Tag: certified

FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES

ABC7
— Race for U.S. Senate in Illinois.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-race-us-senate-includes-candidates-juliana-stratton-don-tracy-whitfield-harrington-jr/19929749/

NBC5
— Americans 75 and older are wealthiest age group, Fed survey finds. The finding underscores how robust stock market gains have made wealthier American families even richer since the survey, conducted every three years, was last completed in 2022. DD: My retirement income and savings are dramatically less because my Democrat superiors in the federal government wasted my career and forced me to retire when I was 49 in 1997.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/americans-75-older-wealthiest-fed-survey/4000308/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The median net worth of the richest one-tenth of American families soared 31% to $3.6 million from 2022 to 2025, the survey found. The median is the midpoint between the richest and poorest families. For the oldest families aged 75 and over, median net worth jumped to nearly $505,000, up from just over $367,000 in 2022. Three years ago, families aged 65 to 74 were the richest. All the figures are adjusted for inflation. Average wealth for the oldest age group rose 10% to $1.96 million. The higher average, compared with the median, reflects the fact that wealthier Americans pulled up the average relative to the median. Those aged 35 and below reported median net worth of $33,000, a drop of 23% from 2022. Overall, the survey found broad gains in income, even after adjusting for inflation, which slightly reduced income inequality compared with three years earlier. Higher-income families actually saw their incomes drop, likely because of declines in business income, which the Fed said can be volatile. Median family incomes rose about 7% from 2021 to 2024, the Fed said, to about $82,000. The survey measures incomes in the year prior to the periods covered by the report. The middle one-fifth of families saw the biggest income gain, while the top fifth reported lower incomes. Even so, the proportion of Americans struggling with high debt payments and falling behind on their payments jumped, a sign of the toll that sharply higher inflation and higher interest rates have taken on lower-income Americans. In 2025, nearly 20% of U.S. families said they had been late on a loan payment in the previous year, up sharply from 12.2% in 2022. And the proportion of families dedicating 40% or more of their incomes to debt payments jumped to 8.6%, the highest in at least 12 years, the report showed.)

CBS2
— Activists appeal to have President Trump to have Chicago’s Columbus statues restored. Monday is Columbus Day, and some activists are demanding the city provide answers about the process that led to the removal of three statues of Christopher Columbus.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/video/activists-appeal-to-have-president-trump-to-have-chicagos-columbus-statues-restored/

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— FRONT PAGE TOP OF FOILD: DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly glorify and praise their illegals and fight their deportation.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/12/amid-firings-individual-immigration-judges-scrutinized-by-higher-ups-on-case-management/
— DD: Those who want Bailey to lose to Pritzker by more this time and to not run again in 2030 promote Corbett to take votes away from Bailey.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/10/08/governor-race-collin-corbett-independent/
— DD: Republican Illinois House endorsements include Behr (57th), Reed (56th), Johnson (55th), Tracey (54th), Bauer (53rd), McLaughlin (52nd), Smith (51st), Augustynowicz (49th), Sanalitro ( 48th), Vrankovich (47th), Parrilli (45th), and Crespo (44th).
https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/

DAILY HERALD
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly push more pot.
https://www.dailyherald.com/20261011/news/illinois-cannabis-customers-bought-more-at-lower-prices-while-sales-revenue-and-taxes-fell-report/

MUDDY RIVER NEWS
— Hancock County republicans urged to be part of the Illinois red wave to get Darren Bailey elected governor.
https://muddyrivernews.com/top-stories/hancock-county-republicans-urged-to-be-part-of-the-illinois-red-wave-to-get-darren-bailey-elected-governor/20261012070107/

NORTHERN PUBLIC RADIO
— DD: The mainstream news media exists not only to destroy, Trump, but to destroy all Republicans.
https://www.northernpublicradio.org/2026-10-12/trump-struggles-to-show-voters-hes-focused-on-the-cost-of-living

FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES

WIREPOINTS
https://wirepoints.org/

RICHARD HANANIA
— There Are Now Too Many Millionaires to Attack. How the American economy outgrew socialism. DD: According to my critics/opponents, I have always had way too much money. They are overjoyed that my retirement income and savings are dramatically less because my Democrat superiors in the federal government wasted my career and forced me to retire when I was 49 in 1997. To vote for Democrats is to vote for socialism.
https://www.richardhanania.com/p/there-are-now-too-many-millionaires
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Nearly every political movement that taps into mass passions has a villain, and the most energized portion of the left has in the last few years shifted from blaming the white male patriarchy for the world’s problems to focusing on billionaires. Whether it’s high prices of consumer goods, rent increases, or Americans falling behind on their bills, every material concern that the poor face can be solved by taxing the ultra-rich and scaling back their political power.)

FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES

NEW YORK POST
— Trump made a spicy social media post celebrating Columbus Day, lashing out at Democrats for tearing down statues of Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus.
https://nypost.com/2026/10/11/us-news/trump-claims-days-of-plunder-are-over-in-spicy-columbus-day-post-bashing-dems-for-statue-hysteria/
— Don’t make Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hasan’s execution a public spectacle — and him a martyr.
https://nypost.com/2026/10/11/opinion/dont-make-fort-hood-terrorist-nidal-hasans-execution-a-public-spectacle-and-him-a-martyr/

AMERICAN THINKER
— Tear down that woke. Surrender is the word, and then they wonder why their streets look like they do or why so-called “students” are burning Paris.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/10/tear-down-that-woke/

BREITBART
— Trump Says ‘Days of Plunder’ of Columbus Statues ‘Are Over.’
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/10/11/trump-says-days-of-plunder-of-columbus-statues-are-over/amp/

DAILY SIGNAL
— Trump Brought Columbus Day Back After the Left Tried to Erase It.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/10/11/trump-brought-columbus-day-back-after-the-left-tried-to-erase-columbus/
— Trump Celebrates Hispanics’ Rejection of Socialism. DD: To vote for Democrats is to vote for socialism.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/10/01/hispanics-still-reject-socialism-and-yesterdays-white-house-celebration-proved-it/

DAILY WIRE
— Trump Rips ‘Dumocrats’ In Columbus Day Message.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-rips-dumocrats-in-columbus-day-message
— Rubio’s Athens Address Is A Vision For Western Civilization. Marco Rubio’s gave a speech we needed to hear. DD: While I worked for the Democrats who ran the federal government for almost 30 years, they ever-increasingly lowered standards to hire, retain, and promote more Democrats who were minority, female, younger, and or veteran. That ever-increasingly rendered worthless my job-related bachelor’s degree, my three job-related master’s degrees, my six job-related professional certifications, and my job-related professional license.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/rubios-athens-address-is-a-vision-for-western-civilization
(FROM THE ARTICLE: His sharpest line was about a culture that builds downward, shaming meritocracy, and designing standards so no one loses, holding the exceptional “hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre.”)

EPOCH TIMES
— Columbus Statues Became Targets Across America. Italian Americans Are Fighting Back. ‘Nobody’s history should be destroyed,’ said an Italian American seeking to preserve Christopher Columbus’s legacy.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/columbus-statues-became-targets-across-america-italian-americans-are-fighting-back-6100781

FOX NEWS
— Buying a home seems impossible. Here’s what Boomers just don’t understand. A 20% down payment now equals nearly a whole year’s household income. DD: Did you buy a starter home? I did when I was 24 in 1972. I lost lots of money on it. I bought a new townhome in University Park. SEE: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/774-Sunset-Ct-5-University-Park-IL-60484/5451474_zpid/ . It had only 1,000 square feet. In today’s dollars, I paid about $180,000 for it and the 20% down payment would have been about $36,000. In today’s dollars, my IRS Revenue Officer salary had just increased from $56,409/year to $68,999/year. The down payment came from what I had earned working for IRS for 15 months and for a Firestone Store part-time for 18 months and full-time for 7 months before that. According to Zillow, the townhome is currently worth $88.700. That says worlds about real estate values in University Park. In 1974, when my IRS salary increased from $83,482/year to $100,059/year, I would have sold it and bought a one bedroom condo in the Outer Dive East building in downtown Chicago. But because the University Park housing market had crashed, I could sell the townhome only if I took a big loss. So I kept it and instead bought a studio condo in that building. In 1976, I traded that studio condo in to the building’s developer for a one bedroom condo, and because the University Park housing market was still way down, I began renting it out. In 1984, I sold it at a big inflations-adjusted loss. That says worlds about real estate values in University Park.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/buying-home-seems-impossible-heres-what-boomers-dont-understand

FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES

NEWSWEEK
— Map Shows How States Mark Columbus Day As Trump Vows To Protect Holiday.
https://www.newsweek.com/map-shows-how-states-mark-columbus-day-as-trump-vows-to-protect-holiday-12552798

NEW YORK TIMES
— Graduates Who Earn High Wages. At Nearly $300,000, Some Recent Duke Graduates Out-Earned All Their Peers. DD: I earned a bachelor’s degree in business from NIU when I was 21 in 1970. In today’s dollars, when I started working for IRS when I was 22 in 1971, my salary was $56,409/year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/your-money/duke-math-major-salaries.html
— Boomers Didn’t Always Have It So Easy. DD: The Vietnam War harmed me the most. Many, most, virtually all, and at times all of my Post Office, IRS, and GAO superiors and supervisors were Democrat veterans. They blamed Republicans like me for America losing the Vietnam War. They especially blamed those like me who avoided the Vietnam War draft like I did with four student deferments and a financial hardship draft deferment. They stressed that I was 1-A for the draft and ignored/dismissed/belittled that I could not run because I had an inherited bone disease, my eyesight could not be corrected to 20/20, and I had partial red/green color blindness. To demonize me, denigrate me, and condemn me as being an unmitigated disgusting hypocritical coward, they stressed that with my aforesaid health problems, I would not have been sent into combat anyway. Further, according to them, if I had not avoided the draft, I would not have been able a) to earn a job-related bachelor’s degree in 1970 when I was 21, job-related master’s degrees when I was 27, 31, and 48, job-related professional certifications when I was 30, 32, 41, 45, 47, and 48, and a job-related professional license when I was 32, b) to buy new cars when I was 19, 20, 23, 25, 29, etc., c) to buy real estate when I was 24, 25, 27, 29, and 35, d) to get married when I was 29, e) to buy collector cars when I was 40 and 45, f) to take the many luxury vacations with my wife and I took in connection with her many business trips when I was 29-43, g) to save what we did for our retirement, g) etc.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/10/opinion/millennial-boomer-young-adult.html
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Competitive suffering may be one of the few things generations reliably pass down. And in that sense, today’s young adults are building a mammoth bequest. They have excellent material. Housing is outrageously expensive, inflation persistent and health care increasingly unaffordable. There are fewer traditional tickets to the middle class in corporate management or in manufacturing. A.I. is eyeing their future earnings. It’s a compelling tale of economic adversity. But here’s where my inner boomer — despite my best efforts to keep it quietly occupied with Wordle — starts clearing its throat. Hasn’t every generation faced what seemed like an unprecedented crisis in its 20s and 30s? We boomers — I was born in 1956 — certainly thought so. We came of age with the Vietnam War and the draft dividing the country, gasoline lines and stagflation. The homicide rate in 1980 was more than twice today’s. Hanging over all of us was the reassuring possibility of nuclear annihilation.)
— Zohran Mamdani’s Moral Obscenity. It is obscene because Mamdani is the mayor for about one million Jewish New Yorkers, many with close relatives in Israel, who deserve better on a day of grief than to be offered the equivalent of an “All Lives Matter” homily. This is yet another of the double standards through which modern-day Jew hatred manifests itself: Whenever antisemitism is mentioned in progressive circles, it is inevitably accompanied by nods about Islamophobia or other bigotries.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/opinion/zohran-mamdani-israel-gaza.html
— FRONT PAGE: DD: The mainstream news media exists not only to destroy, Trump, but to destroy all Republicans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/10/us/politics/trump-inflation-midterms-republicans.html

WALL STREET JOURNAL
— The Welfare State Is Crushing Britain. The soaring number of people on disability and sickness benefits is blowing up the country’s welfare bill and imperiling its long-term financial stability. DD: To vote for Democrats is to vote for socialism.
https://www.wsj.com/world/uk/united-kingdom-welfare-disability-payouts-737d77a0
— Americans Can’t Stop Watching Videos of People Paying Down Their Debt. DD: My Democrat GAO superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates were furious when my wife and I paid off our mortgage in the 1990s.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-cant-stop-watching-videos-of-people-paying-down-their-debt-acda4b22

FORBES
— DD: My Democrat Post Office, IRS, and GAO superiors crowed about their successes in meeting/exceeding their Affirmative Action quotas. That is, they crowed about their successes in getting rid of their employees who were Republican, White, male, older, and/or non-veteran. I should write about that.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sonariglinton/2025/06/26/the-real-history-behind-dei-and-workplace-equity-in-america/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2026/09/18/us-army-sergeants-to-receive-merit-based-promotions-under-new-policy/
— Career achievements. DD: Which of your career achievements do your critics/opponents ignore/dismiss/belittle/badmouth the most? My critics/ opponents ignore/dismiss/belittle/badmouth my three job-related master’s degrees, my six job-related professional certifications, and my job-related professional license. I earned an MBA from Loyola 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 when I was 48.  I passed the CPA examination on my first attempt when I was 30. I passed the Certified Internal Auditor examination on my first attempt and became a licensed CPA when I was 32. I became 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.forbes.com/sites/josephliu/2025/03/04/why-celebrating-your-own-achievements-matters-to-your-career-journey/

BUSINESS
— Workplace Competition: Do’s and Don’ts to Motivate Employees. DD: To get rid of their employees who were Republican, White, male, older, and/or non-veteran like me, my Democrat superiors in the federal government had my Democrat supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates help them get rid of their employees who were Republican, White, male, older, and/or non-veteran like me. I should write about my Democrat superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates who did the most to get rid of me.
https://www.business.com/articles/gal-rimon-workplace-competition/

FORTUNE
— Americans need a household income of $120,000 to afford payments on the median-priced U.S. home. DD: Did you buy a starter home? I did when I was 24 in 1972. I lost lots of money on it. I bought a new townhome in University Park. SEE: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/774-Sunset-Ct-5-University-Park-IL-60484/5451474_zpid/ . It had only 1,000 square feet. In today’s dollars, I paid about $180,000 for it and the down payment would have been about $36,000. In today’s dollars, my IRS Revenue Officer salary had just increased from $56,409/year to $68,999/year. The down payment came from what I had earned working for IRS for 15 months and for a Firestone Store part-time for 18 months and full-time for 7 months before that. According to Zillow, the townhome is currently worth $88.700. That says worlds about real estate values in University Park. In 1974, when my IRS salary increased from $83,482/year to $100,059/year, I would have sold it and bought a one bedroom condo in the Outer Dive East building in downtown Chicago. But because the University Park housing market had crashed, I could sell the townhome only if I took a big loss. So I kept it and instead bought a studio condo in that building. In 1976, I traded that studio condo in to the building’s developer for a one bedroom condo, and because the University Park housing market was still way down, I began renting it out. In 1984, I sold it at a big inflations-adjusted loss. That says worlds about real estate values in University Park.
https://fortune.com/2026/10/12/jeff-bezos-socialism-gallup-poll-housing-affordability-greedy-landlords-austin-rents/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Even Vice President JD Vance warned in July that young Americans priced out of homeownership could be drawn to socialism, as Fortune previously reported. At the end of 2025, a household needed $120,800 a year to afford payments on the median-priced U.S. home, up from $68,700 five years earlier, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Only 32% of U.S. households met that income threshold, including just 16% of renter households. An earlier report from the same Harvard center found that rising homebuying costs between 2021 and 2024 effectively priced out about 8 million renter households that previously earned enough to afford a median-priced home. Most were between 25 and 44, in their prime homebuying years. First-time buyers made up just 21% of home purchases in the National Association of Realtors’ latest annual survey, a record low, and Zillow’s CEO doesn’t expect that to change soon.)

INVESTOPEDIA
— Average Net Worth for Baby Boomers: How Wealth Differs Across This Generation. DD: My retirement income and saving are dramatically less because my Democrat superiors in the federal government wasted my career and forced me to retire when I was 49 in 1997.
https://www.investopedia.com/average-net-worth-for-baby-boomers-how-wealth-differs-across-this-generation-12145864
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Baby boomers control over half of U.S. household wealth, but much of it is tied up in home equity and retirement accounts. The median net worth for baby boomers is significantly lower than the average, highlighting wealth disparities within the generation. Rising healthcare costs, inflation, and longer life expectancies can strain retirement savings, reducing available cash for many boomers. Baby boomers control more than half of all U.S. household wealth—almost $90 trillion by the end of 2025. That works out to more than $1.6 million per boomer on average. But that masks significant disparities among individuals, with the median closer to $370,000. Born between 1946 and 1964, boomers entered adulthood during the post–World War II economic expansion. Housing was much more affordable, and many either had a guaranteed, employer-funded pension or started investing to take advantage of decades of stock gains. Still, even with these advantages, the median figure can be misleading, since much of this generation’s wealth is locked up in the value of their homes and retirement accounts, not cash that can be spent. . .Net worth typically climbs as people get older, then falls later in life. Earnings from work tend to rise over the course of a career, while compound interest helps retirement savings grow over decades. Many people also build wealth as they pay down mortgages and benefit from rising home values. By their 60s, many baby boomers own their homes outright and have accumulated sizable retirement accounts after decades in the workforce. But once retirement begins, many households shift from building wealth to gradually spending it down. Healthcare costs, inflation, and longer life expectancies can all put pressure on retirement savings over time. Because much of boomer wealth is tied to home equity and investment accounts, high net worth figures do not always translate to large amounts of readily available cash.)

ABC7 BAY AREA
— GAO: DOGE’s claim of $110B in savings was vastly inflated and riddled with errors. DOGE couldn’t verify 96% of reported grant savings, a review found. DD: If Gingrich had reformed GAO instead of gutting it in the 1980s and 1990s, there would be no need for DODGE and I might still be a GAO employee.
https://abc7news.com/story/doges-claim-110b-savings-was-vastly-inflated-riddled-errors-gao/19641452/

WUSF
— GAO report calls for urgent ICE enforcement plans to stop wasting taxpayer money. DD: If Gingrich had reformed GAO instead of gutting it in the 1980s and 1990s, I might still be a GAO employee.
https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2026-10-07/government-report-calls-for-urgent-immigration-enforcement-plans-to-stop-wasting-taxpayer-money

LEGIS1
— Congress Examines Oversight of Thousands of GAO Recommendations. DD: If Gingrich had reformed GAO instead of gutting it in the 1980s and 1990s, I might still be a GAO employee.
https://legis1.com/news/congressional-oversight-gao-backlogs-give-an
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Why It Matters. Federal watchdogs have tracked more than 17,000 unresolved recommendations to improve government operations but generally cannot compel agencies to implement them. A new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report examines how Congress can use those recommendations to strengthen oversight, press agencies for corrective action, and identify potential legislation. ​ The Government Accountability Office (GAO) lists more than 5,000 open recommendations, roughly 450 classified as “priority.” The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) tracks more than 12,000 open recommendations across federal offices of inspector general (OIGs), including more than 50 priority recommendations. The report identifies three potential congressional uses, including identifying issues for oversight hearings, encouraging agency implementation, and pursuing legislation when statutory barriers prevent corrective action. The Big Picture. GAO and OIGs operate under distinct statutory frameworks. GAO derives its authority from 31 U.S.C. §§ 712 and 717, which authorize investigations and evaluations of government activities. Under 31 U.S.C. § 720, agency heads receiving GAO recommendations must submit written statements describing actions taken or planned to specified congressional committees.)

GAO
— Tax Fraud Costs Up to $304 Billion Each Year. DD: My Democrat GAO superiors wasted my knowledge of IRS. When I transferred from IRS to GAO when I was 31 in 1980, I had worked for IRS for almost 9 years, the last 5 1/2 years of which at the GS-12 Step 1-5 Levels, currently $100,059-$113,402/year. They refused to assign me to audits of IRS except for 3 of the almost 18 years that I worked for them. They would not have done that if I had been a Democrat, minority, female, or veteran.
https://www.gao.gov/blog/tax-fraud-costs-304-billion-each-year

MARY SUE
— DD: 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.
https://www.themarysue.com/ftc-chair-andrew-ferguson-lauds-eeoc-for-tackling-what-he-calls-a-previously-ignored-issue-protecting-white-american-men-from-discrimination/

FROM OTHER SOURCES

WORLD ATLAS
— The Towns In Illinois Where Retirees Are Moving To.
https://www.worldatlas.com/cities/the-towns-in-illinois-where-retirees-are-moving-to.html

HAGERTY
— VERY SAD: Why Detroit Stopped Making Affordable Sedans, and Probably Won’t Again. DD: My daily driver is a 2018 Chevrolet Cruze LT and I have a like-new 2021 Chevrolet Malibu Premier in reserve.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/why-detroit-stopped-making-affordable-sedans-and-probably-wont-again/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Gone are the affordable American starter cars of yesteryear, like the Chevrolet Cruze, the Ford Focus, and the Dodge Dart. Even their one-size-up siblings—the Malibu, the Fusion, and the Chrysler 300—have gone out of production. )