Author Archives: Admin

The Final Draft Of UN’s ‘New Urban Agenda’

Nobody that lives in or near any city can stay ignorant on what will be drafted by the UN in Quito, Ecuador next month. This will be bigger than 2030 Agenda. ⁃ TN Editor

For the past four months, activists, lobbyists, local governments and national governments have been jockeying for position around a major new U. N. strategy on sustainable urbanization.

After four iterations, the final draft of that document, known as the New Urban Agenda, was released Tuesday, on the heels of intensive, 38-hour negotiations that took place last weekend at U. N. Headquarters. Many now expect this draft to be the one that gets adopted next month when heads of state and government gather at the Habitat III summit in Quito, Ecuador.

The repercussions of this 23-page document will be felt for the next two decades, and the ramifications of any truly transformational aspects may take years to be understood. But in the immediate aftermath of the exhausting conclusion to the Habitat III talks, Citiscope notes five takeaways from the storylines it has been following for the past several months.

This UN mission is the driving force behind all the “sustainability” and planning groups, which have infected our local government.

Read more, What’s Actually In The Final Draft Of UN’s ‘New Urban Agenda’

Former President of Greenpeace Scientifically Rips Climate Change to Shreds

“Thank you for the opportunity to set out my views on climate change. As I have stated publicly on many occasions, there is no definitive scientific proof, through real-world observation, that carbon dioxide is responsible for any of the slight warming of the global climate that has occurred during the past 300 years, since the peak of the Little Ice Age. If there were such a proof through testing and replication it would have been written down for all to see.

The contention that human emissions are now the dominant influence on climate is simply a hypothesis, rather than a universally accepted scientific theory. It is therefore correct, indeed verging on compulsory in the scientific tradition, to be skeptical of those who express certainty that “the science is settled” and “the debate is over”.”

Read more…

Fighting the Agenda

If you are a frequent visitor to this website/blog, you know that Agenda 21, and now Agenda 2030 are international agendas that have trickled down to local government and threaten our rights. While we are just a bunch of voting citizens who have banded together to spread awareness and cultivate activism, we do not ourselves take donations of any kind.

However, there are two giants in this cause who have been working on this issue for a long time and provide many pieces of information and other resources that we can use. They are John Anthony, of Sustainable Freedom Lab, and Tom DeWeese of American Policy Center. If you are considering donating to any cause, these would be good ones to choose. The good thing is, you can get something for your donation such as John’s DVD which can be shown to your groups to educate them on the issues.

From Tom DeWeese:

Hello friend of APC,

As you know for more than 24 years APC has led the fight to expose and stop the UN’s Agenda 21 and its Sustainable Development policy. For most of those years it has been a very lonely battle, with few victories to show for my efforts.

Elected officials have ignored the warnings. Property rights have been destroyed.

People have less and less access to their government as non-elected boards and regional government rules the day.

Powerful special interests and planners operate in the dark of backrooms.

The size and power of government have soared. And certainly our nation has been transformed.

The situation became even more dangerous last year as the United Nations rebooted Agenda 21 into Agenda 2030, determined to finish the job.

Barack Obama is leading the way, using the EPA as his main weapon, killing industry, destroying jobs, grabbing power over every aspect of our lives.

The Agenda 21/2030 forces are now convinced that we cannot stop them. During those “wilderness years,” when few were listening to my warnings, I refused to give in.

I traveled the nation, speaking out. In just one year I gave over 100 talks in 35 states. And that pace continues. I hit the air waves on radio. I appeared several times on national programs like Fox News.

As I spoke out a wave of activism followed in my wake. A firestorm broke out in Spokane, Washington. A teacher in Ohio used my materials to create a Stop Agenda 21 class. The state of Alabama passed an anti-Agenda 21 law. And the Republican National Committee added an anti-Agenda 21 plank to its platform.

I was instrumental in bringing the Tea party into the Agenda 21 fight. That helped bring in activists from all fifty states.

More importantly I made it my mission to create tools for activists to teach them how to fight back right in their own communities. APC’s “Stop Agenda 21 Action Kit” was, and is, the most comprehensive source of information ever produced on Agenda 21.

Last year I produced a series of ten Internet Webinars for activists. These featured some of the nation’s leading Agenda 21 experts.

And just a couple of months ago I hosted a special national teleconference call specifically for elected officials to bring them the latest threats and tactics.

These efforts forced pro-Agenda 21 groups to respond and attack me as a danger to their cause.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has produced at least four reports targeting me. They call me a domestic terrorist!

The American Planning Association, the largest Agenda 21 planning group in the nation, was forced to create a “boot camp” to retrain their people to deal with local citizen activists that I taught to oppose them.

One of our targets has been the UN-sanctioned organization called the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). This organization helped write Agenda 21 and then set off to enforce its policy in every community in the world. By 2011 more than 600 American cities were paying dues to ICLEI.

To date, APC’s efforts have resulted in getting over 150 cities to stop paying dues to ICLEI. That is an absolutely astounding fact.

The head of ICLEI USA expressed his fear of my efforts. He said, “We are terrified of them… we can’t get new cities to join us. They have made us political poison.” That statement alone is a huge victory!

So why am I writing to you today, telling you all of these details?

Let me be blunt.

For years, many have considered the American Policy Center to be a nice, reliable little organization that does some good work.

Our supporters have been faithful to sustain us at that level. I have been grateful for that support and have done my best to carry out our programs with the limited funds we receive.

But, today, because I have stuck to this issue and never wavered, opposition to Agenda 21 is fast becoming the most important issue in the fight to restore America’s freedoms.

And the American Policy Center is THE recognized leader in this fight.

I am buried under calls and letters from people asking for help in their community. Now even elected officials are calling for help. That’s huge!

The amount of people visiting the APC Internet web site has doubled in just the past few months as desperate people are learning about us and downloading our Sustainable Development special reports and articles.

In short, the American Policy Center has become a big deal. We have become a national leader. And we are facing an opportunity that I have worked towards for over twenty years. Victory over Agenda 21.

But… as I face this avalanche of new found responsibility, I am struggling to meet it armed with the funding base of a much smaller organization.

Simply put, if I can’t raise more money to fund our new responsibilities, APC will have to stand on the sidelines and watch as this opportunity for victory is lost.

I need to produce and distribute more materials. A copy of my manual on Sustainable Development should be sent to every single county commissioner and city councilman in the nation. Every mayor and every state legislator should hear from us.

That’s just what our opposition has done. And that is why they’ve been winning over the past several years.

But there is no way APC can do that under our current funding. I can’t even consider it, even though I am getting calls daily from activists pleading that I do so. I have the materials – just not the funds to get them out to the public.

I have worked my whole life to reach this moment. I can see victory just over the next hill. But I don’t have the funds to get there.

As you know, APC receives no grants from large foundations or corporations and I would never accept grants from the government. So I have only those individuals who will voluntarily contribute to my efforts.

Will you please make a donation today for at least $25? Click here to contribute now.

But, whatever you and I do together – we must do it now. We cannot wait. People across the nation are determined and ready to fight now.

We can’t miss this opportunity to strike a death blow against such a dire threat to our freedom.

I have never been more excited about our ability to win. We have ICLEI on the run. Elected officials are finally asking for our help.

But I must have the funds to fight it.

This is our issue. We are the ones to fight it. This is our time.

Please stand with me now.

Yours in Freedom,

Tom DeWeese
President

Wind Turbines, Rusting Giants of the Environmental Watermelon Religion

Turbines kill birds on a large scale around the world and disturb humans and wildlife. According to Save the Eagles International, “contrary to what we are told, wind farms will cause the extinction of many bird and bat species” because birds are naturally attracted to tall structures.

While millions of birds and bats are dying needlessly, wind turbines and solar panels are still installed around the world despite the fact that they produce inconsistent energy that cannot possibly replace the consistent and cheap energy produced by coal. The world’s economy needs fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and hydro-power that provide a constant source of electricity, not the small scale partial or intermittent Aeolian or solar energy.

Read more…

Smart Growth America Recruiting

You’ve read about how some towns are members of Smart Growth America, an NGO that is pushing regionalism, urbanism, trains, and compact housing among other things.

Be aware that your town may be seeking training from these folks in the way of free annual workshops.

Read about it here:

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/technical-assistance/free-annual-workshops

Smarter Community Development Meeting

*FREE* Event: 9/19 Smarter Community Development in NH

What: i2i Symposium Series “Smarter Community Development for New Hampshire”
Where: Take Root Coworking – 359 Central Street, Franklin, New Hampshire 03235
When: September 19th, 9:00am-12:30pm
Cost: FREE*
Registration:*You must register to attend. Registration ends 9/12. Register HERE!

The New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) invites you to experience internationally acclaimed sustainability and regenerative community planning expert Bill Reed to discuss new ways New Hampshire can address community development in the 21st century.

Bill will lead an engaging conversation that will focus on holistic community development strategies that will help New Hampshire communities build effective, long-term visions that take into account local evolving economic and social patterns.

Attendees will enjoy a breakfast supplied by local businesses and have the opportunity to learn more about the great work being done to revitalize downtown Franklin.

Deadline to register is September 12. Space is limited.

(Perhaps you can still register…)

Plan NH Invades Allenstown

Update: The Concord Monitor has an article about what is about to happen in Allenstown:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/planners-to-help-allenstown-envision-the-future-1831601

In addition to Plan NH in Marlow, (see event posting) we have learned that the NGO will also be invading Allenstown with a similar effort. If you know anyone in Allenstown, please alert them to these meetings! Please send them this flyer on the Delphi Technique so they will be prepared for what is about to happen.

From the Plan NH website: http://plannh.org/uncategorized/charrette-volunteers-needed-for-allenstown

Charrette Volunteers Needed for Allenstown!
The Allenstown charrette needs YOU: make a difference for this New Hampshire community!
September 30 10:30 AM – October 1, 2016 4:30 PM

What Happens at a Plan NH Charrette? The team gathers, explores the target area and listens to the town leaders and citizens. The citizens talk together about why this is important and what they would like to see. It is a time of discovery. Based on what it has seen and heard, the team then brainstorms and develops recommendations to achieve the vision the town has for itself and the target area.

Where is the Charrette? This project is in the Allenstown portion of Suncook Village. The town has asked Plan NH to “identify strategies for revitalization and economic growth that will support and enhance the community character of Allenstown. It is anticipated that the charrette will explore existing and prospective uses through the lenses of zoning, infrastructure, social forces, community vision, the Master Plan and other perspectives an attempt to understand how the area can realize its highest and best use within the context of Allenstown’s community character” (from the application.)

How can I help? Plan NH is currently seeking volunteers to be part of this project and to assist in developing recommendations for the town. All are welcome to participate, from students to interns to seasoned professionals. We can always use people who draw, photographers, and other support as well.

**Especially still needed are landscape architects, planners, and brownfields engineers.**

What is the Commitment? The commitment is for late morning Friday through late afternoon Saturday, with perhaps a couple of hours following that for a bit of writing. Your time and talent are donated, your return is immeasurable.

Interested? Contact: Team Leader, North Sturtevant of JSA Architects.
To volunteer, or ask questions contact him at nsturtevant@jsainc.com, with a cc to r_leblanc@plannh.org

YOU can be part of this.
Plan NH | 603-452-7526 | info@plannh.org | www.plannh.org

Here is the notice on the Town of Allenstown’s website:

Downtown Planning-Public Input Sessions

The Town of Allenstown in cooperation with Plan NH will be conducting a “Charette”. This event will aid the Town in planning for the future of the downtown area. The event will be on Friday, September 30th, 2016 and Saturday, October 1st, 2016. There will be two listening sessions on Sept. 30th, the first at 3:30-5 PM and the second from 6:30-8 PM. The Plan NH team will hear input from residents as to how they feel about the downtown area and what it’s future should look like.

On Oct. 1st, the team will meet with several groups of volunteer citizens and businesses to drill down in more detail the future of the downtown area. We need volunteers to participate in the process. If you are interested in participating please contact Town Administrator Shaun Mulholland, 603-485-4276 x 112 or by email smulholland@allenstownnh.gov

The Charrette will be held at the Allenstown Community Center. If you would like to participate please contact the Town Administrator so that we can plan according. More information about the Charrette is located on the Town Administrator’s webpage of this website.

HUD Moves to Dictate Classroom Diversity

In a bold move, HUD partnered with the Departments of Transportation and Education to create a massive alteration in the way children experience school. The program is designed to help low-income families grow financially. Instead, it accomplishes something much different.

HUD Moves to Dictate Classroom Diversity
by John Anthony, Sustainable Freedom Lab

HUD is the ‘gold’ standard of dangerously unchecked bureaucracies. “Dangerously” because the agency’s zealous moves already threaten property owners’ choices and undermine the authority of local public officials.

Now HUD wants to move that control into the classroom.

In a joint meeting with members from the Departments of Education and Transportation, HUD presented their plan to embed socio-economic diversity in America’s schoolrooms.

Based on controversial reports, often using HUD provided data; the agency concludes that people living in wealthier areas have a better chance for success. Therefore, they reason, to create upward mobility for voucher recipients, HUD must relocate them into affluent neighborhoods and schools.

The agency is pulling three federal departments together to micro-manage the racial, ethnic and economic mix of students in America’s elementary and secondary classrooms.

“Diversity benefits all students in our schools,” said U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr., one of the leaders of the administration’s program. “Students who attend diverse schools will be better prepared to live and work, and be active citizens in today’s world.”

Unfortunately, Sec. King has little idea of what it takes to prepare students. In 2014, he was forced to resign as New York State Commissioner of Education, partially for blaming the failures of his Common Core implementation on “ignorant” children.

Kings performance was so abysmal; New York’s largest teachers union unanimously approved a vote of “no confidence” in his policies. That “failure” is now the US Secretary of Education.

As Jessica McNair, an Oneida County, NY educator commented, “Congress [must] take power out of the hands of the Department of Education. Otherwise, John King will continue to wreak damage on our public school children and their schools.”

McNair’s remarks were prescient.

Rather than promote education, King wants to transplant HUD recipients into more upscale “areas of opportunity.”

Under the Obama administration’s progressive educational approach, local control of education is a dinosaur. Reading, writing and arithmetic are incidental. Diversity is their new key to prosperity.

HUD proposes the development of regional Equity Assistance Centers to provide technical assistance to school districts to increase socioeconomic diversity and desegregate their schools.

For Obama, this is another step toward reducing what he calls, America’s “legacy of housing discrimination and segregation.”

HUD fuels its new classroom diversity with its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. Under AFFH, HUD ignored Congress’ constraints in the Fair Housing Act. The agency granted itself authority over housing, education, transportation and now, “socioeconomic diversity.”

The administration contends their plans are too important to be confined to any “one jurisdiction’s borders” and promotes regional solutions to accomplish its goals. HUD wants state and local educational agencies to select new sites for schools, have boundary-free open enrollment and establish more charter schools.

The Secretary wants to create better land use and planning strategies. Working in tandem, HUD, ED and DOT encourage communities to align public transportation routes, sidewalk construction, and related bus stops with schools and housing facilities. HUD wants complete streets, mass transportation, and a community participation process.

If this sounds like a backdoor to regional sustainable development, rather than economic mobility, you are right. The Department of Education even blames the urban planner’s archenemy, ‘urban sprawl,’ for decreased economic opportunities. Suddenly the replacement of local governments with unaccountable regional councils is for “the children.”

For now, HUD’s socioeconomic diversity program is voluntary. But with millions of dollars in planning and training of staff to operate Equity Assistance Centers, it will soon be more than a voluntary option.

As explained in the report, Agency Tyranny, HUD’s AFFH rule obligates grant recipients to affirmatively further fair housing for all projects involving fair housing and urban development. If that strategy fails to convince hesitant communities to comply, there is always the threat of a disparate impact suit.

Shifting voucher recipients from one classroom to another does little to provide the drive, experience and emotional maturity necessary for success. It does even less to create good-paying jobs.

HUD is exploiting parents’ desires to help their children, as cover to replace local government with regional authorities using the legal muscle of AFFH.

It is time to recognize that incompetent bureaucrats and out of control federal agencies are the real enemies of economic mobility.

Vehicle Miles Traveled?

We’ve warned about the VMT (vehicle miles traveled) tax before, and there are people considering it. Link to I-95 Corridor Coalition added.

NH shouldn’t tax our odometers
By Rep. RICK LADD

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S STATE GAS TAX is currently set at 22.2 cents per gallon. This price is slightly less than the 24 cents per gallon paid in Massachusetts and much less than the 30 cents per gallon paid in Maine. With the exception of the 4.2 cents per gallon increase in 2014, New Hampshire’s tax on gasoline has remained relatively flat over the years.

The Department of Transportation, along with a number of departments and agencies, rely upon this source of revenue in order to support daily operations; however, with the increasing numbers of fuel efficient and electric vehicles, the department’s operating revenue has decreased.

Some vehicles are simply traveling farther on the same amount of gas; therefore, less gas is being used. This is a win for the consumer and environment, but decreasing revenue is counter-productive to highway and bridge maintenance.

In an effort to remedy the revenue issue, there appears to be an effort by several states to pursue a study of a mileage-based tax. Rather than being taxed for gas used, drivers would be taxed on miles driven. The mileage-based tax concept presents a whole host of bothersome issues such as financial hardship to those dependent upon high volume highway use and for all, privacy issues regarding how the government would collect and track data.

Accordingly, it is somewhat shocking to learn that a federal grant application was submitted by the Delaware DOT on behalf of the I-95 Corridor Coalition, a consortium of 16 states. It proposes pilot programs in five states — Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and another yet to be determined — designed to learn more about mileage-based user fees, and to evaluate implementation alternatives.

The total cost of the grant program is $2.98 million, of which $1.49 million comes from the federal government, with the remainder coming from individual states with matching funds. Connecticut has committed $300,000, Delaware and Pennsylvania would each pay $290,000 in cash, and Vermont would contribute $30,000 for planning and analysis. Instead of cash, the pilot program application reflects New Hampshire’s match share in the amount of $580,000 in toll credits.

Can New Hampshire afford to redirect more than a half-million dollars of toll credits needed for road maintenance and red-listed bridges in order to support a fee-per-mile taxation study?

The state budget-making process is built upon prioritizing needs and doing so through an open, transparent process involving public input. Redirecting toll revenue midstream during a budget cycle is contrary to that process and invites needed legislative oversight.

Mileage-based taxation generates a number of serious issues, of which protection of personal information and data is foremost. How is Big Brother going to obtain data identifying miles driven, and will this information remain protected and confidential?

If a scheme such as this does move forward, how will the state ascertain taxable miles driven in New Hampshire versus miles driven in another state or country? If mileage-based taxation becomes reality, how will North Country residents be impacted where traveling longer distances is required for work or other daily needs?

And, if a fee-per-mile study becomes reality in New Hampshire, how would this taxation scheme apply to vacationers from out-of-state?

Learning about the I-95 Coalition fee-per-mile study application and of New Hampshire’s decision to pilot the program with $580,000 from state toll credits is unsettling to this member of the Legislature.
—

Rep. Rick Ladd, R-Haverhill, is in his fourth term in the New Hampshire House.