Tag: marijuana

FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— ALL OF THE FRONT PAGE: DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly a) glorify and praise their illegals and b) fight their deportation.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/la-voz/2026/08/13/tras-seis-meses-detenida-por-ice-una-vendedora-de-tamales-de-chicago-reconstruye-su-vida
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more Islam.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2026/08/15/muslim-politics-democrat-trump-el-sayed-mamdani-piker-rummana-hussain
— DD: Democrat leaders always hint/imply/argue/shout that police are racists.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2026/08/14/traffic-stops-racial-disparities-chicago-police-department-illinois-department-transportation-driving-while-black

ABC7
— A petition to declare U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra “persona non grata” and have him removed from his post had received more than 104,000 signatures as of Thursday. The petition was launched on Canada’s parliamentary petitions portal, where citizens and residents of Canada can set up petitions to parliament. DD: If/when my critics/opponents set up such a petition against me and against my GOPUSA ILLINOIS newsletters, how many signatures will they get? My critics/opponents blame me and blame my newsletters for all the losses that Republican candidates on ballots in my precinct have suffered since 2000. I should write about my “Republican” critics/opponents who paint themselves as being Democrat Lite, if not RINO, if not Democrat or Libertarian Plant. They do not want Republican candidates, elected officials, and party leaders to defend or promote conservative principles and the following planks in the Republican Party platform: personal responsibility, traditional marriage and family, right to life, immigration, anti-vice, Second Amendment, and equal opportunity (no race or gender based preference giving).
https://abc7chicago.com/story/100000-sign-petition-declare-us-ambassador-canada-persona-grata/19672210/

NBC5
— Power outages in northwest Indiana are so bad you can see them from space. DD: The more that overhead lines bring power to your home, the more that those lines are near trees, the more that I recommend getting a whole-house backup electric generator.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/power-outages-in-northwest-indiana-are-so-bad-you-can-see-them-from-space/3975848/

RIVER BENDER
— DD: Ever-increasingly, the more of the following that you are, the more government assistance that you get: minority, female, younger, veteran, and/or citizen of a foreign country.
https://www.riverbender.com/news/details/illinois-commission-on-equity-and-inclusion-announces-bep–vbp-certification-kickstart-workshop-95943.cfm

WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL
— Socialism lost in Wisconsin, but it’s winning in the Democratic Party.
https://madison.com/opinion/column/article_cf423347-2ce6-4bcd-b48a-a29010ef9780.html

WMOI
— LaHood, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Expand Access to Low-Interest Mortgages for First-Time Homebuyers. DD: Mortgage interest rates were 7.4% when I bought a new townhome in University Park when I was 24 in 1972. SEE: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/774-Sunset-Ct-5-University-Park-IL-60484/5451474_zpid/ . 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 $94,500. That says worlds about real estate values in University Park.
https://977wmoi.com/2026/08/lahood-colleagues-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-expand-access-to-low-interest-mortgages-for-first-time-homebuyers/

FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES

WASHINGTON TIMES
— Democrats plan decade-long strategy to push pro-transgender narrative. DD: How successful have Democrats been promoting LGBTQ in your county, township, municipality, and school district?
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/aug/15/democrats-plan-decade-long-strategy-push-pro-transgender-narrative/
— The Democrat Party, since the presidential days of Bill Clinton, has been moving down a path toward communism.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/aug/15/bold-blunt-socialism-nope-communism-fought/

WASHINGTON EXAMINER
— Johnson launches website to teach young voters about socialism and communism ahead of midterm elections. DD: How successful have Democrats been promoting socialism in your county, township, municipality, and school district?
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4688861/mike-johnson-contrast-for-america-tour-midterm-elections/
— The Peter Pan generation chooses pets. DD: My former neighbor Dr. Dan Kiley wrote the Peter Pan Syndrome. SEE: https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Pan-Syndrome-Never-Grown/dp/0380688905
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/premium/4667440/peter-pan-generation-chooses-pets-over-children/
— Democratic Socialists lack accountability by not facing the past.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AoDmip0KHh4

NEW YORK POST
— Socialist NY lawmaker Emily Gallagher says shoplifting for ‘biological need’ is OK.
https://nypost.com/2026/08/15/us-news/socialist-ny-lawmaker-emily-gallagher-says-shoplifters-have-a-biological-need-to-steal/
— DD: Democrat leaders dump Bill Maher because he thinks immigrants should assimilate and accept American values and principles.
https://nypost.com/2026/08/15/us-news/bill-maher-thinks-american-values-arent-negotiable/
— Dog owners’ average spending tops $4,000 a year—here’s the cost breakdown. DD: One reason why my wife and I have more money is our never owning pets.
https://nypost.com/lifestyle/true-cost-of-owning-a-dog/

AMERICAN THINKER
— How illegals plunder American billions, in broad daylight. And how Democrats enabled every dollar plundered.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/08/how-illegals-plunder-american-billions-in-broad-daylight/
— Mass immigration can only work if immigrants are introduced to a common American culture and expected to assimilate.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/08/america-s-stranger-problem/

BIZ PAC REVIEW
— Trump says AOC is misleading voters: ‘The woke will become woke again as soon as they get elected’
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2026/08/15/trump-says-aoc-is-misleading-voters-the-woke-will-become-woke-again-as-soon-as-they-get-elected-1654961/

BREITBART
— Democratic Socialists Have Been in Party for a While.
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/08/15/progressive-caucus-chair-democratic-socialists-have-been-in-party-for-a-while/amp/
— Rise of Democratic Socialists is a Real Opportunity for the GOP.
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/08/15/mark-levin-rise-of-a-democratic-socialists-a-real-opportunity-for-gop/
— Quarter of Americans Say Most Democrats Are Socialists.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/08/15/poll-quarter-of-americans-say-most-democrats-are-socialists/amp/

FOX NEWS
— A STEP TOWARD COMMUNISM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3vwDloUkxE

LEGAL INSURRECTION
— EEOC Sues Washington University in St. Louis For Firing Employee Who Complained About DEI Policy. DD: My Democrat GAO superiors forced me to retire not only because I complained about their political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, and age discrimination, but because I became an active member in a class action lawsuit that charged them with the aforesaid.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/08/eeoc-sues-wash-u-for-firing-employee-who-complained-about-dei-policy/amp/

NEWSMAX
— The growing influence of democratic socialists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqIshMiul4U

PATRIOT LEDGER
— ‘We’re winning:’ Bernie Sanders and DSA see WI, MI results as progress. DD: How successful have Democrats been promoting socialism in your county, township, municipality, and school district?
https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/08/16/bernie-sanders-dsa-wisconsin-michigan-progress/91276557007/

REAL CLEAR POLITICS
— The Woke Right Is Urging The Abandonment Of “Core Conservative Traditional Reaganite Principles.”
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/08/15/mark_levin_the_woke_right_is_urging_the_abandonment_of_core_conservative_traditional_reaganite_principles.html

FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES

THE HILL
— The worse it gets, the better it is: American leftism is thriving on its own failures.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/6030675-american-left-politics-failure/

ABC NEWS
— 21% of Married Couples Have a Foreign Spouse. DD: All my ancestors immigrated during the 1840s and 1850s from what is now Germany. They all married those who shared their national origin.
https://abcnews.com/ABC_Univision/News/census-report-reveals-21-married-couples-foreign-spouse/story?id=20171171
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The number of mixed-nativity married couple households corresponds with the increase in immigration to the United States over the last several decades. . .As the immigrant population has grown, so has the chance that a native-born person will meet and marry a foreign-born person.)

CBS NEWS
— Federal workers sour on government work. DD: I would not have spent almost 30 years of my life working for the federal government if my high school friend had not asked me to join him to take the postal employment test in 1966. Because I passed, I was a part-time postal employee while I attended UIC 1966-1968 and NIU in 1969. I graduated from NIU in 1970 and accepted the only job offer that I got, to be the Retail Sales Manager in a Firestone Store, a job that not really require a college degree. Potential employers saw me as being draft bait. They did not believe that my application for a financial hardship draft deferment to help support my mother and brother would be approved. I accepted a job offer from Oldsmobile in 1971, but Oldsmobile withdrew that offer saying it had just agreed to stop hiring Whites to settle an EEOC complaint. My Firestone Store boss rudely fired me because I had accepted that offer. Because I had to have a job, I accepted a job offer that I got from IRS. I had taken and passed the Federal Service Entrance Examination while I was a NIU student as a backup because federal employees are viewed negatively.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/federal-workers-survey-public-service-job-security/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Nearly two-thirds of U.S. federal workers said they wouldn’t enter public service again, citing eroding job security and benefits, according to a recent poll of active and retired government employees. Respondents’ views overwhelmingly reflected concerns about the current federal climate, rather than regret over having chosen careers in government, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) found in a July survey. The Trump administration has made sweeping cuts to the federal workforce by eliminating jobs and weakening civil service protections. In 2025, the White House announced a number of executive orders to slash government jobs, including a hiring freeze on civilian workers and directives to federal agencies to reduce their rolls. President Trump has said there are too many federal workers, pushing to reduce the size and scope of government while making agencies more efficient.)

NEW YORK TIMES
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more LGBTQ.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/opinion/kansas-anti-trans-laws-drivers-license.html

WASHINGTON POST
— Democrats are calculating a left turn. The math is inescapable.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/08/07/2028-democratic-contenders-should-not-misread-primary-results/

USA TODAY
— College should be tough. Michigan’s grade plan coddles students. DD: What harmed your college GPA? For me, it was my working far too many hours delivering mail instead of studying.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/08/16/university-michigan-drops-grades-freshmen-lsa/91285520007/

FORTUNE
— Facing a decadeslong shortage, the FAA has now hired more than 2,000 air traffic controllers after its campaign recruiting Gen Z video gamers  promising $155K payday. DD: I did not earn $155,000/year in today’s dollars until after I had a) worked for GAO for almost 18 years, b) worked for IRS for almost 9 years, c) earned three job-related master’s degrees (business, accounting, and finance), d) earned six job-related professional certifications (accounting, internal auditing, fraud examination, government financial management, financial services auditing, and forensic accounting), and e) earned a job-related professional license (CPA). 3 years after I started working for IRS in 1971, I earned $100,000/year in today’s dollars. I had completed 10 graduate business evening business courses. According to my critics/opponents, I was grossly overpaid.
https://fortune.com/article/why-is-trump-administration-hiring-gen-z-video-gamers-for-air-traffic-control/

FORBES
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more vice including more pot.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajherrington/2026/07/21/more-employers-drop-marijuana-tests-despite-rising-positive-results/
— Envy. DD: My Democrat superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates in the federal government were filled with envy. They always painted themselves as being underpaid. They were ever-increasingly furious at my and my wife’s ever-increasing income and net worth. To turn them against me, my Democrat superiors stressed a) the new cars that I bought when I was 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, 29, etc., b) the real estate that I bought when I was 24, 25, 27, 29, and 35, c) the collector cars that I bought when I was 40 and 45, d) the college degrees that I earned when I was 21, 27, 31, and 48, e) the professional certifications that I earned when I was 30, 32, 41, 45, 47, and 48, f) the professional license that I earned when I was 32, g) the vacations that my wife and I took, h) etc. Some of them circulated copies of Money Magazine’s 4-page February 1978 article on me and my wife. SEE https://gopillinois.com/documents/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolelipkin/2024/04/30/how-to-keep-envy-at-bay-by-creating-a-positive-workplace-culture/
— Better Safe Than Sorry Kills Your Career. DD: I knew that I was taking a big career risk when I suggested myself to be the subject of a “One Person’s Finances” article in Money Magazine when I was 28 in 1977. SEE: https://gopillinois.com/documents/ But my Democrat IRS superiors had made it very clear that they would never promote me to GS-13. They had ignored/dismissed/belittled my earning an MBA from Loyola in 1976. They had gotten rid of the IRS manager who had promoted me when I was 23, 24, and 25. They had disallowed my travel vouchers when I was 25. SEE: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-180010.11-0  If you were me, would you have taken that risk?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2026/08/15/why-better-safe-than-sorry-kills-your-career-making-success-harder/

BLOOMBERG
— Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ Pitch Meets Affordability Frustration. DD: What did you do to afford things? I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree. I earned three job-related master’s degrees. I earned six job-related professional certifications. I earned a job-related professional license.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-08-15/trump-golden-age-pitch-meets-affordability-frustration-video

FORD FOUNDATION
— The Working Class. DD: I define the working class as being wage earners who earn less money. I was a member of the working class for 33 years. To earn more money, I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree. I earned three job-related master’s degrees. I earned six job-related professional certifications. I earned a job-related professional license. Notwithstanding the aforesaid, I never earned more than $154,682/year in today’s dollars. According to my critics/opponents, I was both grossly overpaid and an abject career failure.
https://www.fordfoundation.org/news-and-stories/stories/the-backbone-of-america-understanding-the-working-class/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The term “working class” often evokes narrow and outdated images in American culture. But in reality, today’s working class is often primarily defined by education rather than occupation: individuals without a four-year college degree. By that measure, the working class constitutes over 60% of the U.S. labor force—more than 93 million people as of 2023. This group is not only large, but richly diverse: Roughly 53% are non-Hispanic white, 13% Black, and 25% Hispanic. Approximately 44% are women.)

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
— Reskilling. Did you reskill? I certainly did. When I was 40 in 1988, to get rid of me, my Democrat GAO superiors made it very clear that they would never again assign me to audits of IRS. Because of that, I applied for and got accepted into their audit group that audited federal financial industry regulators in 1990. The leader of that group made it very clear that she wanted everyone in that group to have a master’s degree in finance. Because of that, I started taking graduate evening finance courses at IIT in 1992 and earned a master’s degree in financial markets and trading from IIT in early 1997. But in August and September of 1997, she led her superiors’ successful effort to force me to retire. She gave my Black subordinate my job and my preferred corner office. He did not have a master’s degree in finance. He had less job-related education than I had. He had less job-related work experience than I had. He had one job-related professional certification while I had six. I had no job-related professional license like the one I had. She would not have had to do that if I had been a Democrat, minority, female, veteran, or younger.
https://www.library.hbs.edu/working-knowledge/want-workers-to-reskill-show-them-who-they-can-become

PARTNERSHIP FOR PUBLIC SERVICE
— Undermining independence and eroding transparency: Examining Schedule Policy/Career reclassifications. A Partnership analysis of recent federal job postings suggests that Schedule Policy/Career reclassifications reach far beyond policy-influencing roles. This apparent expansion runs contrary to the Trump administration’s statement that reclassifications were largely limited to the “highest-ranking career positions outside of the Senior Executive Service.” DD: As a GS-13 GAO Analyst, I had absolutely no policy-influencing roles. I had to do what my superiors told me to do and I did that. But that was not good enough for them.
https://ourpublicservice.org/know-the-facts/blog/examining-schedule-policy-career-reclassifications

PBS
— Forced Retirement: What is it and what can you do about it? DD: I should write about forced retirement.  I have almost 29 years of direct experience.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/chasing-the-dream/2019/03/forced-retirement/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The loss of a career can feel like a death. The resulting grieving process is similar to that following the death of a friend or loved one. The five stages in the process of grieving a loss after death and they’re similar for grieving after an involuntary retirement: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Denial: You can’t believe this is really happening. You feel paralyzed. Anger: Once the shock has worn off, you begin to feel angry toward your company, supervisor and the world. For many retirees, the job is how they define themselves. When this is taken away, they feel frustrated and angry that they’ve lost their identity. Bargaining: You might want to try to get your job back, even with reduced pay, hours or responsibilities. This rarely works. Depression: Feelings of hopelessness and helplessness take hold and the future looks bleak. Acceptance: When your anger and depression are no longer consuming, you accept your new reality and begin to develop plans to make the most of your life. Each individual passes through these stages at his or her own rate and may move back and forth through some of the stages. The Suddenness of It All. A major problem of forced retirement is the lack of time to plan because of the suddenness of the termination. When someone voluntarily retires, there has been time to think about the future. Do you want to kick back and have a leisure filled retirement? Or do you plan to continue in some form of work or volunteerism? Is there some life passion you’ve been waiting to fulfill? The forced retiree hasn’t had the chance to think about these things. Work provides us with five important functions the forced retiree will suddenly lose. How will you deal with the changes in your financial situation? What about the time management and structure to your day that has been a major part of your working life? What will happen to the status you had and the recognition, reputation and sense of achievement that came with it? Where will you find the sense of usefulness you felt at your job? And how do you replace the social connections that are gone from your everyday life? These losses can lead to feelings of emptiness, shame, embarrassment and worry. You can feel like a failure.)

SHRM
— DD: Democrat and RINO employers reject E-Verify. All my employers would have hired noncitizens instead of me if they could have. My critics/opponents cannot say that because they had wealthy parents. Noncitizens work for less money and they are easier to exploit. I did yard work 1962-1964. I delivered newspapers 1962-1966. I washed dishes 1964-1966. I cleaned golf shoes, chipped slag, and pumped gasoline in 1966. I delivering mail 1966-1969. I worked on an automotive assembly line in 1970. I sold tires, automotive services, and major appliances 1970-1971. I pumped more gasoline 1971-1972. I collected delinquent federal taxes 1971-1980. I audited federal agencies 1980-1997. Many, if not most, if not virtually all of my peers would not have stooped to take the aforesaid bad jobs that I took.
https://www.shrm.org/mena/topics-tools/news/everify-proposal-could-create-new-hr-bompliance-burden

POLITICO
— Democrats finalize 2028 calendar that moves racially diverse states to the front. South Carolina will kick off a presidential primary process, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/15/democrats-finalize-2028-calendar-that-moves-racially-diverse-states-to-the-front-01038875

POLITIFACT
— How PolitiFact selects facts to check. DD: I often served as a fact checker while I worked for GAO 1986-1997 at the GS-13 Step 1-10 Levels, currently $118,984-$154,682/year.
https://politifact.com/video/how-politifact-selects-facts-check/

BUZZ FEED
— Why One Income Could Buy A House In The 1950s But Not Today. DD: My father died suddenly when he was 47 and I was 21 in 1969. He never earned more than $50,000/year in today’s dollars. My mother stayed home and raised me and my brother. He never bought a house. He rented from his parents. First, an apartment above their hardware store in Crete 1945-1954, and then their home at 1286 Wood Street in Crete. The lower rent he paid helped him afford sending me and my brother to Missouri Synod Lutheran grade schools.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/victoriavouloumanos/people-debating-about-why-inflation-is-getting-worse

AXIOS
— College loses its monopoly on the American Dream. DD: What did you do to achieve the American Dream? I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree. I earned three job-related master’s degrees. I earned six job-related professional certifications. I earned a job-related professional license.
https://www.axios.com/2026/08/15/college-bachelors-degree-shift-ai-america

NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly shout at everyone that they cannot advance without massive government assistance. I never fell for that. Instead, to advance, I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree. I earned three job-related master’s degrees. I earned six job-related professional certifications. I earned a job-related professional license.
https://nul.org/news/affordability-all-its-time-rescue-american-dream

FROM FOREIGN SOURCES

INDEPENDENT
— Meet the British former detective giving US churches AR-15s to defend against shooters. DD: What are churches in your county, township, municipality, and school district doing to defend themselves?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-church-assault-rifles-simon-osamoh-protection-shootings-b3032594.html