Illinois Review

Nervous democrat socialist in first class

A nervous democratic socialist in first class. #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/XbONXNBZNn

— Hank Thomas (@HankThomasDC) February 13, 2020

Di Leo: St. Valentine's Day's Lesson for the Ages

By John F. Di Leo - 

Across the country, Saint Valentine’s Day is thought of as one of the great romantic date nights… unless you grow up as a Chicago Italian, in which case a very different kind of event comes to mind.

At 10:30 AM on February 14, 1929, at a usually quiet garage located at 2122 N Clark Street, one of the most memorable and defining dates in Chicago history occurred, when seven mobsters of the North Side Gang were killed by four other mobsters from a rival gang who were impersonating Chicago police officers.

The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre is remembered as a cultural moment, one that defines 1920s Chicago.  It has long been cited by libertarians in their argument against prohibition, and has been a treasure trove for Hollywood screenwriters ever since.

Trump vs. Sanders Will Be MAGA vs. Anti-MAGA Election

What is inside the soul of a Bernie Sanders supporter?

As the socialist senator from Vermont becomes a serious candidate for the nomination, even if he never gets there, it’s important to investigate what is fueling this radical transformation of the Democrats.

A new Pew survey provides us with some valuable insights into what makes Sanders supporters tick.

The Sanders base is irreligious, whether agnostic, atheistic, or unaffiliated with any major religion.

More HERE

Porn Survey: Parents are in denial or largely unaware

Parents are oblivious of the extent to which their children are watching pornography, according to a rare in-depth study of teenagers’ viewing habits that shows adult material has become a normalized part of young Britons’ lives.

The report’s authors concluded that parents of 16- to 17-year-olds were either in denial or largely unaware of what their child viewed online, with the parents of teenage girls the most likely to be unaware their children were watching pornography.

The research, conducted as part of the government’s troubled attempt to introduce age-verification services for online pornography, found that children were often disturbed by being accidentally exposed to material at pre-teen age.

More HERE

Swiss Air Drops Christian Chocolate Supplier Following Protests

Chocolate manufacturer Läderach was present on board at Swiss for ten years. Finally, with a small praline box, which was given to individual passengers as a sign of attention. Swiss now confirms that the collaboration ended in November. The praline box is still part of the Swiss on-board product until mid-April.

The sweet end of the sweet collaboration came because the Swiss had concerns about the negative reporting about Läderach, as Läderach Marketing Director Patrick Th. Onken says. Headlines such as "The king of chocolate fights abortion and homosexuals" were obviously too much for the airline, which has a high proportion of gays in the cabin.

More HERE

Warren lashes out at Christian schools

On Sunday Sen. Elizabeth Warren shared a HuffPost article on Twitter bashing private Christian schools for having "anti-LGBTQ+ policies."

The article focused attention on a U.S. Supreme Court case attacking Montana private religious schools and attempting to take away tax credits to individuals who contributed to private schools because the money supports policies that "discriminate against LGBTQ staff and employees."

More HERE

Feminist Steinem: Defending Unborn Is Patriarchal, Oppressive

Pro-abortion, feminist stalwart Gloria Steinem has been relatively quiet in recent years. But she re-surfaced recently to promote a new Hollywood biopic about her life, The Glorias, and to vent about the supposedly patriarchal, oppressive, and even Hitler-esque spirit she implies drives America’s pro-life movement.

In a January 29 interview with Variety magazine, “Steinem said Americans have yet to realize that controlling reproduction [i.e., abortion] is the top priority of any oppressive government, and the very definition of the patriarchy,” reported the entertainment magazine.

“I hope we understand, or begin to understand, that every totalitarian, authoritarian racist, caste, as in India — every hierarchical structure begins with controlling reproduction,” declared the 85-year-old Steinem. “It isn’t the side issue, it’s the basic issue.”

More HERE

Beckman: Drag Queen Story Hours

By Hank Beckman - 

Our libertarian friends at Reason magazine are afraid, very afraid, that concern over the sexualization of little kids will somehow do lasting damage to our Constitution.

Steven Greenhut wrote a few months ago about “drag queen story hours,” held by the Sacramento public library, where gay men dressed in drag read stories to little kids accompanied by their hipper-than-thou parents.

Greenhut’s article links to the web site dragqueenstoryhour.com which explains that the purpose of the readings is to expose youngsters to “glamorous, positive and unabashedly queer role models.”

China gut-punched as 2nd deadly disease breaks out

The Chinese province adjacent to the one where the coronavirus first appeared is facing an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu, according to news reports.

What officials said was a highly pathogenic strain was reported in Hunan province, just south of Hunei province where the coronavirus-plagued city of Wuhan is located, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced Saturday, according to Reuters.

More HERE

The Gospel of Socialism? Pope Francis Decries Tax Cuts for the Wealthy as Sinful

In an address to the New Forms of Solidarity Seminar on Wednesday, Pope Francis made a call for worldwide wealth redistribution in order solve the problem of global poverty. The Pope referred to tax cuts for the wealthy as a “structure of sin.” The speech was organized by the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences.

In what sounded more like a document written by the United Nations than a Papal address, the Pope tore into the economic systems of the world and what he called “tax havens.” He declared that such monies need to be used to assist those in extreme poverty, whom the Pontiff claims are increasing.

“The world is rich and yet the poor increase around us,” the Pope said. “Hundreds of millions of people are still mired in extreme poverty and lack food, housing, medical care, schools, electricity, drinking water and adequate and essential sanitation services.”

More HERE

Pastor's shock discovery shows his dad was real-life WWII superhero, saved hundreds of Jewish POWs

Nazi policies required that Jewish POWs were to be segregated from the rest of the soldiers so they could be sent to certain death in a concentration camp. On Jan. 26, 1945, Nazi officers ordered that only the Jewish soldiers under Roddie's command were to report for roll call the next morning.

But Roddie immediately informed his men that they were not to obey the order. "We're not doing that," he said. "Tomorrow, we all fall out."

The Nazi commander was filled with rage when he found all 1,292 of the American soldiers standing in sharp formation the following morning. "They cannot all be Jews!" the commander said angrily to Roddie.

"We are all Jews here," Roddie replied.

More HERE

Rossi: MAGA Hat Welcomed at Chicago Auto Show

By Randy Rossi - 

Last year my friend and I wore our MAGA hats at the Chicago Auto Show to show our outrage at how Nick Sandman and his fellow Covington High School students were slandered by much of the “Fake News” for having the courage to peacefully stand up for “Right to Life” in Washington DC. We also wore our MAGA hats to show our support for their bravery and for “Right to Life”.  We knew that we were taking a risk in doing so but we were prepared for being attacked either verbally or even physically but since we are both pretty big guys, we felt the risk was worth it. To our amazement, not only did we get no negative comments, we got many positive comments for many people including four Chicago Policemen who supported President Trump. I was so surprised by the positive response to our MAGA hats that I wrote a letter to the editor about it to the Chicago Sun Times which was published and then I was invited to be on John William’s radio show on WGN twice to discuss that experience. The whole experience was positive and it told me that President Trump and his agenda have more support than we would gather from most of the news coverage.

Measuring Prosperity and Inequality

If a quest to address income inequality in America compromises the conditions necessary for prosperity, we might once again find ourselves all equally poor.

The world has achieved an unprecedented level of prosperity.  Economist Deirdre McCloskey has labeled this the Great Enrichment.  For the first time in human history, standards of living for ordinary people – as opposed to emperors or kings – have risen above subsistence.

Historical estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, economists’ preferred measure of living standards, dramatically document the Great Enrichment.  Economist Angus Maddison began this project, now continued at the University of Groningen Growth and Development Centre.  The dollar figures mentioned here are in 1990 dollars, adjusted for inflation, and comparable across countries.

More HERE

The Mixed Economy Is a Big Mess

The country is almost split down the middle about whether government does too much or too little.

Election years tend to polarize people’s views about political parties, proposed social and economic policies, and the candidates running for high governmental office. This presidential election cycle is not only no different, it is far more so.  This shows itself especially in how many younger Americans view the political, economic and social system under which they live.

According to a fairly detailed Gallup public opinion poll released in late November, 60 percent of those surveyed said they, in general, had a “positive” view of capitalism, while only 39 percent had such a positive attitude toward socialism. Not a blockbuster endorsement of the private enterprise system, but still a respectable majority of six out of every ten.

More HERE

When Wokeness Runs Amok

What better time to champion identity politics than the formation of a presidential commission to handle a potentially global deadly pandemic like coronoavirus?

For the past few weeks, the coronavirus has caused turmoil and panic across the globe.  Although the virus originated in China, cases have been reported in several countries, including the United States.

To address the problem, President Trump, who is in charge of protecting the homeland, did something almost any president would do in the midst of a possible outbreak: he created a task force, aptly named the President's Coronavirus Task Force.

More HERE

Sanders & AOC seek disastrous socialist revolution that would devastate America

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. – who faces voters Monday in the Iowa caucuses – and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., proudly and loudly call themselves socialists. They want to launch a second American Revolution run by a gigantic government bureaucracy, supported by enormous tax increases, and featuring a massive number of intrusive new government regulations.

More HERE

Di Leo: Georgia Day, and the Story of America

By John F. Di Leo -

On February 12, 1733, James Oglethorpe disembarked from the Anna, a ship full of British settlers, at a site near present-day Savannah, officially founding the settlement that became the Georgia colony.

Georgia was the 13th colony to be established, of the group that became the United States of America, 43 years later.

Just like its neighbors, Georgia was built by British settlers who were to spend the following generations building farms and ranches, towns and cities, churches and businesses.

Kempa: Illinois Democrats' Compassion for Millionaires?

By Roger Kempa - 

While all 13 Illinois US House Democrats voted to benefit the wealthy by increasing the SALT tax deduction, it was Illinois’ own Congressman Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, and Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville who actually introduced the legislation to increase the amount of state and local taxes (SALT) that can be deducted from federal tax returns, an amendment to the GOP's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

It is mind boggling how Rep. Sean Casten totally distorted American history to promote a false political narrative in sponsoring the SALT Amendment. He stated:

“From the very first tax code, our Founders recognized the importance of allowing a deduction for state and local taxes."

No; our Founders did not establish any tax code. With no tax code; there were no deductions for state and local taxes.

Our Founders were averse to taxation, having rebelled against Britain imposed taxes. Tariffs were the primary source of income to protect the security of the nation and ensure “domestic tranquility,” which meant preserving public safety. The history of the U.S. tax code is:

Today’s Environmentalists Must Make a Literal Life or Death Decision

High profile environmentalists are accepting and even actively cheering for the extinction of humanity, which calls into question the basis of their activism if nobody is left afterwards to enjoy it.

You’d think someone who longs for the day when every human on Earth is dead would be treated as a moral monster like Mao, Stalin, or Hitler and ostracized by anyone with an ounce of reason or conscious, but Les Knight is treated with respect in many circles because he echoes the horrific anti-humanism lurking in the environmentalist movement. If you consider yourself an environmentalist, you have a life or death decision to make here.

More HERE

Calculating the Californication

Not all Californians who leave their state bring liberal policy ideas with them. Steven Malanga writes:

Early last year, the Dallas News described the “California-ing” of North Texas, citing a study showing that 8,300 Californians move to the area yearly. Texas governor Greg Abbott launched a petition titled “Don’t California My Texas.”

Much of this anxiety revolves around fears that the migrants will transform the politics and culture of the places that they’re moving to—bringing an appetite for big, intrusive government. But a new survey suggests that, while plenty of people are looking to leave California, many are fleeing the state’s high costs and politics and may not be interested in voting for the same things in their new homes. The poll, by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, found that 52 percent of California residents are considering migrating. As these polls go, that’s exceptionally high, putting California in the same category as some other states with very unhappy residents. A recent poll in New Jersey, for instance, found that about 44 percent of its people are looking to depart, while 50 percent of Connecticut residents indicated a desire to leave the state in a 2014 Gallup poll, the highest figure among any state at that time.