Illinois Review

State Central Committeeman to IL conservatives: We are fools not to back Rauner

On Illinois Review's Facebook Page over the weekend, Evanston Township GOP Chairman Blair Garber expressed his support for Illinois National Committeeman Rich Porter's views as circulated in a letter to IL GOP State Central Committee members and published in Illinois Review last week.

Garber, who is also a member of the IL GOP State Central Committee, picked up Committeeman Porter's theme of sticking behind Governor Rauner, saying, "So long as Bruce has the best chance of winning we are fools not to back him and I say that even after these last two bills which I’m outraged he signed..."

Illinois Attorney General sues Trump over canceling ACA subsidies

CHICAGO - Despite a federal court order saying the Affordable Care Act's subsidies are unconstitutional and should cease and desist, Democrat attorney generals from 18 states and DC signed onto a lawsuit demanding they be continued. 

The court agreed with the Trump Administration that former President Obama's executive order forcing government-funded subsidies was taking the nation's purse strings out of Congress' hands. 

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued a statement as to the position her office is taking: 

Durbin cautions Dems not to "overdo" their Leftness

(CNN) reports that Sen. Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, said in a radio interview Sunday that his party could lose to President Donald Trump in 2020 if they "overdo it" and become too liberal.

The Illinois senator was asked on a local Chicago radio program about comments made by Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos, which the host characterized as a warning to fellow Democrats that if the party becomes too liberal, they would give Trump another term.

"We need to be balanced," Durbin said on "Connected to Chicago" on WLS-AM on Sunday. "She's right about that. And as downstater like her, I understand she represents a challenging district. We don't give up on our values, but we better be sensitive too that there are people with more moderate views, and people who may disagree with some parts of the Democratic platform as they as they are presented. We've got to be open to that possibility.

 

The rest of the story HERE.

The "Anti-Hate" Group That Is a Hate Group

The Southern Poverty Law Center bills itself as a watchdog of hate groups. But is this just a cover for its true aims? Journalist and author Karl Zinsmeister explains.

Letter to Editor: Good things happening in US, despite what Fake News says

TO THE EDITOR:

In today's Bizarro World of politics, guests have only to pronounce, “Trump is crazy!” to get airtime on national TV. Meanwhile, while recalcitrant Dems in the Senate slow the appointment process (Republicans gave Obama his appointments PDQ), good things are still happening in DC. You won't hear it covered on mainstream media, however.

Univ. of WI rejects plaque accusing Lincoln of mass murder

The University of Wisconsin, Madison is ignoring a student government demand for a disclaimer on an Abraham Lincoln statue accusing him of complicity in the death of 38 Native Americans.

Several student activists insisted without substantiation that Lincoln "played a huge role in the massacre," but Chancellor Rebecca Blank countered that Lincoln actually played a "restraining role" in the matter.

More HERE

Harvard’s Bogus ExxonMobil Study

By Tim Benson, American Thinker - 

Harvard University’s Naomi Oreskes and her post-doctoral fellow, Geoffrey Supran, are co-authors of a new, highly controversial study claiming that energy giant ExxonMobil purposefully misled the public on the dangers of climate change. Usually, scientists at least try to hide their biases and political motivations in their published research, but Oreskes’ hatred of the fossil fuel industry is evident here.

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Is Big Brother Trying to Enforce Climate Orthodoxy?

By H. Sterling Burnett, Climate Change Weekly - 

When a journalist, activist, scientist, or government watchdog suffers repercussions in Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or China, no one is surprised. People are shocked however when those in political power attempt to quash open debate over topics of public importance in the United States – and, to a lesser extent, in other Western countries. The government of Canada just wrapped up an investigation against organizations and individuals who publicly communicated their skeptical views about human-caused catastrophic global warming. The good news is that Canada’s “Commissioner of Competition” dropped the case. The bad news is that such an investigation could last 14 months in what is supposed to be a free society.

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IL GOP National Committeeman to state central committee members: It's all Speaker Madigan's fault

Some of the Illinois Republican Party longtime elite are saying that because Donald Trump lost Illinois by 16 points, what Republicans in other surrounding states are pushing is irrelevant and maybe even detrimental to the Illinois Republican Party. It's ridiculous for the conservative wing to be upset by Governor Rauner's promotion of the Leftist social agenda because what those new state laws represent are really meaningless and don't change a thing.

What's important though is that all the divisions and factions in the state party are Speaker Mike Madigan's fault and Republicans must work together to succeed.

That's what one member of the 10th CD IL GOP Old Guard is telling State Central Committee Members, as an email sent out Thursday entitled "Chess and Illinois Politics" from Richard Porter, the Illinois GOP's National Committeeman, says.  By the way, he also served as general counsel to Governor Rauner’s
transition and continues to provide advice on key legal issues confronting the state of Illinois.

Leaked to Illinois Review.com for our readers information is the email as we received it, via a credible and respected source:

Di Leo: The Soda Tax: A Single Victory, or a Blueprint for the Future?

By John F. Di Leo - 

In November, 2016, the Cook County Board of Confiscators created a new tax on most non-alcoholic beverages – punitive, astronomical, and unconstitutional.

Virtually everything that could be wrong with a government policy was wrong with this one, and the community reacted with unexpected force. County commissioners reported receiving more complaints about this issue than on any other issue in their careers. Despite a united front held by County Board President Toni Preckwinkle through the summer 2017 implementation, the resolve of her members soon withered as the real effects of the hated tax began to be felt. In the end, it was repealed after less than three months of actual collection, and will be gone completely when the clock strikes midnight on December 1.

The question for us is therefore, do we pat ourselves on the backs and enjoy the victory, or do we double down, and put the lessons of the beverage tax to work in other areas of public policy?

Former DuPage County lawmaker out on bond for retail theft

LOMBARD - Former GOP state representative Sandra Pihos was arrested for retail theft on September 26, a local newspaper says. She's out on a $1500 bond, awaiting a court hearing on November 5th. 

As if Illinois doesn't have enough problems, lawmakers want to legalize recreational marijuana?

Effingham's Medical Cannabis Clinic

SPRINGFIELD - State lawmakers could vote on two bills when they return to the Capitol later in October that would make recreational marijuana usage legal in Illinois and set up a marijuana tax system to feed Illinois' insatiable appetite for more of its citizens' dollars. 

"OPPOSE HB 2353 and SB 316 to legalize and tax marijuana," an Illinois group concerned about out-of-control illegal drug use expansion said Friday. (And note, this is all happening despite the fact federal law still considers marijuana illegal.)

But maybe legalizing marijuana isn't all rainbows and unicorns? A new report released this week about the impact of Colorado's marijuana use gives chilling statistics about increase in traffic deaths and marijuana-related hospitalizations: 

Thorner: Schlafly family opens doors to conservative icon's childhood and private residence

Schlafly residence in Ladue, Missouri

By Nancy Thorner - 

Admirers of the conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly were given a rare glimpse into her childhood through the eyes of a family member and into her private adult life spent in her Ladue, Missouri home during the recent Eagle Forum conference held in St. Louis.  

Her cousin eight years younger shared insight into her early years while two of her six children opened her home to visitors.

Can we stop mass shootings?

Photo: REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Yes, something can be done about mass shootings. But the answer isn’t seizing the guns of people who mind their own business, writes Shika Dalmia:

“[T]he kind of intrusive searches of the homes and property of gun owners [seizing guns] would entail would make the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance of telecommunications look positively restrained. Nor are Americans likely to simply lie down and take it. They will likely resist and fight back, which would require the government to crack down even more — or, in other words, declare war on its own people.

America Is in Dire Need of Real Reform

By David D’Amato, Townhall - 

America is much less the land of the free than it is the land where everything is illegal – where, as John Stossel pointed out in 2012, “no one can know what is legal.” Today, America’s statutory codes are brimful with increasingly more obscure crimes – so many crimes that no single mind could possibly be aware of them all. The sphere of individual liberty is steadily narrowing, the list of forbidden activities growing ever longer.

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How to Make Elite Colleges Less Elitist

By Jane Shaw, RealClearEducation - 

The facts are pretty damning: The Ivy League and other selective schools are bastions of privileged students. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation finds that colleges are “highly stratified by socioeconomic class, with 72 percent of students in the nation’s most competitive institutions coming from families in the wealthiest quartile.” Meanwhile, the IRS reports “children whose parents are in the top 1 percent of the income distribution are 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy League college than those whose parents are in the bottom income quintile.”

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How the GOP Tax Reform Framework Will Help Them in 2020

By Justin Haskins, Washington Examiner -

​The White House and congressional Republicans released a tax reform framework that will serve as a template to “achieve pro-American, fiscally-responsible tax reform.” Tax “frameworks” are never passed in their entirety, but if the plan released by Republicans is anything close to what eventually becomes law, all Americans will benefit substantially. The framework is based on several pro-business principles: simplifying the tax code, providing tax relief for both large and small businesses, ending loopholes for special interests, and making the tax code more competitive in the global market.

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Cook County soda tax repeal to go into effect Dec. 1

Commissioner Sean Morrison led in the repeal effort

CHICAGO - Two months after launching an effort to repeal Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle's controversial soda tax, Commissioner Sean Morrison and 14 other board members rejected the measure, which would end the tax December 1st.

“To the residents and businesses of Cook County, we have heard you loud and clear and so today I have filed an ordinance to repeal the Cook County Sweetened Beverage Tax,” Morrison said at a press conference at the Cook County Building. 

A poll released earlier that week showed 87% of Cook County residents were upset about the new one cent per ounce sugary drink tax, making a 2 liter bottle of soda pop cost 68 cents more. 

Beckman: Las Vegas tragedy triggers gun control hysteria; backfires on amnesty debate

By Hank Beckman - 

The victims in Las Vegas weren't even cold before our friends on the Left began assigning blame to the usual suspects.

Hillary Clinton, who for some odd reason simply refuses to accept clear evidence that half the country doesn't share her belief that she ever had a rendezvous with destiny, tweeted "Our grief isn't enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA and work together to stop this from happening again."

U.S. House Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) asked House Speaker Paul Ryan in a tweet, "How many Americans have to die before you do your job? Allow us to have a debate and a vote."

ICE responds to states adopting defiant law enforcement policies

CHICAGO - The Trump administration isn't sitting on its hands after states like Illinois and California passed state measures that restrict local law enforcement from working with immigration law authorities. 

After eight years of virtually no immigration enforcement including placing entire classes of illegal aliens off-limits to enforcement, the Administration has returned to policies that existed before President Obama decimated them, says the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).