Your writing has become even more pithy since returning from vacation, David. Love it.

Another unfunded group? Great. Civil rather than criminal actions? That’ll eat up 10 years in the courts, assuming anyone bothers to follow through. Yup, a lot of PR, but still no real help for homeowners after 4 years.

Wow. Thanks for the heads up, David. Dold is currently my congresscritter, thanks to the redistricting you mentioned. He is a product of the Tea Party who has been desperately trying to re-brand himself as a “moderate” until the election. Schneider is terrible–supported by Steny Hoyer and Melissa Bean, two of the worst faux Dems to come along. This move by Dold tells you everything you need to know about politicians–they all suck.

Great minds think alike. These points can’t be made often enough. Our Social Security is pitiful compared to European benefits. Social Security was only intended to be one leg of a three-legged stool: the other two legs being personal savings (primarily home equity as the mortgage was paid down) and pensions. The first job I had out of college was the only place I worked that offered a pension, and even then, you had to work 7 years before you were fully vested in a very small pension. As for profit sharing, that has essentially disappeared, as well, and 401Ks are a bad joke.

There isn’t much the government can do about private pensions (except to encourage and support unions and manufacturing jobs), but it could have a major impact on the housing market and SS, if it chose. The time to do something is now, since far too many baby boomers, like me, are really caught just at the moment we most need help. A doubling of SS benefits wouldn’t be nearly what I’d receive if I were in Europe, but it would be enough to allow me to stay in my home, and not have to try to sell in an abyssmal market.

Another superb article, David.

Perfect timing, David. I just spent about 20 minutes speaking with a young man–going door to door, the old-fashioned way–who is running for State Representative in my legislative district. He is a Democrat running against an incumbent Republican. He didn’t even know about ALEC until I mentioned “Stand Your Ground” as well as what’s been happening across the border in WI with Scott Walker. He also didn’t know that his opponent is a dues-paying member of ALEC, so I was pleased to provide him with some campaign ammunition, since he has a track record of working for the 99% in his role as Township Supervisor. At the same time, rather than using model legislation, he is trying to find out from potential constituents the issues that they really care about, through one-on-one conversations. This is why we need to start taking back local races; then, spread local examples to the state level, etc. Still, I can see where a relative newcomer, trying to make a difference would welcome a national (or even a state) resource bank for drafting legislation.

It’s always tempting to label judges as “activists” when they rule opposite to the way you think they should have ruled. More simply, a bad ruling could just be bad law. In this case, however, I think the “conservative” judges are being appropriately conservative. A mandate based on the commerce clause rather than being based on a tax truly is an overreach by Congress. I wish politicians would get over this idea that taxes are bad. Taxes aren’t bad–they’re necessary. Wasting tax dollars is bad;however, Medicare for all is a tax I’d be happy to pay, rather than seeing tax dollars go for endless colonial wars.

Jon, your title is misleading. What Carvin is saying–which is true–is that Congress has the authority to levy taxes; it does not have the authority (at least, not yet) to force citizens to engage in commerce. This is one reason people need to correct anyone who says that Medicare or Social Security are “entitlements”. They are not. We pay for those programs with a tax known as the payroll tax deduction. Apparently, even Carvin realizes that the logical way to finance a single payer health care system is through tax policy, not the Commerce Clause.

In IL-10 race: Cook County, with 90 of 110 precincts reporting, Schneider has 3702 votes to Sheyman’s 2503 votes. In Lake County, with 303 of 309 precincts reporting, Schneider has 7756 votes to Sheyman’s 6854 votes. As I mentioned above, most of the Dems are in Lake County, and Sheyman needed to carry Lake heavily to win.

So far, things not looking good for Ilya Sheyman. He needed to carry Lake County heavily to have a chance (that’s where most of the Dems are located in a district that includes parts of Cook and parts of Lake counties). With 192 of 309 precincts in Lake reporting, Schneider has 45% to Sheyman’s 41% (VERY low turnout for Lake County today by normal standards). In Cook County, with only 4 of 110 precincts reporting, Schneider has 57% to Sheyman’s 26%.

Rahm IS the 0.01%.

Chicago Tribune reports an all-time low voter turnout of 15% in the city of Chicago. Wonder how that will affect Halvorsen’s primary challenge against Jesse Jackson Jr.

Glad to see I’m not the only one who feels that way. Rahm wasted $3 million dollars pushing her in a district where she didn’t even reside! Such a predictable disaster.

Yes, that response from MoveOn doesn’t surprise me. The organization’s founders really don’t seem to care what their members want. I was never a member of MoveOn, and long ago stopped being a Dem. Ilya having worked for MoveOn was not a big plus for me, but he seemed the least conservative of the 4 candidates on the Dem ballot.

Probably the biggest differences between the two are on health care and Social Security: Schneider seems willing to tamper with Social Security and Medicare (“everything’s on the table” type); Sheyman wants to keep SS, as is, for all and to gradually implement Medicare for all.

Sheyman’s team is really hustling. I had an older man at the door this afternoon doing get-out-the-vote work for Ilya. Told him I’d already voted. Ilya isn’t my idea of a dream candidate (we didn’t have any independents running, unfortunately) but he strikes me as an old-fashioned Dem, which is better than the Repubs pretending to be Dems that we’ve been getting.

IL-10 is my new district (used to be in IL-08, formerly Melissa Bean/Joe Walsh territory). IMO, Ilya is going to have a tough time of it in this contest. Brad Schneider is just a male Melissa Bean–the ultimate corporate doormat. However, his bio says that he has been active in the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago (think AIPAC on steroids), and many heavy hitter JUF donors/voters live in this district. Luckily for Ilya, he’s also Jewish, since a lot of the Dems in this district are from heavily Jewish suburbs such as Deerfield (Schneider’s home), Buffalo Grove, Highland Park, and Glencoe. It also has an interesting mix of Latino (Waukegan and Mundelein) and black voters (primarily North Chicago). Additionally, this district has seen a large influx of Russian emigres, and that should be helpful to Ilya. However, almost the entire Illinois Democrat establishment is behind Schneider, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the Dems did a “Ned Lamont” on Ilya should he win the primary. I’m no longer a Dem, but I intend to vote for Ilya in next week’s primary.

David, here’s a promising piece of news on the foreclosure front from the Chicago Tribune about a suit against Wells Fargo regarding the HAMP program. Wells Fargo tried to argue that civil suits were prohibited by HAMP; the appellate court disagreed. The plaintiff is trying for a class action, so it could get interesting.