Illinois Review

Thorner: Light at End of Tunnel as Election Irregularities Continue

Op-ed by Nancy Thorner - 

Illegal election law changes have gone on everywhere, like this example in Georgia where “Republican” Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, has been caught using Dominion’s Eric Coomer as a witness for the state to defend last minute computer changes. As said by David Cross, an attorney for the plaintiffs:  "Software upgrade is being made without adequate security testing or certification from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. 

Instead of whining about Trump “dumping” him in an editorial, Raffensberger and the Georgia media should have been talking about the allegedbig lie (“water main break”) behind the naked fraud in Fulton County, Georgia,where unsupervised election voters were allegedly caught on video as they messed with voting machines after a pipe supposedly burst in the room with the ballots.

Once again Trump, as the "New Hitler", is correct in telling truth that the mainstream media is trying to suppress. President Trump called Raffensperger an "enemy of the people" when announcing his planned December 5th Georgia rally visit.

Rossi: America Was Built On Freedom, Not Slavery

By Randy Rossi - 

For those of us that have been taught real history back when it was honestly taught in school, it is absolutely horrific to listen to liberals tell our kids that America was built on slavery, not freedom and that America is systematically racist. That is simply absurd and provably wrong. Let’s start with the most obvious proof that liberal claim is untrue. First, every nation on Earth has had slavery at one time or another including those nations in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. America was one of the first nations in the world to make slavery illegal. Did everybody forget that 650,000 Americans died in the Civil War to end slavery in America in 1865 when America was just 82 years old (The American Revolution was won in 1783)? The Republican led Union Army fought the Democrat led Confederate Army to free the slaves and they won. And the Republicans successfully passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments by 1870 to end slavery, make African-Americans citizens, and gave them the right to vote when our country was just 87 years old. Many nations in the world practiced slavery for hundreds if not thousands of years. Mauritania in Africa did not make slavery illegal and a crime until 2007!!!

Beckman: The Credibility Gap

By Hank Beckman - 

There was a saying that became popular in the early days of the Vietnam War. Politicians who were repeatedly wrong-or caught lying about a body count or the prospects for winning the conflict-were said to be suffering from a “credibility gap.”

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary even gave the phrase its own entry:

Credibility gap, n (1966)  1 a : a lack of trust <a credibility gap between generations> b : lack of believability <a credibility gap created by contradictory official statements>  2 a : DISCREPANCY <the credibility gap between the professed ideals...and their actual practices>

My edition, the tenth, is from 2000, so an excellent update to this entry would be a picture of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

At almost the same time that he was calling for restrictive COVID-19 guidelines for nearly all of the Golden State’s 40 million citizens, he had no qualms about attending a lobbyist friend’s 50th birthday party in an upscale Napa Valley French restaurant.

Johns Hopkins Univ. Runs Study Saying COVID 'Relatively No Effect on Deaths' in U.S., Then Deleted It

Dr. Deborah Birx, Trump COVID advisor

Late last week, Johns Hopkins University Newsletter ran a study from Genevieve Briand, assistant program director of the Applied Economics master’s degree program at Hopkins, that looked at the effect of COVID-19 on U.S. deaths according to data from the CDC.

What the study concluded, and the article said, was something quite profound. The study concluded that the virus had “relatively no effect on deaths in the United States.” However, the university took down the story saying it may lead to "misinformation" about the virus' effects. 

A .pdf file of the original article is available on the John Hopkins' student newsletter site HERE.

The study and its removal raised questions from all serious observers. How could the study's findings be? How do they match with the facts of over 200,000 people listed as dying from the virus?

More from Red State HERE

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2020

For the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith

 

The Mayflower Compact was important because it was the first document to establish self-government in the New World. It remained active until 1691 when Plymouth Colony became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The Mayflower Compact was an early, successful attempt at democracy and undoubtedly played a role in future colonists seeking permanent independence from British rule and shaping the nation that eventually became the United States of America.

There were arguments among the 102 Mayflower passengers as to whether the compact should be rewritten when they landed on Plymouth Rock rather than the northern part of Virginia as originally planned. It was somewhat amended as to locations noted, but the point remained: They - from Great Britain, France and Ireland - started their journey "for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith ..." 

It was over a year later - in 1621 - that the Pilgrims and native Americans together celebrated the First Thanksgiving.

The full text of the Mayflower Compact is as follows:

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.:

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith, and the honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another; covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.

Per the History Channel 

Illinois GOP Leaders demand Trump concede; others say "too soon"

SPRINGFIELD - Key IL GOP leaders have been vocal for days and weeks about the 2020 presidential election, demanding President Trump concede. Others are saying it's too soon, that the process needs to play itself out. 

RNC National Committeewoman Demetra DeMonte told Illinois Review this week that calls for Trump to concede from fellow Republicans are premature. 

"We gave Al Gore 37 days to work through the process in 2000," DeMonte said. "That's the least we can do for President Trump." 

Illinois GOP House leader Jim Durkin told the Chicago Sun Times last Thursday that Trump should concede minutes after State Rep. Grant Wehli (R-Naperville) publicly called for Trump to give up on his re-election bid.

"It's very simple," Durkin, who was also a leading 2016 John Kasich supporter, said with a smirk. "The election is over. Begin the transition process... I hope the president understands there's no avenue for him to overturn the results..." 

Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-16) is getting stronger and stronger with his demands that the Republican Party stop encouraging President Trump to fight the 2020 election results and instead force him to concede. Kinzinger, who was weakly challenged for another term, continues to line up with the anti-Trump faction of the party - both at the national and the state levels.

Two days ago, Kinzinger tweeted: 

Now would be a great time to denounce this, @gop how embarrassing. Our party needs to be better than giving credence to these insane conspiracy theories. https://t.co/urkllgQKJi

— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) November 23, 2020

In addition, retiring Congressman John Shimkus (R-15) has congratulated Joe Biden on being elected president in 2020. 

After Danish Mask Study, What's Next?

Now that we have a randomized controlled trial (RCT) about masks, will it change what you do?

After being rejected by three major journals, an RCT completed by 4,862 participants has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The volunteers were adults spending more than 3 hours per day outside the home without occupational mask use. All were instructed to follow social-distancing and other public health measures, and those in the mask group were instructed to wear a mask when outside the home during the next month.

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 within one month occurred in 42 participants who were recommended to wear masks (1.8%) and 53 control participants (2.1%). The difference of 0.3% was not statistically significant (p = 0.38). Ordinarily, this would be described as a negative study.

“This should put an end to any Governor claiming that mask mandates are backed by science and data, but it won’t,” writes Kevin Roche of Roche Consulting.

“It should not be used as evidence to not wear a mask,” writes Leah Rosenbaum in Forbes.

More HERE

Di Leo: Harvesting the Cemetery Vote

By John F. Di Leo - 

In September, October, and November, the dead voted. 

This is stated as fact, by reporters and politicians, by attorneys and prosecutors.  But it makes no sense.  Zombies and vampires are fictional, the dead can’t really vote.  So what does it mean when people say they did? 

Well, sometimes, there’s a simple explanation:  through the use of such tools as traditional absentee ballots and the recent explosion of mail-in voting and “early voting,” it’s possible for a person to vote legally in September or October and die on or before election day. 

This does happen occasionally, but it’s a miniscule percentage of the “dead vote” that we’re talking about here. 

Thorner: Biden - the Political Magician

By Nancy Thorner - 

As for this scam election, truth is being revealed about the Scamdemica.  A former Pfizer chief science officer says second wave faked false positive. 

Despite the frantic attempts to suppress holiday gatherings with lockdowns, the truth about all the scams will get out over the holidays. There has never been a better year to illustrate how those who have been labeled as “conspiracy nuts” have been right all along.

The Child-Neglect Pandemic

Reports of child abuse are skyrocketing. Naomi Schaefer Riley writes:

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced that, once again, the nation’s largest public school system would close, in response to spiking Covid-19 infections—throwing hundreds of thousands of children back into remote-learning environments. The human cost of school closures on children cannot be overstated. According to a new report from JAMA Network Open, the American Medical Association’s monthly open-access medical journal, “a total of 24.2 million children aged 5 to 11 attended public schools that were closed during the pandemic, losing a median of 54 days of instruction.” The report also declares that “missed instruction during 2020 could be associated with an estimated 5.53 million years of life lost. This loss in life expectancy was likely to be greater than would have been observed if leaving primary schools open had led to an expansion of the first wave of the pandemic.”

Harvard Researchers: Nearly Half of Young Adults Showing Signs of Depression Amid Pandemic

Mounting evidence shows that pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions have inflicted much more harm on younger people than the coronavirus itself. A new report reveals that nearly half of 18 to 24 year-olds are “showing at least moderate depressive symptoms," and for many the depression is severe.

Researchers at Harvard, Northeastern, Rutgers, and Northwestern universities conducted eight large survey rounds across all US states from April through October, finding that young adults are increasingly having suicidal thoughts. In the US adult population as a whole, the incidence of suicidal ideation typically hovers around 3.4 percent. But this new study reveals that in October, 36.9 percent of young adults had suicidal thoughts, compared to 32.2 percent in May in the wake of the first round of government lockdowns.

These new figures reinforce similarly dismal data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in August. The CDC found that one-quarter of young people ages 18-24 contemplated suicide in the previous month, in large part due to the pandemic and lockdowns.

More HERE

Workers vs. Wokeness: Recognizing Campus Social Justice as a Luxury Good

How Social justice became a luxury good for the elite. Jonathan Kay writes:

The University of Michigan alone has nearly 100 full-time diversity-related administrative workers, more than a quarter of whom earned in excess of $100,000 in 2018. And at nearby Michigan State University, the newly appointed diversity director will earn a $315,000 salary. These people aren’t getting hired to tell students to toughen up and hit the books. Just the opposite: Their livelihoods depend on upholding the idea that navigating campus life is a difficult struggle, punctuated frequently by invisible forms of bigotry whose negative effects can be managed only through the intervention of a professionalized corps of trained diversity officers.

Cancel Culture Forces Companies to Embrace Woke Capitalism

Many corporations are being pushed into wokeness. Tanner Aliff writes:

Cancel culture is a black hole that is swallowing corporate America. The zeitgeist of social awareness and virtue signaling has spread far beyond the realm of adolescent Instagram posts to the point where corporate titans now have joined in the effort to push woke capitalism.

Don’t be fooled. Principles are hardly the reason companies are altering their marketing faces to appeal to progressive America.

How America’s Cities Became Bastions of Progressive Politics

There is clearly a political and cultural schism today between America’s urban voters and rural voters. But what political forces are exploiting and exacerbating this schism?

In America’s cities, where the union agenda that controls public education trains Americans to be hyper-sensitive to any alleged infringements on their “identity,” big government is presented as the guardian of their futures and their freedoms. In America’s cities, where poor education combined with overregulation has resulted in a paucity of good jobs, welfare and entitlement programs are presented as the government’s answer. And the more poverty and social instability we have in America, the bigger government gets. When society loses, government unions win.

More HERE

Sen. Whitehouse Threatens to Prosecute Climate Realists If Dems Take Senate

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) threatened climate realists with criminal prosecution in an interview with E&E News, published yesterday. Whitehouse said Democrats gaining control of the U.S. Senate would be key to launching investigations, hauling climate realists in front of Senate show trials, “or even potentially in grand juries.”

E&E News reported Whitehouse is “keen on investigating the fossil fuel industry and what he sees as a massive conspiracy of dark money hindering action on climate change.”

More HERE

Thorner: Trump’s Lawyers Under Gun to Produce

By Nancy Thorner - 

“According to a Rasmussen poll conducted November 17-18:  75 percent of Republicans believe it is very likely (61 percent) or somewhat likely (14 percent) that the election was stolen from Trump. But, according to the poll, while 69 percent of Democrats say it is not at all likely (61 percent) or not very likely (8 percent) that the election was stolen from Trump, 30 percent of Democrats believe it is very likely (20 percent) or somewhat likely (10 percent) that it was.”

These numbers should continue to climb as the truth finally gets through the censorship.  But will it come in time for “Republicans” in both the state legislature and the courts to do the right thing and “stop the steal”?

Effective November 20, 2020, ordered pursuant to Title 28, United States Code, Section 42, Circuit Courts have been reassigned.  Look who is now in charge of MI, WI, PA, and GA:  MI – Brett M. Kavanaugh; WI – Amy Coney Barrett; PA – Samuel A. Alito; GA – Clarence Thomas.”  This reassignment does represents a slight positive for court cases for Trump, especially with time starting to run out before the Electoral College is supposed to be chosen.

The Last Children of Down Syndrome

Encouraged by government and the medical community, prenatal testing is changing who gets born and who doesn’t. This is just the beginning.

Every few weeks or so, Grete Fält-Hansen gets a call from a stranger asking a question for the first time: What is it like to raise a child with Down syndrome?

Sometimes the caller is a pregnant woman, deciding whether to have an abortion. Sometimes a husband and wife are on the line, the two of them in agonizing disagreement. Once, Fält-Hansen remembers, it was a couple who had waited for their prenatal screening to come back normal before announcing the pregnancy to friends and family. “We wanted to wait,” they’d told their loved ones, “because if it had Down syndrome, we would have had an abortion.” They called Fält-Hansen after their daughter was born—with slanted eyes, a flattened nose, and, most unmistakable, the extra copy of chromosome 21 that defines Down syndrome. They were afraid their friends and family would now think they didn’t love their daughter.

More HERE

Sunde: Biden’s minimum wage proposal would prolong pandemic pain

By Joseph Sunde - 

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, America’s planning class has relied on a predictable mix of so-called stimulusand monetarist tricks to curb the pain of economic disruption. Such heavy-handed interventionism has long been misguided, but for many, the government’s efforts have not gone far enough.

Last spring, California Gov. Gavin Newsom talked of exploiting the pandemic as a way to “reshape how we do business and how we govern,” leading us into a “new progressive era.” Others, like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have gotten more specific with their proposals, trying to connect the particular problems of the pandemic with generic lists of progressive policy aims, from universal healthcare to “free” college and housing.

AARP is a Sales Front for Health Insurance, Report States

A new report shows that AARP is a marketing operation designed to sell high-priced Medigap plans to seniors, rather than an advocacy organization representing the interests of retired people.

The August 2020 report, “How AARP Puts Profits over Patients – and Principles,” by Chris Jacobs of analytics firm, Juniper Research Group shows in 2018 alone, AARP’s net income totaled $246,463,998, of which 13.4 percent went into AARP’s pocket as net margin. AARP, formally known as the American Association of Retired Persons, has racked up $1.4 billion in profits since 2009, which is remarkable performance for any organization, claims the report.

“For instance, of seven major health insurers listed in the Fortune 500, none had a 2018 profit margin exceeding 5.42 percent,” the report states.

More HERE

Politics Breeds Fear and Anger

The recent presidential election confirms and reinforces what many political observers and common citizens have increasingly known and noted: Americans are seriously divided over the problems they see facing society, and the means and methods to solve or reduce their impact on all of us. 

This division of views is, of course, partly shown in the number of votes cast for the two major political party candidates in the 2020 presidential election. With the final tally still not completed, over 75.2 million Americans voted for Democratic Party candidate, Joe Biden, and more than 70.8 million voters cast their ballot for the incumbent Republican president, Donald Trump. While the votes separating them number at least 4.4 million, that represents barely a 3 percent difference between them from a total of more than 146 million votes, combined, that they received. 

Another way of saying this is that nearly 48 percent of these voters supported the losing candidate. Hardly a landslide or an unequivocal mandate, especially considering that an additional over 1.6 million votes were cast for a third-party presidential candidate, Jo Jorgensen, representing the Libertarian Party. This means Biden’s margin of “victory” is less than 51 percent (at the time of this writing).

More HERE

Carlson: Four things social conservatism must do to survive

In order for the social conservative movement to survive, and ultimately thrive, there are four things it must do, says Allan Carlson, the John A. Howard Distinguished Fellow for Family and Religious Studies at the International Organization for the Family, based in Rockford, Illinois. 

In the iFamNews.com Friday, he asks, "Whither Social Conservatism?" and proposes four things the American social conservative movement must do:

Illinois business, health groups mount campaign to keep people home on Thanksgiving

CHICAGO - Illinois is facing a spike in COVID infections and hospitalizations, prompting a public relations effort to keep people home and away from contact with non-household family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday next week. The Illinois Manufacturers Association, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, the Illinois State Medical Society and the Illinois Health and Hospital Association sent out a poster rating levels of behavior as "safe," "less safe" and "unsafe." 

The point to the Center for Disease Control's recommendations as their guidelines: 

"The safest option is to avoid travel, which increases risk of exposure, and limiting gatherings to one household," the group said in a press release Friday. "If gatherings will include people from more than one household, it is advised to limit the length of time spent together, and to keep festivities outside instead of indoors, which pose more risk. Attendees from different households should stay at least six feet apart, wear masks, wash hands and follow all other local health guidelines. The CDC advises that alcohol consumption may alter judgement and make it more difficult to adhere by proper safety measures."

In other words, stay home on Thanksgiving 2020. 

Wisconsin recount starts today

MADISON, WI - Official recount procedures begin in Wisconsin Friday, following a petition from President Donald J. Trump’s campaign. Jim Troupis, Wisconsin counsel to the campaign says changing the rules at the last minute and ignoring the election law has created unreliable results in the state's election.

On behalf of the campaign, Troupis released the following statement:

Our democracy depends on fair and impartial elections that fully adhere to the Constitution and state statute. By staging a last minute attempt to change the rules, and by providing unlawful advice before then, the Wisconsin Elections Commission has repeatedly failed to follow the law. They have disenfranchised voters and undermined the integrity of this election. We continue to be confident that when all of the legal ballots are counted and illegal ballots are not counted, President Trump will be proven the winner.

Biden currently leads President Trump with a little more than 20,600 votes.

From the AP, the results they will begin recounting in certain counties: 

Thorner: Patriots Must Stand With President Trump

By Nancy Thorner - 

 

The news media has already announced and anointed Joe Biden as the 46th President. This does not mean he has won. Votes need to be certified by the states. Elections are certified once every vote is counted and all outstanding legal issues are sorted.  And there are MANY outstanding legal issues in this election!

 

There is a deadline for certifying the results of the election, and it varies by state. Most states must be done by the end of November, but temporary restraining orders (TRO's) and injunctions can be issued by judges to override deadlines when there are issues of fact in legal claims and evidence supporting extending the election certification deadlines.

 

As Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told NTD News on November 17, 2020:  

 

“The president-elect doesn’t get named as president elect until at least he has 270 state certifications of electors, or his opponent concedes. Neither of that has happened as of now.”

 

Dershowitz added: “I think that he is entitled to describe himself as the president-elect. At the moment he’s won 305 or so electoral votes and President Trump is entitled to dispute that. That’s freedom of speech. That’s politics. Neither is entitled as a matter of law or constitutionality to say that they are the president-elect.”

Gary, Indiana: A Sanctuary City No More

On November 16, in a major victory against sanctuary policies, Indiana’s Lake Superior Court struck down an ordinance that the City of Gary, Indiana, had enacted to protect illegal aliens, even ones with criminal records, from federal immigration law enforcement. The decision is a complete victory for the plaintiffs, who are represented by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) and The Bopp Law Firm.

Lawyers at IRLI and Bopp had argued, and the court yesterday found, that the ordinance violates several Indiana statutes prohibiting governmental bodies in the state from refusing to cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement. The statutes, which IRLI had helped draft, require local jurisdictions to cooperate with such enforcement to the full extent contemplated in federal law.

The End of Women's Sports

Selina Soule was one of the top five female high school sprinters in Connecticut... until competing against biological boys changed the game. Now, women aren’t just losing their races — they’re losing their chances to compete at all. Why is this happening? And what should we do about it?

Will Trump ride off into the sunset?

By Victor Davis Hanson - 

I once wrote that whenever Donald Trump exits office, he will likely leave as a “tragic hero.” Over two millenniums ago, the Athenian tragedian Sophocles first described the archetype in his portraits of an angry and old but still fearsome Ajax, and heroic but stubborn and self-fixated Antigone.

In the iconic John Ford Western “The Searchers” and in a host of other films from “Shane” to “High Noon,” we have seen stories of these sorts.

The legalistic but impotent town council, the idealistic but outgunned sodbusters or the incompetent posse in desperation turns to unconventional deliverance. They suddenly need a John Wayne as a scary Ethan Edwards, or a mysterious gunslinger like Shane.

But to call in such Manichaean outsiders is to admit that the status quo of a sober establishment has failed.

Three GOP Lawmakers renew call, "Madigan must go"

PLAINFIELD--The US Attorney’s Office has announced charges against four of House Speaker Mike Madigan’s allies, naming lobbyist Michael McClain, ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, and former City Club President Jay Doherty in a 50-page indictment released late last night.

In response to these federal bribery charges, State Representative Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield)—who was the first sitting lawmaker to call for Madigan’s resignation last December—released the following statement:

Back in 2016, a politically-connected coalition of energy industry players rushed a complicated bill to force electric rate increases throughout Illinois. I was staunchly opposed to this bill, for not due to the enormous scale, but because of the process in which it was passed.

That ComEd bailout bill has remained a key part of this ongoing federal investigation, which today seemingly yielded proof of a complex bribery scheme benefitting Mike Madigan. Over his nearly 50-year reign, Madigan has fed and fostered this culture of corruption; ComEd is just one example.

Mike Madigan’s absolute power in the Illinois House has not benefited our state, but rather hurt our hardworking taxpayers. It is his refusal to allow comprehensive ethics reform or answer to the Special Investigating Committee that makes it clear that Illinoisans deserve better.

I was the first sitting lawmaker to call for Mike Madigan to resign, but after today’s news I will say it again: Mike Madigan must go.

State Representative Tom Weber (R-Lake Villa) joined Batinick's position.

"It has been obvious for months now that Mike Madigan is at the heart of the corruption scandal involving ComEd. The latest indictments of four allies linked directly to him make it clear beyond any doubt about his involvement,” said Weber. “Since Madigan still refuses to step down, even though the number of House Democrats who have said they will not support him for another term as Speaker has now grown to fifteen, the Special Investigating Committee must be reconvened to take action. The only way to restore any slight notion of trust in Illinois government is for Mike Madigan to go."

State Representative Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) agreed.

It is clear that if we are ever going to restore the people’s trust in state government, we must have new leadership in Springfield. The people of Illinois deserve better. The culture of corruption has weakened our statehouse. Whether this is more proof of Mike Madigan’s involvement or not, he has led the House and State Government for years – thus, allowing such a culture to exist.

We need change. I am calling on my colleagues from across the aisle to join the House Republicans in our demand for Speaker Madigan’s resignation.

More to come ... 

US Attorney charges conspiracy to "corruptly influence, reward high-level Illinois elected official"

The US Attorney of Northern District of Illinois issued the following statement Wednesday afternoon: 

Former Commonwealth Edison executives, including the former Chief Executive Officer, conspired with outside consultants to corruptly influence and reward a high-level elected official for the State of Illinois to assist with the passage of legislation favorable to the electric utility company, according to an indictment returned today in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The indictment charges four individuals with bribery conspiracy, bribery, and willfully falsifying ComEd books and records:

· MICHAEL McCLAIN, 73, of Quincy, Ill. McClain worked as a lobbyist and/or consultant for ComEd after serving in the Illinois House of Representatives in the 1970s and early 1980s.

· ANNE PRAMAGGIORE, 62, of Barrington, Ill. Pramaggiore was CEO of ComEd from 2012 to 2018, and later served as a senior executive at an affiliate of Exelon Corp., of which ComEd was a subsidiary.

· JOHN HOOKER, 71, of Chicago, Ill. Hooker served as ComEd’s executive vice president of legislative and external affairs from 2009 to 2012, after which he worked as an external lobbyist for ComEd.

· JAY DOHERTY, 67, of Chicago, Ill. Doherty owned Jay D. Doherty & Associates, which performed consulting services for ComEd from approximately 2011 to 2019.

Arraignments in federal court in Chicago have not yet been scheduled.

15 Democrats now say they will not support Mike Madigan for Speaker in January

CHICAGO - The younger, radically-Left members of the Illinois House Democrat Caucus are one-by-one rejecting longtime House Speaker Mike Madigan as the Feds move to indict numerous political allies of the Speaker.

The number of those turning their backs on the Illinois Democrat Party Chairman and House Speaker that helped many of them obtain office reached 15 Thursday - potentially keeping the Speaker from reaching the needed 60 votes to be re-elected in January 2021. 

Those who've made public announcement they will not support the Speaker in January are as follows: 

• Jonathan Carroll - 57th District
• Sam Yingling - 62nd District
• Will Guzzardi - 39th District
• Kelly Cassidy - 14th District
• Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz - 17th District
• Terra Costa-Howard - 48th District
• Maurice West - 67th District
• Bob Morgan - 58th District
• Anne Stava-Murray - 81st District
• Stephanie Kifowit - 84th District
• Lindsey LaPointe - 19th District
• Deb Conroy - 46th District
• Robyn Gabel - 18th District
• Anna Moeller - 43rd District
• Ann Williams - 11th District 

IL Republican State Rep calls on President Trump to concede to Joe Biden

During a conference call with reporters Thursday on the topic of federal indictments on several allies of Democrat House Speaker Madigan, State Rep. Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) responded to a question asking if President Trump should concede to Joe Biden. 

Wehrli, who lost a re-election bid earlier this month, said "Absolutely..." and compared President Trump to House Speaker Mike Madigan. 

"President Trump and Speaker Madigan should both sail off into the sunset ..." 

Wehrli's full response to the question: 

Wehrli

Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address

 

By President Abraham Lincoln -

November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

(This is the official Bliss Copy of the Gettysburg Address, taken from a copy in President Lincoln's own hand, in print now for almost 160 years).

For further details, here is the entry on the Gettysburg Address from Abraham Lincoln Online.

IL House Speaker responds to federal indictments of multiple allies

CHICAGO - Wednesday, the feds issued indictments on multiple allies of House Speaker Mike Madigan, and Thursday morning, he issued the following statement in full: 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 19, 2020

Statement from Speaker Madigan
CHICAGO – House Speaker Michael J. Madigan released the following statement Thursday:

The indictment returned Wednesday does not allege any criminal misconduct on my part. I have not been accused of or charged with any wrongdoing.

After a lengthy investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged, but of course has not proven, that certain ComEd employees, consultants, and lobbyists allegedly conspired with one another in the hope of somehow influencing me in my official capacity. Let me be clear: if that attempt ever happened, it was never made known to me. If it had been known to me, it would have been profoundly unwelcome. Nothing in either this indictment or in the earlier filings by the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges otherwise. In addition, nothing in this indictment or in the earlier filings alleges that I did anything in my official capacity related to ComEd’s legislative agenda as a result of whatever internal decisions ComEd made or didn’t make. Any such allegation would be false. If there was an attempt to influence me in my official capacity, it failed, although knowing most of the people who were charged, I doubt there was any scheme as characterized by the government.

Rep. Sosnowski questions Pritzker's latest COVID mitigation restrictions

ROCKFORD – State Representative Joe Sosnowski (R-Rockford) issued the following statement Wednesday following Tuesday’s announcement by Governor JB Pritzker that the State of Illinois will be placed under Tier 3 COVID-19 mitigation status effective at 12:01am on Friday, November 20:

“There is no scientific data that supports lower occupancy limits or for keeping restaurants closed to indoor dining.  The Governor's own numbers show that there is very little danger of contraction when inside businesses or public buildings.  The Governor’s mitigation policies have proven successful in one aspect, however, and that is instilling fear in Illinois residents.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the statewide COVID-19 recovery rate is 97% and 50% of the deaths have been those living in long term care facilities (75% of deaths have been those over the age of 70).  All life is valuable and should be protected, but we need to have perspective that misguided rolling lockdowns and business restrictions are destroying people’s livelihoods, shuttering businesses, putting people out of work, causing stress on families unable to care for children, increasing depression and other social ills, and ruining educational attainment of our children.

Pritzker imposes new COVID mitigation requirements effective Friday

Gov JB Pritzker - Chicago Sun-Times photo

CHICAGO - Governor JB Pritzker and his administration released yet another set of "mitigation requirements" Tuesday, as the state of Illinois and the majority of the United States appeared to be facing another spike in COVID-19 cases. 

The Illinois Department of Public Health's website explains: 

With a new wave of COVID-19 surging across the state of Illinois and the nation, the state is committed to listening to public health experts and following the science to keep people safe. Tier 3 builds on the Resurgence Mitigation Plan first released in July to suppress the spread of the virus and ensure our hospitals do not become overrun. This new tier aims to limit gatherings and encourages people to stay home to the greatest extent possible, while permitting some industries to remain open at significantly reduced capacities with proper safety measures in place. All detailed Phase 4 operational guidance remains in effect. Where Phase 4 guidance and Tier 3 Mitigations imply different standards, the more restrictive Tier 3 Mitigations will apply. School districts and local officials should follow extensive guidance released by IDPH and ISBE in August and make decisions related to in-person and remote learning at the local level, based on the unique needs of their communities. Child care facilities may continue to operate subject to DCFS guidelines.

Specific guidelines include: 

Beckman: Joe says “Come Together.” His Supporters Beg to Differ

By Hank Beckman - 

Joe Biden’s first public comment upon being prematurely declared the winner of the presidential election was to call for unity.

“To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemies,” he said after media declared him the next occupant of the White House.

He sounded sincere when he said “let’s give each other a chance,” and that it was “time to put away the harsh rhetoric.”

Nice words.

Who doesn’t want the country to come together for the common good, especially after the last four years? The nation hasn’t been this divided since the late 60s/early 70s, when race riots and the turmoil over the Vietnam War pitted races, classes and even family members against one another.

Rep. Blaine Wilhour: Are Illinois Republicans ready to provide the leadership voters demand?

Rep. Blaine Wilhour (R-Effingham)

Op-ed submitted by State Representative Blaine Wilhour (R-Effingham) -

On Nov. 3rd, voters in Illinois resoundingly rejected the progressive income tax amendment on the ballot despite the massive public relations effort from the Governor who spent tens of millions of dollars telling everyone that only the rich would see a tax increase.

Voters were told to just trust the same politicians who have bankrupted our state with even more taxing authority. In the end, voters decided that the career politicians wrecking our state weren’t worthy of their trust and they voted overwhelmingly against the proposed progressive income tax.

Let’s be perfectly clear:  The defeat of the progressive income tax is a repudiation of the ENTIRE political class. Voters in Illinois are tired of paying the price for the reckless spending of career politicians of both political parties.

Win Or Lose, Trump’s Voter Fraud Lawsuits Will Improve Future Elections

Voter fraud lawsuits will improve electoral integrity. Aaron Poynton writes:

President Donald Trump is being labeled a bitter loser. After a close and divided election, lawsuits have been filed in Pennsylvania overextended deadlines and observers, Michigan over lack of transparency, Georgia over late ballots, and Nevada over machine verification. Essentially, the lawsuits amount to allegations of systemic corruption and voter fraud that could have cost Trump the election.

Yet while even if victorious the lawsuits may not overturn the current projected election results, they will certainly expose cracks in our imperfect system. Indeed, we can move to collectively improve future elections and begin restoring faith and confidence in government and its institutions only if such malfeasance and shortcomings are exposed.

Crisis Looms in Alarmist Science

Climate science is dominated by alarmists addicted to the idea that increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) will cause dangerous global warming. How much warming is thus the central scientific question—a question with significant implications for public policy responses.

This question has been surprisingly difficult to answer, despite 40 years of research, costing tens of billions of dollars. Now the issue is exploding because two different answers are emerging, one harmlessly low and the other dangerously high. This divergence is a crisis for the alarmist community. How they handle it remains to be seen.

More HERE

Dominion software alleged to have tampered 2020 election results

COOK COUNTY - Cook County, the county in which Chicago sits, has been long identified as a county where dead people vote. The Democrats control the city of Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois. It is also where an executive of the Dominion election software told the Illinois State Board of Elections in 2016 that "it is possible to bypass their election software."

FOX Business News' Lou Dobbs shared a video taken at a 2016 board meeting in which Eric Koomer told the board that routine updates are not permissible without the system being re-certified. 

"No we are not allowed to do routine updates without having to go through re-certification efforts, but we do routinely give guidance on how to best secure systems, and also going back again, to the final mitigation against all of this is a robust auditing canvassing process which all of our jurisdictions have implements," Koomer told the board. 

Despite Koomer's assurances, Dominion software updates can take place without re-certification - and that reportedly happened the day before the election.

Sidney Powell, General Michael Flynn's attorney, insists the software was a source of producing fraudulent election results. 

"President Trump won this election in a landslide," Powell told Dobbs in the following interview. 

Will County Board member-elect addresses MAGA Crowd in DC

DC - Over the weekend, Debbie Kraulidis - soon to be a member of the Will County Board and vice-president of national group Moms for America - addressed thousands of Trump supporters Saturday in DC. 

"President Trump, the mommas are with you!" Kraulidis said in her speech. 

President Trump retweeted a clip of the speech later Saturday. 

Di Leo: Odd Votes, Odd Times and the Odds of Vote Fraud

By John F. Di Leo - 

Vote fraud was predicted before the 2020 election, so it certainly wasn’t a surprise to anyone.   

In fact, vote fraud is predicted before all elections, because in fact there IS – virtually undeniably – a great deal of vote fraud in every election in the United States. 

We have a secret ballot, which makes it difficult to build in the kinds of security that we install in every other aspect of our lives.  Did you buy that wristwatch, that overcoat, that bottle of wine? Easy... check the receipt, and there’s the proof.  Did you pay for a Timex but walk out with a Rolex? Did you pay for a polyester windbreaker but walk out with a cashmere London Fog?  Again, the receipt has the details, and your credit card tracks the purchase and ties it directly to you, personally. 

Rossi: We Will Never Forget Your Attacks On Our Values and Our Republic

By Randy Rossi - 

It was absolutely fascinating to watch former Democrat VP Biden speak to the nation as the self-proclaimed winner of the 2020 presidential election and ask for unity and harmony when he becomes president. Equally stunning is watching the “Fake News” pitch the same thing. These are the very same people that screamed at the top of their lungs for four years that Republican President Trump was an illegitimate president who won the 2016 election and defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by colluding with Russia.

They started this travesty even before President Trump was sworn in as president and slandered and distracted this duly elected Republican president for four years through what we now know was the “Russian Collusion Hoax” which was created and paid for by Democrat Hillary Clinton and the DNC to distract the American people from her illegal and felonious e-mail scandal. As more and more proof comes out about significant election cheating and abuse by Democrats, they want us to forget all this and just “be friends again!"

On top of all that, we now know that so called “president-elect” Democrat Biden and his family repeatedly broke the law and abused Democrat VP Biden’s power to make millions of dollars by doing deals with our enemies China and Russia which paid millions of dollars to Biden’s son Hunter and his brother. We also have hard proof that VP Joe Biden got 10% of that money in return for the use of his power of office. But those facts were hidden from most of the American people by the “Fake News” before the election even though the FBI had access to all that data. But that is all OK now, the Dems and Joe Biden want us to forget all this and be friends again!

Thorner: Remaining Passive Not An Option for Patriots

Thousands of Trump supporters gathered in DC this past weekend

By Nancy Thorner - 

As proclaimed at Conservative Treehouse on November 11, 2020:

“Joe Biden is an avatar; a political pawn; a cognitively declining guy who has no idea what is happening around him.  The people behind the Biden campaign, those in real control of what this is about, have not hidden their goals and aspirations. These are not stupid people. They are scheming, conniving, ever-planning, ever-manipulating & Machiavellian types within the political system; lusting for power, influence and affluence."

On October 23^rd those behind the Biden campaign dropped all pretense, when Biden stated openly his intention to control the lives of all Americans using the authority of a weaponized federal government to advance national COVID-19 regulations.

President Biden would be worse than the Obama years of 2007-17 that gave us the lowest growth of any economic decade in U.S. history, all justified with a Scamdemic that even Elon Musk admits is phony: “Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD.”  

Are Democrats Cornered in Illinois?

One of the most surprising results of the 2020 election was the defeat, in Illinois, of a state constitutional amendment to permit a progressive income tax. The Graduated Income Tax Amendment would have eliminated the Illinois constitutional requirement that tax rates remain flat across incomes. Its defeat is likely the most important political event for the state since I moved here 18 years ago.

The proposed change in the state constitution was an effort by the dominant Democratic Party to continue its model of high taxes and high spending to support the base of its political muscle—public-sector unions. The party retains control of the legislature and the governor’s office, but it is politically cornered. Legislatively, it faces a choice between a reform agenda that would undermine its political base or a substantial tax increase on every working citizen.

More HERE

Here Are the Lessons We’ve Learned So Far From the 2020 Election

We need to learn from the 2020 elections. Audrey Perry Martin writes:

The last thing anyone wanted in 2020 was a complicated post-presidential election debacle. Unfortunately, a combination of factors created a perfect storm for election chaos this year, and we are suffering in its aftermath.

Although the litigation, audits, and recounts are far from over, several lessons have emerged that, if implemented, could help avoid similar problems in future close races.

First, states should require all absentee ballots be due by the close of polls on Election Day. (Not including military and overseas ballots, which are usually a small number.) This has been the cause of one of the biggest battles of the past few weeks, and litigation is likely to continue.

“We Hold These Truths…”

The American founding still provides answers today. Robert Curry writes:

Why does the Declaration of Independence proclaim “We hold these truths to be self-evident” instead of simply stating that “We believe it is true”?

This is actually a good question. Answering it can teach us a lot about the Founding.

When we recall what the world was like in the Founders’ time, the answer becomes clear. The world in those days operated on the basis of utter inequality. Whether the ruler was a king who claimed to rule by divine right or an emperor who claimed the mandate of Heaven, society was essentially the same everywhere, consisting of monarchs and their subjects, rulers and the ruled. This was simply accepted as the way of things.

Illinois’ COVID fatality rate plummets: Cases skyrocket, deaths down since last peak

CHICAGO - Chicago-based Wirepoints.com points to stats and says COVID fatalities are down dramatically as positivity rates mount once again.

Lost in the attention given to Illinois’ massive spike in COVID-19 cases is the collapse in the virus’ case fatality rate, or CFR. At the height of the crisis in June, almost 5 percent of Illinois’ recorded COVID cases resulted in deaths. But as recorded cases have risen significantly over the past three months and deaths have not, the fatality rate from August through today has dropped to just 0.9 percent.

The latest COVID data is quickly revealing how less fatal the coronavirus really is, and that has major implications for lockdown policies and, in particular, for school shutdowns.

That drop in the case fatality rate reflects a dramatic increase in the number of COVID tests being performed, a significant increase in rates of infection among younger Illinoisans and reportedly better overall treatment of the virus.

Illinois’ CFR is gradually dropping toward what the Center for Disease Control estimates is the virus’ true infection fatality rate (IFR), about 0.65 percent. In contrast to the case fatality rate, the IFR includes estimates of all infections, including asymptomatic cases, not just reported cases.

It’s important to note that the 0.9 percent case fatality rate reported above is an average across all age groups and it’s still heavily influenced upward by the high death rate for those 80 and older. The actual CFR for the younger age brackets is dramatically lower. We break out those numbers in a following section.

More on the topic HERE 

DeVore: Lawful citizens cannot be ordered to stay at home

Rep. Bailey with Thomas DeVore - DailyLine.com photo

SORENTO - Downstate attorney Thomas DeVore represented State Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) when he challenged Governor Pritzker's edict to restrict activity after his initial 30 day COVID Executive Order expired, and the governor renewed time and time again. 

DeVore won the case for Bailey as an individual, but the governor continues to issue what many consider unlawful edicts concerning COVID and public health measures. With the COVID positive cases on the rise once again, Pritzker is threatening yet another shutdown to stem the number of cases. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked Chicagoans to stay home more, but did not attempt to demand they go along. 

Pritzker, however, is stronger in his more recent threats of shutting the state down.

The idea provoked a strong reaction from DeVore on his Facebook page: 

I’m going to go ahead and get this out of the way right now. If any of you sumbitches start crying about any “stay at...

Posted by Thomas DeVore on Thursday, November 12, 2020