McHenry County Blog

That’s a question a Friend of McHenry County Blog submitted with the following.

In April 2021, 9.5% of the registered voters in McHenry County cast ballots.

That’s lower than the voter turnout in Tunisia.

Ok, so this is far removed from McHenry County or even Illinois politics, but Breitbart has a thoughtful interview with retired tank commander Lt. Col. Danny Davis.

He warns that the Biden Administration has no plan in the Ukraine.

Just sending tanks for which no Ukrainian soldier is trained to use will not change anything militarily on the ground.

It’s not like “…getting this capacity on your video game and poof, you’ve got the full capacity as though you were fully trained, but it just doesn’t work that way in reality…”

Davis points out that tanks are used offensively, but he can find few instances in which the over 1.000 tanks the Ukrainians already have were used in an offense or in a tank-on-tank fight.

But what is occurring in the Ukraine is nothing like a video game.

“…just having NATO tanks does not equal battlefield success…roughly 90 percent of the success is the people who operate the equipment…”

Davis finds on Bloomberg that the Ukraine already had 1,000 tanks, plus 410 donated Soviet-era tanks.

He asks, ““just what an Abrams or Leopard tank is going to do differently than the T72s, the T80s or the T64s that they have right now?” 

The article continues,

The former Lt. Col. admitted that “if providing all this equipment we have in the last eight days combined with what’s apparently coming from these other dozen European nations, had a legitimate shot at ending the war and winning it for Ukraine without sparking a nuclear retaliation from Russia, then I’d be willing to say it is worthy.”

However, he explained, “there’s none of that.” 

“All you’re doing is making Russia want to go to war,” he warned. “Far from wanting to deter Russia or making them hesitate and count the costs – it’s having the exact opposite effect across the board in Russia.”

“If anything, it makes them want to be more aggressive,” he added. “It makes them absolutely think we cannot lose this and double down on their efforts.” 

He added copncerning the Russian people that “it’s a very valid position to say all of NATO is against them.”

Davis pointed out,

“We’re doing everything except physically pulling the trigger.. 

“We’re providing intelligence. We’re providing ammunition. We’re providing weapons systems [and] repair facilities, literally everything but the pull of the trigger.

He then suggested considering another country doing the same to the United States:

“Imagine during the war with Afghanistan that Russia or China had just completely got behind the Taliban, gave them everything they had, including all their modern gear to kill American soldiers.

“Do you think we would have accepted that?”

Then Davis asked, ““We think that, like Biden said hiding behind a fig leaf today, when he announced this change, that ‘we are not going to war with Russia’ and ‘we’re not a direct participant,’ as though just saying those words means anything to Russia.”

The retired tank man suggested that Russia would look at actions, rather than words.

Davis complains that our country has no plan, no strategy, no way to determine if we are succeeding or not.

“We’re just giving all this stuff, nobody’s talking about, not even ethereal kinds of overarching statements. What is this supposed to accomplish? What is the outcome you see by giving [these tanks]? What are you trying to produce on the ground? How is this going to benefit the United States of America as opposed to not doing it? What are the pros and cons?“

Davis asks what is the “American national security interest here we’re trying to protect is?” 

“Not a general statement, but an actual physical, detailed answer: ‘Here’s what we want to accomplish; here’s what we consider success; here’s the objectives we want to accomplish.’ That should be a bare minimum, and it’s not even on the table.”

He explains this is not like fighting in counties like Syria, Yemen or Libya.

They didn’t have nuclear weapons.

And what will the Russian reaction be to providing the tanks?

“I fear that one day, Russia’s going to say, ‘OK, you finally did cross a red line this time and we’re going to take action,’” he said. 

The article continues,

“[Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov recently said that based on all this stuff about the tanks, they reserve the right to attack any provider of NATO gear, NATO tanks, NATO vehicles, their ammunition – no matter where they are, meaning Poland or in some other NATO country.” 

“So they’re now saying that they may attack those things that are directly for war, that are there against their forces wherever they are,” he added.

Davis also warned that Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, which dictates that member states consent that “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” could lead to an explosion: 

There is zero chance – and I mean zero – not point anything, that Russia could ever militarily defeat NATO in a conventional sense. It’s a physical impossibility. They’re just struggling even now to defeat Ukrainians in part of the Donbas, their next-door neighbor, so they certainly couldn’t take on a 30 member NATO military alliance; they know that. 

“So the only way they can defend against NATO, is through nuclear weapons, of course,” he explained.

“So if we try to think we’re going to trigger Article 5 and not trigger nuclear war. I mean, we’re just insane and fooling ourselves.”

And while, he claimed, the information he relayed is “just common sense and logic, if you just played stuff through,” Davis argued that “we don’t like to play with reality.” 

“We like to play with words,” he said. “In fact, we just create our own reality, whatever we prefer.”

From the Grafton Township Republican Party:

From the Illinois State Board of Elections:

Another photo by Machenzie Walter, taken last week during the storm:

Illinois Policy reports on Chicago mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson’s proposal to gain more tax revenue from the suburbs.

Chicago Teachers Union lobbyist and mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson unveiled his ‘tax-the-rich’ revenue plan, including $800 million in new taxes on suburbanites and those who come to the city to work or play.

The State Constitution says,

Article VII. Local Government. Sec. 6. Powers of Home Rule Units. (e)

A home rule unit shall have only the power that the
General Assembly may provide by law (1) to punish by
imprisonment for more than six months or (2) to license for
revenue or impose taxes upon or measured by income or
earnings or upon occupations.

Except for the fact that Democrats control many of the legislative districts where Chicago commuters live, the extraordinary majority that party holds might tempt some effort.

= = = = =

From Center for Illinois Politics:

The new taxes include:

• A surcharge on Metra fares paid by suburbanites that would bring in $40 million a year, because “the suburban tax base utilizes Chicago’s infrastructure to earn their disproportionately higher income, yet their taxes fund already wealthy towns”
• A $98 million a year tax on jet fuel used at Chicago’s airports, “making the big airlines pay for polluting Chicago’s air”
• A “mansion tax” that would raise $100 million a year, presumably by increasing the transfer tax on homes and condos that sell for $1 million or more
• Restoration of the $4 a month employee “head tax” eliminated by Mayor Rahm Emanuel on “large companies” that perform at least half their work in Chicago
• Hiking Chicago’s highest-in-the-nation hotel tax even more to produce $30 million
• Taxing financial transactions “less than 0.002 percent of a trade’s value” that would generate $100 million

From the McHenry Township Fire Protection District:

On Saturday, January 28, 2023, at 1:02 pm, the McHenry Township Fire Protection District (MTFPD) was dispatched to a reported structure fire in the 1600 block of N. Park Street in McHenry. MTFPD crews arrived within four minutes to find a two-story residence with heavy smoke coming from the attached garage.

All occupants had exited the structure prior to our arrival. MTFPD crews performed a fire attack while
simultaneously searching the residence, and the fire was under control within 15 minutes.

A box alarm was activated through the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) for change of quarters companies.

The fire was contained to the garage.

One resident was evaluated for smoke inhalation but was not transported.

There were no firefighter injuries.

The fire is currently under investigation, and a damage estimate is not available at this time.

MTFPD received assistance from Crystal Lake, Nunda, Cary, Round Lake, Lake Villa, and Huntley fire departments. The Red Cross was requested to assist the residents as the house was uninhabitable.

What is unique about McHenry County?

That’s the question that entered my mind when I was trying to figure out what to put on the masthead of McHenry County Blog.

We have beautiful lakes, one of which I love driving by on the way home from either direction.

But lakes are not unique.

We have the Fox River.

But lots of places have rivers.

We have farms, but they are not unique.

Shots of prairies or woods could have been used, but, again, nothing unique there.

Then, it occurred to me that McHenry County is the only place in Illinois with a ski jump.

Today, the Chicago Tribune featured the snow-covered Norge ski hill on its front page.

This weekend was supposed to be the annual ski jump tournament, but it was postponed until mid-February because of too warm weather to produce snow.

And, there is one other aspect of the ski jump that might be relevant to McHenry County Blog,

We sometimes leap on stories other local media ignore.

From Illinois State Republican Chairman Don Tracy:

RNC VOTE

The RNC Winter Meeting just concluded in Southern California. The final and most important agenda matter was the election of the RNC Chair.

There were three candidates for the position – incumbent Ronna McDaniel, election attorney Harmeet Dhillion and My Pillow founder, Mike Lindell. Ronna was elected by a vote of 111 for her, 51 for Harmeet, and 4 for Mike.

During the campaign of almost three months, I received many emails from good Republicans, many of whom were from Illinois. Because so many of these emails advocated a vote for Dhillion, Lindell or anybody but Ronna, some good Republicans will be disappointed by my vote for Ronna. I will now explain that vote, first in summary and then in more detail.

As the razor-close presidential elections of 2016 and 2020 indicate, the national electorate is pretty much voting 50% for a Democrat candidate and 50% for a Republican candidate. The Obama-Romney election of 2012 was also close and would have been even closer, I believe, but for two hurricanes which hit Florida and New Jersey-New York at critical junctures in the campaign. With a 50-50 national electorate, taking back the US House should be a cause for celebration not angst. However, we lost the formerly tied US Senate by losing one seat and took back the US House by a smaller margin than hoped for, and the high expectations for a big red national wave did not materialize.

Unfortunately, rather than lead a reasoned and dispassionate analysis of (a) whether the red wave expectations were realistic in the face of a determined and extremely well-financed opponent and the re-emergence of abortion as a major issue; (b) why we did not win the Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada and Arizona seats; and (c) what we need to do different to win in 2024, some political commentators have promoted an opportunistic blame game on a Republican infrastructure leader who did not select any of the 2022 Republican House or Senate candidates or fund any of their campaigns and whose job was not to do any of those things.

I call Ronna an infrastructure leader because that is what the RNC is, a political infrastructure support system. By next week, I will have served as Illinois State Chairman for two years. During that time, I have had an inside view of the great work Ronna has done on national Republican infrastructure and how much it has improved under her watch.

The Republican National Committee is a confederation of the state and territorial Republican parties. The RNC provides support services to state parties – such as data services – assists state parties with training, field staff and fundraising, oversees the Presidential nominating process and organizes a quadrennial national convention for the party to confirm the nomination of our candidate for President. It is composed of 168 members — three from each state and territory, the chairman of the state/territory party and a Committeeman and Committeewoman. Demetra Demonte, Richard Porter and I are the Illinois members of the RNC. The RNC does not select any candidates for any office and does not run any campaigns. The RNC instead provides organizational support services of parties and candidates. 

For nearly 40 years, the RNC was barred from engaging in any election integrity activities by a consent decree. Ronna led the effort to have the consent decree lifted a few years ago, and the RNC has now made election integrity a major focus of the organization. 

Ronna entered the job with an already exemplary resume that she has built upon. She has had the experience of running a state party and of course running the RNC. Her creative and determined leadership of the Michigan party is a reason Donald Trump won in 2016, and she has set records for fundraising and support of state parties as RNC chairman. There is a meme out there that she’s responsible for candidates that fell short in AZ and GA, but that’s not true – and reflects a misunderstanding of the RNC’s role. 

Under Ronna’s leadership, the RNC has been very supportive of the Illinois party. They provided resources that allowed us to fight voter integrity issues in Champaign, Kane, Madison and other counties, and provided us access to the ZenDesk reporting system which allowed us to more efficiently track election issues and irregularities across the state during early voting and on election day. The RNC has consistently provided field data and support through the Advantage mobile app and GOP Datacenter.

The RNC’s State Party Strategies staff provided support through the GROW Program. The ILGOP received $50k in transfers for passing the final level of the GROW program as well as $10k in digital ads to support the growth of our digital fundraising program, email exchanges to support growth of digital fundraising program, and some polling.

I have also had the opportunity to meet Harmeet Dhillon, who I believe to be a very smart, capable, articulate and strong leader – as well as a tremendous asset for our party. Both of these women are impressive and a credit to the Republican Party. If Harmeet had been elected RNC Chair, she would have had my total support, as we work to grow the Republican Party in Illinois and defeat Joe Biden in 2024. 

However, Harmeet does not have any equivalent experience running an organization that’s close to the size and scope of the RNC. Further, Harmeet alleged that the RNC is a hotbed of corruption being bled by consultants and scammers — that the RNC is actually the reason we are losing races we hope to win. If that were true, then maybe something as drastic as a total, from zero, restart of the RNC might make some sense. We absolutely must root out any corruption at the RNC, but so far, none of the claims of wrongdoing have panned out.

I believe every organization needs to continually improve, and while I think the RNC has done a very good job on Ronna’s watch, I am also certain that it can do better. I am also certain that this race for RNC Chair will make Ronna an even better Chair. Competition is good. As a consequence perhaps, Ronna has plans for making the team leaner and more effective. For that I thank Harmeet for running.

The bottom line is that Ronna McDaniel has done an excellent job in every element of what an RNC Chairman is supposed to do in an environment that has been uniquely challenging. She’s a proven grass-roots leader with a solid plan for the next two years. 

Thank you for reading this and hopefully understanding that I believe my vote for Ronna was the right thing to do for our party.

From Regional Superintendent of Schools Diane Hartman:

Nominations Open for Educator of the Year Awards

WOODSTOCK, Ill. – The McHenry County Regional Office of Education is seeking nominations from county school districts for its annual Educator of the Year Awards.

The annual awards, granted in partnership with the Community Foundation for McHenry County, recognize McHenry County’s top teachers, administrators and support staff, Regional Superintendent Diana Hartmann said.

“This is our opportunity to recognize and celebrate the outstanding educators in McHenry County schools. Please join us in highlighting these deserving individuals,” Hartmann said.

The contest is open to all schools in Educational Service Region 44, which covers most of McHenry County except School Districts 300, 220 and 118.

Nominations can be made in nine categories: preschool teacher, elementary school teacher, middle school teacher, high school teacher, administrator, student support personnel, early career teacher, private/parochial school employee, and educational support personnel.

Teachers must have a minimum five years of experience and spend more than half their time in instruction – the early-career teacher award recognizes teachers in their second to fifth year of service.

The deadline to submit nomination forms and the needed documentation to the ROE is Saturday, April 1; the nomination packet and form can be found on the ROE’s webpage.

Nominees and winners will be honored at the Educator of the Year Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6 at Hickory Hall, 406 W. Woodstock St., Crystal Lake. Tickets will be available soon through a link on the ROE’s webpage.