I had to do a double take when I saw that Jewel was advertising in their “deals” an ear of corn for 79 cents. Well, there’s another item to cross off my to-buy list. I know, it is costing more in seeds, water, fuel, etc. for farmers to grow their crops and get them to market, but as usual, it always rolls downhill onto the consumer.
* * *
With the new salary schedule for the DuPage County Board members, they will be making $62,000 a year. That’s with health insurance, dental insurance and being eligible for retirement benefits. They have 22 to 24 meetings a year that last an average of one hour. That is more than $2,500 an hour. What a great job! And no formal education or training is required. File to run as a Democrat and promise to spend more money and you get elected. To be fair, can each resident of the county sign up to be a board member for one year? We can each pocket the $62,000 for a year for a few meetings, and it’s okay if we miss a few of the meetings. How many other people in the county volunteer their time for library boards, park district hoards and village boards or committees? The average salary in the United States for a full-time worker, 2,080 hours of work, is $64,000. And then double this perk for the Forest Preserve Board members. Quite a scam they have going, that we are paying for. This is ridiculous!
* * *
Nice to see the 77-year-old grandmom back in Speak Out again. One of her rants about Donald Trump is that he’s added $2.8 trillion to the national debt so far in his second term. I’m glad she brought up the national debt, which is approaching $40 trillion. The national debt has grown under Trump’s watch, but he’s not solely responsible for where the debt is today. Presidents and members of Congress of both political parties share the blame for racking up this obscene amount of debt. I read that somewhere between 90 and 92 percent of the national debt has occurred since 2000 alone—from $5.7 trillion to what it is today. The national debt grew between $8.6 and $9.3 trillion when the Messiah, Barack Obama, was president for two terms. And it grew another 8.4 trillion alone when Joe Biden sleepwalked through his one term as president. So I’m keeping score just like you, grandmom.
* * *
The debate over medicalizing young people who identify as “trans” should not be political, but let’s ignore the so-called "right" if you don't trust their neutrality. What remains are those who come from a left/liberal perspective who oppose gender medicine for young people, not because of their personal preferences or prejudices, but because they have looked deeply into the evidence, where they find serious health harms and poor evidence that those transitioning are better off, with reduced distress. Most have risked their careers and their circle of friends to take this position: their personal interest would push them to go along with transgender orthodoxy, but their consciences won't allow it. In contrast, those who are most vocally pro-trans-medicalization are mostly self-interested: either transgender-identified themselves or having participated in the medical transition of young people—both invested in the need for medicalization to be a good thing—or they are tied to the Democratic Party and fear the trans lobby and loss of funding. Who has greater credibility? Did you know that Illinois is a “sanctuary state” offering cross-sex hormones and surgeries to minors whose parents believe “transition” would be a grave mistake and refuse parental consent?
* * *
Can someone explain the commercials about credit-card use starting July 1? It sounds like we have a huge problem, but there is no information from our state on this. Do we really have to start using cash for tax and tips?
* * *
To the writer advocating for raiding daycare centers and autistic care centers in Illinois. Why would we want the government to raid a facility caring for children or disabled people? Think of how upsetting to children that would be. The state and federal government have the right to audit these centers—not by swooping in with violence, but by doing a calm, well-planned audit. The only reason for using crazy tactics is to create content for X or Truth Social or whatever. Minnesota was already investigating and penalizing fraud that it discovered without help from the federal government. Stay calm and carry on.
* * *
Protesters, wake up. You can’t give a monkey a machine gun. You can’t give Iran an atomic bomb. President Trump has the right idea. Let him do his job.
* * *
Yes, it’s Lombard calling. It is past Mother’s Day; cut your grass. Thank you.
* * *
Trump started the redistricting war and now the country is a mess—no surprise. The fact is that no matter how voters are grouped in districts, Democrats can still win elections, but you have to vote. It is more important now than ever. We need every Democrat vote so we can once again impeach Trump and this time, if we take the Senate, we can actually remove this vicious, racist president.
* * *
The people who oppose voter ID lack common sense and logic. If a person lacks the ability to verify their American citizenship, why would you want them to control your future and that of our country by voting? Thank you.
* * *
I think Gov. Pritzker is exhibiting “spite politics” when he will not lower or eliminate the gas tax temporarily. He suspended it temporarily in 2022. It is going up from 48.3 cents to 49.6 cents a gallon on July 1, and we still pay a state sales tax of 6.25 percent. He has the authority to do something with legislative approval. President Trump said he wants to lower the federal gas tax, which is 18.4 cents a gallon, but he will need congressional approval to do so, whether or not he believes that. Now this is something to get out there and protest about; these high taxes that we pay in Illinois, one of the highest in all the country. And contact your legislators, too.
* * *
So instead of calling people idiots, the person in Speak Out who was called out for name-calling, now calls them fools, nitwits and morons. Seriously, what business is it of yours if people want to march or protest over something they deem important? I am not one of the marchers or protesters, by the way, but as long as people go about it peacefully, it doesn’t affect my life. If you were on the internet, I would suggest you “scroll on” but this is real life, so maybe take another route, or mind your own business. Name-calling is so juvenile and just makes you look like the “idiot.”
* * *
I noticed gas prices have shot up past $5 per gallon around here. When is the war going to end so prices will drop like a rock, as Trump claims they will? Well, it’s not going to end anytime soon. Thanks Orange Man! And thanks JB Pritzker. Pritzker has certainly contributed to the cost of gas these days. He raised the gasoline tax from 19 cents per gallon a few years ago to almost 50 cents per gallon today.
* * *
The main reason I keep hearing that Donald Trump and Israel started bombing Iran is because they don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Fair enough. I think the world would be a far more dangerous place if Iran had nuclear weapons. But then I got to thinking about North Korea. The policy of the U.S. government for many years was to not allow North Korea to have nuclear weapons. Guess what? They’ve had nuclear weapons since 2006. We didn’t go bomb North Korea to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon, and I consider Kim Jong Un to be more unhinged than any of the ayatollahs who happen to be running Iran these days.
