Obama Center Finally Delivers on Promise of Transformative Change by Bankrupting Local Plumber and Firing His Union Crew

In a stunning display of hope and change that somehow skipped over the people who actually built the thing, a Chicago plumbing subcontractor has suspended operations and laid off 25 union workers after getting stiffed for nearly $4 million on the Obama Presidential Center.

Adamson Plumbing owner Mike Owen says his company suspended operations, laid off 25 union workers amid a nearly $4 million payment dispute tied to the Obama Presidential Center.

Weeks after the Obama Presidential Center’s star-studded opening in Chicago, a subcontractor who previously claimed his company was stiffed for nearly $4 million has shut down operations and laid off 25 union workers. Mike Owen, the owner of Chicago-based Adamson Plumbing Contractors, told Fox News Digital that the financial fallout forced the company to abandon about half a dozen other construction jobs and left it on the verge of collapse.

Owen described the shutdown as a painful decision he believed was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy. "Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in our industry wants to do," he said. "It’s a hard thing to do, especially when you know you can finish them and the company can still make money. But we were put in a pretty bad corner."

Adamson, which performed its work on the center under the name Marsh-Adamson, has since filed a $1.72 million mechanic’s lien against the property, escalating the payment dispute into a legal fight.The company is one of several subcontractors to report financial trouble after working on the center, which was promoted as a transformative economic opportunity for small and minority-owned businesses.

A previous investigation by Fox News Digital identified several subcontractors including Black-owned firms the project was specifically intended to support that said they were owed money or had absorbed losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions. The largest dispute involves the Concrete Collective, which is seeking more than $40 million in additional payment.

Before the center opened, Owen said the project had left his company with $3.9 million in losses tied to delays, rework, labor overruns and changing project demands. He said he spent months negotiating with Lakeside Alliance, the project’s construction manager, before going public after failing to reach a resolution. Against the backdrop of that larger dispute, Owen said the breaking point came around the time of the Obama Presidential Center’s opening celebration.

Owen said Adamson and Lakeside Alliance reached an agreement under which Adamson would provide two journeyman plumbers to perform last-minute "housekeeping" work on campus at premium nighttime rates. In return, Owen said, Adamson was supposed to receive part of its outstanding payment days before the center opened on June 19.

An email shows a Lakeside representative telling Owen that $100,000 would be released through Adamson’s May payment application. Adamson completed the requested work, but the payment did not arrive on time, according to Owen, who said it was the company's breaking point and left him with no choice but to suspend operations on June 25.

"We negotiated it in good faith," he said. "Against my better judgment, I agreed [to do the work]. Not getting that large sum of money just kind of pulled the brakes on the train. It was just the final death blow to the company," he added.

"Rather than try to stretch it out and go bankrupt, I just decided the responsible thing was to shut it down. We’ll regroup, and we’ll see where we’re at come September." Owen said that the promised $100,000 retainage payment and around $35,000 for change orders payments have since arrived from Lakeside Alliance more than two weeks after he suspended operations and laid off 25 workers. Owen said the money helped reduce the company’s debt to one supplier but did not reverse the shutdown."It’s almost like too little, too late."

"It probably would have just prolonged the inevitable at this point," he said. "We’re still deep in the hole of what they owe us." Owen said Adamson has now moved out of its building and that he is working from home while turning the dispute over to his attorneys and determining whether the company has a future.

Owen has escalated his nearly $4 million payment fight.Documents reviewed by Fox News Digital show that Marsh-Adamson filed a $1.72 million mechanic’s lien against the Obama Presidential Center property, alleging it remains owed money for plumbing work performed on campus.

A mechanic’s lien is a legal claim filed against a property by a contractor or supplier alleging that it has not been fully paid for completed work. The lien is considerably lower than the approximately $3.9 million Owen says Adamson lost over the course of the project. Owen said the lien covers the amounts he believes are most readily documented, including unpaid fees, logged change orders and labor overruns supported by company records. "It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to pursue the $3.9 million in change that we lost overall," Owen said. "I’m still working with my legal team on that $3.9 million figure because I feel that it’s only right that we still hold ownership at the presidential center accountable."

Owen said he had initially avoided filing a lawsuit or lien while attempting to negotiate a resolution."I’m not a litigious person, but at the same time, our legal system is there to protect the small guy," he said. "I’m just going to have to fight this out legally from here on out, and these aren’t cheap costs."

Last week’s payment will be deducted from the $1.72 million, he said. Lakeside Alliance, a joint venture led by Turner Construction and four Black-owned Chicago construction firms, served as the project’s construction manager. The other firms are UJAMAA Construction, Powers & Sons Construction, Brown & Momen and Safeway Construction.In a previous statement, Lakeside said approximately 475 contractors worked on the center.

In its latest response, the alliance pointed to the project’s scale and said "contractual closeout continues long after the doors have opened" on major projects of such complexity." Lakeside Alliance remains committed to working through all outstanding matters to successfully close out the project," a spokesperson said.

Lakeside Alliance did not directly address Owen’s allegations, the layoffs or the $1.72 million lien. The Obama Foundation, former President Barack Obama’s private nonprofit organization that oversees the construction, said Lakeside was responsible for managing and paying subcontractors and that the foundation had no outstanding disputed charges with the alliance.

While it did not directly address Adamson’s allegations, the foundation said its financial support for firms working on the project exceeded industry standards. "Our commitment began with a 15-day payment cycle, which is largely unheard of in major construction projects," the foundation said in a statement, adding that it sometimes accelerated payment timelines or advanced payments months before work was completed.

The center has also faced scrutiny over its soaring price tag and promised taxpayer protections. Construction costs, initially projected at approximately $350 million, had climbed to $830 million by 2021 and have since reportedly surpassed $1 billion.Meanwhile, just $1 million has been deposited into a promised $470 million reserve intended to protect Chicago taxpayers if the center encounters financial trouble.

Those questions have drawn added scrutiny because the Obama Foundation secured the 19.3-acre Jackson Park site through a 99-year lease requiring a one-time $10 payment. Owen said the ordeal has left him financially and emotionally drained and uncertain whether he will ever restart Adamson Plumbing.

"This entire process really drained me out financially and emotionally," Owen said. "So that’s where I’m at — just kind of in a holding pattern." Owen said the opening ceremony which featured performances by Bruce Springsteen, Christina Aguilera, John Legend and U2’s Bono and The Edge, among others only sharpened his anger. Against that celebratory backdrop, he said, the struggles of the workers who built the center went largely unrecognized.

Owen argued that Chicago’s proud protest culture had been conspicuously absent and that the reaction would have been markedly different if the project were associated with figures such as Elon Musk or Ken Griffin, the Chicago billionaire whose name adorns the neighboring Griffin Museum of Science and Industry."There would be holy hell to pay," Owen said. "They would be picketing. They would be storming the castle."

Owen also singled out Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, questioning why the pro-union governor had not addressed the layoffs or payment disputes. "But he hasn’t said anything publicly about the union companies at the presidential center getting stiffed," Owen said. "And it bothers me."

Owen said he was not accusing former President Barack Obama of personal responsibility but believes the foundation should publicly acknowledge the subcontractors’ complaints and help seek a resolution. "It’s become perfectly obvious to me that the ownership group there — they truthfully just don’t care," he said. "I don’t know any other way to say it." Owen said contractors had held out hope that their disputes would be resolved once construction ended. "But I think a lot of us out there, the main subcontractors, all still had this feeling that it was going to be worked out in the end — until it wasn’t," he said.

Now, with Adamson’s future uncertain, Owen said the project has left him facing a personal turn he never saw coming."I mean, the only leverage I have now is just to continue speaking out and see where it goes," he said. "But my career, it’s funny, I’m going to have to go find a job, which is fine. It’s just that I did not anticipate the completion of this project would take this turn."

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Chicago Celebrates Juneteenth With Traditional Weekend Of Ignoring Crime Until Trump Mentions It

CHICAGO, IL — City leaders proudly wrapped up another Juneteenth weekend by assuring residents that reports of multiple shootings, several deaths, and dozens of injuries were largely a right-wing conspiracy, right up until President Donald Trump pointed them out on social media.

The Windy City experienced a violent weekend that left several people dead and dozens more injured, prompting Trump to once again offer federal assistance. Local officials immediately dismissed the suggestion as a greater threat than the actual gunfire.

"Lots of Killing going on in Chicago," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help. I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH, in ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!!"

Witnesses reported hearing gunshots throughout the weekend, though city officials clarified that what residents thought were bullets were actually "sounds of vibrant urban culture."

Among the incidents was a drive-by shooting that sent multiple victims to the hospital. Additional shootings continued throughout the weekend, while city leaders worked tirelessly to ensure no one accidentally connected the violence to public policy.

A 14-year-old boy was also killed earlier in the week, prompting heartfelt tributes from his youth football team, which released a statement saying that "there are no words that can ease the pain of a loss like this."

Trump contrasted Chicago's situation with Washington, D.C., claiming, "D.C. went from one of the worst to one of the safest cities in the U.S."

Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker, meanwhile, reiterated that accepting federal help would be far more dangerous than allowing criminals to continue operating uninterrupted.

"Mr. President, do not come to Chicago," Pritzker previously declared. "You are neither wanted here nor needed here."

Sources confirmed that Chicago officials remain deeply committed to proving they can solve the city's crime problem entirely on their own, sometime shortly after they finish explaining why it isn't actually happening.

Pritzker has repeatedly characterized Trump's offers of assistance as an authoritarian overreach.

"If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is — a dangerous power grab," said Pritzker, apparently referring to the possibility of law enforcement intervention rather than the armed gangs terrorizing neighborhoods.

The governor has also spent considerable effort reassuring Americans that reports of violence are exaggerated. During a late-night television appearance, he mocked claims that Chicago was experiencing serious crime problems.

"This is JB Pritzker, reporting from war-torn Chicago. As you can see, there’s utter mayhem and chaos on the ground. It’s quite disturbing," he joked.

"We’ve seen people being forced to eat hot dogs with ketchup on them, and our deep dish pizza, well, has gone shallow. So, it’s a challenge to survive here in the city of Chicago, but there’s no hellscape that I’d rather be in."

At press time, Chicago officials had announced a new task force dedicated to identifying the true source of the city's violence: people noticing it.

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Venezuelan national busted after allegedly killing 18-year-old Chicago student

A 25-year-old Venezuelan national, Jose Medina-Medina ,who entered the United States illegally has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman. Gorman was reportedly walking with friends along the Tobey Prinz Beach pier, near campus, when a masked man opened fire, violently, and senselessly shooting her in the head. 

The young lady was pronounced dead at the scene.

In a statement to ABC7, Gorman’s family said that she had gone to the pier to look at the Northern Lights, emphasizing that “there was nothing reckless about her actions” at the time, suggesting further that this was a completely random attack.

“Sheridan was our daughter, our sister, and the heart of our family. She was full of life, full of kindness, and full of a love that she gave freely to everyone around her,” the family said in a statement.

Medina-Medina was arrested-arrested on Friday night and was scheduled to appear in court on Monday. This was delayed, however, as he has since been hospitalized for tuberculosis, according to prosecutors who spoke to the Chicago Tribune. At this point, no official motive has been identified for the crime.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer against Medina. The department noted that Medina had been released twice in 2023 under the Biden administration's policies, including a release following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago.

“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” said Lauren Bis, DHS acting assistant secretary, in the statement.

“We are calling on Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien from jail back into American neighborhoods,” she added.Responding to news of the arrest, the Gorman family issued a statement through ABC7, ultimately describing the tragedy as a “violent and preventable act.”

“We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime. When systems fail, whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act, the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent.”

“This cannot be just another case that fades from public attention. Sheridan’s life mattered. What happened to her matters. And we will make sure she is not forgotten,” they continued.

Miss Gorman was an 18-year-old freshman at Loyola University Chicago, though originally from Yorktown, New York. A business major and active member of the Christian campus organization Cru, she was described by friends and family as a compassionate, joyful, and kind person who was deeply involved in her campus community despite only being in her first year. 

The fatal incident occurred around 1:15 a.m. at the Tobey Prinz Beach pier in Rogers Park while Gorman was walking with a group of friends, having gone to the lakefront specifically to try to view the Northern Lights. According to investigators, the masked man approached the group from behind a lighthouse and opened fire as they attempted to flee. Gorman was struck in the head and pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported among her friends.

A memorial and scholarship fund are being established in Gorman’s honor in her hometown of Yorktown.

This is the sort of story that should shame a nation. A young woman, full of promise and untouched by any recklessness or provocation, steps out on a clear night simply to witness a rare natural wonder, the Northern Lights dancing above Lake Michigan. In that innocent moment she is executed at point-blank range by a man who had no right to be in the country at all, a man released not once but twice by the very authorities charged with protecting American citizens.

The family’s grief is raw and dignified. They insist there was “nothing reckless about her actions,” as if even the faintest suggestion of fault must be extinguished before it can be whispered. They are right to do so. For this was not a tragic encounter between rival gang members or the unhappy result of some personal dispute. It was, by every available account, a random slaughter, the sort that occurs when the state has decided that its own laws on entry and removal are optional, when sanctuary policies matter more than the safety of its own people, and when the consequences of those decisions are borne not by politicians in their guarded offices but by freshmen walking along a pier.

Consider the sequence. The killer, a Venezuelan an illegal alien, had already been arrested for shoplifting in Chicago. Under the policies of the Biden administration he was released. Later he was encountered again and released once more. 

Now an American teenager lies dead, her skull shattered by his bullet, while he sits in hospital with tuberculosis, the court appearance postponed. The Department of Homeland Security has at last lodged a detainer, as though such paperwork could resurrect the dead or undo the years of deliberate negligence that placed the murderer on that pier in the first place.

The family sees it clearly. “We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime,” they say. “When systems fail, whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act, the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent.”

There is a terrible eloquence in those words. Permanent. That is what open-border ideology and sanctuary-city dogma have delivered to Sheridan Gorman and her family: a permanent absence, a life cut short at eighteen, a future of studies and friendships and quiet Christian witness erased in a single act of casual savagery.

Politicians will speak of  “comprehensive reform” and “root causes” in the days ahead, as they always do. They will treat this as one more data point in an argument rather than as the human catastrophe it is. But the family will not let it fade. “This cannot be just another case that fades from public attention,” they declare. “Sheridan’s life mattered. What happened to her matters. And we will make sure she is not forgotten.”

They should not have to fight alone for that remembrance. The rest of us, those still fortunate enough to live under laws that are actually enforced, have a duty to ensure that Sheridan Gorman is not remembered merely as another statistic in the long ledger of migrant crime, but as the precise and foreseeable cost of a governing philosophy that values ideological purity over the elementary obligation to keep citizens safe in their own streets and on their own shores. 

A scholarship and a memorial in Yorktown will be established, small consolations for an irreparable loss. Yet the true memorial must be larger: a national reckoning with the reality that when a country stops controlling its borders, it stops controlling its fate, and the first to pay are the young, the innocent, and the hopeful, walking out one autumn night to see the lights in the sky.

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Illinois justice system leaks like a sieve

Here's your daily dose of "sanctuary city" insanity, brought to you by the People's Republic of Illinois. 

While the rest of the country is trying to get dangerous illegal aliens off the streets, Governor Jabba the Hutt (D-IL) and Chicago's own Brandon "Let's Defund Everything But Illegal Aliens" Johnson have apparently decided that child rapists and murderers deserve a second, or third, or fourth chance to roam free. ICE just dropped a letter that ought to make every law-abiding Illinois resident's blood boil. 

Since January 2025, the Land of Lincoln has released a jaw-dropping 1,768 criminal illegal aliens who had active ICE detainers. You know, the little piece of paper that says, "Hey, local jail, hold this guy so we can deport him." But no, Illinois said "catch and release" is their new state fish., and these aren't jaywalkers or litterbugs. We're talking:

Attempted murder
Aggravated sexual assault
Aggravated kidnapping
Predatory criminal sexual assault of a child (yes, you read that right)
Child abduction
Multiple homicides

Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, was blunt about the problem: "These offenders should be swiftly removed from the United States … and not be returned to our streets to wreak havoc on law-abiding citizens."

Instead, Illinois Democrats are basically rolling out the red carpet: "Welcome back to the neighborhood, here's your get-out-of-jail-free card!" It's suicidal for everyone except those who run this s**t show. 

There are still another 4,015 criminal aliens sitting in state and local custody with pending detainers, including 51 tied to homicides and over 800 sexual-predatory offenses, who could be sprung any day thanks to Governor "Pass the Gravy" Pritzker and Johnson's open contempt for federal law.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem showed up in Illinois on August 8 and torched the dynamic duo to their faces. Good for her. Someone had to say it out loud, but what effect it will have is probably nil. 

Lyons closed his letter with the question every taxpayer in Illinois deserves an answer to: Is the state going to "change course or continue releasing violent offenders who may otherwise walk the streets of Illinois again?"

It's time the Illinois government stop treating ICE detainers like they're suggestions on a Chinese takeout menu and instead put public safety ahead of their woke virtue-signaling. But don't hold your breath hoping Pritzker is suddenly going to grow a spine underneath all that adipose tissue. The bulbous billionaire heir and his light-on-crime mayor would rather let another child get assaulted than admit Trump-era immigration enforcement had a point because it's actually working in places other than Illinois.

Illinois taxpayers, enjoy the "sanctuary" you voted for. The rest of us will be over here praying we don't end up on the wrong side of one of these monsters the state just set loose.

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Governor who's committing suicide by food wants Illinois to allow state's visitors to commit suicide too

Illinois Democrats are at it again, shoving through a ghoulish Halloween special that's straight out of a dystopian nightmare: a bill to turn the Land of Lincoln into a one-stop shop for assisted suicide, all while trampling on the religious freedoms of doctors who actually believe in the sanctity of life. And it's just sitting there on Gov. J.B. Pritzker's desk, waiting for his progressive pen to make it official.

In the witching hour just after midnight on All Hallows' Eve, Illinois Senate Democrats bulldozed this death-on-demand legislation through in a 30-27 vote, capping off a House passage back in May. The measure would green-light doctors to hand out lethal prescriptions to terminal patients with six months or less to live, because this is how the left views "compassion."

But here's where it gets even more insidious: Conservative watchdogs are sounding the alarm that this isn't just about "choice," it's a full-frontal assault on faith-based medicine, forcing Christian physicians and hospitals to play along with the grim reaper's playbook.

"You're not just allowing physicians to give people deadly drugs to kill themselves, but you're actually forcing us or people of faith, to be part of it, to promote it," Peter Breen, head of litigation at the Thomas More Society, laid it out bluntly to conservative outlet The Daily Wire. "I know of no other state where the legislature has gone this far in restricting the religious liberty rights of people of faith."

Sure, the bill pays lip service to opt-outs for doctors who won't pull the trigger themselves. But Breen isn't buying it.

 Buried in the fine print are mandates that would compel institutions and physicians to refer patients to the poison pill parade and even advertise the "opportunity" to check out early. It's coercion dressed up as consent.

Worse, Breen warns, the language would tie the hands of Christian hospitals, making it impossible to boot a doctor who peddles assisted dying on the side, on or off campus. Because why stop at killing the patient when you can kill religious liberty too?

Ten states plus D.C. already flirt with this folly on both coasts, but Illinois? This would plant the flag of euthanasia smack in America's heartland, a beacon for the terminally ill from flyover country, and beyond.

"Illinois would become the first state in the middle of the country to enact assisted suicide," Breen hammered home. "There’s a significant concern that this is going to turn Illinois into a suicide tourism state."

What the Prairie State Democrats are peddling here is beyond the pale, a direct middle finger to Christian ethics that value life until the last breath. The Illinois Catholic Conference has blasted the bill and begged Biggie Pritzker to spike it like a bad shot.

Pritzker eyes the other sandwich

Even Breen, no fan of the governor's hard-left bona fides, clings to a sliver of optimism: Pritzker might actually veto this monstrosity over the First Amendment fallout. Fingers crossed, because the guy's track record isn't exactly a rosary of restraint.

For his part, Pritzker's playing the empathy card without committing. "I know how terrible it is that someone who's in the last six months of their life could be experiencing terrible pain and anguish. And I know people who’ve gone through that," he mused Monday. "It hits me deeply and makes me wonder about, you know, how we can alleviate the pain that they’re going through?"

If he inks this abomination, though? Game on. Breen vows the Thomas More Society will haul Illinois into court faster than you can say "equal protection." They've already tangled with the state over a prior outrage forcing pro-life pregnancy centers to shill for abortion, talk about déjà vu from hell. Let's hope the judge's gavel rings louder than the Democrats' death knell.

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Pritzker’s Latest: Handing Out College Cash to Illegals While Illinois Drowns in Debt

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the corpulent Democrat billionaire with 2028 White House whispers, just inked a bill that has conservatives spitting coffee. The new law throws open the doors of state-funded financial aid to all residents, yes, including illegal immigrants. If you're in Illinois and dreaming of college, Pritzker's got your back, legal status be damned.

Cue the outrage. Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), didn't mince words, calling it a "slap in the face" to hardworking Illinois families. "Our state is drowning in debt, yet JB Pritzker is determined to drain even more taxpayer dollars to reward illegals," she told Fox News Digital. "It's absolutely shameful." Miller isn't wrong; Illinois' budget is already a train-wreck, and this move isn't exactly screaming fiscal responsibility.

The bill's defenders, like state Sen. Celina Villanueva, are popping champagne. "This law is about making sure no student is left behind because of where they were born," Villanueva said, framing it as a win for "equity." Her office bragged that the measure scraps a "patchwork of confusing and sometimes conflicting requirements" that kept undocumented, DACAmented, and mixed-status students from getting aid.

Translation: if you're in Illinois, you are now eligible for state or local financial aid, whether you're a citizen, a DACA recipient, or, say, a transgender student who didn't register for selective service. The bill has a little something for everyone, except, perhaps, the taxpayers footing the bill.

Villanueva's all-in on the feel-good vibes: "If you live in Illinois and are pursuing higher education, you should have access to the same opportunities as your peers."

Sounds nice, but the Illinois GOP isn't buying it. A spokesperson told the outlet that Pritzker's "prioritizing illegal immigrants at the expense of Illinois families." They added, "Illinois taxpayers should not have their hard-earned dollars pay for benefits to illegal immigrants who shouldn't be here in the first place." 

Meanwhile, state Sen. Andrew Chesney (R) took to Fox's Fox & Friends First to pile on, blaming Pritzker's policies for everything from budget woes to a recent deadly collision. He's calling for a serious overhaul of state laws, and you can bet this financial aid stunt isn’t helping Pritzker's case.

So, there you have it: Illinois, already strapped for cash, is now playing Santa Claus with college funds for illegal immigrants. Pritzker is betting this will cement his progressive cred, but with folks like Miller and the Illinois GOP crying foul, it's looking more like a political hot potato. As Miller put it, "It’s absolutely shameful." Wonder how many taxpayers agree.

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Biden supposedly humiliated by his debate debacle according to reports

Our alleged President Biden was reportedly humiliated by his debate performance on Thursday, meaning that he possibly still has enough brain activity to have a modicum of self-awareness. Of course, it could also be that the media is setting the stage for him to bow out of the election before November.

The report says that Biden was "devoid of confidence" by someone allegedly familiar with Biden's mood, telling NBC News, "[I]t's a mess."

The outlet reported that several prominent Democrats expressed concern in private over Biden's chances of beating Donald Trump in November following his debate performance. However, they remain steadfast in their support for Biden in public due to their confidence in lying to the public and having them believe those lies and not caring enough for the country to stop our cognitively impaired POTUS to run.

"The only person who has ultimate influence with him is the first lady," another person told NBC News. "If she decides there should be a change of course, there will be a change of course."

Biden and his family are reportedly set to informally discuss the future of his campaign at Camp David on Sunday, which can only mean that he will bow out and let a functioning individual take his place. Perhaps Doctor Jill has been ridiculed enough to know that she better let Joe get his much needed rest and an ice cream cone [he likes chocolate chip].

"Any discussion about the campaign is expected to be informal or an afterthought," the person close to the Biden family told NBC. "No one is sitting down for a formal or determinative discussion."

Biden addressed his debate debacle at a North Carolina rally on Friday.

"I know I'm not a young man. I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know — I know how to tell the truth!" Biden told a crowd of supporters who held back their laughter. 

Biden simply cannot tell the truth about most anything. He claimed at the Thursday debate that no American military person died on his watch. I know of at least 13 who did, and I know of others who gave their life for their country, but old Joe couldn't or wouldn't recognize them.

"I can do this job, because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high," Biden mush-mouthed during his speech. "Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation."

Trump already has a 4-year track record as President and Democracy was just fine. In fact, the Biden administration has been the most corrosive to democracy: having Trump arrested on trumped-up charges to eliminate him from the presidential race; allowing illegal aliens into the country; the lack of reasonable law enforcement; taking taxpayer money and trying to forgive student loans, are just a few examples of where Biden peed on democracy.

He also told the crowd that he wouldn't be running for re-election if he didn't think he could do the job, which may be true in his addled brain. He not only cannot do the job, he can't even find his way off stage and sees people we don't see.

The next debate, hosted by ABC News, is scheduled for Sept. 10, but my bet is that it will not happen, but if it does, it will not include Biden.

Remember all the lies you heard from Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, IL Gov. J.B. Pritzker. MN Gov. Tim Walz, his campaign co-chair, Mitch Landrieu, NY Rep. Dan Goldman, and others, about how sharp Biden's is, especially in private where it matters less than it does to the American people.

We need to be concerned now as to how our enemies see us. If they believe Trump will be our next President, and I hope he will be, they will want to make a move against us before he's sworn in.

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Judge puts restraining order on IL gun control law days after it goes into effect

Effingham County Judge Joshua Morrison temporarily blocked fat cat Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker from enforcing a newly enacted ban on certain semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. Using a temporary restraining order, the judge slapped the gun control law after former Republican candidate for attorney general Tom DeVore sued to block the law. 

DeVore spoke at a press release and said he's representing citizens from 87 Illinois counties who are challenging the law. He called it, "an outright attack on the constitutional rights of lawful gun owners across the state."

Morrison's ruling only applies to 850 plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit in Effingham County and four licensed gun dealers, but hopefully more gun owners will get the message and jump on board the freedom train.

Pritzker said the decision didn't surprise him and accused the plaintiffs of advancing "ideology over public safety" in seeking to have the law struck down. But it isn't ideology that is being advanced, it's advancing the individual's right to own and bear arms, particularly in defense against a government that would take that right away, much like all dictatorships do when seizing control over its people.

"We are well aware that this is only the first step in defending this important legislation," Pritzker said. "I remain confident that the courts will uphold the constitutionality of Illinois' law, which aligns with the eight other states with similar laws and was written in collaboration with lawmakers, advocates, and legal experts."

Except it is not constitutional by any stretch.

In an 11-page ruling, Morrison affirmed that the plaintiffs have a constitutional right to bear arms that is protected by both the Illinois state Constitution and the Constitution of the United States.

"Plaintiffs are being immediately and irreparably harmed each day in which their fundamental right to bear arms is being denied," Morrison wrote.

Just ask anyone who has ever needed to defend themselves with a firearm that ended up saving their life. And everyone knows, including the fat man, that if guns are made illegal [which is their ultimate goal] then the only people with guns will be the lawbreakers and the police. 

How ironic is it that the left wants to defund the police but only want the police to have guns?

Judge Morrison cited a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision from 2022 that struck down New York state’s concealed carry law. That 6-3 ruling in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen found that the "plain text" of the Second Amendment protected the right of the plaintiffs in that case to carry firearms for self-defense.

"Due to the speed with which this bill was passed, the effect to protected classes could not have been considered, nor could the Legislature have studied if this was the least restrictive way to meet their goal," Morrison also wrote.

Pritzker signed the law on Jan. 10 in the knee-jerk response to the mass shooting that killed seven and injured 30 at the Highland Park July Fourth parade. The rationale for the law is that if guns magazines were restricted to 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns, along with other restrictions, the shooter would have complied with the law because mass shooters are basically law abiding murderers.

The idiot governor defended the gun control law, called the Protect Illinois Communities Act, saying it "takes weapons of war and mass destruction off the street while allowing law-abiding gun owners to retain their collections." 

Well, the name sounds good but it doesn't protect anyone who follows the law from those who break it.

 The left is good at labeling things as to how they want you to believe what they mean. Take for example the Inflation Reduction Act--it increases inflation and prioritizes their own issues such as climate change. Another example is the Pro-Choice movement, in which only one person gets to choose whether or not to take the life of the other unborn person.

The Illinois State Rifle Association, a gun rights group that filed a separate federal challenge to the law control law, applauded Morrison's ruling.

"This is a clear indication from the court that the General Assembly and Governor Pritzker rammed this law through improperly. The ISRA firmly believes the law is an infringement on all law-abiding residents’ 2nd Amendment rights," the group said.

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J.B. Pritzker's toilet scandal may come back to bite him on his gargantuan butt

Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker (IL) has hinted at wobbling for the 2024 presidential election if Biden is still claiming to run [run Joe, please run]. 

The big guy has said it many times on tv and online that he is running for re-election as the filed governor of the "land of Lincoln." However, since nobody can be worse than Joe and his giggling word salad server, Kamala Hahaharris, as the nation does a death spiral into recession, Pritzker may believe that he can fail less worse than the idiots running the Democratic mental institution.

Democratic governors have seen that both Pritzker and California's failed Governor Gavin "Jellhead" Newsom are positioning themselves for a potential run in 2024, as Biden has deteriorated like an 80-year-old McNugget.

But if the corpulent Pritzker decides to challenge or replace what's his name, you know, the thing, Pritzker's toilet problem may come back to bite him on the, uh, you know, the thing again.

Before the big bad billionaire became governor of Illinois, he and his beautiful wife, M.K. Pritzker, allegedly removed the toilets from their second Chicago mansion they bought in 2007 for $3.7 million to write it off as "uninhabitable" on a property tax appeal. [Imagine what those toilets had seen in their hay day.]

Cook County only taxes vacant properties at 10 percent of their market value. The property was reported by the Chicago Sun-Times as being uninhabited and allowed to fall into disrepair. 

A 2018 report from Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard explains how in 2015, the Pritzkers hired a contracting company Bulley & Andrews to remove five of the toilets from their second mansion in order to allegedly take advantage of a super low tax rate for uninhabitable properties. [Fun Fact: Sometime Hunter Biden doesn't use a toilet.]

As a result of the mansion’s crappers being lightened before the inspection, the Cook County assessor’s office "lowered the 6,378-square-foot mansion's assessed value from $6.3 million to about $1.1 million."

Pritzker was here

So not only is Pritzker a rich fat cat who is very much of both, he is also a fraudulent conniver who actually needs 5 toilets at all times.

Following the assessment, Bulley & Andrews was hired again to reinstall a single toilet in the now-governor’s "hangout/meeting area."

Blanchard wrote that the couple had engaged in a "scheme to defraud" the county that "resulted in the property owner ultimately receiving property tax refunds totaling $132,747.18 for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014, as well as additional tax savings of $198,684.85 for the years 2015 and 2016" — or around $330,000 total.

Additionally, Blanchard accused the governor’s brother-in-law and wife’s personal assistant of making "false representations" to the county assessor regarding the toilets’ removal and the mansion’s condition in sworn affidavits.

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The scandal screwed up Pritzker's run for governor in 2018, and he pledged to pay back the $330,000 in property taxes and hoped the voters had 'Biden memories'.

Even with the controversy, Pritzker’s toilet troubles did not hinder him from unseating Republican former Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018, except the seat had to be made several feet wider.

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Illinois former House speaker resigns after his scandal rocked the alleged sleazy Democrat

"How you dewin?" "No, how you dewin?"

Michael Madigan, the Democratic former Illinois House speaker resigned from the state legislature amid an ongoing federal bribery investigation. Madigan was in the state legislature for over fifty years and his salary from the taxpayers was allegedly not enough to keep him honest. Allegedly.

The lawmaker was implicated in an investigation into his ties with Commonwealth Edison, the state's largest utility provider. According to the allegations, the company gave perks worth $1.32 million in exchange for his non-judgmental approval on bills in the state legislature, according to federal investigators.

Madigan lost his speaker position in January after failing to secure crucial backing from his Democratic colleagues who viewed him as a political liability [and friendship is overrated anyway].

Madigan's associate Michael McClain and ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore were also charged along with others in November for their involvement in the scheme. McClain served alongside Madigan in the state house in the 1970s and '80s before leaving public service to lobby for ComEd.

Despite the ongoing investigation, Madigan retains his position as chairman of the state's Democratic Party as of Thursday morning because, hey, they're only allegations, in case it wasn't previously mentioned.

Madigan has not yet faced criminal charges but if he does, and is later incarcerated for it, he will not do well in prison.

In a statement upon his departure, Madigan said he was proud of his efforts to work with the private sector, leaving out the allegations that his work with the private sector was sketchy and allegedly criminal.

"Collaborating with leaders in the retail, hospitality, manufacturing, health care, and other industries, we built a partnership with job creators to encourage economic development and address crises in our unemployment insurance and workers' compensation systems," Madigan crowed.

Madigan suspended his reelection campaign for the speakership after he failed to secure the necessary votes from his Democratic colleagues in a party vote last month. He was first elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1971 and, other than two years of non-scandalous Republican control, served as speaker since 1983.

Illinois Democrats, like Al Capone and company, are no strangers to crime.

Governor J.B. Pritzker, [aka "Watermelon Head"] a close goomba of Madigan, faces an investigation over a scheme in which he removed toilets from his mansion so that the building would be deemed uninhabitable, letting him earn a $331,000 property tax break. Now the tenants of those buildings are full of it.

Luis Arroyo

Then there's state senator Tommy "Bag-o-Donuts" Cullerton who, in August 2019 was charged by the feds for an embezzlement scheme involving a labor union. [How surprising--unions tend to be so honest--just look at the Teachers' Union and the COVID situation.] 

Two months after Tommy caught heat, state representative Luis "The Face" Arroyo faced bribery charges after another state scumcrumpet senator, Terry "The Pigeon" Link, collaborated with the FBI and wore a wire to get the dirt on the plot.

Link pleaded guilty to tax fraud last year for underreporting his 2016 tax filings.

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