David J Wells

[Rand Paul @RandPaul]

Requiring an ID and proof of citizenship to vote is common sense.

It’s time to pass the SAVE America Act. RT if you agree.

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Chicago lost the Bears this week. A team that's been in the city since 1921.

They didn't lose them to a bigger market or a better deal. The Bears decided they'd rather be a tenant in Indiana than deal with Illinois for one more year.

Think about how badly you have to run a place for that to be the smart move.

They lost them for two reasons.

The people running Illinois would rather villainize a builder than keep one. And they're bad at their jobs.

In 2021 the Bears spent $197M on the old Arlington Park racetrack.

Before they could break ground, Cook County valued the empty lot at $192M (Bears said $60M). They were salivating at the chance to extort a building that didn't even exist yet.

That fight dragged on for years.

The Bears were ready to put $2B into the stadium. All they wanted was a promise the county wouldn't reassess them into oblivion, plus $855M for infrastructure everyone uses. Roads, transit, utilities. A $3B project, two thirds of it private money pouring into Illinois.

Springfield had since 2021 to get this done. They dragged it to the final night of session, passed it through the Senate at 3:39AM, and the House went home without voting.

So now it's all gone.

The funniest part? This started because Cook County tried to grab the tax early. They knew a built stadium would pay $53M a year. Now they get under $4M on a vacant lot. No jobs, no buildout, no new anything.

Congrats on fighting for scraps and losing the whole prize.

Pritzker: they're "an $8.5B valued business" that doesn't need propping up.

But be smart for a second. Almost every NFL city throws in public money for a stadium. Not charity. The return is real. Tourism, hotels, restaurants, jobs, game days, property tax on a huge development. The math works.

Indiana did the math. While Illinois sat on it for years, Indiana passed a bill in months, put up $1B, and took the team.

And the Bears took a worse deal to get there. In Illinois they were going to own their stadium. In Indiana they rent it from the state. A team that wanted to build its own home gave up ownership just to escape Chicago.

Nobody won but Indiana. The Bears lost their stadium. Illinois lost the team, the $2B, and $53M a year in taxes.

Pritzker after they left: "I wasn't willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money to give it to a billionaire-owned family or team."

There it is. "Billionaire-owned."

That's how Democrats talk about any business right before they run it out of town. Call them a billionaire, act like you're saving working families, take a victory lap while the tax base drives across the state line.

Meanwhile they're running the whole state into the ground. And you already know how this ends. You're living in it.

Pensions are $143B in the hole, worst in the country and not close. You pay $6,285 a year in property taxes, double the $2,969 national average, for a city that's $1.15B in the red. The mayor called its finances "the point of no return."

When you run things this badly, you sell what's left.

They leased the parking meters for 75 years to Morgan Stanley and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi. Took $1.15B and burned through it in two years. The investors already made it all back, with 58 years left to collect.

Sold the Skyway. Sold the downtown garages. Every asset that made money, gone for one check.

But a fixed property tax rate for a team that's been here 106 years? That's "propping up billionaires."

Companies are leaving. Boeing for Virginia. Caterpillar for Texas. Citadel for Miami. In 2023 alone Illinois lost 56,000 people and $6B in income to other states. The ones who left earned a third more than the ones who moved in.

Indiana didn't outbid anyone. AAA credit, 16 years straight. A $676M surplus. Fourth-lowest debt per person in the country. They just weren't a disaster.

Illinois could have collected $53M a year. It chose zero. Ignore all the bad management but make sure to stick it to those evil, pesky billionaires.

[David J Wells @22wellzy]

@ScottDochterman Beth needs to find some $$ for BMac. Now a hot commodity.

[David J Wells @22wellzy]

@CollegeFBonX Chuck Long -Iowa

1985 Big Ten Champions, received the Davey O'Brien Award (given to the nation's best QB) and the Maxwell Award (nations best player)

[David J Wells @22wellzy]

@CollinRugg 🤡

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

This is amazing 😂

[David J Wells @22wellzy]

@ElonMNews A

[David J Wells @22wellzy]

@elonmuskADO A

[David J Wells @22wellzy]

@elonmusk It’s no conspiracy, it’s simply about maintaining power. They’ll put the illegals on the government dole for vote generation, not to fill jobs. Deport them!

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

The goal of citizenship for all illegals is very clearly stated by the leader of the Senate.

For some reason, a lot of people still think this is some crazy conspiracy theory!

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

Stan Druckenmiller on Bidenomics:

“If I was a professor, I’d give him an F. Treasury is still spending like we’re in a depression. We have 7% budget deficits at full employment… it’s unheard of.”

[Celia @CeliaBedelia]

🧵 1️⃣ When my in-laws booked their flight to Berlin (which would be their first trip abroad), my husband and I told them, “We can get a cheap flight or train ticket to almost anywhere. Where in Europe would you like to go?”

Without hesitating, my father-in-law said, “Lorraine.”

[House Republicans @HouseGOP]

🚨FLASHBACK🚨

Joe Biden in 2019 when asked about cutting off military aid to Israel.

"The idea that we would cut off military aid to an ally, our only true, true ally in the entire region, is absolutely preposterous. It's just beyond my comprehension anyone would do that."

[Dane @UltraDane]

The University of Rhode Island announced plans to remove two murals depicting World War II veterans because they were deemed to be predominately white and lacking diversity, according to complaints from students.

This is how it should have gone:

Them: That's racist
Me (the Dean): GFY and while you're doing that pack your bags, you're gone.

[Dave Portnoy @stoolpresidente]

Jealously is a stinky cologne. Pass it along to all the Caitlin Clark haters.

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

California Sheriff Is Not Afraid To Speak The Truth

“We are here today because California public safety is in crisis. Crime is steadily on the rise and our public safety policy is one of the worst, if not the worst in the nation. I wanna make this clear and I want there to be no mistake in what I am saying. This is not by accident.”

“The driving force in our crisis is a radical progressive agenda fraudulently called criminal justice reform. This is nothing short of a sick and twisted social experiment where law enforcement is the bad guy and criminals are somehow victims of society and not responsible for their actions, their crimes, or accountable to their countless victims.”

“Thousands upon thousands of criminals are being released from custody early, crime is increasing and our governor is closing prisons instead of building new ones. It defies common sense. — We are now at our breaking point and Californians have had enough.”

I can’t transcribe this all due to X’s text limits but this is an excellent listen.

[Collin Rugg @CollinRugg]

JUST IN: Kevin O’Leary educates CNN host about the Trump “fraud” trial, says every developer in America would be penalized like Trump if treated the same way.

🔥🔥🔥

“Excuse me. What fraud? You get a developer that builds a building and he says it's worth $400 million, and he wants to borrow $200 million from a bank, which happens every day, everywhere on earth.”

“That haggling has gone on for decades. That's how it works… The bank that was supposedly defrauded testified and said: ‘We didn't lose anything. We want to do business with this guy again. We'd like to.’ But the judge said, no, no, no, no, no, no.”

“Let's penalize this developer for $355 million.”

“If we're going to do that, let’s penalize all the developers all across America. They've all done the same thing. All of them should go to jail and we should stop building buildings. That's what the message is from New York.”

Video: @WesternLensman

[Brian Ray @HawkeyeBRay]

One photographer, four angles of @CaitlinClark22 ’s record breaking shot. The power of remotes to help tell a story is unmatched. I can’t wait until we can share every angle from the whole team. @FlightCrew319 was on another level tonight.

[David J Wells @22wellzy]

@CNN CNN with misleading commentary…again. CPI up 0.3% in January. https://t.co/OGUoV6IrYW