Jeremiah Smith

RN, gym rat, Broncos/Royals/KU fanatic

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@Dgingsz Buy after the dump?

[End Wokeness @EndWokeness]

NOVEMBER 30, 2010:

Four weeks after losing the election as AG of CA, Kamala Harris wins due to mail-in surge from LA

Harris won by less than 1%

[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.

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@TroyRenck @PatSurtainll It all adds up come January

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@M_Vernon Double??

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@JD_RCJH @therandomsec It just means more 🤷🏻‍♂️😂

[Kansas Baseball @KUBaseball]

The Lawrence Regional: Camcorder Edition 📹

#RockChalk

[Tanning Salon Don @TheSalonDon]

In elementary school they asked how much TV we watched

I had 4 hours per day
-1 hour SportsCenter in morning
-3 hour baseball game at night

They sent an email to my parents saying I had a problem

Today there isn’t a 3rd grader on earth under 4 hours screen time

[Men's Humor @MensHumor]

We need to go back.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

Activist: "Your cows are putting carbon into the atmosphere."

Farmer: "Where did they get it?"

Activist: "What?"

Farmer: "The carbon. Where did the cow get it before it put it anywhere."

Activist: "From... eating?"

Farmer: "From eating grass. And where did the grass get it."

Activist: "The soil?"

Farmer: "The air. The grass pulled it out of the air last spring. The cow ate the grass. The cow breathed some of it back out. It went back into the air it came from."

Activist: "But it's still going into the atmosphere."

Farmer: "It's going back. There's a difference between a thing going somewhere and a thing going back. You've described a circle and you're frightened of it."

Activist: "Then just don't have the cow."

Farmer: "The grass still dies in autumn. It rots where it falls. The carbon goes back into the air either way, just without anyone getting fed in the middle."

Activist: "It's not that simple."

Farmer: "It's grass, cow, breath, grass. Or it's grass, rot, air, grass. Same circle, fewer dinners. If that's complicated for you I'd stay away from the water cycle. That one's got clouds in it."

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@Tyler_Polumbus Pressure makes diamonds

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@ClayTravis Slap’s is the place to go for KC BBQ

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@JohnyJ_15 @Koreanfan_KC All he needs is some experience

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@RefuseToLosePod It’s a great Q 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@SarahNauser Still support Cags in the daily lineup. If he isn’t going to be in the daily lineup he’ll eventually play for someone who will let him

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@MarkAGunnels Omahawks!

[blackstar @blackstarops]

one of the U.S. navy divers wearing a "NOT FLAT, WE CHECKED" patch during the artemis Il recovery operation

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@flintarmstrong Praying for you sir!

[Tim Jue @timjue]

Southwest Airlines debuts a special new livery aircraft in honor of America's 250th birthday: Independence One, registration N1776R.

Perhaps most eye-catching: "Red, white, and blue paint scheme with 1776 written in giant quill script, and the key phrase, 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' from the Declaration of Independence and the three inalienable rights endowed to all humans," the airline says.

[📸 Southwest Airlines]

[Jeremiah Smith @JerrySmith_63]

@KCRoyalsMuse Now if he was in th lineup all the time…