Fauci, Latest On Iran, and a $20 Burrito.

Thanks for listening to Chicago's Morning Answer podcast sponsored by Signature, a division of Esquire Bank. Signature takes pride in helping customers grow their business and provide unmatched banking expertise, custom financial solutions, and the industry's best technology. So whether your business is looking for a deposit relationship or needs a ready source of financing, Signature has the solutions for you. Call today at 773-467, 5600 to hear how signature can help your business grow and thrive. Esquire Bank, member FDIC. equal housing lenders. This is Chicago's morning answer with Dan Profft on AM 560. The answer. Top of the morning, Dan Profft here. And so a rare utterance from the Cook County State's attorney. Eileen O'Neill O'Malley, Daly, Madigan, Cullerton, Burke. She sat down with some podcaster, of course, to talk a bit about electronic monitoring. Take your time, ease into the position before you would tackle a subject like electronic monitoring. And she had this to say about... Well, sort of, you know, how it works and what the problem is and maybe what should be done about it. But what has happened is we now have 87 people charged with murder or attempt murder on electronic monitoring. We have 181 sexual assault defendants on electronic monitoring. So currently there's 3,200 people on electronic monitoring. The Chief Judge's Office just gave us a stat of 10 to 12 percent, so over 300 people are AWOL. They have no idea where they are. Well, not a big deal if it's a retail theft. It's a very big deal if that person is a murderer. So one of the problems that we're seeing with electronic monitoring is very violent people are out committing new violent crimes on their free-to- roam time. So judges took, and I'll give you a good example of it, is the guy who lit the girl on fire on the blue line. Yes. or the man who shot the police officer at Swedish Covenant Hospital. Both of them were on electronic monitoring for very violent crimes. And so what they, the problem is that this free to roam time, judges were taking it and saying, okay, we'll take your two free days and we'll chop it up. Monday, you're free to roam 9 to noon. Tuesday, you're free to roam 2 to 4. I have a scheduler, and I couldn't follow their schedule. You know, it was nonsensical. So what happened was the sheriff's office used to be in charge of electronic monitoring. They had 175 law enforcement officers who were doing the monitoring, and when somebody cut off their band or was where they weren't supposed to, law enforcement could go and get them and bring them into court.

With this two free to roam days, the sheriff's office said, this is impossible for us to monitor. Under the statute, they don't have to monitor it. It's under the chief judge. So he said, here you go, Chief Judge. It's up to you. So the Chief Judge's office has pretrial service officers who are monitoring it. They're not law enforcement. So if a violation is recorded with pretrial services officers, they have to bring it into court as a violation, and a judge may or may not issue a warrant for them. If he issues a warrant, the warrant just goes into a pile of warrants that nobody does anything with, and it may pop up if somebody gets curbed for a traffic offense or if they get arrested for another offense. But by then it's too late. By then it's too late. You victimize more people. Uh-huh, unless you get an expedited. warrant and that so that means the warrant is pushed to the top and then you get a little bit faster response from law enforcement and thanks for the schoolhouse rock tutorial on how electronic monitoring works now what do you want to do about it first of all the chief judge didn't just tell you about the fact that they have 10 to 12 percent of their individuals on electronic monitoring that are AWOL it was reported weeks and weeks ago And also, when you came into the office, you know electronic monitoring was a problem. And so now her big statement from all of this conjunction function, what's your, is, well, we need a legislative fix. So she said, I'm quoting her, I'm going to ask you and everybody you know and everybody who's listening to please reach out to your legislators and tell them you don't believe that violent criminals should be on electronic monitoring. They should not, and we can work out an agreement with the legislators of, okay, where do we draw the line? I mean, is the Cook County electorate really this staff? And I suppose that's a rhetorical question. This is somebody who is, first of all, Tom Dart abdicated. So, you know, they're playing hot potato with it. So then Beach picked it up, the chief judge, but he doesn't want to do it. And so now the state's attorney saying, well, here's what happened. And so call your legislators and tell them it's bad when violent criminals are let out to prey on people pending trial. Meanwhile, she says, I support the Safety Act. 312-642-5600 alphawealthgroup.com call and text line. The beautiful lies. But she's not Kim Fox, Dan. No, I know. She's not Kim Fox. And that is the standard, I guess, of analysis. This is the same person who, again, just in terms of highlights of her time in office. I've been told by some, including people that I respect, that this represents some sea change. Eileen Burke does when it comes to law enforcement. CWB Chicago has been doing a series for six years about people who kill or attempt to people while on pretrial release, electronic monitoring in most instances, because of the J.B. Pritzker-Purge Law, the so-called Safety Act.

But I support the Safety Act, but I don't support the consequences of the Safety Act. That seems to be the good state's attorney's position. The same person whose big innovation when it comes to systemic crime on these midnight meat trains they call the CTA was this. This is Chicago. We're going to have a safe, thriving city. We need to have a safe public transportation system. So today we are launching our initiative that we, as the state's attorney's office and the CTA are taking time on the CTA very seriously. Everyone deserves a safe and enjoy the ride, and we're looking together to make sure that happens. We are putting out these signs as an indication. Sporty music. Consequences will be any critical actions on the CTA. We are hoping to deter crime. and to encourage people to move forward in their witnesses. These signs are a message to all of our riders and employees that we are working together with the county state's attorney's office to take action and ensure and promote a safe ride on the CTA. Yeah, so I'm sure you've seen those signs. I hope you have that violence will not be tolerated. Violence is unacceptable. Words of that effect on the CTA. If you've seen that on a train or a bus, I suppose one of the things that she could do is maybe put some signs up at the chief judge's office when people who've been arrested for class X felonies are getting fitted with their electronic monitoring device. Committing more violent crimes while on your electronic monitoring device will not be tolerated.

It's going a little slowly with the signage thing. One charged after group assaults man at Jefferson Park train station. Another mob attack near Roosevelt CTA station prompts renewed CPD warning. More signs? It's going about as well as electronic monitoring. AM 560. The answer. This, yes, it is. This story, electronic monitoring system is broken and needs legislative fix. States, oh, that's state's already saying it, because three-time convicted burglar arrested three times while on ankle monitor accused of South Loop break-in. These are daily stories. More signage. Hey, legislators, when you come back into session, you know, basically in January, I mean, you know, I assume you won't have time for that week of veto session. When you come back in January and restart things in 27, can you do something about electronic monitoring? Meanwhile, we'll just continue with the status quo. And Judge Beach will tell us he's working on it, but he doesn't really want to do it, and the state's attorney will say, hey, call your state legislator and give us more colorful history of the electronic monitoring program. Wonderful. Jim Jordan and Antioch in Chicago's morning answer. Yeah, was I the only one that caught that about the scheduling? The issue isn't that a habitual violent offender lit a girl on fire. The issue wasn't a habitual violent offender shot a cop. The real issue is that their scheduling is messed up, and we can't properly tell them when they can go and violate the general public. They're scheduling. They're free to roam days. They're two free to Rome days. I mean, she even said it right there. She has a scheduler, and she can't figure it out. Yeah. It's not the habitual, violent offenders that are the actual problem. It's the scheduling. And we need to figure out the scheduling. That's right. Thanks for the call, Jim Jordan. Yeah, no, that's exactly. That is what she said because of those two free to Rome days. And if you don't schedule those free to Rome days where people can be monitored. happening at different days of the week, at different weeks of the month and months of the year, then it's just a bureaucratic nightmare. So, you know, sorry when some 10-time or 50-time loser lights you on fire on the CTA, but, you know, we just have this scheduling. It's just a nightmare. Okay, so why don't you propose something specific to the legislative general assembly, call some people out and like instigate some discussion, have some sense of urgency about it, maybe do this while they're in session and say these free to roam days for habitual criminals, no. The Safety Act in its current constitution, no.

Less judicial discretion. Your accused or I should say arrested for a class sex felony, you are being held over pending trial. And that's going to be what the state's attorney's office argues for in each case. And that's what the law is going to implicate to provide guidance to judges and so on and so forth. But no, there's none of that. It's just like call your state legislator and tell them to do something. The retired judge and Cook County State's attorney, no ideas of her own. But you don't need ideas. You just need to give the appearance of concern. You need to not be Kim Fox or Brandon Johnson or Lori Lightfoot back in the day, and that suffices. And that's how you go from Lori Lightfoot to Brandon Johnson. And that's how you go from Kim Fox to frankly Eileen Burke, who is the... appearance of change to protect the continuity inside the system, as far as I can tell. Mark and Rochelle, you're on Chicago's morning answer. I think you are. If I can pull this up, I can't see. There we go. Oh. Oh. Yeah, it's kind of insensitive to, you know, the intent of this program, but what is this costing us? We go all these people monitoring, the monitors themselves, and all the attorneys negotiating all this. What is this costing us? And is it really worth it? Well, here's another question. What are the Cook County Sheriff's Police doing? What's the opportunity cost? Well, why create this extra step as opposed to having the Cook County Sheriff's? Tom Dart didn't want to do it. So there's something else. Call on the General Assembly to indicate that the electronic monitoring program is under the purview and responsibility of the Cook County Sheriff. Because otherwise, what are all these Cook County Sheriff's police doing? Going on, you know, dog pound busts with Tom Darts for photo ops? Is there an electorate that is more unsurious about their personal safety then? the residents of Cook County. That's also a rhetorical question. The top of the morning, Dan Proft here. So, this controversy surrounding the mythological $20 burrito. That is roiling conservatives online. I'm told that by the Amazon Post. Of course, they're seizing on any disagreement among anybody with some profile on the right as some sign of an implosion happening. A civil war on affordability that is broken out among conservatives. A little bit hyperbolic, I'd say. But it does call to mind this story out last week about... the quality of a GOP staffers on the hill, like the search for quality of GOP staffers among GOP higher-ups and congressional offices. And the lament, generally speaking, was that these people that are coming and applying for jobs, it's not just a problem on the left, among, you know, applying for jobs and for Republican office holders,

To some extent, conservative think tanks, there's a problem. They don't know anything. That's the problem. Their skills are fairly crude at the stage of their intellectual development. And I would say the same about some people who do have profile on the right, people that have shows or outlets or followings on X. Some of the comments about this, I mean, just demonstrate incredible economic illiteracy. You would think to be somebody of influence on the right, you would at least have to have the basics of economics down, you know, have been able to consume and understand Henry has its economics in one lesson, for example. But that apparently is not the case. And actually it doesn't surprise me. I've known it's not the case for a long time. You see who is saying what. And it's often shocking. So this was, I guess, kicked off in part by a rather innocent comment made by Turning Point USA's Andrew Colvitt, who said, a burrito shouldn't cost 20 bucks. And Matt Walsh. complained about insane grocery prices, and called for Republicans to, quote, end these stupid foreign wars and focus on this issue. It's one of the main reasons socialists are gaining power. Carol Markowitz, our friend over at the New York Post, had a good piece on this. Burrito Gate. is dividing Republicans at the time when leftists are veering into full-bore communism as the solution for rising costs. And again, it's unfortunate when people on the right that are supposed to traffic in facts and the laws of economics rather than play sloppulist politics. For example, one of those who regular in this show, because we prefer the people who... are economically literate. David Harsani made the point in this discussion that actually food prices have gone down significantly as a part of the average American families take home income as a percentage, cost of food. It's down in real dollars by about a factor of five in the last hundred years. And quote unquote foreign wars. What's happening in Iran has little to do with the prices you're paying at the jewels or the publics. And it has a lot more to do with the cost of doing business imposed by government at every level, including the previous administrations, costs imposed at the federal level, with respect to tax and regulatory policy, wage setting and the like. Is this not obvious to people? We just rage about affordability into the darkness like the left does, and that's addressing it. 312-642-2-5600 alpha-wealthgroup.com call and text line. As Markowitz wrote, it doesn't even seem to matter that no one can pinpoint the existence of this rage-inducing $20 burrito.

Or people's obsession with burritos for that matter. A fully loaded steak burrito at Chipotle with guac comes in at under 17 bucks, even in Manhattan. And you can get three cheesy double beef burritos at Taco Bell for around 15 bucks. though you may have to call in sick for work the next day. Also, cash-strapped young people can buy an eight-pack of burritos at any supermarket for just a few bucks. But people bristled at the notion that this isn't a real problem and that this isn't a problem of wanting to eat out rather than cook at home, which is more economical as people, not necessarily more healthy, but it's more economical, as people note. that feels dismissive. Getting a lot of people feeling their way through life on the right, it's kind of unnerving. And Joel Barry pointed out that all these actual ways to address the affordability issue, the artificially inflated prices because of profligate and stultifying policies at every level of government. You think they're going to celebrate actually addressing the problem substantively? They, the sort of populist critics starting with the neo-Bolsheviks. Oh, if they're finally doing it, if we did these things like stop artificially setting salaries for frontline fast food workers. that that would be received well, be applauded. Reducing labor costs, that's one way to reduce the price of food, particularly if you go out, but not limited to going out. Of course, that's going to be perceived as tone deaf and out of touch and cruel and all the things that they always say. This is like people in Chicago bitching, and I'm including people on the right who are not getting this. It's like people in Chicago bitching about the cost of, or the price at the pump here without acknowledging that Chicago, well, the state of Illinois double taxes gasoline. There's a sales tax on gasoline, and there's a tax on the sales tax. And all the other layers of government.

and regulations that make Chicago, usually behind California, the city with the, you know, L.A., the city with the highest prices at the pump. There's reasons for this. And this, like, I, you know, this shouldn't cost that. Yeah, okay. But our job is to explain why it doesn't need to. And by extension, by inference, why it does. And it has nothing to do with big, bad oil companies or big bad grocery stores. So now we got to, you know, open up the gimmie deck grocery stores downtown like, man, Dami is in the process of doing it in New York. I mean, good grief. It'd be nice to hear thoughtful, succinct defenses. a promotion of the free enterprise system rather than the same bitching, the same mindless bitching from people who are supposed to know better. Otherwise, they shouldn't enjoy the platforms they do. But I also know why they do. You know, again, explaining why things are. Here's how, here's why they, here's why they are. Now, why they are is because there's a lot of people who otherwise are. repelled by the left for all kinds of reasons, but who don't really have a basic understanding of why things are either. They just know they don't want to be part of that crowd. Jim and Lagrange. Hey, Dan, my real problem is that I paid over 60 bucks for a rib eye last night at Gibson's, but hey, it was delicious and you pay for what you get. There you go. A way to rub it in, Jim. That's the kind of haughty attitude that people who can't afford the mythical $20 burrito are angry about. Tina, Joliette. Hi. This is one of my biggest pet peeves right now. Any Republican who is not tracing back the cost of living to the insane level of taxes we have in Illinois is a complete buffoon and an idiot. Everything is related to the way the state taxes us to death. And when Barack Hussein Obama was president, I was paying more for gas than I'm paying today. And I was making half my salary. So people need to put everything into context. If I shop at Jewel, It costs me double what it costs the shop at Walmart or Aldi. That in Jewel is a union shop. There are costs built in to everything. And we're doing a horrible job at explaining this. Everything is related. Your rent is too high. Well, guess what the property taxes are on that building? That's why your rent is too high because your state is taxing you into poverty. That's the endgame. And we're doing a horrible job as Republicans, well, our so-called leaders and properly explaining the people what's actually happening and why everything is so expensive. Thanks for the call, Tina. Scott Bessent tried to address this, at least in part. I don't, this is not direct, but it's just the point of the, um,

lack of thoughtfulness that surrounds these discussions and these complaints. The truth is that wages are up for Americans across the distribution, but importantly, earnings growth for mainstream workers at the 25th earnings percentile was 5.5% year over year in the latest date of this past quarter. That's more than three times of the growth experienced by workers in the 75th percentile. Median weekly earnings also rose a pretty robust 4.6% well outpacing inflation. So this is an improvement from the loss of purchasing power suffered by the entire distribution, but most hard hit were those at the lowest quarter. This marks a stark improvement from the loss of purchasing power they suffered during the Biden administration. The lower wage workers are leading median workers. Lower wage workers are leading, meaning median workers are gaining, and the pundit driven K-shaped economy narrative does not hold up. And he posted the wage data for people to see. But again, what people are feeling or the anecdotes don't speak to sort of the macro dynamics. And so they look around to see who's in charge. And at least for some reason, in some places. They look at the president and blame him. In Illinois, we look at the people in charge and then we blame somebody who's not in charge or somebody who has nothing to do with problems that preceded him and will persist after him, as Tina from Joliet was saying. That's the fascinating approach that the Illinois electorate takes, particularly in Chicagoland. Ron on the south side. Hey, Dan, I want to get your thoughts on this with the president said. that all companies making too much money. Yeah. As a free market person, I thought about you to be running in. I just want to ask you about this. Yeah. Set in the wrong, um, and saying, they should get to consume some of them. These are different functions, maybe, um, uh, global capital. Then you know, J.B. Pritzker. uh chimed but just comment on that that the oil companies are at fault for a certain global economics and they should certainly i wouldn't mind getting anything um the return but that's just not the function of a global economy so i'll let you comment thanks dan thanks ron you're absolutely right and the president's absolutely wrong That's the sort of sloppulist rhetoric I'm talking about. And it muddies the waters. And it presents the dynamic. Like if you don't agree with Trump, then you're disloyal to Trump, even though it turns econ's economics on its head. Really? So how much should they make? When is it too much? Of course, you know the margins. It's like talking about big grocery stores. You know the margins on the production and distribution of petroleum products, particularly gasoline. You know, the oil companies, the pennies they make per gallons of gas sold as compared to what the government takes, exponentially different.

exponentially more, a government at all these levels than the couple, couple, three, four pennies per gallon that oil companies make. Of course, it's just ma-mowing an easy target. It's cheap, sloppulous politics. It runs a foul of economics. And it further devolves the discussion. into the mindless and the emotional. So, yeah, on that score, President Trump is wrong. People should say he's wrong and improve the quality of the conversation. John in the loop. Right. Thank you. So the split between the inflation is 86% Biden and 14% Trump. You know, we can't do anything about the Biden portion, but Trump has brought it to a virtual halt, and we need to keep working on it. Well, yeah, thanks for the call. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I agree. But, you know, keeping working on it would be reducing the size and cost and spend of government. Nobody's doing a particularly good job at that. Obviously, Biden was the worst case scenario. But we can't take this approach. We shouldn't take this approach. But I know we do. I was just talking about it. Well, at least he's not Joe Biden. At least she's not Kim Fox. Yeah. No, I agree. It's better. But it could be a lot better still. Why don't we set sort of an absolute standard that we try to drive our political representatives to abide as opposed to just saying you're less terrible than the previous person. So that's acceptable enough. It's not. especially when they are wrong or incompetent or maliciously deceptive, and I'm talking generally speaking, this is not specific to Trump, on, you know, things that matter. Yeah. And it's fine, right. Remind people where we came from, what Trump inherited. That's all fair game. But it'd be a lot more helpful if President Trump would talk more like Leonard Reed and less like some DSA apparatchik on some of these topics. From the oil companies make too much money to the wonderful government investments in private companies that are reaping great returns for the American taxpayer.

Is this something the government should be in the business of doing? If the answer is no, then don't do it. Hear about the big stories of the day, then talk about them right here on Chicago's morning answer, an AM 560, The Answer. This is Chicago's Morning Answer with Dan Proft, an AM 560, The Answer. politics and sports and politics and politics and politics and politics and intersection arrogance and arrogance ignorance and arrogance. Uh, Dan Proft here, top of the morning and boy, a lot of melodrama over mediocre basketball. I got to tell you the WNBA, but it happened again and Sophie Cunningham is in the mix. So first, well, discuss what happened to Sophie Cunningham and then, you know, overlay the larger dynamic at play here. All identitarian politics all the time. That's what happens when you get all these women together, I suppose. The, uh, Sophie Cunningham going to the basket and she gets clotheslined by. Dijunet Carrington. I had some Dijunay on my Italian sausage for lunch yesterday. It's excellent. Dijunay Carrington, who apparently I have come to learn as one of the more, I guess she's sort of like the Dremont Green of the WNBA. She's sort of had some incidents of flagrant fowls and otherwise being melodramatic. perhaps not always presenting herself as the cleanest player on the court. So she's going to the basket. She gets a closed line, flagrant foul, Dijunay, Carrington, thrown out of the game. She immediately goes to the locker room and posts white privilege foul as her response to being thrown out of the game five minutes earlier. And so that, so she made it racial. Dijunay Carrington made a racial with Sophie Cunningham. And then, of course, this implicates the larger issue that cuts across race in the NBA because Sophie Cunningham's famous point was about her teammate, Caitlin Clark, getting cheap shotted by another WNBA player in another game. And so that's the, you know. white black thing effectively and of course Sophie Cunningham is embroiled in the straight LGBTQ deal because she doesn't believe dude should play in the WNBA and she took a picture with Jennifer saying Riley Gaines and that caught the attention to Megan Rapina I mean it's really there should this is going to have to be a Netflix series there's this is so episodic anyway before we get to the whole trans thing again

I thought this was an interesting aspect of this that was undercover. Jackson Thompson has the story. He's over at Fox News. Dijunay Carrington, who played at Stanford. Listen to this Dijunet Carrington versus the one you've seen over the last several days since she closed line Sophie Cunningham and perhaps you've seen other low lights of her play and other frankly low lights of her public behavior. She had some run in with an Uber driver where she was making all sorts of racial claims seemingly baselessly. Anyway, this is a Jasmine Crockett theater kid. performance that Dijunet Carrington is putting on in the WNBA. The Dijunay Carrington at Stanford talking about her family and her faith and her aspirations academically and professionally that had nothing to do with basketball. She did go to Stanford. And just the way that she speaks as compared to what you get now that she's a cartoon character. My dad played football and my mom ran track. And so they were both on collegiate scholarships. And then my dad went on to play in the NFL for eight seasons. And my sister played basketball in college and she played at University of New Orleans. My brother played at the University of Oregon and University of Utah. And when I was in high school, my mom was actually my head coach. My dad was her associate head coach and my sister was one of the assistant coaches. It was a really fun dynamic and a really cool experience just to have my family surrounding me. I hope to return to school, get my master's and my PhD in psychology. And when I further that education, I want to become either a forensic psychologist or a behavioral analysis profiler. And I think being here, I've already met so many people that can help me reach my ultimate goals. You have to be ready to get better every day and every moment on the court. And I think just being able to do that on the court and be a role model for young girls. And it really humbles you and reminds you that you're playing for a bigger purpose. I'm playing obviously for my faith, my family, but also for all the young girls looking up to me and who aspire to do similar things and break similar boundaries that we have broken here. This is, that's Dijunay Carrington back in the day at Stanford. The same Dijunet Carrington that, you know, makes a fool of herself. wore a F. Donald Trump T-shirt, poked Caitlin Clark in the eye, clothesline Sophie Cunningham, makes it, you're playing racial politics. What that will happen to you? I'll tell you what happened to her. Identitarian politics. The same thing that happened to Jasmine Crockett. This is what I've been encouraged, the persona I have been encouraged to adopt because this is the path to success. It's sad, isn't it? She wanted to be a Ph.D., a forensic psychologist. I got a profile for you, Dijanae, Dijanae Carrington. Dijunay Carrington. The old one versus the new one. You tell me what happened. Roger and DeKalb. You're on Chicago's morning answer.

Hey, Dan, love to listen to you. But I immediately have thought of Bill Lambere, but Raymond Green's another good one, but I'll tell you right now. Both of those kids have the rear end on her that she got. Yeah, okay. Thanks. I didn't want to say Lambere because I felt I'd be dating myself. I wanted to be a little bit more current so the kids could relate. Uh, okay. So, I mean, it's just wild. And meanwhile, the WNBA is, uh, convening their top people at the behest of the commissioner to, uh, try to figure out what a woman is. The league is meeting to review what a woman, what a woman is for the purposes of league eligibility. Seriously. This is after all the trans stuff in the back and forth. Identitarian politics besetting the league once again. And Caitlin Clark, the best player in that league and maybe the best female player ever, not weighing in isn't helping. Because after last week's back and forth among Sophie Cunningham and some of the players and some of the coaches, you have exactly what you might expect. people going to absurd lengths to demonstrate the absurdity of the WNBA having to figure out what a woman is for the purposes of eligibility. And that includes Ennis Cantor Freedom declaring for next year's draft. After careful consideration and reviewing the current eligibility guidelines, I am officially declaring myself a WMBA prospect. If simply declaring who you are is all that's required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WMBA. My team and I have carefully examined the WMB's eligibility criteria and governing framework surrounding self-identification and inclusion. Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WMBA draft in May 2027. I am definitely not here to mock, make fun of, or just like any community or personal choices. I am simply asking that the current rules be applied equally to everyone. The rules that represent the very values many WMBA players and coaches have publicly advocated for. My team and I are prepared to ensure these guidelines are applied equally, consistently, and without exception. And I look forward to the WMBA honoring its stated principles. See you at training camp. Yeah, okay, Ennis Cantor 610, 260, 34 years old. I think he's going to have a story at WNBA career if they don't get their wits about them. And he's not the only first-round draft pick to declare for next year's WNBA draft. Royce White out of Minnesota, former Mr. Basketball Minnesota and NBAer, played at Iowa State. And also is a Republican. He ran for Senate against Clobetcher in 2024.

he's also declaring you know right right now i'm just i'm just having a blast in my feminine era i never thought that i was a uh a woman feminine you know i i've always trusted the science i thought i was a man my entire life but you know after further review i you know look strong look at my my personal preferences it would appear that that i am indeed uh sometimes identifying as a transgender woman And I think it's only fair I get a chance to play with some of my queens here in the twilight of my career, my athletic prime. Yeah, Royce White, 35, 6-8, 230. I mean, you better tighten up those laces, Angel Reese. Corey and Woodlawn, you're on Chicago's morning answer. A morning, Dan. You know, this is another situation where politics has invaded every aspect of our life. This toxic trans mania is out of control. And I heard you mentioned Leonard Reed earlier. Yeah. I really like Henry Hazley. I mean, he is very good. But Leonard's a great one as well. Yes, yes. Everybody, if you have, I mean, I think I've read portions on the show before I know I have. But if you've never, maybe everybody should reread it and pass it along to somebody who is economically literate to read as well. One of the most famous essays in. Defense of Free Enterprise in the History of Mankind is Leonard Reed's I Pencil essay from 70 years ago. It could use wider distribution in the modern day. There's no question about that. So now this spilled over into the larger discussion. And a former women's USA soccer team.

Olympian. Megan Rapino went on to that show with the man hating shrews called The View to express her opinion on all of this and also say things, which is the perfect venue to do it because you're not going to get challenged if you're coming from the left, say things that are completely untrue and incendiary for the express purpose of being incendiary because she's a hustler. Like all these identitarians are, Megan Rapino. Using this as a wedge issue because we love sports and, you know, we don't want our little girls to be unsafe in sports. And it's like unsafe from who? But okay. But now we're using this as like an overarching thing. When really we're attacking women, we're saying if you look like this as a woman, you can play. If you look like this is a woman, there's a bill in Washington happening right now that's going to require all girls just like full stop to go through a sex test and invasive like. examining their genitals to see if they're a woman. Yeah. And that has not worked out well historically for people to do that. We know what that means. Black girls are going to get questioned more and they're going to get questioned first. Who's doing the examination? Who wants to subject themselves for that? And so they're going to see a pullback. They don't like women in sports because it helps us with confidence and power. And we see so many women in the C-suite played elite level sports. It's just great for you physically and all of it. But it's an attack on women in society. Having men, disallowing men from playing women's basketball is an attack on women and society. Reducing the opportunities for girls and women to play sports is attack on girls and women. You see. By the way, that is not the case with the test. We talked about it last week. The women's professional tennis association is doing this gender test. You had the top players in the world weigh in on that, including the world's number one, saying, you know, it's fine with me. It is not an exam like Rapino represented. It never has been proposed that way. It is not that way. It's a cheek Eric Swalwell. check testosterone level. And that's one of the things that I, you know, you're hearing scuttlebutt, the WNBA is thinking about, well, if you've been on female hormones for at least two years, then you can, you're eligible to be drafted and play in the WNBA. Well, um, okay. I mean, get ready for, you know, I'm sure Anna's cancer can wait till he's 36. I don't know if he wants to take female hormones, but regardless, those who are doing that, we mentioned this player that they're talking about from France, this guy who is doing that sort of thing. He's 34 years old, and he's averaged like 20 points and 20 rebounds a game. He's dominating whatever the women's basketball league is across the pond.

So that doesn't solve the issue. Of course it doesn't solve the issue because you're perpetuating a lie and you're making policies based on a absurdity. Navratilova responding to what Rapino said, Martina Navratilova, who's been outspoken on this to her credit from really the outset. She and J.K. Rowling, probably two of the most important voices on this for years now. Well, think about that logic. It is so illogical. It is just so far out. It's so... Crazy. And by the way, her team lost to a team of 15-year-old boys. You know, the women, women top Olympic team lost to a 15-year-old boys team, like 5'2 or something. They got, they got whipped. I just don't know where she's coming from, that she really doesn't pay attention. Again, exaggerate the issue. What if five boys get on the women's team? Now, five girls did not get on the women's team. And by the way, that team is going to win. So I don't get it. What obsessed me is that people don't get educated better about the issues. And then just the eye test, right? And by the way, I am. muscular. I'll be 70 in two months. I still have pretty good guns and I'm done anything because that's my genetic makeup. I've always been very strong. Thank you, mom. Thank you, dad. And I work my ass off. But no matter how hard I work, I still cannot compete with the weakest guy on the ATP. I still can't bench press 200 pounds, you know. So, um, I'm just disappointed with Megan that she's like, you know, feeling this way and basically pulling up the ladder after she retires. Yeah, and the genital test really. That was never the case. Never, never, ever. And because of the level of brain rot that identitarianism imposes, you have in response to that that cheap shot that Sophie Cunningham. suffered in that game. Two terrible responses from different directions. One, Sports Illustrated, which again, how many times have I said this, the sports press corps is an extension of the political press corps, which is hard left. Sports journalists, quote unquote, who want to be taken seriously and think that they need to basically behave like their D.C. brethren. to be taken seriously. Sports Illustrated headline. Soughing Cunningham got a bitter taste of karma after drawing flagrant foul in Fever Sky Game. A bitter taste of karma. It's the universe settling the score for her saying men shouldn't be in women's sports. What? Well, there you go.

And the flip side of that is, don't do this. A guy who's otherwise pretty good, the Attorney General of Florida, James Uthmeier, if he, the WNBA knows better than to play games down here in Florida because I'll be charging people with assault. Don't do that. You're not going to turn flagrant fouls in a sporting contest into criminal prosecutions. And you shouldn't even suggest anything. That's sloppulism. What I was talking about, the first hour. sloppy populist bulgive politics don't do it ridiculous and utheimer should know better than that glenn and orlando yeah good morning dan someone on ex posted uh and its freedom is a beautiful and confident woman and if you don't agree with uh with uh that then you're a transphobic yeah he's a tall drink of water that's for sure uh george in naperville Yeah, Dan, how much space in your man cave is filled with WNBA memorabilia. Yeah, I haven't gotten into the memorabilia game yet, George, but, you know, Sophie Cunningham is tempting me. I got to tell you. It's news, opinion, insight. This is Chicago's morning morning, Dan 560, the answer. Top of the morning, Dan Proft here, that sad little man, Anthony Fauci. No, I'm not letting it go. The referral made for contempt of Congress. And this clip, which you didn't get to over the last couple of weeks, maybe the most sickening clip that speaks to how compromised the D.C. Press Corps was during COVID. and how these outlets should not be trusted. And every person, every non-COVIDian that goes on these outlets with these people should use these sorts of clips as the predicate to say, before we start talking about any current topic, I just want to remind people that this is the show and this is the network that platform these kinds of individuals that perpetrated. frauds on the American people that cost lives. Like, I don't know, 100,000 deaths of desperation, basically on an annualized basis over the course of the sort of central three years of the pandemic. Allison Camerata on CNN with that other guy that I think is still there. whatever his name is. It doesn't matter. Allison Camerana talking to Anthony Fauci. That's that little man. Right after Brad Pitt had played him on Saturday Night Live. And been nominated, of course, for an Emmy for his performance of Anthony Fauci. And that's all that fan girl, Allison Camerata could talk about. This isn't 2020. Did you hear that Brad was nominated for an Emmy for playing you? Yes, I did. What is the real world we're living in Allison? I mean, I hope he wins. He's a great actor. I mean, he's one of my favorite actors, so I really do hope he wins. Have you spoken to him since he played you?

You know, I have not. I would love to meet it because I've been such a great admirer of him and his talent, but I have not spoken to him. I feel like we can make that happen, Dr. Anthony Fauci. I feel like we, you know, you and I have the power to have you meet Brad because I sort of feel like anything you and I suggest he does. Well, we'll see. We'll see. Thanks, Allison. I'm not done with you, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Would you like to go up on stage when he wins, would you like to be there to help accept the Emmy Award? Yeah. You know, Alison, the only reason I have hesitancy about that is that we're in the middle of an outbreak, a really bad pandemic. And I think that if that association with kind of show business thing might be misinterpreted that it's not serious about what I'm doing. Oh, now you not serious? So I'd rather focus on my job and really wish him well that he wins. I was afraid there was going to be a point that I pushed you too far. And I feel that we have just gotten up to that point. But we really appreciate how playful you have been on the lighter note with all of that. And it was just great. I mean, it was just a great moment to watch, you know, that obviously Brad Pitt is a fan of yours and all of your information as well. Yeah. Okay. Go tell yourself off, Allison, will you? How embarrassing. Disgusting. In the context, 2020, when people are not being allowed to see their loved ones in hospitals and hospices, when kids are committing suicide because of, you know, because they're isolated and despondent. I mean, these people. The new Anthony Fauci, I mean, not in that sense, but took over the position and has brought a actual level of sobriety to it. Dr. J. Badacharya, head of NIH now, had to spar with Marge. We have so much to get to. Senator, we have just so much to get to. We can't allow you to answer questions. Great debate moderator she was, if you recall, in 2024. And she does the same routine every Sunday. These people are just intolerable, really. But Dr. Jay did a good job of setting Marge straight, large Marge straight, including on the importance of yes, going back to 2020. Yes, talking about everything with respect to vaccine schedules. and public health in the context of what we did in 2020 so that we do it exactly the opposite of the way that Anthony Fauci and the crew did it.

And there were people that were calling for him to be investigated and prosecuted at the federal and state level. The sort of careful approach would be, don't say anything. And so then the Justice Department will have to think about, did he have a legitimate Fifth Amendment right to assert there? There's arguments on both sides, right? Because, of course, he had the pardon from President Biden, right? His auto pen pardon. So one would say, well, you have nothing to worry about as long as you tell the truth. We can't second guess anything you did or said or wrote back before 2025. On the flip side, Anthony Fauci would say, well, how can I be sure you're going to honor that pardon and not try to railroad me anyway? So you would go down this whole rabbit hole of whether or not there was a constitutional issue about the Fifth Amendment. It would take years to work out. The guy's 85 years old. So when it comes down to it, is there a strong case of holding him in contempt? Yes. Have the Democrats on the flip side held conservatives in contempt in recent years? Yes, they have. They broke precedent, right? First prosecutions in 50 years of banning and Navarro for contempt of Congress. But is it really worth it? Is it really worth trying to prosecute this 85-year-old guy? I think personally it's more worthwhile to try to get the information from him that he has. And if that means immunity to get it, that's probably the way I would go, much as it would pain me to do so. And part of it is we don't know. There's some, what, 34,000 messages recovered from his phone, and we don't have the full accounting of that yet. So, you know, that could be instructive as well. The threat at the state level, you know, these investigations running concurrently, allegedly in several states, perhaps most notably in Florida. I mean, I hear that, and I understand that the federal pardon doesn't cover state level charges, but I also have a hard time figuring out. what sort of colorable case could be cobbled together to charge Anthony Fauci at the state level in Florida or any other state? I mean, first on jurisdictional issues, and then secondly, just in the substance of the case you could make against him under a particular state statute. Do you see something that I'm not seeing? I mean, look, a clever prosecutor can figure out how to bring a case against anybody, right? You can know it might not hold up. when it gets to court. But you can find all kinds of ways of charging people. So they could probably create some kind of obstruction or a false statement that Anthony Fauci made that allegedly affected state policy or something. It would not be easy. So again, I get the desire to investigate and get information. But when it comes time to actually going through the mechanics of a process,

prosecution, there would be challenges at the federal level, at the state level, it would be a real uphill battle. The other matters, some revealed last week that you would have expertise in addressing. The The 2020 election may not have been the most safe and secure election in the history of our country. We find out after it was revealed that there were some 600,000-plus election records in Maricopa County, Arizona, key swing state, that were compromised. Now, there's no allegation that there was... ballot manipulation or vote total manipulation. But nonetheless, there was an understanding that there was a vulnerability there and it could have been exploited in a fraudulent way. And there was a whistleblower. There was somebody who admitted that he had compromised the system. And the documents go that were declassified. No one under the Biden regime was interested or if they were interested, could find a federal prosecutor who was interested in pursuing this case. Meanwhile, they're all publicly saying safe, including Chris Krebs, cybersecurity, safest and most secure election in history, nothing there, anybody who suggests that there are vulnerabilities in the system is a crank, is a election denier, so on and so forth. It seems like that needs a more fulsome explanation and accounting for. Yeah, I think that the two things that really just kind of, I have a hard time getting over. One is the pure numbers, right? 15 million new voters popped up in 2020, more than had voted in 2016. Fast forward to 2024, those 15 million drop off. How did we possibly spike by 15 million new voters in 2020 in the midst of a pandemic? Those numbers have always bothered me. Where did all these voters come from? And where did they drop off? So that's one thing. And by the way, just for clarity, you mean voters on the rolls, not ballots cast, but on the rolls? Yes. Right. That's a key distinction. Go ahead. And sorry. And then the other one is, why does one side of our political spectrum and we know who it is fight so hard? against what I think most of us would consider very, very basic security measures, like showing an ID when you vote, right, having to prove your citizenship when you register or change states. Why would one side of the spectrum fight so hard against these most basic things unless they felt they were benefiting from the lack of these safeguards? And so I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm not saying there's some deep, dark conspiracies that I can't prove because I don't like saying things like that. But when I see these wacky number changes, and when I see these politicians just go to the mat refusing to consider the most basic safeguards of one of the most important things that we do as citizens in this country is to vote.

for federal offices every two years. Why would that be the case unless they had something to hide? Well, right. And the Department of Justice passing on a case that looks like a violation of federal election law. And the cybersecurity point person going on 60 minutes and saying things that he knew we now know were untrue. Like it. You can say, you can still say it's a save and secure election, but it's not without vulnerabilities. And let me give you an example, this vulnerability. That's full disclosure. And you say, okay, so we identify this vulnerability. You investigated it. We know it's a problem, something that's going to have to be addressed on a basis. But I'm here to say it didn't change the outcome in the state of Arizona and so on and so forth. Fine. But when you don't disclose it, you create all the more suspicion, legitimate suspicion. Yeah. And I think the most. simple way to improve people's confidence in our election system is to shine a spotlight on these concerns. And even if it doesn't go anywhere, right? Look into it. If it doesn't turn up anything, fine, tell people. But to kind of hide it, ignore it, to not prosecute it, not investigate it, again, that just, that just, it undermines people's trust and people's eagerness and participate in our political process if they don't feel that their vote is worth something. Todd Blanche finally got through as the newly minted Attorney General. What is your view of that selection and the job that he'll do? So full disclosure, I've known Todd for about 10 years. We were law partners together. We've been friends for the last decade. So I've got the benefit of knowing him personally. So I've been up front of practice law with him. I've seen him in court. He's a very skilled litigator and it's a very good, solid guy. So I come with that bias. That said, even if I didn't, though, I think it would be hard to debate that he's not qualified. He's 10 years in the Southern District of New York, which is one of the most elite U.S. attorney's offices in the country. He served as now deputy and then acting attorney general, so no one knows how to do the job of the attorney general than having had served as deputy because the deputy at the DOJ is a very, very hands-on job. As you know, Dan, right? Every U.S. attorney, every assistant attorney general, all Senate confirmed, all roll up under the deputy attorney general who really runs things day to day. Not a ceremonial role. It's a very hands-on role. And Todd has had that job for the past year. So he knows the system. He knows how the court systems work. He knows how to pick losers and winners in terms of cases. He knows who identify solid prosecutors and managers. So I think he'll do a great job. And I understand that people go to the sort of first argument that, well, he was President Trump's lawyer in a prior life, right? So how can he then be objective? I see it a little differently. I mean, the president should have an attorney general that he can trust. And President Trump, in particular, was really burned by a lot of Washington insider, particularly in his first term, right?

So I can understand he wants someone that he can trust. And basic legal ethics would prevent Todd from continuing to represent the president on anything he knows, it was involved in personally. So we have to recuse himself. And I have no doubt that he will do that. And I have no doubt that Congress, particularly if it's controlled by Democrats, will make sure he does that. But beyond that, I completely understand why the president wants someone he knows he can rely on. And I think Todd's a great selection in that respect. Yeah. The left likes to, you know, forget on again, off again, that the attorney general is part of the executive branch. So, yeah, you know, I mean, they're not going to be unknown quantities regardless of who the president is, as we've seen over the course of American history. But they're very... naive when it comes to choices that are not their own. Joseph Moreno, former federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice in the National Security Division, former staff member with the FBI's 9-11 Review Commission, and a U.S. Army combat veteran, Joseph Moreno. Thank you, as always. Appreciate it. Thanks, Dan. Have a great week. You too. And he joined us to the Alfawealthgroup.com. Answerline. Coming up at 707, we will seamlessly transition to more geopolitics with Stephen Butcher, weekly conversation. We'll talk about the Gaza peace plan that the Israelis have rejected so far and the latest public ruminations of the Iranians with respect to... reopening the straight, even temporarily, Stephen Bucci from the Heritage Foundation. Joinsets at 707, 707 Stephen Bucci. It is now 7 o'clock on AM-560 W-I-N-D. Standing them from positions of authority going forward has teeth in it because they're not going to get the same consulting jobs. They're not going to come back into government and be able to do those things that they've done in the past. We've let them get away with it for too long. Look. September Kendall, I know him. He's a nice guy. He's a smart guy. If he did that, or is there enough evidence that the department feels he did that, then you either charge him with a crime and do it, you know, punitively that way, or you use the administrative teeth that is available. Strip him of that stuff and send out the word that people are no longer... you know, invulnerable to punishment when they do this crap. It's unprofessional. It's, you know, hurtful to the nation. And it's just inappropriate for people of the level of somebody by Kendall who should know better and should not be a selfish prig to do this stuff to get himself jobs. Pay the price. I don't have any problem with it. Stephen Bucci served America for three decades as an Army Special Forces officer and top Pentagon official, now a visiting fellow in the Heritage Foundation's Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies. Stephen, thank you as always. It's my pleasure. Have a great week. And Stephen joined us on the Alfwealthgroup.com, answerline. The stories you need to know to start your day. This is Chicago's morning answer. On AM 560, the answer.

Top of the morning, Dan Proft here. Former DSA or Jake Sam Altman, he had an op-ed over at the free press that we poured over last week. He followed that up by sitting down for an extended podcast, free press, to talk about... you know, what he learned about the DSA from the inside, much of which disturbed him enough that he would leave and essentially rat them out, although there's really no ratting them out because all he's describing is what they're presenting. I mean, there is no nuance to what you're hearing from these, you know, public facing DSA types from Hasan Piker to these useful idiots with titles. He's, you know, co-furers of DSA organizations at the state as well as the national level. Here's what Sam Altman said, though, just about to sort of address this, you know, it's a small cadre of apparatchiks. It doesn't represent anything major significant. And it's, well, they're outnumbered by. You know, more elder statesmen who just have this sort of Scandinavian version of socialism they're trying to bring to America. If only they were trying to impose the Swedish model on America. The Swedish model has gotten a lot more free enterprise over the last 30 years. And Comrade Bernie and others haven't noticed. But anyway, Jake Sam Altman on what the actual composition of DSA is. I would say a lot of the younger people are very, very radical. DSA itself makes a distinction, an important distinction, between paper members who are people who give the organization their credit card and never come to a meeting, and cadre, who are hardcore activist members who show up to all the meetings and do all the work. The cadre are incredibly radical. The paper members might be, you know, think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders are great and let's get Medicare for all. That is not the hardcore that's running the organization. It is not. They are extremists. They believe, many of them believe, that any means are justified to achieve their goal. They are explicitly revolutionaries. They want to pull down our government institutions. They want to pull down our economic order. And they believe, they really do believe this, that they can build something better. in its place. Right. By any means necessary, including violence. He didn't say it, but it's certainly implied. And it's being practiced. And it brings together totalitarians of all stripes, including Islamists from Michigan, or Minnesota, or southwest suburban Chicago. And the platform that they're out and proud about, that includes, you know,

disbanding the Senate and nationalizing all major companies and selected industries and so forth. Oh, well, that's just a platform, and I don't agree, Michelle, or Francesca Hong. I don't agree with some of it. We'll give us one thing you don't agree. Oh, I guess I don't agree with abolishing the Senate, but I'm on board with the other stuff. Well, if you're a DSA, the radicals in charge that Jake Alman is describing, they're serious about their platform, and they're serious about you abiding it. Let me give you an example. These. Lovely young Reds, Michaela B and Francis Gill on a DSA Zoom call. This is actually something that we committed to at convention having our endorsed candidates. supporting the program. It's a requirement now. And so that'll be incorporated into our endorsement process. It sounds so radical, like abolish the Senate, abolish the Supreme Court, like, et cetera, et cetera. But it's really, it's not. Like, those are the things that need to happen. So whenever people are like, oh, my God, they want to get rid of the president, I was like, well, I don't know what we would call it in the future. We could call it the head honcho of whatever, you know, like it's like we might not have a president. Yeah, the revolutionary, something I've been saying for many moons now. For more on this and the funding mechanism for these young reds, Jeffrey Kane joins us, author of The Perfect Police State, an investigation of China's surveillance dystopia, and Steve Jobs in exile, the untold story of Next and the remaking of an American visionary. He has recently written about DSA and the funding. streams that support these efforts and are propping up these candidates like L. Sharia in Michigan, Francesca Hong, who looks to be the DSA nominee after tomorrow's primary in Wisconsin for governor. Jeffrey Kane, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Good to be here again. So the funding streams, I mean, I've read your piece, and it's some of the names that have been in circulation, but let's dig into it, starting with, say, Nevel Singhman. And the interesting thing about him, since he's hunkered down there in and around Beijing, the intersection between good old-fashioned atheistic communism, as practiced by, say, Mao. and she and Islamism.

as promoted by people like Hasan Piker. Right. Well, there is a growing intersection here, and the Velsingham for the audience who doesn't know about this, he's a man, he's a wealthy donor who lives in China. A grand jury has convened to look into whether or not he broke laws and failed to register as a foreign agent, meaning that the government is questioning whether he might actually be on the payroll or working for some way. for a foreign government. He denies this. I mean, he denies this and hasn't been charged with a crime. But the intersection here is that Hasan Piker and his ilk, so the people who are promoting these extreme forms of socialism and revolutionary violence in the United States, they're all in the same circle. And Hasan Piker went on a ship to Cuba to protest U.S. sanctions and got a subpoena from the Treasury Department. And then Hasan Piker, so this was funded in part by Neville Singham's group. Code Pink. Code Pink. And so Hasan Piker gets on his Twitch stream and says that these are all great guys, that the U.S. government is just after him. But these are good guys. These are good people. And, you know, I'm innocent of everything. So there's a very troubling circle emerging between the Islamist Socialist Alliance in the United States and the hardcore socialists, people like Singham, who currently live in China and are currently being looked into by a grand jury around their foreign links. So, you know, we don't know the full story here yet, I have to say. You know, that does, that does suggest that there is something happening here with the Democratic Socialists of America and the people around them. And, you know, and again, Singham is not the... The only billionaire involved here in the conversation, and even not the highest profile, where now it's George and now Alex Soros, long been financiers of whatever strain of leftism was ascendant, including this. So, like, are there discernible ties between, say, Singman and Soros? And let me throw somebody else at you, another billionaire. Pierre Omadar, who is the founder of eBay, who also funds all sorts of hard left activism. So I'm not sure about any links between Singham and other donors involved in activism, but what sets Singham apart is that he actually lives in China, and he is surrounded by people who literally... Praise Mao Zedong, a dictator, the dictator of China during the Cold War, who was responsible for at least 40 million deaths.

Hasan Piker appeared at the National Convention, the University Convention for the Democratic Party. This is not even a socialist convention. This is the regular Democratic Party. And he appeared in the Mao suit, the suit that Mao Zedong and his communist cadres would have worn at the height of the Cold War when they were massacring their own people. And he showed up, and people were just shocked. And even, you know, these are center-left. Democrats who are, I mean, I talked to them and they said, what the heck is this guy doing? So even in the Democratic Party, especially in the moderate wing, there are deep concerns about this radical revolutionary wing that includes the DSA and Hasan Piker and Neville-Singham and their influence over these kinds of, you know, revolutionary operation, whatever it is, whatever it is they're trying to do. But I mean, there's not, I mean, certainly there's no evidence that those concerns are being expressed in any way other than privately, right? Because you've had formal endorsements now of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Pete Buttigieg is on the campaign trail with him already. Chuck Schumer and everybody and Gillibrand falling in line. Hillary Clinton now talking about, you know, here's what the Republicans are going to do and here's our challenge. But I mean, there's no attempt to work around or purge what's happening within the establishment Democrat Party with perhaps the exception of John Fetterman. But he seems to be more likely to end up being in the Republican Party than he is to be successful purging this element from the Democrats. Right, right. And, you know, that is one of the criticisms of the, the criticisms of the Democratic Party right now, that the people who are on the center left, the, you know, the so-called moderates are moving further and further left to try to appease this socialist wing that's now emerging. So the Hasan Piker of the world, the Twitch streamers, the extremists who promote violence, these guys are taking over the rhetoric of the Democratic Party. And a lot of, you know, left-wing Democrats are now caught in this question of, you know, do I move more to the center like John Fetterman, you know, who supports Israel and who has spoken out against all kinds of violence and terrorism, I mean, without any reservation? Or do I move further left and, you know, try to somehow appease or get the votes of these people who are starting to take over the public discourse? So one thing I've heard quite a few people say, and, you know, I used to work. in D.C. I used to work on Capitol Hill, and I know people from both parties. And a lot of people are wondering now if the socialists are going to save the Republican Party, because now, you know, there's going to be a Republican win in the midterm elections, in the next presidential election. The further left that they go, and the more they alienate. regular people who just want to, you know, enjoy our freedoms and enjoy America, the more they're putting their own party in danger of just being seized and radicalized and no one's going to vote for them. Well, although, I mean, you know, what choices they have, I mean, when they're just looking at what's politically expedient 90 days from now, they're, you know, willing, I mean, this is just politics, selling their soul for 30 pieces of silver.

Because Jake Sam Altman made this point in that interview I played a clip from, you know, a couple of years ago, we surveyed our own DSA membership and 36% of the membership identified as communists. So this is self-identification. And he suggested today. particularly the activist set, the actual doers, not just the paper members, as he was describing. He says it's much greater than, he suspects it's much greater than that now. So, you know, it's not a wing of the party. It's the fuselage. And it is becoming increasingly dominant at a rapid pace with electoral success providing, you know, a tailwind. And, um, and there doesn't seem to be much resistance. Yeah, Bill Maher and John Fetterman are not going to be enough. No, no, Bill Maher and John Fetterman are not going to be enough, and it is deeply concerning. So even me, I have a column in The Spectator. I read about this topic. I just published on the DSA and looked into their financing networks as well as their, you know, praise of Mao Zedong, the mass murderer of China. And, I mean, literally, they're just actively praising him. And when I posted this... I always get lots of angry comments from either current or former DSA members. And I'm literally just pointing out on the record, things that their leaders have said, praising mass murderers around the world, praising these communist dictators. And they won't grapple with that. They're not contending with it. They say that it's fine. I mean, literally one person pointed out, like, claimed to me, that it's okay to praise Mao Zedong because supposedly America has, you know, also been evil, so therefore we should, you know, support the Chinese dictator. I mean, this is literally the logic that they use to justify their pro-violent rhetoric, and that's what's so concerning. So I'm watching the DSA closely. I'm watching these left-wing, these far-left groups really closely in my own journalism, because I'm interested to see how far they're going to take this? Does the rhetoric actually mean they're going to become violent in the streets? And that's what I'm deeply concerned about. Jeffrey Kane is the author of The Perfect Police State and Investigation into China surveillance dystopia and Steve Jobs in exile, the untold story of Next and the remakey of an American visionary. Jeffrey Kane, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Good to be here, Dan. And you join us at theoffwealthgroup.com, insulin. The more you listen, the more you'll know. This is Chicago's morning answer. Morning answer. On AM 560, the answer. Time now for another reason why. Dan Puft is single. Yeah, this is a quickie because it's largely self-explanatory. Wall Street Journal lifestyle piece over the weekend. This summer's hottest arm candy is a private equity boyfriend. Apparently, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Olivia Rodriguez are all hanging out with these money changers in the private equity space. And, well, I mean, this is what I think of when I hear private equity guy. I think a private equity guy, Johnny Hillbrandt. And if this is what chicks are going for.

I'm out. Johnny up in Lake Geneva over the weekend. Good morning from Lake Geneva. You know, Lake Geneva's known as the new port of the Midwest. Yeah, this little lake smack dab in the middle of Middle America. We passed so many Culvers on the way in, which is hilarious because my PE private equity firm owns Culver's. I'd never eat there, though, of course. We got tons of boats on the water. Grant Pupy is Chris Craft that once belonged to the Wrigley's, and recently Arriva that was purchased from Venice. Not a Streblo. No, no. We were members at the Lake Geneva Country Club. So we love golf and tennis there. The kid has take lessons. And they take sailing lessons at the Yacht Club, of course. And we know the porters. We're obviously waterfront, a beautiful, beautiful estate. And we do a huge fireworks display off of a barge every year. So really stimulates the local economy. And the locals love me. I mean, they love me. I spend like $700,000 on 45 minutes of fireworks every summer. And then another $150K on the cleanup. So, you know, and Richard Dreehouse was a dear, dear friend. And I grew up attending his iconic parties. I went to the Wizard of Oz one as the little lad. It was awesome. And Whiteby loves the Gordy's boys who fill up the boat with gas. Yeah, yeah, it's becoming a bit of an issue. Yeah, because they like her back. I mean, she's a total rocket. So. Uh, yeah. So if that's what the, uh, DISTF side is going for, then I'm clearly out. Coming up at, uh, 808, we'll continue this discussion about the DSA that we've started with Jeffrey Kane here, uh, because we need to fold in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her comments as well as performative hormone injections, uh, in advance of her perspective 2028 run for president. This is Chicago's Morning Answer with Dan Proft on AM 560. The answer.

Top of the morning, Dan Proft here. Perspective 2028 presidential candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, yeah, seriously. On this week with Jonathan Carl talking about DSA. And Jonathan Carl went through the platform a little bit with her and how does she square her membership in the local collective, the DSA of New York. with her support or lack thereof for the platform. By the way, just a quick definitional thing, what in your mind is the difference between socialism and communism? I think to me the fundamental differences, I mean, there's many. One prevailing one is democracy. And I believe that democratic socialists are fundamentally pro-democracy. And we believe in the ballot box. We believe in respecting the outcomes of elections and governing democratically and ensuring that the ideas and policies that are implemented are won through popular vote and popular opinion. And so I think that's why so much of what we focus on. is also making sure that we are providing for the majority of Americans, guaranteeing health care, raising wages, strengthening the right to a union. And I think that that's at its core what we're about. Are you still a member of Democratic Socialist of America? Of the New York City chapter. The New York City chapter, not the national. No. And what's the difference? So every DSA chapter is formed locally. Yeah. And so the New York City DSA chapter, those are folks that you know. It's my, it's kind of like your local union chapter. Yeah. And yeah. So because I, and I know there was that strange moment in 2024 when the national chapter like took away your endorsement. Yeah. But I was looking through the DSA program and this is the national program. I'm sure you've seen the document. It was adopted just a few months ago. But some of the positions here, defund the Department of Defense, close oversee military bases, abolish the police and prison system, grant amnesty to all immigrants in the U.S. replace the Supreme Court and executive judiciary with a chosen by lower and lower to Congress, abolish the Senate, public ownership of corporations and essential industries. I mean, those are some positions that... You're going to be hearing a lot about this fall from Republicans. And I think we're also going to be hearing a lot about Donald Trump's commitment to getting us into a reckless war in Iran, his collaboration with big companies to make sure that everything from groceries to rent stay sky high. And I think that people are less interested in these academic debates, and they're more interested in how we're going to bring their bills down and make sure that they can afford to see a doctor. Yeah.

How'd you like her distinction between communism and socialism? The socialists really believe in democracy. Is that right? Huh. Socialists believe in democracy. Abdul El-Sayed is a dumb socialist, Al-Sahid, the Senate nominee in Michigan. And he's a proponent of... democracy and power of the ballot box and so forth. It's interesting. Because this is what he said at a care conference on the prospect of banning Sharia law that was initiated by referendum in the state of Oklahoma. Listen to the comparisons. When the state of Oklahoma voted in a referendum to amend the Constitution to ban Sharia law. What does that mean? I don't know. And yet the voters banned it anyway. And I don't have to tell you that the same exact forces that drove native peoples from their land two centuries ago. Destroyed Black Wall Street a century ago. bombed a building decades ago and tried to ban Sharia law, not a decade ago, that those forces are alive and well today. Yeah, so baning Sharia law. is the equivalent of, you know, the massacre on Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Now, actually, Sharia law, which he's clearly a proponent of, is comparative to the sorts of racial, totalitarian policies that punctuated the worst moments in this country's history. But you see how he's flipping the script. But he's a Democrat. Text from 847, doesn't Russia offer elections? Yes, right, Soviet elections. There's one choice, and the one choice gets 99.9% of the vote. And, you know, don't be the nail that sticks up, as the Soviets say back in the day, or did back in the day. But this is all very old for these young apparatchiks, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She's not so young anymore, 36, but she also doesn't know anything, and there's no intellectual curiosity to learn anything as she's demonstrated over her nearly a decade in Congress now. And there's no imperative, too, apparently to generate popular support to be taken seriously as a policymaker and political leader. That's the scariest thing of all, but she's hardly the only one. But just before we leave Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now, too, because she's also... evolved since the heady days of defund the police at the height of the response to the George Floyd killing. I mean, you remember. Standing is that Francesca Hong has made clear. And so I don't. When people ask me, what does a world?

where we defund the police, where, you know, defunding police looks like, I tell them it looks like a suburb. Right. It looks like a suburb because back in the day, that was in 2020, she said, because in the suburbs, the wealthy suburbs, people, they spend more money on education and social services. So there's not as much money spent on police because there's no need for police because people are being provided for. Really? Yeah, that's the argument she made. in defense of defund police. But now, like with all the crazy things that Francesca Hong and Abdul El-Sayed and the other candidates that have the Zohran Mamdani and Zohran Mamdani endorse candidates, what they've all said and are saying, now it's all this. So, come on. That was the silly days of woke 1.0. We're so much more mature now. Standing is that Francesca Hong has made clear her present stances to her electorate. Yeah, she's moved away from a lot of that. Right. She's moved away from it. And I have a local city councilman that has this saying, woke one was crazy. Oak one was crazy. Okay, that's true. And I think that what's important is that. It's like those silly kids. that commit heinous acts of crime in Chicago. Just kids being silly. Woke 1 was crazy, you know, like Woke 1.0, and now we're the more mature, sophisticated Woke 2.0 as what? I mean, Jonathan Carl was too busy giggling along, but what does that mean? So Woke 2.0 features an ascendant DSA with the platform planks I just read. That's more mature. That's more radical than just defund police. You've got a 10-point plan now to initiate revolution. And as you heard from Jake Sam Altman last hour, create something better than the Constitutional Republic we have now. That needs to be replaced wholesale. And that's what they intend to do. And they got a platform. And they got people running around talking about it in no uncertain terms. They're sick of people that just talk or just have authors in to ruminate about how society should be ordered. They want doers. And they've got doers now. Not just candidates, but the cadre, the apparatchiks.

People like Miss Romer, Megan Romer, who is the co-furer of DSA National. She agreed to an interview with New Yorkers David Remnick. Remember David Remnick in terms of media complicity. David Remnick was, you know, the first venerable journalist representing the New Yorker, the gravitas of the New Yorker. to say upon the election of Trump that all the previous rules of journalism as if they were actually practiced in terms of telling both sides of the story and not being an advocate for one policy view or politician over the other. That's all suspended now. Now it needs to be a full-on assault on President Trump because he presents an existential threat to our representative republic. That was David Mitt Romney's position. He led the charge that created hoaxes like the Russian collusion matter and so many more. Now he's trying to, you know, crawl inside the mind to the extent there is a discernible one there of people like Megan Romer who explained how she came to DSA. But we do believe in taxing the hell out of millionaires. Yeah, absolutely. Well, what is taxing the hell out of them mean? Yeah, you know, again, I don't have like a solid, but I think. But shouldn't you? I mean, if you're the co-chair of the DSA, shouldn't you be more specific than just taxing the hell out of something? What exactly do you mean? So, again, it's democracy, right? And we have to look at what we need to spend and what we need. We don't want to depend on the existence of millionaires because that means people are still getting exploited. So, yeah, we need to look at what we need to pay for in the interim, what sort of tax base we need for that to happen, and then build from there. Yes, well, property seizures, of course. The additional part of that interview, she talks about how she was... radicalized by Hillary Clinton's loss and she started to get involved in Democratic Party politics but was unsatisfied by the lack of concrete action. And so she was invited by a folk music, folk musician friend of hers to a DSA chapter meeting and she went and hey, these are people that want to get things done. I want to be a part of that. And look, a decade later, she's the co-furer of the national organization because she's about getting things done. What things? Revolutionary things. There's always love when people talk about getting things done as if that is a innate good regardless of what things it is that you're getting done. Okay. And, of course, one of the things not mentioned by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Jonathan Carl. is that part of the difference between the posturing of an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her own political interests versus the unabashed disposition of these DSA types who are impatient about bringing the revolution is that you have to take a hard line against Israel. You have to essentially

Well, say sort of the same thing that Miss Romer said, which about, for example, the 10-7 terrorist attack in Gaza. Darya Liza Avila Chevalier recently won a primary election in New York City, and it's almost sure to win the general election. She attended an October 8th pro-Palestinian pro-Hamas rally, which many people saw as a justification of the October 7th attack. And some of her tweets have been extremely ugly on this score and on others. Do you... Do you fully support her in all these activities and what she's had to say? I think Daria Lisa can speak for herself, certainly, and I think she's apologized for some pieces of that and has been quite quite unapologetic about other pieces of that. Do you support her yourself in that? Yeah, I do. Why? In other words, you would have gone to that rally had you been able? That's a good question. I probably would have. Yeah, yeah. I don't live in New York City, so I wouldn't have... One day after the slaughter of 1,200 people and taking over 200 hostages, you would have come and rallied behind Hamas. I think that October 7th was largely inevitable. If you put people in an open-air concentration camp and you deprive them of rights, of dignity, of food, of the ability to live in safety, you have to expect that they are going to not take that for that long. And that is not defending any harm of civilians or of non-combatants. Well, sure it is. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. You're saying you're supporting it. I'm saying that I think it was inevitable. I think that you cannot put people in a cage and expect them not to revolt. And I think that supporting the civilians, the non-combatants, the children who are being killed, you know, that's really the primary thing. So you live in upstate New York. So the Jews deserve 10-7, just like Americans deserve 9-11. That's the Hasan Piker Abdul El-Sheria position, right? I appreciate laying it out. That's the position. Greg and LaGrange. Good morning, Dan. As I told your calls straighter, did C.S. Lewis not knocked this out in the 1950s and the 60s with the screw tape series. You know what's inevitable here? What's inevitable is that that's of our republic, if we let screaming heredans like this woman that you just had on, get any semblance of power in our federal and state governments, much so.

She probably grew up in a library board. That's how the grassroots work. They grow up like weeds in the library boards, and they move on to bigger and better things to destroy republics. These people are an unmitigated disaster. I don't care how you wrap it in any kind of Christmas wrap that you want. They're out to destroy everything about our culture. Western civilization, Western values, God. family, law and order. That's inevitable. Thanks, Dan. Thanks for the call, Greg. Yeah, I mean, actually El Sharia, the Senate candidate there in Michigan, and Omar and Salib, the two of the socialist spice girls, brotherly love spice, MF or spice. Sitting around the table talking about all that they've accomplished since they set out to elect Islamists to positions of authority at the state and federal level. Ilhan Omar and I first got elected. You know, there were some folks saying, you know. We want more Muslims to get elected, so maybe, you know, don't be, tone it down. I know. I was trying to be nice. And she made a note, like, since we've gotten elected since 2019, 200 Muslims have been elected across the country. Wow. So we think about that for one moment, is this, the incredible movement. I know we were just part of it. We weren't the reason. Yeah, no need to tone it down now, huh?

No, it's going great. And this is not about, this is not categorical opposition to a Muslim being elected to public office in this country. If they're an American citizen, that's a good start. And so, but I mean, you have to distinguish. Right? This is, you know, I'm playing identity of politics. Dr. Zudy Jasser, I want him to, he's Muslim. I want him to be elected to Congress in Arizona. But I don't want Abdul El-Sayed to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Michigan. You see the difference? So they can try to play the identity game, which they will because they're race hustlers. And race is the means to totalitarian power. And they will impose their will as Abdul El-Sayed has telegraphed as they're all telegraphing. I mean, again, the most popular streamer, this is on Piper guy who's becoming more and more well known and is on the campaign trail with all these candidates. I mean, the things that he has said for years, just like these candidates that don't know anything, but are serious about pursuing revolutionary policy change, sociopolitical policy change, regardless of what they don't know. Hasan Piker's favorite flag when he's just riffing with his buddies. Let's talk about our favorite flags. Oh, like overall, what my favorite flag? Yeah. Hezbollah. Look it up. Oh. I'm not even kidding. It's actually a dope flag. I don't know flags. It's, uh, this is a... You know what? I'm going to be brave. My favorite flag. It's got an AK on it and a fucking hand. Yeah. Isn't that cool? Hezbollah, Islamist terrorist organization. So cool. So cool. And, you know, Hasan Piker's a little bit worried about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Because she's one of those people that for political expediency's purposes, you know, might say, like, I don't support Hamas. And we just can't have that. you got a hue to the orthodoxy. There are going to be people that, for example, come to you and say, oh, I guess you love Hamas then. And in that moment, you can't yield, okay? And I feel like if push came to shove in that regard, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 100%, I can see her being like, no, I hate Hamas. Hamas is the most condemnable force on the planet. They need to go away. And I will vote for every bill that says we need to kill more Hamas. That's what I'm afraid of. I'm afraid that she wouldn't dance around that and basically offer a major victory that basically says, yeah, I'm in the wrong, and I'm sorry for ever criticizing Israel. Bob and Naperville on Chicago's morning ago. Yeah, I'm not sure what's more maddening. The political operative like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or Jonathan Carl, when he had a layup. You know, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just said she, you know, wants to do what the American people, the majority want. I was jumping out of my short saying, how about voter ID? That's 85% Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but he let it go. Thanks for taking my call. Great show. Thanks, Bob. Yeah, and by the way, I mentioned it, so I just want to squeeze this in here. You know, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, again, woke 1.0. So, so crazy. Remember when...

It wasn't even a thought to have kids. This is 2018. It's eight years ago. Because by 2030... Because of climate change, the world was going to end? That was her position. You remember. Our planet is going to make disaster if we don't turn this ship around. And so it's basically like there's scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult. And it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question, you know, should... Is it okay to still have children? Is it okay? It's permissible. Yeah. Well, she's changed her tune now that she's 36 and trying to position herself as somebody to be taken seriously for President of the United States, which is just a remarkable statement. I can't even believe I'm saying it as I'm saying it. So she's... She started hormone injections for the purposes of freezing her eggs. And of course, this is all presented online video form for her, you know, the throngs of Hasan Piker fans also following Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and giving her some patina of legitimacy in our politics, remarkable. Don't be weird about this, even though I know all of you will be. Okay.

injecting herself in the stomach with the therapy hormone treatment whatever That wasn't so bad. Yeah. The only thing I would say, well, a couple things I'd say from that. First, she should do more crunches. She's starting to balloon, by the way, just as an aside. And secondly, here comes the moralizing about having kids in America and this patriarchal oppressive society after suggesting not a short time ago, no bother because the world's ending. Number one, there is... So much negative messaging that is directed towards women around our family choices. Period. Kind of, no matter what choice you make, if you have kids, when you have kids, whatever. There's so much negativity and it is designed to disregulate women to put us in a place of fear or insecurity so that we are making choices out of that place. We're not doing that. All of these men oftentimes who are saying, oh, if you haven't had a kid by 30, like you're done. It's just not supported. Don't trust these people who are writing abortion laws that don't even understand the first thing about a woman's body. Tell you about how many eggs you have at what age. They don't even understand about egg health. What about those men who are doctors like OBGYNs? Do they understand? She's so just colossally stupid. It is truly hard to fathom. But I just have one question. As I understand it, you've been with the same dude for 10 years. So if you want to have kids, why don't you have kids with this dude? Even though you're 36, you can, right? I certainly hope this is not all performative for craven political interests. And it's something other than a true expression of her empowerment. I'd be so shocked if that was the case. Top of the morning, Dan Proft here, a lot of matters of dollars and cents to discuss. I want to start with data centers. A story out of the Dakotas, Ellendale is the town. Pre-Data Center, Ellendale, Mayor Don Flaherty told... local reporter. The town collected about 400 grand. This is actually, I think it was in San Francisco Chronicle, so not a local reporter. Ellen Dale Mayor Don Flaherty told the report of the town collected about 400 grand in annual sales tax revenue. In just the first seven months of 2026, it reaped $3.5 million. Flaherty estimated Ellendale's taxable property value will skyrocket from $3.5 million to $35 million with the data center location there.

Ellen Dale can now afford to repave the streets, renovated senior center, finance a new public safety complex, established walking trails, and refurbish its historic opera house. The superintendent of the public school there told a reporter that applied digital grants will allow the district to buy new computers, purchase an ice machine for the teachers lounge. It's important for their cocktail hour. And finance a playground renovation. We were a dying little town. And we're not anymore. Now, this is not to say that, you know, anything that brings local revenue is a putative good. We know this is how you sell all sorts of terrible ideas, too, like video poker halls every other storefront and marijuana dispensaries and houses of additional kinds of ill repute. But that's not what data centers are doing. And a lot of the arguments as to the general opposition to them are coming from places of general ignorance about their sort of how resource intensive they are versus what they return and other such matters that, you know, I can see the point, should be matters of local concern. I mean, if San Francisco doesn't want a data center, okay. Ellen Dale does, and the AI revolution is coming. I mean, not coming, it's here. These things are going to happen, and so I understand every suburb just wants, you know, upscale downtown condo complex is built. There are economic realities, too. For more on this and other matters, we're pleased to be joined by our friend Jim Perry. He is the founder and CIO of Perry International Capital Partners. And our conversation with Jim Perry is brought to you by Home State Bank, new sponsor. Consider Home State Bank as an impartial trustee to your estate and spare your family from conflict and disagreements. Talk to a Home State Bank trust officer today at 815-459-2000. Again, Home State Bank, the number 815-459-2000. Jim Perry, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Good morning, Dan. Thank you. So, yeah, the sort of the growing understanding of data centers even amid some genuine NIMBY issues, which I understand, and maybe some contrived campaigns to inhibit the deployment of data centers and the progress of AI in this country. Yes, sir. I mean, I think that's right. It's another example, I suppose, Dan, that, you know, there's a narrative out there, right? And there's a truth.

So I think the truth is that these data centers generally are perceived as good for local economies, but there are always people who will say, you cannot ruin my way of life, and therefore you must pay me. So you have to just kind of ignore that stuff, but to your point about the sort of generational industrial revolutionary buildout. We're in the middle of it, and it's still going. So most people should be pleased about it rather than complaining about it, I think. Well, right. And, oh, by the way, I mean, Elon Musk is proposing to build the biggest building in the world. 100 million square feet, Tesla and SpaceX, their TerraFab semiconductor megafactory in Grimes County, Texas, just outside Houston with a first phase price tag of $17 billion. Gosh, you know, maybe in some places in central and southern Illinois, they'd like a development like that, the job creation and other... benefits that it would throw off in towns that, you know, deindustrialize and died off or are dying off. Yeah, that's right. You know, I mean, you hear about these things all the time. I read something this morning early, the guy that runs Black Rock, Larry Fink. He is talking about a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in the American worker, right? So they have a joint venture, BlackRock and Microsoft, to build data centers in the sort of AI infrastructure project. And they signed an agreement with the National Association of Building Trade Union. which has got something like 3 million members, and these guys are going to go into partnership with them and make sure that there's enough construction workers for all these data centers. And gee, what a good idea to put it somewhere near Chicago and get some people back to work. But you don't hear that from the guys that run the city. No, no, you certainly don't. Something else that we're hearing, though, a lot amid this. you know, that this example of free enterprise at its most innovative and disruptive, but that's how innovation is generated through disruption. But on the other side, we're hearing calls for central planning, and the calls are growing louder because the people making them are getting more and more successful politically, so it's kind of an issue. And the stuff that's happening in New York, which I guess still technically is the world's financial capital, right, is increasingly concerning. There are efforts that are essentially sponsored by the city government to set up tenant associations to initiate rent strikes for the purpose of...

Well, certainly living rent-free and ultimately perhaps seizing the property of private property owners. This is a woman named Tracy Rosenthal, who is the author of a book called Abolish Rent, fairly straightforward, talking about rent strikes and living rent-free and providing a real-world example. which is always helpful. You know, we make this rent payment effectively at the barrel of a gun because we know that if we don't make this payment, our landlords can call on agents of state violence and... use, who can use physical force to throw us outdoors. Living on rent strike, right? Like getting to experience having your housing without having to pay for it is one of those like liberatory, um, is a liberatory vision of home. Our movement has a division of labor that includes lawyers. It doesn't, uh, it doesn't. Privileged lawyers or put them on a pedestal, right? It recognizes that being able to stall in the legal system is one of the most important tactics that... our lawyers can offer to our movement. And to call it a housing crisis specifically obsuscates the power relationship between landlords and tenants, right? And that power relationship is one, is inherently one of exploitation and domination, right? Like landlords effectively have the power to exploit us, to charge us rent. And they have the sort of, like, they hoard the places where we can live and then charge us to access them. Both the tenants who got the rent increases and the tenants who didn't, but sort of recognize that that process would be coming for them soon, all collectively decided to withhold their rent. And that. After a period of eight months, that economic sanction, in combined with forms of social, like more direct social sanction, like camping out on the landlord's lawn multiple times and shaming him in front of his community and neighbors. That those two things brought the landlord to the negotiating table. Collective action that we take, right, in our, in making our tenant associations or making a tenant union, whether that's like sending a demand letter with like fancy legalese. So your landlord takes you seriously or like.

writing really bad yelp reviews of like his stupid flower business or like crashing his wedding or his kid's wedding or um you know going to his house Uh-huh. And just to close the story, the landlord, this was in Bedford, Stuyvesant in New York, eventually lost the building, per this rent strike to foreclosure in 2023, three years ago. U.S. Bank is now the owner, is suing the lovely young Ms. Rosenthal and four other tenants for eviction, saying they've squatted on the premises. This has been, the cases are still before the courts four years later. And, you know, again, this would be a one-off or it would be like a story about squatters rights that maybe something needs to be done at the state or city level. But this is being sponsored effectively by C. Weaver and the Zohran Mamdani administration in New York City. And it's a position that many... mayors and increasingly numbers of, increasing numbers of state legislators who are DSA members, city council members, are sympathetic to. And one wonders if, you know, the proponents of free enterprise in corporate America are taking this activity as seriously as they should. Yeah. I mean... We have a free market capitalist system here that is defined by laws. Those laws are agreed upon by the majority of the people in places where they live. And if some socialist knucklehead wants to come out and say, let's kill all the capitalists and we're here to destroy the white race and property has no value, I guess they have a pulpit for a while. But, you know, you've got to get these laws passed by the people that vote. I guess some parts of New York City and San Francisco and Seattle and Minneapolis are thinking that laws don't matter anymore. But one of the reasons that this country continues to attract capital is because we do have laws. And if you... you know, revert back to some sort of lawless social contract that says humanity deserves better, well, then, you know, go get a job. I just, I don't really have a lot of time for people like this. Him and her and Hasan Piker and Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed and Francesca Hong. I mean, these people are revolutionists that believe that, you know. They want to destroy the country. And for some reason, that's going to turn out better for everybody. So I think it's a moment in time going into the election where these guys and guys and girls get a lot of press. But it doesn't have a lot of common sense to it. I just find that, I don't know.

Yeah. Barking at the wind. Well, yeah. Right. I mean, it's just a lot of press until they get a lot of power by being elected to the Senate or governor or Congress. That's the concern. I mean, it's a moment that perhaps people might want to, you know, perk up and recognize. I mean, at least some people in that space like Bill Sam Altman, excuse me, Bill Ackman are. are taking judicial notice of it because, of course, he got burned in New York by being asleep at the switch. At least somebody's learning the lesson. I want to get your reaction to something else to, it's a bit below the fall, but it's still a little bit worrisome. This U.S. intervention to prop up the yen, to prop up Japan's currency, a good intervention? It's complicated, and it ties into, you know, global money supply and global debt and global trade. The Japanese yen has been in free fall, really, for years. And when that happens, the biggest problem, you have to look at, like, the receivers and buyers of, you know, cheap currencies. But the exporters in Japan, which are the Sumitomos and the Mitsubes and all these sort of companies. You know, the Japanese stock market, it peaked in December 31st, 1989, and about 40,000. And it's just short of 70,000 now. So it's really, you know, substantially higher than the bubble years back in the turn of the sort of 1980s. And the reason it's going up, and if you want to go buy the Japanese stock market, I guess you can. But, you know, you've got to buy it in the yen. And if you can't go down, you're not really making much money. So I think the Japanese have come to the realization that, you know, the government buys all the government bonds. They've monetized all their debt. And Japan has the same problem as China does and France and, you know, all kinds of other different places like that, England. governments have social contracts that are eating up a substantial portion of the nation's GDP. I think the French government controls 70% of GDP in the entire country. You know, you can't grow that way, right? So Europe is not growing. Japan is not growing. And all the money that people have there is leaving those places and coming here. Because the system is they're trying to propagate, doesn't, but they don't work, right? So I think what got presented in the, in the yen trade is, um, He did it in a way that the Japanese were able to buy yen, but through a kind of a sophisticated financially engineered derivative, mostly in euros. So they didn't sell tea bills.

They did not sell T-bills. In fact, the ownership of treasury bonds and notes and bills at the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan are essentially unchanged over the last three and a half years, right? And they don't sell treasuries and they won't sell treasuries because they've got so much cash flow and dollars that it helps them support the currency and the export economy. So I think it's kind of... People are making more of it. I don't believe. that the support of the yen by the U.S. Treasury Department using euros and three-month derivative contracts is something that's going to upset the financial system right now. If investors are thinking it's a big deal, I would say, I would argue against that, saying, you know, the Chinese have to sell treasuries because they don't have enough money in dollars to service the debt. And they don't want to be beholden to the U.S. government. They don't want to be held hostage by owning treasuries. So I think the Chinese continue to sell treasuries because they're out of money and they don't want to use the dollar. And the Japanese are very tied to this country in terms of dollar trade. And frankly, most of the investments they're making in new factories. It's coming here. So I really understand the whole philosophy of, you know, this sort of government intervention and state-sponsored capitalism and all that. And I think it's new, but this is a period of great disruption, you know, and I think that it's not the first time this has happened. We finance canals and railroads and, you know, electricity and power plants and all that sort of stuff. So I don't see it as a threat. to the U.S. economy or to the U.S. investor. I find that you have to look at the data and the facts and kind of sometimes just shrug your shoulders at the narrative and say, you know what, Mr. Osayyed, if that's what you believe, you know, go ahead and run for government. But the fact is it's going to be hard for a guy like that to win a national election. That's what I think. Jim Perry, thank you so much. Founder, CIO Perry International Capital Partners. Appreciate it. Our conversation with Jim Perry, brought you by Home State Bank. Consider Home State Bank as an impartial trustee to your estate and spare your family from conflict and disagreements. Talk to a Home State Bank Trust Officer today at 815-459-2000. Again, Home State Bank at 815459-2000. Thanks so much, Jim. Appreciate it. Have a good week, Dan. Thank you. You too. You too. And Jim joined us on the alpha wealth group.com answer line, of course. All right. Well, that's a wrap. I've tried to get in as much of these socialists as possible since we've got a... Anyway, the Wisconsin primary tomorrow. See if Francesca Hong gets across the finish line despite her...

proximity to whiteness and discussed with Halloween and Thanksgiving and holidays and so forth. We'll be hearing a lot more from her in the months to come, it would seem. Tom Tiffany and Mike Rogers are positioning themselves interestingly as trying to be very sort of matter of fact and be a safe place for whatever is left of moderate Democrats in those two Midwestern states to land. We'll talk more about that tomorrow. Thanks for joining us in this edition of Chicago's Morning Answer. Thanks for listening to Chicago's Morning Answer podcast sponsored by Signature, a division of Esquire Bank. Signature takes pride in helping customers grow their business and provide unmatched banking expertise, custom financial solutions, and the industry's best technology. So whether your business is looking for a deposit relationship or needs a ready source of financing, Signature has the solutions for you. Call today at 773-467, 5600 to hear how signature can help your business grow and thrive. Esquire Bank, member FDIC. Equal housing lenders.