Author Archives: Admin

Invasive Surveys? Now You Know How They’re Used

When the census taker came to our door, we told them how many adults of voting age lived in the home, period. They then had the nerve to send someone back to pry us for more information, and our hotline was flooded with calls from people who claimed they were being threatened with fines for not answering.

The number of adults of voting age is the only legal purpose for taking a census. We ignored any follow up questionnaires, such as the invasive “American Community Survey” which arrived later, and landed straight in the trash. Others, fearful of being fined or even jailed, filled them out.

The American Community Survey wanted to know things like race, employment, miles driven to work each day, food grown on the property and what was done with it, how many bedrooms the home contained and what they were used for.

None of this is any of the government’s business, mind you.

A friend was asked to fill out a government-sponsored survey regarding women in business. It sounded voluntary and promised confidentiality, but then claimed there would be a $500 fine for anyone who refused. We also noted in the fine print that the results would be shared with private “groups” that were not even legitimate government entities, but “advocacy groups”.

Small farmers in NH have also told us the number of surveys they have been asked to fill out has increased dramatically.

In case you have not figured it out by now, these surveys from the feds are part of a system used to justify government overreach and control over your local affairs. In keeping with the global agenda, the “data” collections are used to back support for one new rule or another. These sources of are often cited within many master plans we have seen, plans that are cooked up by regionalists in order to impose the federal government’s will on your town.

The latest laughable item on the list of things the United Nations wants to control is your happiness. That’s right, how are you feeling?

Author James Bovard might be surprised to know that the United Arab Emirates has already set up a Minister of Happiness. The UN has lately been measuring the world’s happiness, and had even put out this report in 2015.

Don’t believe it? Don’t take our word for it, NPR has written up a story about the UAE’s new apointee for a job which sounds like it came straight out of Orwell’s 1984.

If you are a reader of this website you are aware that we have been calling attention HUD’s new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Act which hopes to engage in the process of promoting and funding with federal money, the integration of neighborhoods viewed as too homogeneous or too wealthy, by virtue of new zoning rules.

Once you arrive at this AFFH tool, you can set the parameters to give your own area a look. We did, and we were shocked to discover that when we zoomed in on our area, we could see the blue dot representing a black family that lives nearby. (For the record this writer’s neighborhood is very diverse, with immigrants from Ireland, Pakistan, Germany, Poland, Korea and Japan living nearby. Like us, they worked for what they have, no government entity had to forcibly include them.)

Stanley Kurtz has a website dedicated to AFFH issues…

AFFH.net: How HUD Hustles Communities
http://affh.net/2016/02/01/how-obamas-hud-hustles-dubuque-and-other-virgin-communities/

This is not just a USA problem, but is happening everywhere. This came from Australia:
https://www.freedomadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ASIO-UN-Complaint.pdf

Next time the census comes knocking or you receive that 28-page survey in the mail, think twice about giving out too much information.

Our friend John Anthony from Sustainable Freedom Lab and Property Value Defense had this to say about HUD grants:

Many communities are so used to routinely receiving HUD grants, they miss the severe dangers under the new AFFH rules.  In this issue PVD dispells three common myths about why it is still ok to accept HUD grants.

Busting 3 Myths of Accepting HUD Grants

Q. In your presentation, you mentioned HUD took legal action against Westchester and Marin Counties because they did not affirmatively further fair housing. You also mentioned several other HUD enforcement actions against fund recipients.  I do not see how any of this applies to us.  We are not a wealthy community like those mentioned and we have always been in compliance with HUD. 



A. Failure to affirmatively further fair housing refers to disparities between classes of people in all communities, not just the very wealthy.  For example, fund recipients are required to take “meaningful actions” that “address significant disparities in housing needs and in access to opportunity, replacing segregated living patterns with truly integrated and balanced living patterns, transforming racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity, and fostering and maintaining compliance with civil rights and fair housing laws.”

 Consider what it now means to “be in compliance” with HUD’s above definition. Your community must abide by the federal agency’s demands in return for the grant funds.  Typically, this would seem reasonable.  But, AFFH is not typical.  HUD uses broad terms and never clearly defines what they mean by “affirmatively furthering fair housing.”  What happens if HUD requires your town council to pass zoning regulations your community members overwhelmingly oppose?  This happened in Rockford, IL. Some jurisdictions were forced to market in nearby communities to “import” minorities against the will of the current residents. The results are often community members pitted against one another amid lawsuits and legal threats. 

In past years, HUD grant demands were less of an issue. There was less rigid enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, and communities had greater leeway to honor local concerns.  Under AFFH, there are three key changes:

• One, HUD now has a legal enforcement mechanism they seldom used before.
• Two, the HUD secretary warned recipient communities that the agency will strictly enforce requirements.
• Three, HUD continues to expand their role into entire community social areas and “adult outcomes” that are well beyond affordable housing.

To apply for HUD grants today, believing it will be ‘business as usual’ could be a catastrophic mistake. HUD engaged in more legal actions in 2011 than in the entire preceding decade. And they are accelerating.  With the agency’s hazy definitions and aggressive legal actions, communities can be compelled to alter voters’ decisions, change zoning and land use rules and join a region, all against their community’s wishes.



Q. I have checked HUD’s interactive maps and we do not have concentrated areas of poverty in our jurisdiction.  Should we still be concerned about accepting a HUD CDBG grant?



A. Yes, you should.  While eliminating R/E CAPs is important and laudable, HUD’s new rule requires communities to go further. They must take “meaningful actions, in addition to combating discrimination, that overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity based on protected characteristics.” 

It is no longer sufficient to avoid actions that lead to discrimination.  All fund recipients are required to take actions to stop discrimination.



Q. Isn’t our town better to keep doing as we always have, rather than reject HUD funds and raise red flags?  Sometimes it is better to fly under the radar rather than rock the boat. 


A. There is no way to “fly under the radar” with the AFFH rule. Grassroots and legal advocates enforce HUD’s compliance at the local level.  For example, one of the grant application requirements is to invite civil rights groups and grassroots organizations to participate in defining potential areas of discrimination.
 In addition to the normal legal vulnerabilities, easy wealth provides a perverse incentive for participants to bring lawsuits against communities that apply for AFFH funds. 

In the Westchester vs HUD case, a small non-profit operated by a husband and wife team, Greg and Lori Gurian charged the NY county with falsely stating they were affirmatively furthering fair housing.  Westchester lost the case and the Gurians walked off with $7.5 million for their trouble.  In Baltimore, HUD complainants received $150,000 for reporting possible AFFH violations to the agency.

 According to civil rights attorney Michael Allen, AFFH “provides a foundation on which civil rights and [legal] advocates can build anti-segregation campaigns at the local level.”  AFFH works best in communities “where grassroots and legal advocates mobilize and create their own enforcement strategies.” 

If you receive AFFH covered funds, you defy HUD at your community’s peril.

Property Value Defense helps your community understand the severe consequences accompanying AFFH.  If you know of any community members, officials or municipal attorneys interested in joining our group, please feel free to forward this update.)

So we have to ask, in addition to dictating who can live where and how, will the census bureau help the government to round up homeschoolers, patriots, gun owners, gardeners, or others they see as dangerous to the state when push comes to shove?

We shall see.
 

Pull Your Children from Public Schools

If it happened in Portland, other cities, towns, and states may be next.

In a move spearheaded by environmentalists, the Portland Public Schools board unanimously approved a resolution aimed at eliminating doubt of climate change and its causes in schools.

“It is unacceptable that we have textbooks in our schools that spread doubt about the human causes and urgency of the crisis,” said Lincoln High School student Gaby Lemieux in board testimony. “Climate education is not a niche or a specialization, it is the minimum requirement for my generation to be successful in our changing world.”

The resolution passed Tuesday evening calls for the school district to get rid of textbooks or other materials that cast doubt on whether climate change is occurring and that the activity of human beings is responsible. The resolution also directs the superintendent and staff to develop an implementation plan for “curriculum and educational opportunities that address climate change and climate justice in all Portland Public Schools.”

Read more…

Ayotte and Shaheen Vote to Stop Anti-AFFH Amendment

WASHINGTON — A proposed amendment aimed at defunding a controversial Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulation related to Section 8 Housing was tabled in the upper chamber Thursday.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee proposed an amendment to the Senate Transportation and HUD appropriations bill that would have defunded a regulation stopping the implementation of the HUD regulation known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH).

Here is the roll call showing that both NH Senators Ayotte and Shaheen voted YES to table the amendment. Rand Paul voted correctly with a NO.

Read more… Senate GOP And Democrats Save HUD Regulation From Defunding Measure

Read about what HUD can do to your local control…

We Don’t Need a National Zoning Board

Stop U.S. Implementation of the UN’s Paris Climate Deal

Stop U.S. Implementation of the UN’s Paris Climate Deal – H/T JBS

In Paris last December, representatives of 196 nations participated in the Conference of the Parties 21 (COP21), the annual gathering convened by the United Nations for the past 21 years. The delegates expressed unanimous agreement about the need for a comprehensive accord to deal with their highly questionable claims about rapidly rising temperatures threatening the Earth and all of mankind.

Four months later, leaders of 175 countries met at UN headquarters in New York, where they signed the accord reached in Paris. Secretary of State John Kerry participated and signed the agreement on behalf of the United States. Even though this agreement is actually a treaty that should be submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification, the UN negotiators, knowing full well the political reality that the Senate as presently constituted would not ratify, maintain that it is “binding,” while not subject to Senate ratification. Therefore, President Obama will have to implement the Paris agreement via executive orders and EPA regulations.

The delegates at this UN meeting committed their countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a minimum of approximately 25 percent from 2005 levels, and to accomplish such a goal by the year 2025. One profoundly important fact never addressed is that their targeted enemy, carbon dioxide, is correctly known to be the “gas of life.” Plants ingest carbon dioxide, and without this gaseous substance, plants would not even exist.

In the face of all the condemnations of carbon dioxide, there are numerous highly placed and credible individuals who openly claim that the real goal of this decades-long campaign has far less to do with environmentalism and much more to do with gaining control of mankind through a UN super government. For instance, while she was serving the UN as its designated climate chief, Costa Rica’s Christiana Figueres openly stated on February 3, 2015: “[W]e are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years….”

Prior to the dangerous nonsense coming from Ms. Figueres, world government promoters at the influential Club of Rome likewise condemned the capitalist system. As far back as 1991, the globalists in this club admitted that they were “searching for a new enemy that would unite us.” They decided that “the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill.” As reported by The New American’s Alex Newman, the Club of Rome’s 1991 report entitled The First Global Revolution concluded that the dangers facing us “are caused by human intervention…. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.” Reducing the world’s population then became the goal of many.

A more explicit conclusion than the Club of Rome’s offering came from famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. His explicit claim of the need to depopulate the earth appeared in an interview [English edition] in the November 1991 UNESCO Courier published in France. The seemingly kind and lovable Frenchman said:

The damage people cause to the planet is a function of demographics – it is equal to the degree of development. [The single country] America burdens the earth much more than twenty Bangladeshes… This is a terrible thing to say. In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it’s just as bad not to say it.

Cousteau’s desire to “eliminate” most of humanity drew little notice from the unreliable world media, but it is a major goal of many who promote the global warming scare. Who opposes this dangerous cabal and its designs? One prominent voice seeking to set the record straight is 60-year veteran meteorologist and founder of TV’s Weather Channel John Coleman. Calling the claim that mankind is causing global warming “the greatest scam in history,” he pointed to the goals of Ms. Figueres and to the welcome conclusion reached by Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer, who rightly noted that the UN’s policy is “to redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy.”

Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, remains a staunch opponent of these environmental claims. He will stand in the way of moves to have the Senate approve the Paris accord. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) labeled the pact “unattainable” and will also oppose its approval. Calls to their offices to thank them are certainly in order.

As the end of the Obama era looms, the soon-to-be ex-president will push hard to implement the Paris accord as part of his legacy. As mentioned above, since the Senate won’t ratify it as a treaty, he’ll seek to implement its provisions through executive orders and regulations. Congress has the to power to stop much or all of this. There is a need, therefore, for generating resistance.

Please call or email the offices of your two senators and your representative to help stave off this extremely dangerous drive by the Obama administration to use the UN’s Paris Climate Deal to control population, destroy jobs, and bring about world government under the United Nations.

Senator Kelly Ayotte
http://ayotte.senate.gov/
Sen. Kelly Ayotte
(202) 224-3324

Senator Jeanne Shaheen
http://shaheen.senate.gov/
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
(202) 224-2841

Congressman Frank Guinta – District 1
http://guinta.house.gov/
(202) 225-5456

Congresswoman Annie Kuster – District 2
http://kuster.house.gov/
(202) 225-5206

Ultimately, the end goal of all who cherish freedom will require complete withdrawal from the United Nations.

Six Issues That Are Agenda 21

H/T to Tom DeWeese of The DeWeese Report

Every day, in meetings at all levels of government, representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), planning groups, and federal agents surround elected representatives and insist that their policies have nothing to do with international agendas. They regularly publish reports and rail against anyone even mentioning the names Agenda 21 or the new Agenda 2030. “No, no, no,” they insist. “Those people are just crazy conspiracy theorists. Ours is just a local plan for our community.”

Issue 1: Global Warming/Climate Change
Issue 2: Fear of over population
Issue 3: The destruction of the free market system
Issue 4: Cheap Energy is the enemy of the Earth
Issue 5: Common Core
Issue 6: Healthcare

These are the issues that are not usually discussed or connected to Agenda 21. Yet they are being implemented, step by step, by local planners in policies that are approved by befuddled elected representatives. It’s all driven through pressure from private NGO groups and funded by federal grants. That’s how it’s done, constantly driven a little bit with each innocent sounding idea. Then, without warning, Frankenstein rises from behind the smokescreen, toe bones and anklebones fully operational.

Americans must understand and connect these dots to everyday issues so they can clearly see the root and long term goals of these policies that are affecting our personal lives. Elected representatives at every level of government must come to understand that legislative actions have consequences far beyond their understanding. Agenda 21 is the “common core” and it has already invaded every level of our society. Our battle cry must be to stop this monster or watch freedom perish.

Read the full article here…

Help Mike Lee Stop the AFFH Act!

H/T to John Anthony from Sustainable Freedom Lab

Senator Mike Lee has proposed an amendment that is likely to come up for a vote this week in the Senate.

This would remove the funding for HUD’s new rule, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.

Under AFFH, HUD has expanded Congress’ intent in the Fair Housing Act to enable the agency to control local zoning, override local public officials’ authority, and reverse voters’ decisions.

Please tell your Senators to support Senator Lee’s amendment and stop funding for HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.

Senator Kelly Ayotte
http://ayotte.senate.gov/
Sen. Kelly Ayotte
(202) 224-3324

Senator Jeanne Shaheen
http://shaheen.senate.gov/
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen
(202) 224-2841

What to do next.

Senator Lee’s amendment is a large step toward stopping HUD’s intrusion into local rule. But it will not completely stop the agency’s egregious overreach.

The lawsuits that we now see that are forcing communities like Westchester County New York, Marin County California, and Baltimore County Maryland to bend their zoning rules to meet the federal government’s plans, were initiated before the AFFH rule became law.

HUD has always had severe requirements attached to their funding programs such as the Community Development Block Grant. However, enforcement of the strings was minimal and most communities were never aware of their implications.

Since the lawsuit against Westchester County, that has changed. Now enforces these requirements by instigating local grassroots groups and legal advocates to sue communities that accept the HUD Grant money and fail to affirmatively further fair housing.

In other words, your local community civic group members and affordable housing developers become the “stick” that enforces HUD’s demands.

In addition to failure to affirmatively further fair housing, there are other charges such as “disparate impact,” that enable HUD to hold local communities accountable.

From Senator Mike Lee
http://netrightdaily.com/2016/05/sen-mike-lee-affh-betrayal-fair-housing-act/

Colorado town says “no” to HUD, refuses federal funds

While the federal government always views its threats to cut off the flow of stolen money to the states as a kind of untrumpable trump card, a Colorado town has created a template for how to handle the federal government’s attempts at bribery and extortion.

Castle Rock, a community of 55,000 people in central Colorado, recently decided to refuse funds from the federal government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). At issue for the town was a new set of regulations, 377 pages in all, which gives the unelected HUD bureaucrats broad powers over grant recipient communities, including the power to reverse electoral decisions by local voters, change local zoning laws and force said communities to join regions against the its wishes.

Colorado town says “no” to HUD, refuses federal funds

Why Your Town Should Say NO to HUD

From our friends at Sustainable Freedom Lab

(AFFH is part of a larger government scheme to remove land use control from local jurisdictions as they are forced to join larger regions.)

When Castle Rock, CO refused to apply for a HUD grant, the recipients of the money were upset. But, Castle Rock had done their homework. Their response to the grantees should be read by every public official who ever considers accepting a federal grant.

HUD’s shielded their 2015 rule, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing from public view for nearly a year.

The agency withheld the proposal announcement from the spring and fall 2012 Unified Agendas. The Office of Management and Budget finally released the proposal to the public on December 21, 2012, during the Christmas holiday, after government operations had shut down. Because of the timing of the release, AFFH received little notice.

Now we know why.

Through a labyrinth of application requirements and legalese, the agency can force HUD grant recipients to…

– reverse voters decisions,
– alter zoning laws and land use regulations, and
– join a region against the community’s will

In the history of HUD, there has never been this type of dangerous grab of local authority and personal property rights. The Castle Rock letter explains.

“Thank you for your letter concerning CDBG funds and the Town of Castle Rock. Last year, when faced with the question of whether the Town should become an entitlement community under the CDBG program, the Council declined to pursue that status because it would result in unclear and unwarranted interference from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). For years, Castle Rock has accepted various grant monies offered by HUD through Douglas County. This money was parceled out by Town Council mainly to fix alleyways and make curbs ADA accessible. But last year HUD added very alarming strings to the grants; 377 pages of new rules that give HUD drastic new powers over our cities and counties that in affect eliminate the zoning and planning powers of your local elected officials which can now be overruled by HUD bureaucrats in Washington DC.”

Read the rest here…

Supporters Pushing Senate on Commuter Rail, After House Said NO

Despite the fact that the NH House put the kibosh on the $4M study for commuter rail, some in the Senate are still trying to push it.

Remember this?
http://www.granitestatefutures.org/news/2015/03/22/bedford-heading-for-an-agenda-21-ghost-city/

“CONCORD — Supporters of commuter rail are pushing for the Senate Transportation Committee to tap $4 million in federal funding to help fund the next phase of commuter rail after the full House rejected the spending.

The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce submitted a letter signed by 18 business leaders, including from Citizens Bank, SilverTech and the McLane law firm, urging the Senate to back further work.”

Commuter rail supporters seek funds for planning from Senate committee

Contact your NH Senators and tell them NO!

John Kerry Must Not Sign Paris Global Warming Treaty

Secretary of State John Kerry is heading to New York to deposit ratification documents for the Paris Global Warming Treaty – even though it has not been ratified!

And even though this agreement will be signed at the United Nations, and even though this document binds nations into enacting new “green” regulations, Obama claims that this deal is not a treaty!

Why? So he can circumvent Congress and implement it via EPA regulations. And liberals will find judges to force future administrations to abide by it too – if we don’t act now.

That’s why I hope you will Tell Congress there should be NO FUNDING for Obama’s Global Warming Treaty!

We cannot allow Obama to lawlessly circumvent Congress again in order to ram through the environmentalists’ extreme agenda.

The Paris Treaty will force crippling new regulations on our economy, redistribute American tax dollars to third world dictators, and establish a wasteful green slush fund to enrich global warming bureaucrats.

Obama may claim it’s not a treaty, but you and I can see right through this deceit. That’s why we must Tell Congress to STOP ANY FUNDING for Obama’s Global Warming Treaty.

Sign the petition here:
http://action.americancommitment.org/19165/do-not-fund-obamas-green-climate-fund/