By: Diane Benjamin
1)
For readers who get email notifications of stories: I did change a setting that should make your email notification look different. I needed the change to make the stats calculate accurately.
2)
This is the article that makes what the Town of Normal wants to do with banning natural gas illegal: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/berkeley-ban-on-natural-gas-hookups-tossed-by-ninth-circuit
Since leftist do whatever they want and then use taxpayer money to defeat lawsuits, expect the Town to do it anyway. It violates FEDERAL LAW, even the liberal 9th Circuit Court figured it out.
3)
John Stossel provides facts:
4)
McLean County is holding Property Tax Assessment Public Information Sessions. One already happened in Leroy, another one is scheduled in Lexington on August 24th. See details here: https://www.mcleancountyil.gov/civicalerts.aspx?aid=387
Later this year pay attention to the levies requested by all levels of government. If you don’t they will claim a huge increase while saying your increased property taxes are only due to the new assessed value.
Illinois might just make it to the #1 highest property tax state next year!
5)
Is Chris Koos still driving the Rivian pickup? I received a tip that the pickup was given to Public Works who didn’t want it. A FOIA request showed nobody from Public Works signed it out. Maybe they aren’t required to.
The last FOIA showed nobody signing out the pickup once the Town received the SUV version. Koos never signed for either since he is “too big” for such mundane activities – or he doesn’t want anyone to know. Which is it Chris? Details of that FOIA: https://blnnews.com/2023/07/27/paying-mileage-would-have-been-cheaper-normal/
6)
I’m sure you’ve heard of Anthony Oliver’s sudden rise to fame with “Rich Men North of Richmond”.
He posted his story on Facebook under Anthony Oliver Music. In case you didn’t see it:
It’s been difficult as I browse through the 50,000+ messages and emails I’ve received in the last week. The stories that have been shared paint a brutally honest picture. Suicide, addiction, unemployment, anxiety and depression, hopelessness and the list goes on.
Im sitting in such a weird place in my life right now. I never wanted to be a full time musician, much less sit at the top of the iTunes charts. Draven from RadioWv and I filmed these tunes on my land with the hope that it may hit 300k views. I still don’t quite believe what has went on since we uploaded that. It’s just strange to me.
People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers. I don’t want 6 tour buses, 15 tractor trailers and a jet. I don’t want to play stadium shows, I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression. These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they’re being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung. No editing, no agent, no bullshit. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.
So that being said, I have never taken the time to tell you who I actually am.
Here’s a formal introduction: My legal name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford. My grandfather was Oliver Anthony, and “Oliver Anthony Music” is a dedication not only to him, but 1930’s Appalachia where he was born and raised. Dirt floors, seven kids, hard times. At this point, I’ll gladly go by Oliver because everyone knows me as such. But my friends and family still call me Chris. You can decide for yourself, either is fine.
In 2010, I dropped out of high school at age 17. I have a GED from Spruce Pine, NC. I worked multiple plant jobs in Western NC, my last being at the paper mill in McDowell county. I worked 3rd shift, 6 days a week for $14.50 an hour in a living hell. In 2013, I had a bad fall at work and fractured my skull. It forced me to move back home to Virginia. Due to complications from the injury, it took me 6 months or so before I could work again.
From 2014 until just a few days ago, I’ve worked outside sales in the industrial manufacturing world. My job has taken me all over Virginia and into the Carolinas, getting to know tens of thousands of other blue collar workers on job sites and in factories. Ive spent all day, everyday, for the last 10 years hearing the same story. People are SO damn tired of being neglected, divided and manipulated.
In 2019, I paid $97,500 for the property and still owe about $60,000 on it. I am living in a 27′ camper with a tarp on the roof that I got off of craigslist for $750.
There’s nothing special about me. I’m not a good musician, I’m not a very good person. I’ve spent the last 5 years struggling with mental health and using alcohol to drown it. I am sad to see the world in the state it’s in, with everyone fighting with each other. I have spent many nights feeling hopeless, that the greatest country on Earth is quickly fading away.
That being said, I HATE the way the Internet has divided all of us. The Internet is a parasite, that infects the minds of humans and has their way with them. Hours wasted, goals forgotten, loved ones sitting in houses with each other distracted all day by technology made by the hands of other poor souls in sweat shops in a foreign land.
When is enough, enough? When are we going to fight for what is right again? MILLIONS have died protecting the liberties we have. Freedom of speech is such a precious gift. Never in world history has the world had the freedom it currently does. Don’t let them take it away from you.
Just like those once wandering in the desert, we have lost our way from God and have let false idols distract us and divide us. It’s a damn shame.
Wow. On Point!
#6 especially 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Funny, I watched both the Stossel and Oliver videos less than 48 hrs before you posted them here. 🙂
Agree with Duroc #6 is so spot on. I’m probably preaching to the choir, but it’s time to realize the ‘us vs them’ is not R vs D, or black vs white, or country vs city, or whatever else, it’s People vs Politicians. Until we can get some People into office, we need to spread the word across whatever ‘vs’ lines have been drawn – Republicans may not be the solution to most of our problems, but Democrats are the source. Ask why they’re Dems – the one biggest issue, then ask what the Dems have to help. Not what they Tried, but what got results and they declared victory. It’s probably worse than ever. Then next issue down the line ’til you see the lightbulb above their head. (Tho take a break and come back later if they get a headache first.)
Career politicians, and especially career bureaucrats, are the ruling class in America and they don’t know or care what Americans need, much less what they want. They’re drive is for control of everything, even our opinions. They respond to every leftist idea that comes along so long as it gives them more control. The destruction of the Judeo-Christian value system is no accident. Weaponizing race and gender are but two examples of the evil power brings.
As the purposely-mislabeled fact-checkers on fascbook would say, ‘Mostly True’. I’m sure there are many who are truly evil, but most are probably just human.
“A is the status quo. B is a good idea and the added power of B won’t be abused because it’s being overseen by me and I’m a good person.”
Never mind that they often think they are better than others, perhaps wrongly, which makes them not-so-good. Or perhaps they Really Are good. Either way, they need not be outright evil.
And perhaps B isn’t even too bad. The problem is this thinking leads from A to B etc to Z. In a gazillion different areas. Sometimes over and over. And eventually that accumulated power falls under the purview of somebody who shouldn’t have it. Only one in a hundred, maybe even less, needs to be evil if the rest are too spineless or clueless or even powerless to stop them.