Dan Proft

Excellent piece on voter fraud. As I've been saying for some time, the system is the fraud. Therefore, as @CynicalPublius rightly argues, the GOP needs to operate within the system to foreclose on the aspects of the system (which varies from state-to-state) that throw the doors open to manipulations.

Only Frank the History Teacher can connect the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck to the location of the Bears' new stadium. Below is this week's installment of @MorningAnswer's "In-depth History" as there is nothing new in this world. It's just the history you don't know and Frank does. +++ Gales of November Good Morning! Lake Superior is the most interesting of the Great Lakes. It’s cold all year and its deepest trench of over 1330 feet actually goes well below sea level. It also covers up a mountain called the Superior Shoal which at its closest point to the surface is only 21 feet deep. North of Copper Harbor it has been a major hazard to ships ever since it likely sunk two newly constructed minesweepers on their voyage over to Europe during WWI. Much further east, the Edmund Fitzgerald which perished 51 years ago tonight in the middle of a snowstorm with hurricane force winds, tragically sunk with 29 souls on board on its way to safe harbor near Whitefish Bay. Its fateful journey originated in Superior, WI carrying a heavy load of taconite pellets, which are a wonder of modern tech and capital investment. Prior to World War II, the Mesabi Range of NE Minnesota produced high amounts of hematite ore, which could be used as is by steel plants. But these reserves became depleted and the less rich taconite ore, which is technically a rock, could be crushed down and then magnetically separated to create uniform pellets. But the huge investment required tax certainty in a very liberal state so an Amendment to the State Constitution in 1964 which strictly limited the taxes on taconite for 25 years was passed. The industry then boomed. But when crisis hit the American steel industry in the early to mid 80s, the Land of 10,000 Lakes politicians knew in 1989 they would have to temper their itch to raise taxes on an industry that creates lots of union jobs and votes in Duluth. Today taconite is still lightly taxed upon extraction. And the revenue is kept local “in lieu” of property taxes. Sounds a lot like the potential deal the Bears might make with our craven legislature. I’d rather eliminate the gas tax and let them move to London if they want. But…. Ya know…..Bears. The kids at school are all into this too wearing #18. When I ask why they are wearing Mike Tomczak jerseys I only get a blank stare.

"He's so well-spoken." So was Harold Hill. First, Adam Smith never used the word "capitalism" much less did he coin it. Second, Smith's main target in The Wealth of Nations was mercantilism--the state conferring benefits to favored sectors or companies--which is exactly what El-Sayed like so many pols in DC promotes. The only "danger" of monopoly is one established by the government--you know, like Medicare for All. Third, his laments about corporations using their resources to influence pols (what about unions?) and agency capture call to mind P.J. O'Rourke's observation that, "As long as buying and selling is controlled by legislation, the first thing to be bought and sold will be legislators." El-Sayed is a free marketeer like RuPaul is a woman.

I don't doubt the intelligence Kennedy references. We know Iran has ballistic missiles that can reach Germany. The question is, if Kennedy is free to say this out loud why didn't Trump do the same for the past 7 months?

Because the Iron Sheik is unavailable.

On @sagesteele's podcast, @RonDeSantis nicely laid out the debate that needs to be elevated within the GOP between neo-mercantilists, who are just as damaging to the party's brand as the banished neo-cons, and free enterprise advocates. Cult of personality politics is not sustainable and Trump is not replicable. Therefore, we better get the ideas right and translate them into pragmatic policy solutions for people's economic security concerns. The beggar thy neighbor and redistributionist policies that the DSA cheerleads and much of the GOP publicly criticizes while passively accepting won't cut it. To truly be America First is to enhance the sovereignty of the individual at the expense of the state. In other words, it is to maximize our economic liberty not simply patronize a different set of rent-seekers.

This is a piece I wrote for @theamgreatness after the Vance-Walz VP debate in 2024. I said at the time, "I recognize now is not the time to have an internal fight about the Republican Party’s philosophy on the role of government. Just consider this me putting a marker down for discussion at a later date because that debate is in the offing regardless of the outcome on November 5th." Well, after Tuesday, I'm calling in my marker. +++ I Disagree with Vance Agreeing with His Opponent JD Vance roundly received high marks for his debate performance and rightfully so. He exhibited poise. He generally offered cogent, rational answers. He dwarfed Field Marshal Walz on policy knowledge. And, importantly, Vance did a better job of presenting Trump as a pragmatic problem-solver than Trump himself did during his debate. But there was one aspect of Vance’s performance that was troubling: his agreement with his oafish Bolshevik of an opponent on so many issues… …My criticism is not of Vance’s amiable, polite and gentlemanly demeanor or even his repeated concession that Walz is well-intended, though the latter was unnecessarily effusive and aided Walz in illegitimately positioning himself as a non-threatening, knuckleheaded sit-com dad despite the fact he is a ghoulish fabulist who sanctions both withholding medical treatment to babies who survive abortions and allowing kids who do make it out of the womb to mutilate themselves. Rather, my overriding concern is how often Vance started from the same policy premise as Walz. Vance said, “I agree with my opponent” ten times. It wasn’t like Walz confined his remarks to observing that water is wet and the sun sets in the West. For example, Vance’s criticism of the backdoor Green New Deal wasn’t that it was inflationary cronyism but only that the taxpayer-funded solar panel manufacturing should be done in the US not China. On paid family leave, Vance did not suggest this was a private employer-employee matter. He agreed with Walz that paid family leave should be mandated and funded by the federal government. On childcare, Vance did not suggest dramatically reducing taxes as well as government subsidies to grow families’ disposable income while reducing the cost of care. He agreed with Walz that it should be further subsidized by the federal government and a Trump-Vance administration would use revenues derived from taxing imports to finance those increased subsidies. On the backdoor takeover of health care called Obamacare, don’t expect Vance to be pushing for a market-based replacement after congratulating Trump for salvaging it. I recognize now is not the time to have an internal fight about the Republican Party’s philosophy on the role of government. Just consider this me putting a marker down for discussion at a later date because that debate is in the offing regardless of the outcome on November 5th. Is government a force for good or a necessary evil to be strictly limited? That’s the big question. Based on the entitlements, mandates, tax credits and other industrial policy manipulations for which Vance has expressed support during his short time in the Senate, I suspect he is the camp that sees government as a force for good forever in “partnership” with valued individuals and organizations. And that is the approach that has America $35 trillion in debt with another $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Perhaps this is not the case. Maybe, solely out of political expediency, Vance chose to appeal to those who thoughtlessly feel their way through life by being conciliatory with his paternalistic opponent to signal that he too will ensure obligation-free government provisions for them. That is the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is Vance and Walz really do agree that much because to agree with Tim Walz in principle is to eliminate any limiting principle on the size, scope and cost of government.

The head of Chicago's African American Contractors Association told the Daily Mail that those overseeing Obama's center have failed minority builders, while a Hispanic plumber who claims he lost his business because he wasn't paid for his company's work on the center says he's living off his tax return. +++ Richard Epstein, the University of Chicago legal scholar who helped mount an unsuccessful legal challenge to the presidential center, gave a brutal assessment of its finances. 'Everything about this project has been done on fumes,' Epstein told the Daily Mail. 'The reason they can't pay the contracts is they don't have the money in the till.' +++ Chicago conservative radio host Dan Proft told the Daily Mail that the center has been a 'boondoggle since the beginning' and said that minority-owned businesses had been particularly exposed to the financial fallout. 'The net result is that a bunch of people who did a bunch of work - disproportionately, minority contractors - have been destroyed,' he said.

A study in graciousness. Clearly a man focused on serving the good people of Michigan. This will be remembered.

The people have spoken and now must be punished. Thank you, Ed Koch.

Looks like one of the disingenuous talking points of anti-Semites and economic illiterates is by the boards.

This week's installment of @MorningAnswer's "In-depth History" with Frank the History Teacher from Arlington Heights, who is recommended by 4 out of 5 dentists (read and you'll get it), tackles the DSA...because there's nothing new in this world, it's just the history you don't know and Frank does. +++ Aquafresh Good Morning! One life lesson I always tell me students is to floss daily. I usually go through the various problems they may face later like Crowns and Root Canals. But then I also talk about how not doing so leads to bad breath. I sometimes even show the old George Kennedy Breath Assure Commercial to get my point across. But when Going to Church in Medieval Times bad breath, well, would have been the least of your worries. Churchgoers generally had to stand the whole time – there were no pews, except for the wealthy. And they would have all smelled just AWFUL! In an age of no deodorant, toilet paper, soap, or running water, one can only imagine the stench. It’s actually why they burned so much frankincense and myrrh in Medieval Churches. One just had to go too, as the ruling Cosmology of the Age insisted that the Afterlife was paramount, so not following the rules would mean more time in Purgatory at least. For the more recalcitrant ones though, Excommunication was a punishment that would deny you the Sacraments if you persisted in your wayward behaviors. Anathematization though, is another punishment altogether. Usually reserved for heretics, it involved a Papal ceremony and the sinner being completely separated from the faith community. In the Middle Ages, sometimes even animals were Anathematized. Secular courts often held full trials with defense attorneys for the accused fauna. The most common defendants were pigs who killed children. Ecclesiastical courts though, would also try rodents, pests and insects, especially those who ruined crops. One famous case in St Julien, France in 1587 was over the failure of a wine crop. The insects’ defense attorney argued the Bible said they were here before man, so they had rights to eat this crop. But the court decided they should be anathematized and were restricted to a specific nearby field. Not sure if the bugs complied. This sounds crazy. But really no more so than today’s Bolshevik Democratic Party and anything it spits out. But a form of Anathema might improve our world today, and it involves kicking out of the Republican party the turncoats who either support or work for that bad Oliver Platt impersonator down in Springfield.

“It’s very easy to be a socialist in a capitalist country. It’s illegal to be a capitalist in a socialist country. That is the difference.” Wonderful rhetorical flourish from economist Daniel Di Martino. Denson also served a very useful function in accurately describing the position of the entire Democrat (DSA) Party. On the ballot today.

Sigh. Maybe a better topic for a closing/GOTV speech would have been how the GOP is the party of the Red Baron pizza guy (in Michigan no less) and we need all the Walt Z. 's who haven't voted to get out tomorrow.

Please pray for Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois President Chuck Sullivan (center in the blue blouse) and the West Chicago Fire Fighters Local 3970 pictured with Illinois' Abdul El-Sayed after these transvestites recent elected to push forward and have their penises removed to complete their transitions. You'll be seeing them in ladies' bathrooms in the burbs very soon. Good luck, fellas.

This K-12 visionary is the JB/BJ/CTU choice for Chicago Public School Board President. What ails CPS--the 20% decline in student enrollment in the last decade while hiring went up 25% during COVID, the increasingly dismal test scores, the highest paid teachers in the country in spite of said student performance--is the fault of Jews and assorted honkies. I'd like to see Hilario's transcripts. But I digress. Hilario & Co. look out for the black and brown kids by taking away their scholarships to better schools. If only there was a Chicago mayoral candidate or an opposition party in Illinois willing to offer more than lip service in support of school choice and defenestrating CTU. Useful idiots like these two jamokes are ripe targets.

From the DSA big city mayors pushing government grocers, now comes city-government-backed mortgages. @rcwhalen and I pored over this forthcoming moral hazard in Philly along with the ongoing commercial real estate crash in big blue cities on @MorningAnswer. morninganswerchicago.com/chr…

Bipartisanship. Both Trump and Peltola believe Peltola and her "Decoy Dan" co-fraudsters should be prosecuted.

Good riff by the DHS GC. I would've added a simple rhetorical question, which law do I get to violate without consequence or is that a privilege solely reserved for noncitizens?

To be fair, he was a crackhead at the time.