A Different Kind Of Fish Story
Most fish stories are exaggerations, told among friends, which is what makes them funny. A buddy catches a guppy, then stops at a fish market, buys a 20 lb. monster, and tells his friend about his great catch. Usually, another friend who was with him on the fishing trip will eventually come clean, or he will fess up and tell the truth himself after bragging about how great an angler he is.
This is not that kind of a fish story. This story accentuates yet another way Democrats will “cut off their nose to spite their face” for no reason other than to be obstinate and to show their perceived power. In case you are a Democrat who votes strictly party, even you can’t deny this fact.
Democrats desperately crave power. They promise the world to achieve it, and once they get it, they move on to their own agenda. That agenda has nothing to do with helping the average American citizen, but it has everything to do with guaranteeing their own personal success and wealth, and also keeping the party in power.
When they aren’t in charge, they do everything in their power to destroy any Republican’s or Conservative’s legacy. They do this by trying to stymie progress on any issue. The MSM ignores these attempts or drastically downplays them in order to protect the Democrats or liberals involved.
This fish story is one such issue. Silver carp are easily startled by boats, causing them to jump between 8 and 10 feet into the air. Numerous boaters have sustained serious injuries from collisions with these fish. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, reported injuries include cuts from fins, black eyes, broken bones, back injuries, and concussions. This leaping behavior has sometimes been mistakenly attributed to the closely related bighead carp; however, bighead carp typically do not jump when frightened. Catching jumping carp in nets has become a unique event during the Redneck Fishing Tournament in Bath, Illinois.
As bad as the jumping problem is, I mean, an Illinois dad started making his kids wear football helmets while tubing because a fish kept launching out of the water and hitting them.
Illinois fisherman Clint Carter has been struck in the arms, face, and legs. His friends have suffered broken bones and bruises from fish that never meant to harm them—these carp are just that aggressive and abundant.
One man wears a cup while water skiing, and families rig nets across their boats to keep carp from flopping onto the deck. For good reason, these fish can weigh up to 60 pounds, which is one helluva big fish to take a hit from.
The main issue is that these fish are bottom feeders and consume plankton. They can eat up to 40 percent of their body weight in plankton each day. This microscopic food source is essential for the survival of all native fish in the Great Lakes. Asian carp don’t share a waterway – they take it over, eating native fish populations into collapse.
This is clearly a significant issue, but a solution has existed for years: the Brandon Road Interbasin Project, a $1.15 billion barrier system located at a critical chokepoint on the Des Plaines River near Joliet.
This system is designed to deploy an electric field, acoustic blasts, a bubble curtain, and a specialized flushing lock. The Army Corps of Engineers spent over a decade developing this multi-layered barrier specifically to prevent carp migration at the only location where they can be effectively blocked.
However, there was just one problem: Illinois Democrat Governor JB Pritzker kept blocking it. Yes, this portly, do-nothing governor, who is never in the news for anything positive, has been the sticking point for correcting this issue.
President Trump has seen enough. Last week, Trump met with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, another radical leftist who apparently has enough sense to put her TDS aside in this case to do the right thing.
After that meeting, Trump posted on Truth Social that he would now be assisting in this fight. “I’ll be asking other Governors to join into this fight.” He then named Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and New York.
There is no time to waste. The Illinois River is a clear example of the impact Asian carp can have on an ecosystem when they are not controlled in a timely manner. Once one of the most productive inland fisheries in America, it now demonstrates the destructive consequences of its unchecked presence.
Silver and Bighead carp are already prevalent within 47 miles of Lake Michigan. If they breach the Great Lakes, they will undermine the food chain from the bottom up, devastating a $7 billion fishing industry and transforming the world’s largest freshwater system into a dead zone.
While Pritzker played political games, the situation worsened, and the carp kept heading farther north. Adam Telle, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, announced that the administration was finished waiting and revealed Trump’s plan to transfer responsibility for the project from Illinois to Michigan’s Detroit district.
To Michigan’s credit, it has already contributed $73.5 million to the project and has shown up on time, every time.
Telle posted on X:
“Illinois has been an unreliable partner, delinquent on its payments and real estate commitments. Our partners in the Great Lake States can’t allow one state to have undue influence and use it to play more games.”
Michigan Speaker of the House Matt Hall called Trump a “great partner” who “cares deeply about our state,” adding that Michigan is “happy to take the lead.”
Meanwhile, Pritzker opened up the Democrat handbook and offered up the usual tired old excuse. He called Trump’s action a “political stunt,” threatening to take legal action, whining that Illinois owns the land and Trump can’t just give it away.
While the danger grows, Pritzker still wants to play games. He had two years to make something happen, and he did nothing. Now he’s willing to try and endanger the Great Lakes further because his TDS was enflamed by Trump’s kick-starting what he wouldn’t.
The Great Lakes provide drinking water to over 40 million Americans.
The fishing and boating industries contribute billions of dollars annually to the economy, benefiting real families. Currently, these families are forced to wear football helmets and cups and to put up barriers on their own boats because the state government prioritized leverage over the well-being of Yellow Perch and White fish.
Pritzker ignored the fact that he had a signed agreement and decided instead to act like a four-year-old who didn’t get his way. It’s obvious that he missed governing school on the day they taught how to govern.
The important thing is that this barrier must be built. The stubbornness of one incompetent can no longer stand in the way.
The proverb “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime,” has no meaning if there are no fish to give away or to teach about.
