My lovely and talented wife, Beth Ruyle-Hullinger, died on Sep 30, 2024 from complications from Multiple Myeloma and Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She fought the good fight at Moffitt Hospital in Tampa.
The electoral College of the United States was one of the compromises made to protect the small States from the large ones when our country was being created. The electoral college provides one vote for each Senator and one for each Congressman. Thus a very low population State has 3 electoral college votes with under 200,000 people per vote, while a very populous State like California has over 700,000 people per vote.
This is clearly unfair, and violates the principle of one man one vote, but it was also part of the grand compromise that created the United States. The smaller States of the union will not voluntarily give up their extra clout. So don't hold your breath waiting for fairness.
States that have only 3 electoral votes, and thus far more influence than their population indicates include: Alaska, Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Wyoming, and Washinton, DC.
It would be an interesting court challenge, demanding fairness with a system that provides one vote per voter, but also very unlikely to succeed, especially with the current compromised Supreme Court.
Sometimes, Thing Just Are Not Fair, and you have to put up with it.
Process to amend the US Consitution The United States Constitution can be amended through a process outlined in Article V of the Constitution:
Proposing an amendment Congress can propose an amendment with a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Alternatively, two-thirds of state legislatures can request a convention to propose amendments.
Ratifying an amendment Three-fourths of state legislatures or three-fourths of state ratifying conventions must ratify the amendment. Congress determines which method the states must follow.
The amendment process is designed to be difficult and time-consuming to prevent arbitrary changes. The Founding Fathers believed that the Constitution's principles and founding document should not be easy to amend.
The Constitution has been amended 27 times, with the first 10 amendments making up the Bill of Rights. The most recent amendment was ratified in 1992.
The truth, of course, is that Presidents have minimal impact on the economy. But they don't tell you that, and low information voters believe the guy they like, never mind the facts.
CRISPR, short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is a groundbreaking technology that has transformed the field of genetic engineering. Originally discovered in the genomes of bacteria and archaea, CRISPR sequences are part of a natural defense mechanism against viruses. Today, CRISPR-Cas9, a specific application of this technology, is widely used for gene editing, offering unprecedented precision and versatility.
CRISPR is a revolutionary tool that has opened new frontiers in genetic engineering. Its applications in medicine, agriculture, and environmental conservation hold great promise for improving human health and the world around us. However, as with any powerful technology, it must be used with caution and ethical consideration to ensure that its benefits are realized without unintended harm.
If you have any specific questions about CRISPR or need more details on a particular aspect, feel free to ask!
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This article and illustration was created by the AI program https://copilot.microsoft.com/. Took about a minute. Took me longer to read it than AI took to write it. And it is taking me far longer to understand it.
All told, the number of gifts FTC identified that were accepted by the current nine, plus the eight who’ve left the court since 2004 (Justices Rehnquist, Stevens, O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer) is 546, valued at $4,755,147. Adding in Thomas’ 126 likely gifts since his confirmation, that tally comes to 672 gifts valued at $6,592,657.
These numbers are largely based on last year’s groundbreaking work by ProPublica and includes data from stories in the New York Times, L.A. Times, the congressional record, annual disclosures and FTC’s own research, led by law clerks Olivia Rae Okun-Dubitsky and Ashley Alarcon.
“Supreme Court justices should not be accepting gifts, let alone the hundreds of freebies worth millions of dollars they’ve received over the years,” Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth said. “Public servants who make four times the median local salary, and who can make millions writing books on any topic they like, can afford to pay for their own vacations, vehicles, hunting excursions and club memberships — to say nothing of the influence the gift-givers are buying with their ‘generosity.’ The ethics crisis at the Court won’t begin to abate until justices adopt stricter gift acceptance rules.”
WASHINGTON (CN) — A report released Thursday puts numbers to the Supreme Court’s ethics scandals, finding that the justices have received over 300 gifts worth $3 million in the last 20 years.
Judiciary watchdog Fix the Court unveiled a detailed account of the value of the gifts that ignited calls for ethics reform at the court.
"Supreme Court justices should not be accepting gifts, let alone the hundreds of freebies worth millions of dollars they've received over the years," Gabe Roth, executive director at Fix the Court, said in a statement. "Public servants who make four times the median local salary, and who can make millions writing books on any topic they like, can afford to pay for their own vacations, vehicles, hunting excursions and club memberships — to say nothing of the influence the gift-givers are buying with their 'generosity.'”
From January 2004 to December 2023, the nine justices accepted 344 gifts valued at almost $3 million. That total grows to over $4.7 million when adding in 202 additional gifts accepted by the eight justices who have left the court since 2004.
Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted over twice as many gifts as any other justice, with a total of 103 gifts totaling $2,402,310. Fix the Court identified an additional 101 gifts the George H.W. Bush appointee likely received based on news reporting. The additional $1.7 million in gifts brings Thomas’ gift total to over $4 million.
Thomas’ trips on private jets, detailed in reporting from ProPublica, were among the most expensive gifts he accepted. In 2004, the Bush appointee flew on Wayne Huizenga’s personal 737 for two trips to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The flights from the billionaire who founded Waste Management and Blockbuster were worth $130,000 each.
In 2007, real estate mogul Harlan Crow paid for a $160,000 yacht cruise Thomas took around the Greek Islands. The next year, health care executive Anthony Welters paid $253,686,the balance on Thomas’ RV loan. Welters also paid for Thomas’ roundtrip flight to Trinidad in 2010, which was worth $97,666.
Thomas’ most expensive gifts were trips to Bohemian Grove. ProPublica confirmed six of these visits worth almost $300,000. Reporting suggested that Thomas was a regular guest of Crow’s at the exclusive club for over two decades, adding $997,500 in likely gifts to his total.
Only 8.5% of the gifts noted by Fix the Court were reported in Thomas’ financial disclosure forms.
BG Patrick Rea has served many assignments in the military, during the Vietnam War, in Europe and later in the US Army Reserves. In addition, he holds a key office in the government of Tinley Park, IL. He has held important leadership roles in many chivalric activities in the united States and worldwide, ultimately rising to the position of Grand Master of the Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani. This portrait reflects several symbols of that experience.
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It is with a heavy heart that I remember General Patrick Rea, a mentor to me from high school through my time in the Illinois State Senate. Regardless of political party, he cared deeply about our community and country. I’ll never forget when he encouraged me to run for the school board and then generously shared his wisdom on how to win.
General Rea's dedication to public service was unparalleled. He served as a Village Clerk and on numerous boards of directors for public higher education, not-for-profit foundations, and professional associations. His contributions to the Illinois College of Business Alumni Association, where he was a past president, showcased his commitment to fostering education and professional growth.
His career included significant positions such as Regional Administrator for the Midwest Small Business Administration, Executive Director of the Illinois Development Finance Authority, and Vice President and Corporate Banker for First National Bank of Chicago/Bank One Capital Markets. Additionally, his military service as a retired Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Reserve and as past State Chairman of the Illinois Committee to Support the Guard and Reserve highlighted his dedication to our nation's defense.
General Rea was a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, holding a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business, a Master’s degree in Economics, and credentials as a Registered Municipal and General Securities Representative.
His legacy of service and mentorship will live on through the countless lives he touched. Patrick Rea's unwavering commitment to community and country will always be remembered and cherished.
Michael E. Hastings
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Patrick Rea, a longtime Tinley Park official and military veteran, is being remembered as someone who, despite traveling the world, always kept the village close to his heart.
“He truly loved Tinley more than anyone I’ve ever met,” said Mayor Michael Glotz, who asked Rea to speak at his inauguration ceremony. “He was there for everybody but himself.”
Rea, 84, died Friday at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, according to former Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki. Rea suffered deteriorating health “for the past couple of years,” Zabrocki said.
Arrangements have not been finalized, up but a memorial service is tentatively planned for September, Zabrocki said.
Rea was a village trustee for 37 years, starting in 1971, then was village clerk from 2009 until 2017.
He served in the U.S. Army, either in active duty or the Reserves, for more than 20 years and left the military with the rank of brigadier general. Tinley Park’s Veterans Memorial near the south entrance to the 80th Avenue Metra station was named in his honor.
He was commissioned from the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1963, then deployed to Vietnam, where he served until 1967, according to the village and American Legion.
From 1968 through 1997, Rea was in the active military or Army Reserves, commanding at every level, from platoon to brigade and serving as assistant division commander and acting commander of the 85th Division, according to the village.
In 2004, Rea received the Secretary of Defense Medal of Outstanding Public Service Award.
Rea was executive director of the Illinois Development Finance Authority and, in November 2003, was named Midwest regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration by then President George W. Bush. Rea served through January 2009 and the region he oversaw included Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
In 2021, Rea was elected grand master of the International Knights Templar after having held the position of grand commander.
The organization of about 5,500 members was founded in 1804 and follows in the Christian philanthropic tradition of the original Knights Templar, according to a 2021 Chicago Tribune article about Rea’s election.
Zabrocki, a village trustee from 1972 to 1981 and mayor from 1981 until 2015, said Rea’s “heart and soul were in Tinley Park” his entire life.
Zabrocki said he referred to Rea during one public speech as a “Renaissance man.”
“He was so knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects and spoke so well on all of them,” Zabrocki said. “There were so many different facets to his life.”
With Rea’s background, “he could have moved to anywhere in the world,” Zabrocki said.
Zabrocki said that Rea knew so many people and was involved in so many things directly related to Tinley Park or outside the village.
“He was a guy who would talk to anybody. He was just open that way,” he said.
Rea grew up in the village’s older Parkside subdivision and through the years lived within a very short distance of Village Hall, Zabrocki said.
Laura Godette, deputy village clerk in Tinley Park, said she had known Rea since she came to the village as deputy clerk in 2007 and worked under Rea. Both hailed from Parkside and “we were old Tinley Parkers so we had a camaraderie,” she said.
“I learned a lot from Pat,” she said. “I learned about his devotion to the village.”
Rea was appointed clerk in May 2009 following the death of longtime Clerk Frank “Bill” German. Godette worked alongside him in the clerk’s office for nearly 10 years.
“I learned so much about how things work and why things work,” she said of Rea. “He will be greatly missed.”
Glotz said he considered Rea and Zabrocki to be mentors, and that “I learned more from Clerk Rea than any person of anyone I’ve been involved with politically or not politically.”
“From his financing expertise to the military, what he brought to the table, he’s not the norm,” Glotz said.
Rea attended First Baptist Church of Tinley Park for more than 25 years, and that will be the location of funeral services, according to the Rev. Harold Parsley.
“He was very important to us here,” Parsley said Monday. “We have been very active together and he really helped the church here.”
Rea was a vice president and corporate banker at Bank One Capital Markets and began his banking career in 1969 at First National Bank of Chicago, later Bank One.
He had a bachelor’s of science degree in economics and business and a master’s in economics from the University of Illinois.
According to a village proclamation, Rea was born in Chicago and his family moved to Tinley Park’s Parkside subdivision when he was 7.
Rea was appointed village trustee in October 1971, filling a vacancy created after German was tabbed to be village clerk, according to the proclamation. Rea was one of the youngest Village Board members in the town’s then 79-year history.