FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— FRONT PAGE TOP OF FOLD: Illinois Democrats wrestle with how hard to fight Trump if they retake Congress. DD: Anticipate/expect that if the Democrats retake Congress, the Democrats who run Illinois, your county, your township, your municipality, and your school district will do even more to get rid of Republicans, and especially Republicans who are conservative, White, male, older, heterosexual, married, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time. How many who are the aforesaid will leave Illinois even sooner? To try to survive in Illinois, how many of the aforesaid will stop being Republican, conservative, male, heterosexual, married, and/or Protestant? How many will become Democrat, liberal, female, LGBTQ, single, and/or non-Protestant?
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/18/illinois-democrats-next-congress/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Illinois Democrats may be savoring the possibility their party could retake the U.S. House, and possibly the Senate, after next month’s elections, but the state’s likely incoming and returning lawmakers are split on how aggressively to use that power against Republican President Donald Trump. If Democrats win back power in the Nov. 3 midterms in a year when experts and polling predict a blue wave of Democratic victories in congressional races, they still will face competing demands on their time and attention. They could tackle the economic issues that have dragged down Trump’s popularity in recent months, but they would need Republican support to get those measures to the president’s desk and signed into law. Or they could reassert Congress’ power and try to thwart many of Trump’s unilateral actions, which would alienate Republicans and likely anger the president. All of that will play out as the term-limited Trump approaches lame-duck status and Democrats lay the groundwork to retake the White House in 2028. “Congress is designed to operate on two parallel paths: The oversight track and the legislative track. We need to do both,” said U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, who represents Chicago’s north suburbs and chairs the New Democrat Coalition, a caucus of more than 100 moderate Democratic House members. “Irrespective of who wins the majority, it’s imperative that we restore checks and balances to our government,” he told the Tribune. “Those checks and balances have been weakened before the Trump administration, and the Trump administration has just basically completely trashed them.” The Congress that convenes in January will include dozens of new faces, as more than 70 lawmakers opted not to run for reelection in 2026, and many more incumbents could lose in November. Illinois alone will send five new House members and one new U.S. senator. Most, if not all, are likely to be Democrats. That turnover could reshape the party’s direction in Washington. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, for example, is favored to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin in a race against Republican nominee Don Tracy. Both Stratton and Durbin have regularly criticized the Trump administration, but their approaches differ significantly. Stratton has openly challenged long-held Senate conventions, such as the filibuster, which are designed to slow legislation and promote bipartisan cooperation, while Durbin has championed the Senate’s traditional conciliatory approach. Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said last month during an event in Washington that Democrats should not block Trump’s Supreme Court nominees in his final years in office, even though Senate Republicans kept President Barack Obama from filling a high court vacancy in his last year. He also discouraged efforts to change the number of justices, saying the idea was not “realistic.” Stratton sees it differently. “I’m not going to Washington, D.C., to try to find common ground with a dictator,” Stratton said in an interview. “I’m going to Washington, D.C., to fight for the people of Illinois and to stand up to a dictator.” She said constraints like the filibuster would hamper Democrats’ capacity to restore voting rights protections weakened by the Supreme Court, guarantee reproductive rights, raise the minimum wage and reverse the cuts to food stamps and health insurance that Republicans passed in the last two years. “The way that I look at it, Trump and the Republicans have thrown out the entire rulebook. They’ve stomped on the Constitution, and I always say that unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures,” she said. Stratton has adopted the political outlook of her mentor, Gov. JB Pritzker, who has characterized the split in the Democratic Party during Trump’s second term as “Team Fight vs. Team Cave.” Both count themselves on “Team Fight.” Stratton said she would not vote to confirm any Trump nominee. “It’s a hard line for me. I’m not going to support any of the president’s nominees,” she said. “I’m not going to confirm anyone who is seeking to advance (Trump’s) agenda that threatens our democracy and completely discounts the rule of law. Those aren’t people that deserve to be in office.” Nor would she vote for any spending bill that funds U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she said. Trump has vastly expanded ICE to ramp up deportations of immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, and the agency was a major part of last year’s law-enforcement surge in the Chicago area known as Operation Midway Blitz. Stratton has repeatedly called for abolishing ICE. “I’m certainly never going to support more money for Donald Trump’s personal police force,” she said. Not every newcomer is likely to be as combative. Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, the Democratic nominee in a congressional district that stretches from Chicago’s South Side to vast swaths of central Illinois farmland, said she will focus on racking up legislative wins to help restore public confidence in government. That, she said, is how she would “fight” the Trump administration. “‘Fight’ in the sense of we can’t just sit by and let things happen,” she said. “I’m more focused on collaboration, building blocks, how we can work together in a consensus-building way, and what those individual conversations look like.” Simply showing the public that Congress is doing its job would be an improvement, said Miller, who fended off some more progressive challengers in the Democratic primary. The Republican-led House has been in session only 65 days this year, the fewest in a midterm year since 1994, and Congress has passed only 34 bills into law, by far the fewest since at least 1990. “They want to see us working, which, as we know, Congress being at home early doesn’t appear to help, because it looks like they’re not working out there,” Miller said. “They want to see things moving forward, whatever they happen to be. And right now, … people cannot afford healthcare. People cannot afford gas. People cannot afford just regular everyday life. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, the Democratic nominee in a district covering part of Chicago’s North Side and several near north and northwest suburbs, said the likely wave of new members could recall the Democratic “Watergate babies” elected in 1974, after Republican President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace. “That class — which was diverse in many ways — was full of people who ran because they understood that Congress was broken, and they understood in the wake of Watergate that Congress had simply not fulfilled its core responsibilities. I expect we’re going to do something similar,” Biss said. The main difference between the new class of legislators coming in January and those who already have served in Washington, he said, would be the new lawmakers’ demand for action. “We have massive problems in society — economic problems, geopolitical problems, climate, AI — and what is our federal government doing about it? Almost nothing,” Biss said. “That status quo bias is part of what got us to this situation with Donald Trump as president. Congress has basically stopped doing its job, whether that’s legislating or oversight.” The impeachment question. Ahead of the election, Republicans have warned about the consequences of Democrats taking over one or both chambers of Congress. “If this group took over, heaven forbid,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said recently on Fox News, “they would turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body. They’d spend every day investigating the president, the first family, the Cabinet, donors to the party, leaders of business and industry. It would roil the markets, and it would empower our enemies across the world at the worst possible time.” In a separate interview, Johnson said it was “guaranteed” that Democrats would try to impeach Trump for a third time “probably on the first day.” Trump issued a similar warning in a late-September fundraising email. “In just 4 weeks, we might have to say goodbye to each other forever,” it began. “That’s if we lose the Congressional Majority on Election Night. On day 1, Democrats will file the Articles of Impeachment against me for the THIRD TIME. But this time, they will have the votes — the votes to lock me out of the White House and throw away the key.” “Could you even begin to fathom MAGA without Trump??” the email asked. But Illinois Democrats don’t appear to be in a rush to impeach Trump or anyone else in his administration, even those they believe should be removed from office. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and Iraq War veteran who will become Illinois’ senior senator in January, has repeatedly denounced Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as unfit for the job. House members — including one Republican — have made several attempts to impeach Hegseth. But at a foreign policy discussion in September at the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank, Duckworth urged her colleagues not to pursue impeachments. “What I encourage my colleagues to not do — especially those who have more fire in their belly in this area — is don’t be impeaching anybody. Let’s just get back to work. Maybe we can come to compromises” on issues like restoring foreign humanitarian aid, she said. But in response to questions from the Tribune, Duckworth’s office provided a statement from the senator saying she would, in fact, support impeaching Trump. “Families are desperate for a lifeline and, if we take back the majority, Democrats must deliver,” Duckworth said in the statement. “Of course, I would also support impeachment for any of Donald Trump’s many illegal actions, unprecedented corruption and abuses of power. I voted to convict Trump twice and I’d do it again — but Democrats cannot be backed into a corner and presented with a false choice: Impeachment or lowering costs for families. If we take back the majority, we will be calling for both accountability and immediate relief for the families he is leaving behind.” Stratton said the barrier to impeaching Trump is the two-thirds majority in the Senate required to remove him, which could dissuade Democrats from starting the impeachment process in the House to begin with. “You can impeach him 50 times, and I would always say that Donald Trump deserves … it. But in the Senate, we don’t have (67) votes because there’s not one single Republican that has the courage to stand up to this president,” she said. Schneider said the same logic applied to Cabinet officials. “Any one of these Cabinet secretaries has more likely than not done things that merit impeachment — Hegseth for sure — but we can’t paralyze the government, especially when … it’ll be hard to get a two-thirds vote on anything in the Senate,” he said. Still, Democrats aren’t ruling impeachment out entirely. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has said he doesn’t want to put impeachment on the table or to take it off, and the Illinois delegation seems to be taking a similar tack. State Rep. La Shawn Ford, the Democrat running to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Danny Davis in a district that stretches from Navy Pier to the Tri-State Tollway, said he wants to persuade Trump to strike deals on legislation that makes everyday expenses more affordable. But Congress needs options if Trump flouts the law, Ford said. “The ultimate threat and deterrent is impeachment,” he said. “If the president doesn’t follow the Constitution, and if he governs unconstitutionally, that’s … the only threat or deterrent that we have to check the president.” Ramping up oversight. Even if it doesn’t lead to impeachment, Democrats clearly want to apply more scrutiny to Trump administration actions through hearings, investigations and subpoenas. Their dissatisfaction is so widespread that basically every congressional committee could be a battleground, because the administration is expected to resist that oversight, as Trump’s first administration did after Democrats took the House in 2019. Democrats want to investigate the $1.4 billion in earnings from cryptocurrency deals and other ventures that have enriched Trump’s family. They also are likely to train their sights on Hegseth, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Investigations also could reach private businesses, such as those owned by billionaire GOP megadonor Elon Musk, that played a significant role in shaping administration policies. “What I hope is with the act of having these hearings, of putting the bright shining light on the actions and intentions of the administration, the American people will see the impact this corruption is having, not just on our institutions, but the health of our nation, the health of our economy, our relations around the world,” Schneider said. “The foul sense of corruption permeates every action of this administration, and that is true for every single agency and every department within every agency,” he added. Biss, who was among protesters who clashed with federal agents outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview last year, said the point of oversight is “not some sort of frustration or anger.” “It’s because, if you allow this kind of lawlessness, this brutality, the violence, the corruption to go unchecked, you are basically inviting it to happen again,” he said. “The purpose of the oversight system is to make sure it can’t happen again.” U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, a Democrat representing the western suburbs who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, cautioned that Democrats can’t be overly broad in targeting private companies. “Depending on what we uncover in terms of whether companies were just simply responding to pressure or whether they were active participants in the Trump corruption, you will see a very different response,” he said. “I think Democrats are united on that.” Foster also said Democrats should clearly separate oversight from the legislation they want to pass to improve Americans’ lives. Maybe each committee should reserve one day a week for oversight activities, he suggested, and spend the rest of its time working on substantive legislation. Otherwise, he cautioned, lawmakers could miss other pressing issues, such as the growth of artificial intelligence, rising household debt and the spread of opaque financial instruments. There also could be bipartisan support for rolling back Trump’s tariffs and ending the war in Iran, Foster said. Democrats also likely will pass legislation Trump will never sign “to let the country know that Democrats are on one side of the issue, and Trump and the Republicans are not,” Foster said. “We’re going to have to think separately about those two classes of legislation and not confuse them,” he said. “We simply have to pass bills that the president won’t sign. That won’t represent a failure of Congress or a weakness of Congress. It’s just the political reality.” ‘Cut that out’ Balancing work with Republicans against efforts to check the Trump administration will be tricky, and fissures already are showing. Duckworth, who has urged colleagues to focus on getting back to work, has also signaled deep impatience with her party’s caution. At the same Center for American Progress last month, she said she is “tired of fixing s−−− Republicans break.” When Democrats held power during the Biden administration, she said, “we didn’t do anything innovative, and we didn’t make people’s lives better. We just spent the time putting out fires and trying to solve the pandemic.” “We spent time on the Democratic Party with our leadership being polite, not wanting to break the filibuster because ‘God forbid, if we blow up the filibuster, then they might do it to us and we’re not going to do it.’ We’re going to give their Supreme Court nominees the full process. We’re going to do everything by the book,” Duckworth recounted. “What I’ve told Democratic leadership is: Cut that out. You’ve seen what happened. They steamrolled us as soon as they took over, and it was to the detriment of the American people, and it was to the detriment of America’s national security around the world. So, f−−− that s−−−. We’re going to make it better.” Duckworth said she wants to expand foreign aid, restore funding to fight AIDS globally, make it possible for students to graduate from college debt-free, create a public option for health insurance and expand Medicare to people 50 and older. “I don’t want the old world order. I want a better order than it was before. And I’m not beyond steamrolling to get there,” said Duckworth, who uses a wheelchair. “In fact, they’re going to see my wheelchair tracks on their backs.”)
— DD: No Kings: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/17/no-kings-smaller-crowds-vote-early/
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/17/no-kings-protest-naperville-washington-trump/
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— Rising mortgage rates and home prices sidelining buyers but now is the time to purchase. DD: My decisions to buy real estate in 1972, 1974, and 1976 had big impacts on me. My and my wife’s decisions to buy real estate in 1978 and 1984 had big impacts on us.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/real-estate/2026/10/17/mortgage-rates-home-prices-sidelining-buyers-purchase-redfin-report
— DD: No Kings: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2026/10/16/no-kings-rallies-across-chicago-area-call-for-election-participation-make-your-voice-heard
DAILY HERALD
— DuPage County Board chair race: Conroy seeks second term against challenger Grasso.
https://www.dailyherald.com/20261016/news/dupage-county-board-chair-race-conroy-seeks-second-term-against-challenger-grasso/
— Candidates for DuPage County clerk promise openness and cooperation.
https://www.dailyherald.com/20261017/news/candidates-for-dupage-county-clerk-promise-openness-and-cooperation/
— John Paul Augustynowicz: 2026 candidate for Illinois House District 49.
https://www.dailyherald.com/20261016/illinois-state-politics/john-paul-augustynowicz-2026-candidate-for-illinois-house-district-49/
— DD: No Kings: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump.
https://www.dailyherald.com/20261017/news/no-kings-protesters-united-in-their-message-vote/
ABC7
— DD: No Kings: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-no-kings-protest-locations-rallies-donald-trump-ice-happening-evanston-arlington-heights-more/19947348/
NBC5
— DD: No King: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/no-kings-rallies-across-chicagoland-urge-voters-to-cast-ballots-early/4003854/
NPR ILLINOIS
— DD: NO Kings: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump.
https://www.nprillinois.org/2026-10-17/no-kings-draws-crowds-with-focus-on-early-voting
NAPERVILLE COMMUNITY TELEVISON
— DD: NO Kings: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump.
https://www.nctv17.org/news/naperville-no-kings-rally-makes-early-voting-push/
IPM NEWSROOM
— DD: The Democrat Party platform destroys traditional marriage. What did traditional marriage enable you to do? My outstanding parents and their traditional marriage enabled me to a) work my way through college, b) earn a bachelor’s degree in business when I was 21 in 1970, c) get promoted in 1972, 1973, and 1974, and c) earn an MBA in 1976. My outstanding wife and our traditional marriage enabled me to a) pass the CPA examination on my first attempt in 1979, b) take a $23,699/year (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO in 1980, c) earn a master’s degree in accounting in 1980, d) pass the Certified Internal Auditor Examination on my first attempt in 1981, e) become a licensed CPA in 1981, f) get promoted in 1986, g) earn four more job-related professional certifications in 1990, 1994, 1996, and 1997, and f) earn a master’s degree in financial markets and trading in 1997.
https://ipmnewsroom.org/114000-2/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
GOPUSA ILLINOIS
— To get more votes from those who are liberal/moderate, minority, female, younger, unmarried, LGBTQ, non-rich, non-Protestant, non-German American, have ancestors who have not been in America for a long time, and/or in America illegally, Democrat leaders ever-increasingly shout at the aforesaid that Republicans cause all their problems. Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly paint themselves as being protectors and advocates for those who are the aforesaid. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— The Democrat Party platform destroys traditional marriage. What did traditional marriage enable you to do? My outstanding parents and their traditional marriage enabled me to a) work my way through college, b) earn a bachelor’s degree in business when I was 21 in 1970, c) get promoted in 1972, 1973, and 1974, and c) earn an MBA in 1976. My outstanding wife and our traditional marriage enabled me to a) pass the CPA examination on my first attempt in 1979, b) take a $23,699/year (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO in 1980, c) earn a master’s degree in accounting in 1980, d) pass the Certified Internal Auditor Examination on my first attempt in 1981, e) become a licensed CPA in 1981, f) get promoted in 1986, g) earn four more job-related professional certifications in 1990, 1994, 1996, and 1997, and f) earn a master’s degree in financial markets and trading in 1997. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
MCHENRY COUNTY BLOG
https://mchenrycountyblog.com/
WIREPOINTS
https://wirepoints.org/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
NEW YORK POST
— Billionaires’ tax getting dry-run in California before socialists, AOC hits DC. Proposition 40 would slap a one-time 5% surtax on the wealth of California billionaires and send most of the money to healthcare, to be paid beginning in 2027 in up to five annual installments. DD: To vote for Democrats is to vote for socialism.
https://nypost.com/2026/10/17/us-news/billionaires-tax-getting-dry-run-in-california-before-socialists-aoc-hits-dc/
BIZ PAC REVIEW
— Trump shares more good news: ‘Our country is based on merit.’ DD: Democrats and RINOs dump merit to advance those who are Democrat and RINO and minority, female, younger, non-Protestant, non-German American, and/or have ancestors who have not been in America for a long time.
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2026/10/17/trump-shares-more-good-news-our-country-is-based-on-merit-1663709/
FOX NEWS
— Michigan is the last line of defense against socialism. DD: To vote for Democrats is to vote for socialism.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6407023159112
— Socialist deception. DD: To vote for Democrats is to vote for socialism.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6407011685112
— The dangers of socialism. DD: To vote for Democrats is to vote for socialism.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6407012987112
— Guaranteed income pushed as fix for affordability crisis. DD: What has helped you afford things? I took jobs that my peers would not stoop to take. I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree when I was 21 in 1970. I worked two jobs 1971-1972. I earned job-related master’s degrees in 1976, 1980, and 1997. I job-related professional certifications in 1979, 1981, 1990, 1994, 1996, and 1997. I earned a job-related professional license in 1981. In today’s dollars, that increased my salary from $19.57/hour in 1966 to $154,682/year in 1997.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/mayors-pushing-guaranteed-income-programs-say-unrestricted-cash-fastest-way-address-affordability.amp
TOWNHALL
— France Is Burning, and Socialism Is Holding the Match. DD: To vote for Democrats is to vote for socialism.
https://townhall.com/columnists/bradparscale/2026/10/17/france-is-burning-and-socialism-is-holding-the-match-n2684860
WESTERN JOURNAL
— As Crime Sprees Plague Seattle, It’s Socialist Mayor Introduces Soft-on-Crime ‘Connection Court.’ DD: The Democrat Party platform produces poverty and crime.
https://www.westernjournal.com/never-learn-crime-sprees-plague-seattle-socialist-mayor-introduces-soft-crime-connection-court/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
ABC NEWS
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly glorify and praise their illegals and fight their deportation. The more illegals that there are in America, the bleaker that the future is for Americans who are conservative, Republican, White, male, older, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time.
https://abcnews.com/Politics/immigration-trumps-best-worst-issue-abc-newswashington-postipsos/story?id=130453377
NEW YORK TIMES
— Let’s Abolish Business Schools. DD: I earned an MBA from Loyola in 1976 when I was 27, a master’s degree in accounting from DePaul when I was 31, and a master’s degree in financial markets and trading from IIT when I was 48. That helped me get promoted when I was 23, 24, 25, and 38. That helped me survive as federal employee until I was 49. That helped me pass the CPA examination on my first attempt when I was 30, pass the Certified Internal Auditor examination on my first attempt and became a licensed CPA when I was 32, and become a Certified Fraud Examiner when I was 41, Certified Government Financial Manager when I was 45, Certified Financial Services Auditor when I was 47, and a Forensic Accountant when I was 48.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/18/opinion/business-school-mba-harvard-cornell-cambridge.html
— Is Retirement Unhealthy? It Depends. As more Americans live longer and as the population ages, measuring the effect of retirement on physical, cognitive and mental abilities is a complex undertaking. DD: When I was 49 in 1997, my Democrat GAO superiors made it clear that if I did not retire, they would destroy me mentally and physically.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/well/longevity-retirement-health.html
USA TODAY
— DD: Musk: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Republicans.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/10/17/musk-paxton-campaign-contributions-white-supremacist/92248722007/
KCRA
— Home affordability gap for first-time buyers widens as costs rise. DD: I bought a new townhome when I was 24 in 1972 and condos when I was 25 and 27. My wife and bought a home in Wheaton ( https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1017-E-Harrison-Ave-Wheaton-IL-60187/4436186_zpid/ ) When I was 29 and she was 27.
https://www.kcra.com/article/starter-home-costs-first-time-buyers/73981709
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The latest data from the National Association of Realtors showed that the monthly mortgage payment for a typical starter home in the U.S. was $2,158. That would require a first-time buyer to earn an income of at least $103,584, factoring in interest rates and down payment. But nationally, the median income for first-time buyers is short of that at about $72,100.)
FORTUNE
— Many college students are skipping meals altogether or eating less to pay the bills. DD: What helped you afford college? For me, it was my parents who provided me with room and board in their Crete home while I was a student at UIC 1966-1968, weekends during my first semester at NIU in 1969, and the summer of 1969. For me, it was the money I earned working for the Park Forest Post Office 1966-1969 part-time during the school years and full-time during the summers. The aforesaid enabled me to graduate debt-free from NIU with a bachelor’s degree in business in August of 1970 owning a 1969 Dodge Charger SE.
https://fortune.com/2026/09/23/gen-z-healthy-groceries-unaffordable-bills/
— DD: To get more votes from younger people, Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against older people.
https://fortune.com/2026/10/17/wealthy-boomers-38-percent-richer-since-2022-federal-reserve/
— Car payments just hit a record $787 a month—and 1 in 4 new-car buyers is now signing a 7-year loan. DD: Back in the good old days, in 1966, I was able to buy a new 1966 Pontiac Tempest Sprint with money I earned washing dishes for the minimum wage for 15 months part-time and for 3 months full-time. In 1967, I was able to buy a new 1968 Oldsmobile 442 with money I earned cleaning golf shoes, chipping slag, pumping gasoline, and delivering mail for 12 months part-time and for 6 months full-time. In 1968, I was able to buy a new 1969 Dodge Charger SE with money I had earned delivering mail for 9 months part-time and for 3 months full-time. In 1971, I was able to buy a new 1972 Corvette with money I earned delivering mail for 5 months part-time and for 3 months full-time, working for a Firestone Store for 7 months full-time and for 8 months part-time, and working for IRS for 4 months full-time.
https://fortune.com/2026/10/14/car-payments-record-787-seven-year-auto-loans-edmunds/
KIPLINGER’S
— GET AHEAD IN THE JOB HUNT. DD: The Democrats who ran the Post Office in 1966, IRS in 1971, and GAO in 1980 hired me because they could not find a qualified Democrat who was minority, female, younger, or veteran and who would take the job. If I had been active in Republican politics in any way, they never would not have hired. For Democrat leaders, federal jobs are for Democrats, and especially for Democrats who are minority, female, younger, or veteran.
https://www.magzter.com/stories/investment/Kiplingers-Personal-Finance/GET-AHEAD-IN-THE-JOB-HUNT
GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE
— A 1980 law allowed GAO to escape some aspects of the executive branch pay system and led to the 1989 establishment of a pay banding system for its attorney and analyst workforce. DD: My Democrat GAO superiors were furious when the GAO manager who had arranged my transfer from IRS when I was 31 in 1980 was finally able to assign me to audits of IRS and to promote me to GS-13 in 1986. They forced him to retire in 1987. They were even more furious when GAO merged GS-13s and GS-14s into a new “Band II” in 1989. In 1989, they pulled out all the stops to get rid of me. They threw me off audits of IRS and made it clear that would never again assign me to audits of IRS. They gave a very bad job assignment. They gave me very unfair performance expectations and a very unfair performance appraisal. They ranked me at the bottom of my coworkers for pay-for-performance. They would not have taken the aforesaid adverse actions against me if I had been a Democrat, minority, female, younger, or veteran.
https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2004/07/gao-prepares-for-pay-system-overhaul/17156/
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
— DD: The Democrat Party platform destroys traditional marriage. What did traditional marriage enable you to do? My outstanding parents and their traditional marriage enabled me to a) work my way through college, b) earn a bachelor’s degree in business when I was 21 in 1970, c) get promoted in 1972, 1973, and 1974, and c) earn an MBA in 1976. My outstanding wife and our traditional marriage enabled me to a) pass the CPA examination on my first attempt in 1979, b) take a $23,699/year (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO in 1980, c) earn a master’s degree in accounting in 1980, d) pass the Certified Internal Auditor Examination on my first attempt in 1981, e) become a licensed CPA in 1981, f) get promoted in 1986, g) earn four more job-related professional certifications in 1990, 1994, 1996, and 1997, and f) earn a master’s degree in financial markets and trading in 1997.
https://news.virginia.edu/content/professor-contrary-some-media-narratives-marriage-means-more-money-success
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
— ‘If I don’t get all the loans I need, there’s no way for me to pay for college’ DD: What helped you afford college? For me, it was my parents who provided me with room and board in their Crete home while I was a student at UIC 1966-1968, weekends during my first semester at NIU in 1969, and the summer of 1969. For me, it was the money I earned working for the Park Forest Post Office 1966-1969 part-time during the school years and full-time during the summers. The aforesaid enabled me to graduate debt-free from NIU with a bachelor’s degree in business in August of 1970 owning a 1969 Dodge Charger SE.
https://www.theeagleonline.com/article/2026/10/if-i-dont-get-all-the-loans-i-need-theres-no-way-for-me-to-pay-for-college
NEW YORK MAGAZINE
— The War on Woke at West Point. DD: To promote wokeness/wokeism is to promote hatred against those who are conservative, Republican, American, White, male, older, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/hegseth-war-on-woke-west-point-military.html
ALTERNET
— Bipartisan panel brutally stomps Trump’s latest ‘DEI hire’ fiasco. DD: My Democrat IRS superiors got rid of the IRS manager who promoted me in 1972, 1973, and 1974. My Democrat GAO superiors got rid of the GAO manager who arranged my transfer from IRS in 1980 and was finally able to assign me to audits and to promote me in 1986.
https://www.alternet.org/trump-dei-hire-zacharia/
FROM FOREIGN SOURCES
ABC AUSTRALIA
— Trump’s recruitment standards have come under scrutiny. DD: The Democrats who ran the Post Office in 1966, IRS in 1971, and GAO in 1980 hired me because they could not find a qualified Democrat who was minority, female, younger, or veteran and who would take the job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETWhybvzAow
NEWS24
— ‘New era of socialism’: Trump’s dire warning for America. DD: To vote for Democrats is to vote for socialism.
https://www.news24.com.au/politics/us-politics/new-era-of-socialism-trumps-dire-warning-for-america/video/8080eab0786458afe03cff6b8632ba95
FROM OTHER SOURCES
AUTO WIRE
— The Average New-Car Payment Is Now $787, and a Quarter of Buyers Are Signing Up for 84 Months of It. DD: Back in the good old days, in 1966, I was able to buy a new 1966 Pontiac Tempest Sprint with money I earned washing dishes for the minimum wage for 15 months part-time and for 3 months full-time. In 1967, I was able to buy a new 1968 Oldsmobile 442 with money I earned cleaning golf shoes, chipping slag, pumping gasoline, and delivering mail for 12 months part-time and for 6 months full-time. In 1968, I was able to buy a new 1969 Dodge Charger SE with money I had earned delivering mail for 9 months part-time and for 3 months full-time. In 1971, I was able to buy a new 1972 Corvette with money I earned delivering mail for 5 months part-time and for 3 months full-time, working for a Firestone Store for 7 months full-time and for 8 months part-time, and working for IRS for 4 months full-time.
https://theautowire.com/2026/10/16/40496/
