Saturday, August 31, 2019

The Rainmakers - One More Summer

Summer is almost over of course--but we have one more summer weekend.

In that spirit here are the Rainmakers performing "One More Summer."



Biden: Dreamers “become Americans before a lot of Americans become Americans"

Time for a lie-down, Sleepy Joe Biden.

Friday at a campaign appearance in South Carolina, the former vice president said of DACA kids, they "become Americans before a lot of Americans become Americans."



Friday, August 30, 2019

From RealClear Politics: Who will Chicago tax if the rich say 'enough'?

The best way of the mess that Chicago--and Illinois--created, is to remove the pension guarantee clause from the state constitution.

More from a RealClear Politics op-ed:
The City of Chicago would like to spend a billion dollars more than it will raise under existing taxes and fees, so Mayor Lori Lightfoot is setting the stage for a tax increase.

Activists, union leaders and others in her coalition have a simple solution: Command the high-income earners to pay more! Their logic is simple: Middle-income folks are taxed too much already, but the very well-off are few, our demands are many and we control the City of Chicago — so make the high-income folks pay our bills!

It’s true that they are outnumbered, that the city can impose taxes one way or another on folks that are outnumbered, and that every tax is a command that residents ignore at their peril.

The flaw in their logic is this: The well-off are free to choose whether to stay and pay or leave — and thereby leave everyone else with the obligation to fund the city’s spending tab instead.
And leave they will.

Others are already bailing. Chicago is the only major American city that consistently has negative population growth every year.

Mark Dice: This Week in Censorship

Censorship of conservatives on social media, particularly YouTube, goes on, Mark Dice tells us.



Thursday, August 29, 2019

IG report says Comey violated FBI policy in leakng Trump memos

President Trump's firing of James Comey is one of his best moves.

From Fox News:
A scathing inspector general report released Thursday said that fired FBI Director James Comey violated bureau policies by drafting, leaking and retaining memos documenting private discussions with President Trump.

The Justice Department's official watchdog concluded that the memos Comey kept were in fact "official FBI records," and said Comey set a "dangerous example" with his actions.

"By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information," the report stated.

"By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information," the report stated.

Trump rips O'Donnell over retracted MSNBC report

It's not called MSLSD for nothing.

From Fox News:
President Trump on Thursday blasted Lawrence O’Donnell and the media at large after the MSNBC host was forced to retract an unverified report he shared on his show this week that tied Trump’s finances to Russia.

Calling the report "totally false," the president demanded that the media as a whole apologize for “inaccurate reporting.”

“Crazy Lawrence O’Donnell, who has been calling me wrong from even before I announced my run for the Presidency, even being previously forced by NBC to apologize, which he did while crying, for things he said about me & The Apprentice, was again forced to apologize, this time ... for the most ridiculous claim of all, that Russia, Russia, Russia, or Russian oligarchs, co-signed loan documents for me, a guarantee,” Trump tweeted.


Wednesday, August 28, 2019

(Bloody Chicago) The Root Cause: 6 Killed, 23 Wounded in Weekend Shootings in Chicago 8/23-8/25 2019

Victor Maggio was back on the violent streets of Chicago again this past weekend covering the bloodshed. He also takes time out to lay the blame on who is responsible for the carnage. And Maggio tells us how he got started with Bloody Chicago.



Mark Dice: Their Week So Far

Mark Dice takes a look at this week in leftism, which includes the New York Slimes' Bret Stephens' pout about being called a bedbug.

Also, Dice predicts a short campaign for Joe Walsh's presidential campaign.



Tuesday, August 27, 2019

(PragerU) Is College Worth It?

Well is college worth it?

Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA talks about it.



Land of Leavin', Chicago area's home price increases growing at half of last year's modest rate

Illinois is the Land of Lincoln anymore. It's the Land of Leavin'.

And it's largest city and its suburbs are leading the retreat:

From Crain's Chicago Business (paid registration may be required):
Growth in Chicago-area home prices has slowed to half its 2018 rate in 2018, according to new data from the leading monitor of U.S. home prices.

Local single-family home values rose 1.5 percent in June compared with a year ago, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices released this morning.

For most of 2018, the index showed growth in the 3 percent range for the Chicago area.

And even at 3 percent, Chicago’s home prices were growing at a slower pace than the nation’s, which were in the 6 percent range a year ago.


Monday, August 26, 2019

The Left's Next Dumb Idea, Getting Rid of Mount Rushmore

Yes, Mark Dice tells us, the leftists want to remove the faces of those four great presidents from Mount Rushmore.



6 dead and at lesst 23 others wounded in Chicago over the weekend

This past weekend om Chicago six people were shot to death in Chicago, including a 17-year-old boy who was murdered on the South Side after 3:00am Sunday in what seems to be one of those street parties that so often leads to violence. ABC Chicago says the victim was "was among a group of 30 to 40 people" gathered at that late hour. Three others were wounded in that mass shooting.

Two others were killed over the weekend on the South Side, the other fatalities occurred on the West Side.



Sunday, August 25, 2019

(Video) Sleepy Joe believes he's in Vermont while in New Hampshire

Sleepy Joe Biden was asleep at the wheel again yesterday. While in Keene, New Hampshire, the former vice president said, "What's not to like about Vermont and the beauty of this place."

And if you think that these little New England states are all alike, Vermont has no billboards on its roads. So it's very ease to tell the difference.



Saturday, August 24, 2019

The Band: Stage Fright (Live)

Years before there was the Americana genre was named The Band invented it.

Here's The Band, with Rick Danko on lead vocals, performing "Stage Fright" during its last performance with their original lineup, which was filmed for Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz.



(Video) Biden implies he is already tired of going to Iowa

Sure, in Sleepy Joe Biden's mind it might make sense to knock Iowa when he's in New Hampshire.

But what if people from Iowa hear about it?



Friday, August 23, 2019

Mark Dice: Here's The Truth Jimmy!

Mark Dice tells us that Jimmy Kimmel has a regular sketch series called "This Week in Censorship." I didn't know because I refused to watch Kimmel's leftist program that masquerades as a comedy show.

But the real censorship in America, Dice confirms, is against conservatives by Facebook.



David Koch, billionaire and conservative contributor, dies at 79

There is sad news this morning.

From Bloomberg:
David Koch, the industrialist and libertarian who used his fortune to transform American politics while also donating more than $1 billion to philanthropic causes, has died. He was 79.

The death was confirmed by Koch’s spokeswoman Cristyne Nicholas.

Koch, whose net worth of about $59 billion in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index tied him with his brother as the world’s seventh-richest person, derived most of his wealth from a 42% stake in Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries, which has annual revenue of about $110 billion. It is one of the nation’s largest closely held companies, and its spectacular growth included the 2005 acquisition of Georgia Pacific for $21 billion.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Illinois' leftist governor signs bill to raise minimum teacher salaries to address non-existent shortage of educators

Striking Chicago teachers a few years ago
There is no teacher shortage in Illinois. Or in America. There are no teacher-less classrooms. If a teacher dies today there will be a substitute in that spot tomorrow and very quickly a full-time replacement.

But the public-sector unions have created a crisis, an imagined one, to drive up teacher salaries.

And liberals, such as Illinois' Democratic governor, play along with the phony narrative.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday signed a bill raising teachers’ minimum salary to $40,000 in an effort to address the “dire” statewide teacher shortage.

“As Illinois children head back to school this week and next, this new law says to them and their parents loud and clear: We value teachers,” Pritzker said. “In signing this legislation, we’re addressing our teacher shortage and gradually putting teachers on track to make at least $40,000 a year by the first day of school in 2023.”

Pritzker said current minimum salaries range from $9,000 to $11,000 and haven’t been raised "in decades."

"That outdated baseline allows many positions, particularly in rural communities, to be shortchanged," he said.
Show me one teacher in the United States who earns only $9,000-a-year. Of course the Sun-Times, which is partially-owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor, is incapable of challenging left-wing dogma.

And as Illinois' population continues to decline, arguably we need fewer teachers, not more.

Here's an idea: Why not hire retirees on a contract basis to teach? They'll bring real-life experience to the classroom and taxpayers won't have to kick in to their pensions.

And they may do a much better job teaching kids. And they might work for just $9,000-a-year.




Chicago's $6K solar powered trash compactors don't work

Leftist ideology and practicality are exclusive principles.

The latest proof are Chicago's solar powered trash cans.

From CBS Chicago:
On many streets downtown, the city has installed $6,000 solar-powered self-compacting garbage bins. However, many are broken, leaking and overflowing with trash.

[Concerned citizen Susan] Romano took CBS 2 on a trash-talking tour of what she’s documented: handles that don't work properly, bins constantly covered in filth, and recycling compartments that are not locked, allowing people to pull out trash and leave it on the sidewalk.

Romano said the garbage is impacting more than the bins.

"I notice that they pull out the inside container, and they drag it," she said. "What it does is it leaks all over the sidewalk, so all of that garbage is leaked all over."
Chicago purchased 400 of these things for $2.5 million in 2011. America's third-largest city is essentially bankrupt because of unsustainable pension debt and unwise spending.




Wednesday, August 21, 2019

(PragerU) The Left Wants to Keep Racism Alive

Leftists keep picking at the scab of racism. Why? They can't honestly sell their high tax-high regulation-low freedom policies.

So they continue to declare all of their opponents as racists.

Candice Owens has more.



Kass: Dems switch their Trump Derangement Syndrome anger from Russia to racism

And before Russia the leftists were worked about in a frenzy about the president's tax returns. Before that it was emoluments.

From John Kass in the Chicago Tribune:
What was the embittered left — Democratic presidential candidates and their media allies — supposed to do when their hopes of Russia-Trump collusion crashed on the boulevard of broken dreams?

Pivot.

They had invested so much in their fantasy that President Donald Trump was a treasonous agent of Russian boss Vladimir Putin. But when special counsel Robert Mueller’s report came out, and there was no collusion, no crime charged, their fantasy collapsed.

And so, after a brief spasm of despair, the left pivoted to their default position: race.
Race. And Trump's non-existent support for white supremacists.

In a few months it will be something else.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Hong Kong protesters held American flag, sang US national anthem

Did anyone see any Venezuelan flags at the Hong Kong anti-communist protests?

Make Hong Kong Great Again!



(Bloody Chicago Video) Full Moon Weekend, 3 Killed, 24 Wounded in Chicago Shootings

The recent full moon weekend was, on Chicago standards, not so violent. Sill, one of the victims was a 13-year-old South Side girl who was shot in the shoulder.

Victor Maggio reports.



Monday, August 19, 2019

Mark Dice: Beto's Big Announcement

Big announcement? What big announcement?



3 dead and at least 24 wounded in Chicago weekend shootings

There was a lot of rain in Chicago over the weekend and that may have put a damper on the gunplay. Still, three people were murdered--all on the South Side. At least 24 others were wounded.




Sunday, August 18, 2019

Lindsey Graham on Dems' threat to pack the Supreme Court

Packing the US Supreme Court didn't work for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 19830, even though he enjoyed a massive majority in the US Senate.

But leave it to leftists to pursue a failed idea.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has more.



Saturday, August 17, 2019

Tom Waits - Going Out West

After a five year hiatus Tom Waits came back in 1992 with a stylistic change with his album Bone Machine.

Here's the best-known song from that work, the percussion-heavy "Goin' Out West."



Friday, August 16, 2019

PragerU: Google Insider Exposes Google Blacklists

Google is lying to you. It does utilize blacklists.

Against conservatives.



Mark Dice on Anthony Scaramucci; He Took It Personally

Anthony Scaramucci is the new darling of the media left because he's a former Trump official--11 days--who not criticizes the president.

The left had no use for him until now.



Thursday, August 15, 2019

CNN leaves bubble, finds strong Trump support in Minnesota for 2020

Amid the surprise wins by Donald Trump in the former Blue Wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, is that the president came very close to winning Minnesota too.

If Trump had prevailed, failing Illinois would have been the only Midwestern state to throw its support behind Hillary Clinton. But that's another story for another time.

Meanwhile, CNN left its leftist cocoon to discuss the strong support Trump enjoys in Minnesota, which has not backed a Republican for president since 1972.



Israel to block Squad members Omar and Tlaib from entering country over BDS support

Israel knows who its enemies are.

From the New York Post:
Israel has apparently decided to bar Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country on Friday after fierce debates on the contentious matter involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and various ministers, according to a report Thursday.

The reason cited for their ban is reportedly “suspected provocations and promotion of BDS,” a reference to the anti-Israel boycott movement, according to the Times of Israel, which cited a report by local Channel 12.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri made the decision to bar the US lawmakers from entering the country on Friday, according to the report.

The freshman lawmakers — the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and two of Israel’s sharpest critics — have voiced support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against the Jewish state.
Fox News is reporting that this news is official.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Study: Taxes too high for Chicago casino to be profitable

Former US Steel plant, one of the
proposed casino sites
Here is more proof that Chicago, which has one Republican alderman and hasn't had a GOP mayor since 1931, can't do anything right.

From PBS Chicago:
An onerous tax structure would virtually kill any chance that a Chicago casino operator could make a profit – and therefore kill off the prospect of a casino in the city, period – despite an ability to make massive amounts of money. That’s the conclusion of the Chicago Casino Feasibility Study, commissioned by the city and the Illinois Gaming Board to determine how a casino would fare at each of five potential city locations.

In early June, the Illinois General Assembly passed a massive expansion of gaming in the state, including authorizing a license for six new casinos, in Chicago, the south suburbs, Waukegan, Danville, Rockford and Walker’s Bluff in southern Illinois. Alone among them, the law put an extra “privilege” tax on adjusted gross receipts (AGR) of the Chicago location.

“The current regulatory construct, namely the highest effective gaming tax and fee structure in the US, makes any casino project – regardless of location – generally not financially feasible,” the report reads.

With a more forgiving tax and financial structure, the report concludes that a Chicago casino could potentially generate almost twice the profit of Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, which is currently the state’s best performing casino, generating $441.8 million in 2018.
The study ripped the city's proposed sites for the gambling hall, most of them are in remote and dangerous neighborhoods.




Mark Dice on Fredo: He Asked For It

The Chris Cuomo "Fredo" frenzy continues into another day!



Tuesday, August 13, 2019

NSFW: **EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE!** CNN ANCHOR CHRIS CUOMO THREATENING TRUMP SUPPORTER!

Watch as CNN's Chris "Fredo" Cuomo drops "F" bombs on a supporter of the president.



(Bloody Chicago video) Relentless violence plagues Chicago, 4 dead, 43 wounded in shootings Aug -9-10-11-2019

Sadly it was just another violent weekend in Chicago, one that included a mass shooting on the West Side where five woman and one man were wounded.

Bloody Chicago's Victor Maggio even covers a stabbing and rightly remarks that if Chicago's guns somehow disappear, the violence will continue.

If you don't believe him--or me--take a look at London.

We're dealing with a deeper problem.



Monday, August 12, 2019

Mark Dice on $15 minimum wage: Just Like We Predicted!

Leftists are demanding a $15-an-hour minimum wage. But they are clueless, of course, about economics because the new wage laws are leading to layoffs because some small businesses cannot afford the extra expense.



4 killed and 43 others wounded over weekend in Chicago, 8 year-old girl among those shot

And also among the wounded are six people shot in a mass shooting on the West Side.

From ABC Chicago:
Weekend gun violence in Chicago left four people dead and at least 43 others wounded, including an 8-year-old girl who was shot Sunday at a barbecue in Humboldt Park.

Police said the little girl was standing with a group of people at a family gathering in the 1000-block of North Monticello Avenue at about 4 p.m. when someone inside a blue Dodge Charger fired multiples shots into the crowd and took off.

Witnesses said the car went down the block several times before the shooting. Two of the shots hit 8-year-old Adrianna Barron in her lower leg.

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Six shot in West Side Chicago drive-by mass shooting

Garfield Park
It's just another weekend in Chicago.

From ABC Chicago:
Six people were injured in a drive-by shooting Sunday morning in Garfield Park on the West Side, police said.

According to police the victims, five women and one man, were standing with a large group of people in the 3500 block of W. Lake Street around 2:47 a.m. when an occupant in a light-colored sedan pulled up and fired shots.

A 25-year-old man was taken Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound to the back, police said. He is in critical condition.

One woman, 32, was taken to Mount Sinai in stable condition with gunshot wounds to the neck and face, police said. Another 32-year-old woman was taken to the same hospital in stable condition with a gunshot wound to the left shoulder.

Saturday, August 10, 2019

The Sex Pistols - No Fun - 1/14/1978 - Winterland (Official)

"You'll get one number and one number only," Johnny Rotten tells a hostile audience at the last Sex Pistols concert ever with Sid Vicious in the line up. "Because I'm a lazy bastard--this is no fun."

Indeed it was. And then the Sex Pistols revved up one more time to play ""No Fun," which was originally recorded by Iggy and the Stooges, for their encore in 1978 in San Francisco.



(PragerU) Should Americans Pay Slavery Reparations?

One word answer:

NO!



Friday, August 09, 2019

(Video) Latest Biden gaffe: "Poor kids" just as talented as "white kids"

Even considering Crazy Joe's low standards, this gaffe will hurt.

From the New York Post:
Gaffe-prone presidential hopeful Joe Biden put his foot in his mouth during an Iowa campaign stop on Thursday when he told a group of predominately Asian and Hispanic voters that "poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids."

Biden committed the stunning blunder while speaking about education at a town hall with the Asian and Latino Coalition in Des Moines, where he’s campaigning and fundraising for the 2020 Democratic primary.

"We should challenge students in these schools and have advanced placement programs in these schools. We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it,” Biden said at the event, according to video of his remarks.

"Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids," he added.


(Bloody Chicago) Multiple Mass Shootings in Chicago, Over Weekend, 7 Killed, 52 Wounded

The second weekend is almost upon us. Victor Maggio of Bloody Chicago takes a look at last weekend, which was even on Chicago standards a very violent one, including two West Side mass shootings.



Thursday, August 08, 2019

Trump considering Blago commutation

I'm not on board with the president on this one--at least yet. Long prison sentences for political corruption might be the only deterrent that will work against public officials who betray the citizenry. Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's 28-year sentence for his crimes send a powerful message.

On the other hand, if Blago admits guilt and provides information that leads to the indictment of other Illinois pols--I can be won over.

From CBS Chicago:
It could be a big break for Rod Blagojevich; President Donald Trump is “looking very seriously” at commuting the former Illinois governor’s 14-year prison sentence.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday night, Trump confirmed he was thinking about commuting Blagojevich’s sentence, which would mean the former governor would be released from prison early.

“I am thinking very seriously about commuting his sentence so that he can go home to his family after seven years. You have drug dealers that get not even 30 days, and they’ve killed 25 people,” Trump said.

Before his conviction on corruption charges, Blagojevich was a contestant on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” reality show

.

(Bloody Chicago) 8 People Wounded in Douglas Park Mass Shooting

There were two mass shootings over the weekend in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side.

If you live outside of the Chicago area, you probably didn't hear about it. Why? Mass shootings only occur, according to the elite media, when a white supremacist is pulling the trigger.



Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Tucker: Left is doing all it can to divide Americans

Watch as rude, foul-mouthed leftists protest outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's home.

Conservatives do not act this way.



ILL-inois: "MacGyver" era computers in need of upgrade

This is the one of the results when a state is run as a retirement program for unionized state workers instead as a government.

From CBS Chicago:
Some of the computers that run the State of Illinois are decades old – and CBS 2 got a rare opportunity to talk with the state’s top tech guy not only about the problems, but also the solutions.

CBS 2’s Dorothy Tucker talked with Ron Guerrier, the chief information officer for the governor’s office, about some of his plans to modernize.

Asked to describe how bad the system is currently, Guerrier said: “Remember the show ‘MacGyver’ – the show where the guy could have bubble gum and Band-Aids fix anything? The resources of the State of Illinois for over 20 years were ‘MacGyver.’”

Guerrier has a daunting task – to bring an aging network of computers into the modern era.
The original "MacGyver" was cancelled in 1992.

Tuesday, August 06, 2019

'Sleepy Joe' Biden stumbles through second Democratic debate

In his second Democratic debate, Joe Biden didn't do very well.



Mark Dice on the Democratic Socialists of America convention: Birds of the Feather...

Use gender specific language at your own risk at the Democratic Socialists of America convention.

Clapping and "chatter" need to be controlled.

Aren't Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialists?



Monday, August 05, 2019

7 killed and at least 46 wounded in Chicago over weekend

While news of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton understandably dominated the national news, sadly it was yet another violent weekend in Chicago.

Over the weekend seven people were shot to death and at least another 46 were wounded in the city.

The worst shooting was early Sunday morning on the West Side where seven people were wounded near a playground.  Four of those victims were taken to nearby Mount Sinai Hospital, which later in the day stopped accepting patients because the ER was overloaded.






Sunday, August 04, 2019

Pray for the victims of this weekend's mass shootings

There have been two mass shootings this weekend, one in El Paso that killed 20 and another in Dayton, Ohio that killed nine. More are wounded.

Please pray for the victims.

Saturday, August 03, 2019

Wilco - Via Chicago

Lollapalooza is in Chicago this weekend. So I thought a Wilco tune is in order this afternoon, "Via Chicago."

Take a look at frontman Jeff Tweedy's "Nudie suit."



Scion of longtime Chicago Democratic political family indicted

The Cullerton Democrat family political dynasty dates back to the year of the Chicago Fire--that happened in 1871--when the first Cullerton was elected to the Chicago City Council.

For 144 years there was always a Cullerton in that sad, corrupt body.

Yesterday a scion of that dynasty was indicted, and it could be part of a new wave of criminal accusations.

From WBEZ-FM:
A Democratic state senator from DuPage County was named Friday in a 41-count federal embezzlement and conspiracy indictment related to an alleged scam where he received payments from a Chicago labor union for little to no work.

A federal grand jury charged state Sen. Thomas Cullerton, D-Villa Park, in the alleged scheme, where Cullerton is accused of receiving more than $274,000 in payments and benefits from Teamsters Joint Council 25 for being a purported union organizer.

The indictment alleged Cullerton routinely did not show up for work with the union after he landed the lucrative gig from former Teamsters Joint Council 25 President John Coli Sr., who this week pleaded guilty to federal extortion and tax fraud charges.

A federal judge agreed to put off sentencing for Coli after he pledged his cooperation in additional cases.
Cullerton's cousin, John Cullerton (D-Chicago), is the president of the Illinois Senate.




Friday, August 02, 2019

Rat infestation closes down Chicago community garden

Baltimore isn't the only city with a rodent problem.

From CBS Chicago:
A community garden in the West Loop has been closed over neighbors’ concerns about rats and weeds.

Cell phone video posted on social media shows rats clinging to the leaves of the sunflower stalks in the middle of the day at the garden at 37 S. Sangamon St.



“On the plants, eating the plants, running around,” said neighbor Lauren Wilner. “We’ve seen rats in the plants, and running out of here across to the park.”

Neighbors said they’ve seen it before.


Carson on fixing Baltimore: First, we have to acknowledge there's a problem

HUD Secretary Ben Carson, a Detroit native who for years worked in Baltimore, certainly knows inner cities.

And he says by calling people racist who bring up the serious problems Baltimore faces--some self-created--is not helping.