Posts Tagged ‘Da Magnificent Seven’

Republicans who voted Eileen O’Neill Burke to victory in Cook County, Illinois offer a lesson to blue state conservatives

Posted: March 31, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, election 2024, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Yes, there are Cook County Republicans. 

Besides me. Really.

Cook County, Illinois is America’s second-most populous county. Chicago is its largest city. It’s deep blue, Cook hasn’t backed a Republican presidential candidate since Richard M. Nixon’s wipeout of George McGovern in 1972. In 2020, Joe Biden bested Donald Trump in Cook when he collected nearly 75 percent of the vote. However, in sheer numbers, over 500,000 people in Cook County voted for Trump.

Nearly two weeks ago, there was a primary election in Illinois. The most watched match up, which I wrote about twice here at Da Tech Guy, was the race for Cook County state’s attorney, the county’s top prosecutor. Two Democrats, Clayton Harris III, a former chief-of-staff for Rod Blagojevich and current university lecturer, and Eileen O’Neill Burke, a retired Illinois appellate judge, faced off. 

For the last eight years, Kim Foxx, a George Soros-funded leftist, has misruled as state’s attorney. Crimes of all types, including murder, have soared since she took office. Catch-and-release is not an effective law enforcement strategy. Harris was vague in his campaign, but he did give Foxx an “A” for her tenure as state’s attorney. Even worse, the far-left wing of the Chicago area Democratic Party backed him, led by the radical Chicago Teachers Union. Cook County board president Toni Preckwinkle, who is also chair of the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization, also endorsed Harris. Preckwinkle and the CTU were supporters of Brandon Johnson, now Chicago’s progressive mayor, in his first political race, a seat on the Cook County Board.

As for O’Neill Burke, it’s fair to call her a centrist Democrat, although the favors the odious no-cash bail SAFE-T Act. But she’s not an ideologue along the lines of Foxx, Preckwinkle, and Johnson. So, in the very likely event she prevails in the general election, I have hope that she can moderate further in the direction of protecting law-abiding citizens from the criminal class. 

One of the center points of O’Neill Burke’s campaign was to–get this!–enforce state law, specifically, return to prosecuting retail thefts as felonies when more than $300 is stolen. Foxx, in one of her first moves as state’s attorney, raised that felony threshold to $1,000. Although, if an accused thief has ten prior felony convictions, Foxx finally, or so she says, will prosecute those under-$1,000 offenders with a felony.

Yes, for now, there is a ten-strikes-and-you’re-out theft policy in Crook County. Jean Valjean was born in the wrong century.

Criminals are emboldened here. And small time crooks often move on to commit more serious crimes.

After a painful and troubling vote tally, late Friday, after provisional votes were counted, AP declared O’Neill Burke the winner in the state’s attorney race. Harris conceded that night. As of now, the retired judge leads Harris by around 1,500 votes–out of over 500,000 cast. 

Republicans, you put O’Neill Burke over the top.

Evidence is anecdotal, but it’s believed that many Republicans–certainly far more than 1,500–crossed over and took a Democrat ballot in the March primary election in Cook. I was one of them. Remember, in 2020, coincidentally, Trump received over 500,000 votes in Cook County. 

There was no reason for Cook County GOPers to vote in the Republican primary. Because of decades of rampant Democratic gerrymandering, there were no competitive Republican contests in the county. Statewide, the gerrymandering sin almost ensures, for both parties, few if any competitive intraparty races. 

There’s a lesson here for Republicans living in blue states. Take a Democratic ballot in primary elections, and vote for the least-leftist candidate. It’s a twist of Rush Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos strategy to drag out the 2008 Democrat presidential primaries. 

Have I given up on the Illinois Republican Party? Yes. While there a few good Republican politicians in the Land of Lincoln, none of them are within leadership roles. The state GOP apparatus is reminiscent of the two approved “opposition” parties in communist Poland, the United People’s Party and the Alliance of Democrats. The Illinois GOP knows its place, like those paid “Republican” contributors on CNN and MSNBC. 

Such a philosophy for a conservative is not nearly dramatic as William F. Buckley’s vision. He pictured himself as someone who, “stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”

As I noted last week, crime in the Chicago area is a life and death issue, and by voting for O’Neill Burke last week, one of the lives I might have saved is mine. If there isn’t a better reason to vote a certain way than for personal safety–and for that of our loved ones–please let me know in the comments section.

Oh, while voting Democratic in a primary, don’t be afraid to cause some mischief while you’re trolling the neighborhood. For president, my choice in the Illinois Primary was Marianne Williamson.

Let the chaos roll!

I earnestly wanted Williamson to win.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Voting irregularities and worse in Cook County as the winner of the Dem Primary for state’s attorney remains unknown

Posted: March 24, 2024 by John Ruberry in election 2024, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

“Let me tell you about Florida politicians. I make them. I make them out of whole cloth, just like a tailor makes a suit. I get their name in the newspaper. I get them some publicity and get them on the ballot. Then after the election, we count the votes. And if they don’t turn out right, we recount them. And recount them again. Until they do.” Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) in Key Largo. 

“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” Johnny Rotten, at the end of the last Sex Pistols concert of their 1978 tour.

Last night a bombshell broke as votes are still being counted in from last week’s Illinois Primary in Cook County. Cook, where I live, is Chicago and its inner suburbs. It’s as Democratic as Manhattan. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden collected nearly 75 percent of the vote.

As I noted in my DTG post two weeks ago, the Cook County state’s attorney race was collecting most of the attention of voters. Jussie Smollett’s protector, the pro-criminal and George Soros-funded Democratic incumbent, Kim Foxx, after two tumultuous–for law-abiding citizens–terms in office, is retiring. Running on non-specifics, Clayton Harris III–Rod Blagojevich’s last chief-of-staff–received the endorsement of the extreme-left Chicago Teachers Union. The CTU is arguably the most powerful political force in Chicago. It placed Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, one of their former organizers, in office. If CTU is behind Harris, you can assume he’ll continue the failed legacy of Foxx.

The other candidate, who I endorsed, is a traditional Democrat Eileen O’Neill Burke, who has promised to dial back some of the extreme pro-criminal polices of Foxx. Violent crime, theft and more has soared under her misrule

On the morning after Election Day, O’Neill Burke was leading Harris by 51-49 percent–about 10,000 votes–with votes from a few stray precincts and many mail-in ballots uncounted. Per Illinois law, any ballot postmarked on Election Day or earlier that is received at the local board of elections by April 2 must be counted. It’s believed that most of the mail-in ballots have been received and already counted, and not surprisingly, O’Neill Burke’s lead has shrunk to 4,000 votes. The far-left has embraced alternative forms of voting.

Illinois has drop boxes for ballots too. 

Yep, just like in the Dinesh D’Souza movie, 2,000 Mules. Yep, Mark Zuckerberg boxes.

Last night, Alderman Brian Hopkins, who represents downtown Chicago, dropped a bombshell on X. His original post was deleted, here’s what he had to say last night:

Correction: after counting what was stated as most of the remaining mail-in & dropbox ballots, EOB [Eileen O’Neill Burke] holds a 4,000+ lead. BUT…election staff told me they misstated the total number of remaining ballots, and 14,710 more (most are dropbox, so not postmarked) still must be counted.

It gets worse. Because the Chicago Board of Elections may have had these ballots since last Monday.

Why weren’t these votes counted Tuesday night? Or heck, Wednesday morning even? By the way, decades ago, when I was a Little Marathon Pundit, even in the closest elections, we knew who won an election a day to two later after polls closed–at the latest. We’re declining as a society even as technology has greatly progressed.

It gets worse. Here are a couple posts from Max Bever of the CBOE earlier than Hopkins’ second X post last night. Bever apparently found some ballots he “mistakenly left out.” If you call his move a “Bever hunt,” then shame on you. Anyway, to refresh your memory, the alderman said the “found” ballots are drop box votes.

Statement from Max Bever, Director of Public Information, Chicago Board of Elections: “In adding up the total number of Vote By Mail ballots the Board had received back so far, I mistakenly left out additional ballots that had been received back via USPS the evening of Mon, 3/18.

I traded speed for accuracy in reporting out numbers this week as quickly as I could. I truly regret this error on my part and for the confusion that it has caused the voters of Chicago. I will share updated numbers only when they are accurate and verified.

The vote counting continues this afternoon.

I am crossing my fingers and praying that EOB holds on to her lead. With the crime high rates in the Chicago area, my life may depend on it. For real. I’m at vulnerable age that thugs view as a target.

At the very least, you call what is happening in the Cook County vote count irregular and incompetent.

Except for verifiable reasons, such as a military deployments and temporary out-of-state work assignments, absentee and early voting should be abolished. Drop boxes should be unconditionally dropped.

Whatever happens in the state’s attorney race, supporters of both candidates are probably going to cry “foul.”

And if there is credible evidence of a stolen election in the Cook County state’s attorney race, then we have an even more serious problem. Because if large numbers of citizens don’t trust the election results, it calls into question the legitimacy of government–and of American society.

There were lot of “irregularities” and then some in the 2020 presidential election. But Democrats were silent four years ago because they liked the result.

Yes, there were certainly many Republican crossover voters, but about half of Cook County voters backed O’Neill Burke in last week’s primary. Many Democrats, at least in Cook County, might soon have a different opinion on mail-in voting and drop box ballots soon.

It’s quite likely that updates to this post are coming.

Oh, for the days when we only had Election Day, not Election Season. Oh, for the days when votes were counted in one night–not for a whole week.

UPDATE 7:40pm EDT:

Election Week County continues, as NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern tells us. Oh, some background. The Cook County Clerk counts suburban votes, the Chicago Board of Elections tallies city votes. Why not just one agency? The public sector is rotten to the core. Ahern in the first X post appears to be referring here to suburban votes.

The Cook County Board of Elections tonight says it will count the remaining Vote by Mail votes on Monday. There are a little more than 1 thousand County votes not yet counted. The bulk of their VBM ballots, 7 thousand were added to the County totals on Thursday. #StatesAtty

But what about the county-wide total? Well, Eileen O’Neill Burke’s lead continues to shrink, as Ahern reports.

NEW: @EileenCookCnty lead now ist [sic] 2015 over @ClaytonforCook#StatesAtty.

Update March 29 9:30 EDT:

After ten days–yes, ten days–of vote counting in Crook County, Clayton Harris III, the Kim Foxx candidate, has conceded, about an hour after AP called the race for Eileen O’Neill Burke and after EOB declared victory. The retired judge won by 1,500 votes out of over 500,000 cast.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

“Squatters rights” will result in vigilant justice

Posted: March 23, 2024 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized
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There has been a sharp increase in squatter claims making the news. If you aren’t familiar with “squatter’s rights,” its an area legally called adverse possession, where someone can lay claim to a space after occupying it for so many years. The average person would think this is trespassing, but there is a legal distinction in that trespassers don’t claim to own the property, but squatters do. This allows someone to break into an abandoned home, act like they own it and thus become impossible to evict.

If you think this sounds crazy…that’s because it is. But we live in the world of crazy, such that someone can break into a 4.6 million dollar home near Lebron James and simply occupy it, even throwing parties and renting out spaces. Or one that allows a squatter to put a Temporary Restriction Order on the owner of a home and kick him out in Washington.

We do, seriously, live in a clown world.

Not surprisingly, because the police either can’t or won’t stop this insanity, it is spreading wildly, especially in deep blue states like New York. In every part of the world where I’ve seen private property rights degrade, the sequence goes like this:

  • Criminals go from individuals to gangs that are well organized
  • Private citizens begin offering services to counter the crime
  • Criminals begin to get violent
  • Private citizens begin to “disappear” individuals

We’re already seeing organized squatters, including a lot of illegal immigrants, targeting wealthy homes in groups. We’re also seeing other citizens develop businesses around evicting squatters, including a self-proclaimed “squatter hunter” who charges $5,000 or more to kick out squatting parties. Sadly, we’re seeing a death toll too, as two squatters beat a woman to death for simply trying to reclaim her home.

The next step is squatters will start disappearing. Contrary to popular belief, police exist to protect the guilty, especially people accused or guilty of serious crimes.

Think about it, if you thought your neighbor sexually molested your child, what would stop you from beating them to death? I mean, if your kid was abused and scarred for life, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t at least contemplate burying the culprit 6 feet underground. The police and your belief that justice is best served in a courtroom are what stops you from pursuing this.

As we remove cops and courts, mark my words, we’re going to see squatting stop, because people are just going to disappear. Squatters are going to get beaten to death by angry mobs of property owners and their bodies dumped in the street. Nobody will say anything, just like people in Italy were silent on mobster killings. Vigilante justice will fill the void, and with it will come the settling of petty disputes and rivalries at the end of a stick and a gun.

Some people are cheering this on. They are thinking “Yes, finally, I can settle my score with so and so.” To that I shake my head. We all think we’ll be the ones on top when the world shatters, but in reality, in a world of might makes right, the most despicable people rise to the top. Look to the French Revolution if you need an example.

Some states are getting ahead of this, namely Florida, which passed legislation to allow police to kick off squatters. Even New York is beginning to modify its laws, likely too late to prevent the mass exodus of businesses.

More so than politics, we need to get a handle on squatting before it turns decent people into crazed vigilantes.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Chicago Teachers Union molding Soviet-style Young Pioneers

Posted: March 17, 2024 by John Ruberry in education, election 2024, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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Mrs. Marathon Pundit, third from left, at Young Pioneers event in Sece, Latvia, in 1976.

By John Ruberry

On Friday, the far-left Chicago Teachers Union organized a rally for voting age Chicago Public School students, during school hours, the “Student Power Forum.” 

They might as well have called it the Young Pioneers march.

The event was co-sponsored by Bring Chicago Home, which is working to pass a referendum, also called Bring Chicago Home, that will increase Chicago’s real estate transaction tax on properties selling for more than $1 million.

Election day in Illinois is Tuesday.

Proponents call Bring Chicago Home a “mansion tax,” but many retail storefronts and apartment buildings, and probably all skyscrapers, are worth more than that. I call it a jobs killer and a rent raiser. Funds from the tax hike, if voters approve it, will aid the homeless. No specifics are given as to how the homeless will benefit from Bring Chicago Home.

Of course, Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, enthusiastically supports Bring Chicago Home. Johnson, who prior to his election as mayor, had no executive experience, but he’s a former CPS teacher and a longtime Chicago Teachers Union organizer. 

The rally, argues the center-right Illinois Policy Institute, likely violates CPS ethics rules, and the group quickly filed an ethics complaint. CTU called that move “racist.”

Now that Johnson is mayor, it’s difficult to ascertain a difference between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union. Johnson, besides being a former CTU employee, appointed six of the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education. Johnson is a mentor of CTU president Stacey Davis Gates–she has a son attending a Catholic high school–and she recently suggested, as collective bargaining between the two “separate” entities could end up costing taxpayers $50 billion. I hope she was joking.

CPS and CTU will be negotiating against itself. Let’s call them CPS/CTU.

Let’s return to the Young Pioneers. Regular readers here and my own blog know that Mrs. Marathon Pundit was born in Latvia when it was part of the Soviet Union. Enrollment in the Young Pioneers was mandatory after children turned nine. Nadezhda Krupskaya, Vladimir Lenin’s wife, was a driving force in the creation of the Young Pioneers. Similar groups were founded in most of the other communist states. 

Krupskaya recognized that young minds are malleable and vulnerable to manipulation. So does the Chicago Teachers Union. 

Some of the Young Pioneers activities were similar to what the Girl Scouts enjoy, Mrs. Marathon Pundit told me, but there was some communist indoctrination that she had to endure.

These are the four leftist education Rs: Reading, writing, arithmetic, and radicalism. 

CPS/CTU is heading in that direction in regard to kids.

As for the first three Rs, CPS/CTU is doing a wretched job in addressing them. In both reading and mathematics, only about 20 percent of CPS seniors perform at grade level.

There is some good news. Chicago conservatives–yes, they exist–found some surprising allies in opposing CPS/CTU pulling voting age students out of school to attend the Bring Chicago Home rally. Former Chicago alderman Dick Simpson, as well as journalists Eric Zorn and Laura Washington–all liberals–have decried the move.

As I mentioned earlier, there are no specifics on how Bring Chicago home revenue will be spent, assuming the referendum passes. But the Chicago Teachers Union has an idea. According to a leaked document obtained by the Illinois Policy Institute, CTU will be making a not-so-surpising demand as part of its focus on housing, which it says, “begins now with Bring Chicago Home on March 19.” At the top of the CTU list is this shakedown, “Financial assistance for CTU members to live & work in the city.”

Are there homeless CPS/CTU teachers?

Chicago’s high school “Young Pioneers” are what Lenin called “useful idiots.”

There could be five Rs in Chicago schools soon, rent assistance for teachers would be the fifth.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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