In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day. Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up.
What actually happened on the subway today tweeted at exactly the same time:
A woman was burned alive on an F train in NYC. The suspect then sat to watch. The third world has relocated here. pic.twitter.com/J53ngXiV1J
A woman was burned alive on an F train in NYC. The suspect then sat to watch. The third world has relocated here.
Ironically my oldest was in NYC this weekend with a group of friends and was actually on the subway for at least some time during his visit. This was a source of great anxiety for me.
I’m glad he’s out and for the record I can’t understand why any person, why would any person willingly be on the subway in NYC under these people, particularly a tourist.
Update: NYPD Police have arrested a man suspected of lighting the female passenger on fire. The man is described as a ‘Guatemalan migrant.’ it is unknown if the man is in the country legally or illegally.
“Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.” Fyodor Dostoevsky.
“‘Many are the strange chances of the world,” said Mithrandir, “and help shall oft come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.'” The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien.
A blockbuster story by the Wall Street Journal last week laid bare what most readers of Da Tech Guy have known since 2019. That Joe Biden was senile and in not in any way able to serve as president.
The mainstream media, which claims to be the protector of the public and the teller of the truth, either ignored, minimized, or on occasion, even verbally attacked people who claimed otherwise.
We were right, they were wrong.
The optics and stakes are different in Chicago, and in one way, the stakes are higher, as opposed to the Biden so-called presidency. Because Brandon Johnson, who was a defund the police radical in 2020, is mayor of Chicago and he’s ultimately in charge of public safety 2.7 million Chicagoans.
And Johnson minimizes criminality. But he maximizes racial discord, frequently turning criticism of him as a bigoted attack.
After a mini-riot last year, which apologists call “street takeovers,” Branjo dismissed the lawlessness. “They’re young, sometimes they make silly decisions,” he said. Johnson also stressed that it was wrong to “demonize” these real-life droogs.
The Wall Street Journal says Johnson is America’s worst mayor.
Prior to his election as mayor, Johnson was Cook County board commissioner, which is a part-time job. The board is a rubber-stamp body for Cook County Board president, Boss Toni Preckwinkle, the chair of the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization, aka, the Chicago Machine.
Johnson was also a longtime paid organizer–and that means radical activist–for the far-left Chicago Teachers Union. It was their money–and their door-knockers–who put Branjo into the mayor’s office.
Yesterday, I saw this X post from former Chicago Tribune columnist, Eric Zorn, a liberal.
What an embarrassing failure @ChicagosMayor has turned out to be. This is shamefully hamhanded and uncollaborative.
Two days ago, in a classic Friday news dump stunt–and five days before Christmas–the Board of Education, all of whom were recently named by Johnson to replace the other members Johnson named, fired Chicago Public Schools CPO Pedro Martinez. That old board refused to fire Martinez, a Lori Lightfoot holdeover, because he stood his ground by refusing to take out a “payday” loan to pay for big raises for Chicago Teachers Union members.
Next month, per a new state law, a new board replaces the not-so-old board.
If Zorn warned about Johnson shilling for the Chicago Teachers Union over the needs of Chicagoans, I somehow missed it. I don’t recall a single mainstream, meaning liberal, Chicago journalist sounding the alarm that a leftist fox would soon be guarding the henhouse.
However, many Chicagoans, most of whom likely voted for Johnson’s moderate opponent, Paul Vallas, saw this disaster coming. There just were not enough of them to prevent this fiasco.
Martinez was fired Friday night, but he may stick around for six more months.
The national media didn’t do its job vetting a sick old man running for president. And it mostly ignored Senile Joe’s many senior moments.
The Chicago media looked the other way as Branjo successfully campaigned for mayor.
But the warning signs were obvious.
A Chicago alderwoman, Silvana Tabares, summed up Johnson and his Board of Education debacle perfectly.
“You’re not just firing a CEO. You are intentionally clearing a way to saddle taxpayers with billions in costs, and the district and yourselves personally with costly litigation,” the alderwoman said. “You are being used. The mayor is a walking conflict of interest.”
I saw it coming and so did many others: Johnson is indeed a walking conflict of interest.
The Chicago media is an embarrassing failure.
Which brings me to this point: Is the local media in other towns and cities as bad as it is in Chicago?
Are these “guardians,” like Brandon Johnson, in fact foxes guarding the hen houses?
We are told, correctly, that it’s the local elections, not the glamorous races such as presidential contests, that effect voters the most.
That was so true in 2016 in Cook County, Illinois.
While Hillary Clinton comfortably won Illinois and Cook County–where I live– over Donald Trump, it was the state’s attorney race in Cook that had the biggest impact on the 5 million residents in Illinois’ largest county.
George Soros-funded Democratic candidate, Kim Foxx, resoundingly defeated her Republican opponent, Christopher E.K. Pfannkuche. Four years later it was much closer for Foxx, she gathered only 54 percent of the vote in heavily Democratic Cook County, over Republican Pat O’Brien and a Libertarian candidate.
Fortunately, unless you are a criminal, Foxx chose not to run for reelection this year.
Immediately after her swearing-in, Foxx raised the limit for felony theft from the state-mandated $300 to $1,000.00. Shoplifting prosecutions in Cook County dropped dramatically, as did narcotics prosecutions.
Murders soared in the last eight years.
While Foxx is best known for the Jussie Smollett debacle, other actions as state’s attorney will have a lasting, and acidic legacy.
If you want numbers, you’ll find some here, courtesy of the fantastic Illinois Policy Institute. But except for murders, they tell an incomplete story.
For instance, for much of Foxx’s misrule, my daughter, Little Marathon Pundit. worked at a nationally known department store in an affluent suburb. On average, once a day, a shoplifter ran out the door–some calmy walked out–with stolen merchandise. Not only were employees at this store told not to prevent the criminal from leaving, store managers never called the police. Not once. Why call the cops? Even if the perp is caught, Foxx’ office, unless the theft was a massive haul, wouldn’t prosecute it as a felony. Or he may not even bother prosecuting at all.
So those were unrecorded crimes. So crime numbers, outside of course of murders, can’t be trusted at all.
As I wrote on X last month, “the liberal media keeps telling us that crime is down. Six months ago when I last visited this Rosemont IL big box store the cosmetics section wasn’t roped off. Stop gaslighting us, ‘journalists.'”
Eileen O’Neill Burke, a Democrat, is the new state’s attorney in Cook County. She is already prosecuting accused thieves at the state-mandated $300 level for felony theft.
EOB is not perfect. She supports Governor JB Prtizker’s no-cash-bail SAFE-T Act.
But O’Neill Burke vows to call for more detainments of accused criminals who are charged with violent crimes.
Elections matter.
Including down-ballot races. Sometimes especially down-ballot races.
Sadly, the results of the last eight years of rampant criminality will wreak havoc for a very long time.
Except for prominent dates on the calendar, Christmas and New Year’s Day come to mind, there is an official day–although I am unaware of any sanctioning organization–for every day of the year.
For instance, according to that austere body, February 11 is National Guitar Day and June 26 is National Canoe Day.
Most notoriously, September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Our 365 calendar–or 366, since this is a Leap Year–can digest one more “day.”
Today, I officially declare, December 8, as International Pundit Day. NationalToday.com, please take note.
A pundit, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media.” It is one of the few words in the English language that comes from Hindi.
In the early 2000s, many blogs, most notably Instapundit and Gateway Pundit, appeared on the political radar. And yes, to a lesser extent, my own Marathon Pundit.
Blogging has become mainstream since then, as have podcasts.
Yes, podcasters are pundits too.
Why December 8? Well, why not?
But if you need reasons, December 8 is Ann Coulter’s birthday. As you probably know, she’s a noted opinion columnist, and yes, pundit.
And it’s my birthday too.
Say it loud and say it now, I’m a pundit and I’m proud.
And if you are not a pundit yet, you can begin now.
And if you know a pundit, say “thank you!”
And now is the time in Pundit Land when we dance!
John Ruberry, who is celebrating his birthday and International Pundit Day today, regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.
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