Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

One of the basic themes of the Donald Trump Campaign is summed up neatly in a simple meme that’s been around for a bit:

Given the events of the last four to eight years this is something that’s easily believable to anyone who has paid attention, but to those who:

  1. Have not paid attention
  2. Distrust or dislike Trump due to style
  3. Hate Trump with an irrational passion

The very idea that they (the left/deep state) are after us is either:

  1. Ignored or dismissed as rhetoric
  2. Disbelieved outright
  3. Considered irrelevant because their hatred of Trump justifies any action to stop him.

And that’s why Donald Trump has agreed to debate terms that no other sane man would tolerate.

You see Trump knows many of these people for what they are. For an entire lifetime they feted him, celebrated him, worked to get close to him and begged him for money. It wasn’t until he became a political threat to the left that he suddenly became a racist, or a Russian plant or anything else they started to call him (You might recall the Morning Joe crowd who are among the most vitriolic Trump haters out there celebrated and promoted him during the 2016 GOP primaries when they were convinced that if nominated he would lose and lose big). To function in big Democrat cities he had to work with a lot of them and was the sober man at every party where they were drinking and talking.

He also knows regular Americans not just from the campaign trail, but from getting to know the builders and workers who not only put up his buildings but worked in them. He knows many of them understand basic fairness and decency.

On Thursday a lot of those people who haven’t been paying attention, or distrust what he says or hate him irrationally will be watching and it’s unlike any other presidential debate that has ever existed because it’s the first time in the history of a presidential debate where BOTH CANDIDATES HAVE ALREADY BEEN PRESIDENT.

It’s not going to be about policy, all those watching know the policies that each administration pursued, it won’t even be about the economy, all those watching know what the economy is and what it was. Even a 15 year old is old enough to understand the difference between how things were five years ago and how they are now. No the question up to be answered is who can lead and who has to be led and who will give them a fair shake.

That why Trump’s campaign lady went on CNN and that’s why CNN had to censor her when she said what everyone who has paid attention knew to be true:

She did so to establish what the reality is going to be, because while a lot of people haven’t been paying attention to the election they have heard of this:

and see this:

So when Trump goes before two CNN moderators who attack him and defer to Biden for 90 minutes in front of the watching world he’s counting on all those who have not been paying attention, those who disbelieve his claim of unequal treatment and those who are nevertrump at all costs to see it for what it is.

  1. The people who weren’t paying attention will see the reality, perhaps for the first time
  2. The people who distrust Trump will recognize what is happening and believe (much like the Jews of America are having their eyes opened to the left lately
  3. The “never trump at all cost” crowd will recognize it point, laugh and cheer because their hatred overrides all but perhaps even a few of them will find it a bridge too far.

They’re going to make his case for him. He’s counting on it.

By John Ruberry

The biggest news story in Chicago at the end of last week was the vandalism of Chicago’s iconic Buckingham Fountain by pro-Hamas protesters. 

That’s tragic, because the more important news was the arrest of 16-year-old Raysean Comer, who according to court records allegedly shot to death a 7-year-old, Jai’mani Amir Rivera, on Chicago’s West Side. Rivera had just completed first grade. The murder occurred about a mile from the United Center, where the Democratic National Convention will be held later this summer.

Say his name: Jai’mani Amir Rivera.

Illinois’ governor, J.B. Pritzker, a likely 2028 presidential candidate–and possibly even this year–was the main catalyst for bringing the DNC to Chicago.

Again, according to court records as well as the essential CWB Chicago site, Comer was on pre-trial release, but under electronic monitoring, for alleged aggravated battery and being in possession of a stolen automobile. Two weeks ago, according to local officials, Comer cut off his ankle monitor

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is in charge of the county electronic monitoring program.

Hey Dart! Did you try to find Comer after he removed his ankle monitor?

Back to Pritzker.

With great fanfare in response to the George Floyd murder–the Chicago Democrat signed the SAFE-T Act into law–it eliminates cash bail throughout Illinois. It took effect last autumn. 

Comer is now locked up in Cook County Jail. But he’s the 14th person in Chicago this year, according to CWB Chicago, who is accused of shooting, attempting to shoot, or killing someone while on pretrial release. 

Hey Jackass, another great Chicago site, notes that last week was a very bloody one. “Final tally for the week of 6/16 – 6/22: 125 people shot, 24 fatally,” Hey Jackass posted Sunday morning on X. “The last time #Chicago tallied at least 125 shot in a single week was 9/26/21 – 10/2/21 with 23 killed, 102 wounded.”

Violent crime is increasing in Chicago, despite false assurances otherwise. Murders, for now, being an exception. As I’ve noted earlier here at DTG, Pritzker, and Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, scored a lucky break when a court challenge delayed implementation of the SAFE-T Act. Summer is the most violent season in Chicago, and the summer of 2024, as we know, has started off badly in terms of public safety. 

So far this year, according to Larry Snelling, Chicago’s police superintendant, 127 youths have been shot. And seventeen of them have died.

Chicago’s violent crime epidemic pre-dates the SAFE-T Act. Eight years ago, a George Soros-funded catch-and-release prosecutor, Kim Foxx, was elected as Cook County’s state’s attorney. She chose not to run for a third term, her successor will be an improvement.

Friday night, the Chicago Police Department held a press conference announcing the arrest of Comer. It was one of those “all-hands-on-deck” events. Perhaps they were out of town or otherwise busy, but three people were noticeably absent at the presser: Foxx, Dart, and Mayor Brandon Johnson. Chicago’s mayor spoke favorably of the Defund the Police movement in 2020, and he’s the most egregious minimizer of crime in his city.

The SAFE-T Act is a monumental failure, and it needs to be repealed.

If Pritzker runs for president, law-and-order Americans–still a majority in this country–needs to tell everyone else that he signed the SAFE-T Act into law. Or better yet, chant “SAFE-T Act!”

Johnson needs to be reminded that his most important duty is to protect the lives of 2.7 million Chicagoans. His dismissal of youth violence as kids doing “silly things” makes things worse.

Good riddance to Foxx.

Say his name: Jai’mani Amir Rivera.

There is a GoFundMe page dedicated to covering Rivera’s funeral expenses. Click here to donate.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Kananga: Solitaire, why? I treated you well. You lacked for nothing.

Solitaire: I don’t understand what you…

Kananga: [interrupting] Mr. Bond’s watch, my dear. I gave you every break possible. You had a 50-50 chance. You weren’t even close.

Solitaire: I had no choice. Please believe me. The cards.

Live and Let Die 1973

Today is Friday June 21. In six days President Joe Biden will meet President Donald Trump in what I suspect will be the only debate between the pair of them before election day. I’m typing this post at 8:54 AM EST a week before the day after the debate and I submit and suggest by this time next week the fate of Joe Biden will be decided.

By this I don’t mean the result of an election between President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, I mean by this time next week the people who are actually running this government will decide if they will allow Joe Biden to remain on the ballot.

Consider, Joe Biden has been given every possible advantage for this debate even to the point of having one of the people who help propagate hoaxes about Trump being one of the two moderators. Everything from the choice of venue, to the lack of an audience to even the mics being controlled by the moderators favors Joe Biden.

Furthermore the mainstream media will without a doubt elevate and exaggerate their description of Biden’s performance well beyond any level he manages to achieve.

But in the end no matter what is said in public privately if Joe Biden with all of these advantages is unable to preform to a level that can convince the powers behind his throne that the election can be kept within the margin of fraud he will be gone.

There would be many ways to “persuade” him to step aside. Maybe the press will “suddenly” discover evidence of corruption that they consider credible, or maybe the justice department will suddenly decide that that old Joe IS competent to stand trial or maybe they will go after the rest of his family that has been drawing water from the well all his political life. Or maybe they’ll go all in on Hunter to put him away for good.

Joe Biden could be told that any or all of those things are likely to happen if he stays in the race. The Biden family knows that none of these things would be hard as they only require people to tell the truth and/or follow the law

They could even have his doctor declare him medically unfit, again that would be really easy as it would be the truth and could even be the ground for not pursuing all these other possibilities as he would be unfit to stand trial.

And if none of these tactics shook his resolve, well he IS an old man maybe he’ll die from a fall or even “natural” causes. At his age that would be at least plausible and the left would play the sympathy card to be used by whoever they (not the voters of course) choose to replace him on the ticket with. Oh and if you think the left is not capable of this, you have not been paying attention these last few years.

This is what is on the line here for Joe Biden in the debate. You and I may not know what decision the powers that be have made but this time next week his fate will be decided and don’t think for one moment that the wheels are not all ready in place to execute whatever plan they may decide on right now.

Update: Van Jones Agrees

“This is the entire election, as far as I’m concerned. The entire world will be watching,” Jones said Thursday in an interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta. “If you are a carbon-based life form, you’re going to be watching. If you’ve got a functioning brain stem, you’re going to be watching.”

“Because, if Biden goes out there and messes up, it’s game over. If he walks out there, and a week later he’s lower in the polls, it’s panic in the party,” he continued. “But if he goes in there and he can handle himself against Donald Trump — a runaway train, a locomotive, a raging bull — then this guy deserves another shot to be president, because that is tough.”

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.