,494,960 or more background checks this year.  The crime rate among legal gun owners is so low it can’t be statistically measured. The NRA has announced the first ever National F-Class Smallbore (.22LR) Championships, to be held in conjunction with the other Smallbore Championships, in Bristol Indiana.  F-Class Smallbore is an up and coming competition for those who love precision shooting.  F-Class Smallbore has been a part of the ISRA Thursday Night Smallbore League for the past two years.  If you are interested, come out and join the ISRA Smallbore League.  The league starts on May 17th! You say you support the Second Amendment; prove it by joining the ISRA. Thanks for being a member. Upcoming Events: ISRA Calendar For more information, visit www.isra.org Illinois Gun Owner Lobby Day (IGOLD) is April 25th! Saturday, March 31, 2018 Special Range Work Day The Well Armed Woman Sunday, April 1, 2018 Black Powder League Wednesday, April 4, 2018 ISRA Wednesday Night Air Gun League ISRA 10 Meter International Air Gun League Saturday, April 7, 2018 Range Work Day Introduction to Bullseye Sunday, April 8, 2018 Joe Brown Highpower League Homeland Security Active Shooter Course Illinois Gun & Trade Shows Rock Island Gun Show Rock Island, IL – QCCA Expo Center Dates: April 7 & 8, 2018 Hours: Saturday: 8:00am – 4:00pm              Sunday: 8:00am – 2:00pm Admission: $7.00 McHenry County Gun Show Woodstock, IL – McHenry County Fairgrounds Date: April 8, 2018 Hours: Sunday: 8:00am – 1:00pm Admission: $5.00 Knoxville Gun Show Knoxville, IL – Knoxville Fairgrounds Dates: April 14 & 15, 2018 Hours: Saturday: 9:00am – 5:00pm              Sunday: 9:00am – 3:00pm Admission: $5.00 Kane County Sportsman’s Show St Charles, IL – Kane County Fairgrounds Date: April 15, 2018 Hours: Sunday: 7:30am – 1:30pm Admission: $5.00 Kankakee Gun Show Kankakee, IL – Kankakee County Fairgrounds Dates: April 21 & 22, 2018 Hours: Saturday: 8:00am – 4:00pm              Sunday: 8:00am – 2:00pm Admission: $6.00 Crown Point Gun Show Crown Point, IN – Lake County Fairgrounds Dates: April 21 & 22, 2018 Hours: Saturday: 9:00am – 5:00pm              Sunday: 9:00am – 3:00pm Admission: $5.00 Pine Tree Pistol Club Gun Show Loves Park, IL – Forest Hills Lodge Date: April 22, 2018 Hours: Sunday: 8:00am – 3:00pm Admission: $5.00 National Civil War Show & Sale Wheaton, IL – DuPage County Fairgrounds Date: April 28, 2018 Hours: Saturday: 9:00am – 4:00pm Admission: $9.00 Collector Arms Dealers Association Gun Show Wheaton, IL – DuPage County Fairgrounds Date: April 28, 2018 Hours: Saturday: 9:00am – 4:00pm Admission: $9.00 Sandwich Gun Show Sandwich, IL – Sandwich Fairgrounds Dates: April 28 & 29, 2018 Hours: Saturday: 8:00am – 4:00pm              Sunday: 8:00am – 2:00pm Admission: $6.00 PVSA Sportman & Gun Show Wheaton, IL – DuPage County Fairgrounds Date: April 29, 2018 Hours: Sunday: 8:00am – 1:00pm Admission: $5.00   Check out ISRA's website at www.isra.org! Tell us what you think!   Follow the ISRA on Twitter and Facebook.   Give the gift of an ISRA membership.   Not an ISRA Member?  Join Today!

 

Never time for Daylight Saving

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Special To Personal Liberty

I’m already dreading it.

On Sunday, March 11, at 2 a.m., daylight saving time, the practice of moving our clocks forward one hour in the spring and backward one hour in the fall, will commence.

When I wake on March 11 at my regular time — which will depend on the pub I was drowning my DST sorrows at the night before — I will be short by one hour.

I will be in a stupor, for the most part, until November, when I must set my clocks back one hour — at which time I will officially resume my perpetual confusion about what the heck time it is.

Come Sunday, half the clocks in my house — those that have been off by an hour since November — will display the correct time.

The other half, which have displayed the correct time since November, will be wrong.

Thus, when I have business meetings or social engagements to attend, I’ll be one hour late or one hour early, but hardly ever on time.

Daylight saving time was first implemented in Thunder Bay, Canada, in 1908. The goal was to squeeze an extra hour of daylight out of a typical day.

The United States adopted the concept in 1918, but, reports TimeandDate.com, without uniform rules across all states, it resulted in widespread chaos in commerce and transportation.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 addressed that challenge by synchronizing the switch dates across the country.

In an effort to save energy following the 1973 oil embargo, Congress changed DST dates again — then changed them again in 1976.

From 1987 to 2006, the country observed yet another set of DST dates — which changed one more time in 2007, to our current March-and-November cycle.

Millions of Americans have been befuddled ever since.

I think a grand conspiracy is under way in which clear-headed “morning people” are attempting to use DST to swindle us “night-time people” and swipe our girlfriends while we are in a continuous state of fogginess.

I also think Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts are in collusion to fatten profits.

Starbucks coffee has always been ridiculously expensive, but et tu, Dunkin’? I got a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee recently that was just shy of Starbucks’ exorbitant iced-coffee cost.

I suspect price-fixing. I suspect federal officials are being bribed to keep adjusting DST rules, so that we are forever groggy and grumpy, conditions that allow Big Coffee to fleece us.

Where is Special Counsel Robert Mueller when you need him?

In any event, an endless DST debate continues.

Proponents of DST say it gives us more daylight in spring and summer, which gets us out of the house and makes us happier.

Opponents say it makes spring and summer mornings darker, which makes us less productive at work most of the year. They also say it causes us to consume more energy.

I’m unable to participate in the conversation, however, because I haven’t finished my first pot of coffee.

As I see it, if DST is going to keep us forever disoriented, why adjust our clocks forward and backward by only one hour?

Why not move them forward to 2030 so I can begin collecting Social Security – or backward to 1984, when I had a 29-inch waist and was still able to date really good-looking ladies?

Whatever the case, my mother is especially worried about my difficulty adjusting to DST changes. She jokes that I’ll be late for my own funeral.

Or an hour early.

— Tom Purcell