Break out the yellow vests: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Pushes For A 20 To 30 Cent Per Gallon Increase To Fund Transportation Bill

Rahm Emanuel and a group of suburban leaders on Tuesday called for a 20 to 30 cent per gallon increase in the state’s gas tax to fund a major statewide transportation bill.

Emanuel spearheaded the push during a City Hall news conference in which he was joined by a handful of suburban mayors and regional planners. The mayor’s office also released a list of 26 suburban mayors and village presidents who supported the tax increase.

“We are facing a historic moment, and I stand with a group of bipartisan mayors on behalf of a new transportation bill that should happen in Springfield,” Emanuel said alongside the mayors of Park Forest, Hazel Crest, Oswego, Fox River Grove, Joliet, Batavia, Broadview and Ford Heights.

“Our state can’t wait any longer,” Emanuel continued. “Over the last four years, we’ve been stuck in neutral and the states in the surrounding area — Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa just to name a few — have passed transportation bills with gas tax increases.” The mayor noted all of the states were controlled by Republican governors and legislatures at the time of the tax increases.

Illinois last raised the gas tax from 16 cents per gallon to 19 cents in 1990. Emanuel said raising the tax by 20 cents would be about the equivalent to inflation over the past 28 years. He said the group of mayors settled on a range of 20 cents to 30 cents to serve as a guideline for state lawmakers when they take up debate on the issue next year.

“For over a century, this region has been America’s crossroads for roads, rails and runways. The truth is it is a fundamental economic strength for the region and a job creator for the region,” Emanuel said. “And over the last 28 years, we have not been investing in that strength and it is beginning to show the wear and tear. Chicago and the greater Chicago metro area is losing some of the jobs and economic opportunity that would come if you had a 21st century transportation system to back up a 21st century economy.”

Emanuel’s call to increase the gas tax could give some political cover for Democratic Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker, who has talked about the need for a statewide infrastructure plan but hasn’t said how he wants to pay for it beyond possibly using money from legalized marijuana and sports betting.

http://12160.info/page/2649739:Page:1856405

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-rahm-emanuel-gas-tax-20181211-story.html

Boulder Residents Ordered to Bring Guns to Police for Certification

Residents of Boulder, Colorado, have until Dec. 27 to certify their guns with the city authorities.

Those who don’t certify risk legal trouble, as the city is trying to bring residents into compliance with a ban on high-capacity magazines, bump stocks, and assault rifles, The Western Journal reported.

Instead of confiscating the citizens’ banned rifles, the city wants them to to be certified. The certificate will allow citizens to continue to have the weapons in their possession if they were purchased before the ban. It went into effect via a city council vote in May.

So far only 87 certificates out of a city of 100,000 residents have been issued. But even that number consists of duplicates, in at least one case due to dual ownership of a weapon between husband and wife.

To certify, residents have to go to police headquarters. Officers will inspect the weapon while it is in a resident’s vehicle to make sure it is a type of weapon under the ban, the Daily Camera reported. If so, residents have to pay $20 for the first weapon and $5 for each additional certification, depending on if the gun owner also passes a background check.

Residents were previously ordered to sell or destroy bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, with a deadline of July 15. The city is also looking to establish a registration system for the city’s gun owners, according to the Camera.

Authorities are expecting many people not to comply with the ban, and also expect that people are finding ways to circumvent the laws. Police know that some people are likely storing their weapons outside of city limits.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/boulder-residents-ordered-to-bring-guns-to-police-for-certification_2737367.html

Did this get missed?

‘Just the Beginning’: Top Neocon Insider Claims Responsibility for Facebook Purge, Says More to Come

A top neocon insider appeared to claim credit for the recent Facebook purge of alternative media and warned that there is more to come.

An employee of a leading Washington DC think tank has reportedly taken credit for the resent purge of alternative media by Facebook and Twitter, claiming it to be necessary to fight against ‘fake news’ from Russia and China.

In the latest act of apparent censorship of political speech online, US-based tech giants this month shut down hundreds of user accounts. Some belonged to well-established alternative media outlets with hundreds of thousands of followers, like The Free Thought Project or The Anti Media. A senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, a leading think tank advocating US global supremacy, seems to have at least partially taken credit for this.

“Russia, China, and other foreign states take advantage of our open political system,” Jamie Fly said.

“They can invent stories that get repeated and spread through different sites. So we are just starting to push back. Just this last week Facebook began starting to take down sites. So this is just the beginning.”

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/neocon-insider-facebook-purge/

As Gov’t Failed to Provide, Anarchists Stepped in to Help Fire Refugees Living in a Walmart Parking Lot

The default sentiment among those who cannot think outside of the government is that people in need will starve if the government doesn’t step in and help them. While governments do provide necessary aid some of the time, the reality is that under nearly every government in the world, people starve while their rulers use their tax dollars to gorge themselves on gourmet dinners and live lavish lifestyles.

When people claim that the state is necessary in order to provide charity, often times they completely dismiss the fact that this “charity” is money taken from other people and redistributed. While there is certainly a benefit to the recipient, handing out someone else’s money is hardly a noble feat.

In reality, government charity is not charity at all. It is a bureaucracy that demands something in return, forces compliance, and is purely conditional. Think about it. Millions of people give to actual charities all over the world. Checks pour into places like the March of Dimes and St. Jude. But no one writes checks to the United States welfare department.

As Lawrence Reed notes, from start to finish, what private charities do is a manifestation of free will. No one is compelled to provide assistance. No one is coerced to pay for it. No one is required to accept it. All parties come together of their own, individual volition. And that’s the magic of it.

That magic recently manifested in California after wildfires destroyed homes and left thousands on the street. In the town of Paradise, which was utterly devastated when the Camp Fire swept through, a Walmart—which was already known for a place to give goods to those in need—became the site of that magic.

This case of citizens voluntarily coming together — without government — to help those in need, is particularly ironic as the individuals who carried out this charity were anarchists.

The Walmart in Paradise became a hub for some of the 50,000 residents who lost their homes in the wildfire. Those in need set up tents in the parking lot and Walmart actually encouraged it in the beginning. The place soon became known as “Camp Wallywood.”

As VICE.com reports:

As the people in the lot worked to adjust to their sudden change in circumstances, they were helped by, among other groups, a loose organization called North Valley Mutual Aid. Based on the principle of “solidarity, not charity,” mutual aid is a process of providing assistance to communities by working with and supporting them based on their needs, rather than from a top-down, hierarchical approach to aid.

This principle meant that when a Paradise evacuee named Tammy expressed a need for a community space, NVMA’s cleanup and rebuild working group helped build one in the parking lot. Two large beige tents were set up side by side, with pillows, chairs, books, and some other items inside make up the communal space. A cardboard sign is taped outside, reading, “Come get warm!” For Tammy, this was important for recovering from the collective trauma of the fire. “We all heal in community together and when [NVMA] came out and built this community space, I know they get it because community is how we heal,” she said in a video filmed by NVMA. “Community is how we do everything.”

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/charity-california-wildfires-anarchists/

>>4278442

Colorado is as comp'd as cali atm

>>4278448

You don't fall out of those rigs, your strapped in

France - Xmas Market Terrorist’s Family Arrested, 720 Police Engaged In Manhunt

https://thegoldwater.com/news/43621-France-Xmas-Market-Terrorist-s-Family-Arrested-720-Police-Engaged-In-Manhunt

QUESTION

ARE (((THEY))) using this as a cover to go after the yellow vest organizers?

WTF: What's the fee? California now wants to tax text messaging

State regulators mulling surcharge for cellphone users with texting capabilities; no word yet on the price tag

California regulators issued a proposal Tuesday to tax cellphone users who utilize text messaging as a way to provide phone access to the poor. The commission in charge has not disclosed the amount of the proposed fee.

OMG, wut?

The recent report from the California Public Utilities Commission cites a decline in the state's revenue collected from the intrastate telecommunications industry as the catalyst for pitching the idea of a new tax that is more lucrative moving forward.

The proposal explains: "Parties supporting the collection of surcharges on text messaging revenue argue that it will help preserve and advance universal service by increasing the revenue based upon which Public Purpose Programs rely. We agree."

Public purpose programs are funded by utility bill fees that are "used to fund state-mandated gas assistance programs for low income customers, energy efficiency programs, and public-interest research and development," according to California's Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

If the text tax is imposed, it is expected to be included as a flat fee charged by cellphone carriers, rather than a charge per text.

LOL R they srsly considering this?

A vote on the measure goes before the CPUC next month, but the commission is already experiencing pushback. Bay Area Council President Jim Wunderman told the Mercury News of the proposal, "It's a dumb idea. This is how conversations take place in this day and age, and it's almost like saying there should be a tax on the conversations we have."

CTIA, the representative of several big telecom firms also blasted the proposal, arguing that "subjecting wireless carriers' text messaging traffic and messaging providers is illogical, anticompetitive, and harmful to consumers."

But CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gorden told The Hill, "From a consumer's point of view, surcharges may be a wash, because if more surcharge revenues come from texting services, less would be needed for voice services. Generally, those consumers who create greater texting revenues may pay a bit more, whereas consumers using more voice services may pay less."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/ready-wtf-whats-the-fee-california-now-wants-to-tax-text-messaging

>>4278664

NOTABLE

Scenarios For New Israeli-Syrian War

Israel and Syria are eternal enemies. The last war between them took place 36 years ago, but nothing prevents it to happen again, and at any moment.

For Damascus, the situation is extremely unfavourable because the country and its army are extremely exhausted by years of civil war. And vice versa, very advantageous in the sense that on the Syrian territory there is a contingent of the Russian Armed Forces.

Syria fought against the Jewish state in the first Arab-Israeli war as part of the coalition, in the Six Day War of 1967, in October 2073 and alone in the Lebanese 1982. All of them were lost, although each time Israel had more problems.

During the current civil war in Syria, Tel Aviv has long pretended to remain neutral. In fact, it supported all opponents of Assad, including radical Sunni Islamists. Now it is impossible to hide it – too many Syrian troops seized from opposing groups various Israeli medicines, devices, equipment and even weapons. Such a position is completely inept, if not insane. Its cause is its irrational hatred of Iran, Assad’s most important ally, which has reached national paranoia. This is despite the fact that Iran has never fought with the Jewish state, and Tehran’s anti-Israeli rhetoric, as it is easy to understand, is aimed almost exclusively at the domestic audience. Yes, Iran-backed Shi’ite Hezbollah is occasionally fighting from the Lebanese territory, but it is impossible to consider it a real threat, their capabilities are too disparate, especially now that the organization is deeply involved in the Syrian war and suffered serious losses. The threat to Israel from the Sunni Palestinians, supported by the Arabian monarchies, is much more serious. But Israel is already almost openly friends with them (primarily with Wahhabi Saudi Arabia) against Iran.

Over the past years, the Israeli Armed Forces (“Ally on two fronts”) have repeatedly launched air and missile attacks on Syrian territory. In this case, it was officially stated that the goals are the Iranian formations, and at the same time air defence facilities. The results of these attacks are extremely difficult to determine. The Syrian Air Force (“Damascus and his Chariot”) lost one anti-aircraft missile gun system “Pansir-S1” and even some elements of the various SAMs. In addition, the Israeli Air Force “Patriot” shot down in 2014 over the Golan Heights an SU-24 bomber and in 2018 it attacked an SU-22 attack aircraft of the Syrian Air Force. In turn, the Israeli Air Force in February 2018 lost a fighter-bomber F-16I, shot down, apparently by an S-200. The Syrians also claim a large number of Israeli missiles shot down, but it is not possible to verify this.

https://southfront.org/scenarios-for-new-israeli-syrian-war/

WITCH HUNT: NY Attorney General Says She'll Investigate Everyone Around Trump

New York Attorney Gen.-elect Letitia James is buttressing President Trump’s claims that there is a “witch hunt” pursuing him; she told NBC News that she intends to investigate not only the president, but also his family and "anyone" in his circle who may have violated the law.

James blustered, "We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well,” adding, "We want to investigate anyone in his orbit who has, in fact, violated the law.”

NBC listed some of the investigations that James said she plans to pursue:

Any potential illegalities involving Trump's real estate holdings in New York, highlighting a New York Times investigation published in October into the president's finances.

The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian official.

Examine government subsidies Trump received, which were also the subject of Times investigative work.

Whether he is in violation of the emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution through his New York businesses.

Continue to probe the Trump Foundation.

Newsweek reported, “James also indicated she intends to probe government subsidies received by the president, as well as any illegal activities that might involve Trump’s real estate holdings in New York City.”

When she campaigned for attorney general, James stated that she supported legislation allowing prosecutors to charge individuals who received a presidential pardon. Because of the double jeopardy clause, if an individual receives pardons for crimes at the federal level, they cannot be tried at the state level. James stated:

After careful deliberation, I am urging the state legislature to swiftly pass legislation which safeguards against President Trump’s attacks on the rule of law in our country. The pending legislation closes a loophole in our state law that effectively allows the president to pardon individuals for crimes committed in New York State. Given President Trump’s recent use of the presidential pardon in a case adjudicated in New York State and his claim that he can pardon himself as he pleases, it’s clear that we must act now. We can protect New Yorkers from double jeopardy prosecutions without giving away our state’s ability to deliver justice for all.

James also stated, "I think within the first 100 days this bill will be passed. It is a priority because I have concerns with respect to the possibility that this administration might pardon some individuals who might face some criminal charges, but I do not want them to be immune from state charges."

James concluded, "Taking on President Trump and looking at all of the violations of law I think is no match to what I have seen in my lifetime.”

The current New York Attorney General, Barbara Underwood, has already filed a lawsuit targeting the Trump Foundation, the president and his adult children. Underwood also was examining whether Trump has violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution.

James said of Robert Mueller and his investigation of the president, "I think he's closing in on this president, and his days are going to be coming to an end shortly."

https://www.dailywire.com/news/39306/witch-hunt-ny-attorney-general-says-shell-hank-berrien

Conservatives Burned By Twitter Flock To New Platform

After an unexpected surge of new users caused some technical difficulties earlier in the week, the new app that some are calling the answer to the ongoing battle between conservatives and Twitter is back up and running, promising to support free expression online.

The platform, called Parler News, is named for the French word meaning “to speak,” and many are saying it is the next logical move for those who wish to do so freely without fear of being silenced.

“Alternative platforms will rise and those who are bold will switch,” Parler News founder and CEO John Matze wrote in a post on his platform Monday night. “Big tech is not too big to topple, in fact, they are blinded by their size/power and are hurting themselves by ideologically targeting groups.”

The structure of the app itself closely mirrors that of Twitter, limiting the learning curve for those who choose to make the jump. User posts are limited to 1,000 characters, which other users can then support by “voting” and “echoing,” rather than “liking” and “retweeting.”

Parler’s app description boasts of “easy discovery of true-trending comments, posts, and news,” promising users that the information they seek won’t be censored or slanted. It also notes a “self-moderation” feature, which allows users to curate their own experiences according to the type of content they want to see, without shutting down the voices of others.

While the platform itself has existed for three months, buzz about the app on Twitter earlier this week prompted thousands of conservatives to download the previously little-known app overnight. These new users include figures like Turning Point USA Communications Director Candace Owens, whose Twitter account was suspended and then reinstated in August after she sent out tweets meant to showcase the anti-white racism of New York Times editorial board member Sarah Jeong, and conservative activist Laura Loomer, who late last month chained herself to Twitter’s front door to protest her own permanent ban from the site.

Continuing growth throughout the week has bumped the app to the seventh most popular news app in the iOS App Store, ahead of The New York Times, Google News, ABC, CNBC, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal apps. Android users can find Parler in the Google Play Store as well. Those who prefer a web-based desktop version can expect one soon, says Matze.

Amid the scramble for usernames, Matze announced an effort to reserve handles of prominent or verified users from other platforms. Evidence of this can be seen when exploring the app, where you’re likely to come across empty profiles with handles such as @TuckerCarlson, @DonaldJTrumpJr, and @Snapchat with display names that read “Reserved.”

While some users are already verified, Matze says users can expect a formal verification process to be available shortly. For now, he is focusing on scaling the platform to make sure it can support the sudden influx of activity. Until then, he asks users experiencing slowness to bear with him.

https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/12/conservatives-twitter-alternative-platform-parler-news/

Laggy under attack?

>>4278875

>>4278850

KEK