Illinois Review

2018 Antipoverty Forum

Every year, the Antipoverty Forum brings together the best policy experts and practitioners on conservative ideas in education, welfare, health care, and civil society to talk about the solutions that can bring real change to the lives of the poor.

President Trump awards former Chicago Bear Alan Page Medal of Freedom

DC - President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to former Chicago Bear and Minnesota Viking Alan C. Page.

After 15 year football career, Page served for more than 20 years on the Minnesota Supreme Court and has been involved in many philanthropic efforts in his retirement. 

Page said beforehand that he set aside his personal feelings about the President in order to attend the ceremony. 

Other recipients included former US Senator Orrin Hatch, football legend Roger Stabauch, the late baseball legend Babe Ruth and rock n roll king Elvis Presley.

Page's Hall of Fame bio says: 

Alan Page, a consensus All-America at Notre Dame in 1966, was the Minnesota Vikings' second pick in the first round of the first 

combined AFL-NFL draft in 1967. Although he had played defensive end in college, he was moved to defensive tackle with the Vikings.

Page won the starting defensive right tackle job in the fourth game of his rookie season and he remained a starter for the rest of his career. Alan excelled with the Vikings for 11 seasons and six games into the 1978 campaign, when he was waived.  The Chicago Bears quickly signed him and he moved into the starting lineup without missing a game.

Chicago Pastor responds to criticism for asking drag queen to dress as man

CHICAGO - Last Sunday night, a man in drag that had been attending Chicago's Power House Ministries was confronted by Pastor Antonio Rocquemore during the worship service.

The confrontation was broadcast on Facebook and as of Friday morning, the post has over 1 million views. The pastor is being criticized for publicly confronting the man dressed as a woman. In response, Rocquemore responded in a Facebook live broadcast the next day. 

"He is a full member of the Power House International Ministries, he's not a stranger off the street," Rocquemore said on Facebook. "It was also said that he was put out because he was gay. That's wrong. I don't separate sin. Sin is sin. When you single something out, it doesn't make sense."

Chicago's Circle of Life

Bad schools, No Jobs and Unsafe neighborhoods. The perfect recipe for endless carnage.

Thorner: Is the 2018 voter chaos a taste of what to expect in 2020?

By Nancy Thorner - 

Why doesn't Europe and Canada have our election farces?  They use paper ballots counted in precincts. Meanwhile, the Florida stealing is more exposed every day.  A Broward County deputy reported that a civil rights attorneys were handing out absentee ballots to inmates after the election, Broward County voting equipment was found stashed at an elementary school, and Democrat lawyers want a judge to change Florida law to hijack the election.  Even Jeb Bush conceded that the Democrats are cheaters when stating that the Broward election chief should be removed from office. 

It’s difficult to deny what has so openly taken place, such as when Broward County election officials blocked the view as ballots were bundled and bagged in the Davie Florida voting center.  Even so, Jeb Bush is not about to admit the main reason why the Democrats are close in Florida and overwhelming in California. The Geller Report says it is because of illegal alien voting.

There was, however, some good news as of Thursday, November 14, 2018, DeSantis has all but won the governor's race in Florida, given that after a machine count tally DeSantis was still 1.4 points ahead of Democrat Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum - enough, making a hand count unnecessary. 

Illinois Arena Infection

Just like Oprah with her cars... everybody in Illinois gets an arena.

Judicial Usurpation and the Constitution: Historical and Contemporary Issues

Judicial supremacy gave us Dred Scott. Liberals are making hay of Matthew Whitaker’s views on Marbury v. Madison. Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, for example, writes that the newly appointed Attorney General is a crackpot, citing his comments to the blog Caffeinated Thoughts in 2014. Asked to name some of the worst Supreme Court decisions, Whitaker replied: “I would start with the idea of Marbury v. Madison. That’s probably a good place to start and the way it’s looked at the Supreme Court as the final arbiter of constitutional issues.”

Is that really a crackpot view? Here is Robert George from a 2005 paper published by The Heritage Foundation:

Women's Lives Matter

There's been a rash of female joggers being killed the past few years... wanna know what can prevent that?? Having your concealed carry license.

LaHood: "McCarthy is the Right Person"

DC - Illinois lost two Republican Congress members last week, but one of the five remaining members of the GOP US House caucus - the 18th District's Darin LaHood - says California Congressman Kevin McCarthy is the "right person" to lead the minority in the upcoming session. 

McCarthy was elected Wednesday by the incoming Republican caucus to replace outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan. LaHood said there are several issues he hopes the Democrats and Republicans can work on together in the next two years.

“Kevin McCarthy has worked tirelessly over the past two years as our Majority Leader and we have seen tangible results from our common-sense, conservative agenda. We passed comprehensive tax reform for the first time in 30 years leading to record economic successes, we accomplished landmark legislation to combat the opioid crisis, and have rebuilt our military and eliminated ISIS. Although we have accomplished many goals over the past two years, there is still work to be done as we move forward into the next Congress,” stated Rep. LaHood.

Burr Ridge mayor resigns

BURR RIDGE - Burr Ridge Mayor Mickey Straub's name became familiar to Illinois Review readers in 2012, when he took on the adventure of visiting all 50 state capitals and finding words referring to God and the Bible in each one.

Since that time, Straub sought and won the office of Burr Ridge mayor. 

With the help of Liberty Principles PAC, Straub tried to oust Republican House Leader Jim Durkin in the March 2018 primary. The battle was bloody - and Durkin fought back furiously. Durkin ultimately won re-election, only to lead an even smaller GOP House caucus than last session's. 

Straub didn't refer to what would have been an exhausting race for anyone in his resignation letter written this week. Instead he said he would be returning to building his company and working on writing a long-delayed book about his 2012 trip. The time spent for a $6000 per year stipend no longer made sense to Straub.

He wrote in his resignation letter how much he enjoyed being mayor of Burr Ridge, and explains: 

Di Leo: A Seat at the Table, and CNN's Embarrassing Presumption

By John F. Di Leo - 

As tempers flare in Washington this November, with the dust settling on late-night midterm results and vote fraud occurs in broad daylight… we see an unusual dispute in the news.  This kerfuffle is between a major news source – CNN – and the White House. CNN’s reporter, Jim Acosta, refused to shut his mouth when his time was expired, and even shoved an intern out of the way for just doing her job.  The White House had it with him, and revoked his press credentials - not CNN’s, just his.

The reporter made more of the story than it was, which is perhaps unsurprising, but his employer also made more of it than it was, which should be shocking.  An employer should have a better handle on how to deal with an employee who goes over the line, embarrassing his employer and his profession on international television. CNN even filed a lawsuit against the administration, claiming that it was a violation of the First Amendment for the administration to kick a reporter out of a press conference.

The First Amendment?   Really, folks?

Illinois gun rights referendum results surprise even 2nd Amendment leadership

CHICAGO - Illinois voters outside of Cook County made clear last Tuesday that gun rights are important to preserve. While Cook County voters almost unanimously backed stricter laws on gun shops, voters in the 18 counties that had gun rights referendum on their ballots overwhelmingly agreed downstate lawmakers should not pass tougher gun laws. 

In Chicago/Cook County, 90.43% of the voters agreed with this referendum, "Should the State of Illinois strengthen penalties for the illegal trafficking of firearms and require all gun dealers to be certified by the State?"

"The Chicago/Cook County referendum was obviously written as a trick question," the Gun Rights Watch blog reports. "Of course, everyone is going to be in favor of strengthening penalties for illegal firearm trafficking — but not for unnecessarily requiring all gun dealers to be certified by the state when they are already certified under federal law. By combining the two concepts into one question, lawmakers played the guilt card in an attempt to shame voters into voting for the second part simply because they were in favor of the first." 

Thorner: Dangers Lurk Behind Government's Electronic Health Record Requirement

By Nancy Thorner - 

Twila Brase, RN, PHN, president and co-founder of the Citizens' Council for Health Freedom (CCHF), was featured at Heartland Institute November 7th.  Twila was voted #75 on Modern Healthcare's 2009 list of the "100 most Powerful People in Healthcare."  Brase's commentaries have appeared in CNS-news.org, the Star Tribune, The Hill, Townhall, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Times. Her article "Blame Congress for HMOs" has been reprinted in the Congressional Record of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Introduced by Jim Lakely, Communications Director at The Heartland Institute, Twila Brase addressed the very important topic of healthcare as set forth in her book, Big Brother in the Exam Room (The Dangerous Truth about Electronic Heath Records). Twila's remarks were striking in content and elicited a cause for concern among attendees.  

The United States Needs A Fiscal Stress Test

Ever since the financial crisis, elected officials have debated the efficacy of financial market stress tests. Consequently, Dodd-Frank is more controversial than ever.

More HERE

Regulation and Poverty: The Relationship

More regulation makes more people poor. Dustin Chambers, Patrick McLaughlin, and Laura Stanley describe their new study:

We estimate the impact of federal regulations on poverty rates in the 50 US states using the recently created Federal Regulation and State Enterprise (FRASE) index, which is an industry-weighted measure of the burden of federal regulations at the state level. Controlling for many other factors known to influence poverty rates, we find a robust, positive and statistically significant relationship between the FRASE index and poverty rates across states. Specifically, we find that a 10% increase in the effective federal regulatory burden on a state is associated with an approximate 2.5% increase in the poverty rate. This paper fills an important gap in both the poverty and the regulation literatures because it is the first one to estimate the relationship between the two variables. 

The Dangerously Unified States of America

A plea for more federalism. David French writes:

It is absolutely clear from recent American history that the public likes a divided federal government. One party is able to enjoy dominance only for brief periods of time. But it’s also clear that the public is choosing unified state government, and that those unified states are not scattered willy-nilly across the nation. Instead, they tend to be geographically contiguous with like-minded states and culturally distinct from competing regions. [...]

Pritzker campaign boasts new voter records set last Tuesday

In a mass email Monday, the Pritzker campaign says they've drilled down into the voting stats from last Tuesday's gubernatorial bid - and despite Bruce Rauner giving over $57 M to his own campaign, the Pritzker people report embarrassing numbers for Rauner:

• We saw the highest voter turnout in an Illinois election since 1990 
• This year was the first time Peoria County went blue in a gubernatorial election since 1968, Champaign County since 1936, DuPage County since 1932, and Kane County, since 1912!
• This was the lowest vote share for any incumbent Illinois governor in the last century

And it cost Pritzker a mere $147 Million of his own funds (Forbes says more like $171M) in the past year. Chump change for an investor worth an approximate $3.2 B. 

Per VoteSmart . 

As compared to incumbent Bruce Rauner spending over $57M to defend himself.

Per VoteSmart 

Gun rights group sounds alarm on Dems' proposal to tax ammo

From the Illinois State Rifle Association - the first of an array of gun rights alerts sure to be pushed in the Illinois General Assembly over the next couple of years. This alert focuses on the upcoming session dealing with bills Governor Rauner vetoed over the past few months.

While the effort may not be successful before the end of this legislative session, there is no question this and other stricter gun control measures will make their way next session to Democrat J.B. Pritzker's welcoming desk through a super majority Democrat-controlled Illinois House and Senate:

Brinkman Review: Grant's humanity, decency shines in Ron Chernow's tome

Grant By Ron Chernow

Penguin - 2017 - 1104p

Reviewed by Daniel Brinkman - 

At a rally in Ohio a month ago, President Trump called upon the memory of Ulysses S. Grant to make a point about how the unlikeliest of people are sometimes called upon to change the course of history. Paraphrasing Lincoln, Trump said, “They said to Lincoln, you can’t use him anymore, he’s an alcoholic.’ and Lincoln said, ‘I don’t care if he’s an alcoholic, frankly give me six or seven more just like him.’ And he went in and knocked the hell out of everyone… and he’s finally being recognized as a great general.’”

That’s the Cliffs Notes version of Grant’s life. For the fuller and richer tale, you can do no better than Ron Chernow’s thick tome. There are maybe only one or two authors of American History that have so thoroughly and justifiably dominated the scene as has Chernow over the last two decades. From the financial titans of the gilded age to the founders of the American Republic, Chernow has cast an exacting lens over the lives of those whose names evoke legend: Rockefeller, Morgan, Washington, Hamilton, and now Grant.

Thorner: Mid-term election turmoil ferments anger nationwide

Environmentalist Tom Steyer gave Dems $100M

By Nancy Thorner - 

As stated by filmmaker, Andrew Marcus, “What big tech has done to conservative and other undesirable publishers is nothing short of a digital Kristallnacht."  As such, Facebook delivered for Democrats in the midterms by erasing two billion GOP page views, thereby eliminating conservative content to suburban females.  While in 2016 suburban voters and women would check Facebook pages and get conservative news, it’s no longer true.  These same voters went Democrat in the midterms.  Here's more on the Silicon Valley totalitarians.

About the only good news is that Silicon Valley liberals like Tom Steyer have political tin ears.  Because Steyer gave the Democrats $100 million plus, he now demands they impeach Trump.