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.
I am an Israeli intelligence operative assigned to the team that destroyed Thomas Massie.
Yes. It was us. Israel did it.
We inceptioned Thomas Massie to be the lone Republican "no" vote on the budget resolution. For Israel.
We inceptioned him to be the lone Republican "no" vote on the continuing resolution to keep the government funded. For Israel.
We inceptioned him to force every member of Congress to fly back to Washington during a pandemic to vote on COVID relief — a move so enraging that Trump called him a "third-rate grandstander" and demanded he be kicked out of the party. For Israel.
We inceptioned him to vote against sanctions on North Korea. The only member of the House. For Israel.
We inceptioned him to force a roll call vote on giving Jack Nicklaus a congressional gold medal. For Israel.
We inceptioned him to vote against the Stolen Valor Act. Three people voted no. He was one of them. For Israel.
We inceptioned him to be one of only two Republicans to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill. For Israel.
Politico called him "Mr. No." That was our idea. For Israel.
Did it take years of meticulous planning to convince a libertarian MIT engineer who lives off the grid on a farm in Kentucky to oppose every single thing his party did regardless of what it was?
Yes. But that's what we do.
You figured us out, Thomas. We never thought you'd crack the code.
Our Corporation Counsel needs to immediately halt the use of any @KimFoxx certificates of innocence!
The fact she allowed these criminals to manipulate her in order to get a certificate of innocence that our @ChicagoCityLaw used to justified taxpayer-funded settlements.
If this isn’t a crime, it damn well should be.
I want to tell you the story of a young woman who you have probably never heard of. Her name is Mary Anne. She was born on a remote island in Scotland, where life was harsh and unforgiving.
On May 2, 1930, when she was 18 years old, she got on a boat headed for Ellis Island to start a new life. She arrived here 11 days later.
She wasn't chasing fame, riches, or power. She came for the unique opportunity that America offered. Her sister was already here and had found a job as a maid. So, Mary Anne MacLeod joined her, listing her occupation as “domestic” on her Ellis Island immigration papers.
She came to America knowing that she would clean the houses and toilets of the wealthy families in New York. She and her sister lived and worked hard through the worst days of the Depression. And she persevered.
Six years later, she married a man named Fred. He was the son of German immigrants. Then In 1942, she became a citizen.
Mary and Fred would end up having five children: two daughters and three sons.
One of those sons, they named Donald.
A woman who came here as a maid, the lowest of jobs, would raise a son who would change the very skyline that greeted his mother when she arrived at Ellis Island.
After that, he would become the 45th and 47th President of the United States.
There is no other country in the world where a woman can arrive with nothing, and in ONE generation, her son would lead the entire world.
For America’s 250th anniversary, I wanted to present President Trump with this painting I did, and then I ran out of time and talent. So, I asked a good friend of mine, Mike Malm, to help me finish it. This is how I envisioned her coming into the United States.
Mary Anne MacLeod Trump should be a household name. Her story is everything that is great about America.
NYT: "You've been talking on your show about whether Trump is the Antichrist"
Tucker Carlson: "I have not said that"
NYT: You said, "Here's a leader mocking the Gods of his ancestors, mocking the God of Gods, and exalting himself above them. Could this be the Antichrist?"
TC: "I actually did not say 'could this be the Antichrist?'"
NYT: ***plays clip of him saying exactly that***
TC: "I don't know where that comes from, but I know those words never left my lips"
@RaymondALopez@ChicagosMayor Amen Ald Lopez. Thank you for your diligence and determination in the face of the ongoing and relentless stupidity coming from the City “leadership”.
I told Senator Sheldon WhiteClub today that I won’t be listening to or caring about any of his lessons on morality knowing that he joined an all-white Rhode Island Country Club.
I’m also done with the likes of AOC, Al Gore, John Kerry, and the rest of the lying cabal that make stupid climate predictions, plunder tens of billions of tax dollars, enrich their well-connected allies, and are committed to strangulating out of existence entire sectors of our economy.
Climate alarmist AOC wants to be taken seriously while also insisting the world is imminently about to end due to climate change (Just under 5 years remain on her nutty Jan 2019 prediction that only 12 years of life are left on Earth).
Al Gore is now speaking publicly about his concern with global freezing after decades of grift talking about global warming. “Within the decade there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro,” said Gore in 2006 (There’s still snow on Kilimanjaro year-round). Gore also predicted in 2009 ice-free Arctic summers within 5-7 years.
John Kerry warned in 2009 that the Arctic would be ice-free by 2013.
These people are dishonest, power-hungry hacks.
The GREEN NEW SCAM is DEAD!!!
Electronic monitoring is not appropriate for violent individuals who pose a risk to public safety. It does not keep people safe.
The consequences are dire.
We mourn the loss of Officer John Bartholomew and pray his partner will recover. This tragedy should never have happened.
Listen to @RaymondALopez perfectly explain the worldview of Cook County judges.
Criminals are sympathetic figures.
Law-abiding citizens are left to fend for themselves.
It's open season on Chicago Police.
Eileen O'Neill Burke today after a Chicago cop was killed by a man on EM with four pending violent felonies:
"Electronic Monitoring system is broken. It does not work. It does not keep people safe."
SA O'Neill Burke gets it. This is why crime has dropped 22 percent in Chicago. Until the EM program is dismantled and progressives are removed from the bench, residents of Chicago will continue to be at the mercy of violent criminals.
@JenSiebelNewsom How would you feel if I interviewed your husband and accused him of being a coke snorting philandering embezzler (all true by the way)? Would you defend me, a female? Or your shitheel husband?
You can travel to Italy, but you’ll never be an Italian.
You can travel to France but you’ll never be a Frenchman.
You can live in Germany but you’ll never be a German.
You can pack your bags and live the rest of your life in China or Japan, but you’ll never be Chinese or Japanese.
Yet you can come from any one of those countries to the United States of America, and you can still be an American – so long as you work hard, you play by the rules, you make your contributions, wait your turn, pledge allegiance to the flag, and obtain your citizenship.
Trump/Rs should immediately implement an amnesty for all illegals here who do not have a criminal record: you can stay for one year if you maintain a job.
If not employed, 6 months to find employ and limited financial benefits (SNAP cards).
In both cases, zero voting rights.
After 1 year, a 2-year probationary period. If they remain employed and have no criminal history, full citizenship.