Some Fake News In Illinois

There is a pretty heated governors race in Illinois.  The Democratic primary is heating up and so is the Republican primary.  Illinois is in really, really, really desperate shape fiscally.  My state resembles Puerto Rico.  As I have said previously, raising taxes isn’t the answer only bankruptcy is.  Mark Glennon at Wirepoints does a great job covering all of it.

I was alerted to some fake news that might get traction in Illinois.  I decided to write about it.

I was alerted to it by a friend who moved from Illinois to Florida to escape the super high property taxes and other taxes in Illinois.  He asked me if I had seen it and I hadn’t.  I read through the site and didn’t think it was true.  However, the way it is presented with actual legal documents makes is smack with some authority.  To someone who is uninformed, it might seem true and when you think about how people make decisions using confirmation bias you could see how some people might be swayed by it.

Some background.  The Democrats are still shocked they lost to Trump.  They think fake news played a large part in the loss and that the Russians planted fake news stories which influenced millions of people to vote against Hillary.  Influencing millions is probably not true but it is true the Russians were doing all kinds of things.  They have been doing all kinds of subversive things to the US ever since Lenin took over, why stop now?

However, fake news is fake news.  Sometimes it’s not really fake, it’s just the spin that is put on it. Many mainstream outlets don’t report the news straight.  So, to one side, it does sound fake.  I was alerted to some fake news on the Illinois governors race and I wanted to be very public about it.

News outlets might not cover it because it’s fake.  However, we all know there is an underground news media that gets distributed so hopefully my blog post will get distributed too in order to provide a counter punch to the fake news.

It doesn’t matter which side of the political aisle you are on, it’s always nice to vote when you understand candidates and issues with straight news.  Right now, there is a disinformation campaign on Democratic candidate JB Pritzker.  Some guy named Richard Saunders has created a website called The Pritzker Papers.  I am deliberately not linking to it because it’s fake.

I know JB.  We are friends even though we don’t agree on political solutions to problems-even though we might agree on the problem and the outcome we would both like.  He had to know when he threw his hat into the ring that a lot of slings and arrows would come his way.  If he deserves it and they are true, so be it.  It’s the fake stuff that is out of bounds and who ever Richard Saunders is went way out of bounds.

Saunders says that JB used 1871 as a personal kitty to launder money and redistribute the money to Rep. Mike Madigan.  He makes accusations that 1871 doesn’t own intellectual property it creates and it’s owned solely by JB.  He makes accusations that JB used his political connections to set the whole thing up and lays the blame at Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn.  This is just not true.

He makes accusations that the family tried to disadvantage others in their family.  I think that was already public and really who cares?  It’s an internal family issue that doesn’t affect anyone but people in their family.  I am sure we all have family issues that would be better left private.  The Pritzker’s were made public because of gossip.

No doubt, JB has donated money to Madigan.  Both are Democrats.  I donated to Republican candidates and my friends who are Republican donate to Republican candidates.  Big deal.  No doubt, JB has all kinds of trusts and financial entities set up in different ways so he can do things he’d like to do in the best tax advantaged way possible.  Demand curves slope down for everyone.  When you are very wealthy, the state and US tax code force you to spend money and hire accountants and lawyers that make you do things like that.  That’s why a flatter tax code with no write offs and a lot of transparency is good for all of us.

1871 is a jewel in the Illinois startup scene.  It was certainly nice of JB to step up and do what he did for 1871.  He didn’t have to do it.  No one else was stepping up to do it.  The startup scene in Chicago is one of our best shiny assets.  No matter who is governor, it’s showing a lot of promise.  If government would just leave it alone and let it do it’s thing and leave the venture capitalists alone as well it will continue to grow and create opportunity in Illinois.  JB deserves the accolades and acknowledgement he gets for backstopping 1871.

There will be a lot of mud slung in the next few weeks in Illinois.  There will be mud slung all year until November.  But, this mud shouldn’t have been slung in the first place and it’s fake news.