Podbit · Up First from NPR
Lorette Newlin has placed a non-binding separation referendum on the ballot in 33 Illinois counties and won every single one — some with 80%+ margins. When Madison County, with 250,000 people, voted yes, even skeptics started paying attention.
Where this was said
At 10:10 · chapter starts 7:45
O'Neill explains that New Illinois published its grievances separately from its declaration — because, as Merritt put it, 'it would have been as long as an encyclopedia.' The list includes high taxes, unconstitutional gun laws, gerrymandering, mounting state debt, and failures on immigration enforcement. But the movement runs straight into an economic paradox: a study found that some rural counties receive more than $2 in state services for every $1 they pay in taxes, while Cook County residents get back only $0.90 on the dollar. [1] — Connor Towne O'Neill "Rural counties get $2+ per $1 in taxes: A study cited by Connor Towne O'Neill found that some rural Illinois counties receive more than $2 …" 08:07 Critics — including the movement's rare Democratic ally LaShawn Ford — see this as rural counties cutting off their nose to spite their face. Secessionists counter that they'll create a business-friendly environment with lower taxes, fewer regulations, and a revitalized coal industry. Governor JB Pritzker dismissed the whole thing as a stunt. O'Neill disagrees.
Rural Illinois counties receive more than $2 in state services for every $1 they pay in taxes — subsidized by Chicago. Secessionists say they'll build their own economic engines through lower taxes and fewer regulations, but the math of leaving that subsidy behind is stark.
A study cited by Connor Towne O'Neill found that some rural Illinois counties receive more than $2 in state services for every $1 they pay in taxes, largely funded by Chicago.
Residents of Cook County (Chicago) receive only about $0.90 in state services for every dollar they pay in taxes, meaning they effectively subsidize the rest of Illinois.
Fei-Fei Li went back to Stanford from Google in 2018 specifically to build a multi-stakeholder governance framework for AI. Her argument: market forces are not societal norms. Just as biology uses IRBs and cars have safety laws, AI needs layered oversight from educators, governments, and the public — not just a few industry titans.
Andrew Santino's personal MCU of political villains is collapsing. He and Bobby speculated that a circulating photo of Mitch McConnell with a Chinese official was AI-generated compositing two separate images.
Mass surveillance is here to stay. The real battle isn't stopping cameras — it's ensuring judges and laws keep that data out of family court and civil disputes, admitting it only for violent crimes and national security. The surveillance economy currently yields more upside than downside, but only if we build the legal guardrails now.
When people cite Scandinavia as proof socialism works, Galloway says they've got it backwards. Northern Europe runs highly competitive free-market economies with more competition in many sectors than the US — they just make sure taxes are actually paid and redistributed. Billionaires and universal healthcare can coexist.
Two percent adjustments to income tax and stamp duty tweaks are deck-chair rearrangements. The UK's competitiveness hinges on four structural levers: currency valuation, energy costs, regulatory burden, and tax rates. Devalue the pound, build 56 nuclear plants, slash red tape, introduce a flat tax — and the country transforms.
Lisbon had one of Europe's worst heroin crises. Then Portugal legalised drugs and redirected all enforcement money into rehabilitation and housing. Crime collapsed. Addiction fell. Then politics moved the money elsewhere, and the problem started creeping back. Chesterton's Fence: you forget why you were spending that money.
Congress passed the Boland Amendment 411 to 0, explicitly banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras. Reagan signed it — then immediately moved the operation deeper underground, essentially responding to a bipartisan prohibition by going more illegal.
The CIA planted mines in Nicaraguan commercial harbors, wrote the Contras' press releases taking credit, and promptly blew up ships from four allied nations. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, Congress erupted, and the Boland Amendments multiplied.
Oliver North was a decorated Marine and devout Catholic with zero covert operations experience. He ran the entire shadow war against Congress — planes, airstrips, arms shipments, shell companies — learning on the job. And by every operational measure, he crushed it.
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