JB Pritzker Day 1 Agenda—Sounds Like Day 1 Running For President


JB Pritzker has announced his Day 1 agenda when Democrats take over Congress in January. How much do you think taxes will have to increase to pay for all of this… ?

Yikes! JB just released a 75-page document, titled “Fighting for Illinois – The Day One Agenda,” Governor JB Pritzker wants the newly elected 120th U.S. Congress to prioritize beginning January 3, 2027.

Pritzker’s agenda is organized around seven major areas. All of which will result in tax increases.

Here is a breakdown of the proposals:

  1. Health care, Medicaid and food assistance

Pritzker is asking Congress to:

-Restore federal funding and staffing at health agencies, including the CDC and Medicare/Medicaid agencies.
Restore funding for public health -research, disease prevention and HIV prevention.
-Reverse federal restrictions affecting LGBTQ+ services, diversity programs and -immigrant services.
-Restore funding for homelessness prevention and affordable housing.
-Protect Medicaid coverage and oppose new Medicaid work requirements.
-Eliminate the requirement that certain Medicaid recipients renew coverage every six months instead of annually.
-Restore expanded Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) premium subsidies.
-Restore SNAP food assistance funding and eligibility rules.
-Protect SNAP benefits for people with disabilities and older residents.
-Prevent states from having to absorb additional SNAP costs.
-Restore Medicaid eligibility for certain lawfully present immigrants.
-Reverse restrictions on Medicaid funding for reproductive health providers.
-Restore federal protections for abortion access.
-Expand home health care and community-based services for people with disabilities.
-Increase funding for caregivers and respite care.
-Increase federal funding for senior citizen programs.
-Expand veterans’ mental health and suicide prevention services.
Increase funding to combat veteran homelessness.
-Restore federal support for veterans’ medical equipment.
-Expand federal funding for foster care, child welfare and family preservation programs.

  1. Immigration and civil rights
    The agenda calls for:

-Halting what JB describes as excessive immigration arrests and deportations.
-Creating a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and long-term undocumented immigrants.
-Restoring temporary protected status for certain immigrant groups.
-Limiting the use of immigration verification databases such as E-Verify and SAVE.
-Requiring greater oversight of ICE and Border Patrol.
-Requiring warrants for certain immigration arrests.
-Requiring body cameras and additional training for immigration officers.
-Restricting immigration enforcement at schools, hospitals, churches and polling places.
-Establishing stronger legal protections for immigrants in detention.
-Limiting federal biometric surveillance.
Restoring federal voting rights protections.
-Restoring federal employment discrimination reporting requirements.
Increasing federal oversight of civil rights enforcement.

  1. Education and schools
    The agenda asks Congress to:

-Restore the U.S. Department of Education to full operating capacity.
-Reopen federal education civil rights offices, including the Chicago regional office.
-Restore federal oversight of special education programs.
-Protect federal funding for special education and students with disabilities.
Revoke the federal English-only directive.
Protect bilingual education and English-language learner programs.
-Restore federal support for career and technical education.
-Maintain existing federal school meal standards.
/Restore federal support for Head Start.
Protect Head Start teacher wage and benefit standards.
-Expand federal funding for childcare assistance.
-Create a federal paid family leave program.
-Increase the maximum Pell Grant from $7,395 to $10,000.
-Restore Grad PLUS student loans and expand graduate student borrowing options.
-Change student loan repayment rules and restore more affordable repayment options.
-Restore tax exemptions for forgiven student loans.
-Protect international student visa and work-training programs.
-Protect funding for minority-serving colleges and universities.
-Preserve federal TRIO and GEAR UP college preparation programs.
-Expand funding for community college workforce training.
-Restore the National Blue Ribbon Schools recognition program.
-Protect diversity, equity and inclusion programs in education.
-Guarantee public education regardless of a child’s immigration status.

  1. Budget, taxes and the economy
    Pritzker is asking Congress to:

-Reverse proposed changes to federal grant rules.
-Protect Illinois from federal grant funding being withheld over disagreements with federal policy.
-Provide $1,700 in tariff relief per Illinois household.
-Require refunds for unlawfully collected tariffs.
-Protect federal funding for Illinois businesses, schools and social programs.
-Restore funding for clean energy and solar programs.
-Release approximately $264 million in previously awarded Illinois clean-energy funding.
-Release an additional $16 million in federal electric-grid improvement funding.
-Support reopening the closed Joslin beef processing plant in Illinois.
-Protect tax-exempt municipal bonds used by cities, counties, schools and other local governments.
-Make new nuclear power facilities eligible for tax-exempt financing.
-Restore the ability of municipalities to refinance certain bonds.
-Restore consumer complaint information and protections through the Consumer -Financial Protection Bureau.
Strengthen federal oversight of banks and financial institutions.
-Protect consumers from high-interest lending practices.
-Expand workforce development and job training programs.
-Reauthorize federal employment and job-training tax credits.
-Expand federal investment in quantum technology and research.
-Create incentives for domestic manufacturing of bio-based materials.
-Expand opportunities for minority-owned and disadvantaged businesses in federal contracting.

  1. Public safety, law enforcement and infrastructure
    The agenda asks Congress to:

-Ensure FEMA disaster assistance is based on actual need, not a state’s political affiliation.
-Oppose shifting federal disaster-response costs to state and local governments.
-Protect federal funding for local fire departments and emergency responders.
-Restore federal homeland security funding to Illinois and the Chicago region.
-Increase funding for local police and crime prevention programs.
-Restore federal cybersecurity assistance for state and local governments.
-Reinstate federal inspections and security requirements for chemical facilities.
-Expand funding for counter-drone technology and training.
-Restore federal funding for railroad and pipeline safety inspections.
Protect federal funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
-Restore funding for passenger rail and public transportation.
-Restore federal electric vehicle and battery manufacturing tax credits.
-Protect federal infrastructure grants from cancellation based on changing political priorities.
-Increase funding for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.
-Expand funding to replace lead water service lines.

  1. Environment, energy and agriculture
    The agenda calls for:

-Restoring federal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Increasing restrictions and research involving PFAS contamination.
Regulating abandoned coal ash disposal sites.
-Increasing funding for lead cleanup projects.
-Restoring federal clean-energy and solar tax credits.
-Expanding wind energy development.
-Opposing federal efforts to keep uneconomical coal plants operating.
-Expanding federal funding for zero-emission school buses.
Increasing funding for clean ports and industrial electrification.
-Making federal water assistance permanent for low-income households.
-Establishing additional protections for private wells and drinking water.
-Establishing national monitoring and regulation of microplastics.
-Increasing federal funding for Great Lakes water quality initiatives.
Increasing funding for environmental cleanup and brownfield redevelopment.
Increasing federal assistance for electricity and natural gas bills.
-Allowing year-round nationwide sales of E15 gasoline.
-Passing a comprehensive Farm Bill with conservation funding.
-Increasing federal support for farmers, agricultural research and meat inspection programs.
-Restoring staffing at federal agricultural inspection agencies.

  1. Technology and data centers
    Some notable proposals include:

-Establishing national artificial intelligence safety standards.
-Creating stronger federal privacy protections for personal information.
-Requiring energy-efficient and water-efficient data centers.
-Encouraging geothermal cooling and other zero-emission technologies for data centers.
-Establishing federal oversight of emerging digital technologies.

….wowza- sure sounds like JB is already running for president.

Some Thoughts on the Future of Illinois


I am in total disbelief that anyone could think IL and its policies are not worth a change.

Highest property taxes in the nation. People leaving the bankrupt state in droves. A new tax every week on its people. Gas taxes that keep increasing and are some of the highest in the nation.

A budget that never gets balanced. Spending like it doesn’t matter. I am truly curious what could cause a person to keep voting in someone who has a track record of raising taxes on its people.

Did we not all watch the Robinhood cartoon as kids? He was the bad guy! To support what? Chicago? Let them be there own state for goodness sakes.

🚨 If all outstanding Democratic leads hold, Illinois Republicans will be left with just 13 of 59 seats in the State Senate and 33 of 118 seats in the State House — further expanding Democratic supermajorities in Springfield and potentially reshaping Illinois politics for generations to come.

I would be curious if someone could tell me a good thing that Pritzker has done besides “he’s not trump”.

Conclusions From 2026 US Midterm Elections


FIRST CONCLUSIONS

Conclusions from the results of the U.S. midterm elections in 2026 look something like this.

1) The Democratic Party achieved a decisive and major victory. Such a major victory in congressional elections, including both midterms and presidential ones, hasn’t happened in 50 years, since 1974 (with Watergate).

Exact results are not yet known, but the Democrats will have 54-55 seats in the Senate and 240-260 seats in the House of Representatives – that’s a significant margin by the standards of recent years. If Democrats had been told about such a margin a year ago, they would have thought it was crazy – it took a combination of many factors for such a crushing victory to become reality.

Democrats won the Senate race in Texas (where they last won in 1988) and in Kansas (in 1932) – deeply Republican places.

Control over both chambers of Congress will substantially limit President Trump’s power. Democrats will control the budget, the movement of bills, and new appointments. In addition, Democrats will have the opportunity to hold hearings with sworn witnesses and organize all sorts of investigations. They’ll be able to stage impeachment again and, this time, organize not nominal hearings in the Senate like in 2019 and 2021, but months-long ones, with live broadcasts and lengthy solo performances. They still won’t have the votes to remove him from power, though.

2) Once again, forecasts proved accurate. The number of competing firms doing forecasts has grown, but in the end, the most accurate predictions came from those using the most advanced statistical methods – first and foremost, Nate Silver. The SilverBulletin model not only accurately predicted the outcomes of many races but Silver himself, right before the elections, correctly guessed that the “vibes” pointed to an underestimation of Democrats. But other groups (NYT, RCP/PollVault, 50PlusOne, Decision Desk) weren’t far behind him.

3) The main reason for the Republicans’ defeat was the extreme unpopularity of President Trump. Among the main reasons for his low popularity – first, the war with Iran that he started, which led to a sharp 25-30% rise in gasoline and diesel prices. Second, inflation, which he repeatedly promised to end.

Inflation, in principle, isn’t especially high, 3-3.5%, but Trump spent so much time promising to stop it and even lower prices that, in the eyes of voters, he became responsible for it. The same thing happened with the war with Iran – many presidents might have been forgiven for a war, but not the one who spent the entire campaign promising not to start new ones.

It didn’t help the Republican cause at all how ineptly the president ran the campaign. Time and again, he returned to topics unpopular with voters. The conflict with Canada, which Americans love; the bromance with Putin, who is extremely toxic in American eyes; attacks on Ukraine and President Zelensky, who enjoy broad support; rallies where the president spent a long time talking about the muscular butts of Republican candidates – all of that cost points. Little by little, but it did.

4) Interestingly, the seeming cause of dissatisfaction with the president and his party – economic (inflation). But you can’t say the U.S. economy was problematic. On the contrary, unemployment is at a record low, economic growth is steady and, by the standards of the developed world, high. Technological progress is off the charts. It’s hard to understand what Americans don’t like.

5) One of the main “tools” with which President Trump undermined his party was supporting weak candidates in situations where another Republican would have had a better chance against Democrats. An obvious example is Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, who ran for Senate after a long string of scandals in his public and private life. Trump backed him in the primary, Paxton beat the incumbent senator from his party, Cornyn, in the primary, and then lost the general election to a Democrat in a landslide.

In North Carolina, Trump essentially forced Republican Tillis to forgo reelection for a second term. The seat was lost. In South Carolina, after Senator Graham’s death, Trump pushed for his sister – who had no political experience – to be appointed to his seat and immediately run for Senate. The result: a state where Trump outpolled Harris by 18 points in 2024 went to the Democrats.

Even the Senate seat in Georgia is, essentially, another gift from Trump. Without Trump, Jon Ossoff’s opponent wouldn’t have been some freak but popular Governor Brian Kemp. But Trump had a grudge against him, and Kemp never dared to enter the race. Ossoff won reelection with off-the-charts margins.

On the other hand, in 2026, not only weak Republican candidates (Paxton, Marshall, Graham) lost, but also strong ones (Abbott, Hinson). So overall sentiment toward Republicans mattered more than the quality of candidates.

6) What I don’t see in the first results of the 2026 elections is new information about some kind of “leftward shift.” Democrats’ victories came mainly from moderate leftists or even pure centrists. (There are exceptions – for example, new Minnesota Senator Peggy Flanagan – but they’re rare.) Or, like Abdul El-Sayed from Michigan and James Talarico, the new senator from Texas, they compensated for their lefty youth with exceptional discipline in their campaigns.

If Democrats take the 2026 results not as the outcome of Trump’s wrong policies and poor campaign strategy, but as validation of their own values – that would be a mistake. The country feels bad about the war with Iran, high gas prices, the bromance with Putin, and so on – that doesn’t mean everyone bought into the need to fight gas-powered cars or mandatory pronouns in signatures.

7) Democrats gained control of the Senate, apparently until 2032 (in the “2020 and 2024 classes,” they have almost no weak senators, because those weren’t the most successful years). In 2032, they’ll have several senators in “Republican” states like South Carolina.

The elderly conservatives on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas, 78, and Samuel Alito, 76, will have to live a long time for there to be another chance to replace them with conservative judges.

So how long before the Epstein files are released and criminal charges are filed? They will have no reason to not release everything. This could be a good thing.

NU/Ryan Field/ Northwestern University


Because Northwestern University was chartered in 1851, its 125th anniversary (Quasquicentennial) was celebrated throughout 1976.

The university combined its milestone events with the broader United States Bicentennial celebration. [1, 2]

The primary historical landmarks and key events held during that academic year included:

🎓 Academic Symposia and Special Convocations

  • The Quasquicentennial Convocation: The university held central formal convocations to recognize its 125-year history. This included presenting distinctive honors and welcoming keynote speakers to address the future of higher education.
  • 125th Commemorative Research Exhibitions: Academic departments used the anniversary to host specialized public displays. For example, Northwestern University Press and the university’s academic teams collaborated with the nearby Newberry Library to curate a high-profile commemorative exhibition titled “A Checklist of Editions of Moby-Dick, 1851–1976,” aligning the 125th anniversary of the classic novel’s publication with the university’s own charter year. [1]

🏛️ Campus Expansion and Infrastructure Highlights

  • Pick-Staiger Concert Hall Dedication: Though structural completion wrapped up at the very end of 1975, the multi-million-dollar venue officially anchored its premier season of celebratory concerts, performances, and public milestone lectures throughout 1976. [1]
  • The “Lakefill” Era Retrospectives: Aerial photography collections and special public forums were commissioned to celebrate the massive mid-1970s structural development of the Evanston campus, showcasing how Northwestern expanded eastward directly onto reclaimed land from Lake Michigan. [1, 2]

📣 Student Life & Traditional Celebrations

  • The 125th Commencement Ceremony: The Class of 1976 graduated during a historic joint celebration honoring both their individual degrees and the university’s 125th anniversary. [1, 2]
  • Expanded Campus Traditions: Ongoing signature events—such as the newly established Northwestern University Dance Marathon (which held its second-ever event in 1976) and the annual Waa-Mu Show musical revue—incorporated special 125th-anniversary themes and retrospective performances. [1, 2]
  • Homecoming Tributes: The Fall 1976 Homecoming festivities served as the community-wide wrap-up for the anniversary, bringing thousands of alumni back to Evanston for specialized reunion events tied directly to the legacy of the university’s founders. [1]

  • Archival records highlight several key campus milestones, traditions, and event focal points during the 1976 milestone year:

    🎓 The 118th Annual Commencement Ceremony
    Held in June 1976, this focal anniversary event brought generations of Wildcats together. A major highlight of the ceremony was the awarding of honorary degrees to distinguished figures, including the world-renowned composer Ned Rorem, who was a former Northwestern student and won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1976. [1, 2]

    🎭 Expanded Arts and Theatre Productions
    The campus arts scene saw heavily attended, celebratory productions hosted by student organizations. In particular, the newly prominent student group Arts Alliance orchestrated highly successful 1976 productions of famous musicals, including Godspell and Guys and Dolls, showcasing the university’s thriving creative arts culture during the anniversary year. [1, 2]

    📻 “Black Classical Composers” Radio Premiere
    In June 1976, Northwestern-associated creator Carolyn Armenta Davis launched a monumental 30-episode radio program called Black Classical Composers. The show aired on Chicago’s WEFM, broadcasted extensively throughout the anniversary year, and served as a major cultural presentation documenting historical Black music from 1771 through 1975. [1]

    🏅 The Alumni Awards of 1976
    The university leveraged its 125th milestone to host a specialized iteration of the annual Alumni Awards, recognizing individuals who made exceptional contributions to the university’s legacy. A notable recognition from this cycle included the presentation of the Ethel Barber Service Award. [1]

    🤝 Growth of Iconic Philanthropic & Campus Traditions
    The mid-1970s marked the birth and formalization of some of Northwestern’s most cherished campus-wide activities. The Northwestern University Dance Marathon (NUDM), which held its very first event in 1975, celebrated its second-ever massive student-managed fundraiser in March 1976, solidifying what would become one of the largest student-run philanthropies in the nation. [1, 2, 3]

ILLINOIS GAS PRICES NEARLY $1 HIGHER THAN INDIANA


Illinois drivers are paying nearly 90 cents more per gallon than drivers across the border in Indiana.
Illinois: $4.91/gal
Indiana: $4.03/gal
And despite the growing cost at the pump, Illinois Democrats say they haven’t heard anyone complain about the gas tax.
The next gas tax increase is coming in just 90 days.

Illinois has two more gas tax increases scheduled — one on January 1 and another on July 1.
Illinois also charges a sales tax on the gasoline tax, meaning you’re essentially paying a tax on a tax.
As gas prices rise, the amount collected through these taxes rises too. And 80% of that tax revenue reportedly goes directly to Chicago to help its budget.
Illinois Democrats say they haven’t heard people complaining about the gas tax. But if these policies continue, drivers could be paying even more at the pump.