Letterhead

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ISRA Thursday Bulletin - January 7, 2021





Executive Directors Message

Richard Pearson

On Friday, January 8, the Illinois General Assembly will return to Springfield for Lame Duck Session. One bill we will be watching is SB1966 which is in the Senate. Please call your State Senator and ask them to oppose SB1966. On Wednesday, January 13, this bill will die at noon when the 102nd General Assembly is sworn in.

The Illinois Senate will meet at the Capitol Building in the Senate Chamber. In order to comply with distancing requirements, the Illinois House of Representatives will meet at the Bank of Springfield Center. Our concentration will be on the Illinois Senate since that is the only place SB1966 will be heard, if it is heard.

The new General Assembly is seated on January 13, 2021; they will adjourn on January 14, 2021, and return on January 26, 2021. They will elect the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate as well as the minority party leaders. They will stay until that task is completed. During that time off, the Capitol will be busy rearranging offices and staff. The offices at the Capitol and the
Stratton Building are based on seniority. By the time we get back, everything will be rearranged. The phone numbers for your legislators are assigned to your district, not to them. If you have the phone number for your Representative or Senator, it will remain the same even though their office has moved. In 2022, the State of Illinois will go through redistricting and then everything is up for grabs.

The first part of the Spring 2021 Session will involve introducing all kinds of bills. These bills will go to the Rules Committee in the House and The Assignments Committee in the Senate. From these two committees, they will go to other committees. We will be keeping an eye on them. As Jackie Gleason said, “And away we go.”

I have to admit that I love to watch the bigwigs in Washington D. C. squirm when newly elected Congresswomen Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) talks about carrying her Glock in D. C. and in the Capitol Building. Boebert runs the Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado, where the staff open carries all the time. I am going to guess there have been very few holdups at the Shooters Grill but I digress.

Of course, Washington D. C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said there are no exceptions for Congressmen/Congresswomen in the City. Well Chiefee, you might be more convincing if crime wasn’t going up and you had done a better job on May 31 and June 1, 2020. If you recall, rioters looted stores, burned buildings, including the historic St John’s Church built in 1816, and vandalized buildings and
other property. The City ordered a curfew which the rioters ignored and you did nothing. As far as I am concerned, go Congresswoman go!

The double U. S. Senate race in Georgia is over with disastrous results for gun owners and conservatives in general. What is done is done. Instead of sitting around whining and licking our wounds we need to learn from our opponents and adapt to the new realities in politics. I have been hearing complaints about how the liberals are not playing fair in the game. Well, whatever, they won.
Whether or not you like mail-in voting, I believe that is what won the Presidential Election and had a profound effect on the down ballot candidates.

I tried mail-in voting and many of you let me know what you thought. Like it or not, mail-in voting is likely here to stay. It is true that many of the rules were changed in different states and those changes were probably violations of the state law. The time to challenge those changes was when they were made, not after the election was over.

When Joe Biden was called out for his dealings with Red China, it didn’t matter to millions of voters because they had already voted. I’m sure the Biden Campaign was way ahead of us on that one.

The broad social media campaign launched by the left is another example of getting out in front of conservatives. Approximately 11% of the voters were younger people. They are the social media generation. What I am pointing out here is you can’t keep fighting the last war and expect to win this war. We used to think of voter turnout on Election Day with knocking on doors, yard signs,
campaign rallies, and commercials. We can’t forget any of those things but we can’t depend on them to turn the tide either. Early voting and social media are just added to the list of what campaigns have to do to get their point across to the voters. By the next election, there may be some other way to get the message to voters. If you want to win, adapt to it and move on. The most critical problem we have to address is vote fraud. Sadly, some see
vote fraud as an avenue to get their way. They believe that everyone should believe what they think and will stop at nothing to get their way. There are those who say there was not vote fraud in the 2020 election. I think there was. When we repeatedly have more votes than voters, it can’t be anything else. I have seen this happen for years in certain places. Getting this mess straightened out will be our toughest fight. The next election is only 22
months away.

The happenings in Washington D. C. yesterday were caused by what people perceive as vote fraud which diminished their voice. We will know more in the coming days.



Tidbits:

January 8, 1815 - The Battle of New Orleans. This is one of my favorite battles. The British had invaded the United States, burned the White House, driving out the President in an attempt bring the United States back under British control. General Andrew Jackson was having none of it. Jackson hated the British. At age 12, Jackson was struck in the head with a sword wielded by a British
Officer when Jackson refused to polish the officer’s boots. The scar that it left bothered Jackson his entire life.

In December 1814, the British were going to attack New Orleans and try to take American ground. Jackson hurried to New Orleans. The Americans were going to be badly outnumbered so along the way, Jackson asked for volunteers from Kentucky and Tennessee to help. These men were excellent marksmen. While in New Orleans, Jackson enlisted the help of pirate Jean Lafitte. Jackson had assembled a
ragtag army. Jackson used his men to widen a waterway and used the excess dirt to build an 8 foot wall. Jackson and 4500 Americans were about to meet the well-drilled, well-disciplined British Army of 7500 troops under command of General Sir Edward Pakenham. Within 15 minutes, Jackson and his troop decimated the British troops and killed General Pakenham. The British had 2000 troops killed, wounding or missing. The Americans had 8 killed and 13 wounded. When
picking up the British bodies, people noticed that most British troops had been shot through the forehead. This lopsided victory sent chills through the hall of Parliament and the monarchies of Europe. The United States was here to stay.

January 8, 1835 - The United States national debt is $0 for the first time. Andrew Jackson was President.

We sure blew that one didn’t we? No wonder liberals hate Jackson.

January 9, 1776 - Thomas Paine publishes a 45 page pamphlet entitled “Common Sense”. Thomas Paine’s words galvanized American thought. His pamphlet sold 500,000 copies, not many in today’s world. We forget that the United States only had 2,500,000 people at the time. This pamphlet was everywhere and everyone was talking about it. So what did Thomas say that struck
home? Remember, most Americans thought of themselves as aggrieved Britons. Paine’s words changed all that. Paine wrote: “Europe, not England, is the parent Country of America. This new world has been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Rather, they have fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which
drove the first emigrants from home pursues their descendants still.” Of course he wrote much more but that is the heart of it. Thomas Paine wrote other pamphlets but “Common Sense” changed the world. Thomas Paine served in the Army. He died in New York in 1809.

January 11, 1908 - Theodore Roosevelt makes the Grand Canyon a National Monument.

January 12, 1904 - Henry Ford sets a new land speed record of 91.37 miles per hour. The vehicle’s chassis was made of wood and dubbed “999”. It had no body or hood. Ford drove the vehicle on frozen Lake St. Clair in Michigan.

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