JB's toiletgate contractor got a 9 million coronavirus contract. Fuck this guy.

https://patch.com/illinois/palos/s/h4mf ... s-contract

CHICAGO — A detail tucked in a Fox 32 investigative report about Illinois contractors trekking across the border to build a new mansion at Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Wisconsin horse farm raised the eyebrow of somebody who knows how deals get done in America's most corrupt state.

The "dwelling contractor" listed on Wisconsin building permits, Bulley & Andrews, is the same company caught up in the alleged "scheme to defraud" Cook County taxpayers by removing toilets from one of Pritzker's Gold Coast mansions. The toilet scheme is still being investigated by the feds.

In April, Bulley & Andrews scored a taxpayer funded firm-fixed-price contract worth nearly $9 million to convert the former WestLake Hospital in Melrose Park into a COVID-19 acute-care site. The contractor also worked as a subcontractor doing similar work at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin. Both jobs got done, but neither site opened.

The contracts were issued as part of a $1.7 billion effort spearheaded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which Bulley & Andrews hadn't worked with since 1944. A Courthouse News investigation raised concerns that much of the work had been "awarded to contractors without transparency."

Pritzker's administration didn't respond to a request for an interview about the state's role coordinating the work on the alternate COVID-19 treatment sites with the federal government.

So, I didn't get the chance to ask: Is it just a coincidence the contractor involved in construction projects (and toilet removals) at Pritzker's mansions scored the lucrative work tied to the governor's coronavirus response?

Sure, I could have snuck a question in at Pritzker's daily televised pandemic updates, filed a series of Freedom of Information requests, appealed the administration's almost certain denial and tried to convince the boss to pony up for an expensive legal fight in the name of "gotcha" journalism.

But really, that's a waste of time. During the pandemic, I've learned from experience that the Pritzker administration dodges questions, ignores interview requests and blocks access to public information with vigor. The rest is details.

That's why I wasn't shocked over the holiday weekend when Pritzker put out a public statement disavowing a provision tucked in "Restore Illinois" legislation that would have limited access to public information.

Simple acts of reporting made it clear to me that the governor's administration doesn't need any help or extra time keeping secrets from the public.

Around the time we first learned African-Americans were the hardest hit by the pandemic, the state didn't just deny my request for coronavirus death demographics. An Illinois Department of Public Health department lawyer called to warn me that possession of data from the Cook County Medical Examiner's Officer (which I attached to my request as an example of the demographic information I was seeking) violated federal laws.

"You better call a lawyer," the state lawyer yelled.

In April, my FOIA request for personal protective equipment invoices and an accounting of the state's pre-pandemic PPE stockpile (and before Pritzker started blaming President Trump for a shortage) got denied like I was asking for wartime secrets. I asked for the documents because a public health department insider told me the state hadn't replenished stockpiles in 2019.

The public health department's denial cited provisions in state law prohibiting the release of "vulnerability assessments, security measures, and response policies or plans that are designed to identify, prevent, or respond to potential attacks upon a community's population or systems, facilities, or installations, the destruction or contamination of which would constitute a clear and present danger to the health or safety of the community," and a bunch of other things that I did not ask for.

All I wanted to know was what the state's stockpile looked like before the governor put taxpayers on the hook for those secretly chartered flights to an overpriced PPE shopping trip in China while nurses shared masks as they treated early COVID-19 patients.

The administration could easily have answered those straight-forward questions over the phone.

But the coronavirus crisis has taught us that upfront honesty isn't how Pritzker governs.

It's not the way big money deals always get done in Illinois, either.

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Who's with JB now?

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One party.....regardless of D or R. Same bullshit as Trump, the Clintons, the Obamas, and all of these greedy elitist fucks.

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Did anyone really delude themselves into thinking that there was a huge fundamental difference between Rauner and Pritzker?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Spanky.

I think that's all.

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Is JB even in Illinois right now?

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I was thinking about him. I think he's in North Dakota. I wonder if he's ok.

Probably in a less restrictive state like Florida.

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IHSA still can not get an answer from Jb's people on whether there summer workout proposal can go into place. This has been going on for almost a week now.

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You want more riots, cancel HS Football.

Honestly I think Blago and Ryan were both way better governors. Even the dudeweedlmao people have to start abandoning him now.

Well, this guy thought it was gonna be an honorary job like the King of England. He could put it on his resume and just yuk it up with other bigwigs while Mike Madigan and the boys did all the heavy lifting. He never bargained for what he's gotten into. I'm sure he would resign today if it wouldn't be such a black mark on his reputation.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Sounds like Trump.

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Sort of. In Trump's case I don't think he believed he could win. And you may hate Trump's policies or his style, but he hasn't run away from the job. In fact, he's trying to keep it. Trump haters don't like to acknowledge this, but it's more than fair to ask if his entire presidency would have been different if political forces aligned against him hadn't created the Russia hoax and tried to nullify his election.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I think Trump thought the job was ceremonial in the way you described JB.

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Perhaps. There's that story that he supposedly told Kasich he would make him VP and let him run the country and Trump would just do rallies. I'm not sure if that's true though.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

KRAZED KARENS...

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Drove up thru Illinois today. Saw a ton of Pritzker Sucks signs.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Those are all over Downstate....

That was the "you'd be in charge of domestic policy and foreign policy" line, right? I think that's what Biden's people are telling Kamala Harris. First not as tragedy but as farce, then as thoughtful pragmatism that is sensitive to intersectionality.

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Mchenry too.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Deacon Blues would love to be on the receiving end of that one.

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He seems more the fisting type.

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oh yeah. You even see 'em in the suburbs.

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You wouldn't have to talk Harris into accepting VP.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Fuck the Fat Fuck!!!

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They had a link to buy them on our town community forum.

best governor we've ever had. 4 more years!

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which forum?

why dont u give us the link here! Dont just sit on it!

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Smart for him to redraw the map for emergency services.

Went from the 4 regions to now 11 regions.

This should help a lot of the collar counties.

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