October 02, 2024
REPUBLICANS IN SPRINGFIELD IGNORED, INCONSEQURNTIAL, IRRELEVANT

There is irrelevant. There is inconsequential. There is laughable. Republicans in the Illinois legislature are all of the above. They are not just the minority. With Democrats holding a 40D-19R majority in the Senate and a 78D-40R majority in the House, Republicans are just an annoyance to be ignored, not even worth the effort to squash. And the Nov. 5 results may push them closer to extermination. There are 14 competitive seats (see chart) out of 118 in the House, of which six are held by a Republican and eight by a Democrat. Inasmuch as Trump will lose IL by 400,000-plus votes, it is entirely possible Republicans will LOSE more House seats. Democrats could hold 80 or more seats in 2025. A Democrat occupies 30of 32 Chicago districts, the exception being the 20th, which contains nearly all of the Northwest Side 41st Ward plus suburban Rosemont, Schiller Park, Norridge, Harwood Heights and some of south Park Ridge. The incumbent, Rosemont mayor Brad Stephens (R), is unopposed. Democrats also occupy 17 of the 19 suburban Cook County seats, the exceptions being  Martin McLaughlin (R) in the Barrington 52nd district and Nicole La Ha (R) in the Western Springs 82nd district. La Ha was appointed in 2023 after Jim Durkin, the House minority leader, resigned. Both could lose. Prediction: Republicans will pick up a net 2 of seats. And that means absolutely nothing. Full Article...


September 25, 2024
HOUSING MARKET UPTICKS BUT "BUBBLE BURST" AWAITS

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat them. The Federal Reserve Board’s (Fed) prime rate cut of one-half point on Sept. 19 is already spurring an uptick in the housing market, according to veteran Northwest Side realtor Dympna Fay-Hart. Buyers, she said, are much more willing to accept a mortgage with interest in the 5 percent range than in the 6 percent range, especially given the expectation that the Fed will cut the rate by another two points in 2025, bringing it down to the 3 percent range where it was pre-COVID. If there is another cut new buyers can refinance at the lower rate. “We will have a very good 4th quarter,” she added, with a lot of buyers getting pre-approval letters before making an offer, which gives them an edge in closing the deal. But five problems loom. JUDICIAL RETENTION BALLOT: 77 judges are on the 11/5 ballot for retention. Make a stupid, meaningless futile gesture. JUST VOTE NO. Full Article...


September 18, 2024
"DYSFUNCTIONAL" CITY, MAYOR JOHNSON MEAN HUGE 2025 PROPERTY TAX HIKES

“It’s really scary,” said Alderman Nick Sposato (38th). “It’s totally dysfunctional,” said Alderman Anthony Napolitano (41st). They’re not referring to a prospective Harris-Walz Administration. They’re referring to the fact the Brandon Johnson’s Administration in Chicago is making Lori Lightfoot’s tenure look good, Rahm Emanuel’s look great and Rich Daley’s look positively fantastic. “It’s just total chaos. Nobody knows what they’re doing,” Napolitano said. “Everything is agenda-based,” which he means the Woke/Left. “He (Johnson) is not working for all Chicagoans. He only cares about pleasing his Socialist base. He is going to raise property taxes in this year’s budget, which he promised not to do. And next year’s taxes are going to go way up,” the alderman said. Chicago’s fiscal 2024 budget is $16.6 billion. All those unallocated federal COVID funds are gone. At present, the city is running at a projected $982.4 million deficit. In other words, by the end of the year it will have spent a $1 billion more than expected tax revenues and fees. And the Chicago Teachers Union demands (and will get) $175 million from the city to cover pensions for non-teaching school employees?  What is going on? Does anybody know what they’re doing? Full Article...


September 4, 2024
GOVERNORS MAY MAKE THE BEST PRESIDENTS, BUT WALZ IS A JOKE

The late Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley once remarked that “Good Governance is Good Politics and Politics is Good Government.”  In other words, if you give people a superior, or at least more-than-tolerable quality of life then you will earn their vote. Failing that, just give people a job or a handout, creating a dependency, and you will control their vote. That is the mentality of Washington and the 2.5 million bureaucrats who work  for the federal government. It is in their self-interest to maintain the status quo and that means electing Harris-Walz on Nov. 5. The federal fiscal year 2025 budget is $6.3 trillion, the deficit $1.6 trillion – which means incoming tax revenue is $1.6 trillion less than outgoing spending – and the national debt is approaching $36 trillion-- which costs taxpayers $1.5 trillion a year in interest to pay for money borrowed and already spent in the past. The budget is built on four pillars: $1 .5 trillion each for (1) Social Security/Medicare, (2) military and veterans, (3) government operations and pensions, and (4) interest on the national debt. This is insanity.Full Article...


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