Let's Talk Politics Discussion in Antioch

The Tenth Congressional District Democrats and the Antioch Township Democrats are holding Let's Talk Politics in Antioch, on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, at 7:00 PM, at the Antioch Public Library, 757 N. Main St., in Antioch. Admission is free.

Let's Talk Politics is a moderated discussion and allows opportunities for Democrats, independents, and progressives in and around the 10th District to talk about important issues of the day with each other and guests that often include elected officials, candidates, political analysts, and authors.

RSVP: tenthdems.org/antioch. 

It's All About the Benjamins

An actual unretouched screencap from the Lake County Gazette, Lake County's #1 fakenews source:

Top 10 campaign contribution recipients in Lake County for the week of 2019-04-08

Your LakeCountyEye photo-enhanced the image of the campaign contribution changing hands. Here, the $1000 can be clearly seen going to Elect Dan McConchie:

Close enough for the Lake County Gazette!

Violence Prevention Advocates to Discuss Initiatives

Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy

A team from the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago will speak about their work in three of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods to reduce shootings and homicides by building safe, peaceful and just communities.

• Sunday
  May 5 2019
  2:00 pm
• The Stevenson Center on Democracy
  25200 N St Mary's Rd
  Mettawa (Libertyville), IL 60048
  773-281-0378
• $15
  (Students Free)

Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu

Just when you thought it was safe to send your hazmat suit to the cleaners:

The Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center is alerting residents of possible exposure to measles in north suburban Cook County. On March 27, 2019, the Cook County Department of Public Health reported a confirmed case of measles. The patient visited several locations near the border of Lake and Cook Counties before realizing he/she had measles.
Person with Measles Visited Locations Near Lake County Border

Does Lake County need a southern border wall? Your LakeCountyEye asked Dr. I.M. Bhatschidtkhrazzi, the Mysophobia Professor of Epidemiology at the College of Lake County.

"Ya, Lake County should impose a quarantine." said Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "But not against Cook County.  There should be a blockade around McHenry County."

Your LakeCountyEye was all like: Come again?

Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi produced a newspaper clipping on his PDA:

The booking of controversial rock musician Ted Nugent at this year's McHenry County Fair has resulted in a war of words on social media. Those opposed to his planned performance on Aug. 3 say Nugent's history of "despicable," "vulgar" and "divisive" speech is not what the family-friendly fair stands for and that he should not perform. Nugent's supporters say he is entitled to exercise his freedom of speech and have called the naysayers "snowflake democrats" and "liberal pigs," among other names.
Controversial rocker Ted Nugent is booked for McHenry County Fair. Not everyone is happy.

Was your LakeCountyEye supposed to conclude that McHenry County should be put under quarantine because they booked Ted Nugent to their County Fair?

"Absolutely." shouted Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "Do you think the Motor City Madman has been vaccinated?"

Probably not.

"It's the same story with any of these rock'n'roll bands." explained Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "They blow into town for a one-night-stand. Then leave in their wake the next day a trail of infection and disease."

Good to know.

"And who," continued Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "would count on any of these performers to wash their hands after going?"

Not your LakeCountyEye.

"You know, entertainers like these never play with any protection." confided Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "How many impressionable young McHenry County farmer's daughters will be escorted backstage -- only to return home the next day carrying God knows what?"

Would they be contagious?

"Ted Nugent and his band of three-chord minutemen," continued Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi "are gun lovers who live survivalist-style in Michigan deep-woods compounds. How many animal-to-human diseases do you think those campers are exposed to?"

A lot?

"Let me put that in some perspective." grimaced Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "If I had front-row tickets to one of their shows, at the very least I'd spray myself for ticks before going home."

Your LakeCountyEye heard enough. Did Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi have any parting advice?

"Tell your Operatives that the Illinois EPA has issued a Summer advisory warning: Avoid being anywhere downwind of the McHenry County Fair."

An Analysis of Prescription Prices: Can We Afford the Cure?

Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy

Local pharmacist Thomas Gochenour will trace the evolution of the prescription drug marketplace over the past four decades. A pharmacist since 1972, Gochenour will touch on patient safety events and legislation that have eventually led to this country’s current situation where the list prices of certain medications can cost more than $25,000 per month.

• Sunday
  April 28 2019
  2:00 pm
• The Stevenson Center on Democracy
  25200 N St Mary's Rd
  Mettawa (Libertyville), IL 60048
  773-281-0378
• $15
  (Students Free)

It's Not the Crime It's the Cover-Up

There is less to the Lake County GOP crime spree than meets the eye.

Last week, Friends 4 Helene Miller Walsh Inc filed a D-2, falsely stating that a $115,000 expenditure went to a campaign consultant at this address:

Good Faith Effort
Anytown, IL 00000

Your LakeCountyEye has subsequently learned that this practice is, in fact, not a crime. Candidate reports are not required to include addresses when they are not known.

Of course, in this particular situation, an average 3rd Grader could find the address of the Walsh campaign consultant ...

Jamestown Associates

Either with Google:

Google

Or Wikipedia:

Wikipedia

Or even the Illinois State Board of Elections website:

Expenditure List

Nonetheless, as long as a good faith effort was made by Friends 4 Helene Miller Walsh Inc, fraud was not committed.

Your LakeCountyEye stands corrected.

You Can't Get There from Here

If you always thought that the Lake County Gazette was Lake County's #1 fakenews source, disseminating misinformation from Russian Troll Farms, then think again. Last week, the Lake County Gazette broke real news:

Republican Helene Miller Walsh's election campaign committee, Friends 4 Helene Miller Walsh Inc, spent $151,511 in the fourth quarter, according to committee expenditure records obtained from the Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE). Walsh's committee spent the most on media expenses in the quarter, with all those payments ($115,304) going to Jamestown Associates in Anytown.
How did Helene Miller Walsh spend campaign funds in the fourth quarter?

This was not a result of a Lake County Gazette news-bot gone haywire. On Walsh's D-2, the address of the vendor is filed as ...

Anytown, IL 00000


Friends 4 Helene Miller Walsh Inc
D-2 Quarterly Report • 10/1/2018 to 12/31/2018

Note to Ops: Is the Lake County Gazette a partisan propaganda tool that blindly circulates fakenews gathered by mechanized news-bots? Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Lake County Gazette is quite obviously dedicated to rooting out misconduct, malfeasance and incompetence within all levels of the Lake County Republican Party!

Any Old Place

Joe Walsh, the Dean of Lake County's GOP Ex-Congressmen, may not be a Congressman any more but he knows how to spend like one. Walsh gave one consultant more than $115,000 in a failed 2018 bid to capture a seat in the US House of Representatives Springfield Statehouse:

Friends 4 Helene Miller Walsh Inc
D-2 Quarterly Report • 10/1/2018 to 12/31/2018

Make no mistake, $115,000 will buy a campaign a whole lot of something. So your LakeCountyEye tried to contact the beneficiary of Walsh's largess to find out what:

Your LakeCountyEye is still waiting for a response. Despite numerous attempts.

Note to Ops: Anytown IL -- is that near River City, Iowa?

Lake County Community Foundation Names New Executive Director

The Lake County Community Foundation is pleased to announce the promotion of Maggie Morales to Executive Director, effective March 16th. Morales, 35, becomes only the third full-time Executive Director in LCCF’s 15 year history. She brings with her more than a dozen years of experience with the Community Foundation, including direct oversight for the Foundation’s grant making, collective impact and community investment work. During this time, she has played an instrumental role in building regional initiatives such as The Alliance for Human Services, Partnership for a Safer Lake County and supporting The Lake County Together Summit. She will continue as a member of the Live Well Lake County Steering Committee and in other community leadership roles, representing the Foundation.
The Lake County Community Foundation

The News from Wooster Lake

From reading their website,

Tanneron Bay is a condominium community governed by the Illinois Condominium Act, and other applicable and related laws enacted to regulate community and shared-ownership property.
TANNERON BAY

Posted on the website is a Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions:

Wooster Lake Conservation and Control Association Covenants

Recently, this blog has received a tip that these covenants and restrictions are not valid. The tip we received was a cease and desist letter addressed to the Tanneron Bay Board of Directors:

Kaiser Nakon Letter to Tanneron Bay Holiday Park 5-8-2018

Despite the cease and desist letter, it appears that the Tanneron Bay covenants and restrictions are non-binding. According to the website these are to be observed on a voluntary basis:

In the interest of preserving and enhancing the quality of Wooster Lake, Tanneron Bay voluntarily adheres to the WLCCA Covenants as published 7/1/1999: Wooster Lake Conservation and Control Association Covenants
Tanneron Bay Government

Does this effectively nullify the cease and desist letter? I don't know the answer to that question.

Poetry and Prose Contest Awards Night

Local High School Students to be Recognized
at 9th Annual Tenth Dems
Poetry And Prose Contest Awards Night In Waukegan

The Tenth Congressional District Democrats will host its 9th Annual Poetry and Prose Contest Awards Night on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, at 7 PM. The event will take place at the Jack Benny Center for the Arts in Bowen Park, 39 Jack Benny Drive, Waukegan, IL. Admission is free. Refreshments will be served.

On Awards Night, contest winners will be announced and Tenth Dems will award 12 gift cards totaling more than $1000. Participants included students attending high schools in Waukegan, Zion, and North Chicago who submitted an original poem, essay, or story inspired by this year’s theme, RESPECT. Winning entries are selected by panels of published poets.  Every participant is invited to read their original work. 

Tenth Dems is a grassroots political organization that works to elect Democrats to all levels of government within Illinois' 10th Congressional District.

RSVP:
https://act.myngp.com/Forms/7794185500718270208?midqs=8Aro4wT0Dqr0C4uNTT7M0A==

AckAcketology

With the clock running out, local Operatives are consumed with March Madness. That all-consuming madness, of course, is not for the Consolidated Election next Tuesday -- which none of the voters know about, and even fewer will be voting in.

No, Operatives are consumed over their brackets.  They have to predict which city will host the Lake County GOP Gun Raffle & Picnic this year.

Every year the Lake County Republican Party throws a fundraiser, giving away assault weapons as raffle prizes.  Where will the GOP Gun Raffle be this year?

Your LakeCountyEye is betting it will be Deerfield:

Judge throws out Deerfield's assault weapons ban

Next up for bracketologists: What kind of assault weapon will the Lake County GOP be raffling off? AR-15? AK-47? Uzi? MAC-11? Or a Bracket Buster?

Let's Talk Politics, Saturday, Buffalo Grove

Tenth Dems and Vernon Dems Host Let's Talk PoliticsDiscussion in Buffalo Grove

The Tenth Congressional District Democrats and the Vernon Township Democrats are holding "Let's Talk Politics" in Buffalo Grove, on Saturday, March 30, 2019, at 9:30 AM, at The Buffalo Restaurant, 1180 Lake Cook Road, in Buffalo Grove. Admission is free. Breakfast available for purchase from The Buffalo Restaurant.

"Let's Talk Politics" is a moderated discussion and allows opportunities for Democrats, independents and progressives in and around the 10th District to talk about important issues of the day with each other and guests that often include elected officials, candidates, political analysts, and authors.

Tenth Dems is a grassroots political organization that works to elect Democrats to all levels of government within Illinois' 10th Congressional District.

RSVP:
https://act.myngp.com/Forms/-347196725660743936?midqs=3a3syKqkUBrRiyaX8z-zPw==

Off-Year Selections

Did you know there is an election next week? Your LakeCountyEye did not know. The election will not be a complete shutout, however, there are 652 people who will be aware of it. That's because there are 652 candidates on the Lake County 2019 Consolidated election ballot.

Your LakeCountyEye did the math. If you spend 10 seconds each on 652 candidates it will take you nearly 11 hours to cast your ballot. Be sure to get to your poll early!

As luck would have it, voters are not expected to vote for every candidate. You are not obligated to choose any candidates from the other end of the County running for Library Board and Park District and Fire District -- none or whom you've ever heard of. No, you will only be asked to vote for your local candidates for Library Board and Park District and Fire District -- none or whom you've ever heard of.

Who are they? Your LakeCountyEye may not know but your County Clerk does. Click this link to preview who will be on your ballot:

Preview your ballot

Then you can look them all up on the candidate list:

Lake County Candidate List: Consolidated Election - 4/2/2019

They will all be happy to tell you what their positions are on the issues. Tell them your LakeCountyEye sent you.

One Election One Vote

The fundamental theorem of Political Science is:

Voter turnout is inversely proportional to the number of candidates on the ballot.

Just recall 2016: that year there was one option, you got to vote for President. And the voter turnout then was huge. Two years later the ballot had significantly more candidates, Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, and the rest. No surprise, turnout in 2018, while substantial, was down bigly.

OK, what about 2019? There will be an astronomical 652 candidates running for some 230 Lake County offices:

Lake County Candidate List
Consolidated Election - 4/2/2019

Plugging these numbers into the fundamental theorem your LakeCountyEye calculates that no one will be voting in 2019. All of which means your vote counts now, more than ever. In an election where nobody goes to the polls, the difference between victory and defeat could be a single vote. Be sure to let your candidate know that you will be voting. An opportunity like this only comes around once in a blue moon!

Note to Ops: The Consolidated Election is April 2, which is a Tuesday.

Vice Chair

The actual unretouched Cuba Township Republican Committeeman List:

Cuba Republican Committeemen

The C stands for Township Chairman:

Your LakeCountyEye would like to be the spycam fly on the wall at those Cuba Township Republican Committeemen meetings.

Drivel License

An actual unretouched screenshot of the Lake County Gazette, Lake County's #1 source of fake news:

Village of Cary Liquor License Violation will meet March 15

For the record, liquor violations occur so frequently in the Village of Cary that these have taken to meeting on a monthly basis.

Haha, j/k.

The Russian Twitter Bot that generates all Lake County Gazette news items had its hard-drive crash in 2016. And since then it has been a random word generator.

No one who subscribes to the Lake County Gazette noticed.

Get Off Schock-Free

Honorary Lake County Ex-GOP-Congressman Aaron Schock got dealt a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card:

In a surprise move, federal prosecutors in Chicago announced they had agreed to drop all charges against Schock in what's known as a deferred prosecution.
Prosecutors in Chicago to drop charges against former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock if he pays back IRS, campaign

Schock had been indicted for misusing Federal campaign money. These are similar charges that had sent former US Rep Jesse Jackson Jr to prison for 2 1/2 years.

As a general rule, it goes without saying, never pinch pennies when it comes to legal counsel.

Note to Lake County GOP Ops: If your legal representation is not up to snuff, it may be time to switch lawyers. Give Aaron Schock a call. Just because there is an R after your name, that doesn't mean you can expect a pardon. Just Sayin!

Close Enough for Anti-Government Work

An actual unretouched screencap from Lake County's #1 fake news source, the Lake County Gazette:

Top 10 campaign contribution recipients
in Lake County for the week of 2019-02-11

For the record, it is widely believed that three is not equal to ten.

The discrepancy has been attributed to the Russian Twitter Bot that produces the Lake County Gazette fakenews stories. One knowledgeable source, who spoke on condition of perspicacity, offered an explanation: "Those Eastern-Bloc fake-news-generating algorithms all use metric system numbers."

Your LakeCountyEye will keep you apprised when further developments warrant.

There are No Atheists in a Pothole

Since driving on a permanently revoked license is against the law, your LakeCountyEye normally turns a blind eye to this sort of story:

Road crews are hoping for a break from the snow that will allow them to catch up on the recent crop of potholes following the freeze and thaw cycles. Drivers who spot issues can find reporting forms for the Lake County Division of Transportation at lakecountyil.gov or Illinois Department of Transportation at www.idot.illinois.gov.
Spot a pothole in Lake County? Here's how to report it

To dig up the lowdown, your LakeCountyEye contacted Dr. I.M. Bhatschidtkhrazzi, Blackburn-Lancashire Roads Scholar at the College of Lake County.

"Dude, I am hungry." said Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "My airplane had a layover in one of those Caribbean pothole countries. You know, where the ganja is legal."

Different kind of pothole, your LakeCountyEye was quick to point out.

Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi giggled: "No way!"

Way.

Then Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi was suddenly all frowns: "Haha I'm cool, cool with that. I will say that IDOT has issued a severe pothole warning for all of Lake County. Motorists are asked to stay home. Those who cannot are asked to call Uber."

How big are these hazards?

"I'm glad you asked." grinned Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "The potholes in Lake County are so big that entire vehicles are being swallowed. And we're not talking Yugos. We're talking Camrys, even Tauruses."

Hard to believe.

"Believe me." trumpeted Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "Scientists found a number of Lake County potholes which go down so deep that even light cannot escape. One has an event horizon that extends completely through McHenry County."

Is it like they will ever notice a difference?

"That baby has it's own zipcode." added Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi.

Is that how the scientists keep track of them?

"No." replied Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "Have you noticed how climatologists are now giving names even to local storms?"

So as to gin up public interest in what otherwise would have been some run-of-the-mill weather event?

"Exactly." nodded Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "And transportation officials are now giving names to the Lake County potholes."

Your LakeCountyEye was all like: Get out!

"There is one named pothole near the Bog State Natural Area called the Holo in Volo." continued Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi. "Another one in front of the Waukegan Court House has been christened the Judge Crater. And if you're driving by Gurnee Mills, watch out for the Grand Wazoo."

Your LakeCountyEye had heard enough. Did Dr Bhatschidtkhrazzi have any parting advice?

"Tell your Operatives relief is in sight. Foxconn has agreed to buy all of Lake County's potholes to store their industrial waste. Their radioactive runoff will be diverted into the holes, and is expected to harden within 10,000 years. And then the County roads will be like brand new!"