Illinois Review

Ford v Ferrari and the virtue of courage

There is a scene in the terrific new film Ford v Ferrari where Henry Ford II grills his lieutenant Lee Iaccoca about the failed bid to acquire Enzo Ferrari’s racing car enterprise. Ford learns that Ferrari has a message for him, and Iacocca dutifully delivers: “He said Ford makes ugly little cars in ugly factories.”

Rep.Skillicorn warns about parking tax hike in New Year

CRYSTAL LAKE – If that $35 a day parking fee discourages you from making a trip into Chicago, parking will cost $2.10 more in a month - yet another reason to avoid the traffic and the headaches. 

A new parking space tax is set to go into effect on January 1, 2020 and State Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-Crystal Lake) says the tax will cost more than people think and the money from the parking tax will not be used to pay for roads.

“Parking is already expensive enough especially in the City of Chicago,” Skillicorn said. “In addition to having the third highest gas tax in the country, Illinois residents are now going to have pay more to park their vehicle. Parked or moving, Illinois is making it tougher for Illinois families to own and operate a vehicle.”

The Gettysburg Address: 272 Words Every American Should Know

156 years ago, President Lincoln gave a short speech dedicating a cemetery for soldiers at the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 272 words, he captured the values that make our nation so unique — values that Americans have fought and died to uphold — and why we must work to ensure America endures future tests and trials, however dreadful they may be. We choose to recall those words of that speech.

The Myth of Voter Suppression

Do Republicans win elections by preventing minorities from voting? The Left says yes, but the data says no. Jason Riley, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, settles the argument with hard evidence, separating fact from fiction.

UPDATE: 6 GOPers file to fill retiring John Shimkus' 15th CD seat

UPDATE: As of Board of Elections' office closing Monday, six Republicans and three Democrats have filed to succeed retiring Congressman John Shimkus. (see names below)

SPRINGFIELD - Thus far, three Republicans filed petitions Monday morning to be the GOP candidate to compete for Congressman John Shimkus' 15th CD seat in 2020.

The downstate district is currently one of Illinois' most conservative - and is expected to be drastically redistricted after the 2020 Census.

UPDATE: 5 IL Republicans file to challenge Durbin in 2020

YUPDATE: As a campaign strategy, it's not uncommon for candidates to wait until the closing hour of petition filing in order to be listed as last on the ballot - as voters commonly look at the first and last names, then those in between when determining which candidates will get their vote. 

Robert Marshall, a Burr Ridge physician that ran in the 2018 Democrat gubernatorial primary that JB Pritzker eventually won, submitted his petitions at closing Monday in order to be on the March 2020 GOP primary ballot. That means as many as five Republicans will be vying for the chance to challenge Durbin next November. 

SPRINGFIELD - As of noon the last day that 2020 GOP primary candidates can submit petitions to be on the ballot, four Republicans could be on next March's GOP primary statewide:

• former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran,
• Springfield area oncologist Dr. Thomas Tarter,
• Belleville area veteran and former law enforcement officer Peggy Hubbard and
• Glenview businessman, as well as former President of the Polish American Congress – Illinois Division Casey Chlebek. 

Whichever of these Republicans that wins the March 2020 primary will challenge US Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin in the November 2020 presidential election. 

The 75 year old Durbin first was elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1996 - defeating Republican Al Salvi with the help of former President Bill Clinton at the top of the ticket. 

UPDATE: Cook Co GOP condemns Nazi filing again in IL's 3rd CD GOP primary

UPDATE: Monday, Cook County GOP Chairman Sean Morrison released a statement condemning Arthur Jones' candidacy. See statement below.

CHICAGO - He says he left the Nazis in the 1980s, but Arthur Jones of Lyons, IL still denies the Holocaust and despises Jews. These days, he says he's a patriot.

And despite being condemned by the Illinois Republican Party in 2018 when he challenged 3rd CD Congressman Dan Lipinski, Jones just submitted petitions once again to run in the GOP 2020 primary in an effort to go to the US Congress.

Chicago mayor fires police superintendent for cause, effective immediately

Fired Eddie Johnson (left) with Mayor Lori Lightfoot (center) earlier this year

CHICAGO - Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a press conference Monday morning to announce she had fired Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson "for cause," "effective immediately." 

Johnson had announced earlier this year he would be retiring effective January 1, 2020, but that wasn't soon enough for Lightfoot.

14th CD's new rep featured in Time's 100 Next list

First term US House member Lauren Underwood is representing an Illinois congressional district that voted for Donald Trump in 2016. She was swept into office in 2018 as part of the Democrat Blue Wave that hit the Land of Lincoln, bringing with it a Democrat governor and an even stronger Democrat-controlled legislature. 

Born in Mayfield Heights, Ohio in 1986, the 33 year old Underwood has become a rock star among Leftist political circles - and is featured in Time Magazine's 100 Next list released last week. 

Presidential primary candidate Cory Booker, also a US Senator from New Jersey, wrote the piece about Underwood in the Time tribute. Booker writes that she's the youngest African American woman elected to Congress and that  

She has stood up to fight for families in her district and across the country: for an end to the gun-violence epidemic; for an economy where everyone has access to opportunity; and for every person’s right to quality, affordable health care, regardless of pre-existing conditions.

CAIR-Backed Chicago Islamist attempts to oust Board of Review's Dan Patlak

Image via Facebook

On October 27, Abdelnasser Rashid, 30, announced his bid for Cook County Board of Review as an independent Democrat in 2020. He's preparing to challenge Republican incumbent Dan Patlak.

Rashid, who is a former chief policy officer for Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, and who previously served as deputy state director for the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, previously ran for the Cook County Commissioner office in 2018 and lost to Republican incumbent Sean Morrison by a very narrow margin.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)- Chicago awarded Rashid its Trailblazer Award at its 15th annual banquet in February 2019 for his campaign.

Thorner: Heartland Institute has the nerve to give thanks for fracking in new video series

By Nancy Thorner - 

Give thanks for fracking? That's heresy to a whole generation that has been taught to believe in the religion of environmentalism. 

But that's exactly what Heartland Institute did leading up to the Thanksgiving season.

Rossi: Evanston, Illinois' Insulting "Reparations" Scam

By Randy Rossi - 

Any informed American should be outraged over Evanston’s new “Reparations” program it just passed which takes tax dollars from legal pot sales starting on 1/1/2020 and gives roughly $750,000 a year to help only African-Americans which Dems say “have suffered under the persisting effects of slavery and institutional discrimination”. This is the perfect intersection of ignorance and destructive political correctness.

Two Cases - One in Illinois - Show Why Trans ‘Rights’ Could Upend the Rights of All

The battle over the rights of “transgender” and “cisgender” people continues to escalate in one of the most influential arenas: our nation’s schools.

The Chicago Tribune reported this month that after a four-year battle, a school board in Palatine, Illinois, has granted transgender students “unrestricted access to locker rooms based on gender identity.” 

Illinois Review also reported on alternatives parents in D 211 were offered. 

Just a few days later, CBS News Minnesota reported a mother had sued her local school district, claiming that it discriminated against her child for being transgender.

These are just two of the most recent stories showing just how prevalent the transgender debate in schools has become.

More HERE

Medicare for Illegals is Immoral

According to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), “As president, Bernie will: Enact Medicare for All, which will address racial and other disparities in health care and provide comprehensive care to everyone in America, regardless of immigration status.” Strangely, politicians have a proclivity for speaking in the third person.

Even more strangely, believe it or not, most Democrats running for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination (including Bernie, obviously) support Medicare for All, even for illegal, “undocumented” immigrants.

Although it is impossible to know the exact number of illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States, estimates range from about 10 million to upwards of 12 million. To put this in better context, in October 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement apprehended 45,020 illegal border crossers at the Southwest border. In Fiscal Year 2019, the total number of illegal border crossers apprehended was 977,509. Of course, these numbers do not include the unknown number of immigrants who evaded apprehension and simply entered the United States illegally.

Aside from the fact that Medicare for All would cost trillions and upend the entire U.S. health care system, one fundamental question must be asked: Is it a good idea, let alone fair, to offer “free” health care to lawbreakers who are not U.S. citizens?

In my humble opinion, the answer is a clear and resounding, “No.”

More HERE

Family Friendly Schools?

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), one of many candidates vying for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, recently introduced a bill that would turn elementary schools in poor areas into “family friendly schools” that “collaborate with community partners to develop high-quality, culturally relevant, linguistically accessible, developmentally appropriate academic, athletic, or enrichment opportunities for students from at least 8 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday during the school year, with no closures except for Federal holidays, weekends, and emergencies.”

More HERE

We Gather Together to ask the Lord's blessing

The traditional hymn often identified with Thanksgiving says,

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing
He chastens and hastens His will to make known
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing
Sing praises to His Name, He forgets not His own

 

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine
So from the beginning the fight we were winning
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

About the holiday set aside by President Abraham Lincoln, Scholastic.com writes: 

The English colonists we call Pilgrims celebrated days of thanksgiving as part of their religion. But these were days of prayer, not days of feasting. Our national holiday really stems from the feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest.

We at Illinois Review ask our readers to join us in continuing to boldly ask the Lord's blessing on our nation and state, while making note of the all-important second verse's words: 

So from the beginning the fight we were winning
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

Family Research Council outraged with Chick-Fil-A over 2017 donation to anti-Christian group

In 2012, a gunman was prompted by Southern Poverty Law Center's website listings

Family Research Council learned Thursday that Chick-Fil-A donated $2500 to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which works to defame organizations that promote and adhere to traditional Christian values. The shooter that attacked FRC's D.C. office in 2012 told police he chose to attack FRC after seeing their name on the SPLC website. 

The media source Townhall.com found this 2017 entry among pages of charitable donations made by the Chick-Fil-A Foundation that year - to organizations from Boy Scouts of America, YMCA, Habitat for Humanity, high schools, to recently controversial groups such as the Salvation Army and Association of Christian Athletes:

 

Family Research Council's name is not among those that received donations in 2017.

The following was released Thursday (11/27) from Family Research Council:

Thorner: Equal Rights Amendment Challenges Our 10th Amendment

Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly led opposition to the ERA in the 70s

By Nancy Thorner - 

The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would eliminate any legal distinction between men and women, even when it makes sense to do so based on their biological differences. 

 

This is a far cry from how Alexis deTocqueville perceived Americans understood and thought about the equality of the sexes in 1840, as noted in Alexis deTocqueville's Democracy in America, volume 2 (1840): 

 

“It can easily be imagined that by trying hard in this way to make one sex equal to the other, both are degraded; and that from this crude mixture of the works of nature only weak men and dishonest women can ever emerge.

 

While in the past gender used to refer to whether an individual was male or female, in 2019 there are 202 genders. In the LGBTQ community, 17 genders are sited. 

The Dark Art of Framing

Why do intelligent people – sometimes even our friends and family members – continue to fall for the Left’s false narrative? Jeff Myers, President of Summit Ministries, offers some compelling insight into the ways in which the Left manipulates words and emotions, and what you can do to protect yourself. This video was made possible through our partnership with Summit Ministries.

Fracking Saved $1.1 Trillion

Increased Shale Development Led To $900 In Annual Savings To Every American Family

A new report prepared by Kleinhenz & Associates for the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program shows increased oil and natural gas production from hydraulic fracturing  (“fracking”) has saved American consumers $1.1 trillion in the decade from 2008 to 2018. This breaks down to more than $900 in annual savings to each American family, or $9,000 in cumulative savings.

These savings come from the lower cost of natural gas due to increased production. According to the report, “natural gas as measured using the average Henry Hub price has declined from a 2008 high of $8.86 to an estimated 2018 price of $3.16.” For households in the lowest economic quintile, the bottom 20 percent, the lower price for natural gas amounts to a savings of 2.7 percent of their annual income. “This is equivalent to a raise of 2.7% for the poorest households,” the report states.

More HERE