Tag: political

FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES

NBC5
— Dell family to give $6.25 billion to create 25 million additional ‘Trump Accounts.’  “This gift is expected to reach nearly 80% of children age 10 and under across 75% of U.S. zip codes,” according to Invest America.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/dell-billions-donations-trump-accounts/3857683/

WBEZ
— DD: Democrat leaders use students to crow about their obstruction of justice.
https://www.wbez.org/education/2025/12/02/as-immigration-agents-swept-chicago-this-fall-communities-stepped-in-to-get-kids-to-school-safely

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly fight enforcement of immigration laws.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/02/sen-dick-durbin-demands-answers-from-homeland-security-regarding-u-s-citizens-caught-up-in-immigration-raids/
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/02/opinion-chicago-immigration-raids-lessons-children/

DAILY HERALD
— Needless dispute: Censure of DuPage County clerk could have been avoided
https://www.dailyherald.com/20251202/editorials/daily-herald-opinion-needless-dispute-censure-of-dupage-county-clerk-could-have-been-avoided/
— Batavia pub gets OK for video gambling, despite being next to two churches
https://www.dailyherald.com/20251202/gambling/batavia-pub-gets-ok-for-video-gambling-despite-being-next-to-two-churches/

CENTRAL ILLINOIS PROUD
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly blame Trump for price increases.
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/national/more-americans-say-trump-has-helped-raise-prices-rather-than-lower-them-survey/

CAPITOL FAX
— Afternoon roundup
https://capitolfax.com/2025/12/02/isabel%e2%80%99s-afternoon-roundup-430/

FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES

CENTER SQUARE ILLINOIS
— Bill on Pritzker’s desk enhances Illinois’ migrant sanctuary policies. DD: The Democrats who run Illinois are ever closer to officially seceding Illinois from the United States.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_adaf80e0-ede3-4720-9968-6028d9d1fbbf.html

GOPUSA ILLINOIS
— If you are a Republican and if more and more and more of the voters in your county, township, municipality, school district, and precinct are voting for Democrats, your future is bleaker and bleaker and bleaker. At what point will you move? But if you move to a prosperous and safe area that Republicans created, Democrats will a) move into that area to take advantage of that prosperity and safety and b) get rid of you. Look at DuPage County. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com

FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES

WASHINGTON TIMES
— Young socialists revolt as Democratic Party hits 30-year popularity low
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/dec/2/democratic-party-popularity-hits-30-year-low-young-socialists-gain/
— GOP advances bill to add citizenship question to 2030 census
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/dec/2/gop-advances-bill-add-citizenship-question-2030-census/
— Journalist group presses White House to remove ‘media offenders’ webpage
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/dec/2/journalist-group-presses-white-house-remove-media-offenders-webpage/

WASHINGTON FREE BEACON
— Mamdani Taps Felon Who Served 7 Years for Robbing NYC Taxi Drivers as ‘Criminal Legal System’ Adviser
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/mamdani-taps-felon-who-served-7-years-for-robbing-nyc-taxi-drivers-as-criminal-legal-system-adviser/

NEW YORK POST
— Trump Derangement Syndrome is real
https://nypost.com/2025/12/02/opinion/trump-derangement-syndrome-is-real-these-hysterical-threats-prove-it/
— Anti-ICE chaos in Lower Manhattan is a sign of trouble ahead
https://nypost.com/2025/12/01/opinion/anti-ice-chaos-in-lower-manhattan-is-a-taste-of-whats-to-come-if-mamdani-amp-feds-cant-cooperate/

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
— States Fail to Require Adequate Cannabis Product Safety Warnings. DD: Pot is poison.
https://www.aei.org/op-eds/states-fail-to-require-adequate-cannabis-product-safety-warnings/

BIZ PAC REVIEW
— Lawmakers who spent hundreds of millions on illegals want to charge Chicagoans $1.25 ‘package fee’ deliveries.
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/12/02/lawmakers-who-spent-hundreds-of-millions-on-illegals-want-to-charge-chicagoans-1-25-package-fee-deliveries-1607606/

BREITBART
— Trump: ‘The Word Affordability Is a Con Job by the Democrats’ After Biden’s Historic Inflation
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/12/02/trump-word-affordability-is-con-job-democrats-after-bidens-historic-inflation/

DAILY SIGNAL
— House GOP Pushing Affordability Heading Into Election Year
https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/12/02/house-gop-pushing-affordability-heading-into-election-year/

FOX NEWS
— Trump unleashes on Dems’ top campaign platform: affordability
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6385857884112

FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES

CNN
— Religious leaders sue to block ICE raids at houses of worship. DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly turn religious leaders against America.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/01/world/video/religious-leaders-sue-to-block-ice-raids-at-houses-of-worship

USA TODAY
— ‘Affordability is a con job by the Democrats’: Trump tells Cabinet. Trump said tariffs are generating billions of dollars from countries such as Japan and South Korea that had been ‘ripping us off.’
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/12/02/trump-cabinet-meeting-venezuela-live-updates/87566205007/

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
— Trump dismisses affordability concerns as Democratic ‘con job’
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/12/02/trump-dismisses-affordability-concerns-as-democratic-con-job/

NEW YORK SUN
— Illinois Church’s Nativity Scene Depicts Baby Jesus Zip-Tied, Romans as ICE Agents. ‘The Holy Family were refugees. This is not political interpretation, this is the reality described,’ the church says. DD: The Democrat Party’s conquering of religion will soon be complete.
https://www.nysun.com/article/illinois-churchs-nativity-scene-depicts-baby-jesus-zip-tied-romans-as-ice-agents

NEWSWEEK
— In a survey of more than 1,200 likely Illinois voters, carried out between November 20 and 25 and seen by Fox 32, Chicago-based Victory Research put Pritzker at 54.3 percent of the vote, compared to 34 percent for GOP candidate Darren Bailey.
https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-chances-beating-jb-pritzker-illinois-governor-election-11142102

FORBES
— Giving Tuesday: What It Is And How To Maximize Its Impact. DD: What do you give to others? Since 2000, I have given my GOPUSA ILLINOIS newsletters to anyone who wants to read them free of charge, without any advertising, and without any donation requests. Since 2004, they have included links to almost 530,000 articles.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliekratz/2025/12/02/giving-tuesday-what-it-is-and-how-to-maximize-its-impact/

GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE
— Why America needs the GAO: DD: For almost 18 years, I worked for the Democrats who ran GAO. If Gingrich had reformed GAO during that time instead of gutting it, DOGE would not have been needed.
https://www.govexec.com/oversight/2025/11/why-america-needs-gao-doge-done-right/409745/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Ten months after the launch of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, one thing is clear: no one can agree on how much money it saved—or, in fact, whether it saved any money at all—and, if there were savings, what happened to them. What if DOGE were done right? Here something else is clear: we have had the Government Accountability Office, founded as a green-eye-shade operation back in 1921 to audit every single government transaction. It’s grown into the indispensable watchdog on the federal government’s spending and operations. It’s what DOGE done right looks like. At first, Musk promised to find $2 trillion in savings. Then the pledge dropped to $1 trillion. Then he struggled to document any savings at all. Since 2002, GAO’s work has logged more than $1.45 trillion in savings for taxpayers, across more than 29,000 different federal operations. Last year, savings were $67.5 billion. And better than most watchdogs glad to gobble up every available can of dog food, GAO has kept watch on itself. It’s measured the return on taxpayer investment in its own operations: $123 for every budget dollar. It’s operations aren’t flashy. In fact, they’re pretty wonky, which as card-carrying wonks we greatly admire. Its staff get advanced training when they walk into the door, which never stops as employees move up through the ranks. The size of its staff, which was reduced from 5,200 staff to its current level of about 3,500 after the Republican takeover of the House in 1995, has been relatively stable over the last decade, despite expanding demands on its work. Musk promised to trim the number of federal agencies. “There’s so many that people have never heard of. I think we should be able to get away with 99 agencies,” he said.  It wasn’t clear where that number came from. It was clear from his work that DOGE didn’t know how to get there. GAO, on the other hand, has been identifying areas of duplication and overlap since 2011, with $725 billion in savings in this area alone. As others were struggling to come up with solid savings, GAO in May issued a 154-page report detailing just how to do more. Musk brought in IT whiz kids to comb through the federal government’s information services, but they had little to show for it except putting the security of Americans’ personal information at risk. GAO, in contrast, laid out a plan for figuring out how to save money on IT. Better proof-of-concept work in space-based laser communications could save hundreds of million dollars—and the government could pick up $157 billion by better managing the payment rates in Medicare. In a February Oval Office meeting, Musk claimed the federal government was full of officials who had approved money for “fraudsters,” but that claim turned out to be little more than arm-waving. GAO, in contrast, has since 1990 prepared a report every two years on programs prone to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement. Its latest report, in February 2025, identified 38 areas needing special attention. This “high-risk list” bears careful reading for anyone who really cares about getting into the guts of the problem. It identifies issues ranging from contract management in the Pentagon to money leaking out of federal disability programs to management of oil and gas leases to mega-challenges inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster assistance. Even a casual look of the report—all 323 pages of it—would convince any reader that it’s a road map for which stones to unturn to get at the unholy trinity of waste, fraud and abuse. But there’s more here. GAO keeps score so we can see who’s making progress—and who isn’t. In 10 areas, federal agencies made $84 billion in progress. Three slipped backwards—acquisition of weapons systems by the Pentagon, improving IT management throughout the government and managing the federal government’s property. And even more. GAO doesn’t operate like a sheriff riding into town promising to clean up the saloons. It has developed a big-picture look at federal operations and identified leading practices that federal agencies can pick up. Like any oversight body, federal agencies don’t always like what they hear and often squawk. But there’s no question that we—and even they—are a whole lot better off for GAO’s work. GAO is relatively little known outside government. Even less well known is the fact that it’s an agency that works for Congress. That often is a thorn in the side of the administration, regardless of who’s in power, because GAO often says things the administration would rather not hear. That’s especially been the case in recent months with GAO’s findings that the administration has violated the law in impounding federal money—refusing to spend money that Congress appropriated. This was at the root of Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought’s statement that GAO “shouldn’t exist”.  The OMB Director doesn’t want anyone looking over their shoulder, just as  students don’t like to take home report cards that aren’t straight-A’s or spend their time in detention. But now that we’re closing in on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and celebrating the Constitution that the founders crafted to govern us, we need to strengthen the balance-of-powers model that Madison and the other founders left us. They deliberately chose not to give us an easy system to use in governing ourselves. That means the three branches of government are always going to be jousting with each other—and that’s how it should be. In the growing complexity of our society, we need governmental institutions that can keep up with that complexity. That means Congress, in turn, needs muscle to do the heavy lifting required to oversee the executive branch, whether it’s a Republican or Democratic Congress, or a Republican or Democratic President. That’s what Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton and the other founders had in mind. And that’s why the next month is so important. The current head of GAO, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, will be at the end of his fifteen-year term, the longest term in the federal government except for the lifetime appointment of federal judges, and the process to name a successor will shift into high gear. A special commission—consisting of congressional leaders—recommends a slate of individuals to the president. The president selects one person to nominate, and the Senate must then confirm the new head. This appointment is a pretty big deal. It will ensure strong oversight through the 2030s into the 2040s and reinforce the balance of powers for even longer. GAO will provide the executive branch with the independent insights it needs to wring out waste, fraud and abuse. It is a tool that Congress can use to hold the executive branch accountable, essential because a weak GAO weakens the legislative branch. We all have a stake in making sure that GAO can provide the oversight the Constitution requires—and the balance of powers that they designed.)

HR  DIVE
— As major firms green-light AI for performance reviews, should others follow suit? Artificial intelligence promises efficiency and data-driven insights, but it could also subject employers to bias claims and compliance obligations, sources say. DD: Democrat and RINO employers use performance reviews to get rid of their Republican employees. They paint their Democrat employees as positively as they can and they paint  their Republican employees as negatively as they can. In Diersen v. GAO, I entered into the court record all the many performance reviews that my Democrat superiors gave me 1980-1997. None of them came close to justifying the many adverse actions that they took against me. They forced me to take a $23,472 (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO in 1980. They kept me off audits of IRS for all but 3 of the almost 18 years that I worked for GAO. They delayed my promotions and never promoted me beyond GS-13. They always ranked me in the bottom half of my coworkers for pay-for-performance. They forced me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997.
https://www.hrdive.com/news/AI-for-performance-reviews/806785/

PBS
— Trump says the word ‘affordability’ is a ‘con job’ by the Democrats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS8IJgsOip8

FROM FOREIGN SOURCES

GUARDIAN
— Chicago’s faith leaders on front lines of resistance against ICE crackdown. DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly turn religious leaders against America.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/28/chicago-faith-leaders-ice-crackdown