Illinois Review

New Jersey's expanded "Millionaire Tax" sets downhill path for Illinois to follow

NEW JERSEY - New Jersey Democrat lawmakers came to a deal with their governor last night - agreeing to raise state income tax rate for those making $1 million a year and more to 10.75%. Calling it the "Millionaire's Tax," New Jersey lawmakers say because of the budget deficit aggravated by dramatic dips in revenue attributed to COVID pandemic, there's a serious need for more taxpayers to carry the load. 

"The new income tax — part of a $32.4 billion spending plan that [New Jersey] lawmakers are set to approve by the end of the month — will increase the number of people who pay the state’s top marginal rate of 10.75% by extending it to those who earn between $1 million and $5 million a year," the New York Post writes. 

Those New Jersey taxpayers making $5 million and more now pay 8.97%, while anyone earning more than $5 million already pays the higher rate.

Thorner/O'Neil: Concerns of Patriots as November 3rd Nears

By Nancy Thorner & Bonnie O'Neil -

The attempted murder of two young Los Angeles police officers, shot at close range while sitting in their police car, is shocking and unacceptable in this nation. The incident reminded patriots of how specific people in leadership positions, aided by Leftist media sources, can stir up negative thoughts about our police officers and elected officials, even our President. Such public comments provide fodder for not only our foreign enemies to use against our nation, but also for others within our nation with serious mental problems that could result in “copycat” crimes.

It is therefore imperative that American patriots throughout our nation speak out against those who unfairly criticize police officers and others in positions of authority. What happened in L.A. is not an isolated example. Both police officers were very fortunate to have survived their murder attempts, but it was an eye-opener as to the threat which seems prevalent today against the very men and women who have chosen a career that protects others from harm.

Where’s Weyermuller? Catching up with Illinois Congressman Darin LaHood

By Mark Weyermuller - 

Illinois Congressman  Darin LaHood (R-Il 18th district) was in Chicago yesterday for an event. He is leading the efforts in Illinois to get President Donald Trump re-elected. 

Two days ago he met with the President in Washington D.C. This from his Facebook page: 

Had an excellent meeting with President Donald J. Trump tonight. Proud to be working with him to get our economy safely reopened, promote agribusiness in the #IL18, and make the American Dream accessible to all Americans. Let’s continue working hard to keep him in the White House for four more years! #MAGA

Just 45 days until Election Day on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. 

Mark Weyermuller with Congressman LaHood

Mark Weyermuller is a small business person, retired real estate professional, and conservative activist in Chicago. He is a citizen journalist, frequent guest on talk radio, and regular contributor to Illinois Review. 

Data shows COVID-19 is not as deadly as we thought

After the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an updated report regarding COVID-19 deaths in late August, which showed that only 6% of coronavirus deaths were solely due to the virus, some in the general public went ballistic. And rightfully so.

Businesses have been shut down for months. Millions have become unemployed. Schools remain closed. Depression and suicides are rising. Since mid-March, life as we know it has been flipped upside down. And all of this was because we were told that COVID-19 was a super deadly virus that must be stopped at all costs, literally.

As the data show, young and healthy people are almost at zero risk of dying from COVID-19.

Moreover, the CDC report shows that 94% of patients who died from COVID-19 also had, on average, 2.6 comorbidities.

This is not breaking news if you have actually been paying attention for the past six months.

Rev. Johnson: Thank God for single-use plastic bags

By Rev. Ben Johnson - 

Perhaps the only positive thing to come from the COVID-19 global pandemic has been the way it exposed a raft of never-needed regulations imposed by every level of government. Unfortunately, rather than repealing one such ordinance which could contribute to the spread of the coronavirus, the UK’s Conservative government has literally doubled down.

The government-mandated cost of single-use plastic bags at groceries and stores will double, from five pence each to 10, beginning next April. Environment Secretary George Eustice also announced that the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs will broaden the market intervention by removing an exemption for small businesses. This is not merely bad news for consumers; it is bad for public health.

America's shutdown still based on flawed data about Covid-19's lethality

CHICAGO NOW - Dennis Byrne writes Friday about the ongoing criticism of COVID-19 data - and how it has devastated the US economy and overall mood. He points to comments Dr. Ngozi Ezike, an internist and pediatrician serving as the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, made a few months ago when she tried to clarify the distinction between dying with or from Covid-19.

She also answered a question about how many people died from  Covid-19 who did not have another underlying condition. She said 90 percent of the deaths attributed to Covid-19 actually died with an underlying condition. The implication in the second video (below) is that only five percent of the Covid-19 deaths are due to the disease alone, and not from an underlying condition.

This shoots to hell the premise for the nation-wide shutdowns imposed by various governors and mayors. If the disease is not as fatal as advertised, how do you justify jailing people in their homes, killing millions of jobs, wrecking the education of more millions, ruining the quality of life for so many more and so forth?

To justify this bulldozing of our civil rights, martial law proponents have been trying to "clarify" Ezike's already clear definitions. Like trying to wash your car with hogwash.

More HERE.

Stress Pandemic: Tooth Fractures Skyrocket

“I’ve seen more tooth fractures in the last six weeks than in the previous six years,” Tammy Chen, DDS wrote in the NYT.

The midtown Manhattan dentist has had at least one broken tooth come in every day since she reopened in June.

Lockdowns have caused such enormous strain that teeth are cracking. That’s not catastrophic in itself, but it’s a pretty ominous indicator of the severity of the ongoing restrictions in places like New York City.

More HERE

Could O'Brien beat Kim Foxx in November? Polls show gap could be closing

CHICAGO - Does a Republican candidate have a chance to up-end George Soros-funded Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx in November? 

Looks like this year it could happen, a new poll is showing. At least it's closer than it has been in almost 20 years.

 

Cook County Republican Party Chairman Sean M. Morrison commissioned the polling firm Ogden & Fry to conduct a county-wide poll on the race for Cook County State's Attorney featuring embattled Democrat incumbent Kim Foxx versus GOP challenger Judge Pat O'Brien.

Abortion PAC starts mailer attack on pro-life Rep. Skillicorn

EAST DUNDEE - State Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-Dundee) is facing a stiff challenge from Mike Madigan-funded Suzanne Ness. His race is listed as one of the closest in the state - a chance for Madigan to expand his super majority in the Illinois House.

Skillicorn is outspoken about his pro-life, conservative views - and that has made him a target of the state's all-powerful abortion political action committee Personal PAC. 

They make the shrinking number of pro-life lawmakers in the Illinois General Assembly's lives miserable during campaigns. Like the following mailers are hitting mailboxes in Skillicorn's district:

"On every vote, every time," the flyer says, Rep. Skillicorn opposes women making decisions for themselves.

Indeed, he opposes unborn babies being slaughtered and expectant mothers being deeply injured psychologically and physically when he votes against Personal PAC's agenda - making Illinois the most pro-abortion state in the Midwest.

Skillicorn responded to the mailer, asking, "Please tell me what is more extreme: 1) Believing that all lives matter and that human beings have inherent GOD-given rights or 2) Funding abortions until the day of birth with taxpayer money?"

"That’s the choice in this race," Skillicorn told Illinois Review Thursday. "I am 100% Pro Life. A pre-born child is a human being. That child has unique DNA and fingerprints. That child is a individual."

"My opponent Suzanne Ness wants to paint me into a box but fails to mention that she supports taxpayer funded abortions. She also supports abortions for viable children, up to the day of birth," he said.

"It’s that simple. Vote Skillicorn!" 

Byrne: Preckwinkle & Co "politically poison" non-compliant Cook Co judge

CHICAGO - Long-respected commentator Dennis Byrne has agreed for Illinois Review to showcase parts of his valuable insight to our readers, and we're delighted. Byrne rates among the most knowledgeable writers on the history and inside of Illinois politics.

Byrnes is writing these days as proprietor of "The Barbershop," where he rarely holds back punches about the good and the bad of Illinois politics. 

Yesterday, for instance, he wrote in "Illinois and Cook County still ain't ready for reform. Neither is Chicago," these scathing words about how nasty and vindictive the Democrats' Chicago Machine can be:  

Preckwinkle and Evans engineered  a Kremlin-like political poisoning of  Cook County Judge Michael Toomin because he ordered a special prosecutor to investigate State's Attorney Kim Foxx’s handing Jesse Smollet a get-out-of-jail free card. Preckwinkle led the move to not endorse Toomin for retention in the coming election even though, as John Kass noted, the judge is 'a well-respected, veteran judge.'

...

They now have embraced the same autocratic methods of Richard J. Daley and the demonic Democratic machine, punishing those who are 'disloyal' and who put the public interest ahead of party subservience.

Which leads to Mike Madigan and his most commonly used ploys to maintain his unrelenting grip on Illinois. 

Read about it HERE. 

New questions raised concerning COVID-19 reporting, Gov. Pritzker

Sun-Times photo

CHICAGO - Something is up with the information Governor Pritzker's administration is giving out on a daily basis about the state's COVID status. In a piece posed today on Wirepoints.org, they ask, "Illinois COVID-19 cases triple since June, but hospitalizations, deaths remain flat. What gives?"

The number of COVID cases have tripled in Illinois since their lows on June 18, yet the average daily death rate has actually fallen from 50 then, to about 19 today. 

Wirepoints poses these questions to be answered by Governor Pritzker:

• Are cases way up and hospitalizations flat because it’s young, healthier people that make up most of the new cases?
• Is it because there are many more asymptomatic cases?
• Is it because newer cases are coupled with fewer pre-existing conditions?
• Is it because the virus has already spread through Illinois’ most-vulnerable populations?
• Is it because Illinois is finally protecting retirement home residents better?

Read more at Wirepoints.org

There's no guarantee those making over $250k will be the only ones facing higher taxes

CHICAGO - Illinoisans are being bombarded with "Fair Tax" ads on TV and the internet - thanks to Governor Pritzker's $55 million check to pay for them.

So, what's the story on the "Fair Tax" and changing the Illinois constitution to allow the Democrat-controlled General Assembly to determine the state income tax schedule?

We looked to the dependable and wise financial brains at Wirepoints.org for their opinion on the issue. Here's what we found:

King supports, Bustos opposes, EPA's ethanol blending requirements to aid Illinois farmers

EAST MOLINE -- Esther Joy King, Republican candidate for the Illinois 17th Congressional District, said U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos' criticism of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's plan to deny oil refineries' request to not follow ethanol blending requirements will hurt Illinois farmers.

"Cheri's swipe at the EPA and the Trump Administration for standing with ethanol producers is a slap in the face to farmers and rural America.," King said. "She’s making this political, and it’s not about politics. This is supporting hard-working communities in the 17th Congressional District."

King said Bustos' stance is harmful to the industry and farmers in western Illinois who have been struggling with the impacts of trade barriers and the pandemic.

The Renewable Fuels Association says the EPA’s announcement to reject the waivers and to keep corn-based fuels available longer at the pump are a godsend.

King, who faces Bustos in the Illinois 17th Congressional District in the Nov. 3 General Election, said she supports the move to back ethanol.

Only Black Republican Senate candidate in Illinois faces challenges getting help, says volunteer

(l to r) Dr. Eric Wallace, Devin Jones and Wallace's cousin Tory

CHICAGO – Dr. Eric Wallace is the only black Republican on the Illinois ballot this November running for the Illinois Senate in Chicago’s southern-most suburbs, a district that not only takes in part of Cook County, but sections of Kankakee, Will and Grundy counties.

But one of his most passionate and faithful volunteers outside of Wallace’s wife Jennifer and his cousin Tory is Devin Jones - Chicago’s 18th Ward Republican Committeeman and area rep for Mark Curran for US Senate. He drives miles every week to help Wallace win in November.

The 34-year-old, who does research for a private equity firm and teaches Catholic Bible studies on the side says he has two reasons why he’s going out of his way to help Dr. Wallace.

Bost releases first 2020 political ad

O'FALLON - Congressman Mike Bost released a political ad Wednesday, reviewing the year 2020:

“China unleashed this pandemic that knocked us off our stride.

We fought back with expanded testing and protective equipment for healthcare workers to strengthen our communities.

But we didn’t stop there.

We provided emergency support to small business and unemployment relief to our working families.

That’s our American spirit, that’s what we do: we come together and we fight on.

I’m Mike Bost and I approve this message because I’ll always protect Southern Illinois.”

More IL Republicans line up to bolster Madigan's power

CHICAGO - In any other state, Republican leadership - past and present - would be expected to oppose the state's one-party control. But this is Illinois. Despite Democrat Party Chairman Mike Madigan being investigated by the feds, "Republicans" are showing their true colors and lining up to keep Madigan in power of the state's judicial system, as well as Illinois' legislative and executive branches.

Last week, former IL GOP State Chairman Pat Brady made a public stand in support of Leftist Democrat Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) over 2020 Republican challenger Jeanne Ives.

This morning, Crain's Chicago Greg Hinz broke the news that once-Illinois Republican leaders Tom Cross (former IL House Minority Leader) former Chief Justices Ben Miller and Robert Thomas, former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner, former U.S. Attorneys Dan Webb and Anton Valukas endorse Democrat IL Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride's retention. 

And at the top of the list of endorsers is the late Republican Governor Jim Thompson - who reportedly bestowed support to Kilbride before his recent death. 

At the same time, the IL GOP is releasing social media memes like this: 

The fact that Kilbride is the deciding vote on "Fair Maps" and against term limits must not mean anything to the Republicans that signed onto Kilbride's re-election to the Illinois Supreme Court. 

The IL GOP is backing constitutional conservative Justice David Overstreet in southern Illinois' 5th Judicial District, pointing out that if Overstreet were to be elected, the Republicans would control the Illinois Supreme Court. 

More to come on this ... 

 

Di Leo: The Mideast Peace Process, Forty Years Later

By John F. Di Leo - 

In September of 1978, following two weeks of secret negotiations at Camp David, Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat signed a preliminary peace treaty. These Camp David Accords proved to be the high water mark of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, his only foreign policy achievement. 

They couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. This unexpected peace between Israel and Egypt burnished the Democratic Party’s peacenik credentials after Lyndon Johnson’s long mismanagement of the Vietnam conflict.  President Carter wore this as a badge of honor, and made the most of it for the remainder of his presidency. 

The Camp David Accords hit the press just six weeks before the 1978 midterms, and dominated the foreign policy news for much of the remainder of Carter’s term in office. Even as the jihadist revolution in Iran that began in 1978, and then the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan at the end of 1979, together jeopardized the world scene in the latter half of his presidency, Jimmy Carter could continue to campaign as a peacemaker, thanks to the favorable coverage he continued to get for this one piece of deal-making. 

Thorner: Western Forest Fires Hijacked to Promote Global Warming

By Nancy Thorner - 

As of Sept. 13, 2020, fires have been raging in Oregon, California and Washington for three weeks, burning millions of acres of land and destroying thousands of homes. 

Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. According to officials, the fires have now scorched an area of land the size of New Jersey.

In Oregon, where firefighters are battling 16 large blazes, 40,000 people are under mandatory evacuation orders. Oregon's Office of Emergency Management (OEM) says the fires have killed 10 people, but officials warn the final death toll could be much higher.

In Washington state, firefighters are tackling 15 large fires. A one-year-old boy died as his family tried to escape a blaze.  His parents remain in critical condition.

As for CA, Governor Gavin Newsom told reporters on Friday, September 11th when inspecting damage from a fire near Oroville in Northern CA:  “This is a climate damn emergency. This is real and it's happening.”

‘BLM’ Organizations Say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ but They Mean ‘Be Like Marx’

The Movement for Black Lives and Black Lives Matter, colloquially known as “BLM,” are Marxist organizations whose views are in fundamental opposition to the values that America was founded upon. (And no, I’m not talking about racism. I’m talking about individual liberty, free markets, and the Constitution.) How do I know this? Because I went through the unprecedented, incredibly difficult task of going to their websites and reading their platforms.

Among the many Marxist demands these BLM organizations are making include:

• “Real, meaningful, and equitable universal health care”
• “A constitutional right at the state and federal level to a fully-funded education”
• “A progressive restructuring of tax codes at the local state, and federal levels, to ensure a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth”
• “Reparations … in the form of a guaranteed minimum livable income”
• “Reparations … in the form of corporate and government reparations … and ensuring our access and control of food sources, housing and land”
• “Reparations … in the form of mandated public school curriculums that critically examine the political, economic, and social impacts of colonialism and slavery, and … the recognition and honoring of our collective struggles and triumphs”
• “Federal and state job programs that specifically target the most economically marginalized”
• “democratic control over how resources are preserved, used and distributed”

Many of these items are, of course, unquestionably Marxist and/or socialistic. Others are extremely progressive. Most are right in line with what the far left–regardless of race–has been demanding for many decades.

Not convinced yet? Consider a few statements from the founders of BLM (again, the organization, not the slogan).

More HERE

These 10 Examples of Defensive Gun Use Underscore Second Amendment’s True Purpose

Here are examples of why the right to bear arms is so essential. Amy Swearer writes:

Every day, untold numbers of Americans rely on their Second Amendment rights to protect their lives and livelihoods.

According to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost every major study on the issue has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times a year. There’s good reason to believe that most of these defensive gun uses aren’t reported to police, much less make the local or national news.

For this reason, The Daily Signal each month publishes an article highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read accounts from 2019 and so far in 2020 here.)