WyGray

[1776 Live @250YearsAgoLive]

Thomas Jefferson rents an upstairs apartment at 700 Market Street, Philadelphia, so that he can write a “Declaration of Independence.”

[✞ Richard ✞ @Richard_gh1]

Three most important events:

[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.

[Plank @PlankReturns]

It’s simple. We turn Soldier Field into a giant data center.

[Fugitive Caesar @ThomBrady5]

horrific stuff https://t.co/9X1LR6EQrI

[᛭ Ian ᛭ @KnightspurHouse]

The Ride.
In the spring of 1781, as the American Revolutionary War raged in Virginia, British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton led a swift cavalry raid ordered by Lord Cornwallis to capture Governor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia General Assembly, who had fled Richmond and reconvened in Charlottesville. On the evening of June 3, 26-year-old militia captain John "Jack" Jouett Jr. was at the Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County when he spotted Tarleton's force of roughly 250 mounted troops passing by around 10 p.m. Realizing their likely target was the patriot leaders gathered about forty miles away, Jouett sprang into action to prevent a devastating blow to the Revolution.

Mounting his swift bay mare, often called Sally, Jouett embarked on a grueling overnight ride along rough backwoods trails and the overgrown Old Mountain Road, deliberately avoiding the main highway where the British advanced. Traveling under moonlight through hilly, wooded terrain in Louisa and Albemarle counties, he covered the distance in roughly six hours despite low-hanging branches and the risk of detection. Jouett arrived at Monticello just before dawn on June 4, pounding on the door to rouse Jefferson, who was preparing breakfast with legislative leaders. He then continued into Charlottesville to alert the full assembly.

Thanks to the warning, Jefferson escaped first to Monticello's nearby woods and later to Poplar Forest, while most assembly members fled to Staunton, reconvening days later. Tarleton's troops reached Charlottesville too late to seize the key figures, capturing only a few legislators but failing in their primary objective. The narrow escape preserved vital Revolutionary leadership-including Declaration of Independence signers like Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Benjamin Harrison
—at a low point when British forces seemed poised to crush Virginia resistance.

Jouett's daring feat, often called the "Paul Revere of the South," earned him formal recognition from the Virginia General Assembly, which voted him a ceremonial sword and pair of pistols for his "activity and enterprise." He later moved to Kentucky, where he farmed, entered politics, and raised a family. Though less celebrated nationally than Revere's ride, Jouett's exploit remains a proud chapter of Virginia history, marked by highway memorials, annual observances of Jack Jouett Day, and its role in sustaining American morale just months before Yorktown.

[᛭ Ian ᛭ @KnightspurHouse]

Happy Tennessee Statehood Day.

[captive dreamer @captive_dreamer]

Can't get over how important this is. The left wing Canadian establishment went all in on this and created an entire federal holiday about it. They made people wear "orange shirts" over it. They let people burn down churches.

All over an entirely fake story. Insane.

[College Football Classics @ClassicsCFB]

UConn vs Michigan (2010)

[Aedanus Burke @aedanusburke]

Our birthday is sometime in April of 1670, South Carolina was 118 years old in 1788.

[Old Row Sports @OldRowSports]

“Because you never know when the last one is”

- Kyle Busch, last week

Wow

[Will Tanner @Will_Tanner_1]

Obviously Governor Ratcliffe of Jamestown, an English leader was trying to keep Virginia alive in the face of starvation by buying food, and was tortured to death by the Indians for it

Here is how his horrible death, which came after he and his men were cheated out of corn they bought, is described in "Savage Kingdom":

"Captain Ratcliffe was seized and brought before Powhatan at his enclosure. There was no sign of Spelman, Savage or Samwell, who, 'fearing the worst', had fled. According to Smith, Spelman had been tipped off by Pocahontas that he would be in peril if he stayed.

"One of the English soldiers who had managed to escape the Indians' attack was hiding in the nearby undergrowth, and it was he who later reported to Percy what happened to Ratcliffe.

"A fire was kindled at the foot of a tree. Ratcliffe was stripped of his clothes, and tied to the tree. Several women then approached the naked captain. They began to flay his skin with the sharp edges of mussel shells, gently teasing it away from the flesh. They then sliced through the muscle and sinews to remove the limbs and organs from his body, which were before his face thrown into the fire; and so for want of circumspection (he miserably perished'."

Horrible. He was trying to keep Jamestown from starving, and did so not by seizing corn but by buying it, and in response the Indians tortured him to death

[Ryan S. Walters @ryanswalters73]

Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States (1881-1885)

Today we tend to think that to have a successful presidency one must have experience. Chet Arthur shows that not to be the case. Arthur had no experience in elected office before being chosen as the running mate for James A. Garfield in 1880. He served as Vice President from March 4, 1881 to September 19, 1881, when he was thrust into the presidential chair upon Garfield’s death from an assassin’s bullet. When hearing his friend was now in the White House, one man exclaimed: “Good God, Chet Arthur President?” That was not a vote of confidence.

BUT the world didn’t come to an end. Arthur did not mangle his job. In fact, Arthur performed very well in office. He signed the Pendleton Act, which began the process of ending the spoils system. Making it more remarkable is the fact that Arthur made his livelihood through the spoils system. Yet he was the man who began its end. He modernized the navy, restricted immigration, maintained the surplus, and sought the end of excises taxes on everything except alcohol.

In 1884, Arthur believed he deserved the nomination for a term in his own right but did not get it, the party choosing James G. Blaine instead, who went on to lose to Grover Cleveland. Yet it did not matter. Arthur was suffering from Bright’s disease, a kidney ailment, and died in 1886. Had he been elected, he would not have served out his full term.

He is portrayed in the Netflix series Death By Lightning, but the portrayal is not an accurate one. Arthur was not some drunken thug walking around with brass knuckles. And he certainly wasn’t slapped by Mrs. Garfield in the White House and dressed down. Nor did he have any of Garfield’s cabinet members kidnapped. The all-around portrayal is a disservice to Chester Arthur.

[Logan Hall @loganclarkhall]

A 25-year-old book salesman during the American Revolution carried 120,000 pounds worth of cannons over 300 miles through the frozen wilderness and didn’t lose a single gun

[Brian Roemmele @BrianRoemmele]

One Million Yen Prize tip?

Become a ventilation system.

[College Hoops @CollegeHoops]

#21 Illinois vs Michigan (2000)

[Today in History @TodayinHistory]

George Washington became the first President of the United States on this day in 1789!

[Nathanael Greene Society @ObedtStNGreene]

I’m dreaming of a White (Memphis bass pro shops pyramid) Christmas

[Leading Report @LeadingReport]

Dale Earnhardt would have turned 75 today.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr. @DaleJr]

Happy birthday to the biggest badass that ever drove a racecar. 🐐