December 28 Evening Edition

WGN TV
— Marijuana arrests plummet in Illinois’ 5 largest suburbs – AP (DIERSEN: Why is that?)
https://wgntv.com/2019/12/28/marijuana-arrests-plummet-in-illinois-5-largest-suburbs/

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— US mass killings in 2019 reached record numbers  In all, there were 41 mass killings, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator. Of those, 33 were mass shootings.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/12/28/21040419/mass-killings-shootings-2019-record

DAILY HERALD
— Democrats taking council control in Pence’s Indiana hometown – AP (DIERSEN: What do the members of your city council think of you? How do they treat you?)
https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20191228/news/312289948/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Democrats will enter 2020 with a City Council majority in Republican Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana hometown for the first time since the 1980s after a recount confirmed a candidate’s one-vote victory margin. Democrats captured their 4-3 Columbus City Council majority in November’s election as they defeated two Republican incumbents, including Democrat Jerone Wood’s 260-259 win over Republican Councilman Dascal Bunch.)

WASHINGTON TIMES
— American colleges are veering into academic ‘police state’ territory – Cheryl K. Chumley
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/28/colleges-sharp-veer-toward-police-state/

TOWNHALL
— Hispanics Along the Southern Border Are Campaigning for Trump. This Is Why They Support Him. – Beth Baumann
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2019/12/28/watch-hispanic-trump-supporters-along-the-border-explain-why-the-gops-values-align-with-theirs-n2558632
— African Americans Are Taking Back Jobs Stolen By Illegal Aliens – Bronson Stocking
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bronsonstocking/2019/12/28/african-americans-taking-back-jobs-stolen-by-illegal-aliens-n2558637
— CNN Panel Says to Watch Out for Republican Racism in 2020 – Bronson Stocking (DIERSEN: In 2020, in Illinois, in your country, in your township/ward, in your municipality, and in your precinct, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, and RINOs will do everything that they can to get rid of Republicans once and for all.)
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bronsonstocking/2019/12/28/cnn-panel-already-seeing-racism-in-2020-n2558635

FOX BUSINESS
— DISGUSTING, TRAGIC: Pot smoking gains on booze as teens’ favorite vice – Jonathan Garber
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pot-smoking-gains-booze-teens-144241929.html

AEI
— Chart of the day: For every 100 girls/women…
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-of-the-day-for-every-100-girls-women/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The data in the table show that on many, many measures of: a) educational, behavioral and mental health outcomes, b) alcohol, drug addiction, and drug overdoses, c) suicide, murder, violent crimes, and incarceration, d) job fatalities and e) homelessness, boys and men are faring much worse than girls and women. And yet despite the fact that boys and men are at so much greater risk than girls and women on so many different measures, those significant gender disparities that disproportionately and adversely affect men get almost no attention. In fact, it’s girls and women who get a disproportionate amount of attention, resources, and financial support, including: 1. There are women’s centers and women’s commissions on almost every college campus in the country, but not a single men’s center or commission that I’m aware of. 2. In higher education, there is a significant and disproportionate number of sex-specific scholarships, fellowships, awards, initiatives, etc. for female students and faculty. Many of those single-sex, female-only programs are currently being challenged with Title IX complaints to the Office for Civil Rights.)

THE HILL
— Why taxpayers should support expanding the GAO – GARRETT JOHNSON AND M. ANTHONY MILLS (DIERSEN: Needless-to-say, I have always supported/promoted GAO’s mission. GAO audits IRS. In 1980, when I was 31 years old, after having worked for IRS for almost 9 years, the last 5 1/2 years of which at the GS-12 Step 1-5 levels, currently $82,579-$93,592/year, I took a $19,568/year pay cut in today’s dollars to transfer to GAO. But the Democrats who ran GAO wasted the knowledge of IRS, wasted my career, forced me to retire in 1997 when I was 49 years old, gave me unfair performance expectations and appraisals, always ranked me in the bottom half of my coworkers for pay-for-performance purposes, did not promote me beyond GS-13, got rid of my mentor in 1987, and kept me off audits of IRS for all but 3 of the almost 18 years that I worked for GAO. They wasted what I learned earning an MBA from Loyola in 1976, passing the CPA examination on my first attempt in 1979, earning a master’s degree in accounting from DePaul in 1980, passing the Certified Internal Auditor examination on my first attempt in 1981, and earning a master’s degree in financial markets and trading from IIT in 1997. They would not have done that if I had been a Democrat, a minority, a female, and/or a veteran.) 
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/476007-why-taxpayers-should-support-expanding-the-gao
(FROM THE ARTICLE: Congress approved $1.4 trillion in new spending last week to avoid another government shutdown over the holidays. Taxpayers are right to be wary whenever Congress pulls out its checkbook. But when it comes to one important line-item, budget hawks should be rooting for more funding, not less. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) serves as Congress’s watchdog and plays a critical role in holding the federal government accountable to the American people. In November, the comptroller general issued the annual Performance and Accountability Report for FY2019, which found that GAO’s work, “yielded a record $214.7 billion in financial benefits — a return of about $338 for every dollar invested in GAO.” Congress has provided $630 million in new funding for GAO — a $40 million increase. This new spending will help support the comptroller general’s efforts to modernize oversight and improve Congress’s ability to anticipate and address critical challenges. Since 2014, GAO’s work has produced $340 billion in savings and more than 6,400 improvements in program and operational improvements across the government, according to the comptroller general’s February testimony before Congress. In addition to its traditional auditing work, GAO recently established a science, technology, assessment, and analytics (STAA) team. The STAA team is focused on enhancing Congress’s capacity to assess emerging technologies, auditing federal science and technology programs, and using advanced analytics to improve auditing.)

ASSOCIATED PRESS
— Marijuana arrests plummet in Illinois’ 5 largest suburbs (DIERSEN: Why is that?)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article238786328.html
— DIERSEN HEADLINE: The Democrat news media promotes stories that are anti-Trump, anti-Protestant, anti-conservative, anti-patriotic, anti-Republican, anti-American, anti-White, anti-male, anti-older people, anti-rich people, anti-gun owners, anti-German Americans, anti-draft avoiders, and/or anti-those whose ancestors have been in America for a long time.
https://www.columbian.com/news/2019/dec/28/top-news-stories-2019-impeachment-trump-tops-list/

NEW YORK TIMES
— DIERSEN HEADLINE: Trump-haters use “White Voters on the Far Right” to demonize, denigrate, and condemn Republicans. 
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/us/politics/trump-2020-trumpstock.html

WASHINGTON POST
— ‘We have the resources’: Democratic presidential candidates propose trillions in spending amid debate over what’s doable – Toluse Olorunnipa
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/we-have-the-resources-democratic-presidential-candidates-propose-trillions-in-spending-amid-debate-over-whats-doable/2019/12/28/1d8a74e0-28c6-11ea-a14c-412f7b9e2717_story.html
— A government shutdown and the biggest raise in a decade: How Trump gave federal workers whiplash in 2019 – Lisa Rein
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-government-shutdown-and-the-biggest-raise-in-a-decade-how-trump-gave-federal-workers-whiplash-in-2019/2019/12/28/7e99f55e-2677-11ea-b2ca-2e72667c1741_story.html

USA TODAY                                          
— Will it be a happy new year? Sure, in our own lives. For the country? Poll says that’s tougher. – Susan Page, William Cummings, Nicholas Wu
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/28/poll-american-optimism-2020-their-own-lives-tempered-us/2708362001/

Author: David Diersen

The opinions that I express in GOPUSA ILLINOIS emails are based on experience that I have gained doing many things since 1948. I base my opinions on what I learned a) working for the federal government for almost 30 years -- Post Office 1966-1969, IRS 1971-1980, and GAO 1980-1997, serving on the Executive Committee of the Association of Government Accountants Chicago Chapter 1983-1996, and being a union member while I worked for the Post Office and IRS; b) earning an MBA from Loyola in 1976, a masters degree in accounting from DePaul in 1980, and a masters degree in financial markets and trading from IIT in 1997; c) passing the CPA examination on my first attempt in 1979 and passing the Certified Internal Auditor examination on my first attempt in 1981; c) serving as a Republican Precinct Committeeman since 1999, the GOPUSA Illinois Editor since 2000, the TAPROOT Republicans of Illinois Chairman 2005-2012, a member of the 2008 Illinois Republican Party (IRP) Platform and Resolutions Committee, a Wheaton Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee member 2003-2011, the Milton Township Republican Central Committee webmaster 2008-2010 and 2000-2004, an Illinois Center Right Coalition Steering Committee member 2003-2007, and an American Association of Political Consultants Midwest Chapter board member 2001-2004; d) attending the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 IRP State Conventions as a delegate; e) being the subject of a nasty 4-page article in the February 1978 issue of Money Magazine; f) pursing litigation including Diersen v. GAO and Diersen v. Chicago Car Exchange; g) being married since 1978; h) living in Crete 1948-1972, in University Park 1972-1976, in Chicago 1976-1978, and in DuPage County, Milton Township, and Wheaton since 1978; and i) being baptized, raised, and confirmed as a Missouri Synod Lutheran.