#BlackLivesMatters protesters chant,“Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon”

St. Paul Police in 2008

Show me someone who hates cops--and I'll show you a criminal. A bunch of crooks protested--actually they were Black Lives Matters activists--at the Minnesota State Fair yesterday. The beasts chanted, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon.”

The police protect us from anarchy--which is what leftists such as the Occupy movement and Black Lives Matters want.

And the Democratic Party endorses the Black Lives Matters movement.

(Photos) Navin Field--on the site of Tiger Stadium

Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers played for nearly a century on the corner of Michigan and Trumbull in the city's Corktown neighborhood. The first ballpark there was Bennett Park, which opened as a minor league park in 1895. Those old Tigers played in the Western League--which declared itself a major league. the American, in 1901. By the following year the Tigers were the only old minor league team still in its original city in the American League. In 1911 Bennett Park was razed and was replaced with Navin Field--which opened on April 20, 1912, the same day Fenway Park, America's oldest MLB stadium, opened.

The Tigers last game at what eventually became known as Tiger Stadium was in 1999. It sat vacant for ten years--that's nothing new in the troubled Motor City. Although the Billy Crystal-directed HBO movie, 61*, which was about Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle's quest to top Babe Ruth's single season home run record, was filmed there as were a few other movies.

After it was razed in 2009 it became another ugly Detroit vacant lot. That is until volunteers, known as the Navin Field Grounds Crew, cleaned it up, although they were technically trespassing on city-owned land. So was I when I visited the site last month.

The mound is a bit low--but other than that this is a big league baseball diamond. Ball games with participants in vintage uniforms are played here occasionally during the summer.

The historical site is also known as the Corner and Ernie Harwell Park. Harwell, the longtime voice of the Tigers who died in 2010, was known for his laconic and folksy style. He was a member of the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy Board, which tried to preserve portions of the old park.

Navin Field is Detroit at its best--the Motor City's path out of its morass must include effective volunteer work.

The Tigers now call Comerica Park on the edge of downtown next to Midtown home.

Chiraq: 3 dead and at least 31 wounded over weekend

The last weekend of August was another violent one in Chicago. Three people were murdered and at least 31 others were wounded. One of those shot was a seven year-old girl.

President of the Left: Obama to change Mt. McKinley's name to Denali

McKinley

Barack Obama isn't my president. Yep, I said it. He's not even the president of a majority of Americans--Obama's nothing but a clan leader of the far-left who by a series of flukes found himself living in the White House.

Here's his latest assault on mainstream America and tradition.

From AP:

President Barack Obama will change the name of North America's tallest mountain peak from Mount McKinley to Denali, the White House said Sunday, a major symbolic gesture to Alaska Natives on the eve of the president's historic visit to Alaska.

By renaming the peak Denali, an Athabascan word meaning "the high one," Obama waded into a sensitive and decades-old conflict between residents of Alaska and Ohio. Alaskans have informally called the mountain Denali for years, but the federal government recognizes its name invoking the 25th president, William McKinley, who was born in Ohio and assassinated early in his second term.

Spanish-American War Memorial
in Michigan

Mt. McKinley has been named such since 1898--it's named for William McKinley, our 25th president and a Republican who was assassinated in 1901. He was the last Civil War veteran to serve as president. The Spanish-American War was the most notable event of his four-and-half years in office.

Look for Speaker of the House John Boehner, an Ohioan, to do nothing to stop Obama. Again.

Related post:

Obama to visit Alaska on climate change trip--won't go to Animas River

Tragic: Michigan state trooper dragged to death for miles in motorcycle accident

Michigan state police car

In what appears to have been a horrible accident, a Michigan state trooper and father of four, Chad Wolf, was dragged several miles after being run over by a car pulling a trailer while riding on his police motorcycle northwest of Detroit.

Police work is a dangerous job.

Wolf's family has set up a GoFundMe page to assist paying the costs for his funeral.

From Da Tech Guy: Not even Illinois' flagship university is immune from scandal

Once again my alma, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has embarrassed itself: Not even Illinois' flagship university is immune from scandal.

Obama to visit Alaska on climate change trip--won't go to Animas River

2015 Super Bowl
Sunday Blizzard

Coming off two successive brutally cold winters, President Obama and his aerial armada will burn gallons and gallons of jet fuel to give a speech on global warming in Alaska.

He can easily give that same climate change address in the White House Rose Garden.

Speaking of the environment, Obama's EPA caused a toxic waste spill in Colorado's Animas River. The president will not be visiting that site, which is closer to Washington than Alaska is.

#CopsLivesMatter: Texas cop shot to death while pumping gas

What will the Black Lives Matter screamers say about this atrocity?

From the Houston Chronicle:

A 30-year-old Cypress man has been charged with capital murder in the Friday killing of a 47-year-old Harris County Sheriff's deputy who had stopped at a gas station he frequented in northwest Harris County.

Shannon J. Miles, who has been arrested at least six other times, twice for using force against an officer, is accused of gunning down Deputy Darren Goforth at a Chevron station at Telge and West.

The deputy was shot multiple times even after he had fallen to the ground.

"In my 45 years in law enforcement, I can't recall another incident so cold-blooded and cowardly," said Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman.

Since the leftists insist on racializing crime, I am compelled to report that the slain cop was white and the alleged killer is black.

Moth caught in a spider web

Do you think you are having a bad day? It could be worse--you could be this moth caught in a spider's web.

I photographed this down-on-its-luck insect inside Des Plaines, Illinois' Dam Number 4 Woods West last month.

(Photo) Detroit's Edsel Ford Freeway at sunrise

As I drove into Detroit last month on Interstate 94--known as the Edsel Ford Freeway there--I was greeted by the sunrise you see here.

Related post:

Detroit River sunrise

Hillary alludes to holocaust when discussing GOP's plans for illegals

Holocaust memorial,
Skokie, Illinois

While taking questions at a rare press conference that was packed mostly with sympathetic reporters, Hillary Clinton fielded a question about illegal immigration.

Her reply was shocking. "I find it the height of irony that a party which espouses small government would want to unleash a massive law enforcement effort–including perhaps National Guard and others–to go and literally pull people out of their homes and their workplaces," the onetime fierce opponent of illegal immigrants explained. She added, "Round them up, put them, I don’t know, in buses… boxcars, in order to take them across our border."

Putting people in boxcars of course brings up images of the holocaust.

Yesterday she compared Republicans who didn't share her views on women to terrorists.

HRC is getting desperate. She's floundering. She's failing.

Good.

ILL-inois: Big ticket lottery winners can't collect until state approves budget

A majority of Illinois voters chose change over the status quo when chose Republican reformer Bruce Rauner to be their next governor over inept Chicago Democrat Pat Quinn.

But because of the scientifically gerrymandered legislative districts created by state Democratic Party boss--and state House Speake--Michael Madigan, the Dems kept their supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.

It's time for Madigan to bow to the will of the people and accept Rauner's budget proposals. Meanwhile, Illinois continues to be a national laughing stock.

From ABC 7 Chicago:

Until a state budget is approved, the Illinois Lottery said the state comptroller can't pay out lottery winnings of more than $25,000.

However, the money will be paid eventually, lottery officials said.

"That sounds like you don't know when you're going to pay me," said Allison Weaver, who plays the lottery. "That's what that sounds like. I don't like maybe, eventually."

"I want the money," said Jazz Meghji, a lottery player. "If it's my time to win, it's my time to win, and I want it immediately."

All this as a federal judge threatens the state with contempt of court for missing mandated deadlines to pay social service providers. With grant money drying up, tens of thousands of college students are now on the hook for their tuition.

(Photos) Part two: Abandoned homes in Detroit's Grixdale Farms neighborhood

Once again we return to Detroit's sad Grixdale neighborhood on the city's East Side.

A mulberry tree has taken a liking to this Michigan bungalow on McDougall.

Not too long ago this brick beauty was one of the nicest residences in the neighborhood.

Grixdale Farms, according to Wikipedia, gets its name from the Grix family, who farmed in the area. It also describes the area as "a little known gem of a neighborhood." A gem? For urban explorers it is, yes. But not for anyone else.

Where's Waldo? Where's the house?

Several years ago the History Channel ran a series, Life After People. Just sayin'...

Over on East Davison near Conant--these stores are closed.

And this outlet is shuttered too.

With all of the vacant lots and abandoned buildings--why does Detroit even bother with zoning?

One the right of the Michigan bungalow is a cottage style home.

Over on Gallagher Street is a home we can walk into.

Yes, that's an automobile bumper on the left. Rubbish in this home was probably illegally dumped in this living room. There's a disposal fee for bumpers in Illinois and I imagine there is one in Michigan too.

There is nowhere to go to the bathroom in this bathroom.

That's the basement. As this was the first abandoned Detroit home I walked into, I was a bit nervous when I snapped these photos.

One last look.

And finally, two Michigan bungalows.

Related post:

(Photos) Part one: Abandoned homes in Detroit's Grixdale Farms neighborhood

Killer of TV reporter and cameraman was a "professional victim"

What a creep...

From the Baltimore Sun:

The man who was news director during Vester Flanagan's rocky tenure at Virginia station WDBJ-TV described him as someone who constantly saw himself being victimized by others.

Dan Dennison described Flanagan, who shot and killed a reporter and a cameraman on live television Wednesday, as a "professional victim" during his time at the station before being fired in 2013.

"He was victimized by everything and everyone and could never quite grasp the fact that he was the common denominator in all of these really sometimes serious interpersonal conflicts that he had with people," Dennison said.

(Video) Hillary compares GOP to terrorist groups

While defending his indefensible Iran nuclear deal three weeks ago, President Obama compared the GOP to Iranian whack-jobs who chant "Death to America."

Apparently such bizarre pairings are apparently a Democratic theme. This morning in Ohio Hillary Clinton picked up the deflated ball and spiked it.

"Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don't want to live in the modern world, but it's a little hard to take from Republicans who want to be president of the United States," said Clinton.

Democrats: This is your party.

(Video) Trump schools Univision's Ramos on immigration law

Univision's Jorge Ramos is as much of a journalist as MSNBC's Al Sharpton. Both networks are owned by NBC--which says a lot about that  organization.

After badgering Donald Trump at a Dubuqe, Iowa press conference two days ago--and not waiting his turn to ask a question, Ramos was escorted out by officials. But Trump let him back in--and the GOP frontrunner wiped the floor with him in what will go down as one of the most memorable political events of our time.

Here's the full video.

Detroit: $1 million US Customs center only being used to store equipment for politically connected catering firm

Detroit River last month

A top-of-the line $1 millions customs facility on the Detroit River sits unused.

From the Detroit News:

Two years after completion, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have never used the 4,000 square feet of offices, holding cells and labs built for the agency inside the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority Public Dock and Terminal at Atwater and Bates.

The facility includes a floor designed so that Customs could process cruise ship passengers. The agency says the facility doesn't meet standards; port authority officials say they can't afford $170,000 computer and camera upgrades to make it suitable.

So the waterfront offices, next to the Renaissance Center, are crammed with chairs, linens, tables and signs owned by a catering company that hosts weddings and corporate events on the second floor of the building.

And what about those cruise ships?

More...

One cruise ship has stopped once in Detroit in the past two years, though, and the terminal is used mostly by Continental Services and Catering, a Troy-based company with deep ties to the Democratic Party.

The events held at the facility aren't church-basement style budget affairs. Catered wedding receptions start at $18,500 at this taxpayer paid-for building. As you will see below--the customs cash sinkhole is only the tip of the cruise ship iceberg.

Related post:

$22 million in taxpayer funds flushed away on Detroit cruise ship lure

Tehran to host Occupy Wall Street art show

I'm sure our leftist president is smiling over this story about his pals in Tehran.

From Mehr News:

Abolfazl Aali Art Gallery in Tehran is going to host an 'Occupy Wall Street' poster exhibition on the eve of the 4th anniversary of the protest movement in New York.

The exhibition consists of 36 posters designed by foreign artists who are mostly from the United States. The posters will be showcased in Tehran on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the protest movement dubbed 'Occupy Wall Street' which was against social and economic inequality in the world.

Saeid Khavarinejad, a visual arts researcher in charge of organizing the poster gallery said the decision to hold such an exhibition was a result of one of his researches on the aesthetic aspects of the Occupy movement.

Occupy Wall Street was an extreme left group that has morphed into the disruptive Black Lives Matter group. OWS accomplished nothing.

Chiraq: Man murdered two blocks from Obama's home

It appears that the area around President Obama's Chicago mansion needs a community organizer.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

A man was shot to death in the South Side Kenwood neighborhood Tuesday evening, only about two blocks from President Barack Obama’s home.

Reginald Sanson, 25, was in a vehicle about 6 p.m. when another vehicle approached and someone inside fired shots, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Two TV reporters murdered on air by disgruntled ex-employee

Early this morning in southern Viriginia two WDBJ-TV reporters, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, were shot to death on the air by a disgruntled employee. The suspect is former reporter for the same station, Vester Lee Flanagan, who went by the on-air name of Bryce Williams.

I'm watching Fox News' Happening Now and anchor Jon Scott is describing Flanagan's spotty work history--which is filled with lawsuits alleging racism. There are reports Flanagan has committed suicide.

Watch as WDBJ staff discuss the crime.

Wounded in the attack was a woman who was being interviewed  by Parker.

The creep killer has uploaded videos of the crime Facebook and Twitter.

UPDATE 11:40am CDT: Apparently the killer survived his suicide attempt--but he's in critical condition.

Cairo IL: Housing bureaucrats live well while residents suffer in "third world" conditions

Cairo levee

At the southern tip of Illinois is Cairo--a tiny version of Detroit.

But despite the abject poverty--some government bureaucrats are living well despite overseeing "third world" conditions.

From the Southern Illinoisan:

While some of the state's poorest residents and children have been living in public housing here described as "third world" and unfit for humans, some employees and management of the Alexander County Housing Authority have collectively taken home hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars via questionable payments, bonuses, consultant contracts, retirement incentives and legal settlements in addition to their regular pay, according to federal and agency documents obtained by The Southern Illinoisan.

While denying any wrongdoing, even the agency's former executive director who authorized much of the spending, and much of it for himself, admitted that part of the agency’s financial disaster can be attributed to salaries, benefits and incentives that were "too fat" over the years.

Meanwhile, those who are living in the housing authority’s developments, particularly the two in Cairo designated family developments and that predominantly house African-American adults that are not elderly and dozens of children, have just been barely hanging on as housing conditions deteriorate and violence escalates.

At one family housing development, McBride Place, residents -- at least 97 percent of whom are African-American -- describe serious problems with roaches, rats and, on occasion, bed bugs. They describe calls to the management office to register problems that are not followed through on, or cases where staff are rude when they ask for something as simple as rat poisoning. In a small playground area at the complex sits a rusty jungle gym and a swing-set frame without any swings. Weeds are growing through the cracks of sidewalks, orange concrete barriers are placed at random locations in the parking lot, and low-voltage wiring, presumably for cable and Internet, is strung haphazardly across the exterior of the building.

When he was a candidate for the US Senate in 2004, Barack Obama made a campaign appearance in Cairo--which he recounted in his book The Audacity of Hope. Clearly Obama has forgotten about the people of Cairo.

My 2008 Cairo entries:

• My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Cairo, Illinois--Slum Town
• My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Cairo's better side
• My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers

Exclusive from Doug Ross: RNC Trump-Cruz Advisory System

Courtesy of Doug Ross' long suffering intern, Biff Spackle--we have a Republican National Committe color coded warning system in regards to the insurgent campaigns of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz

Three Americans, Briton, who thwarted French terror attack receive France's highest honor

Yes, there is some good news to report.

From AP:

The president of France pinned his country's highest award, the Legion d'Honneur, on three Americans and a Briton on Monday, saying they "gave a lesson in courage" by subduing a heavily armed attacker on a high-speed train carrying 500 passengers to Paris.

President Francois Hollande said that while two of the Americans who tackled the gunman were soldiers, "on Friday you were simply passengers. You behaved as soldiers but also as responsible men."

Hollande then pinned the medals on U.S. Airman Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and their longtime friend Anthony Sadler. All took part in subduing the gunman as he moved through the Amsterdam-to-Paris train with an assault rifle strapped to his bare chest. British businessman Chris Norman, who jumped into the fray, also received the medal.

The attacker was a jihadist originally from Morocco with known terror ties.

(CNN video) Gergen: Voters "looking for change” and Clinton, Biden are "not change"

David Gergen, a longtime Washington insider who has worked for Republican and Democratic presidents, said today on CNN that voters are "looking for change." And Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, who have been in politics since the 1970s--are "not change."

From Slate, "Don’t run, Uncle Joe: Why Biden’s legacy is sure to be tarnished if he runs for president"

Jamelle Bouie, Slate's chief political correspondent, views Vice President Joe Biden differently than the rest of the world does as you can read here: Don’t run, Uncle Joe: Why Biden’s legacy is sure to be tarnished if he runs for president.

But the buffoonish Biden has been tarnishing his legacy for over 40 years.

Detroiters turn four year-old sinkhole into fishing hole

Good for them. I appreciate their can-do spirit.

From ABC 7 Detroit:

A sinkhole in Detroit has turned into a fishing hole on Hull Street and McNichols.

People who live nearby say after about four years of dealing with the hole, they decided to turn it into something they could enjoy.

Residents started putting fish into the sinkhole. Now, the fish have multiplied. They have blue gill, goldfish, and carp.

"We like our fish, but honestly we'd like the road fixed," said one neighbor named Pete Bolden.

Last month I was in this same Detroit neighborhood, Grixdale, although I didn't encounter the fishing hole.

UPDATE August 26: Hooray for the meda. No, I'm not being sarcastic. The next day after reporters visited the sinkhole, the water main that filled the sinkhole was repaired and the fish were moved to a new home.

Related post:

(Photos) Part one: Abandoned homes in Detroit's Grixdale Farms neighborhood

(Photos) Part one: Abandoned homes in Detroit's Grixdale Farms neighborhood

The most blighted part of the Motor City I encountered during my fact finding trip to Detroit was the Grixdale Farms neighborhood. It's between the exclave suburb of Hamtramck and 7 Mile Road.

Pictured above are decaying Michigan bungalows. Unlike the Chicago brick version that I am much more familiar with, these houses, inspired by the late 19th and early 20th century Arts and Crafts Movement and Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School, were built mainly with wood. These houses were likely built in the 1920s--that decade was to Detroit what the 1990s were to Silicon Valley.

This ramshackle mess might be a Michigan bungalow too. Or a ranch home. The ailanthus trees growing inside of this house on McDougall Street don't seem to care.

When I was a boy I dreamed of a tree house. There are plenty Detroit-style tree houses throughout the Motor City--and they can be purchased cheaply. Although this one, which has been engulfed by mulberry and Siberian elm trees, is slated for demolition.

It looks like the more modest house on the right caught fire first--likely it was arson--and damaged the once stately two-story home on the left. I can imagine that a family with ten kids used to live in that one.

The porch roof on this green house collapsed.

In small towns old gas station structures are sometimes used as tourism offices. While there is much to see in Detroit--this one has not been converted as of yet.

My guess is that this was a Sunoco station. Sunoco still has a large presence in Detroit.

The door is open--actually there isn't one--at this home on Klinger Street with the satellite dish on the right. Let's walk in!

Just as I figured--no one is home.

Despite the clutter--this place is probably salvageable...

Although a new bath tub will be needed.

Once word gets out in Detroit that a home is vacant--the scavengers arrive.

This Dwyer Street dwelling is reverting to nature--and it has an ailanthus tree out front too.

Chiraq: 6 killed and at least 35 wounded over weekend

Cool summer weather did not translate into cool tempers on the mean streets of Chicago. Six people were murdered and another 35 other were shot.

Islamic State beasts destroy ancient Syrian temple

When is ISIS going to do a Pol Pot and declare a Year Zero?

From the New York Times:

Militants from the Islamic State destroyed a temple in the ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria, activists and government officials said on Sunday, continuing a pattern of destruction that they have visited upon historical sites across the territory they control there and in Iraq.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist and monitoring group based in Britain, said Sunday in a statement that Islamic State fighters detonated "a large quantity of explosives" that they had arranged around the Temple of Baalshamin, one of the most grand and well-preserved structures in the sprawling complex of ruins. A government official told reporters that it was heavily damaged by the blast.

The temple stood "dozens of meters" away from a Roman amphitheater where the Islamic State held a mass execution, killing 25 prisoners, in a video released last month, the activist group said. The entire ancient city of Palmyra is a Unesco World Heritage site.