Roy Wood and Jools Holland: Blackberry Way

If you live in Great Britain and you are, let's say, of the autumnal age, then you know the Move, which was led by Roy Wood, as one of the great British bands of the 1960s. But they never caught on in the United States, they only had one short American tour and back then if you didn't tour here it was a challenge to get radio airplay. And if you didn't get airplay no one knew about your music.

But late in 1970 Jeff Lynne joined the Move, the band morphed into Electric Light Orchestra, which became an international phenomenon. Wood left ELO in 1972, which left Lynne as the creative force.

I thought Wood was dead, but he appeared last week on Jools' Holland's annual BBC New Year's Eve show, Hootenanny.

Watch as Wood and Holland's orchestra knock out a killer version of the Move's only number one British single, "Blackberry Way."



Related post:

The Move: Night of Fear

Chicago Facebook video thugs denied bail

Neighborhood where the attacks
took place

The four Chiraq thugs charged with hate crimes and other illegal cruel acts that were shown live on Facebook were denied bail by a Cook County Circuit Court judge Friday afternoon.

The victim, a young white man with special needs, was allegedly attacked by four young blacks.

From ABC Chicago:

Prosecutors said the alleged actions began under the guise of a sleepover with one of the suspects, Jordan Hill, on New Year's Eve. His family became concerned when they lost contact two days later. According to prosecutors, Hill beat the victim in a van and brought him to an apartment on Chicago's West Side when the torment continued.

"A male shoves the victim's face into a toilet bowl and the victim is told to drink toilet water. The victim is punched in the head. The victim is screaming 'no' in fear when the male walks over to him with a knife and states, 'Should I shank his a**?' Also heard on the video multiple times is a male voice threatening to kill the victim," said Asst. State's Attorney Erin Antonietti.

Police said his beating and torture went on for hours. The disturbing video, which was viewed by people across the country, has been removed from Facebook.

"A male is seen cutting the victim's hair with a knife, and the victim's head is cut with blood coming from the wound. A female punches the victim and is laughing. A male's foot is on the victim's head. A male pulls the cord around the victim's neck, and holds him up while the victim is groaning in pain," Antonietti said.

As I reported earlier this week, the victim was forced to say "Fuck white people" and "Fuck Donald Trump."

Likely three of the alleged attackers are products of Chicago's failed public school system. On Thursday, the day before Trump is inaugurated president, the Chicago Teachers Union will take part in a National Day of Resistance. Teachers should teach--not indoctrinate.

(Video) Congress certifies Trump win

AP declared Donald Trump the winner of the president election in the early morning hours of the day after Election Day. Last month the presidential electors voted Trump the winner. Today Congress certified the results.

Man, I just love hearing that Trump defeated Hillary Clinton again and again.

Of course the Democrats keep complaining.

(Video) Ted Cruz: Term limits an effective way to 'drain the swamp'

While on Hannity last night Ted Cruz said that an effective way to "drain the swamp" would be to institute term limits for members of Congress.

Do we really need eternal senators such as Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC)?

(Video) Krauthammer: Obama sees his reputation at stake

Lame duck President Barack Obama sees his reputation, a tattered one in my opinion, at stake, which is why he is already defending his well, accomplishments, such as the unpopular ObamaCare law.

Obama will be the first president since Woodrow Wilson not to leave Washington after his term expired. Wilson, however, was a sick man who died in DC three years later. I see ex-president Obama hanging around the capital city for the next few years and behaving like a mean poodle who is jealous that his owner has a new pet.

With Obama, his presidency was always about him.

Chicago Tribune pushes racist Facebook hate crime to page 6

Media bias is alive and well in Chicago. A top news story is the vicious attack allegedly by four young blacks against a young white man on Chicago's West Side is top fare on Fox News, conservative talk radio, but in the Chicago Tribune Thursday's print edition the story was buried on page six of section one. Yep, page six.

The victim, a special needs person was beaten, slashed, bound and gagged, forced to drink toilet water, and was compelled to say "Fuck Donald Trump" and "Fuck white people."

Page six. This sad story belongs on the front page.

Here is more proof that real diversity is needed in newsrooms. Not just racial diversity, but newspapers such as the Tribune need to include reporters who didn't go to the same elite colleges, who regularly attend worship services, and who don't vote straight Democratic each general election.

The alleged attackers have been charge with kidnapping, hate crimes, and other offenses.

Crony capitalism update: Sears Holdings closing 150 stores, selling Craftsman

Six years ago Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrat, signed a tax break deal to prevent Hoffman Estates' based Sears Holdings, which owns Kmart and of course Sears, from leaving the state. Earlier that year Quinn signed into law a massive income tax hike, a so-called temporary one that was not made permanent only because Republican Bruce Rauner defeated him in 2014.

Where was my tax break?

Almost immediately after Quinn signed the crony capitalism tax break for Sears Holdings, they closed a bunch of stores. And they closed some more outlets in 2015 and last year too.

Yesterday Sears Holdings announced it is closing 150 more stores, including two in Illinois.

This morning Sears Holdings--which, by the way is struggling, did you know that?--announced it was selling its prestigious Craftsman tool line.

Heckuva job, Quinn, heckuva job.

Also five years ago, Quinn handed out tax breaks to Mitsubishi Motors. In 2015 its Illinois plant, its only one in the United States, closed.

Reagan lifeguard statue stalled

Author outside Dixon

Yes, Dixon has two Reagan statues already. But it needs this third one, if only to counteract the many expected Illinois temples to Dear Leader Obama once he leaves office.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Three years ago, Ronald Reagan enthusiasts in his boyhood hometown of Dixon, Ill., started a drive to place a statue depicting the former president as a lifeguard in the park where he held that job for seven summers.

Then the man leading the effort, Dixon Mayor Jim Burke, died in February 2016, and the campaign for the lifeguard statue stalled. That's where it has remained.

"He was our big gun," John Weitzel, a supporter of the statue idea and lifelong Dixon resident, said of Burke. "It's a great idea and a wonderful plan that just went off into limbo and nobody would pick up the baton. It's a shame."

Burke started the statue drive in 2013, a year before he announced he would not seek re-election to a fifth term. He had raised about $7,000 for a tentative design of what was estimated to be a $200,000 privately funded project to create and erect the statue along the banks of the Rock River north of town.

Hate crime: Special needs white man tortured on video in Chiraq

East Garfield Park

Had the victim been a black man, lame duck President Barack Obama's politicized Justice Department would have sent a dozen lawyers to Chicago by now.

But the victim is a white man, with special needs--and the perpetrators are black. But that of course doesn't mean he suffers any less.

Nothing to see here, liberals will say, move along.

From Fox Chicago:

Chicago investigators are questioning four African-Americans after a Facebook Live video shows a group of people torturing a white mentally disabled man while someone yelled "F*** Trump!" and "F*** white people!"

Chicago police were made aware of the video Tuesday afternoon. A young African American woman streamed the video live on Facebook showing at least four people holding the young white man hostage.

More...

Throughout the video, the victim is repeatedly kicked and hit, his scalp is cut, all while he is tied up with his mouth taped shut.

At one point, the victim is held at knife point and told to curse President-elect Donald Trump. The group also forces the victim to drink water from a toilet.

The atrocities occurred in the hellhole called East Garfield Park, which I visited about a year ago in one of my urban exploration trips. It is one of Chiraq's most violent neighborhoods--and there is stiff competition there.

The four alleged torturers are in police custody.

UPDATE 1pm CST:

From ABC Chicago:

Four people were accused Thursday of committing a hate crime, in connection with the apparent torture of an 18-year-old man with special needs that was streamed live on Facebook. They each face several other charges.

Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville; Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago; Brittany Covington, 18, of Chicago; and Tanishia Covington, 24, of Chicago were each charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary. Hill was also charged with robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

So far there is no statement from President Barack Obama about this hateful torture spree that happened in his hometown. Next week the lame duck will give his farewell address in Chicago.

Racial animosity is at its highest level, in my opinion, since the early 1970s. Obama owns it. His embrace of radical groups such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter fueled the fire. His collectivist style of ruling--dividing people into groups and subgroups, so he can be their savior--plays a role in the rise of racial hate. The lame duck quickly inserted himself into the Trayvon Martin shooting and the Ferguson, Missouri unrest.

Why so silent, Obama? Because the victim is white and the alleged attackers are black?

I just visited the White House web site. There is a statement on the official delegation that will be sent to Ghana for the inauguration of Nana Akufo-Addo. There is nothing on the attack and kidnapping of the Chicago special needs man as of this hour.

Related post:

(Photos) Abandoned homes in Chicago's violent East Garfield Park neighborhood

(Video) Controversy over Bears Ears National Monument designation

Utah's attorney general vows to fight the lame duck move by Barack Obama that blocks development on over 1.3 million acres of land in southeastern Utah.

If it was such a great idea, Mr. Lame Duck, why wait until the last month of your presidency?

Related post:

Four Corners Furtherance: The controversial Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument