Free Republic

Providing further suspicion that something is afoot in the world of fraudulent election systems, the Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (Democrat) and the Dominion Company (who control the ballot counting systems) are warning state officials not to conduct audits of their local results.(Via WaPo) […] – In letters sent to the Cheboygan and Antrim county clerks last week, the office of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the county boards have “no authority” to order audits — and instructed election clerks not to provide access to unaccredited outside parties to conduct them.“Interest in granting access to unqualified third...

This week, while Donald Trump ensnares himself in the most serious threat to his presidency to date, Congress is, to some extent, continuing with the typical business of government. A series of hearings during “Infrastructure Week” are focusing on the administration’s rumored infrastructure plan.Although the White House has been talking up private infrastructure investment as a replacement for public funding, a panel of experts told Congress that, even with perfectly executed public-private partnerships, the federal government still needs to provide its own support — especially for projects, like transit lines, that aren’t guaranteed to generate toll revenue for profit-seeking investors.This...

President Trump plans to unveil a new White House office on Monday with sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises — such as reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction — by harvesting ideas from the business world and, potentially, privatizing some government functions. The White House Office of American Innovation, to be led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will operate as its own nimble power center within the West Wing and will report directly to Trump. Viewed internally as a SWAT team of strategic consultants, the office will be...

A growing number of states and local governments are turning to an unconventional method of financing possible fixes to big social problems, motivated by tight budgets and little incentive to take a chance on initiatives without a guarantee of results. On Tuesday, officials in Connecticut, South Carolina and Colorado announced new public/private arrangements to fund so-called "pay for success" projects that aim to help families struggling with drug addiction, improve health outcomes for poor mothers and their children and reduce chronic homelessness. The concept, often referred to as "social impact bonds," involves a government entity teaming up with a private...

Reflections on the origin of opportunities, on the opening of UI Labs' new research center in Chicago… UI Labs’ Digital Manufacturing Center opened today at Goose Island in Chicago – on 94,000 square feet of a property that was once the Republic Windows and Doors factory – and you will celebrate. It’s an important facility – everybody says so, particularly the people who made it possible, and they should know. It’s going to remake American manufacturing, by figuring out how to modernize the American manufacturing floor. You should thank Rahm Emanuel (D, Chicago) and Bruce Rauner (R, Wall Street) and...

While all eyes were on Hurricane Sandy in the days leading up to the storm’s breach on the mainland of the Northeast, the White House was busy devising new ways to enslave Americans under the guise of protecting national security. On October 26, 2012, Barack Obama quietly signed an Executive Order (EO) establishing the so-called Homeland Security Partnership Council, a public-private partnership that basically merges the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with local governments and the private sector for the implied purpose of giving the Executive Branch complete and limitless control over the American people. One of the most effective...

Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner have written a devastating critique of the public-private partnership that was aimed at putting Americans, including unqualified Americans, into their own homes. This government-sponsored, corporation-endorsed alliance lay at the root of the financial crisis. Their book is timely as the hallowed notion of public-private partnerships--the goodness of which is beyond question in government, academic, policy and even some corporate circles--represents policy makers' ideal for achieving social and political objectives in contemporaryAmerica. Noman says caveat emptor! The story traverses similar territory to that covered by Peter Schweizer's "Architects of Ruin," and Thomas Sowell's "The Housing Boom...

Obama, Brown, and the ‘Third Way’The Left loses its way by abandoning the “third way.”  Left parties are in trouble in the Anglosphere. Here in America, Democrats are doing worse in the polls today than at any time in the last 50 years. In Britain, the Labour party is on the brink of finishing third, behind both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, in the election next Thursday. All of which raises the question: What happened to the “third way” center-left movement that once seemed to sweep all before it? Only a dozen years ago, in 1998, President Clinton enjoyed...

It's careful, it's complicated, it's got a catchy name, and it's first. At face value, that's what I see in the Mortgage Bankers Association's proposal to formulate a new, government-guaranteed, mortgage backed securities market to take the place of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.Let's start at the very beginning, with the MBA press release: The centerpiece of MBA’s recommendation is the creation of a new line of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Each security would have two components – a loan level guarantee provided by privately-owned, government-chartered and regulated mortgage credit-guarantor entity (MCGE) and a security-level, federal government-guaranteed wrap.America, meet the MCGE,...

Jim Kessler, a vice president at the nonpartisan Third Way think tank, said that to the public, the health-care debate appears to be a "muddle." But the fierce sparring over the opposition may signal progress on the legislative front. He said: "We always knew this was going to be decided near the end."

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the chief culprits in the housing crisis because they encouraged people who could not afford payments to borrow money, according to a congressional report released Tuesday. The claims in the report have long been advanced by conservatives, who argue that the Community Reinvestment Act and other federal programs fed the housing bubble that burst in 2007 and led to the economic downfall in 2008. But the report explains in detail how Fannie and Freddie -- government sponsored enterprises (GSE) that were not subject to the same oversight as other publicly traded firms -- “privatized...

SACRAMENTO - In his first direct responses, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger defended dumping his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and actor Clint Eastwood from the state Parks and Recreation Commission - a step critics allege was taken in retaliation for their opposition to a six-lane toll road through San Onofre State Park. Led by Shriver and Eastwood, the appointed and unpaid commission has been an outspoken opponent of the toll road, claiming that super highways have no place in state parks. There also are worries that it could irreparably damage a renowned surfing area called Trestles. In an interview with the Orange County...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday released plans to boost enrollment in engineering programs at state universities. The plan appeared aimed at appeasing the state engineers' union and Democrats, who have balked at outsourcing government jobs to design roads, schools, levees and other projects. In a statement, Schwarzenegger said California faces a shortfall of more than 20,000 engineers. He said he wants lawmakers to establish programs at state colleges and universities to expedite degrees for military veterans with engineering backgrounds. Such a plan could increase opportunities for some 3,000 service members discharged in California each year with engineering-related military training, he...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on lawmakers on Wednesday to pass legislation to allow the private sector to have a bigger role in building, operating and maintaining the state's public works. The Republican governor, who has often spoken in favor of public-private partnerships to improve and expand state infrastructure, urged the state's Democrat-led legislature to approve bills that would expand the types of projects, services and government entities that could enter into such tie-ups. Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers rallied voters last year to support ballot measures authorizing more than $40 billion in general obligation debt to...

A high-dollar seminar is under way this week in Miami relating to public private partnerships and investments such as the Trans-Texas Corridor in Texas. David Stall of the anti-Trans-Texas Corridor group, CorridorWatch.org, said he’s not surprised. “We are seeing a couple of these PPP infrastructure seminars every year now,” Stall said. “On the international market our highways, ports, bridges and airports are hot commodities.” If built out completely, the Trans-Texas Corridor would include 8,000 miles of tolled roadways criss-crossing the state of Texas. Republican Gov. Rick Perry has touted the benefits of utilizing public private partnerships in the construction of...

Let us start with the premise the title offers. Let us assume that our Constitution and three branches of government, our state constitutions and governors, our schools and universities, our health care systems, taxation systems, all regional and appointed governing bodies, commissions, and councils; our churches and synagogues, our military, land and watershed systems, and all forms of licensure and credentialing, including travel, are under the governing auspices of internationally emerging laws. Then let us try to figure out what is not under global dictatorship specifically here in the United States. We still have our 2nd Amendment intact, though it...

The Clinton Foundation, Operation HOPE and H&R Block Team to Deliver Tax Credits, Financial Counseling and Emergency Guidance to More Than 4,300 Families across the Gulf Coast KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 28, 2006--As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches amid an ongoing struggle for recovery along the Gulf Coast, one groundbreaking public-private partnership has emerged as a success story in helping thousands of Americans claim millions of dollars in much-needed, hard-earned income tax refunds. In just under six months, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Program, launched by the William J. Clinton Foundation in collaboration with Operation HOPE...

Last Thursday in a radio interview with the 55KRC Morning Show in Cincinnati, Tiffany Melvin, executive director of North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, told host Jerry Thomas that my June 12 Human Events article on NASCO was “absolutely inaccurate.” Melvin declined to be interview for this article, stating in an e-mail her current priority was to answer the “accusations, bad information, and false assumptions” in the June 12 article. “After I have a chance to get my life back and return to a normal schedule, I will contact you,” she wrote. “In the meantime, I will continue to respond to the...

Ideas for Trans-Texas Corridor-69 are slowly but surely rolling right along. The concept, which was known as Interstate Highway 69 until 2002, has been around for more than a decade, but Gaby Garcia, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation's turnpike division, said it's getting closer to becoming a reality. "What we're looking at now is taking all the comments we've received and identifying a narrowed study area," Garcia said. "That's where we get a specific area where people can say, 'How would this affect my property?' " Right now, she said, the projected path for the corridor cuts a...

Two decades of white-knuckle drives to Austin on Interstate 35 are proof that highway work isn't a quick endeavor. But what few realize is that planning started years before construction, and Texas Department of Transportation planners have never stopped altering and tweaking their plans. It makes sense. Big highway projects can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and permanently change communities. But other things to consider are that a major highway built to nowhere will, in time, make it somewhere because a highway goes there. Big roads can defy the laws of supply and demand. Planners often warn against trying...