Saturday, June 29, 2019

Split Enz - One Step Ahead

Before the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit films, culturally speaking New Zealand was mainly known for Split Enz. The band, led by the Finn Brothers, later morphed into Crowded House.

Here is one of my favorites from the band, "One Step Ahead."



Ted Cruz rips Democratic debate: 'The clown car is broken'

Yes, the circus came to Miami this week. It consisted of two clown cars--one for each night of debates--of the 20 Democrats running for president.

And Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is right, "the clown car is broken."



Friday, June 28, 2019

Bloody Chicago: Vic's Down, But Not Out !!!!!

Victor Maggio updates some recent stories--including the one about his being attacked.



Mark Dice: Poor Uncle Joe

Joe Biden had a rough debate last night, Mark Dice points out here.

And Marianne Williamson is one of the weirdest people ever to run for president.



Thursday, June 27, 2019

Mark Dice on the Democratic Debate: The Circus Came to Town

Yes, there was Spanish spoken--without subtitles--during Wednesday's Democratic debate.



FBI raided home of former operative of Boss Madigan last month

Chipping away at the greater evil?

From NBC Chicago:
Federal agents raided the home of a former top political aide to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and the brother of 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation said.

The raid took place last month at the home of Kevin Quinn, located in the 10300 block of South California Avenue in the city’s Beverly neighborhood, sources said.

Neither the FBI nor Kevin Quinn responded to multiple requests for comment. It was not immediately clear what agents sought in executing search warrants, though a source said computers were taken from the home.

No charges were filed against Kevin Quinn, who also could not be reached for comment. It was also unclear whether or not the raid was related to his work for the powerful House speaker, who also heads the state’s Democratic Party.
Quinn worked form Madigan, who is also chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, for almost 20 years until he was accused of sexual harassment by a former Boss Madigan employee.

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Ben Shapiro: AOC's Sad Story About AOC

The fresh face of the Democratic Party is feeling sorry for herself, Ben Shapiro tells us.



Chicago values: Eric Trump spat on by employee at a city bar

The Aviary, an upscale bar on Chicago's West Side, is the latest place where "Chicago values" have been expressed.

From Breitbart:
U.S. Secret Service took an employee of a Chicago restaurant into custody Tuesday evening after she spit on President Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump, the president’s son told Breitbart News.

"It was purely a disgusting act by somebody who clearly has emotional problems," Eric Trump told Breitbart News when reached by phone late Tuesday evening. “For a party that preaches tolerance, this once again demonstrates they have very little civility. When somebody is sick enough to resort to spitting on someone, it just emphasizes a sickness and desperation and the fact that we’re winning.”

Eric Trump spoke to Breitbart News late Tuesday evening after local news reporters revealed what happened.

Mary Ann Ahern, a reporter for NBC channel 5 in Chicago, tweeted about the incident:


Tuesday, June 25, 2019

(PragerU) The Best Book to Read to Your Kids

What is that book? Click on the video to find out!



Mark Dice on Google bias against conservatives: CONFIRMED

Yesterday Project Veritas released a video on YouTube--which was promptly deleted by Google, which owns the vide sharing platform, where a Google exec exposes bias by the tech behomeht.

Google “is bent on never letting somebody like Donald Trump come to power again," she says.

Mark Dice has some of that video.



Seven hours after "attack" Smollett had noose around his neck

The key takeaway from the yesterday's release of hundreds Chicago Police files on the case of hate crime hoaxter Jussie Smollett is that seven hours after the, ahem, attack,' the now-former Empire star is wearing that noose around his neck.

It was part of Smollett's performance.

From the BBC:
The ex-Empire actor says he was punched in the face, had an "unknown chemical substance" poured on him and a rope wrapped around his neck in a racist and homophobic attack in January.

But Chicago Police say he staged the whole thing.

They've released footage from the night where Smollett appears to have the rope still around his neck.

The footage shows two police officers going to Smollett's apartment building in Chicago at around 8:43 in the morning - almost seven hours after the alleged attack.

Sunday, June 23, 2019

1 dead and 10 wounded in bar shooting in Mayor Pete's town

Even in Chicago, also known as Chiraq, this would rank as a horrific mass shooting.

From CBS Chicago:
At least one person is dead and 10 others injured after shooting outside a bar in South Bend, Indiana.

It happened around 2 a.m. Sunday outside Kelly’s Pub on Mishawaka Avenue.'

The deceased victim has been identified as Brandon D. Williams, 27, of Niles, Mich., and his family has been notified. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday morning in Fort Wayne.

Ten additional gunshot wound victims have been identified, and were treated at area hospitals. Five patients remain at the hospitals in stable condition. All others have been treated and released.


From Da Tech Guy: Tales from the Illinois Exodus–Part Four

There is never a shortage of material as I document Illinois' failures. From my Sunday post at Da Tech Guy: Tales from the Illinois Exodus–Part Four.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Friday, June 21, 2019

(Photos) The abandoned homes of Detroit's Hope Village

It's been a few months since my last Detroit post. Yes, I've been busy with many things. Some good, some troublesome.

If you are only just finding me now, in February I traveled to Flint and Detroit in my latest urban exploration adventure.

In my last entry I presented to you the abandoned homes of Detroit's Martin Park. Just south of that west side neighborhood is Hope Village.


Hope seems to have checked out of Hope Village. To start off, here's my obligatory collapsed portico shot.


We'll leave the light on for you.


At 15531 Linwood Street is Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. But when it opened in 1920 it was the General George A. Custer School. The original sign, made of terra cotta I believe, is way up on top.

Okay, Marshall, although a too liberal for my taste, was certainly a legend. His most famous case as a lawyer was Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. He later became the first black to serve to the US Supreme Court. But he stayed on the court way past his prime--Marshall hoped to hang on long enough to have a Democratic president select a similarly-minded judicial activist as his replacement. He retired in 1991. George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, an African American conservative, to that seat. Thomas remains on the court and despite recent rumors has no plans to retire.


Yet another fire-damaged Detroit home.

In 1973 Detroit elected Coleman Young as its first black mayor. He was a possibly a former communist, and based on his love of his Stalin-esque Detroit People Mover--an expensive flop, I'm not sure he completely abandoned the party, if he was a member, or at least its ideas. Young utilized us-versus- them politics using dog whistle words. Suburbs (white) versus Detroit (black). And his policies. favoring African Americans over whites, accelerated white flight from the Motor City.

Whites were still a majority in Detroit when Young was elected. By 1980 just one-third of Detroiters were white. By 2010 less than ten percent were.

An all-black, or nearly all-black Detroit made reelection much easier for Young.


Log Cabin Street.

Which reminds me of my favorite song by Dire Straits, "Telegraph Road."

It was written about a real Telegraph Road, which passes through Detroit and its suburbs.
A long time ago came a man on a track
Walking thirty miles with a sack on his back
And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
Made a home in the wilderness
He built a cabin and a winter store
And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
And the other travelers came walking down the track
And they never went further, no, they never went back.


I've rambled a bit here. Back to Custer and Young.

George Armstrong Custer might seem to be an odd choice for the name of a school in mostly-black Detroit, but "the Boy General" spent much of his childhood in nearby Monroe. And of course as a Union general fought not only to preserve the United States but the efforts of the northern army paved the way for the abolition of slavery.


A Michigan bungalow.

Like Marshall, Young retired later than he should have, leaving office in 1994 when he was 75. Age had caught up with him too. During the latter part of his term a philosophy developed among many Detroiters, but not Young, that assimilation was a dead end, along the lines of how Jews who left their homes after World War II for Israel In 1993 the name change from Custer School to Marshall took place. Many other schools also saw name changes.

But Young failed and so did Detroit--and the collapse of Detroit culminated in 2013 with the city's bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.

And the idea of re-segregation has ended in the Motor City. Detroit's white population is increasing for the first time in decades. Detroit, in Mike Duggan, has a white mayor. He was resoundingly re-elected over Coleman Young II.


Campaign poster for Coleman Young II in Mexicantown in 2017. Oh, that dog did not like me.


Abandoned homes can be terrific billboards.

Around the time Detroiters elected the older Young to lead their city, Atlanta elected its first black mayor, Maynard Jackson. While the transition from the old Atlanta to the new one involved some bumps, Jackson and his successors worked with Georgia's business establishment to create "The City That Is Too Busy To Hate." While hate seems to have been an option, Atlanta largely succeeded where Detroit failed. Atlanta prevailed in one attempt where Detroit failed seven times. It hosted a Summer Olympics.


An abandoned brick home with an abandoned car? That Hyundai has no license plates.


As I've mentioned here many times before, alleys were left to the elements in Detroit years ago. Not even snow can hide the vegetation or the discarded rubbish.


Many abandoned homes and former retail stores in Detroit aren't even secured. Since March three murder victims have been discovered in vacated houses, which has led Detroit to start a program to board up these forsaken buildings because of fears that a serial killer is on the loose.


So many abandoned homes are victims of arson.





From the Political Insider, Standing their ground: Upstate NY clerks refusing to give illegal immigrants driver’s licenses

New York's leftist governor, Andrew Cuomo, wants county clerks in his state to break federal law by ordering them to issue illegal aliens driver's licenses. But some of them are saying now.

From the Political Insider: Standing their ground: Upstate NY clerks refusing to give illegal immigrants driver’s licenses.

Trump planned Iran strikes, then held off

Just maybe, maybe, the New York Times, which broke the news, should have held off a bit on reporting this story?

From Fox News:
The Trump administration made a last-minute decision to call off retaliatory strikes against Iran in response to the downing Thursday of a Navy drone that Washington said was over international airspace, a source told Fox News early Friday.

But few details about the aborted mission and the circumstances that led to the reversal were available.

Multiple news outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post and Associated Press, reported similar accounts — citing unnamed sources. These reports portray a mission that would have targeted Iranian missile batteries and radars. No shots were fired and no missiles were launched, according to the AP.

The State Department did not immediately respond to an email from Fox News early Friday seeking more clarification.


Thursday, June 20, 2019

Over 70,000 Illinoisans collecting state pensions have moved out, taking $2.4 billion away

Taxpayers, including me, are paying for their retirement. But like so many other Illinoisans these publicly-funded pensioners are bailing on this state.

Illinois is only one of two states that has lost population for five straight years.

From Jake Griffin in the Daily Herald:
More than 71,000 people collecting public pensions from six statewide retirement plans have moved out of Illinois, taking more than $2.4 billion annually with them.

That's roughly 18% of all the pensioners in those systems, according to a Daily Herald analysis of financial data obtained through public records requests with the six pension programs.

Florida leads all migration destinations with 14,030 Illinois pensioners, followed by Arizona and Wisconsin with more than 5,600 Illinois public pension recipients now living in each of those states.

According to a National League of Cities report, 90% of retired public employees generally stay in the area where they worked. But Illinois' higher migration rate for public pensioners mirrors the ongoing population decline in the state, which has seen a drop of 157,000 residents since 2013, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
It's not just the cold weather. High property taxes--which have been hiked a lot in recent years to pay for, you guessed it, under-funded pension plans--are named as top reason.

Illinois is suffering under a viscous circle. At the center of it is state House speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), who has held this post for 34 of the last 36 years. He is also the chairman of the state Democratic Party.



Black Democrat booed for testifying against slavery reparations

Coleman Hughes is a Columbia University college student, majoring in philosophy, and a columnist for Quillette. At a House committee hearing debating reparatins for slavery, Hughes, an African American, gave a reasoned plea against them.

When he was finished he was booed.



Iranians shoot down USA drone over international waters

Barack Obama empowered and emboldened the thug Iranian regime. What happened earlier today shouldn't be a surprise.

From Fox News:
A U.S. Navy high-altitude drone was shot down Thursday by an Iranian surface-to-air missile over the Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions in the region after last week’s attacks on two oil tankers, according to military officials.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement the that a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance ISR aircraft, known as a BAMS-D, was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile system while operating in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz at approximately 7:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

"Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false," Capt. Bill Urban, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said in a statement. "This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in international airspace."

The U.S. Navy’s MQ-4C Triton drone, which has the same wingspan as a Boeing 737, was over international airspace at the time and about 17 miles from Iran at the time, a military source told Fox News. The drone provides real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions "over vast ocean and coastal regions," according to the military.

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Another office of a Chicago alderman raided by feds

Austin street banners in her ward
in 2016
Late last year the FBI raided the City Hall office of 50-year alderman Ed Burke (14th). He's since been indicted.

Today the feds visited the ward office of another South Sider. It also was not a social call.

From NBC Chicago:
Federal agents raided Chicago Ald. Carrie Austin's office in the city's 34th Ward Wednesday, with multiple sources saying they were executing a search warrant.

Agents descended on Austin's ward office, located at 507 W. 111th St. in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side. The front door to the office was locked, with a passerby's knock going unanswered and private security guards later turned away.
More..
Austin has previously faced criticism and controversy for hiring her son as ward superintendent, particularly after then-Inspector General Joe Ferguson alleged in 2016 that he and a Streets and Sanitation employee covered up the details of a 2012 car accident in which Austin's son was driving without a valid license. He later resigned his position.
This is the latest example of "Chicago values."


Tucker: California is a symbol of everything wrong with the US

The Democrats ruined California.



Mark Dice on CNN at the Trump rally: The Feed Dropped!

At his yuge 2020 campaign announcement President Trump called out the fake news media. And a "CNN sucks" chant broke out. Which compelled CNN to break away from the rally.

Also, Mark Dice skewers the claim from intellectual lightweight Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that we have concentration camps at our southern border.



Tuesday, June 18, 2019

(PragerU) National Debt: Who Cares?

Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl is right.

Our national debt is a huge problem.

And it all comes down to the federal government promising benefits that aren't affordable.



Chicago police: Half of all weekend gun arrestees already back on streets

"Guns from Indiana," one of fall guys for Chicago's gun violence, doesn't figure into a real problem.

From Fox Chicago:
Chicago police say they took 56 illegal guns off city streets between Friday and Sunday and 22 people were arrested.

The weekend before that, there were 53 weapons arrests. A police spokesman says more than half of those 53 arrested have already been released on bond.

Despite the efforts, gun violence across Chicago from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday claimed the lives of several people, including a teen shot to death Saturday in Englewood.


Ben Shapiro: How Did This Trans Athlete Win?

Biological males are on the path to destroying women's sports.

Ben Shapiro tells the tale of Cece Telfer, who makes the ludicrous claim that being born as a man is a disadvantage was she competes against women.

Telfer enjoys the benefits of a higher testosterone level, bigger muscle mass, and a body frame more favorable for running.



Related posts from Da Tech Guy:

Will people care about women’s sports if transgendered women dominate?

What transgender athletes will do to high school sports

Monday, June 17, 2019

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Ramornes - The KKK Took My Baby Away (Live 1982) HD

There is a story behind the Ramones song, "The KKK Took My Baby Away." Supposedly it's Joey Ramones revenge on Johnny Ramone stealing his girlfriend. Johnny was a Republican, the other band members were libs.

To them the GOP was the KKK.



Huckabee fires back at CNN analyst calling Sarah Sanders a liar

The left--and its allies in the media such as CNN--are scum.

Tear them apart, governor!



Friday, June 14, 2019

Kennedy on California's rising homeless population

It's been a long time since California was paradise. Now it's turning into hell.

Kennedy gives us the latest news on the Tarnished State.



Mark Dice: What Have They Done to Father's Day!??

Add Father's Day to the things leftists hate--or want to transform beyond recognition.



Thursday, June 13, 2019

Chicagoans getting what they voted for: New mayor hints tax hikes coming

The two runoff survivors from the February mass-election for mayor barely talked about Chicago's pension bomb.

But like an irresponsible person with a huge credit card bill- who doesn't look at his monthly statement or even thinks about it--the debt remains. And grows.

Voters chose to ignore the few candidates who discussed Chicago's worst-in-the-nation municipal pension debt.

From WBBM Radio:
Mayor Lightfoot says higher and even new taxes may be inevitable in her first Chicago city budget.

She is quick to say her administration will look for savings and other efficiencies before it considers raising or imposing new taxes.

But the situation is clear, given a budget deficit estimated at more than $700 million.
Higher taxes are coming, Chicagoans. You voted for them.

Mark Dice: CNN Finally Admits It

It pains CNN to admit that President Trump is right about tariffs on Mexico.



Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Why wait? Biden promises to cure cancer if elected president

This story reminds me of Richard M. Nixon's "secret plan" to win the Vietnam War when he was a candidate for president in 1968.

Why didn't he divulge the plan before Election Day.

Because there was no plan.

From Fox News:
Former Vice President Joe Biden made a bold promise on Tuesday to "cure cancer" if he is elected president in 2020.
At a campaign event in Ottumwa, Iowa, Biden expressed the difficulty one faces with a "loss" of a family member and others attempt to comfort them saying, "'I know how you feel'" when in reality they have "no idea how I feel," which is likely in reference to the loss of his son Beau Biden, who died in 2015 from brain cancer.

"That's why I've worked so hard in my career to make sure that... I promise you if I'm elected president, you're going to see the single most important thing that changes America, we're gonna cure cancer," Biden declared.

His remarks were welcomed with applause.


Gutfeld on Oberlin College losing $11 million to a bakery

Oberlin College--aided by the media--wrongly accused a bakery of racism. But a jury agreed with bakery and it has to pay $11 million in damages. Perhaps more.



Tuesday, June 11, 2019

(PragerU) Who Does the Media Most Want to Silence?

That group is...certain type of women.



Leftist site ThinkProgress facing big money troubles

Here's a Daily Beast story I believe.
ThinkProgress, the website that is a project of the Democratic Party’s primary think tank, is facing dire financial troubles and bleeding staff, according to primary-source documents viewed by The Daily Beast.

A budget document provided to ThinkProgress management and obtained by The Daily Beast showed that the website was expecting a roughly $3 million gulf between revenue and expenses for 2019. ThinkProgress has never been a revenue generator, and has often made up for its deficits through fundraising efforts and funds from its mothership entity, the Center for American Progress (CAP). But the current outlook is significantly worse than ever before.

According to the document, advertising revenue is projected to fall $350,000 short of what was budgeted this year, and online contributions are expected to fall short by nearly $180,000. The site is projected to have about $64,000 in grant revenue (money derived from donations to CAP and meant for coverage by ThinkProgress) in 2019. That’s roughly $60,000 short of what it had budgeted for the year and roughly $540,000 less than it received in 2018.

n the face of these falling revenue streams, ThinkProgress has seen payroll drop by 12 percent from its peak level in 2019 and “salary growth” by 5 percent, according to the document. Among those leaving is the site’s managing editor, Tara Culp-Ressler, who announced her departure last week.

Mark Dice: Eric Swalwell Being Eric Swalwell

"Eric Swallwell," Mark Dice says, "is the kind of guy who would remind the teacher if they forgot to collect the students' homework by the end of class."

Did you know that he's running for president? Not many do as he is mired at zero percent in Democratic polls.



Monday, June 10, 2019

Please Help Support Bloody Chicago

Help out my friend Victor Maggio. He's a great journalist and an even better patriot.

At least 41 shot, three of them fatally, in Chicago over the weekend

Abandoned home in Roseland
Despite Chicago having a new mayor, Lori Lightfoot, the city's annual uptick in shootings during the summer has returned. Over the past weekend, at least 41 people were shot--and that number includes three fatalities.

The weekend began with a bloody start when 22 people were shot within the first 12 hours.

Among the weekend's wounded are a 12-year-old boy who was shot in the back in Roseland on the South Side.

Related post of mine from Da Tech Guy:

Fatherless households are the root cause of Chicago’s violence



Saturday, June 08, 2019

The Monkees - "You Bring The Summer" [Official Music Video]

Twenty years after their previous studio album, the surviving Monkees released Good Times!

The second track on that effort was written by blog favorite Andy Partridge, formerly of XTC. That song is "You Bring the Summer."

Summer is here, after all!



Trump launches blistering attack on Pelosi

And Nancy Pelosi deserves it.



Friday, June 07, 2019

(PragerU) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is Wrong About the Minimum Wage

Is AOC right about anything?

Economist Andy Puzder debunks her claim that a $15 minimum wage will help low-wage earners. It will turn them into no-wage earners.



Flip flop: Biden says he supports Hyde Amendment on abortions, that changes mind two days later, after opposing it

Or should I say, flip-flop flip?

From CBS News:
Former Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday he is against the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortions in most cases, reversing course from his earlier position after criticism from his 2020 Democratic rivals. Biden said at the Democratic National Committee fundraising gala he supported the Hyde Amendment for many years because he did not believe women's rights were "under attack" then but "circumstances have changed."

"I can't justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability ... to exercise their constitutional protected right," Biden said.

Biden had initially told a voter last month that he was against the Hyde Amendment, but his campaign clarified earlier this week that he supported it. Women's rights groups quickly expressed their dissatisfaction with his position on the Hyde Amendment. The DNC is formally against the Hyde Amendment.

Thursday, June 06, 2019

Masturbating inmates at Chicago jail could cost taxpayers $2 million

Once again it is League of Shadows time at Marathon Pundit.

"The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome, loaded trade ships with plague rats, burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance." Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins.

From the Chicago Sun-Times
Legal fees for cases relating to masturbating detainees at Cook County Jail could reach more than $2 million.

The Cook County Board’s Finance Committee on Wednesday will consider the latest $486,216.39 in fees and expenses for five cases brought by public defenders, sheriff’s officers and other female county employees exposed to the harassment. That comes on top of nearly $1.7 million the Board has already paid out.

It's been dubbed an "extreme brand of workplace sexual harassment" by one state senator who sought increased penalties for the lewd behavior. The women subjected to it have written letters to county officials and filed lawsuits.

The problem got so bad a federal judge in 2017 ordered all Cook County jail detainees with a history of indecent exposure, masturbation or sexual misconduct to remain handcuffed "at all times" during courthouse visits

.

Eating their own: AOC attacks Rahm for joining Wall Street firm

Democrats attacking Democrats.

From CNBC:
Long-time Democratic politician and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will join investment bank Centerview Partners, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC Wednesday.

Just a month after leaving the mayor’s office of Chicago, Emanuel will be advising clients on mergers for Centerview, co-founders of the firm told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.
More...
Freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took a shot at Emanuel on Wednesday after the news broke, saying “not all Democrats are the same.”

Wednesday, June 05, 2019

(PragerU) D-Day

Thursday is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the most important day of the last century.

Peter Caddick-Adams is the author of Sand and Steel: The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France.

In this PragerU clip he discusses June 6, 1944.



Mark Dice: MSNBC's New Expert

Because the New York Times is banning its reporters from appearing on hyper-partisan MSNBC and CNN, it now has to rely on "experts" such as actor Jeff Daniels to complain about President Trump.



Tuesday, June 04, 2019

Chicago alderman for 50 years Ed Burke pleads not guilty to corruption

Can I bring up the need for term limits in Chicago again? And the rest of ILL-nois too?

From ABC Chicago:
Longtime Chicago Alderman Ed Burke went before a judge Tuesday morning and pleaded not guilty to corruption charges.

Alderman Burke was arraigned on federal racketeering and bribery charges. Last week, a grand jury handed down a 19-count indictment against the 14th Ward alderman. Burke and his top political aide Peter Andrews were named as defendants in a federal bribery case against Lake Forest developer Charles Cui.

Burke is accused of using his position as Finance Committee chair to solicit and extort business for his private tax law firm. Prosecutors said Cui used Burke's law firm for property tax appeal work as Cui tried to secure permits for a Northwest Side redevelopment.

Burke was secretly recorded by former Alderman Danny Solis, who wore a wire for the FBI. When developers of Chicago's Old Main Post Office allegedly didn't hire Burke's firm, Burke is allegedly heard saying "They can go (expletive) themselves."
Burke's wife, Anne, is a justice on Illinois' Supreme Court.

Chicago's newly sworn-in mayor, Lori Lightfoot, is calling on Ed Burke to resign.

(Bloody Chicago) 52 Shot, 8 Fatally on the Battlefields of Chicago in the Most Violent Weekend this Year 2019

Victor Maggio was out on the streets of Chicago for part of the city's most violent weekend of the year. And he decries the "Mickey the Mopes" who abolished capital punishment in Illinois. Last month a pregnant teen was murdered after her baby cut from her womb. This is a crime where the death penalty is a just sentence.

Bloody Chicago's proprietor also discusses some movie projects that he is involved in.

Warning: Foul language and graphic violence.



Monday, June 03, 2019

(PragerU) Big Tech Is Big Brother

Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, discusses how Big Tech has become what it promised to destroy. It is becoming a totalitarian entity. It's their way or our banned. Particularly if you don't toe the line on such issues as transgenderism.



Chicago: At least 52 people shot, including 8 killed, over weekend

Summer is back in Chicago--and so are the violent weekends. Over the first weekend of June at least 52 people were shot in the city, including eight fatalities. The murders happened all over the city, including two in Old Town, a tourist area where shootings are infrequent.

Apparently the criminals are unaware the Chicago has a new mayor, Lori Lightfoot.

Sunday, June 02, 2019

From Da Tech Guy: The Midwest’s wildflower spring of 2019

Yes, I occasionally write about non-political topics at Da Tech Guy. In fact for the second straight week I've done just that: The Midwest’s wildflower spring of 2019.

Saturday, June 01, 2019

“When did you find out you weren't?” Warren grilled on lying about Native American ancestry

Two hip-hop radio station deejays press Sen. Elizabeth Warren on fabricating her Indian heritage.

She's a fraud.

The Rainmakers - Drinking On The Job

Here's another stupendous track by the Rainmakers, "Drinking on the Job."

Cogent lyrics on this one, as with most Rainmakers tunes. Including this one:
The generation that would change the world
Is still looking for its car keys.
Take that, Baby Boomers!

This performance was recorded in Norway--where they are quite popular--in 2012.

As is their wont, frontman Bob Walkenshorst sneaks in a couple of snippets of covers, in this case "Born Free" and Warren Zevon's "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner."



From my post at Da Tech Guy:

The Rainmakers, a career review