Illinois Review

Di Leo: From Minimum Wage to Maximum Damage

By John F. Di Leo - 

The halls of Congress are ringing with the siren song of an increased minimum wage. Politicians who don’t have employees of their own promised their constituents fat sums of other people’s money during the campaign, and now they feel it’s time to delivery on the promise, by mandating that other companies raise the hourly wage they pay their employees. 

And it’s not just a raise, it’s a standard, a new flat number from coast to coast and border to border, determined arbitrarily, because it sounds neat and feels generous. 

The proposal on the table is to more than double the current federal minimum wage, from $7.25 to $15.00 per hour. On what is this new number based?  On the fact that several big cities have mandated this number, so the politicians can use their number and absolve themselves of responsibility for coming up with a proposal themselves. 

Di Leo: A Desperate Regime's Hollow Claims at the Gas Pump

By John F. Di Leo -

The Whitewash House is claiming credit for “gas prices going down 44 days in a row.”

Amazingly, the Biden-Harris regime is trying to get away with claiming that it deserves political points for fuel pump price drops this midsummer, in the desperate hope that it will blunt some of the election backlash the Democratic Party rightly deserves this fall.

Their claim is unjust for a host of reasons.

Nationally averaged gas prices always drop a bit in June and July. This happens because gas prices always spike nationally in May, because of the costly annual EPA-mandated switch to the summer blends in our overregulated big cities. The slight drops we have seen in recent weeks are therefore just a matter of the marketplace completing its annual adjustments after that costly artificial changeover. Your pump price remains more than double what you were paying when President Trump was in office.

More, here:

Di Leo: The Final Months of a Bad Employee

By John F. Di Leo - 

If you work in the business world long enough, you will notice that an employee reveals the most about his own personal work ethic, not when he starts out, not when he’s angling for a bonus or promotion, but at the end, when he gets a new job and gives his two weeks’ notice, or when he starts training his successor as he reaches retirement.

How hard does he work those final weeks? Does he still put the company first, or does he just phone it in?  Or does he stuff his briefcase with office supplies, raid the petty cash drawer, and pilfer the prototype cabinet every evening before he goes home?

If he really gives it all he’s got, right up to the last day, then there’s a role model to remember with love.

The same goes for political leadership when it has had its walking papers served on Election Day, or even when that eventuality becomes evident, months in advance.

More, here:

Di Leo: Eight Critical Steps to Restore the Republic

By John F. Di Leo - 

It is expected – unless the vote fraud is even worse than usual this time – that the Republicans will win back both the US House and the US Senate in November 2022.

This is not certain, and nobody should count their chickens before they’re hatched, though every poll points to it.

Even so, it’s not too soon to talk about what the next GOP Congress needs to do.  And this time, some of the absolute musts are unusual.

Di Leo: Like a Seinfeld episode, Illinois Republicans do the Opposite

By John F Di Leo - 

It is said that "there is a Seinfeld for everything."

Who would’ve expected an Illinois primary election to give support to that, of all theories? But, so it has.

First, the fundamentals: Despite Illinois having been a reliable swing state for generations, due to the powerful Chicago Democrat machine countered by the reliably conservative Republican suburbs and rural downstate, a change began in the 1980s, when a new state constitution tipped the balance of power to the Democrats.

As Chicago and Illinois' other large cities grew more dangerous and more corrupt, the lifelong Democrat voters of the cities moved into the suburbs (without changing their voting patterns), overturning that old balance, and making it easier and easier for Democrats to win the state.

No longer called a swing state, Mike Madigan’s record-setting two-generation hold on the Speaker’s chair, combined with incredibly bad luck (and unforced errors) in numerous US Senate races, have resulted in an almost unshakably defeatist attitude in the minds of Republican activists, party officials, media, and worst of all, donors.

Di Leo: The Democrat Party Finds a Scapegoat at the Seaport

By John F. Di Leo - 

Analysis of the real story behind the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022

In a lesson for the ages about political grandstanding, Rep. John Garamendi said, "Nine multinational ocean shipping companies formed three consortiums to raise prices on American businesses and consumers by over 1,000% on goods coming from Asia," as he and other members of the Swamp proudly passed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, which former NIT-League president Ed Emmett has rightly called "a cure that's worse than the disease."

Never mind that the containership lines have actually operated these alliances, known as Vessel Sharing Agreements, for over a generation, strictly for the benefit of the consumer. The accusatory term "consortium" is utterly unfounded.

Never mind that, in boom times and recessions alike, the containership lines have been delivering most of their services to American businesses – especially exporters – at a massive financial loss, with the government's blessing, and with the market's appreciation, until the past two years.

But now that "supply chain disruption" is on the tip of everyone's tongue, the nation's politicians looked around for someone to blame, and predictably – with the Blamer-in-Chief's blessing, of course – settled on the largely foreign-based shipping lines as the target du jour.

More, in the American Thinker, here:

(shown: Pier 300 Channel, photo credit The Port of Los Angeles)

Di Leo: A Burning Hot Agenda in a Chilly Economy

By John F. Di Leo - 

Reflections as Joe Biden takes on the furnace manufacturers...

Regulator-in-Chief Joe Biden's latest demands on the manufacturing community include attacking the makers of furnaces and other household heating appliances for using too much energy (which is only so expensive because of their policies), and for producing too much carbon dioxide (you know, the stuff we all exhale every day of their lives, without ill effect). The Biden-Harris regime is therefore "proposing" new efficiency standards for manufacturers and distributors of such appliances, requiring the use of much more expensive manufacturing and operating processes.

If we had a divided government, with either the House or Senate in Republican hands, there might be some chance of slowing or halting such costly, foolish regulations, but with Biden, Harris, Schumer, and Pelosi all drinking from the same pitcher of Kool-Aid, once these plots are proposed, they usually go into effect a few months later, remaining on the books, causing costly problems in the marketplace for years and years, until some future administration can dial them back.

Miltimore: A Gallon of Gas Now Costs More Than the Federal Minimum Wage in These US Cities

By Jon Miltimore - 

As nearly 40 million Americans traveled over the for Memorial Day weekend, they were confronted with an unpleasant reality: gasoline prices are through the roof.

During the previous week, for the first time ever, gas prices topped $4 in every single state. On Wednesday, Florida hit a new record high—$4.57 a gallon. That’s a lot, but it pales in comparison to California, where the average price per gallon was $6.06 as of Monday. In some parts of the Golden State, however, prices are even much higher.

A CBS News article published Tuesday pointed out that the price of a gallon of gas at many California service stations was higher than the federal minimum wage. According to GasBuddy, the following locations were $7.25+.

Chevron at 901 N. Alameda St. in Los Angeles: $7.83 a gallon

Chevron at 51557 US-395 in Lee Vining: $7.39 a gallon

Chevron at 712 North CA-127 in Shoshone: $7.39 a gallon

Shell at 453 Main St. in Bridgeport: $7.39 a gallon

Valero at 377 Main St. in Bridgeport: $7.35 a gallon

Mobil at 8489 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles: $7.29 a gallon

Shell at 51424 US-395 in Lee Vining: $7.29 a gallon

Mobil at 22 Vista Point Drive in Lee Vining: $7.29 a gallon

Chevron at 3600 Alameda Drive in Menlo Park: $7.25 a gallon

More HERE

Di Leo: Biden Whips Up the Longshoremen, As Strike Fears Rise

By John F. Di Leo - 

Joe Biden went to the port of Los Angeles on Friday, June 10, to make a speech about the economy.

Nothing odd there.  The stock market is down 15% so far this year, inflation is skyrocketing, and energy prices are so high that the unemployed can't afford the commute if they accept a job.  An administration is expected to address these matters.

Unfortunately, in this case, virtually all the problems are caused by the very positions on which this regime is doubling down. 

And of all the indelicate, inopportune times and places to choose for this speech, he headed to the busiest, most important seaport in the Americas, twenty days before the deadline crashes down on the most delicate labor negotiation of the year.

All laborers on the west coast seaports belong to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).  While some of them still do the heavy, physical jobs of traditional shipping, the lion's share of this industry was changed, some seventy years ago, with the advent of containerization and the growth of intermodal transportation.

Continued, in the American Thinker, here:

Di Leo: China's Draconian Lockdowns Extend to Tianjin

By John F. Di Leo - 

 

The Chinese government announced on May 19 that they are immediately putting much of the city of Tianjin under the martial-law style Covid lockdowns for which Chairman Xi Jinping will be remembered.

 

As he has previously done in Wuhan, Shenzhen, and other major cities, residents are restricted to their homes and require special permission to leave. While businesses may not be formally closed, they cannot reopen without staff, so they are unable to function unless they are fortunate enough to be completely outside the shuttered zone, and rely on staffs also outside the shuttered zones.

 

Tianjin is the primary seaport for the capital city of Beijing, one of the largest ports in northern China, and one of the busiest ports in the world.

Di Leo: Solar Power, Subsidies and the Real World

By John F. Di Leo - 

While budgets should have been getting tighter for years now, some states, at least, are finally awakening to the need to watch their spending.  Well, better late than never, right?

One example of this newfound awareness is the effort of some to reconsider our generous subsidies for solar panels, particularly the rooftop panels that one sees high atop single family homes across otherwise reasonable suburbs. Mississippi, Florida, and other states are in the news right now as they debate the question of rethinking the levels at which the taxpayer ought to subsidize the homeowner for this choice of dubious economic value.

It costs between $15,000 and $70,000 to install solar panels atop the roof of a normal single family home. Why the broad range?  The pitch of the roof, the brand of the panels, the total square footage, and so forth.  The prevailing wage of such installers varies widely across the country... and the relative value of the installation varies from side to side of the same street.

Thorner: Are Food Shortages Likely In 2022?

Penn State News graphic

By Nancy Thorner - 

Articles for some time have been appearing in the news that speak of a food shortage in 2022.

Find out here about 2022 possible food shortages.

As cited in the article: “Shortages may depend on where you buy your groceries as there are regional differences in supply,” Josh Brazil, VP of Supply Insights at project44, a supply chain visibility solution, says. ‘That means some of you may be lucky enough to not have any food shortages at all!'"

Speaking to reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels in March of this year, President Joe Biden warned Americans a food shortage is coming.

Citing the war being waged by Russia and Ukraine, in addition to sanctions imposed by the west, Biden said warnings about fertilizer and wheat scarcity are real.

Di Leo: All Crime and No Punishment, from Chicago to Springfield

By John F. Di Leo - 

On Saturday, April 9, the most recent session of the Illinois State Legislature finished up its business by passing a bunch of "anti-crime" measures.

Note that the term "anti-crime" is in quotations. It has to be… because to the Democrat majority in Springfield, "anti-crime" measures exist to win votes on election day, not to make the streets safer.

Di Leo: America's Truck Driver Shortage

By John F. Di Leo - 

There is a trucker shortage... and it's worse every year.

This is not news; this national driver shortage is no shock to businessmen or policymakers. Our driver shortage contributes to empty store shelves, idled assembly lines, retail price inflation, a reduced Gross Domestic Product, and the global supply chain crisis.

This is not just one industry’s problem; it’s everybody’s problem. What is odd, however, is that so many people believe the trucker shortage is caused entirely by not enough people choosing the profession of truck driving as a career.  While that is certainly a part of it, it's not our real problem.

In fact, our truck driver shortage is caused primarily by a series of destructive government policies at every level.

More, in the American Thinker, here:

Di Leo: Federal Reserve Action Just a Drop in the Bucket

By John F. Di Leo - 

The Federal Reserve System is raising interest rates at last.  It's about time.

 

If you've been putting off refinancing your house, it's probably a good time for it; rates won't get any lower.

 

The business pages say that the Federal Reserve is finally doing its job. They say that keeping inflation in check (well, really, keeping the dollar steady, stable and respected might be a better way to put it) is the Fed's purpose, and that is certainly true.

 

But it's not the whole story... and if you believe the media line that rate hikes from the Fed alone will put an end to this spiraling inflation, I have the deed to a beautiful bridge to sell you.

Di Leo: Destruction in Ukraine, and the Conflict to Come

By John F. Di Leo - 

For three weeks now, the world has watched the Russian war machine move into Ukraine. We have witnessed the shelling of cities and towns; we have seen crowds of women and children fleeing the country to escape.

We have watched hospitals, business districts, and apartment buildings emptied of people, emptied of vehicles; their storefronts destroyed, their windows blown out.

It’s a war zone. That’s what war zones look like. And if our hearts bleed for these refugees, then that’s as it should be. Our hearts should care.

But that’s not where our minds should be.

Our minds should be half a planet away, on the coast of Mainland China, and the little economic powerhouse just off its shore: the island of Taiwan, Republic of China (R.O.C.).

More, in the American Thinker, here:

(photo: city and port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C., American Thinker)

Di Leo: Quoting Out of Context, from Inflation to Petroleum

PBS photo

By John F. Di Leo - 

The Biden-Harris regime is delighting in the opportunity to pin the blame on Putin’s War - for skyrocketing fuel prices today, and for the food shortages and economic challenges of tomorrow.

As the regime’s lies go, we must admit: this one isn’t a lie.  Putin’s War has indeed caused the interruption of certain international supply lines.  Necessary sanctions against Russia have almost immediately ended the flow of considerable export business that employed countless American workers, and the import bans and duty rate hikes being imposed on Russian products will cause some shortages, from grocery shelves to factory stockrooms.

Ukraine was long known as the breadbasket of Europe; this war zone won’t be producing a harvest in 2022.  If dozens of countries have grown accustomed to getting their energy from Russia and their grain from Ukraine, these buyers will definitely be paying more, to other vendors, as their supply chains adjust.

From Joe Biden’s speechwriters to his cabinet and his press secretaries, we now hear these points made with frequency and… perhaps even… with relief?  It can hardly be our imagination, as we take note of the genuine ease with which these experienced spin artists direct the blame for our current problems toward Putin’s War.

Di Leo: Keys, Cars, Crimes, Courtrooms ... and Ketanji Brown Jackson

By John F. Di Leo - 

I had an interesting experience at the car repair shop this weekend. Nothing big; it was just due for an oil change... but I was able to include one of the services I can't usually use: the free tire rotation. (I usually buy tires one at a time, thanks to potholes and nails, but for once, I actually replaced them as a set, so they could be rotated).

No such luck.  I couldn't get the rotation this time, because we appear to have lost the wheel lock key.

That's not such a big deal in itself; I can do without the tire rotation.  But it does mean I have to contact the manufacturer to order the right key, and I should do it quickly, in case of a flat tire (as previously mentioned, I am prone to such bad luck with cars).

And I got to thinking. A key to protect each tire. Why? And at what expense?

Di Leo: Putin‘s War and the Supply Chain Crisis

By John F Di Leo -

Now that Russia has invaded Ukraine, there is full-scale war in Europe. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and possibly also Moldova are fully engaged, with other nearby countries on alert, involving themselves in a way that sometimes appears to push the envelope of neutrality.

We all know what this means in terms of the human cost to people and geography. Shelling, bombing, firing on individuals, businesses, population centers, industrial centers, and other targets, both military and civilian.

Thousands of people have already been killed, and many thousands more, most likely, will die in the weeks and months ahead.

That is of course the most important thing, the human cost. But we all know that; what may not be as obvious is how a war affects other, distant countries and people, and the world at large.

Di Leo: The Canadian Truckers' Choice: The Easy Way or the Hard Way

By John F. Di Leo - 

Justin Trudeau, current prime minister of Canada, and heir of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, is angry.  There are truckers — lots of them — clogging the streets of Ottawa, honking their horns, and revving their engines.

Raised in privilege as a prime minister's son, Mr. Trudeau doesn't believe that he should have to listen to the people's voices, let alone their engines. 

So he has ordered police to steal the drivers' fuel and even impound their vehicles.  He has ordered banks to confiscate their bank accounts.  He has even decreed a national emergency — which he didn't do for the virus, by the way, only for the truckers' convoy — and in so doing, jeopardized the majority status of his party, since virtually everyone knows that the Emergencies Act was never intended for anything like this.

Yes, this is a big demonstration.  Yes, it's one of the biggest in Canadian history, possibly the biggest (though there are different ways to count such things).  Yes, the closure of a couple of bridges was a noticeable hit to the economy for a few days — though not nearly as severe a hit as two years of mask mandates, social distancing mandates, lockdowns, and shutdowns have been, and we don't see him apologizing for those, do we?

But there is something about this particular demonstration that the extremist pro-max-and-vax fringe crowd might want to consider: that it could be worse.

More, in the American Thinker, HERE:

Di Leo: GOP gubernatorial primary candidates vie for suburban voters

Bailey, Solomon, Schimpf, Rabine

 

By John F. Di Leo - 

A Republican town hall was held in Naperville, and Illinois Review was there...

On Saturday, February 12, Freedom Initiative Now hosted a GOP Gubernatorial Town Hall, featuring four of the announced Republican candidates for Governor of Illinois, with a couple hundred activists in attendance at the Embassy Suites in Naperville.

State Senator Darren Bailey, former State Senator Paul Schimpf, businessman Gary Rabine, and attorney Max Solomon were seated on the dais.  Three other candidates believed to be in the running - Chris Roper (who at some point had accepted), Jesse Sullivan and Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin – were not in attendance.

Co-hosts Nick Richmond and Kelly Dittmann kept their introduction to a minimum, asked three appropriate, general series of questions, then closed with a couple of final questions from the audience.  The format wasn’t perfect, but it was impressively, scrupulously fair.

Di Leo: The Problem with Mandates

By John F. Di Leo - 

There is a short, pithy line that a lot of us find ourselves saying these days… one which merits reconsideration because it is only occasionally accurate.

“Mandates are not laws.”

It’s only four words long; therefore, it works well as a tweet or Facebook comment. It fits on a picket sign.  People mutter it all the time, nowadays, especially in the context of masks, social distancing, and vaccines.

But is it true?

Frankly, it depends. Sometimes the statement is true -- some mandates are not legally binding at all -- but often, when legitimate, this is just a distinction without a difference.

More, in the American Thinker, HERE:

Di Leo: Crime and Consequences: A Holiday Tale

By John F. Di Leo - 

What does crime cost?

Big question, I know. But as we have just finished up one of the worst years for crime in American history, in terms of unexpected and painful growth of various types of crime, it is worth considering the human cost of this epidemic.

We can quote statistics until the cows come home, but eyes glaze over, and the impact may be lost. Numbers and percentages are just figures on spreadsheets and graphs, impersonal and unrelatable.

So, on this dawn of a new year, please allow me to share a personal experience with crime.

More, in the American Thinker, here:

Di Leo: Joe Manchin, Giant-Killer?

by John F. Di Leo - 

In the great Woody Allen comedy, Love and Death, Allen plays a Russian nebbish who is celebrated for his heroism when, after hiding in a cannon during a battle, he gets fired into the Napoleonic command tent, taking down four enemy generals and thereby winning the battle.  His rival, played by Harold Gould, derides his newfound celebrity with the understated line, “I understand your heroism was quite inadvertent.”

Americans may soon realize that the newfound celebrity of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin may be due to something similar.

The Build Back Better Bill, also known as the $5 Trillion spending plan, or the $2 Trillion spending plan, or the $3.5 Trillion spending plan, or the Moving Target spending plan, is essentially the Green New Deal married to a Welfare State wish list, with an alliterative and euphemistic title slapped on top for PR.

Conservatives rightly oppose it, not merely because it’s expensive, but because it includes a litany of distinct policy directions that are dead wrong for this country – wrong, in fact, for any country.

For Example...

More, in the American Thinker, here...

Di Leo: The Long Lines of a Christmas Week

By John F. Di Leo - 

As we shop this week, we should remember:

We are all suffering the same problems this year.  Big stores and little stores, your family and friends, and you and I.

We all suffer from supply chain holdups...  Biden-Harris era inflation... irritability after two years of ridiculous, often unconstitutional changes to the American way of life.

American retailers, both big and small, are often terribly understaffed because of two years of stimulus checks and unsustainable minimum wage hikes, mask mandates, impossible social-distancing rules, and a thousand other things that have just reduced the number of people who answer help-wanted ads, across the board.   Your understaffed stores aren’t happy about being understaffed; they’ve tried to hire seasonal help, and in most cases, they just couldn’t find people.

Di Leo: Is Amazon Really Killing Brick-and-Mortar Retail?

Recent Oak Brook Louis Vuitton robbery - $100,000 

By John F. Di Leo - 

"Amazon is killing brick-and-mortar retail."

"Well, no, but... Amazon, Wish, and all those other online-only businesses are killing brick-and-mortar retail."

"Well, no, but... Amazon, Wish, all those other online-only businesses, plus a lot of brick-and-mortar businesses themselves, like the online stores run by Best Buy, Walmart, JC Penney, etc. etc., all put together, are killing brick-and-mortar retail."

For years, we have been told the above.… To explain why shopping malls and other brick and mortar retail is suffering so much today. It’s all a lie.

What’s killing brick and mortar retail is crime.

Di Leo: Where in All the Oceans is our Sea Freight?

By John F. Di Leo - 

As this terrible year of supply chain disruptions continues to worsen, we struggle to understand certain impossibilities.

Why pay higher prices for worse service?

Why can’t we end this crippling dependence on Chinese goods?

And today’s question: how is it that there are more ships in the Pacific than ever before, but less capacity, so the cargo we need still doesn’t move?

The Biden/Harris regime is proposing all sorts of illogical ideas, usually based on fines and surveys… because if penalties and questions are the things that politicians fear most, then surely penalties and questions can magically double the size of our ports and rail yards to ease the congestion at our many sea freight bottlenecks. Right?

Well, actually… No. 

Di Leo: Joe Biden, Strategic Thinker?

By John F. Di Leo - 

Thoughts on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve…

Americans have always been encouraged to be savers.

This isn’t just a recent thing, from the do-it-yourself investment gurus of the late 20^th century. It goes back to our very beginnings as a people: When Benjamin Franklin used various versions of the saying, “A penny saved is a penny earned” in Poor Richard’s Almanac in the mid-18^th century, the concept was already a century old.

One of our first political arguments as a nation under the Constitution was on the question of how best to incorporate and utilize banks; our Founding Fathers knew that if our nation was to succeed, it would need to learn how to save, to invest, to capitalize. 

We also learned – early on – that saving isn’t just about money. Even in Colonial times, you would harvest your crops in the fall, then save them throughout the year to come, until the next harvest.  You preserve pork or fish with salt, so that you can eat for weeks or months without slaughtering animals every day.

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.

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?"

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.

Di Leo: Sundae Time with Basement Joe - Foreign Travel and Ancient Lessons

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 his mind hale. 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 Mattina, Signore!"

 

"Huh? Don't they have anybody around here who speaks English?"

 

"Yes, signore, I speak English... but it is Rome, and we always greet people in Italian here, even if the conversation is in English. You know the old saying, 'When in Rome,' eh?"

 

"What saying is that?"

 

"Well, you know, ahh, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, you know, signore?"

Bost discusses Dems' removal of Hyde Amendment in latest federal spending spree

Di Leo: Sometimes, the Price Tag is Just a Distraction

By John F. Di Leo - 

Let’s say it would cost $5.5 trillion dollars to wipe out your city by planting landmines under all the streets and sidewalks.

Another proposal on the table is to wipe out the city by buying old poison gas on the dark web, and planting it in public buildings and public places when crowds are expected; this proposal only costs $3.5 trillion.

A third proposal, only just recently promulgated, would involve the hiring of foreign mercenaries to shoot up the place; they work cheap, by comparison, and the bill is expected to only range between $1.5 and $1.75 trillion to wipe out the town this way.

I won’t bother to ask you which of the three is the most responsible choice, because, Gentle Reader, you know that the price tag isn’t the main issue here; the real issue is the end game, the horrible goal of wiping out the town.  The method, the price tag, even the perpetrators don’t matter; the very goal is domestic terrorism, and it must be opposed.  At any cost, without compromise.  We must stop this effort.

Illinois Review contributor John F. Di Leo featured with Mark Vargas on AM 560 The Answer's "Mark My Words"

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS - John F. Di Leo - a longtime contributor to Illinois Review - was featured Sunday night on Mark Vargas' "Mark My Words" AM 560 radio show. Di Leo spoke about the current hot topic "Supply Chain Crisis."  John's part in the show starts at right 51:49 below ...

John, a transportation expert for over 30 years, was also recently featured in the Technology & Manufacturing Association's News Bulletin on the topic of the Supply Chain Crisis.

Di Leo: Evening Soup with Basement Joe: Solyanka Soup and Inflation Woes

 

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 bowl of soup, and engages him in conversation about current events, in a losing effort to keep his mind hale. 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.

 "Good evening, sir! I have soup!"

 

"And I have a headache. Leave me alone."

 

"Don't you want your soup, sir?"

 

"Of course I want my soup. Just don't want to talk to anybody."

 

"Oh, I see. Dale Carnegie is alive and well, I see."

 

Di Leo: Supply Chain Advice Upon Joe Biden's Request, in a Year of Disaster

By John F Di Leo - 

The global supply chain, and particularly the North American supply chain, have been in crisis for about a year. There are a lot of reasons for this, almost entirely government-created, end it appears that the federal government has finally noticed it.

Joe Biden has been a lifeguard, lawyer, city councilman, senator, and vice president. While it’s hard to tell what he is now, he has gone public with a request to hear from the American people on this matter, and he has said that he will welcome advice. It would be a first for him, but we will try, anyway.

Let’s begin with the big picture. We go to the store, and we see empty shelves. We look at our harbors, and we see dozens of ships, often backed up for weeks, waiting for a berth. We go to our factories, and we see assembly lines idled for lack of components, injection molders idled for lack of resin, stamping lines idled for lack of steel.

US Census shows nearly 4 in 10 US adults live alone

From The Christian Post - 

About four out of 10 adults in the United States are living without a romantic partner, which is part of a growing trend, according to a new report by Pew Research Center.

Using census data, Pew noted in a report Tuesday that 38% of U.S. adults in 2019 were neither living with a spouse or other romantic partner, which was an increase from the 29% reported in 1990.

By contrast, 53% of adults in 2019 were married, representing a decline from the 64% reported in 1990. Meanwhile, 6% of adults were co-habitating in 2019, up from 4% in 1990.

"The growth in the single population is driven mainly by the decline in marriage among adults who are at prime working age," Pew Senior Researcher Richard Fry and Pew Director of Social Trends Research Kim Parker wrote in an analysis.

Di Leo: Evening Soup with Basement Joe: Knoephla and the Per-Mile Road Tax

 

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 bowl of soup, and engages him in conversation about current events, in a losing effort to keep his mind hale. 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.

"Hey, boss! You ready for your soup?"

"What are you yelling for?"

"Because I'm still on the stairs, boss! If I whispered, you wouldn't hear me!"

"Just bring me my soup!"

"Settle down, boss. I'm working on it.... Okay. Made it... You have too steep a staircase for my bum knee, boss. You need to install an elevator."

"Come on, man! Stop complaining and bring me my soup!"

Di Leo: From Big Banker to Big Brother: Your $600 and You

 
By John F. Di Leo - 

The federal government has always required large personal bank transactions to be reported, just in case. I remember that number being $10,000… Somewhere along the way, it was increased to $20,000. With inflation, that makes sense.

Why the requirement? Because large cash transactions might be an indicator for black market activity, such as drug dealing, contract hits, political bribery, etc.

Americans have a healthy distrust of government. We don’t want every personal transaction reported to the feds, but we understand the need to report some. With inflation, we expect such numbers to be periodically revised upward.

We certainly do not expect them to be revised downward.… But that’s just what will happen if the Democrats’ tyrannical Build Back Better Act is somehow passed into law.

Di Leo: "$3.5 Trillion or $5.5 Trillion?" Is Entirely the Wrong Question to ask

By John F. Di Leo - 

“Hey, do we have seventy-five bucks each?”

“Seventy-five bucks?”

“Yeah, seventy-five bucks each.”

“You mean for you and me, so it’s $150?”

“Well, it’s for the kids too, so it’s $375, total.”

“Oh.  Well….  I don’t know… Depends.”

“Can we do it or not?”

“Well, I don’t know, when would we need it? Is this for today?”

“I’m thinking, we could charge it… or you could volunteer for some overtime for a couple weeks… or I could hock Grandpa’s watch….”

“Well, it depends.  Tell me… What’s all this for?”

Job Creators Network lawsuit endorsed by GOP gubernatorial candidate

WOODSTOCK – The Job Creators Network (JCN) is preparing a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate on companies with 100 or more employees, a move Gary Rabine, a JCN Board member, endorses.

“Biden’s Administration, the Administration that Pritzker & AOC support is off their rockers! Their main goal seems to be kill jobs, kill freedom, and tax more!" said Rabine in a statement issued last Friday.

Rabine said as one of the founding board members of Job Creators Network, he endorses their lawsuit against Biden.

"We have been a strong voice against terrible regulations that kill jobs but this mandate by Biden might be the most aggressive, freedom crushing bill that we have ever seen. If we allow this, what freedom will we give up next?" Rabine said.

"Our businesses at the Rabine Group have amazing people who are like family to us, and some will choose not to take this vaccine for their own personal reasons. Some of these invaluable people will choose to leave the small businesses they call home to work for a smaller company that doesn’t fall under the mandate. Some of them will move to a state that fights for their freedom against a tyrannical federal government. How many more Illinoisans can we afford to chase out?" 

Di Leo: The Biden/Harris Budget-Breaker and the Power of Energy

By John F. Di Leo - 

On Tuesday, August 10, AD 2021, the U.S. Senate passed an “infrastructure” bill, of which less than half was actually infrastructure, and which contains a siphon clause that enables the administration to largely disregard the law entirely and spend the money on whatever it wants to.  It is less a spending bill than a blank check bill.

But the part of this operation that may need the most comment is the aspect that furthers the so-called Green New Deal, both in this bill and a follow-up spending bill, also inaccurately being passed off as an infrastructure bill.

The issue at hand is energy, as political a commodity as there has ever been.

Di Leo: Mr. Biden Goes for a Test Drive

By John F. Di Leo - 

On May 18, 2021, Joe Biden took a day-trip.

Sad to say, this in itself is rather remarkable, since hundreds of thousands of his fellow Americans, of similar age, have been forbidden the luxury of day-trips for over a year, as lockdowns have trapped senior citizens in their nursing homes and senior communities of all kinds for the past 14 months.  

 

But Mr. Biden’s circumstances are special, so he was able to get out, and even to visit a state with one of the toughest lockdowns - and the least constitutional restrictions - in the country: the automotive manufacturing center known as the state of Michigan.

Di Leo: Economics in One Kitchen

By John F Di Leo - 

Last week, our family’s 20 year old electric hand mixer died.  We can’t complain; it lasted a long time, and got a lot of use. But it did mean that it was time to go shopping.

Now, we do a lot of research on many of the products we buy; a cheap hand mixer, however, did not feel like it merited that kind of research. I just headed to Walmart, expecting to grab one and go.

I was surprised by two things in this shopping trip: both a larger selection than I expected, and a narrower choice of countries of origin than I would have thought possible a few years ago.

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.

Thorner: Global Currency Reset on the Horizon

By Nancy Thorner - 

(Ms. Thorner expresses her opinions in her editorials, not necessarily those of Illinois Review) 

The theory behind the Global Currency Reset is that the US Dollar (USD) would lose its position as a reserve currency because the US is overly leveraged and becoming less competitive compared to resource-rich emerging economies.

After all, the value of a currency is a barometer of people’s trust in the government and its ability to repay debts. If there is no trust, then you don’t have money. What you have instead is a collection of portraits of long-dead presidents.  

According to  James Rickard , via the Daily Reckoning in his article of 2/26/21, The Great Reset Is Here.

Rickards goes on to explain:

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.

Tax Foundation's Business Tax Climate Index ranks Illinois as 36 out of 50 states

llinois' tax climate isn't the worst in the nation, but it's likely to change after the Democrat majority passes more tax hikes in 2021. 

In its 2021 evaluation, the Tax Foundation gives Illinois an overall tax climate rating of 36 - but that's before the tax hike threats lawmakers are making before the upcoming legislature session.

Illinois ranks third from the lowest - #48 - in the Foundation's Property Tax rank. 

The Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index enables business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to gauge how their states’ tax systems compare. While there are many ways to show how much is collected in taxes by state governments, the Index is designed to show how well states structure their tax systems and provides a road map for improvement.

For more information, see www.taxfoundation.org 

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

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