Posts Tagged ‘woke’

To fight back against the left, I say we should refer to all Illinois criminals as “justice-impacted individuals”

Posted: May 26, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Oh, for the days when Illinois was normal.

My state is a solid blue state, but it wasn’t always that way. 

In the 20th century, only twice, in 1912 and 1916, Illinois failed to back the presidential winner in the general election.

The Land of Lincoln, the home of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, began its slide to the left in 1988, when George H.W. Bush won Illinois by just 95,000 votes in his blowout win, nationally that is, over Michael Dukakis. Democrat gerrymandering and feckless leadership from the state GOP have demoralized Illinois conservatives. Real conservatives, that is, not the country club phonies who are embarrassed by Donald Trump.

Illinois has now gone hard left, thanks to decades of gerrymandering. At the top of the heap is likely 2028 presidential candidate, J.B. Pritzker, who is nearly halfway into his second term as governor. 

To embellish his woke credentials for his presidential run, Pritzker signed into law and championed the SAFE-T Act, which abolishes cash bail in Illinois. It’s been in effect for nine months. The numbers are still coming in, but at least in Chicago, other than a slight dip in murders, violent crime is up.

Still, criminals manage to get caught and convicted in Illinois, despite the presence until December of a George Soros-funded so-called prosecutor, Kim Foxx, in the state’s largest county, Cook.

But some of those unlucky Illinois crooks soon may not soon be officially known as “felons,” “offenders,” or “convicts” or “ex-cons,” If it’s not on his desk already, it soon will be, but Illinois House Bill 4409 will classify participants in the Adult Redeploy Illinois program as “justice-impacted individuals.”

To be fair, not all convicted criminals in the state will be referred to as such if Pritzker signs HB 4409 into law, but considering that the billionaire governor has proven to be cautious about being out-woked, look for all lawbreakers to be referred to be officially classified as such in that sanitized, Orwellian phrase.

Conservatives and centrists, who, despite Democratic dominance in in the Land of Lincoln, still make up a majority in this state, have two surefire ways to fight back.

They can remind leftists that Illinois–for good reason–has been losing population annually for a decade. 

The other method of attack is to refer to criminals, when a progressive is in earshot or likely to read a social media post, as “justice-impacted individuals.” Leftists can’t process the wrongheadedness of their political beliefs, such as men being able to give birth, and they despise ridicule. 

Believers in common sense, you have your assignment. Think of yourselves as Groucho Marx and the leftist in front of you as the kind of pompous fool the legendary comedian regularly humiliated. 

With some laughs, we might be able turn Illinois, even slightly, to the right direction.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

On Illinois Primary day I’m choosing a Democratic ballot so I can vote for Eileen O’Neill Burke for Cook County state’s attorney

Posted: March 10, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, election 2024, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

I’m going to do something that I haven’t done since I moved from Chicago to the suburbs. On Illinois Primary day next week I’ll be taking a Democratic ballot so I can vote Eileen O’Neill Burke for Cook County state’s attorney.

When I lived in the city, I did so for a couple of reasons. For starters, much like the rest of the Chicago area now, there were no competitive Republican political races to vote in. Secondly, if I needed a “favor,” nothing illegal mind you, but let’s say, I wanted the loud garbage pickup at the condominium across the alley from my apartment to take place after 7:00am, it was my belief that a call to the alderman’s office–true story, by the way–would carry more weight if I was on the list of registered Democrats in the ward.

Eight years ago, voters made the disastrous decision to elect George Soros-funded Kim Foxx as Cook County’s states attorney. As the county’s chief prosecutor, Foxx has acted more like a woke social worker than someone who should be protecting the people of America’s second-most populous county. In one of her first moves as state’s attorney, Foxx said she would ignore state law and only prosecute thefts as felonies if the value of what was stolen exceeded $1,000, rather than $300.

The message was clear to Chicago and suburban career criminals. Steal less than $1,000, then move on to your next target. 

Crime of all types have soared since Foxx became county prosecutor. Sure, COVID hurt, but the pandemic has been over for over three years–crime remains high. That includes shoplifting, carjackings, and murders.

Foxx should have resigned in shame years ago–and not because of her mishandling of the Jussie Smollett race attack hoax. Once again, I have to say it. The primary duty of government is to protect its citizens. Foxx has failed to do that.

There are two Democrats running in the state’s attorney race: retired Illinois Appellate Court judge Eileen O’Neill Burke and University of Chicago lecturer Clayton Harris III, who previously was best-known as the final chief-of-staff for disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. O’Neill Burke is not related to the recently convicted Chicago alderman and Democrat power broker Edward Burke. When running for office, she has always used both of her surnames, but Harris, who has been endorsed by Blago in this race, simply refers to her as “Burke.”

Harris has the backing of the woke chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, Toni Preckwinkle. The longtime president of the Cook County Board enthusiastically backed Foxx in both of her runs–Foxx is a former chief-of-staff for Preckwinkle. Chicago’s inept leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, was endorsed by Preckwinkle in last year’s runoff election. Harris has only four years of experience as a prosecutor, whereas O’Neill Burke, as a judge and an assistant state’s attorney, has 25 years of experience.

Harris has all but said that he’ll continue the pro-criminal failed prosecutorial approach of Foxx. 

As for O’Neill Burke, while yes, she has received large contributions from donors who usually back Republicans, including Citadel’s Ken Griffin, she is not a conservative or even a moderate. Sadly, she supports Illinois’ toxic SAFE-T Act, which abolished cash bail. But she’ll be an improvement over Foxx. As for Griffin, he was a major financial supporter of a super PAC backing Nikki Haley. Harris is trying to make an issue with O’Neill Burke over the financial support of these Republicans, but his big-name Democratic support leans on the party’s far-left, starting of course with Preckwinkle. O’Neill Burke’s Dem endorsement base is more centrist, or what passes for centrist in Illinois. Her most prominent supporter is Illinois treasurer Susana Mendoza.

Voting for safety is one of the best reasons to select a candidate, perhaps the best one. That is why I’ll be choosing a Democratic ballot in the Illinois Primary election on March 19 and voting for Eileen O’Neill Burke for Cook County state’s attorney.

And no, I won’t be voting for Joe Biden.

The Republican running for state’s attorney is Robert Fioretti. He’s an acquaintance of mine, and I think he can do well in that office. But Cook County voters haven’t elected a Republican county-wide–yes, it was for state’s attorney–in over 30 years. Since then, Cook has become much more Democratic.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The longer the delay in Israel’s invasion of Gaza, the more likely the Democrat Party will lose Jewish members

Posted: October 29, 2023 by John Ruberry in Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Although the White House denies it, there have been reports that Joe Biden has told Israel to delay its expected invasion of Gaza.

The speculation is that Biden wants the Hamas terrorists to release the estimated 200 hostages, some of whom are Americans, beforehand.

My belief is that Biden is instead trying to placate the old school, pro-Israel wing of the Democrat Party, which can trace its founding to 1948, the year of Israel’s founding, and the woke, pro-Palestianian, and yes, pro-Hamas wing of the Democrats. Think of Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the face of the old guard and think of US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), of the Squad, as the face of the new wing.

Can Biden–or more accurately, his handlers–pull it off?

For now, yes.

But the longer what I’m calling a “warm war” between Israel and Hamas continues, the more likely Jews will question why they support the Democrats. Oh, before October 7, there was cold war between Israel and Hamas, once the invasion of Gaza starts, then that will be a hot war.

The daily protests in support of Palestine/Hamas, populated by wokesters and Palestianian-Americans who equate Israel with Nazis, must eat at the heart of most Jewish people.

Most American Jews of course are Democrats, for a lot of reasons, but the primary one, in my opinion, is that as a discriminated people, Jews feel they should stand up for other marginalized groups. Party affiliation for the politically engaged–and Jewish people usually are–is not something that is easily shed. Much like religion.

For instance, my parents, Irish Catholic Democrats, despite their disgust with what was called “the New Left” in the 1960s–I now call that movement the proto-woke–took a decade to switch their political affiliation. Jimmy Carter of course hastened their transition, as it did for so many other Dems.

The false Zionists-are-Nazis drumbeat is a daily rhythm. Ten more weeks–well short of a decade–of this hatred might be too much to bear for many Jews.

Jewish people are generous donors to the Democrats and other liberal groups. At roughly 2.5 percent of the US population–which is concentrated mostly in Blue States–we are not about to see a lasting Republican majority if there is a rightward shift among Jews. But some reliably-Democrat House seats in states like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even California might become swing districts.

A few years ago, Little Marathon Pundit had a Jewish boyfriend. You name the woke cause, and he supported it. I asked her to see how “Sam” felt about the growing anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party. Sam told her it was “troubling.” Jewish Democrats I know have had similar trepidations for years.

But now there is a daily two-hour-hate parade in many large American cities against Israel, and yes, Jews. As well as daily anti-Jewish memes poisoning social media, many from celebrities.

The parades and the meme frenzy will wind down once the Israel-Hamas war is over; hopefully that conflict will end with a resounding victory for the IDF.

Afterwards, we may see a different Jewish electorate.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Six months that shook the marketing world: Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney debacle and killing a cash cow

Posted: October 1, 2023 by John Ruberry in business, culture, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics, Sports
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By John Ruberry

It was six months ago today–April Fool’s Day no less–when Dylan Mulvaney, to cap off his 365 Days of Girlhood series, did his first of two social media posts hawking Bud Light. Previously, in the words of Alissa Heinerscheid, who was in charge of marketing the brew, it was a “fratty” beer. The effect on Bud Light sales was immediate–a consistent and sustained 30-percent sales drop.

Immediately, the “experts” in the business world and the media, who are in fact narrative-driven morons with crisp, broadcast-friendly speaking voices, immediately ran to defend InBev, the parent company of Anheuser-Bush, with a consistent refrain, as if they were reading the same script, declaring “Boycotts don’t work.”

While that’s generally correct, the sales drop for Bud Light, a brew that tastes the same as Coor Light and Miller Lite, was in fact a walkaway. “Joe Sixpack,” the typical Bud Light drinker who believes that men are men and women are women–despite mutilation surgeries and hormone injections–found a way to scream “F*ck you” to the elites who say otherwise. 

Bill Maher said on his HBO show that the average American is furious because “they’ve had an agenda shoved down their throat.” When one of his guests, US Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) objected to Maher’s truth, he struck back, “You have to accept everything they say or you’re a bigot.”

So true. 

The plummet in Bud Light sales is a major victory for conservatives, as well as the majority of Americans who have known the difference between males and females since they were two years old.

And gender, despite the claims of now former Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, is not “a spectrum.”

Mulvaney, whose ditzy faux female social media posts are about as pleasant as loud audio feedback, as well as the rest of the Anheueser-Busch marketing staff, did what was deemed impossible: killing a cash cow. I had a couple of marketing classes in college. Cash cows were revered by my professors, they are product lines that sell well with minimal advertising support. Heinz Ketchup, Ivory Soap, and Kellog’s Corn Flakes come to mind. The bountiful profits from cash cows are “milked” to support struggling brands. It’s a marketing circle of life.

One of those professors, in a lecture decried the use of celebrity endorsements in advertising, calling it “lazy marketing,” He also warned that celebrities, particularly those from the entertainment world, are known to do things morally objectionable, or get involved with unpopular political causes.

Now Anheuser-Busch is now spending a lot of money on its Bud Light “Easy to Sunday” campaign tied to the NFL as well as producing, again, commemorative cans, but this time with the logos of popular NCAA football programs, instead of a one-off Mulvaney can that was not sold to the public.

Too little too late. 

As sales continue to lag for Bud Light, it’s likely that scarce shelf space in supermarkets and liquor stores will soon be allocated to better selling brews. Modelo Especial this summer surpassed Bud Light as America’s bestselling beer.

The Bud Light cash cow has gone dry.

As I predicted here at Da Tech Guy months ago, using transgendered people to hawk mainstream products, while not completely dead, is now close to it. 

We have witnessed six months that shook the marketing world. 

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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