FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
ABC7
— Tracy: “We believe in equal opportunity. They believe in equal outcomes. We believe in rewarding success. They want to redistribute success.”
https://abc7chicago.com/post/republican-candidates-midterm-election-share-message-unity-2026-illinois-state-fair/19709027/
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— DD: Political parties exist to help elect candidates who can and will defend and advance their platform. The Republican Party platform is conservative. Trump defends and advances many planks in that platform. Democrat and RINO leaders blame Proft for Republican losses in Illinois, but they really blame Trump and the Republican Party platform. To win elections, they want the Republican Party to become the Democrat Lite Party, that is, to officially dump Trump and to officially dump the party’s conservative base, that is, to officially dump the platform’s personal responsibility, traditional marriage and family, right to life, immigration, anti-vice, Second Amendment, and equal opportunity (no race or gender based preference giving) planks, that is, to officially dissolve. Democrat candidates win in Illinois because they and their mainstream news media aggressively promote the anti-conservative Democrat Party platform.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/08/21/illinois-republicans-dan-proft-richard-uihlein-tony-mccombie-ryan-spain-republicans/
WMBD
— With Trump barely mentioned, Illinois Republicans focus on common enemy: Pritzker.
https://wmbdradio.com/2026/08/21/676221/
CAPITOL CITY NOW
— Illinois GOP chief Grogan on 2026 election: ‘It’s common sense versus communism’
https://capitolcitynow.com/news/248842-illinois-gop-chief-on-2026-election-its-common-sense-versus-communism/
CHRONICLE ILLINOIS
— Different state, same results for Catalina Lauf, Jim Oberweis.
https://chronicleillinois.com/news/different-state-same-results-for-catalina-lauf-jim-oberweis/
POLITICO ILLINOIS
— DD: According to Democrat and RINO leaders, to win, Illinois Republican candidates have dumped Trump.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/illinois-playbook/2026/08/21/gop-says-affordability-trumps-trump-01044966
(FROM THE NEWSLETTER: Trump who? One thing Bailey and other Republicans largely avoided discussing – except when asked – was President Donald Trump.)
CAPITOL FAX
— Morning briefing
https://capitolfax.com/2026/08/21/isabel%e2%80%99s-morning-briefing-796/
FROM ILLINOIS CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
ILLINOIS FAMILY INSTITUTE
— Chicago Public Schools students return amid low proficiency, underused schools.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-public-schools-back-to-school-performance-2026/
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-RIGHT SOURCES
AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
— Adam Smith’s Warning for America’s New Socialists.
https://www.aei.org/commentary/adam-smiths-warning-for-americas-new-socialists/
AMERICAN THINKER
— Dividing America On Race: Russia’s Enduring Geopolitical Strategy. Thanks to the Soviet Union, America, rather than moving into a post-racial era after the Civil Rights Movement, has remained stuck in a racial time loop.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/08/dividing-america-on-race-russia-s-enduring-geopolitical-strategy/
COLLEGE FIX
— UC Berkeley’s top feeder school has 6% math proficiency.
https://www.thecollegefix.com/uc-berkeleys-top-feeder-school-has-6-math-proficiency/
— Trump admin unveils new rule to crack down on DEI in higher ed accreditors.
https://www.thecollegefix.com/trump-admin-unveils-new-rule-to-crack-down-on-dei-in-higher-ed-accreditors/
DAILY SIGNAL
— Democrats’ Minimum Wage Hike Would Make Life Less Affordable. To increase the federal minimum wage to $25/hour would cost the U.S. economy 5 million jobs and especially harm workers ages 16 to 24. DD: I did not start earning $25/hour in today’s dollars until after I had passed the Federal Service Entrance Examination, earned a bachelor’s degree in business, and got hired by IRS.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/no-the-sat-is-not-a-beacon-of-meritocracy
FEDERALIST
— Watchdog Asks Ed Department To Block American Bar Association’s Renewal As Law Schools’ Sole Accreditor. The Trump administration on Wednesday published rules that would open the door for other accreditors to be recognized across American higher education, as Trump himself recognizes that accreditation is the “secret weapon” for controlling universities.
https://thefederalist.com/2026/08/20/exclusive-watchdog-asks-ed-department-to-block-american-bar-associations-renewal-as-law-schools-sole-accreditor/
FOX NEWS
— As Chicago Suffers, City Found $639.6 Million for Illegals.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2026/08/20/as_chicago_suffers_city_found_6396_million_for_illegals_708439.html
— Want to stop socialism? A modern civic education needs a lot more than you’d think. Only about one-quarter of students who began college in 2012 received any college-level economics instruction.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/stop-socialism-modern-civic-education-needs-lot-more-than-youd-think
— New report lays out plan to tackle America’s affordability crisis. DD: What did you do to afford things? I took jobs that my peers would not stoop to take. I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree. I earned three job-related master’s degrees. I earned six job-related professional certifications. I earned a job-related professional license.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6403787257112
— California lawmakers want corporations to disclose ties to slavery. DD: According to Democrat leaders, the more of the following that you are, the more that you are tied to slavery: conservative, Republican, American, White, male, older, non-poor, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time. I am all of the aforesaid. In my defense, I stress that even though all my ancestors immigrated during the 1840s and 1850s, they always lived in northeast Illinois, they never were in a position to discriminate against anyone, and they never did discriminate against anyone.
https://noticias.foxnews.com/media/california-lawmakers-push-corporate-slavery-disclosure-bill-despite-uncertain-future-reparations
NANCY MACE
— Rep. Nancy Mace Introduces Bill To Ban Non-Citizens From The Federal Workforce. DD: Because my parents lacked money, I had to compete against noncitizens for jobs. All my employers would have hired noncitizens instead of me if they could have. I did yard work 1962-1964. I delivered newspapers 1962-1966. I washed dishes 1964-1966. I cleaned golf shoes, chipped slag, and pumped gasoline in 1966. I delivering mail 1966-1969. I worked on an automotive assembly line in 1970. I sold tires, automotive services, and major appliances 1970-1971. I pumped more gasoline 1971-1972. I collected delinquent federal taxes 1971-1980. I audited federal agencies 1980-1997.
https://mace.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-nancy-mace-introduces-bill-ban-non-citizens-federal-workforce
POST MILLENNIAL
— San Francisco drag queen stuns audience with Charlie Kirk assassination reenactment at LGBTQ nightclub.
https://thepostmillennial.com/san-francisco-drag-queen-stuns-audience-with-charlie-kirk-assassination-reenactment-at-lgbtq-nightclub
REASON
— Do You Have the personal responsibility, traditional marriage and family, right to life, immigration, anti-vice, Second Amendment, and equal opportunity (no race or gender based preference giving) planks. Possess an AR-15? The Supreme Court Will Soon Decide. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a pair of cases involving rifle restrictions imposed by Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois. DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly erode Second Amendment rights.
https://reason.com/2026/10/01/scotus-takes-up-assault-weapon-bans/
TOWNHALL
— Socialists Shove the Resistance Aside in Florida.
https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2026/08/21/socialists-shove-the-resistance-aside-in-florida-n2681621
— California Democrats Want to Force Companies Into Their Reparations Agenda. DD: According to Democrat leaders, the more of the following that you are, the more that you are tied to slavery: conservative, Republican, American, White, male, older, non-poor, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have been in America for a long time. I am all of the aforesaid. In my defense, I stress that even though all my ancestors immigrated during the 1840s and 1850s, they always lived in northeast Illinois, they never were in a position to discriminate against anyone, and they never did discriminate against anyone.
https://townhall.com/news/jeff-charles/2026/08/20/california-democrats-want-to-force-companies-into-their-reparations-agenda-n2681592
FROM NATIONAL CENTER-LEFT SOURCES
CNBC
— Affordability is a ‘defining challenge’ for Americans. DD: What did you do to afford things? I took jobs that my peers would not stoop to take. I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree. I earned three job-related master’s degrees. I earned six job-related professional certifications. I earned a job-related professional license.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/05/affordability-grocery-prices.html
NEW YORK TIMES
— DD: My critics/opponents are woke, that is, they promote dependency on government and charity, LGBTQ, abortion, mass/illegal immigration, vices, diminishment of Second Amendment rights, and Affirmative Action and DEI, that is, race and gender based preference giving, patronage, political affiliation discrimination, reverse discrimination, age discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/style/woke-1-aoc-dsa.html
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly fight efforts to fight voter fraud.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/us/politics/trump-nevada-voter-election-fraud.html
— Envy. DD: To promote envy against me, my Democrat GAO superiors stressed to my superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates how much money my wife and I had saved for our retirement. They stressed a) my avoiding the Vietnam War draft, b) that we gave up trying to have children without trying IVF, we did not adopt, and we did not become foster parents, c) my wife’s salary, d) the home we owned in Wheaton, e) our cars, and f) our having no debts. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/well/mind/envy-friends.html
USA TODAY
— DD: Democrat leaders ever-increasingly promote socialism.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/08/20/nixon-florida-primary-win-fundraising-polling-midterms/91370815007/
WALL STREET JOURNAL
— The End of Harry and Meghan’s American Dream. DD: What did you do to achieve the American Dream? I took jobs that my peers would not stoop to take. I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree. I earned three job-related master’s degrees. I earned six job-related professional certifications. I earned a job-related professional license.
https://www.wsj.com/world/uk/the-end-of-harry-and-meghans-american-dream-172623fd
— Paul Ryan and Les Ford: Americans Are Getting Caught in the Safety Net. The 1996 welfare reform helped move people from dependency to work. We need to do that again.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/americans-are-getting-caught-in-the-safety-net-fed222f4
— Trump Administration Attacks Bar Association’s Power to Accredit Law Schools. The move escalates a feud with the nation’s premier legal organization.
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/aba-american-bar-association-law-schools-accredit-trump-education-e56f4cbc
24/7 WALL STREET
— AOC Just Revealed Her Net Worth Is Less Than $100,000, Here’s How Much Fidelity Says She Should Have Saved For Retirement Before She Turns 40. AOC’s 2025 financial disclosure shows a net worth as low as negative $33,000, despite earning roughly $1.22 million in congressional salary since 2019. Fidelity’s 3x-by-40 benchmark applied to AOC’s $174,000 salary sets a $522,000 retirement savings target she needs to hit by October 2029.
https://247wallst.com/personal-finance/2026/08/20/aoc-just-revealed-her-net-worth-is-less-than-100000-heres-how-much-fidelity-says-she-should-have-saved-for-retirement-before-she-turns-40/
FORTUNE
— Gen Z forced to rewrite the American Dream in the ‘Great Postponement’: Fixer-uppers, side hustles and doing life out of order. DD: What did you do to achieve the American Dream? I took jobs that my peers would not stoop to take. I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree. I earned three job-related master’s degrees. I earned six job-related professional certifications. I earned a job-related professional license.
https://fortune.com/2026/08/20/gen-z-american-dream-great-postponement-affordability/
INVESTOPEDIA
— Most Americans Say They Won’t Save Enough for Retirement, Even After Decades of Work, DD: To promote envy against me, my Democrat GAO superiors stressed to my superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates how much money my wife and I had saved for our retirement. They stressed a) my avoiding the Vietnam War draft, b) that we gave up trying to have children without trying IVF, we did not adopt, and we did not become foster parents, c) my wife’s salary, d) the home we owned in Wheaton, d) our cars, and f) our having no debts.
https://www.investopedia.com/why-most-americans-say-they-won-t-save-enough-for-retirement-even-after-decades-of-work-12009710
PENNSYLVANIA
— More Former Federal Employees Are Choosing the Commonwealth to Continue their Public Service Careers. With 1,350 former federal employees hired since last March, the Shapiro Administration continues to deliver results by helping ensure state agencies have the staff they need to deliver high-quality and responsive services to Pennsylvanians. DD: When my Democrat GAO superiors forced me to retire when I was 49 in 1997, the Democrats and the RINOs who ran Illinois, DuPage County, Milton Township, and Wheaton had absolutely no use for me.
https://www.pa.gov/agencies/oa/newsroom/more-former-federal-employees-are-choosing-the-commonwealth-to-c
CHICO ENTERPRISE RECORD
— Socialism distributes poverty instead of wealth.
https://www.chicoer.com/2026/08/21/letter-to-the-editor-socialism-distributes-poverty-instead-of-wealth/
NEWS34
— Youth group organizers call for more safe spaces for teens in Charlotte amid curfew proposal. DD: When you were a teen, what did you do when you were not in school? I did yard work 1962-1964. I delivered newspapers 1962-1966. I washed dishes 1964-1966. I cleaned golf shoes, chipped slag, and pumped gasoline in 1966. I delivered mail 1966-1969.
https://www.aol.com/articles/youth-group-organizers-call-more-210422000.html
CENTRAL FLORIDA PUBLIC MEDIA
— Can Government Really Make Life More Affordable? DD: What did you do to afford things? I took jobs that my peers would not stoop to take. I worked my way through college. I earned a job-related bachelor’s degree. I earned three job-related master’s degrees. I earned six job-related professional certifications. I earned a job-related professional license.
https://www.cfpublic.org/podcast/engage/2026-08-20/can-government-really-make-life-more-affordable
GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE
— DD: Federal employees have file financial disclosure statements. Republican federal employees should anticipate/expect that their Democrat superiors will use that information against them. The more income and assets that you have, the more that they will leak that information to promote envy against you. My Democrat superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates in the federal government painted themselves as being grossly underpaid. They decried their spouses having little or no income. They decried the costs of child raising. They were ever-increasingly envious of my and my wife’s income and assets.
https://www.govexec.com/management/2026/06/practical-steps-agencies-mitigate-financial-disclosure-controversies/414003/
NEW YORK REVIEW
— As Democratic Socialists rack up primary victories, the moderate wing of the Democratic Party looks increasingly out of touch.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/whose-party-democratic-socialists-of-america/
JACOBIN
— How China Picks Its Winners and Losers. China’s university entrance exam is one of the most competitive in the world — a reflection of the cutthroat reality of the country’s labor market. DD: My Democrat IRS and GAO superiors were furious when I passed the CPA examination on my first attempt in 1979 and I passed the Certified Internal Auditor examination on my first attempt in 1981 because my Democrat coworkers who they wanted to promote over me either a) failed/refused to take the examinations or b) failed to pass them.
https://jacobin.com/2026/08/china-education-inequality-gaokao-exams
WASHINGTON STAND
— DD: How strongly does your church promote the anti-religious Democrat Party platform?
https://washingtonstand.com/article/most-american-churchgoers-say-their-clergy-address-political-issues-poll-finds
NPR
— Should the U.S. have a mandatory retirement age? DD: Federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System and who are the following are forced to retire as soon as they are eligible, that is, when they are 55 and have 30 years of service: conservative, Republican, White, male, non-veteran, Protestant, German American, and/or have ancestors who have not been in America for a long time. I am all of the aforesaid. I became eligible for early retirement when I was 45 in 1993. My Democrat GAO succeeded in forcing me to retire when I was 49 in 1997 when their early retirement “offer” expired. I would not have been eligible for regular retirement until I was 55 in 2003. They made it very clear that if I did not take their “offer,” they would make those 6 years a living hell for me. They would constructively demote me, give me adverse transfers, give me unfair performance expectations, give me unfair performance appraisals, and even worse things.
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/14/nx-s1-5924910/should-the-u-s-have-a-mandatory-retirement-age
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
— DD: When Whites and males do better on tests than minorities and females, Democrat leaders ever-increasingly blame Republican discrimination against minorities and females.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/no-the-sat-is-not-a-beacon-of-meritocracy
FROM FOREIGN SOURCES
CHINA ACADEMY
— Can Gen Z Socialism Shake the Stronghold of Western Capitalism?
https://thechinaacademy.org/can-gen-z-socialism-shake-the-stronghold-of-western-capitalism/
GUARDIAN
— From McDonald’s to Congress: can a former fry cook flip a key district for Democrats? DD: What are you a former? I am a former yard worker, newspaper boy, dish washer, golf shoe cleaner, slag chipper, gasoline pumper, mailman, automotive assembly line worker, tire, automotive service, and major appliance salesman, tax collector, and auditor.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/20/mcdonalds-congress-affordability-democrats
ECONOMIC TIMES
— DD: Democrats encourage illegal immigration because illegals vote for Democrats. RINOs encourage illegal immigration because RINOs want cheap labor.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/migrate/america-sold-the-world-a-dream-and-kept-millions-chasing-it/articleshow/133394322.cms
