Archive for June, 2024

Chicago’s Summer of Misery: Criminals emboldened over cop shortages, no-cash bail, and a Soros prosecutor

Posted: June 16, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, culture, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Chicago, not surprisingly, is coming apart at the seams. 

While recently propped up a bit by COVID relief money, which will run out next year, Chicago, because of massive unfunded pension liabilities, is essentially bankrupt. Its streets and roads are in terrible shape. Riding on Chicago’s buses, and even more so its el trains, can be trip into a scene from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. The George Floyd riots of 2020 chased out major retailers on North Michigan Avenue, and fear of crime has solidified the work-at-home movement, keeping office workers, and their wallets, out of Chicago’s central business district, the Loop.

Last year, Chicagoans voted in a defund-the-police advocate, Brandon Johnson, as mayor. In 2020, while a county commissioner–as well as working as an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union–Johnson said of the defund movement, “I don’t look at it as a slogan,” he said. “It’s an actual real political goal.” 

At a forum the month before the runoff election, which Johnson of course won, he answered back to that statement with this lie, “I said it was a political goal, I never said it was mine.”

Chicago used to be a hard-knuckle newspaper town. The Front Page, a 1928 play that inspired two movies of the same name, was written by two Chicago newspaper reporters. Chicago has devolved from that to subservience. Led by its worst journalist, PBS Chicago’s Heather Cherone, the local media barely pressed Johnson on his hypocrisy over the defund movement.

Fourteen months into Johnson’s term, with the exception of murder, the crime rate continues to rise in Chicago. To be fair, not everything is Johnson’s fault. Until December, Chicago is plagued with a George Soros-so-called prosecutor, Kim Foxx. And last fall, Illinois’ SAFE-T Act, which abolishes cash bail, went into effect. 

Chicago has about 11,000 police officers, and Johnson’s handpicked police chief, Larry Snelling, says the CPD is short 2,000 cops. 

It’s a glorious new era for criminals. They are emboldened because they don’t fear getting caught, and if they are arrested, Chicago’s criminals have a decent chance of not getting punished.

As I have here before, I am going to list some recent headlines from the essential CWB Chicago:

Yes, a man was shot near the home of the man who signed SAFE-T Act into law. And let me reiterate, these are recent CWB Chicago stories, the oldest is from three days ago. And notice the anarchic nature, when digested together, of these crimes.

Yes, lawbreakers are emboldened in Chicago. A look at this X video from 16th & 17th District Chicago Police Scanner. Police were dispatched to break up a raucous party. Just a few years ago such a police call would be termed “routine.” Look at how these beasts, many recording the mayhem, react. One law enforcement officer is struck in the head while some women twerk, as if they are in a porn video, in response.

On the upside, the jackals are multi-racial. Even as it’s falling apart, Chicago is coming together.

Chicago’s 16th Police District, on the Northwest Side, was considered a safe place to live. No place is safe in Chicago. On a personal note, my daughter and one of my sisters live within the district’s boundaries.

Also from 16th & 17th District Chicago Police Scanner, is this disturbing sign outside the entrance of the 16th Police District station, which because only one cop is working the desk there, advises crime victims to drive to another police station if they want faster service.

Citywide, the complaints from residents calling 911 and having to wait hours for police to respond are piling up.

In two months, the Democratic National Convention will convene in Chicago. Thousands of protesters rioters are expected to descend upon the city.

And the Chicago Police Department, because of staff shortages, cannot even handle a normal weekend.

Chicago’s Summer of Misery is here.

As of this writing, 3:45pm CDT Sunday June 16, there have been 38 people who have been shot in Chicago. Six of them, including a 13-year-old boy, are dead.

UPDATE June 17:

Last weekend ended up being an extremely violent one. The final shooting total, for now, for last weekend in Chicago was 71 people shot and nine killed. There were two mass shootings early Monday morning an hour apart from each other.

Here is coverage of one of the Monday mass shootings.

Welcome to Detroit.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Ukraine: Not My Call, Not Yours Either

Posted: June 15, 2024 by datechguy in in Ukraine, war
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Aboard a Chesapeake Bay steamer, not long after his surrender, the general [Joe Johnston] heard a fellow passenger insisting that the South had been “conquered but not subdued.” Asked in what command he had served, the bellicose young man — one of those stalwarts later classified as “invisible in war and invincible in peace” — replied that, unfortunately, circumstances had made it impossible for him to be in the army. “Well, sir, I was,” Johnston told him. “You may not be subdued, but I am.


― Shelby Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 3: Red River to Appomattox

I usually don’t engage all that much on twitter anymore as so few people know how to have a spirited argument in a respectful way but once in a while I see something that jumps out at me. Such a thing happened today when someone was going over Putin and his faults.

Now as a person who knows his history and Putin’s KGB background you didn’t have to sell me on his faults even before the war on Ukraine began. It also seemed clear to me with the offensive near Kiev that Putin had more in mind that the Donbas region when he got started and fears of his forces driving beyond the borders were legitimate and even if you thought the threat of such a thing was not legitimate if you are a resident of Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia your fear of such a possibility is certainly legit as the three occupations of those countries by Communist Russia, then Nazi Germany then Communist Russia again are still in living memory.

As we all know the Ukrainians managed to stop the push of Kiev but the Russians had success in the Donbas region likely with the help of the large Russian population there left over from the days that they were part of the both the Soviet & Russian empires, Ukrainian counterattacks which seemed promising faded and the front lines have been fairly static for a bit with the Russians holding Donbas and neither side at the moment getting clear advantages.

The Russians have the advantages of numbers and a much larger population to draw from, the Ukrainians have the advantage of fighting on home turf and a large amount of foreign aid that even subtracting what is being used as graft makes a big difference, but a war of attrition by its very nature favors the side with the larger population plus Russia has the advantage of huge domestic energy supplies and a strong market for such energy if they wish to export to India etc.

Still this is bleeding Putin and thus you have seen some peace offers coming from Russia and the Ukrainians have to this point dismissed them. This is their right. They are the ones who are fighting this war, doing the bleeding and dying and living with all the risks of war which when it affects water and electrical supplies can quickly turn a 21st century lifestyle into a 17th or 18th century lifestyle.

Now all of the rest of us have a right to an opinion on what Ukraine should do, but it seems to me that being 10,000 miles away from the front lines and only risking tax dollars it’s not my place to tell people to go and fight and die. Nor is it the place of others to demand they fight to the last nor degrade those who might decide it’s not worth the cost anymore. The idea that Putin is a bad man and working for his own motives and that Ukraine is better off making a peace deal of some kind is not mutually exclusive.

Now of course the ideal would be Putin going back where he started from but it seems to be that even with weapons and supplies from the west the Ukrainians have neither the manpower nor the skill to force the Russians out of the areas they hold. Furthermore there is always the threat of Russia using tactical nukes if they feel the situation gets out of hand. The genie’s that would let out of bottles would not bode well for anyone.

Still in the end it’s their decision. If they feel it’s worth the hardships of war for months or even years to retake the parts of the country the Russians hold, I respect that. It’s their call not mine. There is a nobility in such a call whatever the result and no matter how it works out nobody should think less of them for doing so. Hey, they might think that Putin will reach the point of exhaustion and withdraw on terms favorable to Ukraine, if they can pull that off they deserve congratulations and admiration.

On the other hand if they eventually decide otherwise, that their people just can’t bear the costs of war anymore I’m certainly not going to critique them as Putin apologists or being on the other side or traitors for reaching the point of war exhaustion that I think a lot of the people online pushing them to keep fighting would have hit long ago. It’s very each to make that call from the safety of a keyboard far away in a comfortable home where your food and electricity supply is not in doubt. If they make a deal, they make a deal and it’s their deal to make.

What would I do? That’s a post for another day.

Hamas, Israel and Arabs And Dirty Little Secrets

Posted: June 14, 2024 by datechguy in middle east
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Watching the world push the idea that saving the Israel hostages was a massacre makes an interesting contradiction.

Israel has taken every possible step to both save the lives of the hostages taken by Hamas and held by Hamas sympathizers or members because Israel values the lives of their citizens and for reasons that I frankly can’t understand also values the lives of non-combatants who want them dead.

Personally I question the “non-combatant” status here but I digress…

Hamas and the Arab world sees it quite differently.

We know Hamas loves 200 dead in rescuing hostages because they’re pawns in their war against Israel & every one of their people killed who are non-combatants hurts Israel diplomatically and the Arab world which also hates Israel to the max agrees.

There is however another dirty secret here concerning the rest of the Arab world. They love seeing those 200 dead Palestinians no matter what their combatant status not just because it hurts the Jews but I submit the love it as well because they hate the Palestinians only slightly less than they hate Jews.

Frankly I think it’s unfair to the Palestinians the way the other Arabs hate them. It’s as if they blame them for losing to Israel (face culture you know) & that it reflects on them. I suspect that is why the Arabs who were previously “Jordanians” and “Egyptians” became “Palestinians”. It allowed them to separate themselves from their defeat by the Jews before and after the formation of Israel.

Oh and there is one more dirty little secret, if Israel & every single Jewish person in it disappeared tomorrow the various Arabs groups in the area would celebrate for about 15 minutes before getting going with slaughtering each other. The Jews are a convenient distraction from that.

Now I refer to these things as “dirty little secrets” although in fairness:

  1. It’s not really a secret to anyone who has even a basic knowledge of the area and its history.
  2. Given what we’ve seen in Syria, Lebanon and even the West Bank and Gaza while hating Jews might distract Arabs from killing each other, it’s not a highly successful distraction.

Here’s what is wrong with the ideology of transgenderism

Posted: June 13, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Transgenderism is a denial of reality.  It is a rejection of some of the most fundamental scientific truths.  The vast majority of species on this planet are divided into to two biological sexes.  Unlike some species, the physical differences between male and female human beings are quite remarkable.  These differences extend all the way down to the genetic level. 

The political left believes that simply denying fundamental truths can make them untrue.  They are very much like small children because they still believe that pretending can over rule reality.  That is exactly what is taking place when someone identifies as the opposite biological sex.

I believe every individual has the right to identify as the opposite sex if they chose , however, no one has the right to force others to participate in anyone else’s delusions.   Forcing others to use someone’s referred pronouns violates the freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion of everyone.  The Biden Regime issued an executive order forcing all employees in the US to use preferred pronouns, in direct violation of the First Amendment.

The transgender ideology is very much a religion.  It is a system of beliefs that rely on faith rather than scientific principals.  The Biden regime’s executive order enshrines transgenderism as the official religion of the United States, in direct violation of the Establishment of Religion Clause of the First Amendment.

Individuals who believe they are trapped in the body of the opposite sex suffer from a mental illness called gender dysphoria.  Rather than treating this mental illness, healthy bodies are mutilated surgically, in direct violation of the Hippocratic Oath. Doctors prescribe hormones and puberty blockers in what is known as ‘gender affirming care.’  This does tremendous damage to the bodies of those subjected to it, very much like chemical warfare.

It is absolutely despicable that children are subjected to surgical mutilation, and all other aspects of gender affirming care.  There is an epidemic of gender confusion among children, caused by nonstop indoctrination at all levels of our schools.  It is unconscionable that these confused children are then subjected to life destroying gender affirming care.

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