The Biden economy has not been good for the work force at the place I’ve been working at for 6 plus years.
During the Trump years we were booming, three warehouses at full tilt with a huge workforce including temps that we regularly recruited full time employees from. Since the dawn of the Biden years we had, the shrinking then disappearing peak season, followed by the closing of two of our warehouses, we had the laying off and buying out of a bunch of management and salary people, then we had the elimination of our 2nd shift and the buying out of hourly workers.
Yesterday just before lunch hour there was a meeting and we were told that because there is so little work at this time my shift (Sun-Wed 7-5:30) is going to have Wednesday off unpaid, although if we wish to use a vacation day. and the Monday – Friday shift is leaving 2 hours early the rest of the week.
We are told this is only for this week but they can’t promise it won’t happen again.
Now oddly enough I had planned to take the entire week off starting today because of this event of 36 years ago today:
April 9th 1988
and the beginning of PINTASTIC NE 2024 on Thursday (and it amazes me that I’m only now getting to mention it on the blog as it’s only 2 days away!) but as DaWife couldn’t get today off I decided to give it a miss. Now with the prospect of being short 25% of a week’s pay and taxes due I’ll burn the vacation day after all.
As you might guess yesterday’s announcement caused a lot of buzz but as English is the 2nd or 3rd language to Spanish & French at my place I didn’t hear most of it but there is a fellow there who speaks English that I had a chance to talk to a bit. He’s the oldest worker at the place 74 years old, naturalized citizen, used to be a teacher in the Boston schools. A Haitian gentleman who is as socialist as they come and who expresses the opinion that Haiti would be better off with China’s influence than the US in the country.
We were working the same area and expressed dismay at the situation. I commented on this being one of the costs of a stolen election and this black Haitian socialist said this:
“I don’t know if I’m going to vote this year, but if I do vote it will be for Donald Trump.”
If we’ve reached the point we’re the best case scenario for the Democrats in the Biden economy is black socialists from Massachusetts staying home then this election might be really something.
One of the reasons why I enjoy not having a cell phone is the fact that it is in fact a personal computer and if lost or stolen means your entire life is out there for people to see.
This was amply demonstrated in Ireland when a group of Antifa had an encounter with people protesting in Ireland. The Antifa types fared poorly in the encounter which in itself is all to the good but the real store was what happened next.
Apparently some left their cell phones were left behind in the scuffle and said phones were unlocked. The protesters decided to check them out to erase any images of them but instead found a treasure trove of data:
On one phone, which seems to belong to a mainstream journalist, would appear to show a concerning level of cooperation between various media sources, NGO workers, and prominent antifa operatives in both Ireland and the UK
Our sources explained, and this appears to be corroborated by messages on the phone, that the antifa group had planned to oppose an anti-immigration protest in the city centre. They ultimately went to Coolock as they thought there would only be women and children there
The videos of the phone’s content, widely circulating on social media, seem possibly to hold a vast quantity of insider info on the Far Left in Ireland
Now these are early reports and we don’t know the extent of this data, but if these reports are accurate it could be huge, particularly if there is any sign of international coordination here.
Chicago has a nasty mess on its hands with Brandon Johnson as mayor.
Crime rates remain high compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
It’s common for big city mayors to claim that crime is declining, but they usually look back only a year for comparison numbers and then declare, “You see!” However, in March, the murder total in Chicago exceeded the killings in March of last year–by 28 percent.
Johnson suffered a major political loss last month. His Bring Chicago Home referendum, which would have raised the real estate on high-end property transactions, was defeated. Funds from that tax hike would have been used to battle homelessness, although Johnson and other key supporters of BCH provided no details on how that money would be spent. Supporters of BCH, utilizing a class warfare tactics, dubbed it a “mansion tax.”
Last week, to mark the anniversary of his narrow victory over moderate Democrat Paul Vallas, Johnson, a progressive Democrat who is a former Chicago Teachers Union organizer, granted two exclusive interviews, both with leftist news sources, Block Club Chicago and the Triibe.
As for the former, Johnson queried reporter Quinn Myers, “Name one thing that I said I was gonna do that I haven’t done. You won’t be able to.”
Johnson sees himself as a “movement politician,” and this political species tends to be fond of using hyperbole. Not surprisingly, the mayor used a troubling verb, “assassinate,” when he discussed his movement in the Block Club interview.
“That’s why they worked hard to disrupt it and destroy it, and have gone as far to assassinate it,” Johnson told Myers. “And so whether it’s literally or figuratively, the work to assassinate character or to assassinate our movement, we’re not going to allow that type of fear to disrupt what ultimately the people of Chicago wanted. And that’s why they voted for me.”
That’s not correct. There are many opinions on why Johnson won. For certain, his former employer and his chief financial backer, the far-left Chicago Teachers Union, outhustled the old-school campaign of Vallas. In my opinion, Chicagoans just wanted a less acidic version of his unpopular predecessor, Lori Lightfoot. So, voters chose the Lightfoot-esque candidate–but without the venomous fangs.
Let’s move on to the second interview, with the Triibe, which was conducted by Tonia Hill.
Wikipedia describes the Triibe as “an African-American online news and digital media company based in Chicago, Illinois.” Until last week I hadn’t heard of it.
Johnson let loose a missile with Hill. “Who expected me to defeat white supremacy in one year?” the mayor said. “There were individuals who did not know the full value of what I brought to the mayor’s office, and there were forces working to disrupt that.”
Whooah.
Johnson wasn’t elected to defeat white supremacy. Voters chose him to run America’s third-largest city, and his primary duty as mayor is to protect its residents–not to peddle far-left talking points.
This is not the first time Johnson has used the racism canard as mayor. He has not handled the migrant crisis well. In response to well-earned criticism of his response to the arrival of arrivals in Chicago, Johnson counter attacked. “Everyone knows that the right-wing extremism in this country has targeted democratically-run cities,” the mayor said. “It is abysmal, and it is an affront for everything that is good about this country for the extremism in this country to use people as political tools to settle political scores for something that happened over 400 years ago.”
Leftist Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson pushes ridiculous lies about supposed "far-right extremists."
Johnson concluded that Republicans are “still mad that a black man is free in this country.”
No, they are not.
The media in Chicago leans left as it does just about every place else in America. But Johnson expects hero worship from reporters, not objective criticism. Consequently, Johnson’s relationship with Chicago’s mainstream media has been rocky, because newspaper and television reporters have been mildly critical of him.
They need to be tougher. A good place for journalists to start is to ask Johnson what he meant when he said, “Who expected me to defeat white supremacy in one year?” In short journos–do your job.
Business leaders, and by the way, not all of them are white, dislike “us versus them” rhetoric. Because they are the “them,” the perceived enemy. But these “enemies” are the job providers. Corporate Chicago largely opposed Bring Home Chicago. After its defeat, Johnson called the opponents of the referendum “wicked.”
Chicago needs as many businesses as it can get. Downtown Chicago’s office vacancy rate is a record 25.1 percent. The downtown retail vacancy rate is 30 percent. Both are records. Downtown is the financial engine that powers Chicago. Kill it, and the city dies. The Detroit dystopia is not a farfetched future for Chicago.
While they had obvious weaknesses in their combined 30 years as mayor, Lightfoot’s predecessors, Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel, were tremendous salespeople for Chicago. Lightfoot, and even more so Johnson, not so much.
Cardinal Lamberto:Would you like, to make your confession? Michael Corleone:[laughs]Your Eminence, I’m uh – I’m uh — it’s been so long, I wouldn’t – wouldn’t – wouldn’t know where to uh, it’s been thirty years, I’d – I’d – I’d use up too much of your time, I think. Cardinal Lamberto: I always have time to save souls. Michael Corleone:Well, I’m — I’m beyond redemption. Cardinal Lamberto: [speaking in Italian to the priest looking after Dom Tommasino] Give us a couple of minutes alone please – thanks… [Turning back to Michael once they leave in English] I hear the confessions of my young priests here. Sometimes the desire to confess is overwhelming. And we must seize the moment.
Michael Corleone:What is the point of confessing, if I don’t repent? Cardinal Lamberto: I hear you are a practical man. What have you got to lose, eh?
The Godfather Part 3 1990
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday the premier time for repentance. Yesterday I led with a quote from Godfather 2 and note that like Michael Corleone trying to convince Hyman Roth that there was nothing to fear the Devil tries to convince us that our soul is not in danger or in need of confession.
But if we are far along the path of sin there is another tack that is used, the idea that we are beyond redemption.
This is actually the standard MO for the enemy, first to minimize sin when it is happening and then to maximize it to keep you from confession.
For ten days now I’ve been arguing for doing the Divine Mercy chaplet and praying the novena and yesterday I argued for going to a Divine Mercy event today and getting confession and absolution. If none of those argument have flown with you I want to give you one final one, the same one that Cardinal Lamberto gave to Michael Corleone: What have you got to lose?
Closing thought; Here is the scene of Michael confession. Note how it ends:
The Cardinal notes that
Michael’s sins are terrible
It’s just that he suffers for them
Michael won’t change because he [Michael] doesn’t believe he can be redeemed.
YET HE ABSOLVES HIM ANYWAYS.
Despite it all he gives Michael Corleone the clean slate and the CHANCE to choose another path. The Cardinal does his part to save Michael’s soul and give him a fresh start.. It’s on Michael to decide what to do with it.
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