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Pritzker Embraces Democratic Socialists of America as Part of Democrats’ Recipe to Win – Wirepoints

Posted in Clown Car, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Elections, Guest Essay, Immigration, Land Disconnection, Land Use, Lipstick On A Pig, Look For The Union Label, Pension Funding, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, Snowflake Effect, Taxes, The New Normal?, Topics Of Interest, Transparency, Unions, Village Code, Wirepoints on July 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »

By: Mark Glennon* | Wirepoints

Gov. JB Pritzker left no doubt about where he stands in the growing schism within the Democratic party about its surge toward the radical left. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked him directly on June 30 if it’s good that Democratic primary voters recently chose Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates over more moderate Democratic incumbents.

Pritzker answered that as long as they are talking about affordability and oppose Trump, “those are the people who are winning” and embracing progressive/in Democratic Socialist candidates is “the recipe for winning in 2026 and beyond.” Here’s the clip:

Many key Democrats are revolting against the growing elements of socialism in their party.  As the left-leaning Guardian put it:

Over the last few days, prominent party figures have moved away from unifying under a “blue no matter who” banner to push for a more formal break with their left flank, and said the moment may have arrived for Democrats to confront their more socialist wing.

No less than veteran Democratic political advisor James Carvill recently said “it’s time for Democrats to talk the S-word: schism,” He added that some DSA-aligned candidates “have no place in the Democratic party” and, of the broader coalition: “I’m not in that fucking political party.”

Other prominent Democrats speaking up against the party’s growing leftism include Jaime Harrison, the former chair of the Democratic national committee, former New York governor David Paterson and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. And the left-leaning Atlantic wrote that, while the DSA is “anything but Democratic,” its clever subversion of the Democratic Party will be difficult to stop.

In case you don’t already know – and you should – here’s some of what the DSA supports:

  • Abolishing ICE, demilitarizing the border, ending all deportations, granting immediate amnesty to all immigrants regardless of status and guaranteeing access to jobs, labor rights and social services
  • Abolishing the Senate, expanding the House, voting rights for noncitizens and people with criminal convictions, statehood to the District of Columbia, replace the two‑party system with proportional representation,  limit the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review, and replace the Electoral College with a national popular vote
  • Medicare for All with no health care premiums, co‑pays or deductibles, including reproductive and gender‑affirming care
  • Tuition‑free public higher education, eliminating out‑of‑pocket costs for room and board, and canceling all student loan debt
  • Universal rent control, guaranteed legal representation for tenants, and major public investment in social housing
  • Free universal childcare and pre‑K, expansive paid family leave, a 32‑hour workweek with no loss in pay or benefits
  • Higher rates on the wealthiest earners, for‑profit corporations, large inheritances and private colleges and universities, as well as a wealth tax on the ultra‑rich
  • A Green New Deal to end fossil fuels, guarantees for displaced workers and public ownership of major transportation, energy infrastructure and natural resources
  • Ending mandatory minimums and cash bail, demilitarizing police departments and treating drug addiction as a public health issue

For the sake of the nation, we can only hope that, on this, America agrees with James Carville: “I’m not in that f-ing party.”

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints. 

Source

Editorial note: Maria Peterson (pictured below with JB Pritzker) appears to have made a profession for years running for offices with the financial backing of JB Pritzker, among others. In 2022 she ran unsuccessfully for Illinois State Senate and in 2024 she lost her bid for Illinois House 52nd District Representative.

Maria Peterson and JB Pritzker | Courtesy Maria Peterson’s Facebook page

Currently she is feverishly campaigning again for 52nd District Representative, and there is absolutely no doubt if successful, she will back all of JB Pritzker’s initiatives and likely those of the Democratic Socialists of America.  This includes Pritzker’s stalled “BUILD Initiative” which would strip property rights from residents and place all zoning controls in the hands of Springfield politicians and unions.

Please don’t consider this as our being negative, as some might. Instead, think of it for what it is – fact.

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Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker

Posted in Fools and their money, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Taxes, Unions, Wirepoints on May 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Gov. JB Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton

By Mark Glennon* | Wirepoints

Both Gov. JB Pritzker and Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton cite their fiscal accomplishments in Illinois in their campaigns for higher office. Among many reasons to reject those claims is the unsustainability of what’s been put onto taxpayers’ backs during their administration.  That total, which very roughly is $162 billion, has provided some degree of stability to state finances and garnered bond upgrades.

However, the consequence is unaffordable government and a cannibalized tax base that is fleeing.

Three buckets go into that $162 billion estimate. Some of it is imprecise, for the reasons indicated, but the big picture is clear.

First, 57 separate state tax and fee increases a raised $77 billion in total since Pritzker took office in January 2019, That number is quite precise and is detailed in a recent report by the Illinois Policy Institute.

Total tax and fee increases:  $77 billion

Second, Illinois governments received some $40 to $54 billion (depending on who is counting) of federal Covid pandemic relief.

That figure includes assistance to local governments that did not all go directly into the state budget. However, that local relief helped take the burden off the state for many of the myriad obligations shared by the state and localities. Moreover, the state also got a huge boost in income tax revenue thanks to the surge in private sector Covid relief. According to Pew Research, Illinois was among the biggest beneficiaries. It was one of 17 states where above-trend revenue accounted for more than half of their total growth during that period. A separate study by University of Illinois researchers also documented the surge as well. We will ignore that surge and just go with the lower number for direct Covid payments to government, which is $40 billion.’

Report continues here.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

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Illinois bill would override local law to allow homeless living in all public parks

Posted in Barrington Hills Park District, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), New Normal?, Politics, Property Taxes, Springfield, Wirepoints on April 14, 2026| 2 Comments »

 

Get ready to see homeless camps in parks across Illinois if a bill gaining traction in the Illinois House becomes law. It would override local restrictions to allow homeless encampments in all public parks. Local towns, park districts, cities, forest preserves and all other municipalities of any kind would have their home rule authority on the matter stripped away.

It’s House Bill 1429, the Local Regulation of Unsheltered Homelessness Act, which says local governments wouldn’t be able to establish or enforce a rule fining or criminally punishing homeless people for participating in “life sustaining activities.”

But “life sustaining activities,” under the bill’s definition, means most anything people routinely do. It would include, but not be limited to, “moving, resting, sitting, standing, lying down, sleeping, protecting oneself from the elements, eating, drinking 5(excluding alcohol), and storing personal property as needed to shelter oneself.”

It has 21 sponsors to date including House Speaker Chris Welch, and 872 homeless advocates and organizations have filed witness slips supporting the bill. An April 15 Housing Committee hearing is the next step.

Article continues here.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

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New IRS Migration Numbers: Illinois Taxpayers Continue to Flee With Their Income

Posted in Blame Canada, Cost of Living, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Fat Bastard, Immigration, Politics, Property Taxes, Unions, Wirepoints on March 24, 2026| 1 Comment »

By Mark Glennon and John Klingner* | Wirepoints

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday released its annual numbers on taxpayer interstate migration, which are for changes from 2022 to 2023. In several ways, these numbers are more important than census numbers because they measure income taxpayers and are precise — the IRS knows and reports how many taxpayers changed their residence from one state to another.

Here are the key takeaways for Illinois:

  • For the year, Illinois lost 54,000 people (tax filers and their dependents), to net domestic out migration. That’s the 3rd most in the nation, behind only California and New York.
  • The annual incomes of people moving out of Illinois are far bigger than for those moving in — $104,000 vs. $79,000.
  • From 2000 through 2023, Illinois lost 780,000 net taxpayers (filers) to out-migration.
  • Adding in those taxpayers’ dependents, Illinois lost 1.6 million net residents to out-migration from 2000 through 2023.
  • Most importantly, since 2000, $94 billion of  Adjusted Gross Income left with departing taxpayers. That’s just for the first year after departure. Assuming they continued to work, the true aggregate total is far higher.

Details are in the charts shown.

On the surface, it may appear that Illinois’ rate of loss declined in that the number of taxpayer leaving with their income was less than recent years, as you can see in the charts. However, that reduction is likely attributable to the sharp decline in moves of any kind — to a record low. 2023 saw the fewest amount of moves nationwide since the U.S government began tracking the data in the 1940s. That reduction in moves resulted mostly from the sale sclerosis that set in as mortgage interest rates spiked from 2022 to 2023. That left many homeowners reluctant to sell because they did not want to give up the low-rate mortgages they obtained earlier.

Among other states, the biggest winners of taxpayers and income gained were Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Arizona, in that order.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Article continues here.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints and John Klingner was earlier its Research Director.

Editorial note: Those living in Illinois illegally, such as the 25-year-old Venezuelan migrant Jose Medina of the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road in the Rogers Park neighborhood who assassinated an 18-year-old Loyola University freshman recently, are likely not counted in the IRS figures.

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Illinois Is Forcing Ideology on Its Employees — and Calling It ‘Training’

Posted in Barrington Education Association, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Elections, Look For The Union Label, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, Wirepoints on December 24, 2025| 1 Comment »

By: Mark Glennon | Wirepoints

Parts of America’s political left have awoken in their own way. They’ve seen the backlash against DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) extremism and backed off, at least a little. One liberal think tank, for example, recently published a memo advising the left to drop much of the DEI language it spawned. The language makes the left “sound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory, enforcers of wokeness,” says the memo.

But the State of Illinois didn’t get that memo. In fact, it’s much worse: The state’s mandatory, annual training for its workers demands obedience to the worst of DEI catechism not just on language, but on thoughts and conduct. All state employees are now subject to DEI social engineering that’s as dogmatic and extreme as ever. Disobey and you can be fired. That’s not just tyrannical, it likely would make for a constitutional challenge based on the First Amendment.

This Orwellian employee training was partly exposed last week through a social media post that went viral about the training document used by Illinois State Police. Libs of TikTok published parts of that document, which garnered over 300,000 views on X alone.

But the training is statewide. The document used for the State Police is from the template for every agency, called “LGBTQIA+ Equity and Inclusion 2025,” published by the Office of Equity, which is part of Gov. JB Pritzker’s office. During his first term, Pritzker issued an executive order creating that office, saying that all state employees “shall participate in annual trainings focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion as directed by the Chief Equity Officer.” Today, the office is headed by Dr. Atiera Coleman, a career “equity” champion.

Chief Equity Officer Dr. Atiera L. Coleman

Skim through the document and you will quickly see that it’s not about routine professional training and compliance with nondiscrimination law. It dictates a political agenda of speech and conduct adhering to politics of the most extreme voices on “systemic oppression,” the horrors of capitalism, LGBTQIA+ theory, “intersecting identities” and the like. It’s ideological dogma that includes a required, signed certification by the employee that they understand that failure to comply with such policies and procedures “may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of State employment/appointment.”

Read more here.

Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

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Pritzker says ‘Donald Trump and his cronies can fuck all the way off’ to standing ovation from public teachers’ union – YouTube

Posted in Barrington Education Association, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Fat Bastard, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, School Districts, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on November 2, 2025| 2 Comments »

Watch the video here.

Our thanks to Wirepoints for the graphic and post.

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Four Percent Budget Cuts For Illinois? Not so Fast.

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Deception, Elections, Ethics, Perjury, Politics, Wirepoints on October 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Pritzker’s budget directive has no teeth and he has pulled this stunt often, even as the budget soared. | Courtesy NPR

By Mark Glennon | Wirepoints

Headlines across the state recently claimed Gov. JB ordered 4% budget cuts across the state, thanks to stingy federal budget action. “Gov. Pritzker orders 4% cuts across state agencies, blames federal policies,” said a FOX Chicago headline, for example. Politico even reported that Pritzker issued an order “codifying” his distrust of President Donald Trump’s economic agenda.

“Show me” should be your response. Pritzker in fact ordered no budget cuts and he has pulled this stunt many times before, with no results.

First, you have to go to the operative document Pritzker signed, which is an executive order, and you have to skip past the “Whereas” clauses which are rhetoric with no effect.

You will find that the supposed budget cuts are just aspirational, not mandatory. The order directs state agencies to submit a report outlining progress on their undertaking of a review to identify spending reductions. Agencies are directed to manage State funds and other resources “with a goal to reserve 4 percent” of FY26 General Funds appropriations, but only “To the extent possible, and without compromising essential operations,” the meaning of which isn’t provided. It orders a “pause” in non-essential purchases and expenditures, but there’s no description of what that means or how much would be saved.

That’s it. Nothing firm or binding.

Read on here.

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Pritzker, who now says Trump has dementia, played major role covering up Biden’s infirmity

Posted in Commodius Maximus, Deception, Elections, Ethics, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, The Chicago Way, Wirepoints on October 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

And Pritzker’s diagnosis came just as we learned that Biden needed a palm card with pictures to recognize Pritzker and other key Democrats.

By Mark Glennon | Wirepoints

The irony couldn’t be richer.

Just a day after we learned that President Joe Biden needed palm cards with pictures to recognize Pritzker and other key Democrats, Pritzker said Tuesday that it’s Trump who has dementia and should be removed from office.

But the hypocrisy is still richer still because Pritzker played a big role in the scandalous coverup of Biden’s mental decline.

Pritzker, while serving as a proxy for Biden, frequently and firmly attested to Biden’s mental health. Pritzker became vicious about it, attempting to smear a respected special prosecutor for concluding the Biden was too impaired to stand trial.

It’s all in a column I wrote last year describing how Pritzker helped cover up Biden’s decline. That column is reproduced in full below.

Read more here.

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Pritzker Blames Trump for Charlie Kirk Assassination

Posted in Ethics, Fat Bastard, OP/Ed, Politics, Washington Post, Wirepoints on September 11, 2025| 1 Comment »

Pritzker making his comments on Kirk on Wednesday

Washington Post editorial: “a disgracefully ill-timed comment” by Pritzker

By Mark Glennon | Wirepoints

Here’s what JB Pritzker said Wednesday about the murder of Charlie Kirk:

“It’s got to stop. And I think there are people who are fomenting it in this country. I think the president’s rhetoric often foments it. We’ve seen the January 6 rioters who clearly have tripped a new era of political violence. And the president, what did he do? He pardoned them. I mean, what kind of signal does that send to people who want to perpetrate political violence? Not a good one.”

Even the Washington Post editorial board couldn’t stomach that, writing, ”Though Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) decried the violence, he couldn’t help himself from taking a dig at Trump. ‘I think the president’s rhetoric often foments it,’ he said, a disgracefully ill-timed comment.

Other condemnations of Pritzker are flooding social media.

What makes this more extraordinary is that Pritzker’s words have been among the most incendiary in American political history.

Read more here.

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Poof. Another $26 Billion of Debt Has Magically Disappeared From Illinois Financial Statements

Posted in Deception, Ethics, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Transparency, Wirepoints on August 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By: Mark Glennon* | Wirepoints

About $26 billion of State of Illinois liabilities for public employee healthcare just vanished – a decrease of over 56% of that liability in one year. Any questions? Never mind, because you won’t find explanations here or anywhere else, but read on.

The long overdue 2023 financial statements are contained in what’s called the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR, formerly called a CAFR) published on August 7. It’s the state’s key financial report because it’s audited, based on actual results and is on an accrual basis. That means that, unlike phony state budgets, growing debts are included in the bottom line and borrowed money is not counted as if it’s income.

On the surface, the bottom line in the new CAFR would appear to be good news. The state’s Net Position (which you can think of as net worth) improved from negative $185 billion to negative $170 billion.

Why the improvement?

It wasn’t that the pension situation eased. That actually worsened, with unfunded liabilities increasing $5.7 billion from the fiscal year 2022 balance of $139.8 billion. (Notably, that deterioration occurred despite an exceptionally good year in the markets that saw the S&P 500 returning over 22%, pushing up pension asset values).

The answer is the magical erasure of liability for what are called OPEBs (Other Post Employment Benefits). OPEBs are basically healthcare promises made to state employee pensioners. For nearly 75% of state-employee (SERS) retirees, the state covers healthcare from the day they retire until Medicare kicks in, plus some supplemental benefits thereafter. OPEB liabilities are measured by actuaries much like pensions, except that OPEBs are entirely unfunded. That is, no money is set aside by the state for estimated future healthcare obligations based on work already performed.

Read on here.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

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