Illinois Review

Di Leo: Schooling, Safety, and Reality in the Age of Covid

By John F. Di Leo - 

The Chicago Public Schools have been closed for about a year now, but they finally got a deal.  Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles: they will finally return to the workplace, part time, for some early grades.  

Why the long delay?  Because the Chicago Teachers’ Union, like so many people across the country, have spent the past year primarily concerned about being “safe.” 

“Safe.”  Such an interesting word.  Its definition has been radically transformed, hasn’t it, in the twelve months since news began to leak out that the Chinese government was welding shut the doors and windows of Wuhan apartment buildings, sealing the fate of thousands of innocent victims, all from fear of the deadly new China Virus, known as the Wuhan Flu or Covid-19. 

Want a free drink? Pritzker signs vaccine enticement into law

Chicago Eater photo

SPRINGFIELD — (Press release from Pritzker's office) Businesses serving alcohol can now offer up a free drink to vaccinated patrons under a new law signed by Governor JB Pritzker day. The measure also extends businesses’ ability to sell cocktails for pickup and delivery. 
 
“Not only will the vaccine protect you from getting sick — your free COVID-19 shot can now get you a free shot of your choosing or whatever drink suits your palate,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “I’m pleased to sign this legislation into law to offer our hardest-hit businesses another lifeline as we recover from the pandemic.”

Thorner: America won't be rescued with Dems' bailout plan; future generations will pay

By Nancy Thorner - 

On March 4, 2021, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)   forced the Senate floor staff to read the entire Democratic coronavirus relief bill -- “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021” bill -- before the vote took place in the Senate, arguing it would give senators time to craft amendments and for Americans to learn the details of the legislation. As Johnson stated in his appearance on News Max's Greg Kelly show on March 9, 2021, the bill took 10 hours and 44 minutes to read. 

Following the reading, the Senate, where Democrats have effective control, passed its version of the bill after a marathon Saturday overnight session.  It eliminated or pared back some provisions in an original House bill, including an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. 

The House of Representatives is planning to take up the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. The chamber's expected approval will enable Joe Biden's signing of the legislation into law later this week.

They Want to Force COVID Shots

From Liberty Counsel HERE - 

Tragic reports of late-term miscarriages, serious side effects and death following Pfizer or Moderna COVID injections are piling up.

Historically, vaccines take up to 10 years of testing before release to the public. Years 1-5 are typically dedicated to lab research. Years 6-10 are usually dedicated to clinical safety trials. Those trials begin with animals before moving on to humans.

ONLY when inoculations have been thoroughly tested (for all categories of people) is the vaccine released to the general public.

Over 93% of all vaccines FAIL the safety part before clinical trials are completed.

Yet the COVID shots, developed in just 9 months or less, SKIPPED these critically important safety protocols.

As a result, NO ONE, not even the COVID scientists who developed the shots, know all the dangers. But we are beginning to find out...

A startling number have died within hours or days of the injection. Those victims include doctors, health care workers, elderly people and pregnant women.

When death is a side effect...

Di Leo: The Simple Facts – Reflections on the First Week of a New Administration

By John F. Di Leo - 

Energy:

Energy independence is imperative to American economic success.  After decades of Democrat-led attacks on the energy sector, President Trump did everything necessary from a government perspective to enable the real American energy sector (oil, gas and coal) to succeed.  The Biden/Harris administration is working as fast as possible to undo all this progress. 

Crime:

A crime problem is much bigger than just the specific individual criminal and victim involved in a given mugging, burglary or rape.  A crime problem contributes to the destruction of a neighborhood, the loss of jobs in a community as employers flee, the widening of ghettos and the retreat of safe neighborhoods ever farther away.  Under the Trump/Pence administration, this recognition led to their efforts to curb illegal immigration (the primary path for foreign street gangs’ growth and influence in our inner cities).  The Biden/Harris administration and the big city Democrat machines that installed it feel more “compassion” for the criminals than for the victims or for society, so they establish sanctuary cities, knock down the border wall, throw open the prison gates with mass releases of known, convicted criminals, and do everything possible to enable increased crime. 

Dr. Orient: Medicine In Turbulent Times

By Jane M. Orient, M.D. -

Students of history feel that we are living in a time comparable to 1848 (the Spring of Nations) in Europe, 1917 in Russia, 1933 in Germany—or the times of the French Revolution, the American Revolution, or the U.S. Civil War.

Most Americans who are alive today have lived in a period of relative political stability and ideological clarity. It never occurred them that they might be facing dilemmas like those their ancestors did in times preceding the American Revolution or Civil War—or those that immigrants from Cuba, Romania, communist China, the Soviet Union, and other totalitarian states came to America to escape. Most Americans, especially young ones, have no knowledge of history.         

The people who were experiencing those times of upheaval had absolutely no clue about the future. They therefore tried to make best predictions they could and bet on various outcomes. They joined different factions based upon their place in the societal structure and upon their predictions and bets. Some guessed right, and many were wrong. Millions of people were killed, and many were forced into exile. 

Most Americans are—or have been—apathetic about politics. But politics is coming for them. People in the upper middle class have felt secure—they have assets, live in a safe neighborhood, still have a paycheck or pension, and have not knowingly offended anyone. But their gated communities have been crashed. 

Parents Get Options to Escape School Lockdowns

President Trump approved the use of grants to help cover the costs of in-person education, including enrollment in private schools, allowing parents to get their children back in classrooms.

Trump’s December 28 executive order allows states to use Community Service Block Grants (CSBG) to give emergency K-12 scholarships to disadvantaged children who have been locked out of public schools due to the pandemic. The grants can cover a multitude of schooling options, such as private school, homeschooling, micro-schooling, learning-pods, special education services, or tutoring.

“All families should be empowered to make the decision that is right for their own circumstance,” Trump stated in a press release.

Di Leo: Changing Times and the Right to be Left Alone

By John F. Di Leo - 

The Question:  What is the US Government's key purpose? 

The Answer:  To make sure we're left alone. 

Now, it’s not only to leave us alone... that's just part of it.  

The Bill of Rights is a list of specific ways that the government itself is specifically directed to leave us alone. 

But it's much more than that. 

The Constitution – first in the world of its kind - was written to design a government that is only big enough - not too big, just big enough - to be able to help us, the people, to be left alone.  Not just to be left alone by government, but to be left alone by everybody. 

Six Canadian elders fined $10k for service with more than 10 worshippers

ONTARIO, CANADA - Think that maybe the United States Constitution's First Amendment isn't so important? Think that what happens in Socialist Canada would never happen in Socialist Illinois? Ask these Canadian citizens of Ontario ... 

Six elders of a church in Ontario, Canada, have been asked to appear in a criminal court for holding in-person services in violation of COVID-19-related restrictions. The elders, who face a fine of up to $10,000, say the action is “a violation of God-given rights.”

The members of Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo were charged last week under Section 10.1 of the Reopening Ontario Act for exceeding the number of permitted people in attendance — 10 people indoors and 10 people outdoors — during a worship service on Dec. 27, according to CBC News.

Officers from the Waterloo Region Police Service visited the homes of the elders at night and gave them each a summons to court.

The church says no outbreak has been traced back to its services since they reopened in June. But they “have heard a plethora of stories from many of our congregants about how they were negatively affected spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and financially during the first lockdown,” the elders said in a statement.

More on the Christian Post

Thorner: Will 2021 Be Politically Worse Than 2020?

Photo by Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange

Op-Ed by Nancy Thorner - 

This was a dismal year politically, yet we weren't as close to one world dictatorship and total financial, moral and demographic collapse as we are now with the prospects of a Biden/Harris administration. 

Unfortunately, the surprise election of Trump in 2016 just hindered the 2030 globalist agenda drive by just over four years for a one-world dictatorship.

Trump's pardons were reviled by those on the Left, yet NY Governor Cuomo gave Christmas pardons and commutations to illegal aliens and murderers.

See here the 29 people Trump pardoned or gave commutations to in the final weeks of his presidency. They included son-in-law Jared Kushner’s father, Charles, and his 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort and Republican political operative Roger Stone. Earlier, Trump issued pardons for four Blackwater guards convicted of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, former GOP lawmakers Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins and two figures in Robert Mueller’s probe of Trump’s 2016 campaign.

 

Although Governor Cuomo’s pardons to illegal aliens and murderers are far more reprehensible than those granted by Trump, they will never get major media publicity any more than drug deaths are far more common than Covid deaths in San Francisco.

Di Leo: The Wuhan Flu and the Challenge of Economic Stimuli

By John F Di Leo - 

What should a proper Covid-19 stimulus bill look like? 

Well, the one thing we know for sure is that the current one isn’t it.  After nine to ten months of partial to complete shutdowns, $600 per person isn’t enough to provide much help.  

President Trump is right to press Congress for a higher figure.  Government caused this problem, so it makes sense for government to do something to help solve it. 

RETRACTION: AMA Did NOT Rescind Previous Statement Against Hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 Patients

Illinois Review apologizes for mistakenly reporting Wednesday the AMA had voted to rescind their official position on HCQ. The AMA posted this tweet: 

CHICAGO, IL – The American Medical Association (AMA), in a surprising move, has officially rescinded a previous statement against the use of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, giving physicians the okay to return to utilizing the medication at their discretion.

Previously, the AMA had issued a statement in March that was highly critical of HCQ in regards to its use as a proposed treatment by some physicians in the early stages of COVID-19. In addition to discouraging doctors from ordering the medication in bulk for “off-label” use – HCQ is typically used to treat diseases such as malaria – they also claimed that there was no proof that it was effective in treating COVID, and that its use could be harmful in some instances.

More HERE

The Center Square: A third of Illinois small businesses closed since January

From The Center Square - Illinois comes stunning news - one out of three Illinois small businesses have closed since before the COVID pandemic hit in January. 

Illinois has lost more than a third of its small businesses since the beginning of the year, according to TrackTheRecovery.org. 

A small business association said it is heartbreaking.

The data compiled by Harvard and Brown universities and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation shows as of Nov. 16, 2020, the number of small businesses open decreased by 35.4 percent compared to January of this year.

The national average businesses not open compared to January is 28.9 percent fewer. Washington D.C. had the worst loss at 47.1 percent fewer small businesses. Nebraska and North Carolina had the best showing at 20.5 percent fewer.

More HERE. 

Thorner: Only the Blind Cannot See Truth about the 2020 Election

By Nancy Thorner -

In an unexpected shot across the bow: RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel privately doubts claims of voter fraud, but wants to appear she if fighting for President Trump. 

As for RINOs, they are trying to pretend it is business as usual.  “The GOP-controlled Senate stabbed their voters in the back on Wednesday, December 2, 2020, by passing Utah Senator Mike Lee's green card giveaway to reward Big Tech by allowing them to import hundreds of thousands of Indian workers to take jobs from struggling American tech workers. The bill failed earlier this year, but Lee brought it back and the GOP-controlled Senate just passed it with unanimous consent...It would only have taken one senator to force a debate or force a vote on the bill.”

Illinois reports highest number of COVID-related deaths in 24 hours: 238

CHICAGO - Governor JB Pritzker said Wednesday during his daily COVID-19 press briefing that Illinois reached a "solemn milestone" - 238 COVID-related deaths in 24 hours. 

"We have far-surpassed our previous single day high report of 191 in mid-May," Pritzker said. Higher case numbers, higher hospitalizations end with higher numbers of deaths. "I offer my sincerest and deepest condolences." 

Admitting some of these cases may be the result of delayed reporting after the Thanksgiving holiday, Pritzker urged Illinoisans to remain cautious.

"Wear your masks, keep your distance. STay home whenever you can. We'll get through this," he said. 

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.

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

Expanded areas with COVID mitigations take effect today

CHICAGO – Additional COVID-19 mitigation efforts are now in effect in Region 5 (Southern Illinois), Region 7 (Will and Kankakee counties), and Region 8 (Kane and DuPage counties). These regions are seeing a test positivity rate that remains above 8 percent and continues to rise after more than 14-days under Tier 1 mitigations, which exceeds the threshold set for establishing additional mitigation measures under the state’s Restore Illinois Resurgence Plan.

Region 5 has been under Tier 1 of the state’s resurgence mitigation plan since October 22 and Regions 7 and 8 since October 23, after seeing a 7-day rolling average test positivity rate of 8 percent or above for three consecutive days. However, the positivity rate has continued to significantly increase in these regions. Beginning November 11, Regions 5, 7, and 8 will face additional mitigations, such as a tighter gathering cap of 10 individuals rather than 25 and new table caps of six rather than 10 when eating out.

A word from attorney Thomas DeVore

Attorney Thomas DeVore has been counseling bar and restaurant owners in Illinois on how they can stay open despite Governor Pritzker's expanding second COVID shutdown wave.

He's represented State Rep. Darren Bailey in his lawsuit to limit the governor's powers and he's encouraged restaurants like the FoxFire restaurant in Kane County to win a temporary restraining order and keep their doors open. Here's what DeVore posted on his personal Facebook page Friday:

I need to explain something to all of you. If you have noticed recently, a great many business owners, politicians,...

Posted by Thomas DeVore on Friday, October 30, 2020

Pritzker demands more restaurants, bars to serve outside only again - despite snowy weather

COOK COUNTY - It snowed in parts of Cook and DuPage counties Monday, emphasizing how devastating Governor Pritzker's shutdown COVID-19 decrees now expanding to the most-populated Cook County will be for the area's restaurants and bars. In his shutdown orders focused on bars and restaurants, he allows only outside tables, and those until 11:00 PM.

While the Rockford area and Chicago suburban DuPage, Kane, Will and Kankakee counties were shut down last Friday, the governor's office calls for these rules to extend to more areas - Regions 4 (Metro East) and 10 (Cook County) starting Wednesday, October 28 at 12:01 am:

Bars 

• No indoor service 
• All outside bar service closes at 11:00 p.m. 
• All bar patrons should be seated at tables outside 
• No ordering, seating, or congregating at bar (bar stools should be removed)  
• Tables should be 6 feet apart  
• No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting 
• No dancing or standing indoors 
• Reservations required for each party 
• No seating of multiple parties at one table 

Restaurants 

• No indoor dining or bar service 
• All outdoor dining closes at 11:00 p.m. 
• Outside dining tables should be 6 feet apart 
• No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting 
• Reservations required for each party  
• No seating of multiple parties at one table 

Meetings, Social Events, Gatherings 

• Limit to lesser of 25 guests or 25 percent of overall room capacity 
• No party buses 
• Gaming and Casinos close at 11:00 p.m., are limited to 25 percent capacity, and follow mitigations for bars and restaurants, if applicable 

These mitigations do not currently apply to schools.

Thorner: Censorship and Propaganda Run Rampant in Closing Days of Nov. 3rd Election

By Nancy Thorner - 

“Censoring and propaganda are but two strategies that shape and mold a population." 

Psychiatry professor Albert Biderman’s “chart of coercion” includes the following methods, all of which can be clearly related to the COVID-19 response.  Biderman’s article is worth reading in its entirety, Fear Secures Obedience in Covid-19,War.

The "Chart of Coercion:"

• Isolation techniques — Quarantines, social distancing, isolation from loved ones and solitary confinement.
• Monopolization of perception — Monopolizing the 24/7 news cycle, censoring dissenting views and creating barren environments by closing bars, gyms and restaurants.
• Degradation techniques — Berating, shaming people (or even physically attacking) those who refuse to wear masks or social distance, or generally choose freedom over.
• Induced debility — Being forced to stay at home and not be able to exercise or socialize.
• Threats — Threatening with the removal of your children, prolonged quarantine, closing of your business, fines for noncompliance with mask and social distancing rules, forced vaccination and so on.
• Demonstrating omnipotence/omniscience — Shutting down the whole world, claiming scientific and medical authority.
• Enforcing trivial demands — Examples include family members being forced to stand 6 feet apart at the bank even though they arrived together in the same car, having to wear a mask when you walk into a restaurant, even though you can remove it as soon as you sit down, or having to wear a mask when walking alone on the beach.
• Occasional indulgence — Reopening some stores and restaurants but only at a certain capacity, for example. Part of the coercion plan is that indulgences are always taken away again, though, and they’re already saying we may have to shut down the world again this fall.
• The Trampling of Privacy and Human Rights--The technocracy’s fingerprints are also evident in the invasive, privacy-shredding tracking and tracing programs that have been rolled out around the world, and the repeated warning that unless every man, woman and child gets vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, life will never go back to normal.

The truth is, the technocrats have no intention of ever letting us go back to normal. The plan is to alter society permanently. Part of that alteration is the removal of civil liberties and human rights, and it is now happening at breakneck speed.

Government Worsened the COVID Crisis

There is no doubt that 2020 has become a unique event in almost everyone’s life due to the Coronavirus and the response of almost all governments everywhere in the world.

Few would disagree that we have been and are living through some unprecedented times in 2020. A global pandemic, government-imposed and mandated lockdowns and shutdowns of much of the world’s economic activities and social interactions, and total government debts that cumulatively are almost equal to the global economy’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

But while comparisons are being made between the impacts and effects of the coronavirus and the Great Depression of the 1930s and the war years of the 1940s, they are not really anywhere alike. To begin with, the Second World War cost the lives of an estimated 50 million people, combining military and civilian lives lost. Advancing and retreating armies and air bombardments undertaken by all sides in that conflict destroyed an immense amount of the world’s physical capital, especially in Europe and parts of Asia. Nothing during the last year comes even close to this from the coronavirus.

More HERE

Sunde: The forgotten child: Pandemic policies are leaving kids behind

By Joseph Sunde - 

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed many victims, from the millions who have contracted the virus directly to many others who continue to endure its social and economic disruptions.

The suffering has been particularly acute for the children who continue to be confined at home, whether struggling to adapt to remote-learning regimens or remaining mysteriously absent altogether. For low-income and minority families, in particular, the road is even more difficult. As Jonathan Chait recently put it, “The social damage will not be spread evenly.”

Meanwhile, somewhat paradoxically, the public-health case for school reopening seems only to grow stronger. According to economist Emily Oster of Brown University, “Schools do not, in fact, appear to be major spreaders of COVID-19.” Observing a range of evidence from multiple states, Oster summarizes her findings as follows:

DuPage Co family restaurant says they're staying open despite "Dictator Pritzker's" COVID shutdown orders

GLENDALE HEIGHTS - An 80 year old family restaurant in Glendale Heights declared on Facebook Wednesday they would defy "Dictator Pritzker's" COVID eat-in restaurant shutdown orders this weekend for DuPage, Will, Kane and Kankakee counties.

Ki's Steak & Seafood Restaurant on North Avenue in Glendale Heights declared on their marquee, "We are Americans" and that they are "Free and Open."

Tuesday, Governor JB Pritzker declared all eat-in restaurants in DuPage, Will, Kane and Kankakee counties to shut down starting Friday, due to an uptick in COVID cases in those areas. The Rockford region is already under similar orders.

Public health officials announced 4,342 new confirmed cases of COVID in Illinois Wednesday, with 59 additional deaths - the vast majority of which died were 70 years and older. 

"We are standing up for our freedom and we will stay open!" the restaurant's Facebook page said. "...No one is going to tell us we can't live out the American dream."

The restaurant is located just west of I-355 on North Avenue in Glendale Heights, Illinois.

Thorner: Ways in which 2020 election differs from 2016 signals Trump victory

2016 photo

By Nancy Thorner -

Biased polling to raise money, discourage the Republican vote and hide voter fraud has been a weapon for Democrats all my life. This year incentives to jigger polls have never been greater for a Democrat Establishment who fears their colleges, cities, and states will go broke without a federal bailout that depends on the Democrats at least holding the House.  But fundamental polling problems will cause even the best like Trafalgar to underestimate Trump support.

There are about 12% more registered voters this year over 2016. Did they get a call?  Pollsters still mostly call landlines. In 2016, about 50% had landlines, in 2020, that percentage is down to about 37%. Did the many millions that have switched to cell phones get a call?  How many pollsters call only registered voters instead only those that voted the last 4 out of 5 elections? Polls have been wrong around the world because they get librarians, teachers and unemployed “activists” to respond, while plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. (blue collar folks) refuse to talk to them.

A net of one sixth of people asked refuse to answer polls when they are voting for Trump, only 6% refuse to say Biden, 23% refuse to answer, Trump. That means only 77 % of Trump vote is there but 94 % of Biden vote is there for pollsters.

Census Report Shows How Jaw-Dropping Trump’s Economy Was Before Shutdowns

Based on a Census Bureau report released last Tuesday, the current debate over economic policy might come down to a question of numbers. Which would you prefer: A $1,200 “stimulus” check while not working during lockdowns, or a nearly $4,400 pay increase in a growing job?

The Census report, which chronicled changes in income and poverty in 2019, documented the state of the economy well before the coronavirus hit. But the amazing strength of the data in that report shows what the American economy, and American workers, can achieve—if given the right policy environment and opportunities.

The headline number from the Census report sounds so large as to be a misprint: Real median income for American households increased 6.8 percent in 2019—a jump of almost $4,400. Think about it for a moment: How many businesses offer 6.8 percent annual raises to all their workers?

More HERE

Illinois US Senator Durbin ramps up his anti-Trump vitriol with Facebook post

WASHINGTON - Illinois US Senator Dick Durbin's hatred for President Trump is evident in every social media post, every media appearance, every in-person comment. How does his vitriol open the door to working in a bipartisan way? How will the state of Illinois benefit from the work of such an angry, vitriolic representative in the all-important U.S. Senate? 

Durbin is on the November 2020 ballot for another six year term. His first was in 1996, then in 2002, 2008, 2014 and now he seeks another in 2020. 

Here's what the senator posted Tuesday on his Facebook Page: 

Thorner: Trump and the Covid-19 Mask Debate

US News photo

By Nancy Thorner - 

President Trump isn't the first US president to be infected with a "pandemic".  US President Woodrow Wilson became sick in April 1919 of 'Spanish Flu, while in Paris negotiating the end of World War One. The first lady, Edith Wilson, quickly stepped in to make sure as few people as possible knew the president was ailing. 

 

President Trump, on the other hand, announced via Twitter early on Friday, Oct 2, 2020 that he and the first lady had tested positive for Covid virus and were self-isolating.  Trump later that day was transported by helicopter from the White House to Walter Reed Hospital where he could be treated by a team of specialist as a precaution, because of his age and the nature of the illness on someone Trump's age, who is also overweight.

Di Leo: A President, a Diagnosis, and Welcome Clarity at Election Time

By John F. Di Leo - 

From the moment that President Trump was diagnosed with symptoms of the China virus, the punditry has declared that this news “fundamentally changes the race.”

But why?

Yes, the President would have to work out of Walter Reed Hospital for a few days instead of from the Oval Office... And the president will have to take a break from his wonderful campaign rallies...

But that is all. In fact, the cancellation of his rallies means he can do even more from the White House, without all that time spent in travel from state to state. The President has excellent surrogates to campaign in his place; he can continue to focus on his job, a luxury few candidates are afforded in the weeks before an election.

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

Sun-Times photo

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

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

Wirepoints poses these questions to be answered by Governor Pritzker:

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

Read more at Wirepoints.org

Di Leo: From Local Riots to Societal Collapse, From Paris to Kenosha

By John F Di Leo -

Politicians have an old joke – maybe too truthful and unfunny to be called a joke – about the politician who sees a crowd marching along, and mutters to himself, “I’d better find out where they’re going, so I can wriggle my way to the front and lead them there.”

This date in history, August 26, holds a worthwhile lesson on this subject.  It was on August 26, 1789, when the Marquis de Lafayette and the Abbe Saiyes (allegedly with lots of advice from the USA ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson), published their Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, designed to be one of the cornerstones of the French Revolutionary government.

They didn’t intend for the French Revolution to be a bloodbath, after all.  Much of the French nobility was honestly trying to do the right thing, to gradually and responsibly guide the country toward republican governance under a figurehead monarch.  They thought the Paris mob, already visibly dangerous from their ghastly behavior at the practically-empty Bastille, could be controlled, their energy harnessed in support of this worthy goal.

Di Leo: Pushing the Envelope: Using a Pandemic to Undermine our Elections

By John F. Di Leo - 

The question of the year is, how should we manage our elections?

Perhaps this should actually be the question every year, as study after study, and numerous convictions – all over the country - have proven that vote fraud is real and widespread, not just some localized Chicago problem or political red herring.

But with pandemic-related calls for sweeping changes in our voting methods this year, with an effort to rush them through without so much as a chance for analysis and discussion, we risk turning our elections from merely imperfect to worse than useless.

How the Media Drives Radical ‘Wokeness’

“Fake news” isn’t the only media problem in 2020.

An important analysis in media trends of the past decade shows how activist journalism is promoting radical racial “wokeness.”

There was a time when the woke ideology was firmly ensconced in the ivory tower and limited to radical corners of our university system. But now it’s everywhere, and America seemingly can’t stop talking about race, racism, and anti-racism all the time.

More than that, the George Floyd protests have turned into the 1619 riots, where the very idea of America is being called into question as a part of some grand racial reckoning.

But where is all of this coming from?

An in-depth analysis at Tablet magazine from Zach Goldberg, a doctoral candidate in political science at Georgia State University, shows that at the very least, America’s most elite media institutions have been the conduit for these ideas to become ubiquitous.

More HERE

Di Leo: Healthcare and Lockdowns in 2020 America

By John F. Di Leo -

Public policy is about choices.  It’s about recognizing the differences between different policy decisions, and forecasting the difference in potential results from those decisions.   

For example: 

What's the difference between getting diagnosed with heart disease in March or April and getting a stent or a bypass done and living another 25 years...  

...or not going in, because everyone's scared to go to the hospital because of COVID-19, and having a fatal heart attack in June or July? 

Di Leo: Funerals and Hypocrisy, in an Election Year

By John F. Di Leo -  

The week of July 26 saw six days of memorial services for the late congressman, U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D, GA).  Some were big events, with lots of people in attendance. Since he was a politician, he had politicians speaking at his nationally-televised funerals.  And that’s certainly fair.

But here’s the odd thing…

I lost a very dear friend, a few months ago. Not from “The Virus”… no, she was 89, and she had been suffering from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's for 5 years. It was just old age.

She hasn't had her funeral yet.

Di Leo: The Masked Face and the Public Square

By John F. Di Leo - 

In the fall of 1951, Galaxy Science Fiction serialized one of Robert A. Heinlein’s tales, which was eventually published as The Puppet Masters.  The story concerned an invasion of earth by small, flat, incredibly-fast-breeding aliens that could attach themselves to a human’s back and take over his mind completely.  

Though humanity eventually eradicates the threat, the book closes with the decision that life will never be the same. Due to the risk that these creatures might return, mankind must change the way it lives.   

We must forever change the way we dress and greet each other; clothing must expose the back, and greetings must include turning around to show the other person that you’re not controlled, much as the modern handshake developed from the medieval display of an open hand to show you weren’t brandishing a weapon.

Di Leo: Ten Percent and Counting – the Predictable Recidivism of COVID-19’s Ex-Cons

By John F. Di Leo -

When much of this nation started embarking on unprecedented shutdowns in March – closing our factories, our stores, our restaurants and schools… evacuating our hospitals to make room for the millions of patients that were sure to flood them in a matter of days, as soon as the CCP Virus caught on – one of the oddest choices that some state governments made was to set their prisoners free.

The peculiar, misguided fear that criminals in jail might catch this virus prompted certain hard leftist governors – New York’s Cuomo, Washington’s Inslee, California’s Newsom, Illinois' Pritzker, and others – to throw open the prison gates. They flooded their own communities with these known, proven criminals, people in jail for committing crimes - not just minor transgressions, but the kind that actually result in years behind bars, even in these permissive, forgiving states. (Remember, when studying their rap sheets, that criminals are usually cataloged under lesser crimes than the ones they actually committed, due to plea bargaining).

Plenty of voices opposed the idea, of course, but Republicans are a muzzled minority in such states, and the local press usually serves as house organs for the state Democratic party, so few listened to these warnings.

Thorner/Ingold: Where's the Beef (Spike)?

By Nancy Thorner & Ed Ingold - 

Stocks suffered their biggest one-day pull back in three months on Thursday, June 11, 2020, as traders grew concerned about the number of coronavirus cases increasing in some states that are opening up from lockdowns, over fear of a second wave of coronavirus in the fall. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,861.82 points, or 6.9%, to close at 25,128.17. 

As Victor Davis Hanson wrote in his article, The Bitter Irony of Revolutions, on Wednesday, June 10, 2020:

Throughout history, revolutions often do not end up as their initial architects planned.

The ancient Greeks created new words like "paradox" and "irony" to describe the wide gap between what people profess and assume, and what they actually do and suffer.

The COVID-19 epidemic, the nationwide mass quarantine, and the massive protests, looting, rioting and arson that all followed the police killing of George Floyd have resulted in similar paradoxes. 

Social distancing and mandated lockdowns for months have been the source of endless fighting between the people and their governments. Red and blue states often adopted diametrically opposite policies. 

But the massive demonstrations and rioting saw hundreds of thousands of protesters jammed together and often without masks. That mass disobedience to quarantining will teach us, better than any university modeling, whether the virus spikes or is indifferent to thousands who congregate in the streets.

Thorner/Ingold: Good News on Spread of Coronavirus

By Nancy Thorner & Ed Ingold -

A CNN headline on May 22, 2020 read, CDC estimates that 35% of coronavirus patient don't have symptoms. The article by Arman Azad was based on new guidance for mathematical modelers and public health official from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In summary, the CDC finds that 36% of the individuals testing positive for COVID-19 were asymptomatic. Under CDC guidelines, only those showing symptoms of COVID-19 are eligible for testing. Random data of this sort is trickling in now that employees are being tested in order to return to their workplace, where the percentage is as high as 86%.

Bad news for checking the spread of coronavirus?  Not so fast.

Former Illinois state senator about COVID-19: "It's a lie to pretend that government can protect you"

CHICAGO - "It's a lie for government to pretend it can protect you," former State Senator Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) said this week in an video-recorded interview with Illinois Review. "It's an embarrassment [that elected officials responded as they did] - that's not American, it's not the people we are. We should never let this happen again this way."

"As things have become clearer that this is not going to kill five million Americans," Rauschenberger said. "I think there's been a slowness to address the real issues. We should be focused on the vulnerable, and let the rest of society get back to work, back to school and get on with their lives," Rauschenberger said. 

The 6 min interview:

Mayor Lightfoot's boast Re-Open Illinois rally was dispersed by Chicago Police doesn't line up

Photo by Mark Weyermuller

CHICAGO - Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was very unhappy about the group "Re-Open Illinois" organizing at the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park on Memorial Day. She boasted via Twitter that the Re-Open Illinois rally posed an "unacceptable health risk" and was "dispersed" by the Chicago Police.  

The Chicago media took the Mayor's word for it, and reported that the Chicago Police broke up the rally. 

But Mayor Lightfoot's version of what happened doesn't line up with the version "Re-Open Illinois" rally organizers and attendees tell. Lake County Board member Dick Barr walked by a line of observing Chicago Police when leaving the rally - and says the police didn't interfere at all.

Gov Pritzker blasts "Re-Open Illinois" protests; accuses GOP lawmakers, US Senate candidate of being "dangerous"

From video taken at Chicago rally Saturday 

CHICAGO - Monday, Governor JB Pritzker told reporters he feared for his and his family's safety because of signs that were displayed at protests in Springfield and Chicago last Saturday. 

In response to the press conference question from NPR-Illinois, "Governor, are you worried about you, or your family’s safety after anti-Semitic hate speech was used during protests over the weekend?" Pritzker said he was - because of protest signs.

"Yes, I have to admit that I am worried about my family’s safety. You saw some of the signs, some of the vehemence - those people were carrying signs with swastikas and pictures of Adolph Hitler - uh, references to me and my family. Um, yeah, I’m concerned," he said.

Photos of the Springfield rally showed one handmade sign with two swastikas and Pritzker wearing a Hitler-like mustache. A video of the Chicago rally shows protesters loudly rejecting a person flaunting a flag with a swastika. "He's not with us," the protesters said. "Soros plant!" others shouted at the flag bearer.

Di Leo: A Day at the Mall - back when shopping was fun

By John F. Di Leo - 

For at least two hundred years, one of the goals of the retail industry has been to make shopping fun – to make a trip to the general store, or the downtown retail district, or the indoor mall an enjoyable, even entertaining experience.

Stores are designed with an eye to bright colors and comfortable surroundings. Malls have been built with stages in the wings, so they could bring in high school choirs for Christmas caroling, or personal appearances by pop stars or children’s TV performers. Department stores like Nordstrom’s, and grocery stores like Mariano’s spend the money for both a fine piano and a live pianist to entertain the shoppers as they go by.

None of these measures really add anything to the value of that pair of earrings or cufflinks, that candelabra or easy chair, that case of wine or bag of groceries for which you came. 

But these various forms of decoration and entertainment work together to draw you to that store or mall in the first place, and then to inspire you to stay and shop some more. And the longer and more frequently you’re there because you’re comfortable, the more you’ll buy.  A win-win, for both the store itself and the economy at large.

"Chicago Thuggery" directed at Romanian Churches

CHICAGO - Chicago is drawing national attention with the way Mayor Lori Lightfoot chose to deal with Romanian churches that held services Sunday. She ordered "no parking" for nine blocks around the churches. Liberty Counsel, a legal team defending the churches' First Amendment rights, is calling Lightfoot's behavior "mob-like thuggery." 

They write: 

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has engaged in mob-like thuggery against the Romanian churches that have begun to meet in-person. Even though these churches have their own private parking, and their members don’t park on the street, the mayor ordered “No Parking” signs along the streets for nine blocks around the churches. 

On Sunday, Mayor Lightfoot blocked off nine blocks around the churches posting “No Parking” signs, hoping she would get the neighbors mad at the church. However, the churches are not using street parking with their limited services. The aldermen sent letters to the neighbors of the churches instructing them not to park on the street from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. The letters stated the reason for the “No Parking” signs was due to the Romanian churches holding limited services.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The actions by the Illinois Governor and Chicago Mayor are reminiscent of mob-like thuggery. These pastors lived under Communist Romania, and now the suppression of the church and their faith has come to their adopted homeland. The outrageous action by Mayor Lori Lightfoot is putting people in danger. These heavy-handed tactics are unconstitutional and will not succeed.”

READ MORE HERE

Where’s Weyermuller? Reporting on Chicago COVID-19 protest

By Mark Weyermuller - 

As states around the country begin to open up, Illinois appears to be stuck in a COVID shutdown that may never end. This week, neighboring states Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa all began opening what Illinois' governor deems "non-essential" businesses - including bars, dine-in restaurants, small retail shops, gyms, nail salons, and hair stylists.

Yet similar businesses in Illinois remain closed.

Letter to Editor: I am writing because I am angry

Letter to Editor: 

I am writing because I am angry. Not at you, but at this whole situation. We didn’t shut the economy down for ebola or swine flu. They purposefully shut it down to ruin the economy. As if they haven’t been a pain in the a** enough already since President Trump won. These sorry-a**ed Democrats are becoming tyrannical.

What law says that we have to wear masks? Governor Pritzker does not make the law, the Legislature does. You are supposed to quarantine sick people, not healthy people. 

Who is fighting for the people of LaSalle County?  Why does the Governor have all this power?  He is supposed to be working for us!

Thorner/Ingold: If We Open, Will They Come?

By Nancy Thorner & Ed Ingold -

A 1989 movie, Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner, told of a farmer who heard a voice telling him to build a baseball diamond in a field. “If you build it, he will come,” referring to Shoeless Joe Jackson, banned from baseball following the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal.

We’re all hearing voices clamoring for the country to open for business following nearly two months in pandemic shutdown. We are assured that if we do this, the economy will rebound like a home-run baseball. It is one thing to allow businesses and stores to resume operations, but recovery depends on consumers. The question is, “If we open, will they come?”

Congress should prevent govs from keeping federal funds from local municipalities, IL delegation says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Illinois' five Republican US Congress members called on Congress to protect local municipalities from governors withholding federal funds as leverage to demand they keep small businesses closed due to the COVID crisis. 

U.S. Representatives Darin LaHood (IL-18), John Shimkus (IL-13), Adam Kinzinger (IL-16), Rodney Davis (IL-13), and Mike Bost (IL-12) sent a letter Friday to Congressional Leadership urging that Congress take action to prevent governors from withholding federal funds appropriated by Congress for local municipalities that allow their small businesses to reopen in accordance with federal health guidelines, but ahead of arbitrary timelines outlined by states.

Following last week’s announcement of the “Restore Illinois” plan by Governor Pritzker, the Illinois Republican delegation heard from mayors, sheriffs, county board officials, and constituents with deep concern that the current guidelines outlined by the state will cripple the livelihoods of communities downstate.

Sutter: Coronavirus and a Possible Vaccine

By Daniel Sutter - 

President Trump recently announced “Operation Warp Speed,” a plan for a novel coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020.  I welcome the announcement because the greatest impediment to a vaccine now is the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval process. Speedy development of a vaccine is not without precedent.

The FDA vaccine approval process starts with animal testing to evaluate safety and the production of antibodies followed by three phases of human testing.  First is a very small sample to test safety; vaccines sometimes induce immune system reactions which damage organs.  If judged safe, two rounds of randomized control trials ensue involving hundreds and then thousands of participants.

Only a safe and effective vaccine will benefit Americans.  A vaccine will likely be part of returning life to normal.  An ineffective vaccine may unleash another COVID outbreak and thousands of deaths.

Can this be accomplished quickly?  Dr. Anthony Fauci has repeatedly stated that developing a vaccine will take 12 to 18 months; other experts suggest years.  History shows otherwise, at least in one case.  In 1957, a new strain of influenza, the Asian flu, was detected in Hong Kong in April.  Dr. Maurice Hilleman, chief of respiratory diseases at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, wanted a vaccine ready before it reached the U.S.  When the flu arrived four months later, forty million Americans had been inoculated.  The pandemic claimed 70,000 American lives, but the total likely would have been much higher without a vaccine.

More HERE

Pritzker to face another lawsuit - this one from Will County

MOKENA - Will County Board member Steve Balich says in a YouTube Wednesday that he just left his attorney's office - Bruggemann & Hurst in Mokena Illinois - after filing a federal lawsuit against Governor Pritzker and the state of Illinois for damages.  

Will County GOP Chairman George Pearson, Will County Board member Steve Balich, pet groomer Samantha L. Palya, a non-essential worker Amanda Hameran are all co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed with the US District Court Northern District of Illinois - Eastern Division.

"I've gotten all kinds of calls from businesses complaining about why they're not open," Balich said. "I don't have a good answer. People are suffering, people of my district are crying out to me to do something. So I filed this lawsuit." 

Pritzker faces lawsuits from two Republican lawmakers, as well as three Springfield business people: a hair salon owner and a restaurateur with two establishments. The cases argue the governor has neither constitutional nor statutory power to implement consecutive 30-day COVID-19 state of emergency orders. 

The Will County complaint focuses on the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment and the state of Illinois' Article 1, Section 15: