Posts Tagged ‘illinois politics’

Presidential election warning from Chicago: Media malpractice gave the city its failed leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson

Posted: September 15, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, election 2024, elections, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Last year’s mayoral election in Chicago presents a media deja vu moment with national implications.

Yes, I’m talking about Kamala Harris.

Brandon Johnson, an organizer for the far-left Chicago Teachers Union while serving as member of the Cook County commissioner–a rubber stamp body controlled by board president, Toni Preckwinkle, a leftist like Johnson.

Paul Vallas, a centrist Democrat, ran a wonky white-paper dominated campaign that was centered on hiring more police officers and prosecuting more misdemeanors. He lost. 

Johnson campaigned largely on platitudes. His political career is a creation of the Chicago Teachers Union, and aggressive campaigning by the CTU, including door to door work, identifying Johnson’s supporters, and getting them to the polls, pushed “Branjo” over the top. 

Republicans? Are we doing that? 

Back to my point.

As a commissioner, Johnson could only point one accomplishment in office, the non-binding “Justice for Black Lives” resolution that passed in 2020, which called for diverting funds from law enforcement to social services.

The extreme left loves symbolism. It also hates the police.

Also in 2020, Johnson said of the Defund the Police movement that it was “not a slogan, it’s an actual real political goal.”

Chicago’s mainstream media, Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times is a notable exception, are compliant lapdogs for the left. If at all, they barely challenged Branjo on his thin resume and his far-left beliefs.

Before the first round of voting for mayor, Johnson was asked about his support of Defund the Police and cutting law enforcement, Johnson flippantly replied, “Ask better questions.”

Finally, at a law enforcement forum before the second round of balloting, Johnson was asked about his backing of the Defund movement. “I said it was a political goal,” Johnson replied, “I never said it was mine.”

So the media, even though crime was the biggest issue of the 2023 Chicago mayoral campaign, dropped the Defund issue. 

The Chicago media barely vetted Johnson. Just as the national media didn’t do so on Joe Biden’s senility in 2020–and it all but ignored Hunter Biden laptop story. A year later, the national media elite is ignoring or minimizing the far-left political position of Kamala Harris, and her politically convenient flip-flops on them.

Last week, in her weekly podcast, the aforementioned Spielman interviewed centrist Chicago alderman Brendan Reilly, who supported Vallas in last year’s election.

Reilly, who may be candidate for mayor in 2027, said that Johnson was en route to becoming a “one-termer” who was “woefully unprepared” to lead America’s third-largest city, and a mayor who is a beholden to the “radical left.”

Johnson, who has blamed Richard M. Nixon for Chicago’s violence epidemic, is rumored to have suffered from panic attacks. The mayor regularly points his finger at white supremacy when his discussing city’s many ills.

The warning signs were there on Johnson for anyone who did some digging. But the Chicago media barely reported on them. Last week, a Fox Chicago reporter revealed that his City Hall staffer in charge of working with City Council and state legislators to advance the mayor’s agenda, Kennedy Bartley, made vile anti-police comments in a 2021 podcast, including calling law enforcement officers “f*cking pigs.”

This is Johnson’s inner circle. The mayor has resisted calls to fire Bartley.

As for crime, while Johnson has not defunded the police, his choice as police superintendant, Larry Snelling, says the CPD is short nearly 2,000 officers. 

Chicago faces a $220 million budget deficit for this year and a nearly $1 billion for 2025. In response, Branjo announced a hiring freeze, but two days later, he exempted the fire and police departments from that freeze. 

Crime is still sky high since Johnson took over. Murders are down, but only a little bit.

Johnson has driven the Chicago train off the rails. Ironically–and the Chicago media ignores this other story–the mayor has a massive polite detail, said to number anywhere from 125-150 cops. Johnson clearly doesn’t want to defund his police protection.

Back to Harris. 

Will the mainstream media drop its biases and finally vet the vice president?

Or will they wait, until a year or so after she’s sworn in, when another “woefully unprepared” office holder, one who is beholden to “the radical left,” fails again, for so-called journalists to finally sound the alarm about Harris? Maybe not. The media was all-in on Biden until his cognitive decline couldn’t be explained away after his June debate with Donald Trump.

Biden, whose mind was clearly slipping in 2020, is arguably a tool of the far-left. 

Will Harris, arguably an intellectual lightweight, end up in the same position if she wins the presidency?

John Ruberry regularly blogs from just north of Chicago at Marathon Pundit.

Swing state voters, what to say when an Illinois leftist is at your door telling you to vote for Kamala Harris

Posted: September 8, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, election 2024, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

If you live in a swing state, a pestilence is headed your way this autumn.

Leftists from Illinois–and other liberal states–are on their way to tell you who to vote for in the 2024 presidential election. 

Some of them might show up at your front door. 

Politico’s Illinois Playbook, a gossipy left-wing email newsletter, asked its vainglorious readers, “We asked how you’ll be hitting the campaign.”

Nearly all of the respondents replied that they’re heading to Wisconsin or Michigan. Longtime leftist gadfly Terry Cosgrove said his presidential campaign goal is to be “up to Wisconsin as often as possible knocking on doors with Operation Swing State to help Kamala Harris win.”

Last weekend, Illinois’ Democrat governor, J.B. Pritzker, was in New Hampshire campaigning, throwing his weight around. Besides the states I just mentioned, if you live in Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, or North Carolina, expect an onslaught of haughty know-it-alls from Illinois and other failed blue states, including California, calling you on the telephone while you’re sleeping or having dinner.

And yes, they might show up at your front door.

The horror, the horror!

Cosgrove, with his arrogance and his Harvey Fierstein-like gravelly voice, might actually help the conservative cause in Wisconsin. 

But others might be more persuasive with low-information voters.

Just today, Matt Martin, a Chicago alderman, boasted on X that liberals in his ward were headed to Wisconsin. There are 49 other wards in Chicago.

If you are reading Da Tech Guy blog, you are well-versed in following the campaign. You won’t fall for the fatuous “joy” campaign platitudes of the Kamala Harris campaign. But you can break the opposition. 

Being friendly is no longer an option. Our country is at stake. 

These blue state invaders need to be demoralized.

Because I live in Illinois–someone has to document its decline-and-fall–I’m going to focus on what to say when that Prairie State progressive shows up at your front door. If you get a call and the accent isn’t quite right, or they mispronounce your hometown, assume it’s a blue state liberal ruining your day. Your task is to respond as I recommend.

First, a little background on Illinois:

The Democrats have controlled both chambers of Illinois’ state legislature–often with supermajorities–since 2003, thanks to egregious gerrymandering. During that time span, there has been a Republican governor for only four years. 

Illinois’ largest city, Chicago, hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1931. 

The many problems of Illinois are the creation of Democrats. Remember that.

I don’t expect you to remember everything listed here. If you can, then great

So, your doorbell rings, and it’s, let’s say, it is Terry Cosgrove from Illinois and Operation Swing State who bellows, “I’m Terry, and you must vote for Kamala.” 

Now comes the fun–but important part.

Your best reply is, “Why should I vote for the Democratic candidate for president when you leftists destroyed Illinois?”

You’ll hear some lies about how Illinois is the closest thing to heaven on this planet, but then you need pounce back. 

Remember. we want to break these leftists. Think of Emperor Palpatine using the Force to destroy Luke Skywalker. 

So you answer back:

  • If Ilinois is as great as you say it is, then why has the state been losing population annually for ten years and counting?

As longtime Chicago White Sox broadcaster, Hawk Harrelson, used to say after the South Siders scored a run, “Don’t stop there!”

More replies for that leftist:

  • Illinois has the nation’s second-highest gasoline taxes. Where does that money go?  Illinois’ roads suck. Oh, you intrusive leftists: make sure you fill up your gas tanks before you head home.
  • Four of the last ten elected governors in Illinois have served time in federal prison, Illinois is corrupt. Keep political graft inside your hell hole.
  • Chicago is corrupt too. Every sixteen months or so a Chicago City Council member is sentenced to prison.
  • Crime is out of control in Chicago. For the last eight years, a George Soros-funded prosecutor, Kim Foxx, has coddled criminals. We don’t need Chicago-style mayhem here.
  • Illinois cares more about criminals than crime victims. Illinois is the only state that bans cash bail. For the last 12 years, more people were murdered Chicago than any other city–and New York and Los Angeles have many more residents.
  • The public pension plans in Illinois–and Chicago–are among the worst funded in the country. Clearly, Democrats can’t manage money. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have driven this point home.
  • Chicago faces a nearly $1 billion deficit for 2025.
  • Will a Harris-Walz administration propose Illinois and Chicago bailouts?
  • Illinois has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation. I like earning paychecks.
  • Illinois is failed state, the Venezuela of the Midwest.
  • Go back to Illinois and stay there.

If the commie at your door brings up reproductive rights, meaning of course abortion on demand, reply that Donald Trump has repeatedly promised not to implement a federal abortion ban. Unlike most politicians, Trump generally keeps his word. For instance, every major presidential candidate for decades promised to move our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Only Trump followed through.

The usual retort used by leftists to explain the Illinois Exodus is one word, “weather.” If that’s true, then why is every state that borders Illinois–and Michigan–gaining population?

For you swing state voters, remember. No more Mister Nice Guy. Save America and protect yourself from blue state failure.

Break them.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Journalists should be forced to wear clown suits

Posted: August 11, 2024 by John Ruberry in election 2024, elections, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

In the words of George Romney, father of Mitt, American voters are in the midst of “the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get.”

Romney, who was then the governor of Michigan, was a leading contender for the 1968 Republican nomination when he made his “brainwashing” gaffe.

Leaders, let alone presidents, don’t allow themselves to be brainwashed. Well, Joe Biden has, but what’s left of his mind was washed away at Rehoboth Beach.

Getting brainwashed by clowns is even more humiliating. I’ll get to them in a little bit.

Our ongoing mass brainwashing, although now it’s usually called gaslighting, began, as Mollie Hemingway tells us, with the lamestream media covering up Joe Biden’s senility in 2020.

“There is nothing mainstream about the so-called mainstream media,” Hemingway said last week. “They are far-left. They tend to help [Kamala Harris] out with her politics. But it reminds me so much of what we saw in the 2020 race when Joe Biden was allowed, through the complete help of that corporate media, to run his campaign from the basement … The result of that is that we have a country and world in chaos.”

There was a three-week respite from the gaslighting by the media this summer, when the self-appointed puppet masters decided Senile Joe had to go, and they finally reported on his dementia. Biden’s replacement at the top of the Democrats’ presidential ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris, is an empty pantsuit. Her greatest skill, is something that can only be accomplished in the public sector, is failing upwards.

Move ahead in our Wayback Machine from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. This election is almost forgotten now, but Dianne Feinstein, who succeeded George Moscone as mayor of San Franciso, ran for a full-term in 1979. She won in the runoff, but the first round of voting bears noting. In his leftist agitprop campaign, Jello Biafra, the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys, a punk rock band, astonishingly finished in fourth place with 3-percent of the vote.

Oddly enough, Harris’ base is San Franciso, her first election win occurred in the 2003 district attorney race.

But I have the media in mind for this blog post.

Part of Biafra’s mayoral platform, with one change, needs to be put in place, nationally. 

The punk rocker favored forcing business leaders to wear clown suits. Instead, I support requiring journalists to don clown costumes. Because they are clowns–evil ones, that is.

Before that happens, politely and within the law, we need to confront these liars and clowns, whether in person, on social media, or by email, and let them know we are well past believing their gaslighting.

As they did with Biden’s senility, the lamestream media is ignoring or minimizing the reporting on Harris’ far-left record, including her opposition to fracking–a spokesperson recently walked that one back–her support of spending less money on law enforcement, and her backing of a what the leftists call single-payer health care, which means the elimination of our private healthcare system.

And since Harris refuses to do sit-down interviews–the media is squelching that story too–the vice president can’t be confronted with questions about her unpopular political positions.

By the way, what kind of journalists aren’t clamoring for public figures to speak to them?

Clown-type journalists, that’s who. Frauds who put three-card monte dealers to shame.

After Donald Trump’s upset win over Hillary Clinton, there was a collective, and yes, welcome response by the media along the lines of, “We didn’t get it right in the Trump-Clinton election and we refused to take Trump supporters seriously–but we’re going to reach out to them, so we don’t make the same mistake again.”

Well, that attitude lasted about two weeks. Then the corporate media leftists, the clowns, hitched their out-of-date wagon to the Trump-Russia collusion lie.

The time for reproachment with the mainstream media is over. Journalists, most of them, need to find another line of work. Yes, of course, learning to code is an option for them. I’ve been on the wrong side of receiving pink slips, I know too well the pain of losing a job. But I was earning an honest living when I whenever I was let go.

And not only has the time arrived to confront the lamestream media, but the moment is also here to cancel your subscriptions to publications that repeatedly insult the public with disinformation and yes, brainwashing.

An aside: Here in Illinois, there is a bill on the desk of our Democrat governor, J.B. Pritzker, that will offer taxpayer-funded subsidies to state newspapers. It’s a terrible idea, which means of course Pritzker will sign the subsidy bill. Besides, Pritzker’s party benefits the most from our dishonest media. He’ll be helping out his pals and political allies.

But government subsidies will not save newspapers and other mainstream media outlets. The market for honest media has moved on. Besides, when government gets involved with business, it always picks the losers. And the media, especially in hellholes like Illinois, is playing their fellow wokesters, who at best, make up 20 percent of the population. We are a center-right country.

Send away the clowns. I’ll be leading the laughing when that happens.

Replace them with real journalists.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Another bitter harvest of demonization? The My Lai massacre and the Sonya Massey killing

Posted: July 28, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Did demonization of cops lead to a police-involved murder? Just as demonization of the military may have contributed to the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War?

Earlier this month, Sonya Massey, a black woman from Woodside Township, Illinois, was shot to death, according to police bodycam video footage, by Sangamon County deputy sheriff Sean Grayson. Massey called the police because she believed there was a prowler at her home. The cop, who has since been fired and is now charged with murder and other charges, has a rocky employment history, being employed either part-time or full-time by six different central Illinois police departments in four years, although in one of those jobs, for a small-town police department, he was let go because wouldn’t reside within 10-miles of the village.

Grayson is white, and the racial angle has brought rare national media attention to downstate Illinois. 

He is a military veteran who left the service under a general discharge. According to KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Grayson “was discharged from the U.S. Army for serious misconduct during his year-and-a-half service in Fort Riley.”

According to KSDK-TV in St. Louis, Grayson has two DUI convictions, one in 2015 to which he pleaded guilty to, and another the following year he weas found guilty in a bench trial.

In his last job, according to Capitol News Illinois, prior to being hired full time by the Sangamon County sheriff’s office–another deputy sheriff position with Logan County–Grayson’s performance was poor. In a report, a chief deputy wrote that Grayson need “extensive” training after failing to follow commands. The same officer wrote that Grayson needed “additional traffic stop training, report writing training, high-stress decision making process classes, and needs to read, discuss and understand issued Logan County Sheriff’s Department policies.”

Capitol News Illinois offered additional disturbing details. “Seven months on. How are you still employed by us?” the chief deputy asked Grayson in a meeting about his job performance. “I don’t know,” was his reply.

As for My Lai, the massacre, which occurred in 1968, saw at least 300 civilians killed, including elderly people, children and infants. Some women and children were brutally gang raped. The only soldier convicted for the massacre was 2nd Lieutenant William Calley. Originally given a life sentence of hard labor in a military court martial, President Richard M. Nixon commuted that sentence to three years of house arrest.

At the time, Americans wondered how Calley, a junior college dropout who failed most of his courses, became an officer. While he did score well in a military exam, Linda Greenhouse, writing for the New York Times in 1974, said of Calley that he was someone who “apparently failed at almost everything he had tried to do.” Between quitting junior college and enlisting in the US Army in 1966, Calley’s jobs included working as a bellhop and as a dishwasher.

Normally, such a background wouldn’t be considered the makings of officer material. While the anti-war movement hadn’t reached its peak in 1966, plenty of young college graduates were being told by their parents and peers to dodge the draft, in a stealth fashion, by enlisting in the National Guard instead.

In short, the talent pool for American military officers wasn’t deep during the Vietnam War. Hence, Calley.

As for Grayson, he was hired for his first part-time police job, in the small town of Pawnee, in August 2020. That was six years after the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, Missouri and the Laquan McDonald murder in Chicago. Both were of course police-involved killings–ones that ramped up anti-cop sentiment.

And three months before Grayson started his law enforcement job in Pawnee, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Not only was the anti-police rhetoric sent into hyperdrive by the media and agenda-driven leftist politicians, but it was also the beginning of the Defund the Police movement.

Four years after Floyd’s murder, because of retirements and struggles in hiring replacements, many police departments don’t have enough cops. For instance, three months ago, Chicago’s police superintendant, Larry Snelling, said of the CPD, “We’re down close to 2,000 officers.”

The ACAB–All Cops Are Bastards–sentiment so many Americans believe in, or have been indoctrinated in, may be offering a bitter harvest.

The Massey shooting death could be the beginning of a tragic trend.

UPDATE July 30:

Yesterday the Washington Post reported that Calley, 80, died in hospice care in April. Citing the Social Security Index, the New York Times confirmed his passing. The cause of Calley’s death is not known.

John Ruberry regularly blogs in Illinois at Marathon Pundit.

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