Marathon Pundit: March 2021

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 19: Benjamin Franklin

Before George Washington it was Benjamin Franklin who was the personification of America.

Franklin was a scientist, an inventor, a philosopher, a librarian, a postmaster, a journalist, a diplomat, and of course one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Later in his long life--84 years was a very long life in the 18th century--Franklin became an abolitionist. But at one time he was a sloave holder--owning anywhere from two to seven slaves.

The Ben Franklin statue is one of the 41 reliefs, monuments, and plaques that "have been identified for a public discussion" from Mayor Lori Lightfoot's secretive Chicago Monuments Project, formed as her reponse to last summer's riot outside the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park.

It's likely that Franklin's status as a onetime slave owner that has placed Franklin's statue, which has been standing in Lincoln Park for decades, that has put the bronze work "under review" by the Chicago Monuments Project. The statue was designed by Richard Henry Park.

If you believe that it's an outrage that Franklin's statue could disappear in Chicago and you are just checking in to read my series on the monuments, you'll get even angrier when you learn Abraham Lincoln is on that list for possible removal. And Washington is on that list too.

But last week there was some encouraging news on this project. Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) introduced an ordinance that would require the "decommissioning or other removal of a statue, monument, plaque, or similar carved or cast artwork shall be subject to approval by the City Council." Good for him.

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project's "Feedback page." Please be polite but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

Convicted cop killer sitting on police reform panel: Report

A convicted cop killer on a police reform panel? That's what is going on in upstate New York.

From Fox News:

He fatally shot an NYPD cop execution-style decades ago in a Queens bar — and now Richard Rivera is helping reform police in upstate New York as part of a state-mandated plan launched by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The cop-killer — who murdered off-duty officer and dad-of-four Robert Walsh in 1981 — sits on a panel for Ithaca and Tompkins County as part of its "Reimagining Public Safety Collaborative."

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 18: Indian Boundary Lines Plaque

"How do you eat an elephant?" is an often asked metaphorical question. The answer of course is "one bite at a time."

For years the left has been trying to chip away at our society--and they achieved success in 2020 as statues across America were toppled or damaged by mobs. Police officers in Chicago of course saved the Grant Park Christopher Columbus statue from such a fate. But soon afterwards, in the middle of the night, Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered all three of Chicago's Columbus statues to be sent to "temporary" storage. allowing a rioters' veto to prevail And around that time she initiated the Chicago Monments Project to see what other stautes and other public works of art on city land that might be deemed offensive.

Way up on northeast corner of the city on a wall at Rogers and Clark Street you'll find the Indian Boundary Lines Plaque. Click here to see it. It reads:

Indian Boundary Lines - Clark Street honors George Rogers Clark, whose brother William Clark, with Ninian Edwards and Auguste Chouteau, in 1816 negotiated Indian treaty ceding land including Chicago site from Rogers Avenue to Lake Calumet. - Erected by Chicago's Charter Jubilee - Authenticated by Chicago Historical Society - 1937.

Rogers Avenue marks the northern end of that old boundary. To the southeast that line, not contigiously, is picked up on the northwest edge of the city and into the suburbs by Forest Preserve Drive.

Historical? Yes. And while the removal of the Indian Boundary Lines Plaque probably won't inflame non-woke Americans, who I suspect make up a majority of the population even in Chicago, if this one goes, then later let's say the Leif Erikson statue, pretty soon removing monuments to great Americans such as Abraham Lincoln won't seem so radical.

Remember--one bite at a time.

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project's "Feedback page." Please be polite but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

Biden on COVID-19: "Risk, more cases, more desks, more deaths, look!"

Great Grandpa Biden starts off okay--not great--but okay as he squints into his teleprompter here.

But towards the end--skip ahead to the four-minute mark--when he begins slurring his words. Then it gets worse as he says, "Second, I re-iterated my call for every governor to maintain and re-instate the mask mandate. Please, this is not politics! Businesses should require masks as well," he continues. "Risk, more cases, more desks, more deaths, look!"

Look! Cognitive decline!

Monday, March 29, 2021

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp responds to Biden’s criticism of new voting law

Georgia's new election laws are about insuring free and fair elections. Don't believe the leftists when they claim the new laws mean voter suppression.

3 dead and at least 26 wounded over weekend in Chicago

Over the final weekend of March three people were shot to death and at least 26 others were wounded in Chicago.

In related news a man was stabbed in the throat on Sunday on the Near North Side after refusing to give a panhandler money.

Sunday, March 28, 2021

From Da Tech Guy: GOP senators knock down walls of Biden’s Potemkin Village at the border

Or, as Kevin Bacon eloquently phrased the situation during the riot at the conclusion of Animal House, "All is well." From my post at Da Tech Guy: GOP senators knock down walls of Biden’s Potemkin Village at the border.

Saturday, March 27, 2021

Everly Brothers - Crying In The Rain

Many early rockers were major influences on the Beatles. Where did those wondrous Paul McCartney and John Lennon harmonies come from?

The Everly Brothers, that's where.

Here they are singing "Crying in the Rain."

Tucker: Our military leadership has gone 'woke'

Our military exists to protect Americans. It is not meant to be an HR department feel good diversity exercise.

But the Biden-Harris Defense Department has other ideas.

Friday, March 26, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 17: Haymarket Memorial

My late father had a great love of historical epic films and for this country. So naturally when Patton, which was the Academy Award Winner for Best Picture in 1969, was released he took my brothers and I to see it at the Bismarck Theater on Randolph Street in downtown Chicago.

We loved the movie. My brothers and I still do.

Afterwards my dad made a point of driving a mile west to Haymarket Square to see the Haymarket Memorial Statue, which had just been bombed by the Weather Underground, a far-left terrorist organization that counted Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn as members. Depending on who you talk to, Ayers and Dohrn were either friends or acquaintences of Barack and Michelle Obama. On the day he formally began his campaign for state Senate seat, Obama visited the home of Ayers and Dohrn.

My father loathed the 1960s-early 1970s left-wing radicals.

All we saw at Haymarket Square that day was a vacant pedestal.

Click here to see many photos of the bronze statue, courtesy of ChicagoCop.com. The monument portrays a 19th-century Chicago policeman with his right arm raised in a warning stance.

The Haymarket Memorial is one of the public artworks that is "under review" by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Chicago Monument Project.

A few months after our 1969 drive past the empty pedestal the statue was back on Randolph--then it was bombed again. "The body of the statue badly bent a nearby railing as it fell before settling on the expressway embankment," ChicagoCop.com recalls, "and one of the legs landed two hundred feet away." The Weather Underground claimed reponsibility for the second bombing too. Before that attack my dad again drove us through Haymarket Square--this time the statue was there.

Why the anger about this monument? It's a messy story.

On May 4, 1886, socialists and anarchists gathered for a rally at Chicago's Haymarket Square, which is just north of Greektown on the city's Near West Side. Someone threw a bomb that killed seven Chicago cops. I believe this was the deadliest day for the Chicago Police Department. Four others were killed by the blast

The press and most Chicagoans were understandably aghast. Investigators zeroed in on the anarchists who attended the rally, as well as some of the speakers. The bomber was never identified but eight men were arrested and tried on conspiracy charges. Again--depending on who you speak with--the trial was unfair or a complete travesty of justice. Four of the guilty were hanged, Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two of the executions to life sentences. One of the condemned committed suicide in prison.

In 1893 another governor, John Peter Altgeld, pardoned the two men Oglesby saved from the gallows as well as a third man who hadn't been sentenced to death. Three years later those pardons were used against Altgeld during his unsucessful run for a second term.

The bombing occurred on May 4 but fairly quickly that event was used as a rallying cry for the left that made May Day, May 1, a labor holiday worldwide.

Back to the statue.

Mayor Richard J. Daley, the legendary Boss of Chicago, was a law-and-order pol and the bombings of the Haymarket Memorial infuriated him. So he placed the statue under a 24-hour police guard. Yes, the statue was safe but this was clearly not a wise use of law enforcement resources. Like now, the early 1970s were a violent time. In 1972 the statue was moved indoors, first to Chicago Police headquarters and then to the Chicago Police Training Academy. Since 2007 it has stood outside the new Chicago Police headquarters.

The monument was designed by Frank Batchelder and sculpted by John Gelert.

Leftists have long memories. I have a few socialist friends--really, I do--and when the subject of the Haymarket Affair came up one day during an otherwise non-political conversation, one of my lefty pals recited the whole incident rapidly with all of the details, focusing on the four executed men and the four others imprisoned. It was as if he was recalling the plot of a movie that he had just seen.

But what of the murdered cops? Not a lot is known about them but unless proven otherwise, none of them were 19th-century versions of Derek Chauvin, who soon will be tried for murder in regards to the death of George Floyd. Do those seven Chicago police officers deserve a memorial? I say they do.

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass calls the Chicago Monument Project "Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Woke Committee on Problematic Statuary." In my opinion he's almost always right on issues, for better or for worse, which means that the Haymarket Memorial is possibly the most endangered of the 41 monuments that the committee says "warrant attention." Probably only the three Christopher Columbus statues, now in storage, face more daunting survival odds.

Over on Randolph Street near where the policeman statue once stood you'll find a new Haymarket Memorial, which is a tribute to the rally attendees and speakers. If you enjoy ugly art--its a socialist realism sculpture, appropriately enough--then this piece is for you.

Ironically, both of the Illinois governors linked to the Haymarket Affair, Altgeld and Oglesby, have statues in Lincoln Park. Neither are on Lightfoot's naughty list.

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project's "Feedback page." Please be polite but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

Biden relied on cheat sheets during press conference

Despite the love fest that you'll find on networks such as MSNBC and CNN over Joe Biden's first press conference as president, it didn't go well. Biden rambled and appeared confused a few times.

Later yesterday it became clear that Biden relied on cheat sheets for the entire press conference. Other presidents never went that far.

From the Daily Mail:

Images taken during President Joe Biden's first press conference on Thursday showed him using cheat sheets - which did not prevent him from misstating key facts and losing his train of thought at times.

The 78-year-old Democrat is seen holding one sheet that showed the headshots of journalists at the press conference that he planned to call on.

Another cheat card listed stats about infrastructure, but Biden was still forced to correct himself after mistakenly saying the US ranked 85th in the world in infrastructure.

The bullet point on one of his notes read: 'The United States now ranks 13th globally in infrastructure quality, down from 5th place in 2002.'

Now who else besides me thinks Biden got his questions in advance?

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 16: Marquette and Jolliet

As I remarked last month in a post at Da Tech Guy, it's possible if it were not for Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, Chicago would be just another small city on Lake Michigan.

From the National Park Service:

Chicago owes its very existence to its strategic location on the Chicago-Illinois River route, one of the natural arteries leading from the St. Lawrence River system to the Mississippi. The portage at Chicago was discovered in September 1673 by Père Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet as they returned from their voyage of exploration down the Mississippi River.

Of course Marquette, a Jesuit priest, and Jolliet, the first significant European explorer born in North America, didn't create the rivers. It's believed that Jolliet was the first person to conceive of a canal connecting at the South Branch of the Chicago River, which until the late 19th century drained into Lake Michigan, and the Des Plaines River which drains into the Gulf of Mexico.

The former gap between the waters is the Chicago Portage.

Then came the canal.

After the Illinois & Michigan Canal opened in 1848, Chicago quickly became a great city. In 1860 it hosted its first major political convention, where the Republicans nominated an Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, who was an early supporter of building the I&M Canal.

The Chicago Monuments Project, Mayor Lori Lightfoot's cowardly way of reacting to the riot outside of the Grant Park's Christopher Columbus statue last summer, created the committee as "framework for marking public space that elevates new ways to memorialize Chicago's history more equitably and accurately."

The 41 monuments that "warrant attention" include a bronze relief at the DuSable Bridge memorializing Marquette and Jolliet, a plaque at the Equitable Building Plaza on the Chicago River marking the campsite of Marquette in 1674, his second journey through Chicago for the priest. Jolliet wasn't part of that expedition. And yet another plaque, pictured above, on Damen Avenue on the South Side where Marquette spent the rest of the 1674-75 winter. And finally a large bronze statue, the Jacques Marquette-Louis Jolliet Memorial, which stands at 24th Street and Marshall on the Southwest Side.

Marquette, with or without Jolliet, earns four mentions from the opaque Chicago Monuments Project. Abe Lincoln, that canal supporter--he of course achieved so much more--has five.

The Jacques Marquette-Louis Jolliet Memorial attracts the most ire from the Chicago Monuments Project committee. From their website about that statue:

This imposing representation of Marquette and Joliet [sic], with a subservient American Indian at their side, was created by Hermon Atkins McNeil, the academically trained sculptor who contributed the relief sculptures of Marquette's life to the extraordinary decorative cycle at the Marquette Building in [sic] thirty years earlier, in 1895.

"White supremacy" and "inaccurate and/or demeaning characterizations of American Indians" are among the trigger points for the committee. As for the "subservient American Indian" that is part of the memorial, as we of course know Marquette, who is portrayed on McNeil's work holding a crucifix, was a priest. Perhaps the artist envisioned the Native American as a convert to Christianity.

Marquette died in Ludington, Michigan a couple of months or so after that winter in Chicago. Native Americans later brought his bones to St. Ignace, Michigan on the Upper Peninsula, where his remains were buried. Historians haven't noted if the Indians were "subservient." When Little Marathon Pundit and I visited St. Ignace I pointed out the explorer's gravesite to her. Her response was, "Who was Father Marquette?"

Wow. When I was in elementary school and high school here in the Chicago area the journeys of Marquette and Jolliet were a big part of my education.

We've fallen far as a people.

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project's "Feedback page." Please be polite but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

UPDATE April 9:

I omitted one more Marquette memorial, a painting, Wilderness, Winter Scene by Richard Fayerweather Babcock, which for now is on display at the Legler Regional Library on the West Side.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

Tucker: Michigan AG arrested guest after appearing on this show

Michigan has a violent crime problem. But its attorney general arrested a restaurant owner after appearing on Tucker Carlson's show.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 15: The Bowman and The Spearman

The Bowman and The Spearman, two massive bronze statues that stand in Grant Park at the end of Ida B. Wells Drive in downtown Chicago, are an impressive sight. The statues, which are 17 feet tall, sit on pedestals that are 18 feet tall. Sculpted in Zagreb, Croatia, they were installed in Grant Park in 1928.

Click here to see the statues.

The sculptor was Ivan Meštrović, a Croatian artist who Encyclopaedia Britannica says was "known for his boldly cut figurative monuments and reliefs."

Indeed, The Bowman and The Spearman is bold. An unusal feature of these statues, which portray plains Indians on horseback, is that neither Native American is shown holding their weapons. Meštrović wanted people to imagine what they were holding instead.

I used to work near the location of these statues--and I would regularly hear compliments about their artistic merit. But of course Meštrović was not a Native American which is likely one of the reasons The Bowman and The Spearman are on the "hit list." Well at least for now they "warrant attention," according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot's un-transparent Chicago Mounuments Project.

Also, these pieces, in the words of the Project, might be guilty of "presenting inaccurate and/or demeaning characterizations of American Indians." On the Chicago Monuments Project page about The Bowman and The Spearman readers are told,"Impressive for their heroic scale and bristling energy, the sculptures have been criticized for their romanticized and reductive images of American Indians."

Criticized by whom?

Are they demeaning? Absolutely not. These two men are buff. Perhaps too buff, but these statues clearly designed to honor Native Americans. Inaccurate? Well, as Chicago is hundreds of miles from where the region where plains Indians once lived, I'll offer a "maybe" to that.

The work of Lightfoot's wreckers committee has been noticed in Croatia. Nina Obuljen Koržinek, that nation's Culture Minister, wants them to stay.

As they should.

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project's "Feedback page." Please be polite but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

Mark Dice on Kamala Harris laugh about the border crisis: It's Not Funny

When asked by a reporter if she would visit the southern border because of the migrant crisis there, Vice President Kamala Harris--who Mark Dice calls "President Harris," laughed.

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 14: The Republic

Some of the statues and other works of art that "warrant attention" by the secretive Chicago Monuments Project are simply baffling, unless you are woke. Of course the five Abraham Lincoln statues come to mind in that regard immediately. So does the gilded bronze statue designed by Daniel Chester French, The Republic, which, for now, stands in Jackson Park on the South Side.

Click here to see it.

The Republic, nicknamed locally as "The Golden Lady," was declared a city landmark in 2003.

Daniel Chester French has two other statues, Bull and Indian Maiden and George Washington that are "under review" by the Chicago Monuments Project. His best known work is his iconic statue of Abraham Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

The Republic is a recreation of larger version built for the 1893 World's Fair, the Columbian Exposition. the fair, which celebrated the 400th anniversary, a year late, of Columbus' first expedition, when he landed in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispanolia. That was probably "strike one" for what Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass called in his Chicago Way podcast, "Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Woke Committee on Problematic Statuary." That committee was formed by what I call "a rioters' veto" in response to last summer's riot surrounding the Columbus statue in Grant Park.

"Strike two" is what the statue represents, and what the fair represented. The World's Columbian Exposition announced to the planet that America had arrived--it was now a Great Power and Chicago, its second largest city, was a world-class metropolis. The woke left views American greatness as something to be ashamed of and to be repudiated. Read the New York Times' 1619 Project if you don't believe me. Meanwhile America is viewed in other nations as the first choice as a new home for migrants, both legal and illegal ones. If the United States is so horrible why do people want to move here?

Writing for the City Journal, John O. McGinnis, remarks about the project, "The committee provides no specific reasons for including any particular monument. Its broad principles for listing a monument include 'presenting selective, overly simplified views of history'—as if a monument can ever provide a comprehensive distillation of the past."

Jackson Park will be the site--unless ongoing lawsuits prevent it--of the Barack Obama Presidential Center. Perhaps enthusiasts for the Obama Center are troubled by the presence of The Republic. That might be our "strike three."

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project's "Feedback page." Please be polite but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

Tucker: The country you grew up in teeters on its foundation

The leftists want to destroy the America most of us love.

Monday, March 22, 2021

Mark Dice: SUPER JOE!

Joe Biden can do anything. But watch out for those stairs.

Four dead and at least 16 wounded over weekend in Chicago

Over the first weekend of spring four people were shot to death and at least 16 others were wounded, including a 10-year-old West Side boy.

Sunday, March 21, 2021

From Da Tech Guy: The leader of the American Gerontocracy trips and falls

Joe Biden falling while climbing stairs is symbol of our country. From my post at Da Tech Guy: The leader of the American Gerontocracy trips and falls.

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Matthew Sweet & John Hiatt - Divine Intervention

Here's Matthew Sweet--joined by John Hiatt--performing his "Divine Intervention."

Tucker reacts to Biden's public fall up Air Force 1 stairs

Joe Biden isn't only suffering from cognitive decline--there is a clear physical decline too.

Friday, March 19, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 13: The Chicago Lincoln

The Chicago Lincoln

If Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her secretive Chicago Monuments Project's decides to remove all 41 statues, plaques, and reliefs that "warrant attention," then Chicago's five Abraham Lincoln statues will need a new home. David Gerlach, the president of Lincoln College in Lincoln, Illinois will gladly accept them.

So far on my blog and at Da Tech Guy I've looked at two of the Lincoln statues--those links can be found at the bottom of this post.

Today I'm looking at the Chicago Lincoln, designed by Avard Fairbanks. It is a relatively new monument. The beardless Lincoln--the Great Emancipator grew his emblemic beard after the 1860 presidential election--was erected in 1956. The statue was the brainchild of Alderman John Hoellen, a Republican, who ran for mayor in 1975. It stands at Western and Lawrence avenues--quite close to Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the North Side.

As I've commented in a similar fashion in this series, if the Lincoln statues are removed what of Lincoln Avenue? Or Lincoln Square?

In his March 9 Chicago Way podcast the Chicago Tribune's sagacious columnist, John Kass, calls the Chicago Monuments Project "Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Woke Committee on Problematic Statuary."

"She should never have let it get this far," Kass says of Lightfoot, "to where Lincoln is under review in the Land of Lincoln, but she did." Kass theorizes, correctly in my opinion, that Lightfoot, a leftist, fears being outflanked politically by those who more left-wing than she is. Such in the manner--this is me thinking, not Kass--that the Chicago Teachers Union is doing in regards to the ongoing struggle to re-open all of Chicago's public schools.

Gerlach was Kass' guest for that podcast. Of Lincoln, Gerlach says, "Was he perfect? No. But in the pantheon of civil rights leaders in our country who have done things to move the needle, who has done more than Lincoln?" Gerlach has him at top.

Lincoln of course paid the ultimate price for winning the Civil War and freeing the slaves when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

"To me that it's a shame that in the state named for--monikered for Lincoln--that [removal of Lincoln statues] is being discussed," Gerlack adds.

Apologists for the Chicago Monuments Project meekly claim, "It is a discussion." Yep, only a discussion.

Don't believe them.

Those targeted monuments that are labeled by the project as "problematic," which Kass says is "the first step towards erasure."

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project "Feedback page." Please be friendly but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

Biden trips climbing stairs of Air Force One

We all trip. But not everyone is president of the United States.

President Joe Biden trips climbing the stairs to Air Force 1 pic.twitter.com/x8UD7q0a48
— The Hill (@thehill) March 19, 2021

Tucker: The left hates anyone that has a different opinion

Michael Tracey, an independent journalist who writes for Substack, explains to Tucker Carlson the struggles he encounters because of opposition from the left.

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Kerry seen not wearing a mask on commercial flight

John Kerry, the climate czar for Biden who took a private jet to Iceland in 2019 to accept an environmental award, was caught yesterday on a commercical flight not wearing a mask.

From the Tennessee Star:

John Forbes Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, while sitting in first-class, took off his mask today as he settled into his book moments before his American Airlines flight from Boston to Washington took off.

The so-called Climate Envoy was not eating, nor drinking, even though first-class passengers are often served before take-off. In its Feb. 1 press release, “American Airlines Aligns Existing Mask Requirements with US Government Mandate,” the airline’s Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said American would fully comply with President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s mask regulations.

“Our mask requirement has been and will continue to be a critical component of our comprehensive effort to protect the health and well-being of our customers and team members during the pandemic,” said Seymour. “This federal mandate will provide additional support to our crew members who are working diligently to enforce our policy and further reinforce the safety of air travel during COVID-19.”

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 12: Kinzie Mansion Plaque

Among the first European-Americans to live in Chicago was Canadian-born John Kinzie. The first recorded non-Native American to live in the city was Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, who is believed to have been born in Haiti. Kinzie purchased DuSable's land and home that sat at the mouth of the Chicago River at Lake Michigan in 1805.

Kinzie's son, John H, was a Cook County sheriff and the second village president of Chicago. In 1837 Chicago was incorporated as a city, John H. twice ran for mayor but was defeated both times.

There used to be a plaque at the site of the elder Kinzie's mansion. It is now in storage and it is one of the 41 monuments that "warrant attention" according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Chicago Monuments Project, a group formed after the summer riot in Grant Park at the Christopher Columbus statue. That moment, along with two other Columbus statues, are also in storage.

The Kinzie plaque reads:

Kinzie Mansion. Near this site stood Kinzie Mansion, 1784-1832, Home of Pointe Du Saible [sic], Le Mai, and John Kinzie. Chicago's "First Civilian" here was born, in 1805, the city's first white child, Ellen Marion Kinzie.- Erected by Chicago's Charter Jubilee - Authenticated by Chicago Historical Society - 1937.

This is what the Chicago Monuments Project says about the mothballed plaque:

The establishment of "whiteness" as a key component in the founding history of Chicago is expressed explicitly in the inscription of this plaque, commemorating one of the city's early non-native settlers, John Kinzie: The establishment of "whiteness" as a key component in the founding history of Chicago is expressed explicitly in the inscription of this plaque, commemorating one of the city's early non-native settlers, John Kinzie.

Let's play what journalist Sheryl Attkison in her book Slanted calls "the substitution game." Usually that means replacing the name "Trump" with Obama or Clinton in a news story she sees as evidence of media bias. If there was a plaque that memorialized the first Asian, Hispanic, or African-American child there likely wouldn't be a problem with it for the secretive Chicago Monuments Project. That's not to say racism among was not widespread for much of Chicago's history. It certainly was. There is still racism in Chicago today--but thankfully much less of it.

DuSable was wrongly overlooked for decades in Chicago. But in 1934 a South Side high school was named for him. Downtown the DuSable Bridge, formerly known as the Michigan Avenue Bridge, which has several reliefs that are targeted by the Chicago Monuments Project. Near the bridge you'll find the DuSable bust. And also on the South Side you'll find the DuSable Museum of African American History in Washington Park.

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project "Feedback page." Please be friendly but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

Gutfeld on cancel culture targeting TV show hosts

On some show that I had never heard of, The Talk, one of the hosts, Sheryl Underwood, called Sharon Osbourne a racist apparently because she defended her friend, Piers Morgan, from charges of racism. That's how far society has sunk. That was one on-air, Osbourne is a host on the same program.

Just being accused of racism makes someone guilty.

Greg Gutfeld discusses that and the racism charges surrounding Chris Harrison, formerly of The Bachelor.

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Democracy dies in darkness: Washington Post admits Trump never said "find the fraud" in Georgia

Yes, as the Washington Post's slogan goes, "Democracy dies in darkness." But the Post has been caught spreading disinformation.

From the New York Post:

The Washington Post admitted in a correction that it had “misquoted” former President Donald Trump telling Georgia’s top elections investigator “to find the fraud,” in December.

The correction ran atop an online version of the updated original story that had quoted an anonymous source about a phone call Trump made to Georgia’s top elections investigation official shortly before Christmas.

“Correction: Two months after publication of this story, the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of President Donald Trump’s December phone call with the state’s top elections investigator. The recording revealed that The Post misquoted Trump’s comments on the call, based on information provided by a source,” the correction published Thursday began.

“Trump did not tell the investigator to ‘find the fraud’ or say she would be ‘a national hero’ if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find ‘dishonesty’ there. He also told her that she had ‘the most important job in the country right now.'”

Are Post reporters simply making things up to fit their narrative?

Ingraham: Democrats using pandemic destroy free market system

"Never let a crisis go to waste."

Monday, March 15, 2021

Mark Dice: Brian Stelter Mentions the Elephant in the Room

Oh, exactly who watches Brian Stelter?

5 killed and at least 34 others wounded in Chicago over weekend

Sadly warmer weather brings more violence. Over the weekend in Chicago five people were shot to death and at least 34 others were wounded. Among those were two people shot to death and at least 13 others that were wounded in a mass shooting on the South Side early Sunday morning.

There is a GoFundMe page for one of the victims of that mass shooting, Rayneesha Dotson. Click here to visit that page.

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Two dead and 13 wounded in Chicago mass shooting

In Chicago liberals are fretting over statues. Meanwhile on the South Side there is carnage.

From CBS Chicago:

At least two people are dead and at least 13 others are injured after a mass shooting near Chicago’s West Woodlawn neighborhood.

The shooting took place at a party on South Chicago Avenue at South Side Think Tank around 4:40 a.m. The building houses a make-shift tow company and auto repair business, but there was a bar set up, police said.

JUST IN: CPD spokesman confirms 2 dead, up to 15 shot during mass shooting in Park Manor neighborhood early this morning.
Mass shooting occurred just before 5 a.m. on S. South Chicago Ave. at South Side Think Tank. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/kSB0x1QPzH
— Meredith Barack (@MeredithBarack) March 14, 2021
The Chicago Fire Department says two people were dead when they arrived on scene, and they transported seven other victims to local hospitals.

Fire officials say others may have also driven themselves to hospitals, adding to the number of victims.
Update March 15:

There is a GoFundMe page for one of the victims of that mass shooting, Rayneesha Dotson. Click here to visit that page.

From Da Tech Guy: High inflation will make Illinois’ pension crisis less severe

Bidenflation may have some benefits. From my post at Da Tech Guy: High inflation will make Illinois’ pension crisis less severe.

Saturday, March 13, 2021

Horslips - Dearg Doom

Arguably the first Celtic rock band was Horslips.

With St. Patrick's Day coming next week I thought it would be an ideal time for their song "Dearg Doom."

Irish Gaelic for "Red Destroyer" is Dearg Doom, it refers to the mythological warrior Cu Chulainn. And "Dearg Doom" is a song from the Horslips concept album The Táin.

Biden press secretary can't answer if illegal immigrants that test positive and released actually quarantine

I'm being forced here in Illinois to wear a mask because of the new Black Death, COVID-19. But it seems illegal aliens who enter the nation at the southern border are allowed in and they don't quarantine themselves.

Friday, March 12, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 11: Robert Cavelier de La Salle

Among the reasons the secretive Chicago Monument Project has targeted some statues and other memorials is that they are "promoting narratives of white supremacy."

As far as I can gather that's only reason why the bronze statue in Lincoln Park of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who led the first European expedition to travel the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, is one of those monuments that "warrant attention."

Click here to see the La Salle statue, the work was designed by Belgian sculptor Jacques de Lalaing.

As with most 17th century explorers La Salle had some conflicts with Native Americans, but as far as I know the Frenchman has never been accused of genocide.

After reaching the Gulf of Mexico in 1682 La Salle claimed the Mississippi River basin for France, calling it Louisiana. He passed by Chicago in an earlier voyage on Lake Michigan. But rather than traveling thru the Chicago Portage to reach the Mississippi basin, La Salle and his men utilized the St. Joseph River, which drains into Lake Michigan in southwestern Michigan, then portaged in northern Indiana to the Kankakee River. That expedition ended where Peoria now stands.

LaSalle Street, which is Chicago's answer to New York's Wall Street, is named for the explorer. So is LaSalle County and the town of LaSalle, which are about 90 miles southwest of Chicago. Nearby is Illinois' most-visited state park, Starved Rock. On his return trip from his Mississippi River journey La Salle established a fort there.

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project "Feedback page." Please be friendly but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Update March 26:

Also on Lightfoot's hit list is a La Salle plaque on the DuSable Bridge over the Chcago River. Somehow I missed that one.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

Mark Dice: Old Joe Stays Up Past His Bedtime

Joe Biden's first prime time speech, which proves he can still, with a struggle, read a teleprompter, was filled with half-truths and lies.

The three-and-counting vaccines were the result of Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed. Somehow Biden left that information out of his address.

Mark Dice has more.

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Tucker responds to the New York Times

Don't believe the left-wing media's outrage over Tucker Carlson's reporting on Taylor Lorenz.

She is not a victim--although being a victim in Woke America empowers them.

Yep, I meant that.

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part Ten: Illinois Centennial Monument

Illinois bicentennial flag on

bottom

Three years ago Illinois marked its bicentennial. Did you know that? I'm not surprised if you didn't. In 2018 there wasn't much to celebrate. Illinois was well into its streak of annual population losses, one that continues to this very moment. And the Prairie State--thanks to the malfeasance of Boss Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), the speaker of the state House for all but two years from 1983 until two months ago--has been bankrupt-in-all-but name for more than a decade.

There is no Illinois Bicentennial Monument. But in Chicago's Logan Square Park stands the Illinois Centennial Monument, a Doric Greek column on a base with reliefs of farming, industry, Roman gods, explorers, and Native Americans. It's likely that those last two is why the un-transparent Chicago Monuments Project as one of the public artworks, in their words, "promote incomplete, distorted, or harmful views of history."

Click here to see the monument.

In 1918 Illinois had much to be proud of. One-hundred years earlier much of that state, particulary the northern half, was wilderness. At the time of the Illinois centennial the Land of Lincoln was one of America's most-populous states and it was still in the midst of decennial double-digit increases in population growth. It was a leader in manufacturing and agriculture and Chicago, which wasn't incorporated until 1833, was one of the largest cities in the world.

The monument was designed by Henry Bacon, whose greatest work is the Lincon Memorial in Washington. The reliefs were carved by a woman, Evelyn Longman. Diversity advocates plese take note!

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project "Feedback page." Please be polite but firm in your comments.

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Earlier posts:

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy