Jeanne Ives: Lead the Charge - Repeal Tax Hike

The Ives of March is almost here. Jeanne Ives is the conservative candidate for governor of Illinois over Republican-In-Name-Only Bruce Rauner.

Election Day is March 20.

Politico: Community organizers in Chicago fighting Obama over presidential library

Barack Obama cut his teeth--for better for worse--I am going with the latter, by the way, as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side. It is there where he wants to build his presidential library--one that will have no books or documents. And it is community organizers who are battling over him this so-called library, Politico says.

Mark Dice on Russia, Russia, Russia: This is Real

The Clown News Network says that President Donald Trump has a Russia obsession. CNN is projecting, as it is they who have one, Mark Dice points out.

(PragerU) Churchill: The Man Who Saved the Free World

For his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, Gary Oldman is the heavy favorite to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. But the man he played of course is much more important--and the Free World may not be free today if it were not for Churchill.

In the latest PragerU video, author Andrew Roberts reminds us of Churchill's greatness.

Illinois Review endorses Jeanne Ives for governor

The patriots over at Illinois Review have broken precedent and made their first endorsement. IR is backing Jeanne Ives, the conservative challenger to Republican-In-Name-Only Bruce "Benedict" Rauner. Click here to read more.

Gutfeld on Sheriff Israel's evasive excuses

Led by Greg Gutfeld, Fox News' The Five, excluding Juan Williams, eviscerates the Broward Coward, Sheriff Scott Israel, who rather than serving and protecting the citizens there, he is nothing more than a hack politician.

Mark Dice: They Just Couldn’t Help It

A couple of Olympians, Gus Kenworthy and Shani Davis, took to Twitter during the games too make fools of themselves, Mark Dice tells us. Kenworthy ended the games with an anti-Ivana Trump Tweet.

Perhaps if they focused on sports, instead of Twitter, they might have won medals.

Chiraq: 4 dead and at least 20 wounded over weekend

The last weekend of February brought four shooting deaths--with at least 20 others wounded. Two of the murders took place in Chatham and one in Englewood--all on the South Side. The other shooting fatality occurred in Austin on the West Side.

There were at least 20 people wounded across the city.

From Da Tech Guy: As Rauner sweeps Illinois guv GOP primary newspaper endorsments so far, it’s fair to ask if they mean anything anymore

Bruce "Benedict" Rauner has collected all of the endorsements to date in regard's to the March Republican primary for governor. But by no means count Jeanne Ives out.

From my post at Da Tech Guy: As Rauner sweeps Illinois guv GOP primary newspaper endorsments so far, it’s fair to ask if they mean anything anymore.

Top Ten Most Violent Neighborhoods in Chicago #3 2017

Victor Maggio's Bloody Chicago series is now firmly camped on the West Side. He's now at Number 3 in his countdown of Chicago's Top Ten Most Violent Neighborhoods--North Lawndale.

When I walked its streets two winters ago I encountered couple of menacing thugs and I thought this urban exploration venture might have been my last. North Lawndale is a nasty place.

Maggio looks back at the history of North Lawndale, from its transition from a predominately Jewish neighborhood to a mostly black one. And he reminds us that the catalyst of the violence in places like North Lawndale are street gangs, including the Conservative Vice Lords, one of the criminal collectives that conned the federal government out of anti-poverty funds in the aftermath of the riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King.

"Why is there so much killing in this neighborhood," Maggio recalls a conversation with a man in a hoodie. "It's about the rush, man, the adrenaline rush that no high can give you," he answered." It's about the kill, yo."

McGuinn, Clark, and Hillman: I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better

In the late 1970s, three key members of the earliest version of The Byrds, Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, and Gene Clark formed a group called McGuinn, Clark, and Hillman.

With Clark on lead vocals, he leads the band through and early Byrds hit, "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better.

Democrats distancing themselves from Nancy Pelosi

I for one prefer Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as House minority leader. She's the best hope for the Democrats to remain in the minority.

But some of her leftist colleagues are wising up.

Darn.

Happy Independence Day, Estonia

Estonian flag

On this day in 1918, Estonia, one of the three Baltic States, declared its independence from the Russian Empire. There was still some fighting to come, but Estonia remained an independent state until the Soviet Union seized power in 1940.

But by the autumn of 1991, the USSR recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Let freedom ring!

Related post:

Ice fishing on Juglas Lake in Latvia; monument to a treaty ending a war

School shooting survivor: CNN told me to stick to script

Parkland, Florida high school student Colton Haab says he pulled out of a CNN town hall on gun control because CNN producers re-worded and wrote out his question for him.

That's why they call CNN the Fake News Network.

Mark Dice: Case Closed!

There are a lot of crazy theories on the best way to curb gun violence, Mark Dice learns while dropping in at CNN and MSNBC.

Keith Ellison won’t explain why he visited anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan’s hotel room

When CNN's Wolf Blitzer--he was taking a break from his network's wall-to-wall anti-Trump propaganda--asked US Rep. Keith Ellison (R-MN) why he visited the hotel room of America's preeminent anti-Semite, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, in 2013--despite their relationship ending "long ago," the only Muslim member of Congress replied, "You can expect people to say anything they want to distract from the core issues."

So Ellison does here what he's is accusing his opponents of doing against him. Distracting.

He's a fraud.

Best-selling author mistakes Norwegian flag flying near her Seattle home as Confederate

Blogger in Seattle

And Norway is having such a great Winter Olympics. You would think people would know better.

From Eric Lacitis of the Seattle Times:

A story about the times we live in, and assumptions we can make in our current political climate.

The news tip a few days ago said:

“Hi. Suddenly there is a Confederate flag flying in front of a house in my Greenwood neighborhood. It is at the north-east corner of 92nd and Palatine, just a block west of 92nd and Greenwood Ave N. I would love to know what this ‘means’ … but of course don’t want to knock on their door. Maybe others in the area are flying the flag? Maybe it’s a story? Thank you.”

It was from Rebecca Morris, who is an author of The New York Times best-seller true-crime books.

While both flags have red fields with blue crosses on them, the rebel battle flag is an "X," that is, a St. Andrew's Cross. And there are stars on that cross too, which the Norwegian flag doesn't have.

Illinois needs an insurrection: Sister-in-law of GOP House leader who last worked in 2001 in furniture sales has high-paying job overseeing tollway construction contracts

Tri-State Tollway

Oh, when I say "insurrection," I don't mean an armed one. These are, after all, delicate times.

Illinois House minority leader Jim Durkin, a bought-and-paid-for stooge for Bruce Rauner, the man who National Review says is America's worst GOP governor, has a sister-in-law who has parlayed her dusty career in selling furniture into a job with the Illinois Toll Authority overseeing construction contracts.

From the Daily Herald:

A politically connected Illinois tollway employee hired last year for an important $80,016 engineering department job last worked in 2001 as an account executive selling office furniture.

Laura Durkin is the agency's general manager of engineering and sister-in-law to Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs. Tollway officials recently released Laura Durkin's resume to the Daily Herald after withholding it for weeks.

She was hired in spring 2017 for the job overseeing multiple engineering, architectural and construction contracts. The position requires a minimum of five years' management experience administering construction contracts, according to the tollway's job description.

Laura Durkin has a degree in interior design. Her most recent position was from 1996 to 2001 working as an account executive for Workspace, an office furniture dealership in Oakbrook Terrace. She previously handled sales accounts for two other office furniture companies.

As for myself, I'm backing Jeanne Ives for governor. This madness must end.

Farage: All sorts of things went on between Clinton-Russians

Former UKIP leader and Donald Trump supporter Nigel Farage talks about Russian collusion--with the Hillary Clinton camp.

Mark Dice: CNN badgers elderly woman at her home over her "role" in Russian meddling

CNN, which was duped by Russian election meddlers into covering an anti-Donald Trump rally in late 2016, stooped to another new low by showing up uninvited at an elderly woman's home over her "role" in participating in Russian election interference.

Even CNN rips survey of leftist professors that names Trump worst president ever

Donald J. Trump has been president for 13 months but already a survey dominated by leftist eggheads has declared him the worst president in American history.

Yes, even worse than regular cellar dweller James Buchanan, who did almost nothing as the United States disintegrated in 1860 and 1861.

The survey is so bad that even CNN"s Harry Enten is blowing the whistle on it.

You may have read about the new study from political scientists that ranks President Donald Trump as the worst president ever. There's nothing inherently wrong with the study, and the political scientists who worked on it are well-respected. Most Americans, though, don't rank Trump as the worst president ever, even if most disapprove of the job Trump is doing.

Indeed, there is good reason to be cautious in using this study of political scientists to determine what Trump's place in history is at this point or what it will ultimately be. Why?

1. The survey respondents are not Trump friendly

The majority of respondents (57%) self-identified as Democrats compared to just 13% who were Republicans. That 44-percentage-point split is about 35 to 40 points wider than what is found in the general public, according to polls from Gallup. Given that Trump's approval rating nationally among Democrats is in the single digits, it shouldn't be too surprising that his ranking among a very Democratic-leaning sample of political scientists is quite low.

Among that tiny slice of Republicans, Trump didn't do much better. Trump has struggled with elitists of all political stripes. NeverTrump columnist George Will comes to mind.

Nancy Pelosi heckled at town hall while criticizing tax reform: “How much are you worth Nancy?”

Sanctimonious limousine liberal Nancy Pelosi, a multi-millionaire, talks down to the masses about the alleged evils of the Trump tax bill when one of the peasants yells out, "How much are you worth, Nancy?"

North Korean defector calls that nation "the kingdom of evil."

While the much of the mainstream media fawns over brutal dictator Kim Jong-Un's sister, who heads propaganda for North Korea Ji Seong-ho, a defector for that state, calls Kim's detestable regime "the kingdom of evil."

Mark Dice: CNN Goes Dumpster Diving Looking for Clues

CMM has been doing garbage-style reporting for years. Recently, Mark Dice points out, the Clown News Network was literally picking through the trash of the Russian "troll farm" that was attempting to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

One of those stunts, an anti-Donald Trump rally held in New York after his victory, was covered by MSNBC. So yes, MSLSD interfered in our political discourse by being duped by the Russians.

Review: LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval

For many people, but not me, 2016 was "the worst year ever." Two prominent rock musicians, David Bowie and Prince, died. Great Britain voted for Brexit. And of course Donald J. Trump was elected president.

But for me 2016 was a pretty good year, as I supported Trump and Brexit, and while I admired the work of Bowie and Prince, both men lived recklessly, so I didn't mourn them that much.

On the 2016 New Year's Eve edition of NPR's Wait...Wait...Don't Tell Me," Bill Kurtis correctly declared 1348, when the Black Death arrived in Europe, as the worst year ever.

Not nearly as bad as 1348 was 1968. But for President Lyndon Baines Johnson, '68 was his worst year ever. And the last full year of the 36th president's time in office is the subject of Kyle Longley's LBJ's 1968 Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval.

We are barely into 2018, but be patient, we'll be deluged with many unhappy anniversary stories.

Coincidentally, 1968 was the first year of my life that I had any inkling of what was going on outside of my South Side Chicago neighborhood. Some of the events in Johnson's annus horribilis I remember well. Such as my exclaiming when a bulletin preempted ABC's Bewitched with the announcement that Martin Luther King had been assassinated. "Who's Martin Luther King?" I exclaimed. "You don't know who Martin Luther King is?" my mother retorted with surprise. Hey, give me a break. I was in kindergarten at the time. Also, I recall my parents sadness over Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, as well as the riot outside the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago during the Democratic Convention. The whole family calmly watched the police clubbing the protesters. Yes, it was a different time as riots were commonplace in the late 1960s as were televised reports of them. Meanwhile my father, my mother assured her children while we were taking in the mayhem, was "far away" from the disturbance. He was attending the actual convention, covering the proceedings for a tiny Chicago neighborhood newspaper.

And I remember that I was the only person who raised a hand in my first grade class at my new suburban school when my teacher asked, "Whose parents voted for Hubert Humphrey?" The gender gap didn't exist then. Richard M. Nixon, won Illinois and of course the general election.

Twelve years later my mother and father were proud Ronald Reagan conservatives.

After Longley recounts LBJ's final State of the Union address given that January--at the time it was assumed by everyone that he would run for a second full term--the troubles begin with a largely forgotten tragedy from 1968, the seizure of the USS Pueblo, with 83 crew members, by North Korea. Johnson and our military were already bogged down with the Vietnam War--another American conflict was unthinkable. One Pueblo sailor was killed--the rest of the crew was tortured and starved. The Pueblo capture foreshadowed the helplessness Jimmy Carter endured after our embassy in Iran was overrun by "students" eleven years later, as well as our contemporary frustrations dealing with the mysterious yet paranoid North Koreans. The USS Pueblo hostages weren't released until shortly before Christmas.

MLK plaque in Winnetka, IL

A week later, while the battle of Khe Sanh raged in South Vietnam, the Communists' Tet Offensive began throughout the rest of that nation. For Johnson and our country, 1968 was like that, one crisis was piled on top of another. Just as the Tet Offensive winded down, to the surprise of many, LBJ announced that he would not seek reelection. A few days later King was assassinated, followed by riots in many major cities, including Washington. Longley recounts a meeting among White House staffers when someone decides to open a window--and in came the fumes from nearby arson fires. There were machine guns placed on the steps of the Capitol and sandbags were strategically placed on the White House grounds. A journalist observed that the Capitol "looked like the parliament of a new African republic."

Things were relatively calm until Johnson's rival, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in June. The tragedy elevated LBJ's vice president, the loyal Humphrey, who the president unfairly treated with disrespect, into the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Then a surprise came. Earl Warren, the liberal Supreme Court chief justice, announced his retirement. Johnson, oblivious that he was seen as a lame duck by the Senate, as well as by the rightward drift of the nation--which is why Warren, fearing a Nixon win, wanted out--suffered a stinging defeat after nominating his friend and confidante, associate Supreme Court justice Abe Fortas, to be the next chief justice. For the Fortas seat LBJ chose another crony, Homer Thornberry, an appeals court judge who succeeded Johnson in the House of Representatives. Fortas didn't survive a cloture vote. Nixon nominated Warren's replacement, as well as the successor for Fortas, who resigned in disgrace in 1969 over a secret payments scandal.

A few days after the Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia and ended the Prague Spring, the disastrous Democratic National Convention, largely remembered for the riot I watched on television, also showed the nation how fractious the Democrats were, all but guaranteeing a Nixon win in November.

All through 1968 the Johnson administration was negotiating with the North Vietnamese to sit down for a peace conference, while the Nixon campaign worked behind the scenes with the South Vietnamese to prevent one.

Longley in my opinion unfairly compares the Nixon chicanery in what became known as the Chennault Affair to a story from that other "horrible year," 2016, when he says "a foreign government likely played a role in shaping the outcome of a presidential election with the possible collusion with one of the campaigns." What the author wrote is probably a year old. I have the advantage of writing in the present--on Presidents' Day no less--and while the Mueller investigation has not completed its work, nine months after he was named special prosecutor, Mueller has revealed no evidence of  collusion between Russia and the Donald Trump campaign.

That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy LBJ's 1968. I did. I got the most pleasure by having the co-worker in the cubicle next to mine read the section about the Washington riot after MLK was murdered. He was one of the soldiers dispatched to the capital to put down the riot. An enlisted man, he chuckled when read that a District of Columbia public safety official and the vice chief of the US Army were unable to communicate with the president because the police radio system was jammed as they toured the riot zone. The pair was forced to wait in line for their turn to use a pay phone like ordinary people--for their own safety they were unwilling to identify themselves--so they could call the White House and give their report on the carnage to Johnson.

LBJ, like all presidents, believed the media wasn't giving him a fair shake. When he learned that black activist Stokley Carmichael, during that same riot, planned a march in Georgetown, where so many of the columnists Johnson disliked lived, he howled, "God-damn! I've waited thirty-five years for this day." That gave me a chuckle. Trump would like that quip too, I am sure.

It wasn't all bad news for Johnson in '68. For two years Johnson had been trying to get a fair housing bill passed by Congress. In the days following King's murder, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 made it on to LBJ's desk, which he promptly signed. Later that year Congress passed a gun control bill, which was weaker than what Johnson wanted, but he signed it into law anyway.

LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval is available on Amazon.com and at many other book sellers.

If you are a publisher and you have a book that you believe may appeal to the Marathon Pundit readership, please email me at john.ruberry@sbcglobal.net.

Chiraq: 5 dead at least 21 wounded over weekend

So far on Presidents' Day weekend five people have been fatally shot in Chicago while at least others suffered wounds.

Of the deadly shootings, all took place on the South Side with one each in West Lawn, South Deering, Auburn Gresham, South Shore, and Altgeld Gardens.

Top Ten Most Violent Neighborhoods in Chicago #4 2017

A cursory review of Chicago crime stories will lead you to believe that Englewood in Chicago's most violent neighborhood. But as my friend Victor Maggio winds down his Top Ten Most Violent Neighborhood series on his Bloody Chicago YouTube channel, we learn that Englewood, which is on the South Side, is only at Number 4.

The West Side is coming.

In a masterful look at Englewood, Maggio's latest video is his best piece yet. Once a prosperous suburb, Englewood's first brush with notoriety was that it was where Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H.H. Holmes, operated his "murder hotel." Holmes was America's first documented serial killer, his crimes are laid out in the best-selling book Devil In The White City.

Englewood's onetime shopping district, centered at 63rd and Halsted, was the busiest in Chicago outside of downtown. A short walk from that corner on nearly every Sunday my mother watched movies at the luxurious Southtown Theatre. When it closed in 1991 it was serving as a flea market.

I've visited Englewood too, Maggio rightly calls it "the most rundown neighborhood in Chicago." It's a mini-Detroit. While redlining and overt racism have contributed to Englewood's descent, most of the responsibility for its present pathetic state belongs to Larry Hoover, the longtime leader of the Black Gangster Disciples street gang. He is now incarcerated at the Supermax prison in Colorado.

Maggio also discusses anti-police flash mob protests and he notices something I have also seen in Chicago's most dangerous neighborhoods, the many young men wandering the streets in wheelchairs, whom he calls "the forgotten ones." Most of them likely are victims of the city's wanton violence.

From Da Tech Guy: Mueller's search for “monsters” yields 13 indictments

At Da Tech Guy I write about Russia...Russia...Russia: Mueller’s search for “monsters” yields 13 indictments.

The Rainmakers: Spend It On Love

The Rainmakers, the best band you've never heard of, does the unthinkable for a rock band. They preach personal responsibility, most infamously on "Government Cheese."

They utilize a softer approach in "Spend It On Love."

You tell of man who took a hundred dollars
Spent it on lottery tickets and beer.
Won a couple of million, left his wife and children.
Lived himself to death in a couple of years.

President Donald J. Trump: Year One

Somehow I missed this January video from the White House that celebrates the first year achievements of our 45th president, Donald J. Trump.

Mark Dice on illegal immigration: They All Agree with Him!

Do you remember when senators Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, and Barack Obama all opposed illegal immigration and were in favor of strong border protections?

Or when Hillary Clinton agreed?

Mark Dice does.

Romney, who the media hated in 2012, is loved by the media now

This morning, as expected, Mitt Romney announced that he's running for the US Senate seat in Utah being vacated by Republican Orrin Hatch, who is retiring. Because he often criticizes President Trump, the media loves him.  Take a look here, here, and especially here.

But isn't this the same Romney who the leftist media excoriated in 2012 as the evil capitalist who fired thousands, killed a woman suffering from cancer (not true), and tortured the family dog?

It is.

They are such hypocrites.

Happy 100th birthday Lithuania!

Lithuanian flag at Chicago's

O'Hare Airport

On this day in 1918 Lithuania declared its independence. A forgotten victim of the partition of Poland, the Lithuanian people suffered terrible during the twelve decades Russian rule. Sadly, worse was to come when the Soviet Union annexed Lithuania in 1940, which led to a far-worse occupation that finally ended in the autumn of 1991, three months before the collapse of the Soviet Union. As with the other two Baltic States, Latvia and Estonia, these were the only former USSR republics who left and never look back. God bless them all!

The Lithuanians are a hard-working and freedom loving people.

Happy Independence Day!

President Trump's address to the nation about the Florida school shootings

President Donald J. Trump offered words of comfort as he addressed the nation on the morning of yesterday's mass school shooting in South Florida.



"I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be. You have people who care about you, who love you and who will do anything at all to protect you," Trump said. "If you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer, or a faith leader, Answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness. We must also work together to create a culture in our country that embraces the dignity of life that creates deep and meaningful human connections and that turns classmates and colleagues into friends and neighbors."

Alleged killer of Chicago Police commander is a career criminal

Chicago violence is no longer confined to the West and South sides. Car jackings are now a city-wide phenomenon.

And on Tuesday the commander of Chicago's 18th police district, Paul Bauer, was shot to death by a career criminal, Shomari Legghette, in the city's Loop.

Clearly we need tougher sentencing laws for repeat felons.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Legghette’s adult criminal record includes convictions for armed robbery, resisting a correctional officer and felony drug possession.

In 1998, he robbed a Forest Park couple in their driveway. Legghette claimed he was urinating when an acquaintance nicknamed "Trouble" pointed a pistol at a man in his car and ordered his wife to turn over her valuables.

Legghette was arrested after getting away in a car and running from police. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the holdup, according to documents in his unsuccessful appeal.

More recently, Legghette was charged in 2014 with selling heroin to a man. Five baggies of the drug and $138 were found on him. He was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison.

Related post:

Chicago alderman: "We're living in a lawless city right now"

Chicago alderman: "We're living in a lawless city right now"

Around this time yesterday afternoon a Chicago Police district commander, Paul Bauer, was shot to death outside of the James Thompson Center, a quasi-second state capitol building, in downtown Chicago. Across the street for that building is City Hall.

Two City Council members spoke to Fox Chicago about the murder.

The killing of a Chicago police commander on Tuesday had an emotional impact on two members of the city council who are themselves former cops.

They connected the killing of commander Paul Bauer, the first Chicago cop to die on duty since 2011, to the murder of other officers across the country -- about a dozen already in this still new year.

“Our crime rates are going up and we're living in a lawless city right now. And I do believe our police are trying everything. I do believe our city has the heart to fix this. It's just who's going to step up and do it?” said Alderman Anthony Napolitano.

“We don't know what happened with this thing. But I do believe there's a war on police. I think police are being vilified right now. There might be one or two bad apples in the bunch. But then you're lumping 'em all together for something bad that happened,” said alderman Nick Sposato.

Super Bowl LII had lowest TV ratings since 2010

Two major market teams, New England and Philadelphia, squared off in Super Bowl 52 last week. But the ratings sank, the lowest in eight years.

Did the National Anthem protests have something to do with that?

Mark Dice on Brian Stelter: Whoops! Wrong Again!

The Clown News Network's senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter, is in denial over this suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, Mark Dice tells us.

Ken Starr & Robert Mueller: When Dems Attacked an Investigation

Leftists are attacking Republican leaders for questioning the Mueller investigation into alleged collusion between the Donald J. Trump campaign and Russia.

But a while ago it was the Democrats and their media allies who were angry about special prosecutor Ken Starr's investigation into Whitewater and other Bill and Hillary Clinton ventures.

Boss Madigan fires political consultant over inappropriate texts

Illinois Democratic political boss Michael Madigan finds himself in trouble.

From AP:

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has dismissed a long-time political consultant after an investigation found he sent inappropriate text messages to a colleague.

Madigan identified the consultant as Kevin Quinn in a statement Monday.

Madigan attorney Heather Wier Vaught says the woman is a political consultant not employed by Madigan.

Vaught says Quinn texted the woman seeking a date in 2016. There were fewer than a dozen texts but they continued after the woman told Quinn she wasn’t interested.

Quinn is the brother of Marty Quinn, alderman of the Chicago's 13th Ward. Madigan is the committeeman of that ward. He is also the chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party.

Mark Dice: Liberals New Hero!

Trump Derangement Syndrome was on full display over the weekend as the Clown News Network, the New York Slimes, and the Washington Compost all fawned over Kim Jong Un's sister's appearance at the Winter Olympics.

Sister Kim is head of propaganda for the murderous regime that starves its people.

(PragerU) How Lincoln Changed the World in Two Minutes

On this Lincoln's Birthday edition of PragerU, Doug Douds of the Army War College reminds us of the greatness of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Chiraq: 4 dead and at least 4 wounded over weekend

Park on the West Side

Over the weekend Chicago saw a foot of snow fall. Does that mean the thugs in Chiraq put away their guns? Of course not. Over the snowy weekend four Chicagoans were shot to death and at least four others were wounded.

Three of the murders were South Side crimes--one each in Chatham, West Englewood, and the Back of the Yards. The fourth killing happened in Humboldt Park on the West Side.

From Da Tech Guy: Pritzker falling in Illinois Dem guv race

JB Pritzker has problems as I write at Da Tech Guy: Pritzker falling in Illinois Dem guv race.

Ray Davies (The Kinks) - Shangri-La with chorus

Watch and sing along as Ray Davies sings "Shangri-La" from the Kinks overlooked concept album, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire).

And he's joined by church-style choir.

Tucker: Russian collusion proof points to Dems, not Trump

"Okay, but the funny thing is," Tucker Carlson explains in this clip from Friday's show, "almost all of the Russian collusion evidence unearthed recently implicates Democrats, not the Trump campaign."

So there is a Russian collusion problem.

Top Ten Most Violent Neighborhoods in Chicago #5 2017

"In neighborhoods like Humbolt Park," Victor Maggio says in his latest Bloody Chicago entry, "bullets regularly whiz around the neighborhood like flies around a garbage can."

We're down to Number 5 in Maggio's countdown of Chicago's Top Ten Most Violent Neighborhoods,

Like Number 10, Back of the Yards, no racial group dominates Humboldt Park. And because of rival gang conflicts, diversity does not mean harmony there either.

Mark Dice on Trump's "treason" quip: They can't take a joke!

President Trump was joking, CNN and MSNBC, when he remarked that Democrats who were unenthusiastically watching his State of the Union address should be charged with treason.

But the Dems, Mark Dice correctly points out, have no sense of humor.

Crybaby USA speedskater doesn't show up to Olympic opening ceremony because he's not the flagbearer

Sportsmanship used to be taught to be an essential part of athletics as to build character. And part of that character development is to recognize that no matter how prepared you are for a competitive event, often the result doesn't always end up the way that you expect.

Sports, and life, is not fair. And it never will be.

Shani Davis may have some Olympic medals, but he still has some learning to do.

From the Daily Mail:

Erin Hamlin has led Team USA out for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang after being named as flag carrier ahead of Shani Davis, who boycotted the ceremony. Hamlin, a four-time Olympian and winner of a luge bronze medal at the 2014 Sochi games, beamed a broad smile as she led out the athletes competing at the games in South Korea to the accompaniment of 'Gangnam Style'.

The 31-year-old was chosen in a coin toss with speedskater Shani Davis, one of just a few black athletes in Team USA, who says he should have been chosen to carry the Stars and Stripes.

Davis, 35, a five-time Olympian who has won two gold medals and two silver medals, lost after a vote among sports federations represented at the games ended in a tie.

A U.S. speed skating spokesman said Davis had not originally planned to march in the parade of nations later on Friday, but would have made an exception if he had been chosen as flag-bearer.

I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event. @TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022. #BlackHistoryMonth2018 #PyeongChang2018 pic.twitter.com/dsmTtNkhJs

— Shani Davis (@ShaniDavis) February 8, 2018

Illinois GOP delegation denouces Nazi candidate for Congress--this is news?

Illinois flag with state

bicentennial flag

Illinois' ignoble Republican Party was in its usual state--asleep--when a southwest suburban Chicago Nazi, Art Jones, gathered enough signatures to have his name on the ballot for the GOP nomination for US representative in Illinois' 3rd Congressional District?

Why couldn't the Republican Party in the Land of Lincoln find someone else to run? After Jones' petitions were verified as valid, why didn't the GOP find an acceptable write-in candidate?

Because the Illinois GOP sucks, that's way.

Oh, adding to the farce is this statement from the state Republican delegation:

"The Illinois Republican Congressional delegation strongly and unequivocally condemns the racist views and candidacy of Arthur Jones in the 3rd Congressional District. This is not who we are as a party or as a country and we urge civic-minded citizens to get involved in the political process to prevent non-party extremists like Jones from hijacking nominations."

Signed:
U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (IL-06)
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (IL-12)
U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (IL-13)
U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren (IL-14)
U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (IL-15)
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL-16)
U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (IL-18)

Wow. They oppose a Nazi. That's a bold step. Not.

Related post:

Jones Nazi debacle symptomatic of the failure of the Illinois Republican Party

My opinion on that Ives ad

As you may have heard, Jeanne Ives, the Republican challenger of failed Illinois GOP governor Bruce "Benedict" Rauner, released a controversial web ad parodying a 2017 Rauner commercial where governors in neighboring states say "thank you" to Democratic Party boss Michael Madigan, the man who Reuters says is "behind the fiscal fiasco in Illinois."

In the Ives video, actors "thank" Rauner for various bills that he signed that offend the Republican base, including HB 40, which greatly expands state funding for abortions, and HB 1785,. which allows people to use whatever bathroom they want.

In the thirty-second spot a woman in a pink pussy hat gleefully exclaims, "Thank you for making all Illinois families pay for my abortions." Note the use of the plural there. An ugly man in a dress sardonically tells the governor, "Thank you for signing legislation that allows me to use the girls' bathroom."

The poltroons in the Illinois Republican Party, the same ones whose inaction is allowing a Nazi to run unopposed in a GOP congressional primary, have condemned the video. But keep in mind that the state party--from top to bottom--is bought and paid for by Rauner's considerable financial largesse. And those third-rate apparatchiks want that cash flow from Rauner's wallet to keep flowing, so they can perhaps win an additional park district office election, while Illinois careens towards insolvency.



On the flipside, the tone of the ad is a bit off, I would have dialed down the snarkiness. But Ives is still an unknown to many Republican voter and some of them don't know that Rauner signed legislation that makes Illinois a sanctuary state, for instance. While her fundraising situation is improving, she's still sitting in the cheap seats, so she needs a loud horn right now.

As abortion, Cardinal Blasé Cupich says Rauner promised him that he would veto the abortion bill. Which means Rauner lied to Chicago's archbishop.

Mark Dice: I'm a Russian Bot!

America survived its war of independence, a second war with Great Britain, a Civil War and two World Wars.

But can it survive the Russian bots that are terrifying so many Democrats and their allies on MSLSD and the Clown News Network? Mark Dice explores.



Oh, my wife speaks Russian. Should I be worried?

MSNBC Reporter: National Democrats Now Worried Their 2018 Bench Is Too Liberal

Alex Seitz-Wald, an MSNBC political analyst, wonders if the far-left nature of many of the potential Democratic candidates for Congress are too liberal for the general public.

Why is Illinois being taxed to death?

Dennis Welsh, the general manager of Fox Chicago, asks "Why is Illinois being taxed to death?" His answer? Too many layers, many redundant, of government. Consolidation is the answer, which DuPage County, a Republican area, has utilized with great success.



But sadly, the ruling class in Illinois, consisting mostly of Democrats but some Republicans, like this rotten-for-the-taxpayers situation. They want their sinecures for themselves, their cronies, and their relatives--and those big fat pensions too.

FBI's Stroke and his lover in texts on Trump: Obama "wants to know everything"

There was another revelation in the Deep State attacks on Donald Trump.

From Fox News:

Newly revealed text messages between FBI paramours Peter Strzok and Lisa Page include an exchange about preparing talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey to give to President Obama, who wanted “to know everything we’re doing."

The message, from Page to Strzok, was among thousands of texts between the lovers reviewed by Fox News. The pair both worked at one point for Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Page wrote to Strzok on Sept. 2, 2016, about prepping Comey because "potus wants to know everything we're doing." According to a newly released Senate report, this text raises questions about Obama's personal involvement in the Clinton email investigation.

In texts previously revealed, Strzok and Page have shown their disdain for Republicans in general, as well as Trump, calling him a "f---ing idiot," among other insults.

Mark Dice on Adam Schiff: It Gets Even Better!

Listen along with Mark Dice as two Russian pranksters fool US Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a Donald Trump-hater who is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, convincing Schifftless that they have naked photos of the president.

From Doug Ross: SCHIFF FOR BRAINS: Democrat Adam Schiff Secretly Meets with Fake Russians to Secure "Nude Trump Photos"

Adam Shiftless is a fool. From Doug Ross: SCHIFF FOR BRAINS: Democrat Adam Schiff Secretly Meets with Fake Russians to Secure "Nude Trump Photos."

Jones Nazi debacle symptomatic of the failure of the Illinois Republican Party

For forty years a whack-job, Art Jones, a neo Nazi, holocaust denier, and a white supremacist, has been a political gadfly, running for various offices in southeastern Wisconsin and the Chicago area. And on those occasions he survives ballot challenges, he performs about as well as Joseph Goebbels would in an 8 Mile style rap battle.

Is Jones evil? Mentally ill? A mixture of both?

Two years ago Jones was a Republican candidate for Congress in Illinois' 3rd district, but a petitions challenge by the state GOP knocked him off of the ballot. So that cleared the way for a bona fide Republican to face off against the incumbent, Democrat Dan Lipinski, for the House seat, right?

Wrong. There was not a GOP opponent against Lipinski in 2016.

Illinois congressional districts are a gerrymandered farce, an insult of democracy drawn by Michael Madigan, who lives in the district. Madigan, who is the chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, has been speaker of the state House for 33 of the last 35 years. He'd be a walking-and-talking advertisement for term limits if he bothered to talk much. Illinois Republicans are understandably demoralized because so many of them are divided into bits in order to dilute their strength.

That little bulb in the northeast, consisting of parts of Chicago's Southwest Side and southwestern Cook County, is the heavily Democratic chunk of the 3rd, most of the rest of the contorted land mass is a Republican stronghold.

So this year did the Republicans recruit a candidate to oppose Jones--who is obviously persistent--in the GOP primary? Nope. Jones is running unopposed. He'll be the Republican nominee for Congress in the 3rd, barring a successful write-in challenge. The primary election is next month.

I get it. Whoever is the Democratic nominee--Lipinski has a primary opponent--is the odds-on favorite to win in November. But don't tell me that there isn't a scandal-free Republican retiree, for instance, who could run, and say the Dem nominee gets swallowed by an unforeseen scandal, drop everything to serve in Congress if the unthinkable happens. Those men and women are out there.

The Illinois Republican party has put a full court press against itself, believing that they are the Harlem Globetrotters' hapless foe, the Washington Generals. At the time Jones ran for his first office, the idea that Vermont would be one of the most Democratic states in the nation was laughable.

Winning is an attitude. So is losing.

Oh, those of you on the left who think that you can tie Jones to Donald Trump need to know that while he did vote for Trump, Jones has turned against the president because he has "surrounded himself with hordes of Jews including a Jew in his own family, that punk named Jared Kushner."

Jones is not only persistent  but he is consistent.

Oh, I hate Illinois Nazis.

Happy Ronald Reagan Day

Reagan mural, Tampico IL

It's the Gipper's birthday!

On this day in 1911 in tiny Tampico, Illinois, the only president born in the Land of Lincoln, Ronald Wilson Reagan, entered this world in a second floor apartment above a bakery on Main Street.

Forty state governors have declared February 6 Ronald Reagan Day.

How will you celebrate?

Related posts:

• Report from Tampico, Illinois on Reagan's 100th birthday
• Reagan centennial: Tampico's churches
• Reagan centennial: Ronald Reagan Park in Tampico, IL

PragerU: Can Climate Models Predict Climate Change?

Leftists who harp about global warming, oops, I mean climate change, point to evidence that the planet is heating up with computer model predictions.

Will Happer, an emeritus professor of physics at Princeton University, has solid climate credentials. In the latest PragerU video, Happer debunks these computer projections.

Chiraq: 5 dead, including 3 in West Pullman, and at least 15 wounded over weekend

West Pullman

Bitter cold and snow returned to Chicago over the weekend but people still shot each other.

Five people were shot to death over the weekend, including three--in separate incidents--in West Pullman on the Far South Side.

At least 15 others were wounded.

The other two fatal shootings also happened on the South Side, one in South Shore, which Bloody Chicago lists as the city's seventh most violent neighborhood, and one in Auburn Gresham, which comes in at sixth place.

From Da Tech Guy: The West Coast's war on energy and prosperity

America's economy is soaring during the Trump Era. But leave it to the left coast to pass over a great thing. From my weekly post at Da Tech Guy: The West Coast's war on energy and prosperity

Carlene Carter and Dave Edmunds - Baby Ride Easy

At the time this performance was recorded, Dave Edmunds was the co-leader of Rockpile with Nick Lowe. And Carlene Carter, June Carter Cash's daughter was married to Lowe, who was the producer of Elvis Costello's first five albums.

Watch as the duo sings "Baby Ride Easy."

Trump reacts to contents of FBI Deep State memo: It's a disgrace

President Trump is right--the FBI "Deep State" memo is a disgrace. Law enforcement agencies should never be in the business of pursuing a political agenda.

Top Ten Most Violent Neighborhoods in Chicago #6 2017

All of my family bases are covered in Victor Maggio's ongoing series counting down the ten most violent neighborhoods in Chicago.

My old neighborhood, Roseland, clocked in at number 8. My dad's old stomping grounds, South Shore, reported in at number 7.

Now we're at number 6, Auburn Gresham, where my mother was raised.

All of these neighborhoods are on the South Side. Don't worry, we'll be hearing from the West Side before long, I am sure.

Auburn Gresham is best known as the home of St. Sabina perish, where leftist Catholic priest Michael Pflger has been pastor since 1981.

Maggio also covers rapper related gang violence at the end of this clip.

FBI Deep State memo: No Trump warrant without discredited Steele dossier

America 1--Deep State 0.

Without the discredited Christopher Steele dossier--oh, he's a British citizen, I thought Democrats were against foreign involvement in our elections?--there would be no warrant against the Trump campaign.

From the Daily Caller:

The FBI relied heavily on the dubious Steele dossier, as well as a Yahoo! News article based on the salacious document, to obtain a surveillance warrant against a Trump campaign adviser prior to the 2016 election, according to an explosive but controversial memo approved for release by the White House on Friday.

The memo, which was crafted by House Republicans, also says that the FBI’s deputy director, Andrew McCabe, told Congress that a FISA warrant against the campaign adviser, Carter Page, would not have been granted without use of the dossier. That despite the FBI later determining that very little of the Democrat-funded document was corroborated.

And in another stunning revelation, the memo asserts that Justice Department official Bruce Ohr was used to pass information from the author of the dossier, Christopher Steele, to the DOJ.

Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, worked at the time for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm research firm that commissioned the dossier. Bruce Ohr, who worked closely with Deputy Attorney Generals Sally Yates and Rod Rosenstein, passed his wife’s opposition research on Trump to the FBI, the memo says.

Trey Gowdy's Greatest Hits

This week the great Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced he won't be running for reelection. Part of the 2010 Tea Party wave, Gowdy doesn't believe in making electoral office a permanent career.

National Review has put together a "greatest hits" collection of Gowdy's seven years in the House.

New jobs up on January

Lots of great news in the first jobs report of 2018.

From CNBC:

Nonfarm payrolls grew by 200,000 in January and the unemployment rate was 4.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a closely watched report from Friday.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had been expecting jobs growth of 180,000 and an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent. A broader measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons edged higher to 8.2 percent, the highest level since September.

In addition to the solid payroll growth, average hourly earnings were up 0.3 percent for the month, matching estimates and reflecting an annualized gain of 2.9 percent. However, the average work week fell two-tenths to 34.3 hours.

Mark Dice on the FBI memo: They figured it out!

So why is the Deep State FBI memo going to be released by President Trump. Mark Dice points out that "a Russian bot" implanted in the government is the reason. An MSLSD analyst thinks so.

Or could it be a plot, according to Clown News Network legal "expert" Jeffrey Toobin, by the Fox & Friends TV show.

Oh, what do Adam Shiftless (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and the founder of the Heaven's Gate cult have in common? Besides being from California?

Find out!

Trump to release Deep State FBI memo Friday

The Deep State is very nervous today.

From Fox Chicago:

President Donald Trump will declassify an FBI memo that purportedly reveals surveillance abuses during the Russia election investigation, sources tell Fox News.

The White House will declassify the latest version, which sources told Fox News included "technical edits" at the request of the FBI.

The release will likely come Friday morning, according to Fox News.

The FBI declared on Wednesday that it had "grave concerns" about the accuracy of the classified memo on the Russia election investigation.

Why are Dems trying to block the release of the Nunes memo?

The Deep State might as well be called the Dem State. And if the Deep State can turn on a presidential candidate, I believe it can turn on you.