They call us “The Elderly” We were born in the 40-50-60โs. We grew up in the 50-60-70’s. We studied in the 60-70-80’s. We were dating in the 70-80-90’s. We got married and discovered the world in the 70-80-90’s. We venture into the 80-90โs. We stabilize in the 2000โs. We got wiser in the 2010โs. And we are going firmly through and beyond 2020.
Turns out we’ve lived through EIGHT different decades.. TWO different centuries.. TWO different millennia.. We have gone from the telephone with an operator for longโdistance calls to video calls to anywhere in the world. We have gone from slides to YouTube, from vinyl records to online music, from handwritten letters to email and Whats App. From live matches on the radio, to black and white TV, colour TV and then to 3D HD TV. We went to the Video store and now we watch Netflix. We got to know the first computers, punch cards, floppy disks and now we have gigabytes and megabytes on our smartphones. We wore shorts throughout our childhood and then long trousers, Oxfords, flares, shell suits & blue jeans.. We dodged infantile paralysis, meningitis, polio, tuberculosis, swine flu and now COVID-19. We rode skates, tricycles, bicycles, mopeds, petrol or diesel cars and now we drive hybrids or electric.. Yes, we’ve been through a lot but what a great life we’ve had! They could describe us as “exennials,” people who were born in that world of the fifties, who had an analog childhood and a digital adulthood. We’ve kind of “Seen-It-All”! Our generation has literally lived through and witnessed more than any other in every dimension of life.. It is our generation that has literally adapted to “CHANGE.” A big round of applause to all the members of a very special generation, which will be UNIQUE!!!! ๐๐๐
I don’t recall any recent Supreme Court opinion that so directly denounces and renounces a dissent, in this case by the leftist Biden appointee Justice Jackson:
JUSTICE JACKSON, however, chooses a startling line of attack that is tethered neither to these sources nor, frankly, to any doctrine whatsoever. Waving away attention to the limits on judicial power as a โmind-numbingly technical query,โ post, at 3 (dissenting opinion), she offers a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush.
In her telling, the fundamental role of courts is to โorder everyone (including the Executive) to follow the lawโfull stop.โ Post, at 2; see also post, at 10 (โ[T]he function of the courtsโboth in theory and in practiceโnecessarily includes announcing what the law requires in . . . suits for the benefit of all who are protected by the Constitution, not merely doling out relief to injured private partiesโ); see also post, at 11, n. 3, 15. And, she warns, if courts lack the power to โrequire the Executive to adhere to law universally,โ post, at 15, courts will leave a โgash in the basic tenets of our founding charter that could turn out to be a mortal wound,โ post, at 12.
Rhetoric aside, JUSTICE JACKSONโs position is difficult to pin down. She might be arguing that universal injunctions are appropriateโeven requiredโwhenever the defendant is part of the Executive Branch. See, e.g., post, at 3, 10โ12, 16โ18. If so, her position goes far beyond the mainstream defense of universal injunctions. See, e.g., Frost, 93 N. Y. U. L. Rev., at 1069 (โNationwide injunctions come with significant costs and should never be the default remedy in cases challenging federal executive actionโ). As best we can tell, though, her argument is more extreme still, because its logic does not depend on the entry of a universal injunction: JUSTICE JACKSON appears to believe that the reasoning behind any court order demands โuniversal adherence,โ at least where the Executive is concerned. Post, at 2 (dissenting opinion). In her law-declaring vision of the judicial function, a district courtโs opinion is not just persuasive, but has the legal force of a judgment. But see Haaland v. Brackeen, 599 U. S. 255, 294 (2023) (โIt is a federal courtโs judgment, not its opinion, that remedies an injuryโ). Once a single district court deems executive conduct unlawful, it has stated what the law requires. And the Executive must conform to that view, ceasing its enforcement of the law against anyone, anywhere.17 We will not dwell on JUSTICE JACKSONโs argument, which is at odds with more than two centuriesโ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself.
We observe only this: JUSTICE JACKSON decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary. No one disputes that the Executive has a duty to follow the law. But the Judiciary does not have unbridled authority to enforce this obligationโin fact, sometimes the law prohibits the Judiciary from doing so. See, e.g., Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137 (1803) (concluding that James Madison had violated the law but holding that the Court lacked jurisdiction to issue a writ of mandamus ordering him to follow it). But see post, at 15 (JACKSON, J., dissenting) (โIf courts do not have the authority to require the Executive to adhere to law universally, . . . compliance with law sometimes becomes a matter of Executive prerogativeโ). Observing the limits on judicial authorityโincluding, as relevant here, the boundaries of the Judiciary Act of 1789โis required by a judgeโs oath to follow the law.
JUSTICE JACKSON skips over that part. Because analyzing the governing statute involves boring โlegalese,โ post, at 3, she seeks to answer โa far more basic question of enormous practical significance: May a federal court in the United States of America order the Executive to follow the law?โ Ibid. In other words, it is unecessary to consider whether Congress has constrained the Judiciary; what matters is how the Judiciary may constrain the Executive. JUSTICE JACKSON would do well to heed her own admonition: โ[E]veryone, from the President on down, is bound by law.โ Ibid. That goes for judges too.
Everyone is watching the Strait of Hormuz for oil and fertilizer. Almost nobody has noticed that it is also shutting down MRI machines, semiconductor fabs, and the global aerospace supply chain.
Helium. The second lightest element in the universe. No substitute exists for it. You cannot synthesize it. You cannot replace it. And roughly one-third of the worldโs supply just went offline.
Qatar produces 30 to 33 percent of global helium as a byproduct of LNG processing at Ras Laffan, home to the largest helium production facilities on Earth. When the Hormuz blockade triggered LNG force majeure declarations and attacks hit Qatari infrastructure, the helium stopped flowing with it. Prices have doubled in spot markets. And helium has a property that makes this crisis structurally different from oil, fertilizer, or any other commodity caught behind the strait.
It evaporates. Continuously. Even in sealed containers, helium boils off. The global supply chain operates on roughly 45 days of buffer before existing inventory simply ceases to exist. You cannot stockpile helium the way you stockpile crude oil in salt caverns or grain in silos. If the supply stops for six weeks, the buffer is gone. Not depleted. Gone. Returned to the atmosphere where it is too diffuse to economically recapture.
This is why the industries that depend on helium are facing a crisis that no financial instrument can solve.
Semiconductor manufacturing requires ultra-pure helium for wafer cooling in lithography and for leak detection in sub-5-nanometre chip fabrication. TSMC, Samsung, and Intel cannot produce advanced processors without it. Every AI chip, every smartphone processor, every data centre GPU in the current generation traces its manufacturing lineage through a helium-cooled process. If fabs run dry, the production lines stop. Not slow. Stop.
MRI machines require liquid helium to cool superconducting magnets to near absolute zero. Hospitals cannot substitute another gas. When helium supply tightens, MRI availability falls. During previous shortages, hospitals rationed scans. A sustained one-third supply cut puts diagnostic imaging capacity at risk across every healthcare system that depends on magnetic resonance.
Aerospace depends on helium for purging rocket fuel systems, pressurising tanks, and testing for leaks in systems where failure means explosion. NASA, SpaceX, ULA, and every launch provider in the Western world runs on helium. Fibre optic cable manufacturing requires helium atmospheres. Quantum computing research requires helium-3 isotopes for cryogenic cooling.
The US is the worldโs largest helium producer and has some buffer capacity. Algeria and Russia produce meaningful volumes. Overland rerouting from Qatar through Oman and Saudi Arabia is theoretically possible but logistically slow and capacity-limited. None of these alternatives can replace one-third of global supply within the 45-day evaporation window that defines the crisis timeline.
The same 21-mile strait that is starving the food system is now threatening the technological infrastructure of modern civilization. The fertilizer trapped behind Hormuz determines whether four billion people eat. The helium trapped behind Hormuz determines whether the chips powering the AI revolution get manufactured, whether cancer patients receive diagnostic scans, and whether rockets carrying communications satellites reach orbit.
One chokepoint. Two invisible supply chains. Both irreplaceable. Both operating on biological or physical deadlines that no ceasefire retroactively extends.
The world built petroleum reserves. It never built fertilizer reserves. It never built helium reserves either.
The pattern keeps repeating. The lesson keeps being ignored.
Full analysis: open.substack.com/pub/shanakaansโฆ
You may have seen this smiling face all over Catholic Charitiesโ social media this fall.
Meet Dr. Ismat Rashid Kaakar, Afghan Refugee Program Coordinator at Catholic Charities of Central & Northern Missouri.
He arrived in America from Afghanistan as a Fulbright Scholar in 2019. Two months after earning his Masterโs in Health Administration from Mizzou, he was hired by Catholic Charitiesโฆ to resettle more Afghan refugees.
In his own words (KOMU 8 interview):
โThis is an opportunity for me, because before going back to my career, this is the time that I could use to help refugees from my home country.โ
Exactly.
Another Afghan Muslim, brought in as a โrefugeeโ/scholar, now sits in a key position inside an officially Catholic organization, using its name, its crucifix, and your tax dollars to import wave after wave of his own people.
This is the same nationwide:
Catholic Charities (and Lutheran Social Services) hire the very Muslim refugees they resettle because โthey speak the language.โ Those hires rise, take over the programs, and turn โfaith-basedโ charities into Muslim import machines, all while keeping the Catholic branding for cover.
Missouri is now on the list right next to Utah, North Carolina, Texas, Indiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and D.C.
This is conquest with a smile and a Catholic logo.
Christian organizations are being hollowed out from the inside.
American taxpayers are funding their own replacement. Read the full exposรฉ:
See the full report: rairfoundation.com/daniel-greenfiโฆ
๐จ ALERT: TROJAN HORSE IN MORMON UTAH – WE ARE BEING REPLACED!
Somali Muslim Aden Batar Runs โCatholicโ Refugee Machine Funded by LDS Tithing, Producing DSA Candidate Liban Mohamed
A 27-year-old Democratic Socialist, the son of Somali immigrants who came to America, and a proud Muslim, just announced his run for Congress in what was supposed to be one of Americaโs reddest districts.
His name is Liban Mohamed, and he is the political face of Utahโs rapidly expanding Somali Bantu Muslim community.
โ ๏ธThat community did not grow by accident.
Meet Aden Batar, Somali Muslim refugee turned Director of Migration & Refugee Services at Catholic Community Services of Utah. (Say What!?)
He was resettled by them in 1994. Now he runs the entire program, alongside his deputy, Khalid Al Hachami (another Muslim), bringing more Muslim refugees into Utah under a Catholic label.
But listen to Batar himself in a recent talk:
โAs a Muslim and also working for [the Catholic] organizationโฆ every single bed that they sleep with comes from the LDS Churchโฆ As a Muslim when 9/11 happenedโฆ the first person that reached to us at our mosque was the leadership from the LDS Churchโฆ โWe are here with youโฆ if one religion is attacked, all religions [are] attacked.โ It gives me a lot of comfort to live in this communityโฆ Iโve never felt that Iโm in the minority here.โ
He openly admits: Heโs a Muslim running a โCatholicโ refugee machine.
Every bed for the hundreds of refugees they import comes from the LDS (Mormon) Church.
Notice the narrative: Right after 9/11, while America was still reeling from radical Islamic terror, Batar portrays Muslims as the primary victims in need of Christian support and protection.
Meanwhile, the very system he now oversees continues bringing in more refugees from the same regions.
This is the Red-Green Axis in action:
Radical leftists (the โRedโ) and Islamic movements (the โGreenโ) are working in alignment, leveraging Christian compassion, taxpayer dollars, and interfaith goodwill.
๐ฅMeanwhile, Batar also leads the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake ๐ฅ
When an American/Israeli flag appeared at a local mosque last year, he issued a statement, in his official capacity at Catholic Community Services, calling it a โhate crime.โ
This is the pipeline:
Christian compassion and taxpayer dollars โ resettlement infrastructure โ administered by Muslim leadership โ expanding communities โ producing the next generation of political candidates like Liban Mohamed.
Utahโs well-known culture of generosity is playing a central role in this transformation.
This is demographic and political shift driven through resettlement systems.
In 1776, when the American colonies broke from the British Empire, the average American man was 5’9″.
This was three inches taller than the average Englishman. It was taller than the Dutch, taller than the French, taller than the Swedes. George Washington, at 6’2″, was tall by any standard, but his soldiers were not the Lilliputians the popular image suggests. At 5’7″ the average Continental Army private was significantly taller than a typical European soldier, because he had grown up on a diet that the typical European soldier had not.
The American military has been measuring its recruits since the Revolutionary War.
In 1776, the average Continental soldier was taller than the average European soldier. In 1950, the average American draftee was taller than any European conscript. In 2026, the US military has a recruitment crisis partly attributed to the physical condition of the available pool.
The diet changed in between.
The records are public.
Nobody is connecting the columns.
The diet was meat. Dairy. Eggs from the back garden. Game from the woods that belonged to nobody. The abundance of colonial America, where the protein was not controlled by a landlord or rationed by a church or restricted by a forest law, had produced a population that was, by the skeletal standards of the eighteenth century, the tallest on earth.
Americans stayed the tallest people in the world for nearly two hundred years.
Then they stopped.
American height plateaued in the 1950s. It has not meaningfully increased since. The average American man born in 1996 is approximately 5’9″, which is the same height as the average American man born in 1950, and roughly the same height as the average American man in 1776.
In the same period, the Dutch grew six inches. The Scandinavians grew five. The Germans grew four. The South Koreans grew nearly four. One by one, the European populations that had been shorter than Americans in 1900 overtook them. The Dutch, who had been among the shortest Europeans in 1860, are now the tallest people on earth at an average of 6 foot for men. Americans have dropped to 37th.
Thirty-seventh.
The richest country in the history of the world, spending more per capita on food than almost any other nation, is now shorter than the Dutch, the Danes, the Norwegians, the Swedes, the Germans, the Croatians, the Czechs, the Estonians, the Latvians, the Lithuanians, the Slovenians, the Montenegrins, the Bosnians, the Serbs, the Icelanders, the Belgians, the Austrians, the Swiss, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the Canadians, the Bermudans, and the Finns.
The conventional explanation blames inequality. Healthcare access. Poverty. These are real factors. They are also downstream of something more fundamental. The American diet changed.
In the 1950s, the average American ate butter, whole milk, eggs, and red meat as the nutritional backbone of the diet. By the 1990s, the average American was eating margarine, skimmed milk, egg whites, chicken breast, and a long list of processed foods that had been reformulated to remove animal fat and replace it with sugar and seed oil, because the dietary guidelines had told them to.
The Dutch, in the same period, continued eating dairy. Full-fat dairy. Roughly a kilogram per person per day. Cheese for breakfast. Cheese for lunch. Milk with dinner. Butter on everything. The Dutch ignored the American dietary guidelines and kept eating the food that was making them tall.
The Americans followed the guidelines and stopped growing.
The Dutch ignored the guidelines and became the tallest people on earth.
The experiment has been running for fifty years. It is running in real time. The results are in the conscription records and the school growth charts and the anthropometric surveys that are published every year and that nobody in a position to update the dietary guidance appears to be reading.
America was the tallest country on earth when it was eating butter.
America is the 37th tallest country on earth now that it is eating the guidelines.
When it was announced that Trump spent over $600 million dollars to safely evacuate the ejected airman, a lot of people criticised him.
But the thing here is that, Trump wasn’t just evacuating an American soldier; he was denying Iran what would have been the greatest leverage of the war.
A leverage more important than closing the Strait of Hormuz.
That $600 million dollars did not only rescue the airman, it energised Trump and put him in a better position to discuss deals with Iran.
This was not about the $600 million dollars; it was about preserving the dignity of the US before the judging eyes of the world.
Trump perfectly understood this assignment.
Key Points from the U.S. Military’s Miraculous Rescue Press Conference:
On Friday at 5:40 a.m. local time in Iran, a U.S. F-15E fighter jet was hit by a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile. The missile struck the jet’s engine nozzle, causing an explosion. Trump said it was “pure luck.”
The pilot and weapons officer ejected and parachuted to safety, but because the plane was moving at extremely high speed, the two landed far apart.
Upon learning of the incident, some military generals opposed the rescue (“It could result in over a hundred casualties; the risk is too great”), but President Trump decided to launch a full-scale rescue effort, supported by General Caine and Secretary of War Hegseth. The plan was formulated by the U.S. Central Command.
Two hours later, 21 aircraft were deployed. On Friday in broad daylight, they charged into Iran under a hail of Iranian gunfire to save the men. A helicopter was damaged, and after an A-10 attack aircraft was hit, the pilot struggled to fly it into Kuwaiti territory before ejecting, crashing the plane inside Kuwait.
After the U.S. successfully rescued the first man, no specific details were released. But within an hour, someone in the government leaked the news that “one man is still unrescued” to the media. Once the media published it, Iran quickly dispatched a large force to capture him.
President Trump said: We will track down the leaker. If the media won’t tell us who it is, we’ll send their people to jail because they threatened national security and put the pilot and rescue personnel in danger.
The second man was already injured upon landing. He bandaged himself, then moved away from the landing site and climbed up into the mountains.
CIA officials learned via the pilot’s beeper that the second man was still out there, but they didn’t know where. They combed through satellite imagery in a “needle in a haystack” searchโusing Trump’s words, “finding a needle in a haystack”โand finally spotted a moving figure. After tracking this person climbing higher for 45 minutes, the CIA concluded: This is our weapons officer.
CIA Director Ratcliffe immediately notified the Secretary of War, who notified the president. The Trump administration issued the order: Full-scale rescue!
Immediately, 155 aircraft were mobilized, including four bombers, 64 fighter jets, 48 aerial refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft. Among them, two C-130 Hercules transport planes landed at a farm 250 kilometers southwest of Iran, near Kuwait, unloading rescue personnel and helicopters.
After the weapons officer stopped on a ridgeline, his first words were: God Is Good! He then hid in a crevice between rocks on the mountaintop for a full day and night.
The U.S. military set up decoys, staging rescue operations in seven different areas to confuse the Iranian search forces, leaving them unsure where the weapons officer was. The CIA also spread false information, causing the Iranian troops to head in the wrong direction and miss their target.
Rescue forces established a safety perimeter around the weapons officer’s actual location, eliminating anyone who approached. They finally found him in the rock crevice on the mountaintop and airlifted him out by helicopter.
When all personnel and equipment returned to the C-130s at the farm and were ready for takeoff, they discovered that the wheels of both planes were stuck in the wet sand and couldn’t take off.
The military immediately activated the backup plan, flying in three lighter, faster replacement aircraft. The troops quickly disassembled three light helicopters from the stuck C-130s and mounted them onto the new planes, loaded the personnel, and flew away.
One plane came and went every 15 minutes, and after 45 minutes, all three planes successfully departed!
The entire operation lasted 45 hours and 56 minutes.
Reports say President Trump went two days without sleep for this rescue.
When Trump discussed the Iran rescue operation, he revealed that Iran originally had no idea that U.S. military personnel were missing. The information released by the CIA consistently stated that only one pilot had ejected and had already been successfully rescued.
In reality, the CIA was working to pinpoint the location of the second downed flight officer, while the Department of Defense was formulating a rescue plan.
As a result, someone within the U.S. leaked the information, telling the media that another pilot was hiding in the mountains.
This tipped off Iran that a U.S. military pilot was on the run, and the Iranian side issued a bounty of up to 100 million Iranian currencyโequivalent to $60,000โin an attempt to capture the American flight officer.
This immediately made it much more difficult for the U.S. military to rescue this colonel flight officer. After the U.S. military succeeded in the rescue, Trump didn’t hesitate to draw up a new strike plan against Iran, which we’ll see play out soon.
As for the leaker, Trump stated that if the media didn’t publicly disclose the leaker’s identity, the media would bear criminal responsibility, and the leaker would absolutely go to prison. Trump’s exact words were: “The people doing the reporting at the media, if they don’t reveal the leaker’s identity, they’re going to prison!”
๐จ The media outlet who published the US had only saved ONE of two F-15 airmenโrisking the mission to save the secondโwas Israel’s Channel 12, per NYP
The reporter, Amit Segal, just told NYP he “will protect my sources,” despite President Trump’s threats
Segal cited “western sources” in his post (as opposed to “US sources”), and a second Israeli reporter, Ariel Kahana, later specified the news came from “Israeli sources”
President Trump made clear today heโs HELLBENT on jailing the leaker.
Israel MUST hand these sources over to the US Department of Justice.
HUNDREDS of our troops could’ve been KlLLED by this leak.
Letโs discuss good ole J.B. Pritzker. He likes to see himself in the spotlight, so letโs up the wattage on that and take a look at whatโs there.
Pritzker is a $๐.๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง Hyatt hotel heir who wants you to believe he turned Illinois around. Before he launches his next political vanity project, every American deserves to see what he actually did to the fifth-largest state in the union.
Before he was governor, Pritzker bought a $๐.๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง next door to his Gold Coast home in Chicago. In 2015, he had ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐ญ๐จ๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ซ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ so the Cook County assessor would classify it as โuninhabitableโ โ dropping the assessed value from $๐.๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐จ $๐.๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง (Cook County Inspector General). The inspector general called it a โ๐ด๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ง๐ณ๐ข๐ถ๐ฅโ taxpayers. Total savings from the scheme: $๐๐๐,๐๐๐ in property tax refunds and reductions (Fox 32 Chicago). He repaid it. Federal investigators later opened a criminal probe into the tax appeals (Illinois Policy Institute). No charges were filed โ but the man who would go on to lecture Illinoisans about paying their โfair shareโ literally removed toilets from a mansion to dodge his own property taxes.
Since 2000, Illinois has lost a net ๐.๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ข๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ to domestic outmigration (IRS). Under Pritzker alone, the bleeding accelerated. IRS data for 2022 shows ๐๐,๐๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ข๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ฅ๐๐๐ญ in a single year, taking $๐.๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ข๐ง ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ with them (IRS Migration Data). The income gap between those leaving and those arriving grew from $5,519 per person in 2010 to $๐๐,๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง in 2022 โ meaning Illinois is hemorrhaging its highest earners. In 2024, ๐๐% ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐ ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐ fled to states with lower tax burdens (Wirepoints). Illinois already lost one congressional seat after the 2020 Census โ it is on track to lose another in 2030 (Illinois Policy Institute).
Illinois has $๐๐๐.๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง in unfunded pension liabilities โ ๐๐% ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ than California, the second-worst state (Equable Institute). Its pension systems are funded at just ๐๐.๐% โ the lowest funding ratio in America. Unfunded liabilities as a share of GDP stand at ๐๐% โ by far the worst figure in the nation (Americans for Prosperity). The median Illinois household already pays $๐๐,๐๐๐ in state and local taxes per year โ $๐,๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ than the national average (Tax Foundation). And Pritzkerโs pension โreformโ? Heโs sticking to a plan that wonโt fully fund the systems until ๐๐๐๐ (Capitol News Illinois). Thatโs not a fix. Thatโs a 20-year prayer.
An estimated ๐๐,๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ ๐ซ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ arrived in Chicago from the southern border. By the end of 2025, Illinois will have spent over $๐.๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง on their care โ roughly $๐๐,๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ ๐ซ๐๐ง๐ญ (Illinois Policy Institute, Fox 32 Chicago). Over $1.6 billion went to migrant healthcare alone through July 2024 โ โ๐ง๐ข๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ค๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅโ (Illinois Comptroller). For context, that $2.5 billion is roughly ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐๐ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐๐ฌ what Illinois spends on veteransโ services (IL House Republicans). The state is spending three dollars on someone who crossed the border illegally for every one dollar it spends on someone who served the country.
Boeing. Caterpillar. Citadel. Tyson. Guggenheim Partners. TTX. All gone. Boeing moved to Virginia. Caterpillar โ headquartered in Illinois for nearly ๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ โ moved 230 jobs to Texas. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin took his $36 billion hedge fund to Miami, citing crime and a hostile business environment. Since 1994, Illinois has lost ๐,๐๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐๐ฌ to other states, with the rate ๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ (Illinois Policy Institute). The Tax Foundation found Illinoisโ business climate dropped ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐จ๐ญ๐ฌ in five years โ the only Midwestern state to decline โ after Pritzker imposed $๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ข๐ง ๐ง๐๐ฐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฌ during a pandemic recovery. When asked about Ken Griffin leaving, Pritzkerโs response was essentially โ๐ฉ๐ฆโ๐ด ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธโ to Florida (Free Beacon). Thatโs the governor of the fifth-largest state celebrating the departure of his wealthiest taxpayer.
From 2013 to 2024, Illinois increased K-12 education spending by $๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง โ ๐ ๐๐% ๐ข๐ง๐๐ซ๐๐๐ฌ๐ โ while enrollment ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐๐ ๐๐% (Illinois Policy Institute). Chicago Public Schools saw instructional spending per student jump ๐๐% in four years โ from $10,314 to $15,274 (CPS Data). The result? Roughly ๐จ๐ง๐-๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ซ๐ of Illinois fourth and eighth graders score at or above proficiency in reading and math on the NAEP โ a rate that โ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด 20 ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ดโ (NPR Illinois). Both reading and math scores were ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. They spent billions more. They got the same results. In some cases, worse.
In 2020, Pritzker spent $๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐ ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง๐๐ฒ pushing a graduated income tax amendment he called the โFair Taxโ (NPR Illinois). Illinois voters rejected it โ it got just ๐๐% of the vote, far short of the 60% supermajority needed to amend the constitution (WTTW). A $3.9 billion man spent $58 million trying to raise taxes on everyone else. The voters said no. His response? He warned of โ๐ฑ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ค๐ถ๐ต๐ดโ โ as if the stateโs fiscal ruin was the votersโ fault for rejecting his plan.
While Pritzker imposed a statewide stay-at-home order on 12.7 million Illinoisans, his wife and daughter were in ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐๐. When they returned, they went to the familyโs ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐ง (Pantagraph, NBC Chicago). His defense? Taking care of horses is โ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ถ๐ฏ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏโ (CBS Chicago). Meanwhile, small business owners were being fined for opening their doors. Restaurants were shuttered. Churches were locked. But the billionaire governorโs family was in Florida, then tending to their horses across state lines. Rules for thee.
Pritzker signed the SAFE-T Act, making Illinois the ๐๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ญ๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ to abolish cash bail entirely (ABC7 Chicago). In November 2023, a suspect with ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ซ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ who was out on electronic monitoring was caught on video ๐ฌ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ง ๐จ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ซ๐ on a CTA train (ABC7 Chicago). Law enforcement across the state warned the law would put dangerous criminals back on the street. Pritzker dismissed the criticism.
Despite 10 credit upgrades under Pritzker, Illinois ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ก๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ข๐ญ ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ of any state in the nation (Yahoo Finance). Its Moodyโs rating of A2 sits ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ๐๐ก๐๐ฌ ๐๐๐จ๐ฏ๐ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ง๐ค ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฌ. Over the prior 15 years, the state received ๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ฌ (Illinois Policy Institute). During the Rauner-era budget impasse, both Moodyโs and S&P dropped Illinois to one notch above junk โ the ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ง๐ฒ ๐.๐. ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ญ๐. Pritzker inherited a dumpster fire and brought it up to a controlled burn. Itโs still on fire.
This is J.B. Pritzkerโs Illinois. The toilets were removed. The businesses left. The taxpayers fled and took $9.9 billion in one year. The pension debt is $145 billion and climbing. The migrants cost $2.5 billion โ three times what they spend on veterans. The schools spent $10 billion more and got the same failing scores. He blew $58 million of his own money on a tax hike voters rejected, then blamed the voters. His family went to Florida while yours couldnโt go to work.
And through it all โ every dollar lost, every business gone, every resident who packed up โ he still has the lowest credit rating in America.
On Monday April 1, 2026, CFD battled a fire at 74th and Yates in South Shore, the Battalion Chief declared an extra alarm and requested a tower ladder.
The closest tower ladder available across the entire city was located at Grace and Damen.
This ladder traveled 156 blocks โ some TWENTY MILES โ to respond to the extra alarm.
Of the ten tower ladders in Chicago, 5, 10, 16, 24, 39, and 54, all are out of service. At the moment, only four tower ladders are in service, TLs 14, 21, 23, and 63, all of which are stationed on the North and West Sides of the city.
This leaves the whole of the South Side of Chicago โwhich unfortunately experiences a higher number of fires โ without sufficient equipment to fight large-scale fires.
This shortage of equipment is inexcusable and undeniably imperils residents whose taxes pay for fire protection.
This equipment shortage also creates dangerous conditions for CFD called on to fight fires.
The main problem with firearm-related violence in Illinois is a lack of enforcement of existing laws and lenient bail policies, not the need for new laws that criminals will ignore and only restrict law-abiding citizens.
There are three major Illinois House bills related to firearms currently moving through the legislative process. They are the Responsibility in Firearm Legislation RIFL Act (HB3320), the Serialization of Ammunition and Tax Bill (HB4414), and the GLOCK Ban Bill (HB4471).
The RIFL Act establishes a firearms manufacturer licensing program in the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, with certain requirements, including that the sum of all fees for firearms manufacturer licenses shall be equal to the public health costs and financial burdens from firearm injuries and deaths.
The Tax Bill (HB4414) requires every round of hand gun ammunition to have a serial number stamped on the cartridge case, a tax of 5 cents per round used to fund the state police administration of the law and the ownership of ammunition without a serial number to be a misdemeanor violation.
HB4471 says that it is unlawful for a person or company to manufacture a convertible pistol (such as Glocks, Sig P365s, and Smith & Wesson M&P pistols). A convertible pistol is one that can be made to fire in automatic mode like a machine gun.
Machine guns have been banned in Illinois for several years, but machine guns are a favorite with Chicago gangs who use a variety, including the Israeli Uzi submachine gun (NCPR).
โChicagoโs homicide rate is an outlier among major U.S. cities. At a rate of 29 firearm homicides per 100,000 residents, it is six times higher than New York Cityโs and three times higher than in Los Angeles. In 2020 alone, gun homicides increased 52%, resulting in 769 deaths. The annual impact of gun violence extends much further โ in 2020, 3261 people were wounded in shootings,โ according to https://oneaimil.org.
This is in spite of Chicagoโs strict firearm laws. Illinois law also requires firearm owners to have a valid Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID). A violation results in up to a Class 4 felony, 1-3 years in prison, and a fine of up to $25,000.
On March 19, 2026, a Loyola student was shot and killed by a 25-year-old Venezuelan who was in the country illegally, had a criminal record, and had been released after a prior arrest, according to news reports.
ICE considered him a criminal alien and issued a detainer, but he was still released. The illegal alien probably got the firearm from the black market, by stealing it, or had the weapon with him when entering the country.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey criticized Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for their sanctuary city policies, while Democrats argued national-level failures contributed to the tragedy (NBC Chicago).
I agree that previous national policies that allowed millions of illegal entries, including by criminals, played a role. Bailey called for repealing the TRUST Act and SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail in favor of pretrial detention hearings. JB Pritzker needs to focus on letting law enforcement find and remove these violent criminals (NBC Chicago).
Mayor Brandon Johnsonโs response was to name a snowplow โAbolish ICE.โ (Chicago Sun Times)
New firearm legislation in Springfield will do little to quell firearm-related violence, as criminals usually do not comply with such laws. John Gotti, the notorious American mobster, preferred gun-free zones because there would be no competition. A 1986 survey of felons by the federal government found that 40% refrained from committing one or more crimes because they feared their prospective victims were armed. Thirty-four percent of criminals had been scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim. (NRA-ILA)
Sheridan Gorman is not a statistic. She was a student, a daughter, and a human being.
She is dead because JB Pritzker let sanctuary status, the TRUST Act, and the SAFE-T Act turn Illinois into a revolving door for violent criminals.
Roy F. McCampbell's Blog 
A Short Lesson on the Importance of Consulting with an Attorney for All Business Transactions
Two guys build a plumbing company together. Best friends for 40 years.
$12M business. Split 50/50.
Partner gets divorced at 64. Ugly. Wife cheating. He’s devastated.
Divorce settlement: She gets 30% of the business. He keeps 20%. His partner still has 50%.
Now there are three owners. Ex-wife holds the swing vote on everything.
He wants to sell to his partner’s son who’s been running it for 10 years.
Ex-wife votes no. “I want market price. Outside buyer.”
She’s already talking to private equity. They’ll gut it and flip it.
The son loses everything he’s built.
The buy-sell agreement? Written in 1987. Says nothing about divorce.
No life insurance funding. No valuation updates. No divorce triggers.
Just says “in the event of death or disability.”
Divorce wasn’t death or disability.
He’s 64. Healthy. Could live another 25 years watching his ex-wife destroy what they built.
Him to his partner: “How could you let this happen?”
Partner: “I didn’t think she’d get any of the business.”
40 years of friendship. Ended by a divorce attorney who read their buy-sell in 20 minutes.
Being a lawyer is professionally managing problems you didnโt create.
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