Illinois Review

NorthShore employees ask court to grant preliminary injunction against shot mandate

CHICAGO, IL – Liberty Counsel filed a supplemental brief Friday on behalf of 14 health care workers asking the federal District Court of Illinois to grant a preliminary injunction against NorthShore University HealthSystem for unlawfully discriminating against and denying religious exemptions from the COVID shot mandate.

The preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, November 16, at which Liberty Counsel will seek protection for all NorthShore employees for the duration of the lawsuit. 

On November 1, Judge John F. Kness issued a temporary restraining order against NorthShore on behalf of Liberty Counsel’s plaintiffs. The court said they are likely to prevail on Title VII and the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act. Liberty Counsel later filed a brief asking the court to conditionally certify the entire class of health care workers and to also grant them emergency relief. 

"NorthShore has no justification for treating employees with sincerely held religious beliefs against the COVID shot any different than other employees," a press release from Liberty Counsel opines. "Even though NorthShore officials claim that employees with religious exemptions are too 'dangerous' to accommodate and must be expelled from its facilities, they cannot prove this assertion."

Center Square: DeVore files defamation lawsuit against Pritzker over 'grifter' comment

(The Center Square) – For calling an attorney challenging his executive orders in court a "grifter," Gov. J.B. Pritzker faces a summons in Sangamon County Circuit Court to answer to a defamation allegation.

Thomas DeVore, an attorney who has filed multiple lawsuits against the governor over COVID-19 vaccine mandates in schools and businesses, sued Pritzker late last month, claiming defamation. 

The case was filed in Sangamon County Oct. 29 by DeVore attorney Brian Polinske claiming the governor’s comment last month “constitute the commission of a tortious act.”

After a lawsuit DeVore filed on behalf of more than 700 parents against 145 school districts, the governor and the Illinois State Board of Education, the governor called DeVore a grifter.

“He’s a grifter who is taking money from parents who are being taken advantage of,” Pritzker said during an unrelated news conference on Oct. 21. “So I hope that you know the reign of grifting and terror that he is trying to bring about in the school districts will come to an end.”

Following those comments, DeVore said he was considering a defamation case against the governor.

Thorner: A Nation in Peril

By Nancy Thorner - 

As Joe Biden gloats over the legislative victory that Nancy Pelosi and 13 House Republicans have finally handed him with his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill - a major step toward implementing Biden’s socialist “Build Back Better” agenda - Biden and administration officials continue to blast out the false claim that the much larger “Build Back Better” budget reconciliation spending package will have a “zero dollar” cost.

 

However, a key Democrat US senator, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.),  signaled on Twitter that he’s loath to pass the larger bill anytime soon. Manchin has said he fears the package would add to the national debt.

 

“By all accounts, the threat posed by record inflation to the American people is not ‘transitory’ and is instead getting worse,” Manchin wrote. “From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and DC can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day.''

Di Leo: Sundae Time with Basement Joe - Pistachio Sundaes, Buckets of Cash

By John F Di Leo  - 

Introduction: Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe in which a confused old man - Joe Buckstop - stumbles into the presidency, and spends his entire term in his basement. Each evening, an aide walks downstairs and serves him his evening snack, and engages him in conversation about current events, in a losing effort to keep the old man's mind somewhat sound. Tonight's episode is an excerpt from the ongoing series, "Evening Soup with Basement Joe," by John F. Di Leo, a fictional chronicle of the events of 2021, a political satire available in paperback or eBook from Amazon.

"Hello? ... Hello in there? Anybody there?"

"Yeah, yeah, just a minute... umm... go ahead, come in... what is it?"

"I have your ice cream, sir."

"Who are you?"

"Jackson van Buren, sir. I brought you your ice cream the other night, remember?"

"No."

"I was working on your fence outside, sir... and your cook asked me to bring you your sundae when we finished up for the day, remember?"

"No."

Biden's FCC Supports Net Neutrality

(The Center Square) – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Biden administration may revisit the failed idea of heavy-handed regulation of the internet known as Title II net neutrality.

Gigi Sohn, a former FCC counsel and self-described “net neutrality pioneer,” recently received the nomination for the open fifth seat on the commission in the same week that FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel was named permanent chair. Both women are big proponents of reimplementing the Title II regulations that the FCC imposed under former chairman Tom Wheeler that were reversed under former chair Ajit Pai.

President Joe Biden previously released an executive order targeting competition policy that was heavily panned by critics like the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA). The order includes language that encourages the FCC to reinstate net neutrality.

More HERE

Time to Reform the Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve does little to nothing to benefit our nation's economy, and its power must be reduced.

For centuries pharaohs, emperors, and kings ruled and made average folks do their bidding.  The rise of political liberalism changed our conception of power, arguing that governments existed to serve the people.  A new book argues we must bring liberal principles to our money.

Government actions ultimately involve force, which liberalism argues is legitimate only if it serves the people.  Governments today take some of the same actions as emperors did.  Taxation, for example, still involves armed men taking things from people.  Taxation is theft unless the people consent; as America’s founders put it, “Taxation without representation is tyranny.”

More HERE

Malkin: America’s Nutty Professor of Anti-White Rage

By Michelle Malkin - 

Brittney Cooper — sorry, that’s Dr. Brittney Cooper — certainly takes the cake for the nation’s worst tenured radical (at least for this week, until the next academic nutjob erupts).

Armed with a Bachelor of Arts in English and political science from Howard University and a doctorate in American Studies from Emory University, the Rutgers women’s studies and Africana studies professor sure can holler.

Cooper made headlines this week after her unrepentant hatred of white people went viral. Among the many dispassionate scholarly observations she shared with attendees of an online critical race theory conference were these:

— “I think that white people are committed to being villains in the aggregate.”

— “Their thinking is so murky and spiritually bankrupt.”

— “The thing I want to say to you is we got to take these motherf—ers out.”

— “White people’s birth rates are going down … because they literally cannot afford to put their children, newer generations, into the middle class … It’s super perverse, and also they kind of deserve it.”

More HERE

How to Fight Wokeness

Six strategies to fight wokeness for writers, activists, and political leaders. Christopher Rufo writes:

In the past year, my reporting on critical race theory in America’s institutions has helped catapult the issue onto the national stage. My reporting inspired a presidential order, a fierce public debate, and legislation in nine states impacting 75 million Americans. The New Yorker called me the “conservative activist [who] invented the conflict over critical race theory.” While this might be a pejorative, it is also an unintended compliment — my work broke through the Left’s defenses and struck at the heart of their political project.

As I have reflected on the battles of the past year, I have discerned six principles for fighting against the ideologies of the Left, which might prove useful to other writers, activists, and political leaders:

Di Leo: Kyle Rittenhouse and the Streets of Kenosha

By John F Di Leo - 

The nation has been mesmerized by a televised trial in Wisconsin. A teenager is charged with murder for a case of clear self-defense…

THREE clear cases of self-defense, really.

The haters say that all that doesn’t matter, because he didn’t have to be there in the first place. He shouldn’t have gone. He shouldn’t have put himself in that position. He wouldn’t have had to defend himself, after all, if he were back home in Illinois, watching TV or playing video games, the way teenaged boys are supposed to spend their time, right?

I wonder how many Americans have heard this line of reasoning, and asked themselves the question, "Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like the victim-blaming commonly used regarding incidents of rape, mugging, and car break-ins?"

Billionaire Griffin says he plans to "go all in" to defeat Pritzker in 2022

NEW YORK - In a New York Times interview Wednesday, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin said he was willing to donate to whomever challenges Illinois Democrat Governor JB Pritzker in 2022. 

Griffin didn't indicate who that candidate would be, but said “I’m going to make sure that if he runs again, that I am all in to support the candidate who will beat him,” Griffin continued. “He doesn’t deserve to be the governor of our state.”

The urgency of the situation involved how brazen Chicago criminals have become - personally affecting Griffin. 

Talking today about crime in Chicago, Griffin said that over a recent weekend, one of his Citadel partners had a gun put to his head outside his home in Chicago. He didn’t provide additional details on the incident, but said that on the following Monday, the colleague told him: “I don’t know if I worked my whole life to live like this.”

Griffin also mentioned the story of a 24-year-old University of Chicago graduate who was shot and killed in Hyde Park on Tuesday. Griffin said the shooting happened a few blocks from his kids’ school.

Those two incidents follow one Griffin mentioned last month at the Economic Club in which he said carjackers had attacked his security detail outside his Chicago home.

More at NYTimes' DealBook. 

18 year old Antioch IL youth facing murder charges under national microscope

ANTIOCH - Just north of the Illinois-Wisconsin border, and 18-year-old Antioch youth is facing murder charges in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Wednesday, he's taking the stand to defend himself. The case has raised high levels of attention nationwide - it is intensely controversial.

Nationally, opinion leaders are asking tough questions about the case. 

Yesterday, the prosecution rested its case against Kyle Rittenhouse, the young man accused of killing two rioters and injuring a third during the violent, arson-filled days in August 2020 after Kenosha, Wisconsin police shot Jacob Blake.

The prosecution called 22 witnesses over the course of six days, attempting to prove that the then-17-year-old Rittenhouse committed five felonies and a misdemeanor, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, and first-degree attempted intentional homicide.

Yesterday, the judge dismissed one charge, a curfew violation, because prosecutors had failed to present any evidence that a curfew was in place.

Judge Bruce Schroeder has, in our opinion, so far done a stellar job of presiding over the politically charged trial, which has included, in addition to the usual media circus such a trial attracts, threats by various agitators to dox him and the jurors.

But frankly, we wonder why the trial is still going on after the video evidence and the testimony of one of Rittenhouse’s attackers, Gaige Grosskreutz, was presented to the jury.

More in this piece at ConservativeHQ.com by George Reasley... 

Thorner: Natural Immunity vs. the Jab

By Nancy Thorner - 

In an article by Greg Piper, updated, November 9, 2021, "Naturally immune federal workers file class-action suit against Fauci COVID vaccine mandate," Piper writes:

Federal employees with natural immunity from COVID-19 infection filed a class-action lawsuit Friday against the members of President Biden's task force that enforces his COVID vaccine mandate for government workers, intending to stop it before a deadline this month.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, where plaintiff and civilian Navy employee Isaac McLaughlin lives and where some of the plaintiffs' agencies have offices.

The court is overseen by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which halted the related employer COVID vaccine mandate over the weekend, citing 'grave statutory and constitutional issues.'

Suit claims the feds are following the EPA's playbook for the Clean Power Plan, which the Supreme Court blocked before a lower court could review it.

Lesson From Virginia Election: Education Can Be Winning Issue for Republicans

One big takeaway from last week's elections in Virginia and elsewhere is that parents have awakened to the danger and are filled with a terrible resolve. Jarrett Stepman writes:

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

That was the message parents in Virginia got from former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who was seeking a comeback, in their 2021 gubernatorial election.

As it turns out, parents thought otherwise.

That’s a major takeaway in Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin’s victory this week over McAuliffe in the Virginia governor’s race.

Illegal Alien Entered U.S. Pretending To Be Unaccompanied Minor, Murdered Man Who Took Him In, Police Say

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office

An illegal alien from Honduras who reportedly entered the U.S. earlier this year pretending to be an unaccompanied minor went on to brutally murder a man in Florida who took him in, according to law enforcement.

Yery Noel Medina Ulloa, who recently turned 24, “was busted Oct. 7 in Jacksonville when he was found covered in blood after allegedly killing Francisco Javier Cuellar, 46, a father of four who had taken in the immigrant who told authorities he was 17,” The New York Post reported. “Ulloa, who turned 24 on Friday, had duped border authorities in Texas several months earlier by claiming he was a teenager named Reynel Alexander Hernandez — and even told his mom about the ruse.”

More HERE

Feds Pay Zero Claims for Coronavirus Vaccine Injuries/Deaths

In fiscal year 2021, the U.S. government paid $246.9 million in claims for vaccine-related injuries and deaths. Not a single payout was related to Covid-19 vaccines.

Each person with a “provable” injury from a Covid vaccine could claim up to $379,000 from a special Covid vaccine fund set up by the federal government. The payout for death could be as high as $370,376.

However, according to an OpenTheBooks.com investigation, the federal government didn’t pay a penny for Covid-19 vaccine claims.

More HERE

Pelosi’s SALT Scheme

House Democrats raise a deduction that goes mainly to high-tax states. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board writes:

Don’t Democrats want to raise taxes on the rich? We seem to recall this—correct us if we’re wrong—but then how are they going to explain their expansion of the state-and-local tax deduction for largely affluent taxpayers in mainly Democratic states?

We realize that last point answers the question. This is a giant political payoff to House Democrats from New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California so they vote for the Sanders-Pelosi $4 trillion tax and spending bill. As a raw exercise in political and economic hypocrisy, this is one for the ages.

Democrats didn’t want to let this embarrassment rot in the sun for too long, so they kept SALT out of the House Ways and Means tax measure. Instead, they’ve now stuffed it into the reconciliation bill at the last minute, literally hours before a vote, with no press conference or fanfare, much less debate.

Parker: House Progressives Lose Sight of Reality

By Star Parker - 

Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat left-wing “squad” member in the House, attacked Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin for his opposition to the multitrillion-dollar Build Back Better Act.

Manchin is “anti-Black, anti-child, anti-woman and anti-immigrant,” according to Bush because of his opposition to this megaspending welfare bill.

If Bush wants to identify politicians hurting Blacks, children, women and immigrants, she needn’t go further than to look in the mirror.

Bush represents Missouri’s 1st Congressional district, which includes a big chunk of St. Louis.

The district is 49% Black. According to Census Reporter, median household income in the district is $50,163, compared with a U.S. average of $65,712; the poverty rate is 16.4%, compared with a national average of 12.3%; and 41% of households are headed by a married couple, compared with a 60% nationwide average.

Only someone who thinks history is irrelevant would believe that plunging low-income Americans deeper into government dependency will free them from the cycle of poverty and underachievement.

More HERE

Study shows parents' shifting viewpoints on vaccinating young children

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

(The Center Square) – Even though a COVID-19 vaccine is available for children aged 5 to 11, some parents are hesitant to get their kids the shot.

The Food and Drug Administration authorization of a vaccine makes 28 million unvaccinated young children in the country suddenly eligible, with 1.1 million in Illinois. In announcing its authorization of a lower-dose shot made by Pfizer and BioNTech for the age group, the FDA said clinical trial data showed the shot was safe and prompted strong immune responses in children.

A new study by Nick VinZant at QuoteWizard reveals multiple reasons why some parents are saying no.

“The main reasons that we found nationwide and in Illinois are people are concerned about the side effects, they’re waiting to see if the vaccine is safe, they don’t believe that their child needs to get vaccinated, they don’t trust the government, or they simply don’t vaccinate their children period,” VinZant said.

More HERE

Thorner: Children and Jabs

By Nancy Thorner -

According to a 2012 double-blind, randomized, controlled trial in Clin Infect Dis. March 15, 2012, (the first of its kind) conducted in healthy children 6 to 15 years of age, getting a flu shot was found to increase the risk of other respiratory viral infections over four-fold. 

And what about now giving the Covid shot to 5-year olds?

Even former Surgeon General and neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson thinks this is absurd, saying in an interview with Maria Bartiromo“absolutely not” due to the kids’ extremely low mortality rate and it is “a giant experiment.”

Di Leo: Joe Biden's Needle Over the Line

By John F. Di Leo - 

On Tuesday, November 2, the Democratic Party suffered a serious electoral walloping.  Republican gains - in states and districts we were long told were solid blue - showed that a public horrified by the tyrannical Biden/Harris/Pelosi/Schumer regime is indeed able to channel that horror into effective action in the voting booth.

Some would expect the Democratic Party leadership to regroup after being dealt such a stern lesson… but not our Democrats.  No, the lesson they took from this election was that they can expect to be turned into a minority party in 2022, so they had better make the most of the fourteen months that remain in their reign of error.

They therefore sped up their timetables on a number of unwise programs, including the vaccine mandate, massive “settlements” to illegal aliens, and a $1.2 trillion “infrastructure plan.”  All of them outrages. All of them the product of a government that has lost its tether to reality.

Activist Banks Want to Restrict Capital Access

Members of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which includes 84 large banks from 36 countries, have pledged to "transition all operational and attributable [greenhouse gas] emissions from our lending and investment portfolios to align with pathways to net-zero by mid-century, or sooner, including CO2 emissions reaching net-zero at the latest by 2050." Member banks have also promised to "set 2030 targets (or sooner) and a 2050 target, with intermediary targets to be set every 5 years from 2030 onwards."

The decision to "transition all operational and attributable [greenhouse gas] emissions" from "lending and investment portfolios" is an incredibly important development. It means that some banks are planning to pressure businesses, investors, and perhaps even everyday citizens to adopt policies in line with their climate change agenda. Regardless, that is, of whether customers want to abide by this action or can afford it.

Biden's Policies Causing an Energy Fiasco

During World War II, U.S. coal companies ran radio advertisements cautioning people to buy only what they needed for immediate use.  The government anticipated needing to use much of the available coal to keep pace with the urgent demand for it by the military.  Eventually, the U.S. government rationed gasoline and oil, too.

Eighty years later, electric utilities are once again warning Americans that we could be in for a long, cold, dark winter.  However, the difference is, today's shortages are not due to a global conflict causing the consumption of more fuel than ever before.

Almost all countries are increasing energy consumption compared to last year.  Yet it reflects a return to normal, not a historic increase.

As the world climbs out of government-inflicted COVID-19 shutdowns, energy demand is certain to climb.  In fact, all energy sources and fuels are in high demand.  Such is why the price of oil and natural gas continues to rise.

More HERE

AMA Releases Orwellian Language Guide

The American Medical Association has released "Advancing Health Equity: A Guide to Language, Narrative and Concepts," a strange document that calls for doctors to insert progressive politics into even plain statements of fact.

See the guide HERE

Rossi: President Biden’s Relentless “Big Lie”

By Randy Rossi - 

Once again Democrat President Biden told his “Big Lie” to the American people. As he pitches his socialist multi-trillion dollar plan to bankrupt America, he says it will cost America nothing because he will dramatically increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations to pay for it. He then leans down to the mike and says the wealthy “Should pay their fair share”. That is a horrific lie because any informed American knows the wealthy already pay more than their fair share. In fact, thanks to wealthy Americans, over 40% of lower income Americans pay not one penny in federal income taxes to pay for the military which protects them, the roads they drive on, or the airports that they fly out of. Instead of constantly attacking the wealthy who create the jobs and products that we all live on, informed people know that we should thank and praise the wealthy for paying for and supporting the 40% of lower income Americans that pay zero federal income taxes!.

The facts proving President Biden is relentlessly lying to America are overwhelming. There are multiple sources you can use to confirm the truth, but here is a source (Tax Foundation) used on Fox News the other day:

Sand: Parents Have Finally Drawn Battle Lines

Battle lines have been drawn, the war is on, and the great parent awakening of 2021 will have permanent consequences.

By Larry Sand - 

Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, my parents could send me off to school and assume I would be taught by people who shared their values. Those days are long gone, however. To be sure, most educators today work hard, and do their best to give kids a balanced education. But there are too many who don’t, and parents are rightfully worried. In fact, according to a Fox News survey, 80 percent of parents are “extremely” or “very” concerned about what our public schools are teaching. Whether it is the sexualization of six-year-olds, white kids being told they are oppressors, or children being forced to chant Aztec prayers, many parents are fed up. A few recent examples:

Where's Weyermuller? Hearing from 2022 IL GOP gubernatorial hopefuls

By Mark Weyermuller - 

Thursday night over 450 people attended the Republican governor candidate forum held at the Diplomat West Banquet Hall in Elmhurst, Illinois. Four of the six announced candidates running in the Republican primary attended the forum.  They included state Senator Darren Bailey, Schaumburg businessman Gary Rabine, Chris Roper and south suburban attorney Max Solomon (as pictured above).  Other GOP gubernatorial candidates Paul Schimpf and Jesse Sullivan were invited, but did not attend. 

The event was event was hosted run by the Multi-County Conservative Coalition.  The forum moderators were former state Rep. Jeanne Ives and Will County Board member Steve Balich. The event was free and open to the public.

A straw poll was taken at the end of the evening and Darren Bailey won with 47.2%. Max Solomon came in 2nd with 25.7%, Gary Rabine with 21.5% and Chris Roper with 5.6%.

Di Leo: Data & Guesswork... Campaigns and the Specter of Vote Fraud

by John F Di Leo - 

On November 2, A.D. 2021, a red wave swept the nation, and the talking heads were bewildered.

It’s certainly not unusual that the party in power would lose seats in midterm elections, but even the most casual of observers could tell that there was something else going on this time. It was quite a sweep.

Throughout the night, and throughout the day that followed, the talking heads couldn’t help themselves, as they repeated the depressing statistic, “but Joe Biden won that state by 10 points just a year ago..." and “But Biden won that state by 16 points just last year…"

Watching the television or listening to the radio, astute observers could not help but mutter, “Well… maybe he didn’t.”

Democrats Radical Economic Plans Revealed

While running for president, Joe Biden campaigned as a lunch-pail-carrying, blue-collar moderate from Scranton, Pa. But during his short tenure in the White House, Biden has proven himself to be a far-left champion of bureaucracy, reckless government spending and the centralization of economic and political power. 

The most recent example is Biden’s nomination of Cornell law professor Saule Omarova to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a branch of the Treasury Department. 

Omarova is a controversial choice. Born in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, Omarova was educated in the Soviet Union, graduating from Moscow State University in 1989, and as recently as 2019 openly praised various Soviet policies.

More HERE

Illinois among the slowest job recovery states

SPRINGFIELD - How is Illinois' job market recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic? Not so good.

Illinois is among the slowest-recovering ten states - 43rd out of 50. Just behind California and before New York.

Newly-released data for September from the Labor Department confirms that Republican governors and legislatures are leading the way in getting Americans back to work. 

Illinois - led by a Democrat governor and a Democrat super-majority in the Illinois legislature - lost 824,200 jobs during the pandemic, and has regained only 494,900 - 60% of the total lost, placing Illinois among the slowest recovering seven states. 

Gas prices up $1.25 a gallon over past year, home heating fuel costs expected to skyrocket this winter

David Zalubowski / AP Photo

(The Center Square) – U.S. gasoline prices reached a 7-year-high this week, with the national average of a regular gallon of gasoline rising to $3.399, up from $3.187 last month, AAA reports.

Gasoline prices at the pump have gone up every day in the past 27 days, adding about 21 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas, AAA says.

A year ago, the average price of a regular gallon of gasoline was $2.151 a gallon, meaning motorists are paying about an average of $1.25 more a gallon this fall than last.

“With the U.S. economy slowly recovering from the depths of the pandemic, demand for gas is robust, but the supply is tight,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said in a statement. Gas prices haven’t been this high since September 2014, he adds.

More HERE

Harsanyi: The Only Thing Biden Has Left Is Trump

By David Harsanyi - 

This past week, the president took a trip to Virginia to try to help salvage the gubernatorial prospects of fellow Washington lifer Terry McAuliffe. President Joe Biden used the appearance to liken the GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin to Jan. 6 rioters, to lie about Republicans supporting “book bans” and to attempt to goad former President Donald Trump into coming to Virginia. (Mission accomplished? Perhaps not.)

Biden wants to talk about one person these days, and that person isn’t Biden. Then again, what does he possibly have to brag about? Shutting down COVID? More Americans have died from the disease during his presidency than his predecessor’s, even with the emergence of vaccines. “I will not shut down the country,” Biden promised during his campaign. “I will shut down the virus.”

More HERE

Stossel: Lessons from Venezuela

By John Stossel - 

Democrats say President Joe Biden won “a strong mandate.” His government can do all sorts of good things!

I don’t believe he has a mandate, but thanks to the selfishness of former President Donald Trump, Democrats control Congress, and that may give them power to shove their worst ideas down our throats. Those include:

No. 1: Hate speech laws.

No. 2: Expanding the Supreme Court.

No. 3: Gun control.

No. 4: Spending much more.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have noticed that these “reforms” were just tried in a country near us. My new video reveals how they worked out (spoiler alert: badly).

More HERE

Evidence Mounts Against Fauci/NIH Greenlighting Gain of Function Research

Dr. Anthony Fauci has denied he misled Congress when questioned about whether the National Institutes of Health (NIH) used tax dollars to support gain-of-function research in China.

“Neither I nor Dr. Francis Collins, the director of NIH, lied or mislead about what we’ve done,” said Fauci on ABC’s “This Week”  on October 24.

The denial came after Sen. Rand Paul (R – KY) told Axios on HBO that Fauci should be fired after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) admitted in a letter on October 20 to Rep.  James Comer (R – KY),  the ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform that an experiment at the Wuhan Institute of Virology did take place that tested “if spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding” to humanized mice.”

More HERE

What’s in Democrats’ $1.75 Trillion Spending Bill

Heritage Foundation experts weigh in on the $1.75 trillion spending package. Christian Mysliwiec writes:

The White House released on Thursday a framework for the Build Back Better agenda—a massive, $1.75 trillion spending bill that will radically transform the American way of life as we know it—and Democrats in Congress are intent on rapidly moving it immediately. We asked analysts from The Heritage Foundation to examine what is in the bill text. Here are their responses:

Budget Gimmicks

The White House’s newly released framework returns to a tried-and-true way to obscure the true cost of the legislation: budget gimmicks. The current reconciliation instructions place caps on the 10-year deficit impact of provisions that could be included in the bill.

However, the new framework provides partial funding for many programs—creating temporary benefits that are clearly intended to be made permanent. This means that the cost estimates in this framework are only the tip of the iceberg of what the White House has planned.

For example, both the child care and pre-K provisions are reported as being given “funding for six years” despite both being listed also as “a long-term program.” The Obamacare tax credit extension would last only through 2025. The expanded Child and Earned Income tax credits would each be extended for only one year.

Di Leo: Sundae Time with Basement Joe - A Weekend in Rome

By John F. Di Leo - 

 

Introduction: Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe in which a confused old man - Joe Buckstop - stumbles into the presidency, and spends his entire term in his basement. Each evening, an aide walks downstairs and serves him his evening snack, and engages him in conversation about current events, in a losing effort to keep the old man's mind somewhat sound. Tonight's episode is an excerpt from the ongoing series, "Evening Soup with Basement Joe," by John F. Di Leo, a fictional chronicle of the events of 2021, a political satire available in paperback or eBook from Amazon.

 

"Buona Sera, Signore! Are you ready for your gelato, signore?"

 

"Huh? What's that? Who's there?"

 

"Vittorio, Signore. From the Embassy in Roma.  Vittorio Humberto."

 

"Well, which is it?"

 

"I beg your pardon, signore?"

Illinois remains only midwestern state with COVID mask mandate

CHICAGO - When will the COVID mask mandate be lifted in Illinois? Maybe never ... or at the very least that time of breathing freely in Illinois remains "uncertain." 

The reasons Governor Pritzker is giving for not lifting the mandate - as all of the states around Illinois have already done so - are vague and confusing. They also change from time to time, but no state politicians are raising a fuss about it. 

“New hospitalizations are flat. That is not a good sign. That’s not what’s happened in previous dips from surges,” Pritzker said after getting his coronavirus booster shot in Chicago Tuesday this week. “We went down for a while here, but now we’ve leveled out at a level that is much higher than the summer.”

Uh oh. Despite the fact Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, Kentucky and Wisconsin aren't masking up, Illinois is. And there's no end in sight, per the Chicago Tribune.

According to USNews, Illinois is one of a few states left with a mask mandate for all ... 

These are the U.S. states and territories with mask mandates for everyone, regardless of vaccination status:

District of Columbia | Guam | Hawaii | Illinois | Nevada | New Mexico | Oregon | 

Puerto Rico | U.S. Virgin Islands | Washington

These are the U.S. states and territories with mask mandates for the unvaccinated:

California | Connecticut | New York

These are the U.S. states and territories without mask mandates:

Alabama | Alaska | American Samoa | 

Arizona | Arkansas | Colorado | Delaware | Florida | Georgia |

Idaho | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts 

Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | New Hampshire |

New Jersey | North Carolina | North Dakota | Northern Mariana Islands | Ohio | Oklahoma |

Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah |

Vermont | Virginia | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming

Chicago area nurses protest vaccine mandate

CHICAGO - Chicago nurses and others protested vaccine mandates in chilly temps outside the Thompson Building Wednesday.

(Photos by IR Contributor Mark Weyermuller)

Paul Schimpf points to Youngkin’s emphasis on parents as winning agenda

CHICAGO – Republican candidate for Illinois governor Paul Schimpf celebrated new Virginia Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin’s victory Tuesday, saying that Youngkin’s win sends a message that Republicans can prevail in so-called “blue” states by focusing on issues that are relevant to everyday Americans.
 
“I’m thrilled to see Governor-Elect Youngkin win in Virginia,” Schimpf said. “But it isn’t just that he won, it’s how he won. He ran a thoughtful, inspired campaign that spoke to voters on what matters most—their wallets, their freedom, and, most importantly, their children.”

“This is also my vision for our state, and I fully believe that this is the blueprint for how to connect with voters and win in Illinois as well,” Schimpf added. “Illinoisans are fed up with corrupt, partisan politics and the blue-red divide and just want to know that their communities are safe, the economy is strong, and they can give their kids the best possible future.”
 
“To make that vision a reality for Illinois, we need to clean up corruption, support our law enforcement community, and reduce our state’s massive tax burden to grow our economy for working families,” he said.

Gary Rabine: Youngkin victory confirms pro-family, pro-freedom platform is embraced

WOODSTOCK – Gary Rabine, Republican candidate for Illinois Governor in 2022, says Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the Virginia governor’s race sends a clear message that voters want candidates who will stand up for families and oppose the far-left agenda of woke politicians.

“I have met Glenn Youngkin and I can tell you he is a common-sense leader who can’t be bought,” Rabine said. “Throughout his campaign, Glenn sounded the alarm about the war on families. Instead of ignoring the concerns of parents, he embraced them. Not only was his message the right message, but it proved to be a winning message.”

Rabine said "woke" politicians in Illinois should be worried. In 2022, people in Illinois will stand up for Life, Liberty and Freedom as Virginia has.

Unhappy Illinois non-Democrats rally at Thompson Center

CHICAGO - What participants are calling a "Let's Go Brandon" rally in front of Chicago's Thompson Center was held Wednesday morning. 

(Photo by Art Ellingsen)

RNC points to Tuesday's red wave that "swept beyond Virginia"

VIRGINIA - The Republican National Committee is glowing after reports of Tuesday's elections - not only in Virginia and New Jersey, but other states as well.

The RNC says they assisted in a number of states with volunteers, on-the-ground staff, victory offices, community centers, and by making millions of volunteer voter contacts across the country.

As the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman said, last night’s “results are consistent [with] a political environment in which Republicans would comfortably take back both the House and Senate in 2022.”

Here’s just how deep Republican victories went last night:

Bost to seek re-election; boasts 20 IL GOP leaders' endorsements

MURPHYSBORO, IL– U.S. Representative Mike Bost (IL-12) announced Wednesday his re-election campaign is endorsed by 20 Republican Central Committee leaders from across the newly-mapped 12th Congressional District. Bost's coalition of support includes the 12th District Central Committee chair and vice-chair; all 11 county chairs from Bost's current district; and seven chairs redistricted from the current 15th District into the new 12th District.

“As leaders of Illinois' 12th District Republican Central Committee, we are pleased to endorse Congressman Mike Bost for re-election,” said the IL-12 Central Committee leaders in a joint statement. “He has a proven track record of fighting for our conservative values and delivering real results for Southern Illinois families during his service in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Illinois General Assembly. As Democrats in Washington continue to tax and spend their way towards socialism, Mike is the strong conservative voice we need to push back on their extreme agenda. We proudly support Congressman Mike Bost and look forward to working together on behalf of the people of Southern Illinois.”

72% Say ‘Cancel Culture’ Is Out of Control

In the wake of controversy surrounding comedian Dave Chappelle, Americans overwhelming say “cancel culture” is out of control, and believe free speech should be protected against censorship.

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and The National Pulse finds that 72% of American Adults believe cancel culture – a form of censorship that harms the careers and reputations of public figures for doing or saying things that are considered offensive – has gotten out of control. Only 15% disagree, while 12% are not sure.

Meet Winsome Sears, Virginia's next Lieutenant Governor

VIRGINIA - Winsome Sears, a conservative Republican, was chosen by Virginians serve alongside Republican winner Glenn Youngkin, who won Tuesday's 2021 governor's race in the blue state.

She's breaking barriers as the first female and the first woman of color in the office Virginia's 400-year legislative history..

Sears, who was born in Jamaica, is the first Black Republican woman to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly, representing the 90th district from 2002 for one term.

 

She is also a Marine veteran, former vice president of the Virginia Board of Education and owner of an appliance business. She is a wife and mother of three daughters, one of which was killed in a car accident, along with two of Sears' grandchildren in 2012. 

 

Sears is quoted by CNN as saying "There is no Census Bureau category called 'of color.' I am Black. Virginians are ready for strong, principled and sensible leaders who will serve them -- no matter one's color," she said. 

Thorner: Illinois Family Institute leads "We Will Not be Silenced" movement

By Nancy J. Thorner, Photos by Mark Weyermuller - 

The Illinois Family Institute's Annual Banquet was held at the Carlisle in Lombard on October 29th, 2021.  Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer was the featured keynote speaker that attracted 625 individuals who believe in Faith, Family, and Freedom.

U.S. Policy Options for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Beijing’s gross human rights abuses and cover-up of COVID-19 make it clear that China is not a suitable host for the 2022 Olympic Games. Olivia Enos writes:

The 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place in Beijing—despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) well-documented and gross human rights violations. Whenever concerns over human rights arise during the Olympics, the international community defaults to the idea of a boycott, despite its ineffectiveness during the Moscow 1980 Olympics. The desire to act, and not grant unintended approval to atrocity crimes as the U.S. did when Nazi Germany hosted in 1936, is a good impulse. However, there are other options—that do not punish American athletes, and also do not fail to hold human rights violators accountable. The U.S. should consider and explore policy options beyond a boycott, and instead postpone the 2022 Olympics for the purposes of selecting a new rights-respecting host.

Di Leo: Port Congestion, from the Perspective of a Hammer

By John F. Di Leo -

There is an old saying: to a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. This is truly the only point of view from which the administrations recommended “solution” to current port congestion makes any sense.

Consider this: at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest containership ports in the United States, a massive influx of volume over the past year has caused perpetual congestion. With volumes consistently 30% to 40% above the norm over the past year or so, these ports simply cannot handle the volume.

It has now become common for 50 to 100 ships to be sitting at anchor at a time, out in the Los Angeles harbor and beyond, awaiting open berths.

In recent weeks, the Biden-Harris regime has directed the seaports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to immediately implement a draconian surcharge scheme: Any container not moved promptly, regardless of owner, contractor, or other controller, shall be saddled with a fee schedule starting at $100, compounded daily (ie. day one, $100, day two, $200, day three, $300, etc.), so that every shipment will cost its customer thousands of dollars more.

If industry interpretations of the preliminary announcements are correct, every single ocean container arriving in LA will be fined many thousands of dollars, potentially even tens of thousands of dollars, all to be passed on to importers and obviously, therefore, to consumers… for something completely out of their control in any way.

Thorner: Is This Nation Oozing With Communism?

By Nancy Thorner - 

For those of us who remember the "Red Scare" of the 1950s, has it again reared its ugly head? 

Americans are being told that thing are getting back to normal, but will America ever go back to the way it was?

Being deeply concerned about the direction of this nation, I felt obligated to write an article that I excerpted and adapted from an original report by Aden Tate posted on October 29, 2021: The Communist Invasion of America Has Been Quietly Going On Since 1933.  The original report is here.  

Aden Tate has a master’s in public health and is a regular contributor to PewPewTactical.com, SurvivalBlog.com, SHTFBlog.com, ApartmentPrepper.com, HomesteadAndPrepper.com, and PrepperPress.com.

Shapiro: Punishing Achievement Is Punishing Everyone

By Ben Shapiro - 

This past week, Democrats settled on an area of apparent commonality: the desire to eat the rich. According to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, “Senator Wyden and the Senate Finance Committee … would impose a tax on unrealized gains on liquid assets held by extremely wealthy individuals, billionaires.” While Yellen refused to call this a “wealth tax,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had no such qualms: “We probably will have a wealth tax,” she said.

This has long been a talking point for the most Marxist-leaning Democrats, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who famously proposed a 2% wealth tax on all assets of a family above $50 million and 6% on all assets above $1 billion.

Elated Warren supporter Adam Jentleson told The Washington Post, “Biden’s agenda was about to fall apart, but Warren had a plan for that.”

More HERE

“White People, You Are the Problem”

AT&T’s new racial reeducation program promotes the idea that “racism is a uniquely white trait.” Christopher Rufo writes:

AT&T Corporation has created a racial reeducation program that promotes the idea that “American racism is a uniquely white trait” and boosts left-wing causes such as “reparations,” “defund police,” and “trans activism.”

I have obtained a cache of internal documents about the company’s initiative, called Listen Understand Act, which is based on the core principles of critical race theory, including “intersectionality,” “systemic racism,” “white privilege,” and “white fragility.” CEO John Stankey launched the program last year and, subsequently, has told employees that private corporations such as AT&T have an “obligation to engage on this issue of racial injustice” and push for “systemic reforms in police departments across the country.”