Illinois Review

BREAKING: Illinois biz groups call on Pritzker to slow down costly energy proposal

While all businesses and most homeowners will be directly affected with higher energy costs, at least thirty Illinois business groups signed onto a letter Monday asking Governor Pritzker to "delay [the energy] legislation and meaningfully engage the consumers, business owners, organizations and municipalities that will be saddled with the costs."

At least one other group - the Technology & Manufacturing Association - is being added to the effort, the coordinator Ryan McLaughlin told Illinois Review: 

Dear Governor Pritzker:

In 1997, Illinois deregulated the energy market resulting in billions of dollars in savings for homeowners and businesses. Our low-cost energy prices and reliable grid have been cited by governors time and again as reasons why businesses should stay in or relocate to Illinois.

Twenty-four years later, instead of building on this strength, the proposed energy legislation being circulated will be the largest rate hike on consumers and businesses in history. At least as it has been described to us by several of those who have been fortunate enough to be included in the discussions.

People are quitting their jobs instead of returning to pre-COVID schedules

Today's hot topic in business circles are that people are quitting their jobs instead of going back to normal, after the pandemic caused many to reassess their life priorities.  Some estimate over 4 million have quit their jobs already this year - looking for something that allows more flexibility and/or less pressure. 

Here's a chart from a Wall Street Journal story dated June 13, 2021: 

Court documents suggest US government may have agreed with Big Tech to censor disagreeable speech

In case you missed it, documents filed last month in a Massachusetts lawsuit claims the US government may have made a formal agreement with the internet titan Twitter and possibly others to censor disagreeable speech. From the NC Daily Gazette: 

Nobody can deny that there has been a massive amount of censorship taking place in the social media arena but what some have only suspected to be true is that the government is behind it. That is, until now. The Montana Daily Gazette, one of our sister publications, first reported that Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai publicized court documents that prove the U.S. Government entered into a formal agreement with Big Tech to censor speech they did not agree with.

As Montana Daily Gazette reported, the combined federation of Big Tech companies is, effectually, a monopoly holding at least 90 percent of the current combined market share in social media. These would include such companies as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other tech companies that make sharing viewpoints in the public square available to its users.

The court documents are viewable here: https://u8z8g8c2.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/11889-Supplemental-Memorandum-Playbook-Filed.pdf  

Beckman: Is it okay to be white?

Istock photo

By Hank Beckman - 

Is it OK to be white?

The question is legitimate but asking it has our progressive friends very upset.

Persons unknown have in recent years been affixing that very statement on those ubiquitous “Hate Has No Home Here,” signs that began popping up all over the Chicagoland area in the wake of Donald Trump’s election in 2016. 

The sentiment has also been posted at various colleges sites around the country, prompting the usual wails of anguish from those triggered by an idea that hasn’t been approved by their school’s diversity czars.

I first heard about the phenomena shortly after the Bad Orange Man’s election when on my Facebook news feed there popped up a complaint about how affixing the question to the signs was “problematic.”

Illinois ranks as #2 state where Americans don't want to live

IllinoisReview.com photo 

CHICAGO - Two-thirds of those moving in the state of Illinois are outbound, and one-third are inbound, making it the #2 state where people don't want to live, the Vacation.com website is reporting Monday morning. 

Only New Jersey has a slightly worse ranking between those that are leaving the state and those moving into the state. 

"While some states are experiencing a phenomenon known as a 'brain drain,' meaning an exodus of highly-educated people, Illinois is actually experiencing the opposite. Tons of super smart people are deciding to start their lives in Illinois, along with thousands of people ages 18 to 34," the assessment says. 

But Illinois made it to the second to worst state on this list for other reasons.

Biden Divides Us. Here Are 12 Principles That Can Unite Us.

Photo: Martin Barraud/Getty Images

What unites us are the foundational principles of liberty, justice and equality – and policies rooted in that heritage that would make America a “more perfect union.” Charmaine Yoest, James Carafano, John Malcolm, and Jack Spencer write:

Americans are woke. They woke-up and realized President Joe Biden is no moderate. He is spearheading the most radical policies in modern history, policies that would transform this nation into an unrecognizable country—far less safe, more impoverished, and more unfree.

Nevertheless, the vital issues of the day pull us together. Conservatives share a common vision for maximizing human freedom and opportunity. They are primed to unite and fight. What’s more, many Americans who do not identify as conservatives share these goals. Any national leader who champions this unifying vision will win the support of a vast swath of centrist America, and will energize conservatives in the process.

Here are 12 issues that conservatives have answers for. Together, they make up a platform that a majority of Americans can rally around.

The Myth that Americans Were Poorly Educated before Mass Government Schooling

Parents the world over are dealing with massive adjustments in their children’s education that they could not have anticipated just three months ago. To one degree or another, pandemic-induced school closures are creating the “mass homeschooling” that FEE’s senior education fellow Kerry McDonald predicted two months ago. Who knows, with millions of youngsters absent from government school classrooms, maybe education will become as good as it was before the government ever got involved.

“What?” you exclaim! “Wasn’t education lousy or non-existent before government mandated it, provided it, and subsidized it? That’s what my government schoolteachers assured me so it must be true,” you say!

The fact is, at least in early America, education was better and more widespread than most people today realize or were ever told. Sometimes it wasn’t “book learning” but it was functional and built for the world most young people confronted at the time. Even without laptops and swimming pools, and on a fraction of what government schools spend today, Americans were a surprisingly learned people in our first hundred years.

More HERE

Lightfoot’s Lawyers Use Bizarre Defense for Racial Discrimination of White Reporters

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, Pool

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot came under fire when she announced that she would only allow one-on-one interviews with non-white journalists. In fact, the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) and Judicial Watch are suing her for this discriminatory practice.

Lightfoot’s lawyers are mounting a rather peculiar defense against the accusations of racial discrimination. “Attorneys for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot are arguing that a preliminary injunction against her for racial discrimination is unnecessary because she only racially discriminated against reporters for a strict two-day period,” according to the Daily Caller.

More HERE

Why the Early Progressives Rejected American Founding Principles

Progressive Era criticism of the Constitution came not from a few fringe figures, but from the most prominent think­ers and politicians of that time. Ronald J. Pestritto writes:

he Progressive Era was the first major period in American political development to feature, as a primary characteristic, the open and direct criticism of the Constitution. While criticism of the Constitution can be found during any period of American history from 1787 onward, the Progressive Era was unique in that such criticism formed the backbone of the entire movement.

Progressive Era criticism of the Constitution came not from a few fringe figures, but from the most prominent think­ers and politicians of that time. Readers are reminded, in almost any progressive text they will pick up, that the Constitution is old, and that it was written to deal with circumstances that had long ago been replaced by a whole new set of pressing social and economic ills.

America the Outlier: Voter Photo IDs Are the Rule in Europe and Elsewhere

Photo ID is common throughout the world. John R. Lott Jr. writes:

Democrats and much of the media are pushing to make permanent the extraordinary, pandemic-driven measures to relax voting rules during the 2020 elections – warning anew of racist voter “suppression” otherwise. Yet democracies in Europe and elsewhere tell a different story – of the benefits of stricter voter ID requirements after hard lessons learned.

A database on voting rules worldwide compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center, which I run, shows that election integrity measures are widely accepted globally, and have often been adopted by countries after they've experienced fraud under looser voting regimes.

Why did Facebook censor Chinese lab leak theories? Fauci emails to Zuckerberg may answer

Jim Jordan and James Comer, ranking members of judiciary and oversight committees, wrote letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

They demanded documents and information about contacts between Facebook and federal government

Their questions were triggered after release of Anthony Fauci's emails showed he was in touch with Zuckerberg

The Republicans accused the social media platform of collaborating with government to violate First Amendment protections

Facebook removed posts suggesting COVID-19 was human-made

But it reversed its policy when President Biden asked intelligence community to look again at pandemic's origins

More HERE

Ahead of Phase 5 reopening, some look to restrict governor’s power

(The Center Square) – What started as two weeks of restrictions to slow the spread lasted nearly a year-and-a-half. 

Now, with the state on Friday set to enter Phase 5 of the reopening plan he created, some want Gov. J.B. Pritzker to stop governing through disaster proclamations and executive orders.

After 18 gubernatorial COVID-19 disaster proclamations and dozens of executive orders, Illinois is about to enter a full reopening ahead of the weekend. That means for the first time in nearly a year and a half, conventions, concerts and other large group events can return to full capacity in Phase 5 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 reopening plan.

More at the Center Square 

Chinese mom chews out Loudoun County… ‘You are just like Communist Mao’…

Watch a brave parent who grew up in Mao’s China point out all of the identical traits b/n the Cultural Revolution and what LCPS, and really every school system, are doing through the use of CRT. pic.twitter.com/zH7XuyBmW6

— The Virginia Project UAC (@TVPUAC) June 9, 2021

Criminals may have stolen up to half of U.S. unemployment funds

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

Criminals may have stolen as much as half of the unemployment benefits the U.S. pumped out over the past year, Axios' Felix Salmon reports.

• Unemployment fraud during the pandemic could easily reach $400 billion, according to some estimates. The bulk of the money likely ended in the hands of foreign crime syndicates — making this not just theft, but a matter of national security.
• It is estimated that at least 70% of the money stolen by impostors ultimately left the country, much of it ending up in the hands of criminal syndicates in China, Nigeria, Russia and elsewhere, which were likely backed by their governments.
• Much of the rest of the money was stolen by street gangs domestically, who have made up a greater share of the fraudsters in recent months.

More HERE

Thorner: Part 2: Chicago election expert unravels Democrats' voting reform dream HR 1

By Nancy Thorner - 

Following are highlights from questions fielded by scientist Jay Lehr and Tom Harris to Chicago lawyer Joseph A. Morris about the "For the People Act", HR 1, during their one-hour radio program, The Other Side of the Story, on American Out Loud Talk Radio, live-streamed on Sunday, May 30, 202l.

As Joe Morris said about election law reforms:  "Whenever you hear from anyone who wants to sell a pack of election law reforms, get your guard up, because 99 times out of 100 it will favor the party in power."

“There is massive election fraud in Chicago, and it's a constantly evolving thing."

Diversity—Unless You’re Asian

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear a case concerning Harvard’s race-conscious admissions policy. Kenny Xu writes:

The Supreme Court will soon consider whether to take up the long-awaited Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case, which pits Harvard’s race-conscious admissions process against a group of Asian-American applicants who don’t fit into Harvard’s idea of “favored minorities.” The central idea behind the case is whether Harvard’s use of race to create what it sees as a “diverse” class runs afoul of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

If there is one area in which the American elite seems to be moving in lockstep, it is increasing racial diversity. Many Fortune 500 businesses now operate Diversity and Inclusion offices. Every selective college is quick to tout its “diverse student body.” These initiatives sound good in theory, but the movement for racial diversity too often comes at the expense of hiring or admitting the most qualified candidate. Increasingly, the qualified candidate who gets denied is Asian-American—member of a minority group still considered, for diversity purposes, not in need of rescuing.

Is Government Secretly Starting a UBI program?

Work contributes to a meaningful life in addition to providing access to material necessities and luxuries.

The Federal government has issued three rounds of COVID “stimulus” checks and boosted unemployment benefits, first by $600 and now $300 per month.  Is this the piecemeal start of a Universal Basic Income (UBI)?

Under a UBI (also called a basic income guarantee), the government pays all Americans every month, say $1,000.  Many would more than pay this back through taxes.

Although I am a small-government libertarian, a UBI is attractive as a replacement for all current government assistance programs.  Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute counts over 120 means-tested programs spending around $1 trillion, or over $20,000 for every American below the poverty line.  The assistance our current system delivers costs a lot.

More HERE

Racism 'Expert' Laughed at When Defining Racism

By Ben Shapiro - 

A clip of America’s most prominent racial grifter, Ibram X. Kendi, began making the rounds on Twitter. Kendi, the author of “How to Be an Antiracist,” has undoubtedly made a fortune by indicting those who disagree with him as complicit in American racism — and by providing partial absolution to those who repeat his cultish ideas. In one particular clip from a recent interview, however, Kendi was asked to do one very simple thing: to define racism itself. Kendi failed signally in that task. “I would define it as a collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity that are substantiated by racist ideas,” Kendi stated.

The audience laughed out loud.

Kendi then reiterated his definition and added: “And antiracism is pretty simple using the same terms. Antiracism is a collection of antiracist policies leading to racial … equity that are substantiated by antiracist ideas.”

This, of course, is utterly nonsensical. No term can be defined by simple reference to the term itself. If someone asked you to define an elephant and you quickly explained that an elephant is, in fact, an animal known as an elephant, you would be adding no new information. If someone asked you to describe anger and you then defined anger as the feeling of being angry, you would leave the listener in serious doubt as to your sanity.

More HERE

Thorner: Part 1: H.R. 1, A Betrayal of American Democracy

By Nancy Thorner -

From both sides of the political aisle, all Americans should be alarmed by the bill that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

Now Democrats are renewing their push to ram Bill H.R.1 – For the People Act of 2021 -- through the Senate.

If H.R. 1 becomes law, which is not really for the American people at all, America will never be the same and the game will be permanently rigged in favor of the Democrats.  H.R. 1 would put Democrats in charge of our elections and would give liberals permanent and TOTAL power. 

On Sunday, May 30, Dr. Jay Lehr and Tom Harris were joined by their guest Joseph A. Morris in this week’s episode of The Other Side of the Story to learn what is really going on with H.R. 1.  The program's title:  H.R.1 – A Betrayal of American Democracy.  Check here for the podcast of the event on America Out Loud Talk Radio.

McGlasson: Why I am resigning from the IL GOP State Central Committee

A 2015 photo of better times w John McGlasson (far left) with Cong Adam Kinzinger (center)

ROCKFORD - Earlier this week, IL GOP State Central Committeeman John McGlasson (16th) sent the following resignation letter to Illinois Republican Chairman Don Tracy and his fellow Committee members: 

Dear Chairman Tracy and my fellow members of the Republican State Central Committee:

After my election as Livingston County Chairman in 2010, I attended my first meeting of the County Chairman’s Association. It was a great meeting which filled me with enthusiasm. It fired me up to attend my first meeting of the State Central Committee; dashing across the hall, it came as a great disappointment to hear that the meeting was closed and I was not allowed.

I vowed at that moment to earn a seat on the committee and try to open it up to rank and file party members like myself. After achieving that goal in 2012, it was wonderful that four other new committee members were elected with many of the same goals. Stan Bond, Fred Floreth, Blair Garber and Pastor Michael Neubert, and I joined two other members to change the committee.