FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
ABC7
— Federal employees in Chicago react to confusion over ‘disrespectful’ Musk email request. Trump administration also looking to sell off a number of government-owned buildings, including a couple in Chicago. (COMMENT: I worked in the Kluczynski building 1973-1980 for IRS and then for GAO 1980-1981. If I was still working for GAO, my Democrat superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates would have killed me by now figuratively if not literally.)
https://abc7chicago.com/post/federal-employees-chicago-react-confusion-disrespectful-president-donald-trump-elon-musk-doge-email-request/15952453/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Some people working in the Kluczynski federal building were walking on eggshells Monday morning. One 40-year Treasury Department veteran did not want to go on camera, but called the current climate “overwhelming and mentally distressing.”)
FOX32
— USPS rallies against Trump’s possible agency takeover. “Fight like hell” is what USPS workers are saying in response to President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over the agency. (COMMENT: I worked for the Democrats who ran the Post Office 1966-1969.)
https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1598376
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly crow about their success in manipulating and in dominating religious leaders.
https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1598601
WGN RADIO
— OPM tells HR leaders that response to Musk is ‘voluntary’
https://wgnradio.com/news/opm-tells-hr-leaders-that-response-to-musk-is-voluntary/
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— US refuses to blame Russia for Ukraine war, splitting with European allies in UN votes
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/24/us-russia-ukraine-war/
— FRONT PAGE TOP OF FOLD: Former two-term Gov. Jim Edgar diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/24/former-gov-jim-edgar-pancreatic-cancer/
CHICAGO SUN-TMES
— ALL OF THE FRONT PAGE: Trump’s cozying up to Russia comes as ‘slap in the face’ to Ukrainian Americans in Chicago. “It’s a betrayal of that ideal that I believe made America what it is — a place in the world where those that don’t have hope can look forward to hope,” said Walter Tun, whose Ukrainian parents immigrated to the U.S. after World War II.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/ukraine/2025/02/24/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-war-third-anniversary-chicago-ukrainians
— Passengers at O’Hare know flying is safe, but some have concerns after plane crashes (COMMENT: I often flew out of O’Hare a) as a GAO employee 1980-1997 and b) with my wife on her business trips to luxury resorts 1978-1992.)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/transportation/2025/02/24/air-travel-safety-anxiety-transportation
DAILY HERALD
— FRONT PAGE: Sooner or later, if not already, under the Democrats and under the RINOs, everyone in America will a) be handing out welfare and/or b) receiving welfare.
https://www.dailyherald.com/20250224/news/new-building-expands-peoples-resource-centers-capacity/
CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS
— Hate-filled Trump-hating Trump-haters ever-increasingly spin everything negatively against Trump.
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/crains-forum-whats-ahead-medicaid/medicaid-funding-cuts-could-hit-illinois-hard
SOUTHERN
— Democrats outline playbook to target House Republicans on Medicaid, budget and DOGE
https://southernillinoisnow.com/2025/02/25/democrats-outline-playbook-to-target-house-republicans-on-medicaid-budget-and-doge/
SPRINGFIELD STATE JOURNAL REGISTER
— New bill would raise age in which Illinois seniors need to take a driving test
https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/state/2025/02/25/new-bill-would-raise-age-illinois-seniors-need-to-take-driving-test/79226496007/
CHAMPAIGN/URBANA NEWS GAZETTE
— Did Pritzker’s ‘Nazi’ ploy have intended effect for 2028?
https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/columns/jim-dey-did-pritzkers-nazi-ploy-have-intended-effect-for-2028/article_ec56f494-f2e5-11ef-9823-e7e608d77383.html
STATELINE
— No property tax on new homes? Rockford considers extending 3-year program (COMMENT: My wife and I had a home built in Wheaton in 1984. I should write about our fight to get its assessed valuation lowered because of construction defects and unrecorded easements. SEE: https://casetext.com/case/diersen-v-joe-keim-builders-inc )
https://www.mystateline.com/news/local-news/no-property-tax-on-new-homes-rockford-considers-extending-3-year-program/
NPR ILLINOIS
— U.S. Office of Special Counsel asks for stay of terminations of six probationary federal employees fired over the past two weeks. (COMMENT: When I transferred from IRS to GAO when I was 31 years old in 1980, my Democrat GAO superiors were furious that could not just fire me because I had served my probationary period working for IRS.)
https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-02-24/federal-watchdog-agency-intervenes-in-trumps-purge-of-probationary-employees
AXIOS
— Illinois schools will teach LGBTQ+ history despite federal pushback
https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2025/02/25/illinois-schools-transgender-history-curriculum
CAPITOL FAX
— Morning briefing
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/25/isabel%e2%80%99s-morning-briefing-461/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
CENTER SQUARE ILLINOIS
— Pritzker’s budget proposal maintains spending levels on abortions (COMMENT: To vote for Democrats is to promote abortion.)
https://www.mdjonline.com/neighbor_newspapers/extra/news/pritzker-s-budget-proposal-maintains-spending-levels-on-abortions/article_f47e1142-8cb7-547c-90c3-911d68a72187.html
WIREPOINTS
— Beyond the Nazi accusations. What you should know about Gov. Pritzker’s budget address
https://wirepoints.org/beyond-the-nazi-accusations-the-many-deflections-in-gov-pritzkers-2026-budget-address-wirepoints/
MCHENRY COUNTY BLOG
— Lakewood Set to Give Golf Discounts to All Sorts of Insiders
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/25/lakewood-set-to-give-golf-discounts-to-all-sorts-of-insiders/
— Fourth Mailing by Algonquin Township Road Commissioner Danijela Sandberg
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/25/fourth-mailing-by-algonquin-township-road-commissioner-danijela-sandberg/
— Politico Covers McHenry County GOPAC Fundraiser Featuring Lara Trump
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/25/politico-covers-mchenry-county-gopac-fundraiser-featuring-lara-trump/
— McLaughlin Calls Out Democrats for Again Seeking to End Flat Rate Income Tax
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/24/mclaughlin-calls-out-democrats-for-again-seeking-to-end-flat-rate-income-tax/
GOPUSA ILLINOIS
— I am a platform Republican. To run for an office as a Republican is to obligate yourself to defend and advance the Republican Party platform if elected. I help elect Republican candidates because if they are elected, they are obligated to defend and advance the Republican Party platform. But sadly, if not outrageously, if not disgustingly, if not tragically, after they are elected as Republicans, far too many fail/refuse to defend/advance the Republican Party platform. But nevertheless, I continue to help elect them because Democrat elected officials are much worse. There are many RINOs, but there are virtually no DINOs. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— What if you were ordered to report what you accomplished during the last 7 days? I put GOPUSA ILLINOIS newsletters together and sent them out. Between Tuesday, February 18, and Monday, February 24, they included links to 522 articles. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— Hate-filled Trump-hating Trump-haters ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump and against those who share Trump’s demographics: conservative, Republican, American, White, male, older, non-poor, married, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America foe a long time. More than 77 million voted for Trump. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— GAO is supposed to be doing what DOGE does, plus much more. Bur GAO is just a shell of what it once was. That is because Gingrich gutted GAO instead of reforming it. Because of that, my Democrat GAO superiors forced me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997. Before that, they always ranked me in the bottom half of my coworkers for pay-for-performance, delayed my promotions and never promoted me beyond GS-13, kept me off audits of IRS for all but 3 of the almost 18 years that I worked for them, and forced me to take a $23,472/year (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS in 1980. GAO did not unionize until 2007. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— The federal government is not nonpartisan. Virtually all federal employees are Democrats who despise/hate Republicans. For Democrats, the federal government exists to hire, to retain, and to promote Democrats. I should write about that. I would use as examples the three federal agencies that I worked for: GAO 1980-1997, IRS 1971-1980, and Post Office 1966-1969. I would use as examples the adverse actions that the aforesaid took against me to waste my career and to get rid of me because I was a Republican who complained about their use of budget cuts, up-or-out, subjectivity in job assignment and performance appraisal systems, and Affirmative Action and DEI, that is, race and gender based preference giving, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination to not hire Republicans, to not retain Republicans, to not promote Republicans, and to get rid of Republicans. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— Have you been collateral damage? I want to believe that my big GAO employment problems 1980-1997 were simply collateral damage caused by Republican budget cuts. But Hastert and my Republican U.S. Senators and Representatives not coming to my defense in Diersen v. GAO argues against that. It argues that they did not really oppose GAO’s political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination. It argues that they rejected the equal opportunity (no race or gender based preference giving) plank in the Republican Party platform. According to my critics/opponents, they did not come to my defense because they believed that I was a bad employee. In my defense, while I worked for GAO, I earned two job-related master’s degrees, five job-related professional certifications, and a job-related professional license. Previously, while I worked for IRS, I earned a job related master’s degree and a job-related professional certification. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— How much religious, political, government, and/or financial clout do your critics/opponents have. My critics/opponents have tremendous religious, political, government, and/or financial clout in Wheaton, Milton Township, DuPage County, and Illinois. Because of that, virtually no one has come to my defense since I moved to Wheaton in 1978. Everyone especially fears my critics/opponents who I have sued and their lawyers. They are especially wealthy, vicious, and vindictive. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
WASHINGTON TIMES
— Musk forges ahead with DOGE demand for list of federal workers’ tasks. Says failure to respond a second time could result in firing.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/25/elon-musk-forges-ahead-doge-demand-list-federal-workers-tasks/
WASHINGTON EXAMINER
— Defunding the teacher trainers
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/equality-not-elitism/3328504/defunding-teacher-trainers/
AMERICAN CONSERVAIVE
— The Distraction of Mexico’s 10,000 Troops. The Mexican president must disband her country’s network of NGOs that bring millions of illegals to the U.S. border. (COMMENT: To send people into a country illegally is an act of war.)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-distraction-of-mexicos-10000-troops/
BREITBART
— Governors Ask President Trump to Let Them Import Foreign Workers
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/02/24/governors-ask-president-trump-to-let-them-import-foreign-workers/
— Survey Reveals Trump’s Mass Deportation Policy Has 62% Approval
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/02/24/nolte-survey-reveals-trumps-mass-deportation-policy-has-62-approval/
DAILY CALLER
— GOP Senator Suffers Brain Bleed After Slipping On Ice (COMMENT: Brain bleeds are very serious. The one that I suffered slipping on ice picking up newspapers on my driveway stopped me from putting GOPUSA ILLINOIS newsletters together and sending them out for a while. I still have not fully recovered and I probably never will.)
https://dailycaller.com/2025/02/25/gop-senator-suffers-brain-bleed-after-slipping-on-ice/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer suffered a brain injury Sunday afternoon after slipping on ice in the backyard of his North Dakota home. Cramer, 64, said he was hospitalized and diagnosed with a “severe concussion, a seizure and a slight brain bleed” in a statement posted to Facebook Monday evening. He said he did not know when he plans to return to Washington, D.C., but that he could return quickly for a critical vote if necessary.
DAILY SIGNAL
— DOGE Follows GAO in ‘Identifying Trillions of Dollars Lost’ (COMMENT: I worked for the Democrats who ran GAO 1980-1997.)
https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/02/24/comer-doge-follows-gao-identifying-trillions-dollars-lost/
EPOCH TIMES
— US Votes Against Ukraine-Drafted UN Resolution Seeking Full Russian Withdrawal (COMMENT: What does the Republican Party platform say about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?)
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/us-votes-against-ukraine-drafted-un-resolution-seeking-full-russian-withdrawal-5815380
— Afrikaners Stand in Line for Trump’s Refugee Offer. Tens of thousands of white Afrikaners want to move to the United States to escape alleged racial persecution in South Africa. (COMMENT: But if a Democrat or RINO is elected U.S. President in 2028, America will immediately go back to discriminating against Whites, that is, America will immediately reinstate Affirmative Action and DEI.)
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/afrikaners-stand-in-line-for-trumps-refugee-offer-5813397
FOX NEWS
— Noem ends Biden-era use of controversial app to allow migrants to board flights, except to self-deport. Trump ordered the shutdown of the CBP One app to parole migrants last month.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/noem-ends-biden-era-use-controversial-app-allow-migrants-board-flights-except-self-deport
— Woke actors have toxic empathy
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6369283984112
NATIONAL REVIEW
— Trump Agency Heads Ignore Musk’s Ultimatum to Federal Employees, in Farcical Episode
https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/02/trump-agency-heads-ignore-musks-ultimatum-to-federal-employees-in-farcical-episode/
TOWNHALL
— ‘Did Not Know It Was Even Possible to Go That Low’: You Won’t Believe Chicago Mayor’s Favorable Ratings
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2025/02/24/did-not-know-it-was-even-possible-to-go-that-low-you-wont-believe-chicago-mayors-approval-rating-n2652711
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
THE HILL
— The federal government is not nonpartisan. Virtually all federal employees are Democrats who despise/hate Republicans. For Democrats, the federal government exists to hire, to retain, and to promote Democrats. I should write about that. I would use as examples the three federal agencies that I worked for: GAO 1980-1997, IRS 1971-1980, and Post Office 1966-1969. I would use as examples the adverse actions that the aforesaid took against me to waste my career and to get rid of me because I was a Republican who complained about their use of budget cuts, up-or-out, subjectivity in job assignment and performance appraisal systems, and Affirmative Action and DEI, that is, race and gender based preference giving, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination to not hire Republicans, to not retain Republicans, to not promote Republicans, and to get rid of Republicans.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-america-s-civil-service-must-remain-nonpartisan/ar-AA1thDR8
CBS NEWS
— Trump praises Musk for email threatening termination to federal workers (COMMENT: Of course, my critics/opponents would stress to Trump a) that I was a federal employee for almost 30 years and that I was a union member for almost 12 of those years, b) that I never made GS-14 and that I was forced to retire early even though I had three job-related master’s degrees, six job-related professional certifications, and a job-related professional license, and c) that I have been a federal retiree for more than 27 years.)
https://www.cbs19.tv/video/news/local/president-donald-trump-praises-elon-musk-for-email-threatening-termination-to-federal-workers/501-1e6be9de-a762-47cb-9db2-38ebc643c5e8
MSN
— Trump Didn’t Campaign on Decimating the Federal Government (COMMENT: Trump got elected by promising to defend and advance the Republican Party platform.)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-didn-t-campaign-on-decimating-the-federal-government/ar-AA1zHNDh
— 10 Fast Cars From The ’60s That No One Talks About (COMMENT: The list includes 1962 Chevy Impala SS. I owned one 1989-2005. My Democrat GAO superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates were furious that I bought and owned that collector car.)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/other/10-fast-cars-from-the-60s-that-no-one-talks-about/ar-AA1zB6kv
ASSOCIATED PRESS
— Ex-Secret Service agent and conservative media personality Dan Bongino picked as FBI deputy director (COMMENT: One of my close friends during the 1960s and 1970s was a Secret Service Agent.)
https://apnews.com/article/trump-fbi-bongino-patel-cad5f4ea22ada9768ea90a08168568d1
NEW YORK TIMES
— Musk deepened the confusion and alarm of workers across the federal government Saturday by ordering them to summarize their accomplishments for the week, warning that a failure to do so would be taken as a resignation. (COMMENT: What did your accomplish during the last week? I put GOPUSA ILLINOIS newsletters together and sent them out. Since Tuesday, February 18, 2025, they included links to 522 article.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/us/politics/elon-musk-email-federal-employees.html
— America and Russia Are on the Same Side Now
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/opinion/russia-europe-trump-vance.html
DALLAS NEWS
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly analogize illegals to runaway slaves.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2025/02/25/why-are-christians-fleeing-persecution-among-trumps-deportees/
ORLANDO SENTINEL
— DeSantis creates a Florida DOGE to audit universities, local governments (COMMENT: GAO is supposed to be doing what DOGE does, plus much more. Bur GAO is just a shell of what it once was. That is because Gingrich gutted GAO instead of reforming it. Because of that, my Democrat GAO superiors forced me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997. Before that, they always ranked me in the bottom half of my coworkers for pay-for-performance, delayed my promotions and never promoted me beyond GS-13, kept me off audits of IRS for all but 3 of the almost 18 years that I worked for them, and forced me to take a $23,472/year (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS in 1980. GAO did not unionize until 2007.)
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/02/24/desantis-to-create-a-florida-doge-to-audit-universities-local-governments/
KXLY
— USPS workers rally against Trump (COMMENT: I worked for the Democrats who ran the Post Office 1966-1969.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC18AT46N70
KGET
— Federal employee unions expand lawsuit to Musk firing threat if they don’t justify work (COMMENT: I was a union member while I worked for the Post Office 1966-1969 and for IRS 1971-1980. If GAO had been unionized when I worked for it 1980-1997, I might still be a GAO employee.)
https://www.kget.com/video/federal-employee-unions-expand-lawsuit-to-musk-firing-threat-if-they-don%e2%80%99t-justify-work/10484134/
HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL
— Analyzing DOGE actions one month into Trump’s second administration (COMMENT: I want to believe that my big GAO employment problems 1980-1997 were simply collateral damage caused by Republican budget cuts. But Hastert and my Republican U.S. Senators and Representatives not coming to my defense in Diersen v. GAO argues against that. It argues that they did not really oppose GAO’s political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination. It argues that they rejected the equal opportunity (no race or gender based preference giving) plank in the Republican Party platform. According to my critics/opponents, they did not come to my defense because they believed that I was a bad employee. In my defense, while I worked for GAO, I earned two job-related master’s degrees, five job-related professional certifications, and a job-related professional license. Previously, while I worked for IRS, I earned a job related master’s degree and a job-related professional certification.)
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/democracy-governance/analyzing-doge-actions-one-month-trumps-second
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Even if legal and institutional safeguards eventually rein in some of the collateral damage, it will take years for government to recover from the shocks of his tenure.)
FAST COMPANY
— Democrat and RINO employers use DEI a) to not hire Republicans and b) to get rid of their Republican employees.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91282124/a-practical-guide-to-doing-dei-work-in-a-hostile-era
NPR
— U.S. votes against a U.N. resolution urging Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine (COMMENT: According to Democrat and RINO leaders, if you support Trump, you support Putin. But what does the Republican Party platform say about this? Trump got elected by promising to defend and advance the Republican Party platform.)
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/24/g-s1-50473/un-ukraine-resolution-russia
(FROM THE ARTICLE: In a win for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, the U.N. General Assembly on Monday adopted two resolutions calling for an end to the war, while rejecting a U.S. draft that never mentioned Moscow’s aggression. Instead, both resolutions make clear Russia was the aggressor. The United States, reflecting the extraordinary turnaround under President Donald Trump, joined Russia in voting against a Europe-backed Ukrainian resolution. The U.S. then abstained from voting on its own resolution after Europeans succeeded in amending it. It was a setback for the Trump administration in the 193-member world body, whose resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as a barometer of world opinion.)
NEW YORK MAGAZINE
— Trump Didn’t Campaign on Decimating the Federal Government
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-didnt-campaign-on-decimating-the-federal-government.html
ACLU
— Hate-filled Trump-hating Trump-haters ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump and against those who share Trump’s demographics: conservative, Republican, American, White, male, older, non-poor, married, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America foe a long time. More than 77 million voted for Trump.
https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/state-and-local-governments-are-saying-no-to-trumps-radical-agenda
WORKERS WORLD
— Black History Month, every day!
https://www.workers.org/2025/02/84011/
ECONOMIC TIMES
— IRS will lay off roughly 7,000 employees amid tax filing season in Trump downsizing spree (COMMENT: I worked for the Democrats who ran IRS 1971-1980.)
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/us-news-irs-layoffs-will-lay-off-roughly-7000-employees-amid-tax-filing-season-in-trump-downsizing-spree-10-point-explainer/articleshow/118448606.cms
Tag: poor
February 23, 2025
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
ABC7
— Some agencies tell employees to hold off responding to latest Musk email
https://abc7chicago.com/post/agencies-tell-workers-hold-off-responding-latest-elon-musk-email-including-irs-emergency-management-agency-noaa-cdc/15947456/
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— FRONT PAGE WITH PICTURE: Democrats and RINOs ever-increasingly count on Pritzker to destroy not only Trump, but to destroy all those who voted for Trump.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/23/gov-jb-pritzker-turned-heads-by-comparing-trump-administration-to-nazi-germany-but-will-voters-be-moved/
— FRONT PAGE TOP OF FOLD: The hidden world of Chicago ICE arrests. One month after Trump’s inauguration, a partial look at those detained.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/23/immigration-detentions/
— Know who you’re voting for, especially if they’ve taken actions with which you don’t agree (COMMENT: As a Republican Precinct Committeeman since 1999, I have always helped elect in general elections all those candidates who won Republican primary elections and caucuses.)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/20/josh-mcbroom-guest-column-know-who-youre-voting-for-especially-if-theyve-taken-actions-with-which-you-dont-agree/
— Kids and Money: FAFSA filing is off to a good start (COMMENT: Did you or your parents apply for student aid? My parents and I did not because my father believed that he made too much money. Therefore, I worked my way through college. My father died suddenly in 1969 when he was 47 and I was 21. He never made more than $50,000 a year in today’s dollars. My mother never worked outside the home until after he died.)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/kids-and-money-fafsa-filing-is-off-to-a-good-start/ar-AA1ySLjB
— Today in Chicago History: 60 years ago: ‘Circle campus’ opens (COMMENT: I attended UIC 1966-1968.)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/22/chicago-history-february-22/
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— Democrats and RINOs ever-increasingly promote Black History Month. When I was 49 years old in 1997, my Democrat GAO superiors forced me to retire and replaced me with their Black History Month coordinator. He had less work experience than I had. He had less education than I had. He had one professional certification while I had six. He no professional license like the one I had.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2025/02/21/under-trump-2-0-black-history-month-hits-differently
— Missing the income tax deadline or failing to pay can have costly consequences. Taxpayers can face penalties from the IRS and the state of Illinois if they file their tax return late or fail to pay any taxes owed. And the late filing penalties are harsher than the late payment penalties. (COMMENT: I worked for IRS’s Collection Division for almost 9 years. I worked for GAO on audits of IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division for 3 years.)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/taxes/tax-day-deadline-income-tax-consequences-illinois
— Chicagoans mark 3 years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the administration in Washington grows critical of Ukraine at the third anniversary of the Russian invasion, hundreds clad in Ukrainian colors and waving flags fill the Wrigley Building plaza downtown Saturday to call for strong support for Ukraine and an end to the war.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/ukraine/2025/02/22/ukraine-war-putin-zelenskyy-trump-nato-chicago
OUR QUAD CITIES
— Democrats promote medically-assisted suicide bill
https://www.ourquadcities.com/news/local-news/illinois-considers-assisted-suicide-bill-2/
— Democrats ever-increasingly push more pot.
https://www.ourquadcities.com/news/local-news/illinois-bill-could-ban-cannabis-odor-as-probable-cause-to-search-vehicles/
NPR ILLINOIS
— A federal worker supporting small businesses with disaster recovery was fired — twice (COMMENT: My Democrat superiors in the federal government fired me twice. My Democrat Post Office superiors fired me in 1969 and then my Democrat GAO superiors fired me in 1997. My Democrat Firestone Store boss fired me in 1971 because I had accepted a job offer from Oldsmobile. My Democrat IRS superiors disallowed my travel vouchers in 1974, disallowed my education deductions in 1978, and never promoted me beyond GS-12. My Democrat GAO superiors forced me to take a $23,472 (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO in 1980. 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. The aforesaid adverse actions and firings would not have happened if I had been a Democrat, minority, female, or veteran.)
https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-02-22/a-federal-worker-supporting-small-businesses-with-disaster-recovery-was-fired-twice
— This year’s CPAC is a victory lap for Trump’s first month in office
https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-02-21/this-years-cpac-is-a-victory-lap-for-trumps-first-month-in-office
— This Black History Month, we’re highlighting stories from community changemakers (COMMENT: When I was 49 years old in 1997, my Democrat GAO superiors forced me to retire and replaced me with their Black History Month coordinator. He had less work experience than I had. He had less education than I had. He had one professional certification while I had six. He no professional license like the one I had.)
https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-02-23/this-black-history-month-were-highlighting-stories-from-community-changemakers
CENTRAL ILLINOIS PROUD
— Trump moves with light speed and brute force in shaking the core of what America has been
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/politics/ap-trump-moves-with-light-speed-and-brute-force-in-shaking-the-core-of-what-america-has-been/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
JOHN KASS
— The Man the Deep State Hates: Kash Patel (COMMENT: I should write about those who hate me the most and why they hate me.)
https://johnkassnews.com/kash-patel-new-fbi-director/
GOPUSA ILLINOIS
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration. Anticipate/expect that sooner or later, Democrat and RINO leaders will get all the citizens of the world to come to America illegally who will a) vote for Democrats and/or b) work for less money than citizens of America. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— How much success have Democrats and RINOs had promoting hatred against Trump in your county, township, municipality, school district, and precinct? I will assess that when I hand-deliver campaign literature and sample ballots for the April 1 election to the 400 residences in my precinct that have at least one Republican or one Independent voter. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— What are your demographics? How are those who share your demographics reacting to Trump? Anticipate/expect that those who share Trump’s demographics react to him more positively than those who do not. Trump is conservative, Republican, White, male, older, non-poor, married, Protestant, German American, and his ancestors have been in America for a long time. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— Have you been fired? If so, by who and why? My Democrat superiors in the federal government fired me twice. My Democrat Post Office superiors fired me in 1969 and then my Democrat GAO superiors fired me in 1997. My Democrat Firestone Store boss fired me in 1971 because I had accepted a job offer from Oldsmobile. My Democrat IRS superiors disallowed my travel vouchers in 1974, disallowed my education deductions in 1978, and never promoted me beyond GS-12. My Democrat GAO superiors forced me to take a $23,472 (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO in 1980. 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. The aforesaid adverse actions and firings would not have happened if I had been a Democrat, minority, female, or veteran. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— What is your position on straw polls? To raise money for the Milton Township Republican Organization (MTRO), I organized many straw polls. My critics/opponents oppose/despise/hate straw polls because they are difficult to manipulate/dominate. When their candidates do not win, they hint/imply/argue/shout that the polls were rigged. When Jack Ryan won the MTRO straw poll in 2003 instead of their candidate Andy McKenna, they hinted/implied/argued/shouted that I rigged that straw poll. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— Musk says that federal employees must report their accomplishments weekly or face termination. I worked for the Democrats who ran the federal government for almost 30 years. Virtually all federal employees are Democrats. Their top priority is getting rid of Republican employees and especially those who are conservative, White, male, older, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time like me. In their weekly reports, my Democrat Post office superiors would have included their disallowing my sick leave requests and forcing me to resign. In their weekly reports, my Democrat IRS superiors would have included their disallowing my travel vouchers and education deductions and their not promoting me beyond GS-12. In their weekly reports, my Democrat IRS and GAO superiors would have included their forcing me to take a $23,472 (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO and their keeping me off audits of IRS. In their weekly reports, my Democrat GAO superiors would have included their a) delaying my promotions and not promoting me beyond GS-13, b) keeping me off audits of IRS, c) always ranking me in the bottom half of my coworkers for pay-for-performance, and d) forcing me to resign when I was 49 years old in 1997.)
— Democrats hypocritically decry that Trump’s cuts drain federal government of technical expertise. My Democrat GAO superiors forced me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997. I was their only employee in their Chicago office who had a) a CPA license, b) six professional certifications (accounting, internal auditing, fraud examination, government financial management, financial services auditing, and forensic accounting), and/or c) three master’s degrees (business, accounting, and finance). GAO audits IRS. I was their only employee who had worked for IRS. I had worked for IRS for almost 9 years, the last 5 1/2 years of which at the GS-12 Step 1-5Levels, currently $99,069-$112,280/year. I had worked on audits of IRS for 3 years. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— Trump ever-increasingly takes more/bigger adverse actions against federal employees. I was a federal employee for almost 30 years. My Democrat superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates despised/hated Republicans like me. If I was still a federal employee, they would have killed me by now figuratively if not literally. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com)
— Employers despise/hate federal employees. I should write about that. I would focus on how potential employers treated me when I sought a job appropriate for my work experience, education, professional certifications, and professional license after my Democrat GAO superiors wasted my career, took many adverse actions against me, and forced me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— Have your critics/opponents painted you as being low-performing? According to my critics/opponents, I was a low-performing employee. They stress that GAO a) forced me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997, b) always ranked me in the bottom half of my coworkers for pay-for-performance, c) delayed my promotions and never promoted me beyond GS-13, and d) forced me to take a $23,472/year pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO in 1980. They stress that IRS a) never promoted me beyond GS-12 and b) disallowed my education deductions in 1978 and my travel vouchers in 1974. They stress that my Firestone Store boss rudely fired me when I gave him my 2-week notice in 1971. They stress that the Post Office forced me to resign in 1969 and disallowed my sick leave requests in 1969 and 1968. My critics/opponents use my qualifications against me. According to them, because I had the following qualifications and the aforesaid actions were nevertheless taken against me, I had to have been a low-performing employee, if not even worse things. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree in 1970 and job-related master’s degrees in 1976, 1980, and 1997. I earned job-related professional certifications in 1979, 1981, 1990, 1994, 1996, and 1997. I earned a job-relate professional license in 1981.)
— This is Black History Month. When I was 49 years old in 1997, my Democrat GAO superiors forced me to retire and replaced me with their Black History Month coordinator. He had less work experience than I had. He had less education than I had. He had one professional certification while I had six. He no professional license like the one I had. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— Musk is stepping up his efforts to cull federal employees. Democrats run federal agencies. Virtually all federal employees are Democrats. Agency heads will first cull their employees who are Republican, and then their non-Democrat employees who are White, male, older, heterosexual, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time, and then lastly, their Democrat employees. For Democrats, the federal government exists to hire, retain, and promote Democrats. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
NEW YORK POST
— Trump’s Justice Dept. vows to end college affirmative action — here’s where to start
https://nypost.com/2025/02/23/opinion/trump-targets-college-affirmative-action-doj-start-here/
AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE
— Vance, Bannon Lead CPAC’s 2028 Straw Poll. The vice president was the overwhelming favorite (COMMENT: To raise money for the Milton Township Republican Organization (MTRO), I organized many straw polls because they are difficult to manipulate/dominate. My critics/opponents oppose/despise/hate straw polls. When their candidates do not win, they hint/imply/argue/shout that the polls were rigged. When Jack Ryan won the MTRO straw poll in 2003 instead of their candidate Andy McKenna, they hinted/implied/argued/shouted that I rigged that straw poll.)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/vance-bannon-lead-cpacs-2028-straw-poll/
BREITBART
— ‘We’ve Got to Arrest More, We’ve Got to Increase Targeting’ — Homan Says 700k Criminal Illegal Aliens on the Streets
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2025/02/22/weve-got-to-arrest-more-weve-got-to-increase-targeting-homan-says-700k-criminal-illegal-aliens-on-the-streets/
DAILY SIGNAL
— Hegseth’s Military
https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/02/20/pete-hegseths-military/
EPOCH TIMES
— Musk Says Federal Workers Must Report Weekly Accomplishments or Face Termination (COMMENT: I worked for the Democrats who ran the federal government for almost 30 years. Virtually all federal employees are Democrats. Their top priority is getting rid of Republican employees and especially those who are conservative, White, male, older, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time like me. In their weekly reports, my Democrat Post office superiors would have included their disallowing my sick leave requests and forcing me to resign. In their weekly reports, my Democrat IRS superiors would have included their disallowing my travel vouchers and education deductions and their not promoting me beyond GS-12. In their weekly reports, my Democrat IRS and GAO superiors would have included their forcing me to take a $23,472 (21%) pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO and their keeping me off audits of IRS. In their weekly reports, my Democrat GAO superiors would have included their a) delaying my promotions and not promoting me beyond GS-13, b) keeping me off audits of IRS, c) always ranking me in the bottom half of my coworkers for pay-for-performance, and d) forcing me to resign when I was 49 years old in 1997.)
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/musk-says-federal-workers-must-report-weekly-accomplishments-or-face-termination-5814648
REAL CLEAR POLITICS
— Trump’s Anti-DEI Executive Orders
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/02/23/trumps_anti-dei_executive_orders_152404.html
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
THE HILL
— Democrats and RINOs ask themselves “Can we lower toxic polarization while still opposing Trump?” I will assess the success that Democrats and RINOs have had promoting hatred against Trump when I hand-deliver campaign literature and sample ballots for the April 1 election to the 400 residences in my precinct that have at least one Republican or one Independent voter.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-can-we-lower-toxic-polarization-while-still-opposing-trump/ar-AA1zAaJf
— College student groups based on race, ethnicity could be in jeopardy under Trump (COMMENT: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly do everything that they can to organize and unite those who have demographics that vote for Democrats against those who have demographics that vote for Republicans.)
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5155919-college-student-groups-race-ethnicity-trump-dei-doe-affirmative-action-civil-rights/
CNBC
— Musk orders U.S. federal workers to report on work by Monday or resign
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/23/musk-orders-us-federal-workers-to-report-on-work-by-monday-or-resign.html
NEWSWEEK
— Musk Faces Legal Threat Over Federal Worker Ultimatum: ‘Utter Disdain’
https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-legal-threat-federal-worker-firings-trump-2034946
NBC NEWS
— Democrats question diversion of federal law enforcement officers to Trump migrant crackdown (COMMENT: I was a federal law enforcement officer for almost 9 years. As an IRS Revenue Officer, I enforced federal tax laws.)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/democrats-question-diversion-federal-law-enforcement-officers-trump-mi-rcna190411
NEW YORK TIMES
— Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more LGBTQ.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/upshot/lgbtq-survey-results.html
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/us/immigration-red-card.html
— FRONT PAGE TOP OF FOLD: Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly make it clear that they are going to get rid of Trump once and for all.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/us/politics/trump-alternative-reality.html
— Democrats and RINOs ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Republicans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/opinion/america-refugees-refoulement-trump.html
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration. Anticipate/expect that sooner or later, Democrat and RINO leaders will get all the citizens of the world to come to America illegally who will a) vote for Democrats and/or b) work for less money than citizens of America.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/world/middleeast/this-christian-convert-fled-iran-and-ran-into-trumps-deportation-policy.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/world/americas/panama-migrants-hotel-photo.html
— The worse national origin to have is German
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/opinion/trump-germany-election.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/world/europe/alternative-for-germany-youth.html
— How to Come Up With a Down Payment on a House (COMMENT: My down payment to buy a new town home in University Park when I was 24 years old in 1972 came from what I earned a) working for IRS for 15 months, b) working part-time for Firestone Stores for 18 month, and c) working full-time for that store for 7 months before that.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/your-money/house-down-payment-assistance.html
— Dan Caine, Trump’s Joint Chiefs Pick, Had Unusual Path to Top Ranks
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/us/politics/dan-caine-trump-joint-chiefs.html
— Wall Street Is Getting Antsy With Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/business/trump-wall-street-saudi-miami-conference.html
— Musk Steps Up Efforts to Cull Federal Work Force (COMMENT: Democrats run federal agencies. Virtually all federal employees are Democrats. They will first cull their employees who are Republican, and then their non-Democrat employees who are White, male, older, heterosexual, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time, and then lastly, their Democrat employees. For Democrats, the federal government exists to hire, retain, and promote Democrats.)
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02/22/us/donald-trump-news
WALL STREET JOURNAL
— What Do Mass Federal Layoffs Mean for the Labor Market? The economic impact of federal cutbacks will depend on how many jobs are actually cut and the spillover to contractors and spending. (COMMENT: Employers despise/hate federal employees. I should write about that. I would focus on how potential employers treated me when I sought a job appropriate for my work experience, education, professional certifications, and professional license after my Democrat GAO superiors wasted my career, took many adverse actions against me, and forced me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997.)
https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/what-do-mass-federal-layoffs-mean-for-the-labor-market-33515410
BUSINESS INSIDER
— Some federal employees say they voted for Trump thinking he’d help the economy and struggling Americans, but while they support cutting government waste, some don’t think all federal workers should be targeted. (COMMENT: My Democrat superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates despised/hated Republicans like me. If I was still a federal employee, they would have killed me by now figuratively if not literally.)
https://www.aol.com/news/trump-supporting-federal-workers-think-085901876.html
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Some had concerns about targeting the federal workforce. The 17-year federal employee said they voted for Trump thinking he would help the economy and struggling Americans. Now, the worker said, they feel as if the president is making things worse by putting federal workers’ livelihoods at risk. “Do Trump and Musk know the whole situation of every federal building? I don’t think they’re making proper choices,” the worker said. They added that while they agreed with Trump’s goal to cut government waste, they didn’t agree that cutting the federal workforce and requiring all employees to return to the office full time was an effective approach. Another federal worker said they voted for Trump twice and “had hope that he would fulfill his promises,” but that hope disappeared after the administration’s deferred resignation offers. The Office of Personnel Management offered federal employees the option to resign and receive pay through September, but this offer is now on pause because of ongoing litigation. One worker said the way they’d gone about the federal workforce changes was a “little disconcerting.” The worker said that while they understood Musk was only there for so long, it seemed as if they were “getting rid of people very quickly.” The worker also had concerns about returning to work in person because they moved out of DC, saying it would be a financial burden to return to the office. A federal worker said they reached out to their senators and congressman and told them that “demonizing the federal workforce is not good.” They said federal workers have performance reviews, meet with supervisors, and act in compliance with their mission. “Don’t take it out on us just because of the bad behavior of the prior administration,” the worker said, adding that they hadn’t changed their stance on supporting Trump because “it shouldn’t have come to this.”)
— What Happens When a Company’s ‘Low Performers’ Speak up (COMMENT: According to my critics/opponents, I was a low-performing employee. They stress that GAO a) forced me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997, b) always ranked me in the bottom half of my coworkers for pay-for-performance, c) delayed my promotions and never promoted me beyond GS-13, and d) forced me to take a $23,472/year pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer from IRS to GAO in 1980. They stress that IRS a) never promoted me beyond GS-12 and b) disallowed my education deductions in 1978 and my travel vouchers in 1974. They stress that my Firestone Store boss rudely fired me when I gave him my 2-week notice in 1971. They stress that the Post Office forced me to resign in 1969 and disallowed my sick leave requests in 1969 and 1968. My critics/opponents use my qualifications against me. According to them, because I had the following qualifications and the aforesaid actions were nevertheless taken against me, I had to have been a low-performing employee, if not even worse things. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree in 1970 and job-related master’s degrees in 1976, 1980, and 1997. I earned job-related professional certifications in 1979, 1981, 1990, 1994, 1996, and 1997. I earned a job-relate professional license in 1981.)
https://www.businessinsider.com/bi-today-meta-startup-apartment-federal-workers-2025-2
FAST COMPANY
— ‘Tesla Takedown’ protesters say they’re just getting started denouncing DOGE at dealerships. After a day of protests against Musk and DOGE, organizers says it is just the beginning.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91280513/tesla-takedown-protesters-say-theyre-just-getting-started-protesting-doge-at-dealerships
MIRROR
— Trump appointees tell federal workers to ignore Elon Musk’s requests for proof of five work-related accomplishments
https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/trump-appointees-tell-federal-workers-992150
NPR
— Muslims in Michigan react to the first few weeks of the Trump administration. (COMMENT: What are your demographics? How are those who share your demographics reacting to Trump? Anticipate/expect that those who share Trump’s demographics react to him more positively than those who do not. Trump is conservative, Republican, White, male, older, non-poor, married, Protestant, German American, and his ancestors have been in America for a long time.)
https://www.wvik.org/2025-02-22/muslims-in-michigan-react-to-the-first-few-weeks-of-the-trump-administration
AXIOS
— Cuts drain federal government of technical expertise (COMMENT: My Democrat GAO superiors forced me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997. I was their only employee in their Chicago office who had a) a CPA license, b) six professional certifications (accounting, internal auditing, fraud examination, government financial management, financial services auditing, and forensic accounting), and/or c) three master’s degrees (business, accounting, and finance). GAO audits IRS. I was their only employee who had worked for IRS. I had worked for IRS for almost 9 years, the last 5 1/2 years of which at the GS-12 Step 1-5Levels, currently $99,069-$112,280/year. I had worked on audits of IRS for 3 years.)
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/23/federal-government-cuts-drain-technical-expertise
RASMUSSEN REPORTS
— Just 29% Think Government Layoffs Would Boost the Economy
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration_second_term/just_29_think_government_layoffs_would_boost_the_economy
February 20, 2025 Evening Edition
WHITE HOUSE
— America Is Back — and President Trump Is Just Getting Started
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/02/america-is-back-and-president-trump-is-just-getting-started/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
MCHENRY COUNTY BLOG
— Pritzker Following Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ Playbook
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/20/pritzker-following-nazi-propaganda-minister-joseph-goebbels-playbook/
— Indiana About to Pass Real Property Tax Relief
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/20/indiana-about-to-pass-real-property-tax-relief/
— Pritzker Four-Year Junior College Proposal Will Hurt Four-Year State Universities
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/20/pritzker-four-year-junior-college-proposal-will-hurt-four-year-state-universities/
— Judges Go to Schools
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/20/judges-go-to-schools/
— The Censures of Algonquin Township Supervisor Randy Funk – Part 4
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/20/the-censures-of-algonquin-township-supervisor-randy-funk-part-4/
CENTER SQUARE ILLINOIS
— Fallout continues after Pritzker’s Nazi comments during budget speech
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_3ad0cf8a-efc3-11ef-b47d-1fb230bbecf6.html
ILLINOIS POLICY INSTITUTE
— Food assistance need grows 12% in Illinois since 2019 (COMMENT: Under the Democrats and under the RINOs, more and more and more will want/need/demand more and more and more food assistance.)
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/food-assistance-need-grows-12-in-illinois-since-2019/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
ABC7
— Democrat leaders promote Pritzker’s hate speech
https://abc7chicago.com/post/illinois-governor-jb-pritzker-getting-national-attention-speaking-president-donald-trump-during-budget-address/15939325/
— Democrat leaders use their “undocumented immigrant children” to promote hatred against Trump
https://abc7chicago.com/post/latest-trump-cuts-leave-26000-undocumented-immigrant-children-legal-representation/15938544/
— Border crossings are down and refugee shelters in border cities are seeing decrease first hand
https://abc7chicago.com/post/us-mexico-border-news-crossings-down-refugee-shelters-cities-seeing-decrease-first-hand/15933759/
NBC5
— What does DOGE’s IRS shake-up mean for tax season? DOGE wants access to filers’ data, and the commerce secretary says Trump wants to scrap the IRS altogether. But filing a return remains mandatory — the earlier the better, tax advisers say.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/doge-irs-shake-up-tax-season/3679235/?os=fuzzscanazstr&ref=app
CBS2
— Thousands of IRS employees facing layoffs by Trump administration. Another round of federal job cuts is coming. This time, it’s at the agency responsible for bringing money into the government’s coffers. (COMMENT: While I worked for GAO 1980-1997, its employees always faced Republican-led layoffs.)
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/video/thousands-of-irs-employees-facing-layoffs-by-trump-administration/
FOX32
— Chicago Columbus statues could return as city faces art controversy
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago-columbus-statues-could-return-art-controversy
— Chicago aldermen push to restore Columbus statues
https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1596704
WTTW
— Democrat leaders promote fired federal employees. Democrats and RINOs either could care less or applauded my Democrat IRS and GAO superiors wasting my career and forcing me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997.
https://news.wttw.com/2025/02/20/dream-jobs-us-forest-service-unemployment-meet-2-illinois-fired-federal-workers
WGN RADIO
— Former federal employee shares her story of losing her job (COMMENT: Democrats and RINOs do not want to hear my story.)
https://wgnradio.com/lisa-dent/former-federal-employee-shares-her-story-of-losing-her-job/
— Mayor Brandon Johnson shares plan to fight food inequity in the city
https://wgnradio.com/lisa-dent/mayor-brandon-johnson-shares-plan-to-fight-food-inequity-in-the-city/
WBEZ
— To get more votes from minorities, Democrat leaders want more federal money to be spent on them.
https://www.wbez.org/education/2025/02/20/uic-cultural-centers-and-race-based-college-programs-across-illinois-threatened-by-latest-trump-guidance
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— Trump, Musk unpopular with Illinois voters, Pritzker poll finds. It is notable that Gov. JB Pritzker’s team released the poll, and it shows he is prepared for a political fight — both in terms of a potential third term for Illinois governor, or a 2028 presidential bid.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/donald-trump/2025/02/20/president-donald-trump-elon-musk-illinois-voters-poll-jb-pritzker
(FROM THE ARTICLE: A new Illinois poll commissioned by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker finds President Donald Trump and his cost-cutting czar Elon Musk’s early administration actions aren’t quite popular. A Global Strategy Group poll of 800 “likely 2026 voters” conducted Feb. 5-9 found more than 50% of those surveyed called Trump’s actions “extremely concerning.” Of those polled, 56% called Trump unfavorable, including 49% who called him very unfavorable. For Musk, 56% called him unfavorable, with 50% dubbing him very unfavorable. Democrats were the most negative on Musk and Trump, but independents viewed both unfavorably as well. A party-line split was evident in the poll, with 90% of Republican voters saying they approved of Trump, and 83% saying they approved of Musk. Among independents, 40% approved of Trump, and 38% approved of Musk. The poll also delved into some of Trump and Musk’s actions, with 57% of those polled calling any move to end an initiative to lower the cost of prescription drugs “extremely concerning.” Eliminating government programs, including health care, Meals on Wheels and child care; eliminating all members of the Aviation Safety Board; pardoning all the Jan. 6 rioters; and eliminating the Department of Education were among the most concerning topics for those polled. It is notable that Pritzker’s team released the poll, and it shows the Democratic governor is prepared for a political fight ahead — both in terms of a potential third term for governor, or a 2028 presidential bid. Pritzker has been criticizing Trump since his first gubernatorial campaign began in 2017. But now he’s aiming his ire at Musk as well — and has frequently railed against the billionaire adviser at Illinois news conferences. At a Wednesday briefing at the Illinois State Capitol, Pritzker blamed Musk for the unpredictability of federal funding and its effects on the state budget. And he used a collective “we” when talking about Musk and Trump. “We don’t know what they’re going to do. And you’ve seen that. You know, Elon Musk comes out with tweets about Social Security that turned out to be completely false,” Pritzker said. “We don’t know what they’re going to do. We don’t know whether they’re going to cut off the Medicaid expansion across the country. They’ve been hearing from Republican governors, just like they have from Democratic governors about the negative impact on the people of their state.” Despite the poll’s negative approval rating for Trump, the Republican president’s statewide vote grew to 43.8% last year, up from 38.76% in 2016. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.)
— Alderman introduces plan to punish Chicago city employees and officers for having extremist ties. The plan from 47th Ward Ald. Matt Martin follows growing calls for the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Brandon Johnson to fire cops with ties to extremist groups. (COMMENT: I should write about my critics/opponents who painted Illinois Center Right Coalition and TAPROOT Republicans of Illinois as being extremist groups. I would focus on those who have taken the most/biggest adverse actions against me.)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/extremism-in-the-ranks/2025/02/20/alderman-introduces-plan-to-punish-chicago-city-employees-and-officers-for-having-extremist-ties
DAILY HERALD
— Facing lawsuit, Republicans to meet a second time to choose McConchie’s successor
https://www.dailyherald.com/20250220/illinois-state-politics/facing-lawsuit-republicans-to-meet-a-second-time-to-choose-mcconchies-successor/
HERALD WHIG
— Black and Latino leaders want more government assistance for Blacks and Latinos
https://www.whig.com/news/illinois-news/black-latino-lawmakers-criticize-pritzker-s-proposed-budget/article_6e2f622e-efa5-11ef-9fea-3fe4be18874d.html
FOX ILLINOIS
— MAGA is ‘a Nazi movement’: Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe arrested at city council meeting
https://foxillinois.com/news/nation-world/maga-is-a-nazi-movement-former-nfl-punter-chris-kluwe-arrested-at-city-council-meeting-california-huntington-beach-city-council-minnesota-vikings-president-donald-trump-politics-make-america-great-again-red-hat-swastika
WAND TV
— Illinois House Democrats bash Rep. Steve Reick (R-Woodstock) for saying his caucus is part of ‘team Jew’
https://www.wandtv.com/news/statehouse/illinois-house-democrats-bash-republican-for-saying-his-caucus-is-part-of-team-jew/article_690a5734-efd4-11ef-843e-c7d87166bf31.html
WQAD
— Democrat leaders ever-increasingly push more pot.
https://www.wqad.com/article/news/local/the-current/black-hawk-college-cannabis-courses-cohort-online-industry/526-ddc205a3-5e9c-46c0-9ed3-2a4a141a9018
WSJD
— Pritzker Insults President Trump and Fails to Take Responsibility for Illinois’ Budget Deficit (COMMENT: Pritzker runs Illinois. He hates Trump and he hates the 2.4 million in Illinois who voted for Trump. Anticipate/expect that he will ever-increasingly destroy those 2.4 million voters starting with those who are registered Republicans, who voted in the election, and who share Trump’s demographics: conservative, White, male, older, non-poor, non-veteran, married, Protestant, German America, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time.)
https://wsjd.fm/new-blog-1/2025/2/20/severin-pritzker-insults-president-trump-and-fails-to-take-responsibility-for-illinois-budget-deficit
NEWS CHANNEL 20
— Do you support President Trump’s plan to cut the size of the IRS? (COMMENT: I should write about those who have demonized me, denigrated me, and condemned me the most for my having been an IRS employee for almost 9 years.)
https://newschannel20.com/question/vote-do-you-support-president-donald-trumps-plan-to-cut-the-size-of-the-irs-question-of-the-day-internal-revenue-service-doge-department-of-government-efficiency-elon-musk-federal-workforce-downsize-taxpayers
EFFINGHAM RADIO
— IL GOP Reacts To Governor Pritzker’s Budget Address
https://www.effinghamradio.com/2025/02/20/il-gop-reacts-to-governor-pritzkers-budget-address/
CENTRAL ILLINOIS PROUD
— Democrats push a Democrat push poll.
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/national/trump-approval-rating-appears-to-be-underwater-one-month-into-second-term-survey/
— IRS layoffs could hurt revenue collection and foil efforts to go after rich tax dodgers, experts say (COMMENT: Democrats and RINOs either could care less or applauded my Democrat IRS and GAO superiors wasting my career and forcing me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997.)
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/national/ap-irs-layoffs-could-hurt-revenue-collection-and-foil-efforts-to-go-after-rich-tax-dodgers-experts-say/
BLOCK CLUB CHICAGO
— Plan To Turn Lincoln Square’s Diplomat Hotel Into Transitional Housing Gets $5.5 Million TIF Boost. City Council approved additional funding for the $14 million renovation of the former motel into The Haven for people experiencing homelessness.
https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/02/19/plan-to-turn-lincoln-squares-diplomat-hotel-into-transitional-housing-gets-5-5-million-tif-boost/
CHALKBEAT CHICAGO
— Chicago releases its Black Student Success Plan amid backlash against race-based initiatives
https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025/02/20/cps-releases-black-student-success-plan/
CAPITOL FAX
— Afternoon roundup
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/20/isabel%e2%80%99s-afternoon-roundup-252/
— Pritzker’s new Illinois poll has majority ‘extremely concerned’ about a host of Trump’s recent actions
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/20/pritzkers-new-illinois-poll-has-majority-extremely-concerned-about-a-host-of-trumps-recent-actions/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
WASHINGTON TIMES
— Trump blasts Zelenskyy as ‘dictator’ who duped U.S. into sending aid
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/19/donald-trump-blasts-volodymyr-zelenskyy-dictator-duped-u-sending-aid/
— Trump has conquered CPAC
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/20/donald-trump-conquered-cpac/
— Musk wields symbolic chainsaw at CPAC in celebration of his federal role: ‘This is awesome’
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/20/elon-musk-wields-symbolic-chainsaw-cpac/
— Vance emerges as an early favorite at CPAC to carry the MAGA flag into 2028
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/20/jd-vance-emerges-early-favorite-cpac-carry-maga-flag-2028/
— ‘I want to find out’: Trump says he is going to personally inspect the gold at Fort Knox
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/20/trump-inspect-gold-fort-knox/
NEW YORK POST
— Musk wields ‘chainsaw for bureaucracy’ on stage at CPAC to symbolize DOGE’s massive government cuts
https://nypost.com/2025/02/20/us-news/elon-musk-wields-chainsaw-for-bureaucracy-on-stage-at-cpac-to-symbolize-doges-massive-government-cuts/
BIZ PAC REVIEW
— ‘America-last RINOs’ side with Zelenskyy over Trump
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/02/20/america-last-rinos-side-with-zelenskyy-over-trump-1523948/
CAMPUS REFORM
— Ex-UIC prof files lawsuit saying he was fired for opposing racial hiring preferences. The Liberty Justice Center recently filed a lawsuit against the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), alleging that a professor was fired because he criticized the school’s hiring practices, which the professor believes are racially discriminatory. The federal lawsuit was filed on Feb. 10 in the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Illinois. (SEE: Diersen v. GAO at : https://gopillinois.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DiersenGAOFifthAmendedComplaint.pdf )
https://www.campusreform.org/article/ex-uic-prof-files-lawsuit-saying-fired-opposing-racial-hiring-preferences/27506
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The Liberty Justice Center recently filed a lawsuit against the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), alleging that a professor was fired because he criticized the school’s hiring practices, which the professor believes are racially discriminatory. The federal lawsuit, which was filed on Feb. 10 in the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Illinois, asserts that the school administration violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment when it terminated Professor Stephen Kleinschmit. While he was at UIC, Kleinschmit “observed that multiple hiring and funding programs were either a) explicitly designed to use race as a qualification in hiring decisions or b) being subverted to favor nonwhite applicants and faculty,” according to the lawsuit. The document asserts that when Kleinschmit spoke out about the allegedly discriminatory hiring practices, the school administration terminated his contract. “When he complained about this unlawful behavior, he was terminated—ostensibly due to budget cuts, yet the University retained faculty hired under a non-competitive, racially preferential hiring program, and soon after advertised a new job opening in his old department stating ‘members of a recognized underrepresented group are particularly encouraged to apply,’” the complaint says. Kleinschmit has a Ph.D. in Public Administration and was a professor in the school’s Department of Public Policy, Management, and Analytics until he was fired in 2023. Among other specific allegations, the complaint asserts that UIC required Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) statements in hiring. The lawsuit additionally accuses the administration of incorporating the race-conscious statements “into departmental norms and guidelines for promotion and tenure.” The 31-page lawsuit also gives other examples of allegedly racially discriminatory school policies. “The University Faculty Senate on July 29, 2020 released the UIC Senate Statement on Black Lives Matter, which asked the white faculty and administrators to ‘acknowledge their white privilege and power, and to commit to take action against systematic racism through anti-racist action,’” the lawsuit explains. In a statement about the lawsuit, Liberty Justice Center Senior Counsel Reilly Stephens called UIC’s hiring practices “blatantly” illegal. “The University of Illinois Chicago repeatedly engaged in blatant acts of racial discrimination, then added illegal retaliation to the mix to avoid accountability for its unlawful behavior,” Stephens asserted in a press release. “These actions are unacceptable violations of the right to equal protection under the law, and we urge the court to put a stop to it immediately.” Campus Reform has contacted the University of Illinois Chicago for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.)
CATHOLIC LIFE
— At CPAC, Vance talks faith, says policies should help ‘choose life’ and ‘start families’
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/262327/at-cpac-vance-talks-faith-says-policies-should-help-choose-life-and-start-families
DAILY CALLER
— ‘Trump Administration Is Serious’: America’s Southern Border Hasn’t Been This Quiet Since The 1960s
https://dailycaller.com/2025/02/20/border-encounters-drop-to-1960s-levels/
EPOCH TIMES
— Federal Judge Allows Trump Admin to Continue Layoffs of Federal Workers. The suit was brought by federal unions seeking to preserve union dues and bargaining power.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/federal-judge-allows-trump-admin-to-continue-layoffs-of-federal-workers-5813651
FOX NEWS
— VP JD Vance speaks on ‘fundamental goal’ of Trump administration at CPAC address. ‘It is easy, unfortunately, to burn the house down. It takes a little bit of time to build it back up and that’s what we have to do,’ said Vance.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vp-jd-vance-speaks-fundamental-goal-trump-administration-cpac-address
— Homan says billions saved on illegal migrants can be used to help Americans
https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-border-czar-tom-homan-says-billions-saved-illegal-migrants-can-used-help-americans
NATIONAL REVIEW
— Pro-Life Issues Are Given Short Shrift at This Year’s CPAC
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/pro-life-issues-are-given-short-shrift-at-this-years-cpac/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
THE HILL
— Trump set to speak at CPAC
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5154914-donald-trump-speaking-cpac-2025/
REUTERS
— Musk to appear at CPAC
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-appear-cpac-conservative-gathering-organizer-says-2025-02-20/
CBS NEWS
— Thousands of IRS workers to be laid off (COMMENT: I should write about those who have demonized me, denigrated me, and condemned me the most for my having been an IRS employee for almost 9 years.)
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/video/thousands-of-irs-workers-to-be-laid-off-source-says/
— GOP lawmakers concerned about impact of DOGE cuts on constituents, but most support effort (COMMENT: How dependent on federal spending are those in your county, township, municipality, school district, and precinct?)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-lawmakers-doge-cuts-impact/
POLITICO
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote those who seek asylum in America.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/asylum-seekers-trump-administration-021337
— At CPAC, Vance finally gets the reception he wishes he got in Munich. Surrounded by allies, the vice president basked in his role as culture-warrior-in-chief.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/cpac-jd-vance-culture-war-00205236
HARPER’S MAGAZINE
— Rage Against the Machine. Trump’s second attempt at dismantling the bureaucracy.
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/03/rage-against-the-machine-andrew-cockburn-trump-bureaucracy/
EDUCATION WEEK
— Parents Lose Appeal Over School’s Gender Identity Notification Policy (COMMENT: Democrat teachers ever-increasingly promote more LGBTQ.)
https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/parents-lose-appeal-over-schools-gender-identity-notification-policy/2025/02
RASMUSSEN REPORTS
— 53% Approve Trump Ending DEI Policies
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration_second_term/53_approve_trump_ending_dei_policies
February 19, 2025 Evening Edition
Anticipate/expect that ever-increasingly, the more demographics that you share with Trump, the more that Pritzker will do to destroy you. Trump is conservative, Republican, American, White, male, older, non-poor, married, Protestant, German American, and his ancestors have been in America for a long time. 2.4 million voted for Trump in Illinois.
Are you German American? I am. If you are, what do you stress in defense of your national origin? I stress that my grandfather on my father’s side fought the Germans in WWI, that my uncles on my mother’s side fought the Germans in WWII, and that my father would have fought the Germans in WWII if he had not been 4-F.
FOX32
— Pritzker compares Trump Administration to Nazi regime during budget address
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/pritzker-compares-trump-administration-nazi-regime-during-budget-address
— Trump designates some cartels as ‘foreign terrorist organizations’
https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1596064
NBC5
— Pritzker delivers stern message on state of country. Pritzker, who has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump over the years, specifically cited actions taken by Trump and Elon Musk, and in some cases referenced the Holocaust.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-politics/what-comes-next-illinois-governor-delivers-stern-message-on-state-of-country/3678083/
— Government officials charge taxpayers millions to try to keep secrets from public. NBC 5 Investigates has found that it has cost Chicago-area taxpayers more than $13.4 million over the past 12 years for officials to try to keep clearly-public documents secret.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/government-officials-charge-taxpayers-millions-to-try-to-keep-secrets-from-public/3677223/
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— Pritzker proposes belt-tightening budget with no new taxes, invokes Nazism in bashing Trump
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/19/gov-j-b-pritzker-likens-trump-administration-actions-to-nazi-germany-what-comes-next/
— Trump and Zelenskyy trade barbs as US-Ukraine relations sour over the war with Russia
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/19/ukraine-zelenskyy-trump-russia/
— Indiana House passes Illinois secession bill on first reading, but amendments keep session lively
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/19/indiana-house-passes-illinois-secession-bill-on-first-reading-but-amendments-keep-session-lively/
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— Pritzker unveils $55.2 billion budget with no new taxes, compares Trump playbook to the Nazi movement. The Democratic governor also peppered his seventh budget blueprint — which Republicans derided as the largest in state history — with key policy proposals for the upcoming fiscal year.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2025/02/19/jb-pritzker-budget-address-state-of-the-state
— Federal worker firings by Trump, Musk are chaos, not cost-cutting
https://chicago.suntimes.com/editorials/2025/02/19/president-trump-elon-musk-doge-layoffs-firings-civil-servants-endanger-america-bird-flu-nuclear
CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS
— Pritzker remarks on the Holocaust — and on Trump
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/jb-pritzker-remarks-holocaust-and-donald-trump
ADVANTAGE NEWS
— Pritzker calls to tighten Illinois’ belt, repeatedly invokes Nazis in attack on Trump
https://www.advantagenews.com/news/local/pritzker-calls-to-tighten-illinois-belt-repeatedly-invokes-nazis-in-attack-on-trump/article_d1537bae-eefd-11ef-ad36-1bda87f7591b.html
STATELINE
— Pritzker invokes specter of Nazi Germany in rebuke of Trump administration
https://www.mystateline.com/news/local-news/pritzker-invokes-specter-of-nazi-germany-in-rebuke-of-trump-administration/
CENTER SQUARE ILLINOIS
— Republicans decry, Pritzker defends ‘Nazi’ references during budget speech. Pritzker refers to Nazis six times in criticism of Trump.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_edb79bb8-ef16-11ef-8c25-474e08243540.html
— Pritzker calls to tighten belt, repeatedly invokes Nazis in attack on Trump. Governor makes no calls for ethics reforms despite Madigan conviction.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_92dde236-eefa-11ef-9497-332440818a6d.html
— Republicans criticize Pritzker after budget address
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_b405d33a-ef11-11ef-9a1a-73cef9f3019e.html
ST.LOUIS TODAY
— Pritzker likens Trump administration actions to Nazi Germany
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/illinois/illinois-gov-j-b-pritzker-likens-trump-administration-actions-to-nazi-germany/article_cd5a1a2e-ef18-11ef-b4c3-83559ec34cbe.html
UNION BULLETIN
— Pritzker likens Trump administration actions to Nazi Germany: ‘What comes next?’
https://www.union-bulletin.com/news/national/gov-j-b-pritzker-likens-trump-administration-actions-to-nazi-germany-what-comes-next/article_7a81f5f3-2f15-59c1-b3d6-b304a0f0e406.html
CITIES 92.9
— Republicans decry, Pritzker defends ‘Nazi’ references during budget speech
https://www.cities929.com/2025/02/19/watch-republicans-decry-pritzker-defends-nazi-references-during-budget-speech/
ABC7
— Pritzker proposes $2B in spending growth without new income or service taxes in budget. Budgeting office says global outlook has changed since previous $3.2B deficit estimate.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/illinois-governor-jb-pritzker-deliver-budget-address-wednesday/15930773/
— Democrat leaders crow about their getting Democrats to protest.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/university-illinois-chicago-uic-educators-researchers-students-protest-nih-funding-cuts-proposed-trump-admin/15933853/
— Federal workers in Chicago left confused by mass firings, sudden rehiring
https://abc7chicago.com/post/federal-workers-chicago-left-confused-sudden-rehiring-following-mass-firings-trump-administrations-doge/15934016/
CBS2
— Homeless encampment residents in Chicago’s Gompers Park take issue with city “cleanup”
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/homeless-encampment-residents-chicago-gompers-park-cleanup/
DAILY HERALD
— Restraining order sought to block 26th Senate appointment amid legal fight
https://www.dailyherald.com/20250219/illinois-state-politics/restraining-order-sought-to-block-26th-senate-appointment-amid-legal-fight/
WGN RADIO
— Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration.
https://wgnradio.com/news/asylum-seekers-the-american-dream-is-over/
WBEZ
— Lawmakers promised cannabis funds would right many wrongs, but results are mixed. In 2020, Illinois legalized recreational marijuana. But experts say the boon won’t last forever, and policymakers should re-examine how the funds are spent.
https://www.wbez.org/curious-city/2025/02/19/lawmakers-promised-cannabis-funds-would-right-many-wrongs-but-results-are-mixed
— Pritzker’s $55.2 billion budget has no new taxes, cuts health care for adults lacking legal status. The Democratic governor also peppered his seventh budget blueprint — which Republicans derided as the largest in state history — with key policy proposals for the upcoming fiscal year.
https://www.wbez.org/springfield/2025/02/19/jb-pritzker-budget-address-state-of-the-state
RIVER BENDER
— State Representative Amy Elik (R-Alton), House Republican Caucus Deputy Budgeteer, Issues Statement On Gov. Pritzker’s Budget Address
https://www.riverbender.com/news/details/rep-elik-issues-statement-on-gov-pritzkers-budget-address-79845.cfm
BLOCK CLUB CHICAGO
— Families Experiencing Homelessness Can Apply For Up To $6,500 — With No Limit On How It’s Spent. Families of Chicago Public Schools students who lack stable housing may be eligible for a one-time payment through a state guaranteed income program.
https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/02/18/families-experiencing-homelessness-can-apply-for-up-to-6500-with-no-limit-on-how-its-spent/
CAPITOL FAX
— Afternoon roundup
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/19/isabel%e2%80%99s-afternoon-roundup-251/
— Black Caucus angrily responds to Pritzker’s budget proposals: ‘An insult to this entire Black community’
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/19/black-caucus-angrily-responds-to-pritzkers-budget-proposals-an-insult-to-this-entire-black-community/
— Pritzker zeroes out health plan for undocumented immigrants – Slashes welcoming center funding
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/19/pritzker-zeroes-out-health-plan-for-undocumented-immigrants-slashes-welcoming-center-funding/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
MCHENRY COUNTY BLOG
— Irony Concerning ComEd Profit and Mike Madigan’s Conviction
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/19/irony-concerning-comed-profit-and-mike-madigans-conviction/
— Robotic House Building Inaugurated in Southwest Florida
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/19/robotic-house-building-inaugurated-in-southwest-florida/
— Pritzker Proposes Easier Township Government Consolidation, Plus Abolition of Township Assessors in Townships Under 5,000 Population
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/19/pritzker-proposes-easier-township-government-consolidation-plus-abolition-of-township-assessors-in-townships-under-5000-population/
— Reactions to Governor’s Budget Talk
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/19/reactions-to-governors-budget-talk/
— Algonquin Township Integrity Trustee Team Mail
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/19/algonquin-township-integrity-trustee-team-mail/
— The Censures of Algonquin Township Supervisor Randy Funk – Part 3
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/19/the-censures-of-randy-funk-part-3/
JOHN BIVER
— Looking for solutions in all the wrong places
https://johnbiver.com/looking-for-solutions-in-all-the-wrong-places/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
WASHINGTON TIMES
— Trump Education Department cancels $226 million in ‘divisive’ diversity grants
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/19/trump-education-department-cancels-226-million-divisive-diversity-gran/
— Trump to sign executive order ending benefits for illegal immigrants
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/19/trump-executive-order-end-benefits-illegal-immigrants/
NEW YORK POST
— McDonald’s to let white students apply for Latino scholarships after DEI lawsuit (COMMENT: My critics/opponents have always used my not getting any scholarships against me.)
https://nypost.com/2025/02/19/business/mcdonalds-to-let-white-students-to-apply-for-latino-scholarships/
AMERICAN THINKER
— DOGE takes on the Social Security monster
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/02/doge_takes_on_the_social_security_monster.html
BREITBART
— President Trump Blasts Zelensky: ‘A Dictator Without Elections’
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/02/19/president-trump-blasts-zelensky-a-dictator-without-elections/
TOWNHALL
— ‘Game On’ for Democrats in ICE’s Way, Homan Says
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/jeremyfrankel/2025/02/19/tom-homan-to-dems-obstructing-ice-game-on-n2652484
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CBS NEWS
— Pritzker takes jabs at Trump tariffs
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/illinois-governor-jb-pritzker-takes-jabs-trump-tariffs/
FORTUNE
— Democrat leaders ever-increasingly use DEI to promote more hatred against Republicans.
https://fortune.com/2025/02/19/trump-anti-dei-campaign-hits-universities/
C-SPAN
— Illinois State of the State Address
https://www.c-span.org/program/state-legislature/illinois-state-of-the-state-address/655949
February 19, 2025
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
NBC5
— Fired federal workers protest Trump administration cuts as others speak out in support (COMMENT: If you were me, what position would you take on federal employees. While I worked for the federal government for almost 30 years (Post Office-3, IRS-9, and GAO-18), virtually all my superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates were Democrats. Extremely few sided with me. Virtually none came to my defense. Many helped my Democrat superiors waste my career and take adverse actions against me including forcing me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997. Overwhelmingly, they promoted Affirmative Action and DEI, that is, they promoted race and gender based preference giving, patronage, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and/or national origin discrimination.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SsrWEuGTRs
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— Libertyville Township has unrelated O’Connors facing off for supervisor; ‘We were just blessed with the same last name’ (COMMENT: What offices are on the April 1 ballot in your precinct? Who are the candidates? How much do you know about them? How have those candidates treated your Republican Precinct Committeeman?)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/18/libertyville-township-has-unrelated-oconnors-facing-off-for-supervisor-we-were-just-blessed-with-the-same-last-name/
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— Trump’s Friday firings leave EPA Chicago office down dozens of scientists, staff (COMMENT: Republican-led budget cuts during the 1980s and 1990s left GAO’s Chicago office down dozens of auditors. I was one of those auditors that my Democrat GAO superiors forced into early retirement.)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/environment/2025/02/18/trump-fires-epa-chicago-scientists-staff-environmental-protection-agency
— Democrats oppose anything and everything that discourages voter fraud.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/2025/02/18/safeguard-american-voter-eligibility-illinois-citizenship-passport-birth-certificate-becky-simon
NPR ILLINOIS
— She worked for years to get a federal job. Within a month, she was fired (COMMENT: The Democrats who ran GAO in 1980, IRS in 1971, and the Post Office in 1966 hired me because they could not find a qualified Democrat, minority, female, younger person, or veteran who would take the job. My passing the postal employment examination and earning a high school diploma qualified me for the Post Office job. My passing the Federal Service Entrance Examination and earning a bachelor’s degree in management qualified me the IRS job. My earning an MBA, passing the CPA examination on my first attempt, and almost completing the requirements for a master’s degree in accounting qualified me for the GAO job.)
https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-02-19/she-worked-for-years-to-get-a-federal-job-within-a-month-she-was-fired
(FROM THE ARTICLE: A dream job. Rose is the daughter of immigrants and grew up on the East Coast. For her entire professional life, she had wanted to work in the government. She’d done a few internships around Washington, D.C., before taking a job as a consultant. In that role, she’d worked alongside federal workers on environmental cleanup and clean energy projects. Working with those federal employees inspired her to pursue a job as a civil servant. But, she says, she soon learned that “getting a job in the federal government is a science in itself.” Initially, she was rejected from several positions. Undaunted, Rose steeped herself in the language of the U.S. government. She taught herself an endless list of acronyms and bought a book on how to build a résumé that would make her more attractive to federal work. Then late last year, she got what she thought was going to be her big break. She had interviewed at the Department of Energy for a job helping to oversee a portfolio of renewable energy projects. She says the hiring process was a monthslong ordeal, during which, she jokes, she told them everything except “what my blood type is.” In December, she got the call from human resources telling her she’d landed the role. “I was with a friend at the time,” she says. “And I just kept saying over and over, ‘I got the job! I got the job!'” It was going to be a turning point in her life: “It really felt like … my career is beginning, because this is the job I want,” she recalls.)
WOKV
— ‘Now I have a voice’: Jacksonville sheriff joins statewide illegal immigration crackdown
https://www.wokv.com/news/local/now-i-have-voice-jacksonville-sheriff-joins-statewide-illegal-immigration-crackdown/AGNOWOCVPNBXHMIWPMNIJGNBRQ/
CENTRAL ILLINOIS PROUD
— Trump imposes his vision on America
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/politics/ap-trump-imposes-his-vision-on-america-in-departure-from-first-term-stumbles/
WAND TV
— Rep. Will Davis (D- East Hazel Crest), who chairs the House Appropriations-Elementary & Secondary Education Committee, calls for more Affirmative Action and DEI, that is, for more race and gender based preference giving, patronage, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination. Democrat leaders ever-increasingly hint/imply/argue/shout that all the problems that minorities and females have are caused by Republicans.
https://www.wandtv.com/news/statehouse/rep-blaine-wilhour-argues-illinois-should-stop-focusing-on-equity-in-education-funding/article_b0c6b2da-ee4d-11ef-ade8-67c4623f0b02.html
POLITICO ILLINOIS
— Anticipate/expect that ever-increasingly, hate-filled Trump-hating Trump-haters will blame for everything that is bad.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/illinois-playbook/2025/02/19/pritzkers-budget-reveal-00204837
CAPITOL FAX
— Morning briefing
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/19/isabel%e2%80%99s-morning-briefing-458/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
WIREPOINTS
— Illinois has spent billions and billions on illegal immigrants…and that’s just the money we can see publicly
https://wirepoints.org/illinois-has-spent-billions-and-billions-on-illegal-immigrants-and-thats-just-the-money-we-can-see-publicly-wirepoints-on-am-560-chicagos-morning-answer/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
AMERICAN GREATNESS
— Morning Greatness: Most Americans Say Foreign Aid Is Wasted on Corruption
https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/18/morning-greatness-most-americans-say-foreign-aid-is-wasted-on-corruption/
— Support for President Trump’s Tariffs on China: A Strategic Move Towards Equitable Global Relations. Trump’s tariffs on China target fentanyl, economic espionage, and human rights abuses, signaling a hardline stance on trade and national security.
https://amgreatness.com/2025/02/19/support-for-president-trumps-tariffs-on-china-a-strategic-move-towards-equitable-global-relations/
BREITBART
— Fmr. GAO Head David Walker: DOGE Opponents Aren’t ‘Providing Any Support’ for Claims It’s Breaking Law
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2025/02/19/fmr-gao-head-doge-opponents-arent-providing-any-support-for-claims-its-breaking-law/
CENTER SQUARE
— IRS tax gap grows to $600 billion as DOGE looks for savings (COMMENT: I worked for GAO for 3 years on audits of IRS’s efforts to close the tax gap.)
https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_ecd0de72-ee0c-11ef-848d-ebb54839938d.html
CHRISTIAN POST
— Wheaton College alumni flood petition for leadership change amid ‘pernicious drift’
https://www.christianpost.com/news/wheaton-college-alumni-flood-petition-to-change-leadership.html
COLLEGE FIX
— Trump finds nearly $1 billion in Education Department waste
https://www.thecollegefix.com/trump-finds-nearly-1-billion-in-education-department-waste/
DAVID ARMANO
— These federal employees have no idea how private sector workers view them. Wow, they live in a world of their own with guaranteed job security, unions and legal armies ready to do battle on their behalf. A completely different set of rules. (COMMENT: If you were me, what position would you take on federal employees. While I worked for the federal government for almost 30 years (Post Office-3, IRS-9, and GAO-18), virtually all my superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates were Democrats. Extremely few sided with me. Virtually none came to my defense. Many helped my Democrat superiors waste my career and take adverse actions against me including forcing me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997. Overwhelmingly, they promoted Affirmative Action and DEI, that is, they promoted race and gender based preference giving, patronage, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and/or national origin discrimination.)
https://x.com/armano/status/1892047499755409808?mx=2
EPOCH TIMES
— Trump Terminates Biden-Era US Attorneys in DOJ Overhaul. The president stated that the move was necessary to restore a ‘fair justice system’ in the country. (COMMENT: My critics/opponents have always stressed that my Republican U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald appointed U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald who sided with my Democrat GAO superiors in Diersen v. GAO. To side with my Democrat GAO superiors is to promote Affirmative Action and DEI, that is, to promote race and gender based preference giving, patronage, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination.)
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/trump-terminates-biden-era-us-attorneys-in-doj-overhaul-5812443
FOX NEWS
— Deportation flights are ‘the most profoundly impactful tactic’ to deter illegal immigration (COMMENT: Anticipate/expect that many, most, if not virtually all of those who are deported will return.)
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6369027551112
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CNN
— Trump administration terminates privacy officials at agency overseeing government hiring and firing
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/opm-privacy-team-fired/index.html
NEWSWEEK
— Musk Says Some DOGE Workers Are Federal Employees
https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-doge-employees-hannity-interview-2033017
NBC NEWS
— Despite DOGE, Trump’s agenda calls for adding trillions of dollars to U.S debt. Budget experts say Trump’s tax and spending priorities would increase red ink, even as he boasts of balancing the budget. “I don’t think their rhetoric matches reality,” says one.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/doge-trumps-agenda-calls-adding-trillions-dollars-us-debt-rcna191665
CBS NEWS
— Tension between sanctuary cities and federal immigration crackdown
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/tension-between-sanctuary-cities-and-federal-immigration-crackdown/
MSN
— Boeing’s new Air Force One delayed until 2029 or later
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/boeing-s-new-air-force-one-delayed-until-2029-or-later-official-says/ar-AA1zeNrN
WASHINGTON POST
— U.S. Catholic bishops sue Trump administration over blocked refugee funds. The suit says the impact of the administration’s action is “devastating” for the Church and the refugees it serves. (COMMENT: According to Democrat leaders, sooner or later, everyone outside of America who is one of the following a) is a refugee, b) will be a refugee, and c) should be admitted as a refugee: minority, female, younger, LGBTQ, disabled, poor, non-Protestant, non-German American.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/02/18/catholic-bishops-sue-trump-refugee-funds/
— FEMA is losing scores of employees. What does that mean for disaster recovery? Cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency could affect people across the country who are struggling to rebuild and prepare for disasters. (COMMENT: I should write about the tremendous negative impacts of Republican gutting of GAO during the 1980s and 1990s.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/02/18/fema-layoffs-disaster-response/
— Trump and Musk praise each other, promise ‘hundreds of billions’ in cuts during Fox interview
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/18/trump-presidency-news/
— Youngkin promises help for federal workers but defends Trump job cuts. In his first extended remarks on the Trump cuts, Youngkin acknowledges many are anxious but says the process is needed and that state help is coming. (COMMENT: In Diersen v. GAO, virtually everyone sided with the Democrats who ran GAO. Those who sided with GAO were many, most, if not virtually all of the following: liberal/moderate, minority, female, younger, poor, LGBTQ, veteran, disabled, non-Protestant, non-German American, and/or have ancestors who have not been in America for a long time.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/18/virginia-youngkin-trump-federal-jobs/
— Why people aren’t having kids (COMMENT: My Democrat IRS and GAO superiors used my and my wife’s giving up trying to have children to justify the big adverse actions that they took against me. They hinted/implied/argued/shouted that I had lied about our efforts to have children. They stressed that we did not try IVF knowing full-well that our doctors said it would not be successful. They shouted that we could have adopted or become foster parents but did not.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/18/fertility-decline-women-kids-claudia-goldin/
USA TODAY
— Trump’s mass firing of probationary employees illegal, not performance-based, lawyers say (COMMENT: After I transferred from IRS to GAO when I was 31 years old in 1980, my Democrat GAO superiors were furious that they could not use their probationary procedures to fire me because I had served my probationary period while I worked for IRS.)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/18/trump-mass-firings-federal-workers-illegal/79070972007/
— Barron Trump is ‘future of conservative movement’ say College Republicans
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/19/barron-trump-nyu-conservative-republican/79104907007/
— Trump said he was the ‘father of IVF.’ After his executive order, these voters are rejoicing.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/02/19/ivf-trump-insurance-executive-order-reactions/78405547007/
UNION JOURNAL
— Trump Has Used $10.7 Million in Taxpayer Funds for Golf Expenses
https://www.theunionjournal.com/donald-trump-has-used-10-7-million-in-taxpayer-funds-for-golf-expenses/
BLOOMBERG
— Trump Accelerates Mass Firing of Federal Workers
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-02-18/trump-accelerates-mass-firing-of-federal-workers-evening-briefing
FAST COMPANY
— How federal workers are mobilizing against Trump, Musk, and DOGE. In response to sudden firings, government workers from across departments are starting a protest movement to fight back—and are targeting Tesla dealerships.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91280631/how-federal-workers-are-mobilizing-against-trump-musk-and-doge
WORLD AND WAY
— Wheaton College Clash Over Russell Vought Escalates, Exposing Evangelical Fault Lines
https://wordandway.org/2025/02/19/wheaton-college-clash-over-russell-vought-escalates-exposing-evangelical-fault-lines/
INSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION
— Democrat and RINO leaders use DEI to get rid of Republicans.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/02/19/higher-ed-groups-push-back-trumps-dei-threats
GOVERNMENT EXCUTIVE
— Thousands join class actions as fired feds weigh options to challenge Trump’s moves. Former federal probationary employees are hopeful they can prove their dismissals were not actually performance based, as their agencies claim. (COMMENT: After I transferred from IRS to GAO when I was 31 years old in 1980, my Democrat GAO superiors were furious that they could not use their probationary procedures to fire me because I had served my probationary period while I worked for IRS.)
https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/02/thousands-join-class-actions-fired-feds-weigh-options-challenge-trumps-moves/403087/
FED MANAGER
— Federal Agencies Start Mass Layoffs, Probationary Employees Targeted (COMMENT: After I transferred from IRS to GAO when I was 31 years old in 1980, my Democrat GAO superiors were furious that they could not use their probationary procedures to fire me because I had served my probationary period while I worked for IRS.)
https://www.fedmanager.com/news/federal-agencies-start-mass-layoffs-probationary-employees-targeted
FEDERAL NEWS NETWORK
— Fired probationary employees bring class-wide complaint to OSC (COMMENT: After I transferred from IRS to GAO when I was 31 years old in 1980, my Democrat GAO superiors were furious that they could not use their probationary procedures to fire me because I had served my probationary period while I worked for IRS.)
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce-rightsgovernance/2025/02/fired-probationary-employees-bring-class-wide-complaint-to-osc/
FED WEEK
— Federal Workplace Likely to Be Topic in Hearing on New GAO High-Risk List (COMMENT: At that hearing, Republicans should stress that GAO wasted my career and forced me to retire when I was 49 years old. My Democrat GAO superiors wasted what I had learned a) working for GAO for almost 18 years and for IRS for almost 9 years before that, b) earning six job-related professional certifications, c) earning a job-related professional license, and d) earning three job-related master’s degrees. Who does Trump want the next head of GAO to be, that is, who does Trump want the next Comptroller General to be?)
https://www.fedweek.com/fedweek/federal-workplace-likely-to-be-topic-in-hearing-on-new-gao-high-risk-list/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Democrats likely will use the hearing to point out that among GAO’s concerns in all such reports since they started in 2001 is what GAO calls “strategic management of human capital.” Main issues cited have included persistent shortages of federal employees with needed skills in areas such as cybersecurity and other IT functions, the STEM fields in general, acquisition, HR, and others—along with the need for better planning and building up capacity for the workforce of the future. The prior report said that shortages of employees were “undermining agencies’ abilities to meet their missions.” Closing those gaps “will require demonstrated improvements in agencies’ capacity to perform workforce planning, foster employee engagement, train staff effectively, and recruit and retain the appropriate number of staff with the necessary skills,” it said.)
AFGE
— AFGE Condemns Trump’s Mass Firing of Federal Employees
https://www.afge.org/article/afge-condemns-trumps-mass-firing-of-federal-employees/
NARFE
— NARFE Members Denounce Fed Firings During Nationwide Protests. Act Now: Protect Federal Earned Federal Retirement and Health Benefits from Budget Cuts. Urge Congress to Stand Up for Public Servants, Rule of Law. (COMMENT: I have been a NARFE member since I was 40 years old in 1988.)
https://www.narfe.org/advocacy/legislative-action-center/?_zs=NUifm&_zl=k7OF3
REDDIT
— Some federal workers are ‘getting wealthy at taxpayer expense,’ says Elon Musk, whose companies have received at least $20 billion from the government. (COMMENT: I was a federal employee for almost 30 years. My critic/opponents have always demonized me, denigrated me, and condemned me as being overpaid.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/comments/1isvn9q/some_federal_workers_are_getting_wealthy_at/?rdt=63007
INSTAGRAM
— 3rd of federal workers are veterans. The federal government is largely a jobs program for them.(COMMENT: My Democrat superiors who took adverse actions against me were veterans and/or used their subordinates who were veterans to do that. I should write about that. Of course, they stressed that I avoided the Vietnam War draft.)
https://www.instagram.com/thetnholler/p/DGPScQstOrO/
February 10, 2025 Evening Edition
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— Why Henry Hyde’s name should stay on the DuPage County courthouse. The GOP powerhouse stood for far more than his famous eponymous abortion amendment.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/10/editorial-henry-hyde-dupage-county-courthouse/
(FROM THE EDITORIAL: History often is complex and resistant to simple narratives. So are people. So it is a needlessly divisive mistake for DuPage County Board Chair Deborah Conroy to push for her fellow board members to remove the name of the late Henry J. Hyde, longtime Republican congressman, from the county courthouse. The board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the issue. Hyde represented DuPage, which until recent years was a Republican power center, in Washington for more than three decades, retiring in 2007. During that time, Hyde wasn’t some low-profile lifer in Congress. He was one of the House’s most prominent members, even when he was serving in the minority, which is to say most of his career there. Conroy’s rationale for removing Hyde’s name from the court building is that the staunchly anti-abortion politician was responsible for the Hyde Amendment, the provision in federal law that for decades barred spending federal taxpayer money on abortions with exceptions for rape, incest or endangerment to the life of the mother. “It’s strictly because of the Hyde Amendment, and it’s very difficult for so many women to walk into the courthouse and see (his name),” she told the Tribune. Abortion rights is an issue that only has grown more intense since Hyde died 10 months after his retirement. We understand the symbolic argument. But to strip his name from the building would be akin to removing Richard J. Daley’s name from the courthouse in the heart of the Loop over a single issue — say, the police beating of protesters at the 1968 Democratic convention on his orders, the culture of corruption that the Daley machine fostered or his brutal segregationist policies. Even many ardent Daley critics wouldn’t suggest doing so. Why is that? Because Daley is a singularly important figure in the history of Chicago and to rename the Daley Center or Daley Plaza would be to try to negate that history. Like Daley, Hyde was a complicated figure and far more than the name adorning a famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) piece of legislation. Memories are short, of course, but for most of his career Hyde was an intellectual heavyweight on the Republican side of the aisle. Agree or disagree, but when Hyde took the floor to speak, people listened. And for good reason. He was a thoughtful conservative. Consider this: Hyde stepped down in 1981 from the advisory board of the National Pro-Life Political Action Committee after Executive Director Peter Gemma Jr. identified incumbent lawmakers the group planned to work to defeat. Hyde objected to targeting officeholders over a single issue. Much the way the DuPage board is considering doing Tuesday. Would the Democratic majority on the DuPage board consider themselves in favor of reasonable gun regulation? If so, against the consensus of his party, Hyde in 1994 voted for President Bill Clinton’s ban on assault weapons, demonstrating that he could be persuaded to change his mind on a monumental issue of the day. Just three years earlier, he had voted against the same ban. Hyde reversed himself after reading detailed accounts of gun victims in Chicago, provided by Democratic Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois. “At the end of reading this list of bloody crimes, I had to conclude these guns have no purpose but to kill a lot of people very rapidly,” Hyde said. “It wasn’t like falling off a horse on the road to Damascus. But like many things complicated and emotional, you don’t dwell on them unless forced to.” Hyde’s change of heart induced Illinois Rep. Bob Michel, then GOP minority leader, and dozens more Republicans to vote for the ban. Such political courage is almost impossible to imagine on today’s Capitol Hill. Of course, four years later Hyde led Clinton’s impeachment proceedings on behalf of the House before the Senate, leading critics to disclose Hyde’s yearslong extramarital affair decades earlier and accusing him of hypocrisy. Hyde admitted to cheating on his wife but claimed Clinton’s alleged wrongdoing was about Clinton’s cover-up attempts rather than his actual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The public didn’t buy it, and Hyde paid a reputational price in the process. All of this is to say that Henry Hyde was complicated. Just like most people. But what is indisputable is that he was one of the most important political figures to emerge from DuPage County. Ever. His name should stay on that courthouse.)
ABC7
— DuPage County Democrats push to rename courthouse over late Congressman’s abortion views
https://abc7chicago.com/post/local-democrats-push-rename-dupage-county-courthouse-late-congressman-henry-hydes-abortion-views/15890259/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: “He had a lot of support, a lot of friends on the other side of the aisle. He strikes me as a kind of official that we should be looking to model ourselves after, not disrespect,” said DuPage County GOP Chair Kevin Coyne. While he was bipartisan on certain issues such as gun control and the Family and Medical Leave Act, Hyde was one of Congress’ biggest opponents of abortion. He authored the Hyde Amendment, which denied abortion access to poor women on Medicaid. . .The board will vote on the resolution to remove Hyde’s name on Tuesday. With a Democratic majority, Conroy says, the proposal will pass. “To cherry-pick this one issue and hold it against a man that was such a big part of our history, to me, is just wrong. It’s short sighted,” Coyne said. Coyne says the decision to remove Hyde’s name may ruin the bipartisanship Conroy says she has proudly created while serving as chair.)
— President Trump pardons ex-Illinois Gov. Blagojevich 5 years after commuting his sentence
https://abc7chicago.com/post/president-donald-trump-expected-pardon-ex-illinois-gov-rod-blagojevich-5-years-commuting-sentence-reports/15889540/
FOX32
— ICE operations intensify across U.S. sanctuary cities
https://www.fox32chicago.com/video/1591008
DAILY HERALD
— Residents protest proposed cuts to Medicaid at DuPage County rally
https://www.dailyherald.com/20250210/news/residents-protest-proposed-cuts-to-medicaid-at-dupage-county-rally/
CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS
— Blagojevich pardoned on corruption conviction by Trump
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/trump-pardons-rod-blagojevich-corruption-conviction
CENTER SQUARE ILLINOIS
— Del Mar teases run for ‘higher office,’ sparking 2026 Illinois governor speculation
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_69d594d6-e7c2-11ef-b535-b39343671dce.html
CITIES 92.9
— Illinois circuit judge finds FOID for firearms in home unconstitutional (COMMENT: I have had a FOID card since I was 20 years old in 1968.)
https://www.cities929.com/2025/02/10/illinois-circuit-judge-finds-foid-for-firearms-in-home-unconstitutional/
CAPITOL FAX
— Afternoon roundup
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/10/isabel%e2%80%99s-afternoon-roundup-246/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
ILLINOIS STATE RIFLE ASSOCIATION
— FOID Card Found to be Unconstitutional Yet Again
https://isra.org/foid-card-found-to-be-unconstitutional-yet-again/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
NEW YORK POST
— Migrants turning around and heading back home in ‘new trend’ under Trump border crackdown
https://nypost.com/2025/02/10/us-news/new-trend-of-migrants-turning-around-and-heading-back-toward-home-under-trump-border-crackdown/
DAILY SIGNAL
— ‘BETRAYAL’: Lawmaker Responds to FEMA Diverting $59M to House Illegal Aliens
https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/02/10/fema-using-59-million-house-illegal-aliens-is-betrayal-highest-order-congressman-says/
DAILY WIRE
— Musk Says FEMA Spent $60M Housing Illegal Immigrants In ‘Luxury Hotels’ Last Week. The payments were suspended by acting FEMA Director Cameron Hamilton after Musk’s announcement.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/musks-says-fema-spent-60m-housing-illegal-immigrants-in-luxury-hotels-last-week
— 27% Of National Science Foundation Grants Went To DEI Projects, Study Finds. ‘Congress must end the politicization of NSF funding and restore integrity to scientific research,’ Sen. Ted Cruz says.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/27-of-national-science-foundation-grants-went-to-dei-projects-study-finds
EPOCH TIMES
— Musk Says FEMA Spent $59 Million on Housing Illegal Immigrants in NYC Hotels. ‘This stops now,’ said acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton, announcing that all such payments from FEMA were suspended on Feb. 9.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/musk-says-fema-spent-59-million-on-housing-illegal-immigrants-in-nyc-hotels-5807322
FOX NEWS
— Trump expected to pardon former Illinois Gov Rod Blagojevich. Trump previously commuted Blagojevich’s sentence in 2020.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-expected-pardon-former-illinois-gov-rod-blagojevich
MRC TV
— Illegal Alien Crossings Have Plummeted 90% Under Trump
https://www.mrctv.org/blog/brittany-m-hughes/border-agent-illegal-alien-crossings-have-plummeted-90-under-trump
TOWNHALL
— Trump Ramps Up Purge of ‘Woke’ Ideology in the Military
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/jeff-charles/2025/02/10/trump-liquidates-woke-board-of-visitors-for-military-branches-n2651967
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
THE HILL
— Trump says ‘too early’ to name Vance as successor
https://www.aol.com/trump-says-too-early-name-215711428.html
CNN
— Trump imposes 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/politics/tariffs-steel-aluminum-trump/index.html
CBS NEWS
— Increasing numbers of Democrats want their party to oppose Trump
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/democrats-want-party-oppose-trump-poll-analysis/
— Trump ousts director of Office of Government Ethics
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-office-of-government-ethics-director/
WEEK
— DeSantis signs agreement with ICE to have Florida state troopers detain illegal immigrants
https://www.25newsnow.com/2025/02/10/desantis-signs-agreement-with-ice-have-florida-state-troopers-detain-illegal-immigrants/
WALL STREET JOURNAL
— DHS Seeks to Deputize IRS Officers to Help With Deportation Effort. Tax-collecting agency has thousands of special agents in its criminal-investigation division. (COMMENT: I worked for GAO on audits of IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division at the GS-13 Step 1-3 Levels, currently $117,807-$125,661/year, for 3 years.)
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-irs-officers-ice-deportations-ed87c4b5
AUTO GUIDE
— Why Is General Motors Getting Rid Of Key Corvette Personnel?
https://www.autoguide.com/auto/manufacturers/chevrolet/why-is-general-motors-getting-rid-of-key-corvette-personnel-44616109
February 4, 2025
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
ABC7
— Senate confirms Pam Bondi as US attorney general
https://abc7chicago.com/post/senate-confirms-pam-bondi-us-attorney-general-putting-trump-ally-justice-departments-helm/15866274/
— Musk is serving as a ‘special government employee,’ White House says. That designation means Musk is not a volunteer but also not a full-time federal employee.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/elon-musk-is-officially-serving-president-donald-trump-special-government-employee-white-house-says/15864075/
— Senate Republicans insist Elon Musk isn’t in charge after whirlwind actions
https://abc7chicago.com/post/senate-republicans-insist-elon-musk-isnt-charge-whirlwind-actions/15865279/
— Trump says US will take ‘take over’ Gaza: ‘We’ll own it’ He said the U.S. would “level the site” and create “an economic development.”
https://abc7chicago.com/post/donald-trump-benjamin-netanyahu-hold-talks-us-president-warns-no-guarantees-fragile-peace-gaza-will/15863738/
— Chicago US Attorneys Office at critical juncture with caseload pile-up, new Trump directives
https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-us-attorneys-office-critical-juncture-caseload-pile-trump-administration-chaos/15866230/
— First military flight to send migrants to Guantanamo Bay is set to depart
https://abc7chicago.com/post/guantanamo-bay-first-military-flight-send-migrants-is-set-depart-official-says/15865004/
WTTW
— El Salvador Offers to Accept Deportees From US of Any Nationality, Including American Citizens
https://news.wttw.com/2025/02/04/el-salvador-offers-accept-deportees-us-any-nationality-including-american-citizens
WGN RADIO
— 18 House GOP lawmakers back Trump’s birthright citizenship order in court
https://wgnradio.com/news/18-house-gop-lawmakers-back-trumps-birthright-citizenship-order-in-court/
WBBM
— Illinois Republicans say illegal immigration remains a crisis, point the finger at Democrats
https://www.audacy.com/wbbm780/news/local/illinois-republicans-say-illegal-immigration-remains-crisis
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s offer to jail violent American criminals faces ‘legalities’
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/04/marco-rubio-el-salvador/
— Alderman told to leave City Council meeting after he appeared to call colleague a white supremacist
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/04/alderman-told-to-leave-city-council-meeting-white-supremacist/
— Once-obscure Bolingbrook company WeatherTech has wild ride with its 13th Super Bowl ad
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/04/weathertech-super-bowl-ad/
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— ‘White supremacist’ remark sparks City Council member’s ouster from hearing on public art dubbed antisemitic. Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez was ejected from the meeting of the Special Events Committee by the normally affable chair, Ald. Nick Sposato: “You can’t call anybody a white supremacist. You gotta go,” Sposato said. “We’re not gonna take that.”
https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2025/02/04/city-council-public-artwork-committee-hearing-cultural-center-conway-sigcho-lopez
— Democrat leaders ever-increasingly encourage citizens of foreign countries to seek refugee status in America.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/2025/02/04/trump-targeting-legal-refugees-political-persecution-state-rep-hoan-huynh
DAILY HERALD
— Democrats confront limits of their power in bid to stop Trump and Musk
https://www.dailyherald.com/20250204/nation-and-world-politics/democrats-confront-limits-of-their-power-in-bid-to-stop-trump-and-musk/
SOUTHERN
— Why shutting down USAID could have major impacts on Gaza aid
https://southernillinoisnow.com/2025/02/04/why-shutting-down-usaid-could-have-major-impacts-on-gaza-aid/
RIVER BENDER & WSIU
— Pritzker and Illinois Department of Revenue Encourage Taxpayers to Take Advantage of Tax Credits (COMMENT: My father never earned more than $50,000/years in today’s dollars.)
https://www.riverbender.com/news/details/governor-pritzker-and-illinois-department-of-revenue-encourage-taxpayers-to-take-advantage-of-tax-credits-79395.cfm?
https://www.wsiu.org/community-updates/2025-02-04/governor-pritzker-and-illinois-department-of-revenue-encourage-taxpayers-to-take-advantage-of-tax-credits
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a benefit for working people with low to moderate income. To claim an Illinois EITC for tax year 2024 (tax returns due in 2025), taxpayers must file an Illinois income tax return, even if they do not owe any tax and are not required to file and: have worked and earned income under $66,819)
WAND TV
— Illinois House Republicans demand Pritzker cut migrant services
https://www.wandtv.com/community/illinois-house-republicans-demand-pritzker-cut-migrant-services/article_5b09c71a-e330-11ef-a749-8bd800e65ff7.html
NORTHERN PUBLIC RADIO
— How much do Illinois school districts rely on federal funding?
https://www.northernpublicradio.org/wnij-news/2025-02-04/how-much-do-illinois-school-districts-rely-on-federal-funding
— Musk and Trump aim to shut down USAID, leaving humanitarian work in doubt
https://www.northernpublicradio.org/2025-02-03/musk-and-trump-aim-to-shut-down-usaid-leaving-humanitarian-work-in-doubt
FOX ILLINOIS
— Border Patrol agents warned cartels might attack with weaponized drones
https://foxillinois.com/news/nation-world/border-patrol-agents-warned-cartels-might-attack-with-weaponized-drones-reports-southern-border-security-cbp-arizona-mexican-drug-cartels-trump-illegal-immigration-crackdown
NPR ILLINOIS
— Trump administration adds fine print to ‘Fork’ resignation offer, deepening confusion
https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-02-04/trump-administration-adds-fine-print-to-fork-resignation-offer-deepening-confusion
CENTRAL ILLINOIS PROUD
— Will Trump’s federal hiring freeze affect IRS tax returns? (COMMENT: While I worked for the Democrats who ran GAO 1980-1997, the agency was almost always under Republican-imposed hiring freezes and/or promotion freezes. My Democrat superiors punished me big time for that.)
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/national/will-trumps-federal-hiring-freeze-affect-irs-tax-returns/
NAPERVILLE PATCH
— OUTRAGEOUS, DISGUSTING: Democrats push pot in Warrenville
https://patch.com/illinois/naperville/prairie-cannabis-host-grand-opening-naperville-warrenville-area
ELMHURST PATCH
— Elmhurst D205 Hopeful Opposes DEI; Others Back It. Critical race theory also becomes a topic during an Elmhurst election forum. (COMMENT: To promote DEI is to promote discrimination against those who are conservative, Republican, American, White, male, older, non-poor, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time. I am all of the aforesaid. My critics/opponents promote DEI.)
https://patch.com/illinois/elmhurst/elmhurst-d205-hopeful-opposes-dei-others-back-it
IPM NEWS
— Dozens protest on the streets of Champaign for the rights of transgender people
https://ipmnewsroom.org/dozens-protest-on-the-streets-of-champaign-for-the-rights-of-transgender-people/
CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS
— New bills would ban school fines, provide working moms paid time to breastfeed (COMMENT: During the 1990s, GAO’s Chicago office gutted its smoking room and turned it into a lactation room.)
https://capitolnewsillinois.com/news/new-bills-would-ban-school-fines-provide-working-moms-paid-time-to-breastfeed/
CAPITOL FAX
— Afternoon roundup
https://capitolfax.com/2025/02/04/isabel%e2%80%99s-afternoon-roundup-242/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
CENTER SQUARE ILLINOIS
— House Republicans say immigration affecting Illinoisans’ finances, safety
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_2d613c70-e336-11ef-a1a2-cb40670ac798.html
MCHENRY COUNTY BLOG
— Sosnowski Takes on Teeny-Tiny Township Governments
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/04/sosnowski-takes-on-teeny-tiny-township-governments/
— Nunda Township Road Commissioner Mike Lesperance Issues Press Release on Charges from Opponent Ron Parish
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/04/nunda-township-road-commissioner-mike-lesperance-issues-press-release-on-charges-from-opponent-ron-parish/
— County Administrator Peter Austin Set for Contract Extension into 2029, Salary Up $39,000 to $250,000
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/04/county-administrator-peter-austin-set-for-contract-extension-into-2029-salary-up-39000-to-250000/
— Ness Proposes Legislation to Allowed Those Unrelated to Live Together, Overriding Local Zoning Ordinances
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/02/04/ness-proposes-legislation-to-allowed-those-unrelates-to-live-together-overriding-local-zoning-ordinances/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
WASHINGTON TIMES
— More than 20,000 federal workers accept Trump’s buyout offer, with ‘largest spike’ yet to come
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/4/20-000-federal-workers-accept-trump-buyout-offer-l/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: More than 20,000 workers would amount to roughly 1% of the two million federal workers. That remains below the 5% to 10% of federal workers the White House initially estimated would resign. The White House says the buyout offer would save the government $100 billion.)
— Illegal immigrant used stolen ID to vote, buy guns while hiding in Florida
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/4/illegal-immigrant-voted-owned-guns-feds/
BIZ PAC REVIEW
— Harboring illegals could mean decades in jail; Homan responds to blue state dem’s ‘come and get her’ challenge (COMMENT: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly analogize illegals to fugitive slaves.)
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/02/04/harboring-illegals-could-mean-decades-in-jail-homan-responds-to-blue-state-dems-come-and-get-her-challenge-1520551/
BREITBART
— Trump: U.S. Will Take Over Gaza, ‘We Will Own It’
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/02/04/trump-u-s-will-take-over-gaza-we-will-own-it/
DAILY SIGNAL
— Democrats Love Illegal Aliens, No Matter How Vicious
https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/02/04/democrats-love-illegal-aliens-no-matter-how-vicious/
EPOCH TIMES
— More Than 20,000 Federal Workers Have Taken Buyout Offer, Surge Expected Before Friday Deadline. Nobody knows now how many employees will ultimately accept Trump’s terms for leaving the government.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/more-than-20000-federal-workers-have-taken-buyout-offer-surge-expected-before-friday-deadline-says-official-5804094
FOX NEWS
— Dozens of illegals arrested in Trump’s home county in Florida. Officials arrested 32 criminal illegal aliens through ‘targeted immigration enforcement operations’ in Palm Beach County.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dozens-illegals-arrested-trumps-home-county-florida
HOT AIR
— Illegals Throwing Anti-ICE Temper Tantrums, Blocking Freeways
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/02/04/illegals-throwing-anti-ice-temper-tantrums-blocking-freeways-making-friends-n3799466
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CNN
— FBI turns over names of 5,000 employees who worked on January 6 cases to Trump Justice Department, as agents sue
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/politics/fbi-employees-tuesday
NEW YORK TIMES
— Bondi Confirmed as Attorney General
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/us/politics/pam-bondi-attorney-general-confirmation.html
WALL STREET JOURNAL
— Trump Order Set to Ban Transgender Girls and Women From Female School Sports. The NCAA has indicated it will move rapidly to change its rules in the face of such an order. (COMMENT: Transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete against other transgender athletes.)
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/transgender-athletes-women-sports-executive-order-6223e414
REAL NEWS
— ‘Don’t open the door’: how Chicago is frustrating ICE’s campaign of fear. Months of know-your-rights work has Trump’s border czar complaining.
https://therealnews.com/dont-open-the-door-how-chicago-is-frustrating-ices-campaign-of-fear
INC
— Companies Are Avoiding the ‘DEI’ Acronym–Even If They’re Not Pulling Back on Diversity Initiatives The White House is wiping diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from the federal government. It’s prompting a shift in the communication used by business leaders who still believe in the concept.
https://www.inc.com/sam-blum/rebranding-dei-companies-tread-carefully-in-the-era-of-woke-politics/91141932
NPR
— Rubio says El Salvador will house deportees from U.S., including Americans
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/04/g-s1-46352/rubio-el-salvador-deportees-americans
POLITICO
— Trump says US will ‘take over the Gaza Strip’ He provided no details on how this was possible.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/04/trump-says-us-will-take-over-the-gaza-strip-00202508
LGBTQ NATION
— Pete Buttigieg’s replacement bans diversity celebrations at Department of Transportation. New Secretary Sean Duffy calls them a “distraction”.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/02/pete-buttigiegs-replacement-bans-diversity-celebrations-at-department-of-transportation/
January 24, 2025 Evening Edition
POST MILLENNIAL
— Pete Hegseth CONFIRMED by Senate as defense secretary. Vice President JD Vance was called up to cast the tie-breaking vote.
https://thepostmillennial.com/pete-hegseth-confirmed-senate
TOWNHALL
— Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Secretary of Defense
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/01/24/hegseth-confirmed-n2650817
WHITE HOUSE
— ENFORCING THE HYDE AMENDMENT
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/enforcing-the-hyde-amendment/
— I hereby revoke the Presidential Memorandum of January 28, 2021 . . . and reinstate the Presidential Memorandum of January 23, 2017 . . . (The Mexico City Policy). I direct the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to the extent allowable by law, to implement a plan to extend the requirements of the reinstated Memorandum to global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies. I further direct the Secretary of State to take all necessary actions, to the extent permitted by law, to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization. This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. The Secretary of State is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/memorandum-for-the-secretary-of-state-the-secretary-of-defense-the-secretary-of-health-and-human-services-the-administrator-of-the-united-states-for-international-development/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— Evanston investigating photo of firefighters wearing Trump masks at work (COMMENT: My Democrat GAO superiors were furious that I attended a Bob Dole rally in Wheaton in 1996.)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/illinois-city-evanston-investigating-photo-202200410.html
— A reported sighting of immigration agents attempting to enter an elementary school on Chicago’s Southwest Side on Friday was actually U.S. Secret Service agents investigating a threat.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/24/immigration-enforcement-hamline-elementary/
— Illinois State Senator Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) asks prison workers to contact her about undocumented immigrants: ‘I won’t rat you out’
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/24/state-senator-asks-prison-workers-to-contact-her-about-undocumented-immigrants-i-wont-rat-you-out/
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— Homeless tent camp on track to be removed from Gompers Park on Northwest Side. Ald. Samantha Nugent says the city promised to begin a process next month to help move unhoused people from the park into shelters. (COMMENT: Under the Democrats and under the RINOs, anticipate/expect homeless tent camps in your county, township, municipality, school district, and precinct.)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/01/24/chicago-homeless-tent-camp-removed-gompers-park-northwest-side-samantha-nugent-brandon-johnson
ABC7
— Target is ending its diversity goals as a strong DEI opponent occupies the White House
https://abc7chicago.com/post/target-is-ending-diversity-goals-strong-dei-opponent-occupies-white-house/15834406/
— Illinois Democrat leaders ever-increasingly use students to promote more hatred against Trump.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/mass-deportations-school-attendance-declines-parts-illinois-amid-fears-trump-immigration-raids-gov-pritzker-speaks/15834048/
— US Secret Service approached South Side school, not ICE agents. Chicago Public Schools officials initially claimed they denied ICE entry to Hamline Elementary Friday morning.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/us-immigration-customs-enforcement-agents-denied-entry-hamline-elementary-school-back-yards-cps-officials/15833738/
— Illinois Democrat leaders ever-increasingly use students to promote more hatred against Trump.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/mass-deportations-school-attendance-declines-parts-illinois-amid-fears-trump-immigration-raids-gov-pritzker-speaks/15834048/
— Illinois authorities divided on TRUST Act forbidding federal immigration enforcement collaboration
https://abc7chicago.com/post/trust-act-controversy-illinois-authorities-divided-law-forbidding-collaboration-federal-immigration-enforcement-raids/15834612/
— Trump vows to fight for abortion restrictions in March for Life remarks
https://abc7chicago.com/live-updates/donald-trump-2nd-term-live-updates-more-executive-action-planned-amid-day-1-fallout/15820865/
— Trump says military planes will deport migrants every day
https://abc7chicago.com/post/trump-border-czar-tells-abc-military-planes-will-deport-migrants-every-day/15834350/
NBC5
— CPS says ICE agents ‘showed up’ at Chicago school, Secret Service says it was them. A spokesperson for ICE, however, said “this was not an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement encounter,” however.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/ice-agents-showed-up-at-chicago-school-amid-heightened-concerns-of-raids/3655459/
— Target announces major company changes following Trump’s diversity orders. Target, which operates nearly 2,000 stores nationwide, explained it already had planned to end the racial program this year.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/target-announces-major-company-changes-following-trumps-diversity-orders/3655681/
— Judge finds Dolton mayor in ‘indirect criminal contempt’ in liquor license case
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/judge-finds-dolton-mayor-in-indirect-criminal-contempt-in-liquor-license-case/3655764/
— Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/voters-unhappy-both-parties/3646584/
CBS2
— Illinois Democrat leaders ever-increasingly use students to promote more hatred against Trump.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-public-schools-martinez-cupich-immigration-raid-worries/
— Illinois Democrat leaders ever-increasingly use poor people to promote more hatred against Trump.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/northern-illinois-food-bank-immigration-policy-concerns/
— Chicago Democrats reject Trump’s election and the rule of law.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-mayor-johnson-immigration-rights-announcement/
CHAMPAIGN/URBANA NEWS GAZETTE
— Trump and Vance join March for Life anti-abortion activists in celebrating the movement’s gains. President Donald Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, are celebrating gains in the anti-abortion movement with activists in the annual March for Life/
https://www.news-gazette.com/news/nation-world/trump-and-vance-join-march-for-life-anti-abortion-activists-in-celebrating-the-movements-gains/article_c22d1d39-93fc-54d5-827b-67e023017820.html
SOUTHERN
— Illinois Democrat leaders ever-increasingly use students to promote more hatred against Trump.
https://thesouthern.com/news/illinois-schools-prepare-for-immigration-enforcement-state-board-issues-guidance-after-trump-rescinds-biden-era/article_47c02031-d3c1-5998-a107-91095f03946d.html
CENTRAL ILLINOIS PROUD
— Federal agencies begin removing DEI guidance from websites in Trump crackdown
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/politics/ap-federal-agencies-begin-removing-dei-guidance-from-websites-in-trump-crackdown/
NPR ILLINOIS
— Local governments across U.S. signal they won’t aid Trump migrant crackdown (COMMENT: To what extent do those who run your county, township, municipality, and school district reject Trump’s election, that is, to what extent do they reject the rule of law?)
https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-01-24/local-governments-across-u-s-signal-they-wont-aid-trump-migrant-crackdown
— U.S. puts virtually all foreign aid on 90-day hold
https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-01-24/u-s-puts-virtually-all-foreign-aid-on-90-day-hold-issues-stop-work-order
WREX
— Federal agencies told to move to eliminate DEI offices and positions within 60 days (COMMENT: What if Trump had been elected earlier, much earlier? In Diersen v. GAO, to justify its forcing me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997, GAO argued that it was just following orders. GAO used Affirmative Action and DEI to get rid of its Republican employees, and especially those who were conservative, White, male, older, and/or non-veteran. I was all of the aforesaid.)
https://www.wrex.com/news/politics/federal-agencies-told-to-move-to-eliminate-dei-offices-and-positions-within-60-days/article_1c625fdb-9e6e-58db-9fd1-a3c70ed32bc2.html
CAPITOL FAX
— Afternoon roundup
https://capitolfax.com/2025/01/24/isabel%e2%80%99s-afternoon-roundup-235/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
GOPUSA ILLINOIS
— What if Trump had been elected earlier, much earlier? In Diersen v. GAO, to justify its forcing me to retire when I was 49 years old in 1997, GAO argued that it was just following orders. GAO used Affirmative Action and DEI to get rid of its Republican employees, and especially those who were conservative, White, male, older, and/or non-veteran. I was all of the aforesaid. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
WASHINGTON TIMES
— Trump is finally firing people (COMMENT: If was still working for the Democrats who run GAO, they would kill me figuratively if not literally.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/24/trump-finally-firing-people/
— Repealing the climate hoax
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/24/editorial-repealing-climate-hoax/
NEW YORK POST
— Mexico refuses to accept US deportation flight as Trump’s immigration overhaul gets into full swing
https://nypost.com/2025/01/24/us-news/mexico-refuses-to-accept-us-deportation-flight-as-trumps-immigration-overhaul-gets-into-full-swing/
— Trump’s Education Department sacks ‘book ban coordinator,’ tosses complaints over removal of ‘sexually explicit’ material
https://nypost.com/2025/01/24/us-news/trumps-education-department-eliminates-book-ban-coordinator/
CENTER FOR FAMILY & HUMAN RIGHTS
— Trump Eradicates Gender Ideology on Week One
https://c-fam.org/friday_fax/trump-eradicates-gender-ideology-on-week-one/
DAILY CALLER
— Illegal Aliens ‘Endanger Our Own People’: Democratic Alderman Raymond Lopez of Chicago Lays Into Governor Pritzker Seeking To Block ICE Raids
https://dailycaller.com/2025/01/24/chicago-dem-pritzker-trump-block-ice-raids/
GINGRICH
— President Trump Acts Decisively on Illegal Immigration (COMMENT: If Gingrich had reformed GAO instead of gutting it, I might still be working for GAO.)
https://gingrich360.com/2025/01/24/president-trump-acts-decisively-on-illegal-immigration/
TOWNHALL
— Senate Republican Announces Bill to Finish Building Donald Trump’s Border Wall
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/jeff-charles/2025/01/24/house-republican-to-reintroduce-bill-to-finish-building-trumps-wall-n2651080
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CBS NEWS
— Interior Department says Gulf of Mexico now renamed to Gulf of America, Denali to Mount McKinley
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/interior-department-gulf-of-mexico-america/
— Democrat leaders ever-increasingly use students and religious people to promote more hatred against Trump.
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/ice-activity-new-york-new-jersey-schools-places-of-worship/
REUTERS
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/some-migrants-turn-pricey-smugglers-or-riskier-routes-after-trump-clampdown-2025-01-24/
NEWSWEEK
— Chicago Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more hatred against Trump and against those who voted for Trump.
https://www.newsweek.com/chicago-immigrants-fearing-trump-ice-deportation-raids-stay-home-2019296
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-01-24/some-migrants-turn-to-pricey-smugglers-or-riskier-routes-after-trump-clampdown
NEW YORK TIMES
— At Trump Luncheon, Billionaires Cozy Up to Policymakers
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000009942342/at-trump-luncheon-billionaires-cozy-up-to-policymakers.html
WASHINGTON POST
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/24/immigration-mexico-trump/eab0c612-da10-11ef-85a9-331436ec61e9_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/01/24/immigration-raids-deportations-trump-ice/
— Democrats and RINOs use DEI to get rid of Republicans.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/24/trump-dei-rollback-inequality/
USA TODAY
— Democrat and RINO employers use DEI a) to not hire Republican and b) to get rid of their Republican employees.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/01/24/health-wildfire-los-angeles-madison-keys-trump-dei/77922903007/
WALL STREET JOURNAL
— A ‘Pay Penalty’ Is Keeping Men Out of Classrooms. Male teachers can help struggling boys, but few men choose to go into teaching.
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/education-low-pay-male-teachers-8c3bfa30
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The typical college-educated man made $95,000 in 2023, compared with $65,000 for male teachers—a $30,000 pay gap, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of census data stored at the University of Minnesota. The comparable gap for women was $12,000.)
FORTUNE
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration.
https://fortune.com/2025/01/24/migrants-us-asylum-appointments-canceled-trump-crossing-border/
BARRON’S
— America’s enemies ever-increasingly send their citizens to America illegally.
https://www.barrons.com/news/asylum-access-universally-recognised-right-un-says-after-trump-halts-arrivals-9c5a8983
INC.
— Since the 1960s, Democrats have ever-increasingly used their anti-discrimination laws to discriminate against Republicans who are White, male, older, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time.
https://www.inc.com/kit-eaton/trump-federal-contracting-order-reverses-60-years-of-anti-discrimination-progress/91130572
AARP
— 10 Sneaky Retirement Expenses You May Not See Coming (COMMENT: The list includes: Health care/wellness, Home maintenance and modifications, Home and car insurance, Utilities, Taxes, and Staying connected. In today’s dollars, my Civil Service Retirement System pension is a) only 44% of what my salary was when I was 49 in 1997 and b) less than what my salary was when I was 23 in 1972.)
https://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-2023/most-common-underestimated-expenses.html
NATIONAL LAW REVIEW
— What’s Next for OFCCP? Agency Issues First Statement After President Trump’s Revocation of EO 11246
https://natlawreview.com/article/whats-next-ofccp-agency-issues-first-statement-after-president-trumps-revocation-eo
AMERICAN LAWYER
— The Justice Department rescinded job offers to dozens of law school students who were set to join the agency this year, while attorneys already in the government are worried about the risk of losing their jobs. (COMMENT: When I was 22 years old in 1971, Oldsmobile rescinded a job offer that I had accepted saying that it had just agreed to stop hiring Whites to settle an EEOC complaint. That had a tremendous impact on the rest of my life.)
https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2025/01/24/government-attorneys-face-reassignment-rescinded-job-offers-in-first-days-of-trump-administration/
LAW 360
— Convenience store chain Circle K requires store managers to make trips to other locations to pick up out-of-stock items but doesn’t reimburse them for the costs associated with this travel. (COMMENT: Prior to Diersen v. IRS ( SEE: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-180010.11 ) IRS used a purposely vague definition of “commuting area” to reward and to punish its employees.)
https://www.law360.com/employment-authority/wage-hour/articles/2288288/circle-k-fails-to-pay-for-travel-costs-manager-says
RASMUSSON REPORTS
— 45% View China as Enemy of U.S.
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration_second_term/45_view_china_as_enemy_of_u_s
January 21, 2025
WHITE HOUSE
— President Trump Signs Additional Executive Actions
https://www.whitehouse.gov/news/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— Trump pardons 1,500 defendants in Jan. 6 rioting, including dozens from Illinois
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/20/trump-pardons-illinois-jan-6/
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— Democrat leaders ever-increasingly unify those who have demographics that vote for Democrats against those who have demographics that vote for Republicans. Demographics that vote for Democrats include liberal/moderate, minority, female, younger, poor, unmarried, non- Protestant, non-German American, and/or have ancestors who have not been in America for a long time. Demographics that vote for Republicans include conservative, White, male, older, married, non-poor, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/editorials/2025/01/20/trumps-inaugural-speech-only-pays-lip-service-to-unity
ABC7
— Trump signs executive order ending birthright citizenship, other immigration actions
https://abc7chicago.com/post/trump-signs-executive-order-ending-birthright-citizenship/15820949/
— Trump moves swiftly to implement his new agenda after inauguration
https://abc7chicago.com/live-updates/trump-presidential-inauguration-2025-live-updates-president-elect-donald-set-take-office/15807227/entry/15819663/
— What Trump has signed orders on
https://abc7chicago.com/live-updates/trump-presidential-inauguration-2025-live-updates-president-elect-donald-set-take-office/15807227/entry/15820473/
— What is an executive order? A look at Trump’s tool for quickly reshaping government.
https://abc7chicago.com/post/what-is-executive-order-look-trumps-tool-quickly-reshaping-government/15820791/
NBC5
— How Trump’s immigration policy will impact Illinois
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtrwUxD9coY
CBS2
— Chicago Democrats ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-area-safe-haven-communities-mass-deportations/
WGN9
— Chicago police reminded they can’t cooperate with deportations (COMMENT: Chicago Democrats continue to reject Trump’s election and the rule of law.)
https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-investigates/chicago-police-reminded-they-cant-cooperate-with-deportations/
— Chicago Democrats ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration
https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/chicago-immigration-raid-fear/
FOX32
— Chicago Democrats ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/trumps-immigration-policies-spark-concern-over-potential-ice-raids-chicago
WBEZ
— Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 riot help more than 50 defendants from Illinois
https://www.wbez.org/politics/2025/01/20/trumps-pardons-for-jan-6-riot-helps-more-than-50-defendants-from-illinois
BLOOMINGTON PANTAGRAPH
— Central Illinois lawmaker Dennis Tipsword travels to inauguration, Trump rally
https://pantagraph.com/news/local/government-politics/central-illinois-lawmaker-travels-to-inauguration-trump-rally/article_e3afca9c-d791-11ef-a04a-5f8c059ab1ac.html
— In freezing Bloomington-Normal, subdued reaction to Trump’s inauguration
https://pantagraph.com/news/local/government-politics/in-central-illinois-subdued-reaction-to-trump-inauguration/article_4e24c244-d786-11ef-926b-9f515457e025.html
NPR ILLINOIS
— Trump ends Biden program that brings to America citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-01-20/trump-orders-end-of-humanitarian-parole-for-migrants-of-four-countries
FOX ILLINOIS
— ‘Gulf of America’ appears in Florida Winter Weather Emergency Declaration
https://foxillinois.com/news/nation-world/gulf-of-america-florida-winter-weather-emergency-declaration-donald-trump-ron-desantis-american-politics-cincinnati-snow-sleet-extreme-conditions-prompted-inaugural-address-title-accumulation-artic-air-heavy-snowfall-rates-coastal-region-elon-musk
WMCI
— Illinois Freedom Caucus Urges Gov. Pritzker to Respect the Presidency
https://www.myradiolink.com/2025/01/20/patriotism-or-pettiness-illinois-freedom-caucus-urges-gov-pritzker-to-respect-the-presidency/
WCBU
— The Democrat Party platform harms ordinary Americans. That is why Trump got elected.
https://www.wcbu.org/state-news/2025-01-21/illinois-officials-lament-another-trump-administration-he-does-not-care-about-ordinary-americans
WGLT
— Trump rescinds Biden’s census order, clearing a path for reshaping election maps
https://www.wglt.org/2025-01-20/trump-rescinds-bidens-census-order-clearing-a-path-for-reshaping-election-maps
WSIL TV
— Chicago Democrats ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration
https://www.wsiltv.com/news/national/how-cities-across-the-us-are-preparing-for-trump-s-immigration-crackdown/article_118fecf0-500d-5bda-ab9e-f1fb9a37b547.html
WAND TV
— Pritzker ever-increasingly promotes more illegal immigration
https://www.wandtv.com/news/inauguration-day-pritzker-prepares-to-protect-immigrant-families-from-trump-deportations/article_2cf70140-d777-11ef-949f-7315d20e2d88.html
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
— Schools need to boost entry-level salaries to better compete for novice teachers (COMMEMT: In today’s dollars, when I was 22 in 1971, my IRS GS-7 Step 1 starting salary was $55,850/year.)
https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/977539304
25 NEWS NOW
— Illinois Democrats ever-increasingly promote more LGBTQ.
https://www.25newsnow.com/2025/01/21/central-illinois-friends-celebrates-opening-first-lgbtq-community-center/
CAPITOL FAX
— Morning briefing
https://capitolfax.com/2025/01/21/isabel%e2%80%99s-morning-briefing-439/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
CENTER SQUARE ILLINOIS
— National carry reciprocity would force Illinois to recognize other states’ permits
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_3c880afe-d511-11ef-8f70-67f6e34b7183.html
GOPUSA ILLINOIS
— Anticipate/expect that Pritzker will ever-increasingly destroy the 2.4 million in Illinois who voted for Trump. Anticipate/expect that Pritzker will focus on those who share Trump’s demographics: conservative, Republican, White, male, older, non-poor, non-veteran, gun-owner, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— It is great that Trump is ending DEI, that is, that Trump is ending race and gender based preference giving, that is, that Trump is ending patronage, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination. But it is all too late for me. My critics/opponents have always used DEI against me. If my Democrat superiors in the federal government did not have DEI to use against me, I would have been promoted into the federal government’s Senior Executive Service long before I was 40 years old. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
— How will the following respond to Trump’s DEI order: a) leaders of the Illinois Republican Party, DuPage County Republican Central Committee, and Milton Township Republican Organization, b) Republican leaders of Illinois, DuPage County, Milton Township, and Wheaton, and c) conservative and religious leaders and activists? Ever-increasingly they have been giving more and more and more preference to those who are minority, female, younger, non-Protestant, non-German American, and/or have ancestors who have not been in America for a long time. – Dave Diersen
http://www.gopillinois.com
WIREPOINTS
— Pritzker stuck Illinois with the ‘most progressive state’ label, now he has to deal with the consequences
https://wirepoints.org/gov-pritzker-stuck-illinois-with-the-most-progressive-state-label-now-he-has-to-deal-with-the-consequences-wirepoints-on-wls-ramblin-ray-show/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
WASHINGTON TIMES
— Trump reverses Biden’s woke policies, bolsters energy production, pardons Jan. 6 defendants
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/20/donald-trump-undoes-joe-biden-woke-policies-bolste/
— Trump faces first lawsuit over move to limit birthright citizenship
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/20/trump-birthright-citizenship-limit-hit-lawsuit-imm/
— Trump’s new era of immigration enforcement begins
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/20/donald-trump-new-era-immigration-enforcement-begin/
WASHINGTON FREE BEACON
— Protesters Limp Through Washington as Only a Few Hundred Show Up To Resist Trump. Attendees unveil replica guillotine, don fake MAGA hats reading ‘Made You Look Allahu Akbar’
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/protesters-limp-through-washington-as-only-a-few-hundred-show-up-to-resist-trump/
NEW YORK POST
— Trump announces end of birthright citizenship for children of illegal migrants
https://nypost.com/2025/01/20/us-news/trump-will-announce-end-of-birthright-citizenship-for-children-of-illegal-immigrants/
CENTER SQUARE
— Trump issues series of border security orders ‘to protect America from invasion’
https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_d99444b4-d79d-11ef-9e48-abdf53c3768f.html
EPOCH TIMES
— Trump’s Day 1 Executive Orders
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/trumps-day-1-executive-orders-5795954
FOX NEWS
— Chicago PD says it ‘will not assist’ with upcoming ICE deportations. Trump said Monday he plans to stop illegal entry into the US and begin the process of returning ‘millions and millions’ of criminal aliens to their home countries.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-pd-says-will-not-assist-upcoming-ice-deportations
— Trump goes toe-to-toe with sanctuary cities over deportation as illegal immigration crackdown set to begin. Chicago and San Diego have said that they will not cooperate with federal immigration authorities as Trump begins his presidency.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-goes-toe-to-toe-sanctuary-cities-over-deportation-illegal-immigration-crackdown-set-begin
— Coast Guard Commandant terminated over border lapses, recruitment, DEI focus. Senior DHS official confirms to Fox News Digital Coast Guard Adm. Linda Fagan has been relieved of her post.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coast-guard-commandant-terminated-over-border-lapses-recruitment-dei-focus-official
— Trump signs order ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-end-birthright-citizenship-children-illegal-immigrants-via-executive-order
— Medical schools ‘skirting’ SCOTUS ruling rejecting race in admissions
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/medical-schools-skirting-scotus-ruling-rejecting-race-admissions-report
LEGAL INSURRECTION
— Trump Signs Executive Orders Rescinding Biden’s “Racial Equity” Agenda and Eliminating DEI Throughout Federal Government. DEI in the federal government is dead. Or so we think.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/01/trump-signs-executive-order-rescinding-bidens-racial-equity-agenda-throughout-federal-goverment/
NEWSMAX
— Trump Order Blocks Trans Military Service
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/trump-executive-order-biden/2025/01/20/id/1195841/
— After 4 Dismal Years, America Renewed
https://www.newsmax.com/mikeclancy/donald-trump-joe-biden-america/2025/01/20/id/1195761/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
THE HILL
— Trump issues executive orders defining sexes, ending DEI practices in government (COMMENT: My Democrat superiors in the federal government used DEI to waste my career and to get rid of me.)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5095167-trump-executive-orders-sexes-dei/
— Trump revokes Biden-era order allowing transgender members to serve in military
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5096977-trump-biden-transgender-members-military/
CNN
— Trump two-gender edict will upend ‘X’ identity on passports
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/20/politics/two-genders-us-passports-federal-government-trump/index.html
ASSOCIATED PRESS
— Trump orders reflect his promises to roll back LGBTQ and DEI promotion (COMMENT: My critics/opponents have always used DEI to get rid of me.)
https://apnews.com/article/trump-sex-gender-transgender-dei-order-245350b97e0c4dcc221fefc49ef44699
REUTERS
— Can unions stop Trump from firing thousands of federal employees? (COMMENT: In 1997, when GAO was not unionized, the Democrats who ran GAO forced me to retire. GAO unionized in 2007.)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/can-unions-stop-trump-firing-thousands-federal-employees-2025-01-21/
— Trump curtails protections around diversity, LGBTQ rights (COMMENT: My critics/opponents have always used diversity to get rid of me.)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-sign-orders-ending-diversity-programs-proclaiming-there-are-only-two-sexes-2025-01-20/
NBC NEWS
— Trump issues a slew of immigration-related executive orders on first day of new term. The orders include declaring a national emergency to deploy military personnel to the border, suspending refugee resettlement and ending birthright citizenship.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-issue-10-executive-orders-immigration-taking-office-rcna188385
CBS NEWS
— Trump to sign orders ending diversity programs (COMMENT: My critics/opponents have always used diversity to get rid of me.)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-orders-end-diversity-programs-dei/
— Democrats ever-increasingly promote LGBTQ.
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/transgender-advocates-brace-trump-administration-policy-gender/
— Government website offering reproductive health information goes offline
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-website-offering-reproductive-health-information-goes-offline/
NPR
— Chicago Democrats ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/21/nx-s1-5268707/chicago-mayor-johnson-discusses-how-his-city-is-preparing-for-mass-deportation-plan
NEW YORK TIMES
— Trump Moves to End Entry Program for Migrants From 4 Nations. The president sought to end a program that allowed migrants fleeing Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti to fly into the United States and remain in the country for up to two years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/migrant-flights-us-trump-program.html
— Trump signs orders to end DEI, that is, to end race and gender based preference giving, that is, to end patronage, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination. But it is all too late for me. My critics/opponents have always used AA and DEI against me. If my Democrat superiors in the federal government did not have DEI to use against me, I would have been promoted into the federal government’s Senior Executive Service long before I was 40 years old.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/trump-transgender-race-education.html
— Trump Starts Immigration Crackdown, Enlisting the Military
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/trump-starts-immigration-crackdown-enlisting-the-military-and-testing-the-law.html
WASHINGTON POST
— Here are the executive actions and orders Trump signed on Day 1. We’re tracking the executive orders Trump signed on his first day in office, just hours after being inaugurated as president.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/20/trump-executive-orders-list/
— Trump seeks to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/21/trump-us-drug-cartels-terrorist-organizations/d97deaf8-d7b5-11ef-85a9-331436ec61e9_story.html
LOS ANGELES TIMES
— Democrats ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-01-20/disappointment-at-border-as-trump-cancels-immigration-program
USA TODAY
— Trump rolls back DEI across the federal government. Is your workplace next? (COMMENT: My Democrat superiors in the federal government used DEI to waste my career and to get rid of me.)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/01/20/trump-dei-rollback-executive-order/77749870007/
— Trump declares border emergency to use US military to ‘repel forms of invasion’ President-elect Donald Trump signed nearly a dozen executive orders on border security Monday.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/01/20/trump-executive-order-national-emergency-mexico-border-military/77557680007/
— The Democrat Party platform promotes homelessness.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/01/20/homeless-population-increasing-housing-trump-presidency/77691529007/
WALL STREET JOURNAL
— DOGE’s Challenge Is Gargantuan (COMMENT: A big reason for that is Gingrich’s destroying GAO instead of reforming it.)
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/doges-challenge-is-gargantuan-bureaucrats-list-watermelons-whales-wampum-9b849754
— You Blamed DEI for Hurting Your Career. Now What? (COMMENT: It is great that Trump is ending DEI, that is, that Trump is ending race and gender based preference giving, that is, that Trump is ending patronage, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination. But it is all too late for me. My critics/opponents have always used DEI against me. If my Democrat superiors in the federal government did not have DEI to use against me, I would have been promoted into the federal government’s Senior Executive Service long before I was 40 years old.)
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/you-blamed-dei-for-hurting-your-career-now-what-6150c575
FORBES
— Trump Cuts Federal DEI Programs With Executive Order: Here Are The Organizations Ending Diversity Programs (Full List)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/01/21/trump-cuts-federal-dei-programs-with-executive-order-here-are-the-organizations-ending-diversity-programs-full-list/
BLOOMBERG
— Trump Signs Executive Order to Cancel Federal DEI Requirements (COMMENT: My Democrat superiors in the federal government used DEI to waste my career and to get rid of me.)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-21/trump-signs-executive-order-to-cancel-federal-dei-requirements?embedded-checkout=true
BUSINESS INSIDER
— President Trump targets DEI mandates for federal employees (COMMENT: My Democrat superiors in the federal government used DEI to waste my career and to get rid of me.)
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-targets-dei-mandates-federal-employees-day-one-2025-1
INSIDE EVs
— Trump Targets EV ‘Mandate,’ EV Charger Funding In Sweeping Executive Orders. Trump has already moved against the Biden administration’s pro-EV policies. But signing a paper only goes so far. (COMMENT: Do you share my interest in American nameplate muscle cars? If so, please let me know. Yesterday, I ordered a red 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona R/T with Plus Group package, Sun & Sound package, and full glass roof. SEE: https://www.dodge.com/charger.html I own a 2013 Charger R/T Max and I owned a 1969 Charger SE 1968-1971 and a 1968 Charger R/T 1994-2005.)
https://insideevs.com/news/747950/trump-executive-orders-evs-2025/
GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE
— What is your opinion of federal employees and retirees? From what I see, most people have a low opinion of federal employees and retirees.
https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2024/07/gen-z-underrepresented-federal-workforce-heres-how-some-experts-would-fix/398305/
— Public Servants Are Older Than Almost Everyone In the American Workforce (COMMENT: The Democrats who run the federal government use “up-or-out” to get rid of federal employees who are Republican and White, male, older, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time.)
https://www.govexec.com/federal-news/2018/07/data-public-servants-are-older-almost-everyone-american-workforce/149285/
POLITICO
— Trump repeals rule allowing transgender troops to serve in military
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/01/20/donald-trump-inauguration-day-news-updates-analysis/trump-repeals-transgender-troops-rule-00199577
EDUCATION WEEK
— Democrats ever-increasingly encourage students to be sexually active LGBTQers.
https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/president-trumps-early-actions-undo-biden-efforts-to-protect-lgbtq-students/2025/01
AXIOS
— Trump rolls back DEI programs for federal workers (COMMENT: My Democrat superiors in the federal government used DEI to waste my career and to get rid of me.)
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/21/trump-dei-rollback
TIMES NOW
— Abortion Website Launched Under Biden Deactivated Hours After Trump Took Office
https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/abortion-website-launched-under-biden-deactivated-hours-after-trump-took-office-article-117420573
GUARDIAN
— Trump is back. And the resistance has been humbled into near-impotence
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/21/trump-is-back-and-the-resistance-has-been-humbled-into-near-impotence
TOP SPEED
— The Long-Term Value Of American Muscle Cars In Today’s Used Car Market (COMMENT: Do you share my interest in American nameplate muscle cars? If so, please let me know. Yesterday, I ordered a red 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona R/T with Plus Group package, Sun & Sound package, and full glass roof. SEE: https://www.dodge.com/charger.html I own a 2013 Charger R/T Max and I owned a 1969 Charger SE 1968-1971 and a 1968 Charger R/T 1994-2005.)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/the-long-term-value-of-american-muscle-cars-in-today-s-used-car-market/ar-AA1xskIi
January 12, 2025
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— FRONT PAGE TOP OF FOLD WITH BIG PICTURES: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote more illegal immigration.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/12/chicago-migrants-fear-violence-deportation/
— Virtually all federal employees are Democrats. A Democrat uses the Japanese internment to promote hatred against Trump.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/12/opinion-japanese-internment-government-workers-donald-trump-administration/
WGN RADIO
— Do you owe it to your company to give them a two-week notice? (COMMENT: My Firestone Store boss rudely fired me when I gave him my two-week notice when I was 22 years old in 1971. I had accepted a job offer from Oldsmobile. But Oldsmobile withdrew that job offer saying it had just agreed to stop hiring Whites to settle an EEOC complaint. That directly resulted in my accepting a job offer from IRS.)
https://wgnradio.com/lets-get-legal/do-you-owe-it-to-your-company-to-give-them-a-two-week-notice/
SOUTHERN
— Democrats and RINOs ever-increasingly blame Republicans for everything that is bad.
https://southernillinoisnow.com/2025/01/11/trumps-track-record-of-disaster-misinformation-as-he-casts-blame-over-california-wildfires/
— FBI questions people from Hegseth’s past ahead of Senate confirmation hearing (COMMENT: Who is in your past? I should write about my critics/opponents from my past who had their operatives and dupes take the most/biggest adverse actions against me.)
https://southernillinoisnow.com/2025/01/11/fbi-questions-people-from-hegseths-past-ahead-of-senate-confirmation-hearing-sources/
CENTRAL ILLINOIS PROUD
— Democrat and RINO leaders reject Trump’s election, that is, they reject the Republican Party platform.
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/politics/ap-states-are-preparing-to-help-or-thwart-trumps-second-term-plans/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
WASHINGTON TIMES
— Liberal policies send thousands of California homes and businesses up in flames. Newsom’s inferno.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/10/editorial-liberal-policies-send-thousands-californ/
WASHINGTON EXAMINER
— Activist calls for action as Chicago transit crime numbers jump
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3284034/activist-calls-for-action-as-chicago-transit-crime-numbers-jump/
— Why H-1B is wrong for American workers (COMMENT: All my employers would have hired foreign workers instead of me if they could have.)
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/patriotism-unity/3282914/why-h-1b-wrong-american-workers/
NEW YORK POST
— LA fires live updates: 50K in Los Angeles without power as wildfires rage on (COMMENT: I need electricity to put GOPUSA ILLINOIS newsletters together and to send them out every morning. My 13-year-old 20KW Generac failed and I have replaced it with a 24KW Generac. To assure that I can put the newsletters together and send them out every morning, I have a backup internet service provider and backup commuter systems.)
https://nypost.com/2025/01/09/us-news/la-fires-live-updates-01-09-25/
— Catastrophic wildfires left LA in ashes due to California’s failing liberal leadership
https://nypost.com/2025/01/11/opinion/catastrophic-wildfires-left-la-in-ashes-due-to-californias-failing-liberal-leadership/
— Zuckerberg praises benefits of ‘masculine energy,’ says DEI ‘culturally neutered’ corporate America
https://nypost.com/2025/01/11/business/mark-zuckerberg-praises-benefits-of-masculine-energy-says-dei-culturally-neutered-corporate-america/
— LA planning ‘inevitable’ widespread power shutdown as dangerous winds expected to reappear over weekend
https://nypost.com/2025/01/11/us-news/la-planning-inevitable-widespread-power-shutdown-as-dangerous-winds-expected-to-reappear-over-weekend/
— How the rise of woke ‘educrats’ is destroying higher education
https://nypost.com/2025/01/11/opinion/how-the-rise-of-woke-educrats-is-destroying-higher-education/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_medium=referral
BIZ PAC REVIEW
— LAFD Asst. Chief’s ‘disqualifying’ DEI remarks draw fury: ‘Criminal negligence’
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/01/10/lafd-asst-chiefs-disqualifying-dei-remarks-draw-fury-criminal-negligence-1515169/
DAILY CALLER
— ‘Excuses Go Up In Flames’: California Dems Paved The Way For Los Angeles To Be Consumed By ‘The Big One’
https://dailycaller.com/2025/01/11/california-fires-democrat-policy-priorities-mismanaged/
DAILY SIGNAL
— Biden Admin Rushes to Hire DEI Staff Ahead of Trump Inauguration
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/12/24/biden-ramps-up-search-for-dei-hires-ahead-of-trump-administration/
DAILY WIRE
— How DEI Is Destroying L.A.’s Fire Department. DEI is a bureaucratic system. And the whole point of bureaucracy is to make it impossible to assign blame.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-dei-is-destroying-l-a-s-fire-department
EPOCH TIMES
— Hating the Rich (COMMENT: According to my critics/opponents, I was always grossly overpaid. In today’s dollars, I earned $19.37/hour when I was 18 in 1966, $55,850/year in 1971, $68,315/year in 1972, $82,655/year in 1973, $99,069/year in 1974, $112,280/year in 1980, $117,807/year in 1986, and $153,151/year in 1997. In my defense, I earned a) a job-related bachelor’s degree in 1970, b) job-related master’s degrees in 1976, 1980, and 1997, c) job-related professional certifications in 1979, 1981, 1990, 1994, 1996, and 1997, and d) a job-related professional license in 1981.)
https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/how-hating-the-rich-and-supporting-ccp-oppression-has-arrived-in-new-york-5786230
FOX BUSINESS
— 40% of Americans forced into early retirement. Americans said they need over a million dollars for a comfortable retirement. (COMMENT: The more of the following that you are, the more that you should anticipate/expect that you will be forced to retire early: conservative, Republican, American, White, male, older, non-poor, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or if your ancestors have been in America for a long time.)
https://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/retirement-forced-edward-jones
FOX NEWS
— Chaos from open borders and DEI hires makes everything ‘weaker’
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366672155112
LAW ENFORCEMENT TODAY
— Reservoir that could have mitigated losses in Pacific Palisades fire was empty despite brush fire season
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/reservoir-that-could-have-mitigated-losses-in-pacific-palisades-fire-was-empty-despite-brush-fire-season
NATIONAL REVIEW
— Giuliani Held in Contempt of Court for Defaming Georgia Election Workers (COMMENT: My critics/opponents have their judgement-proof operative and dupes defame me. I should write about my critics/opponents. Better yet, I should sue them.)
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/rudy-giuliani-held-in-contempt-of-court-for-defaming-georgia-election-workers/
TOWNHALL
— Mayorkas Grants Amnesty to 850,000 Illegals, Blames ‘Bad Weather’ as Reason
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2025/01/11/mayorkas-grants-amnesty-to-850000-migrants-n2650369
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
THE HILL
— Which Illinois Republicans do you want to run for U.S. Senate and the statewide offices in 2026?
https://rollcall.com/2025/01/07/senate-vulnerable-2026-midterm-electio/
NEW YORK TIMES
— Virtually all federal employees are Democrats who despise/hate Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/opinion/administrative-deep-state-trump.html
— Inside Musk’s Plan for DOGE to Slash Government Costs. Musk has turned to Silicon Valley to help recruit executives who will take up unofficial positions across the federal government. (COMMENT: Who does Trump want to be the next Comptroller General, that is, the next head of GAO?)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/us/politics/elon-musk-doge-government-trump.html
— Trump Calls Officials Handling Los Angeles Wildfires ‘Incompetent’
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/us/trump-los-angeles-fire-newsom-bass.html
WASHINGTON POST
— Meta deals a blow to fact-checking. Critics say politics is to blame. (COMMENT: During the last 11 years that I worked for GAO at the GS-13 Step 1-10 Levels, currently $117,807-$153,151/year, I often worked as a fact-checker.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/10/meta-fact-checking-politics-trump/
AOL
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote mote illegal immigration.
https://www.aol.com/united-states-world-wealthiest-countries-140000018.html
CNN
— Hate-filled Trump-hating Trump-hater hate White Christian nationalists
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/12/us/white-christian-nationalism-du-mez-cec/index.html
— Trump’s Cabinet picks face tests of loyalty during upcoming confirmation hearings
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/12/politics/trump-cabinet-loyalty-test-confirmation-hearings/index.html
MSN
— IRS free TurboTax alternative available in more states in 2025 (COMMENT: The list now includes Illinois. I use TurboTax.)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/taxes/irs-free-turbotax-alternative-available-in-more-states-in-2025/ar-BB1rfhqW
NEWSWEEK
— Democrats Are Too Liberal For Their Own Voters
https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-liberal-voters-poll-1829683
AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN
— Texas eliminates car safety inspections, but these counties still require emissions tests (COMMENT: My 2019 Ford Escape Titanium and my 2021 Chevrolet Malibu Premier are due for emissions tests.)
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2025/01/06/texas-ends-mandatory-vehicle-inspection-rules-2025-fee-costs-emissions-testing/77434595007/
NEWS BREAK
— Lara Trump Insists Father-in-Law Donald Trump ‘Helped Me Get to Where I Am Today’: ‘He’s a Constant Champion for Women’ (COMMENT: 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 for my transfer from IRS in 1980 and was finally able to assign me to audits of IRS and promote me in 1986.)
https://www.newsbreak.com/ok-magazine-561398/3756176173824-lara-trump-insists-father-in-law-donald-trump-helped-me-get-to-where-i-am-today-he-s-a-constant-champion-for-women
FORBES
— What Might It Mean When Critics Call Someone A DEI Hire? (COMMENT: All my superiors who took adverse actions against me were Democrats or RINOs who were minority, female, younger than me, veteran, non-Protestant, non-German American, and/or had ancestors who had not been in America for a long time.)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanharmeling/2024/07/26/what-might-it-mean-when-critics-call-someone-a-dei-hire/
BLOOMBERG
— All my superiors who took adverse actions against me were Democrats or RINOs who were minority, female, younger than me, veteran, non-Protestant, non-German American, and/or had ancestors who had not been in America for a long time.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-08-20/dei-hire-should-be-a-compliment-not-an-insult
BUZZFEED
— Following conservative principles puts you on track for success. Following liberal principles puts you on track for disaster. Because I followed conservative principles, I was able to earn a bachelor’s degree when I was 21, earn master’s degrees when I was 27, 31, and 48, earn professional certifications when I was 30, 32, 41, 45, 47, and 48, and earn a professional license when I was 32.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelabramwell/gen-z-women-share-thoughts-on-men-shifting-right
CLARK HOWARD
— Quicken Is Worth the Price (COMMENT: I use Quicken.)
https://clark.com/save-money/quicken-review/
CRN
— Dell Debuts Revamped PC Lineup (COMMENT: I use Dell computers.)
https://www.crn.com/news/computing/2025/dell-debuts-revamped-pc-lineup-at-ces-2025
ECONOMIC TIMES
— Democrat and RINO leaders ever-increasingly promote more foreign labor.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/politics/government/how-trump-and-musk-could-flesh-out-their-welcome-high-skilled-stay-away-illegals-h-1b-plan/ar-BB1raxGT
NEW YORK MAGAZINE
— Voters flee Illinois because it is way too liberal.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/11/the-people-fleeing-austin-because-texas-is-too-conservative.html
NEW YORKER
— The Inauguration of Trump’s Oligarchy
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/01/20/the-inauguration-of-trumps-oligarchy
LA PROGRESSIVE
— Meritocracy Is Stupid and Evil and Must Die (COMMENT: To advance minorities and females, Democrat and RINO leaders dump meritocracy. All my coworkers who my Democrat superiors promoted over me were Democrats who a) had less work experience than I had, had less education than I had, had no professional certifications or fewer than I had, and/or b) had no professional license like the one I had and/or b) were minority, female, younger than me, veteran, non-Protestant, non-German American, and/or had ancestors who had not been in America for a long time.)
https://www.laprogressive.com/progressive-issues/meritocracy-is-stupid
DAILY MAIL
— Wokeism will be the downfall of America
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14266893/I-study-collapse-empires-heres-wokeism-downfall-America.html