Hillary Could Toss a Bucket of Puppies into a River and Still Win on Novermber 8th

Paloma Partners, a $4-billion hedge fund that has spent much of the last three decades politely turning away would-be investors, is opening its doors, if only a crack to newcomers, three people familiar with the fund's plans said.
With fresh trading opportunities emerging as investors worry about global growth, interest rate moves and who will win the U.S. presidency . . . Reuters

              I am shocked at how much time I spend in the White House.  Hillary Clinton


I am not voting for Hillary Clinton.  I can not stand Donald Trump, but he is not Hillary Clinton. The other two, Dr. Stein and Governor Johnson are all but Planned Parenthood approved.

While abortion remains far-less repulsive as a euthanized gorilla, or box full of puppies tossed into river rapids, America will never be a great nation again.  Read that, El Trumpo!

Now, down to the issue at hand. Hillary should win the presidential election.

I expect our nation to further shred like a quality pork shoulder in a slow cooker.  Only then will people say to themselves, " Is it possible that the newspapers were wrong about polling, policies and first principles - Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.  That's pursuit and not guarantee.

We will go along with another four years of the Obama melt down of trust - foreign and

Hillary Clinton and the entire hillbilly mafia of globalist oligarchs - Saudi, Soros and Sachs - have a vise grip on our principles.

Therefore, Hillary could toss a crate load of puppies into the Potomac at high noon, light a box full of kittens on the lap of Old Abe at the Lincoln Memorial at 5PM EST, or do her business on the Constitution in the spirit of President #44 and still win.

Four years from now, the United States will be flatter than hammered horseshit after a Macy's Day Parade.  Then, some of us will lift our tiny noggins up and say, " Yep, that is enough.  Let's start to do things the way were are supposed to do things - no legislation; just act rightly."

It should start by not allowing the murder of children in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. 

Slow Cooking from a Slow Guy -Hickey's Lancashire Hot Pot

Now, that I no longer need to cook for my bairns, as they are all out of the nest, I prepare food for a few days at a time.  The Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker is an exceptional device - Ratatouille, Soups, Pulled Pork and one of my ethnic favorites Lancashire Hotpot.

Lancashire was often the destination for the Irish, prior to coming to America.  Liverpool, home of the Beatles is called the Capital of Ireland and three of the fab four were Irish to the bone.  The docks of Liverpool provided passage fare for Paddy and Mick and Larry, my County Kerry grandfather.

One of the first phrases of praise came from my Grandpa Hickey - Lawrence - Larry - Father who rated every product, food, attitude, fashion, or manner by the standard - Liverpool.

" Jesus, that is a fine soup. Tastes like it came all the way from Liverpool.  Liverpool was as much of a standard of excellence as one's ability to dig:   "He has the honors and degrees, but he can't dig worth shite,"or "That Mossy Enright is a hell-of-a-man! He can dig so. Not as good as Martin Ford, mind you, but good."

I learned to cook from Larry's sons and daughters.  My Grandmother was a magnificent cook who learned her arts from two Black women and a Mexican lady.  Granny Hickey could lay down some serious cooking chops and spiced up many dishes.

Hickey men do the same.

• Here is what I call Lancashire Hotpot.  I go to Pat & Jacks, County Fair, or Mariano's for lamb.  I use a lamb steak cut from a leg of lamb* with the bone ring and all of its tasty marrow and a pound and half of lamb cut into bite sized pieces.
• I use a pound and a half of Melissa's Baby Dutch Yellow Potatoes. I leave them whole - a traditional Lancashire hot pot uses thinly slice potatoes as the last layer browned in the oven.  The Baby Dutch are small and fall apart nicely.
• Eight thin carrots cut into chunks
• One large Vidalia Onion cut up in chunks
• A paste of basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, olive oil, and garlic  2- 3 Tablesoons Worcetershire sauce
• Sea Salt and Coarse Black Pepper
• One cup of celery chunks

I layer the celery on the bottom of the hot pot. Dash of Sea Salt an black pepper, Then the Lamb steak - salt and pepper, a layer of whole Baby Dutch Yellows, Salt and Pepper.  Next a Layer of Onions and One big teaspoon of herb paste.  Then  the lamb chunks -salt and pepper.  Another layer of Onions. Then the carrots and the  remaining potatoes more salt and pepper and the remaining paste. Eight or nine generous dashes of Worcester Sauce. Cover.

This needs NO water or broth. All of the juicy goodness placed in the pot works up a storm!

Cook on high for six hours and on low for another two. Serve with a great crusty bread and a side dish of red cabbage, or not. It is plenty good. Oh, do not try and eat the lamb bone ring. Tough on the buckers.

* I have used lamb ribs and chops as well - seared in butter. 

South Side With Yu -1979

My film version of my imaginary date with Linda Yu at Marquette Park in August 1979.

I remember it like it was yesterday, only yesterday I cut the grass and pulled a few weeds, because Mike Regan made fun of me and my lawn again, " Hey, the Hickey Urban Prairie is in full flowering . . .I mean dandelion-ing.  Jesus, Hick do you ever put any Scott's on this patch of weeds?"

Yes; yes I do.  To my reverie.

1979 - I was beginning my fourth year as a teacher in Kankakee, Illinois at Bishop McNamara High School.  It was August and school would begin in a week and went home for the weekend and tended bar Reilly's Daughter on 111th Street.  The Chicago Ag School was still a working farm.  Jimmy Carter was in the White House. Mike Bilandic was still in the big Chair on Five. Thin Lizzy Played at Comiskey Park with Carlos Santana and Eddie Money on August 5th, Boz allowed me to pick up a few bucks behind the bar.  I also played guitar and banjo in the trio - Sons of Reilly's Daughter -but this weekend Berwyn Moose an eight piece rock big band comprised of talented medical students who played brass-rock Chicago, Ides of March, Buckinghams, Motown and jazz standards would be packing the place.


Two women worked with me; the  one behind the bar was also an assistant manager and the other as waitress for the tables in the bar and out in the big beer garden.

I worked Friday afternoons from 11 AM to 6PM, when Denny Leake took over.  I filled the coolers with Heineken's, John Courage Ale, Becks, Miller, Miller Lite, checked the barrels of Bud, Michelob, Guinness and Harp for the taps, cut fruit for the cocktails, washed the bar and glasses.  At about 11:30  AM guys my Dad's age popped in for a few toddies.  These guys, all WW2 veterans, were not huge on snappy banter, witticisms, opinions, cheerful bon mots, or other indicators for their collective semiotic evaluations," Give your ears a chance, Kid. Nobody likes a bullshitter."

Short of answers to," Got Sunnybrook?"  verbal intercourse must be kept as secret as what these guys and their brides did behind closed doors - " Get me?"

I made great martinis, old fashions, gimlets and poured a well timed shot on request and with the promptitude earned by the killers of Japs and Nazis.

By three in the afternoon, tradesmen began popping in and pitchers of draft beer would stabilize the eight hours of hard labor with an evening of domestic joys.  Crews of Street and Sanitation workers, electricians, wood butchers, fitters and laborers crowded Reilly's Daughter's beer garden and the waitress St. Pauli Girl's fists of pitchers out to the thirsty gents.

The Roman collar on a beer is as important as the aroma and the taste.  I learned that no one wants a pitcher of flat looking beer and if there was not enough foam collaring the top the pitcher, all I need to do was stick a rolled up paper towel into the brew and give a few swift swirls.  " Pitchers Up, Rennie!"

At five o'clock a gorgeous Asian girl took a stool right in front of the Jewish Typewriter - the Epstein - the cash register.   I had been stuffing the trays with fives and tens from the last order and was gob-smacked by the vision of loveliness that I had turned to see.  I was unattached.

As Mike Regan might offer, " What's it to you?"

Well, every man confronts destiny.  I gave her my best dispassionate and professional, " What can I get you."

The beauty who seemed to have brought a personal spotlight on her charms smiled, " A Guinness please."

I put one up as directed allowing the magical black and cream colors to cascade and settle - sit - add more- settle and sit - do the magic with spoon to top off and place before the client for inspection and acceptance.

In Indiana some gump pulls once on the sacred black back & forth handles and plumps the visual equal to Quaker State 40 weight before a beer swiller - that is not a Guinness.  That is an affront to St. James's Gate and centuries of porter acolytes who made Guinness synonymous with goodness.  This was Reilly's Daughter on the south side of Chicago and not some shot and beer joint in Bum Hump, Indiana.

The Black Magic was about as good a pour as I could master.

" You really know your stuff. I usually get a glass of flat black water.  I had heard that this a great place for Guinness," the girl who could shame Nancy Kwan herself had been pleased by my mean efforts.

A six Gimlet Man, veteran of WWII, called over , " Hey, kiddo, I missed a few of your cousins on Luzon a few years back."

Unfazed the pretty girl fired back," Wrong, my dear man.  I am Chinese American."

That quieted the man.

" Sorry, these old timers do the same when some one seems too German for them, as well and then the jokes start."

"Jokes?"

"Yeah," I answered, " Have you heard about the deal at the German barbershop?  Haircuts $4."

" $4," she drew out the pay-off.

" A dollar a side."

Again, I had gained smiling approval and even more exciting the old veterans were hitting the silk and heading home. I must plunge.

After collecting fees and tips from what would soon be called The Greatest Generation, I cleaned glasses and allowed the gorgeous woman to enjoy her Guinness.

She asked for change to play the juke box and played the The Logical Song, " I love Breakfast in America!"

Now, I plunged, "What is your name if you don't mind my asking."

" Linda. And you are?"

"Pat Hickey, I am a high school teacher in Kankakee?"

" Is that near here?"

" No, it is downstate a bit."

" I just took a job here in Chicago.  I was born in China and moved to Los Angeles."

" What do you do," I asked in the most probing of 'none of your damn business but friendly Chicagoans always ask anyway' manner.

" I'm in TV -I will be anchoring the NBC weekend news."

" That's great. Have you found a place to live?"

" Yes, I have an apartment in Lincoln Park.  NBC helped me find a really nice studio with great view of the park.  It is near R. J. Grunts, that is a nice spot. Have you ever been there?"

I said no but that Boz the Owner used to hit the brunch there once in a while.  I was breath taken, floored - stone in love. I asked, " Have you seen much of the south side?  Would you care to see Marquette Park.  I am off  in twenty minutes and we could leave your car here in the lot."

" That will be nice."

And Linda and I headed out to Lithuanian Plaza.  I pointed out Rockwell Hall at 71st the Home of the fruitcakes of the American Nazi Party.  

Then I suggested that we take in the art deco memorial to Lithuanian aviators Darius and Girenas, Lithuanian Deli for some good old Loogan  Kibinai

We walked around the lagoon and she took my hand. " This was a very nice visit to the park. Hard to believe that Dr. King was hit with a brick here, " she offered
       .

I Knew that it was time to end our time together, " Linda, may I ask you out on a date?  I would to take you to Baby Doll Polka Club and 6511 Club on Kedzie."

" You may ask, but seriously doubt if I will find time to seriously do anything but keep my job here, Pat. You will be going back to Kankakee and I will anchor the weekend News on Five. You pour wonderful Guinness and this Lithuanian food is a treat. but let's just leave it at that."

I asked," What is your family name, Linda?"

"Yu."

"What?"

"My family name is Yu - Linda Yu. Will you please take me back to my car - this was very nice."

We drove up Kedzie, past the Nabisco Cookie plant and through Tommy More parish, Evergreen Park, past Mac Lang's on 103rd, where I took a right to Pulaski and then south to 111th Street and Reilly's Daughter.

Yep, I like to think that I spent some quality time of the south side with Yu. Linda Yu.

If the Ag School were open then I could have spent some quality time on the south side of Chicago with ewe.

Chicago Tribune Data Under-Mines CPD

You can't keep masses of folks in poverty, unemployment, incarceration and in communities looking like Third World Countries. The shooting, murder and disrespect of law enforcement is really not a surprise, they(the police) are the enforcer of America's injustice....but Dr. King also warned us that our fight must not be in the lowest form, using violence....WE must use our MORAL FORCE and dismantle an UNJUST AMERICA ......I understand the anger...but, VIOLENCE: whether by Police or CIVILIANS is NEVER AN ACCEPTABLE SOLUTION - Pastor Pfleger

“I don’t understand how every good cop would not want a very harsh, strong police board,” Pfleger said.

Pastor Pfleger was a member of Daley's first Independent Police Review Authority and he was a on Daley's search committee that hired Jody Weiss in 2007.  The following year, Pastor Pfleger sort of disappeared when a video of his sermon at Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ went . . . viral.

Chicago's Social Justice elite managed to soldier on without Pastor Pfelger for the next eighteen months or so as the fiery and controversial media star clashed with Cardinal George.  Police continued to be undermined, smeared and second guessed in the media that was all agush for Professor Dave Protess and the Wrongful Conviction kids, but that sort of went sour as well.

More and more, calls came for private police services and a national security force as President Obama's Hope and Change Justice Departmemt helped erode confidence in policing nationwides.

I wrote this in 2009 and it has come to pass.

When all of the Horse-manure created and manufactured by bad people and promoted in Chicago's Media Community is weighed and added up -
1. Systemic Racism Get Out of Jail Free Card
2. Police Brutality 24/7
3. Community Control of Everything - thus no Consequences for Anything Crime or Vice
4. Constant Vilification of Police Officers
5. Bleeding Revenue to Lawsuit Lefty Lawyer League ( G. Flint Taylor, Jon Loevy)
6. Advocacy Politics
7. Laughingstock CPD Command

Total Comes to a Privatized Corporate Police Force. 
Since Fahey and O'Brien were murdered by the Wilson Brothers, Leftist Academics, Lawyers, Journalists and Americans who swallow anything, have orchestrated a complete undermining of any and all confidence in Law Enforcement. When Daley pulled Tisa Morris, an African American attorney, off of the responsibility of tracking CR beefs and handed the list of police officers targeted by the Lawsuit Lawyers and created a rubber stamp Board that is comprised of Police Haters, he tipped his hand. 

In 2007, Daley caved to the leftists and tossed out a tough, fair, honest and unbribe-able prosecutor that he had placed in charge of the Office of Professional Standards.  This greased the way for Pastor Pfelger's brief tenure on the newly created IPRA 

Chicago was and is on the way to the elimination of the Chicago Police Department.  It seems to me that Hillary Clinton will complete President Obama's objective of creating a National Police Force, leaving municipalities to hire "rent-a-cop" Private Security Firms, not unlike the Divvy bikes eliminating city parking and Uber taxis, destroying the cab companies.

Today the Chicago Tribune's attempt to coat-tail the success of leftist Jamie Kalvan's Invisible Institute that is on its way to becoming for police and justice, what Shakman has been for politics and government.  Good for a select few and disastrous for everyone else.

FOIA has been a goldmine for the Left and an IRS audit for everyone else.  With Freedom( for the few) of Information the media is able to data for social scientists and come with an excuse to do whatever the agenda demands.

Last month the Chicago Tribune investigative data miners plumped up a series intended to smear pork farmers and help boost pork prices. Today, the Tribune did the very same to ensure the swift demise of urban policing in Chicago.

The tone and the rhetoric of 92 deaths, 2623 bullets:Tracking Every Police Shooting, by Jennifer Smith Richards , Angela Caputo and Jason Meisner, is as set as the conclusions drawn long before the data was mined.

Every five days, on average, a Chicago police officer fired a gun at someone.
In 435 shootings over a recent six-year span, officers killed 92 people and wounded 170 others.
While a few of those incidents captured widespread attention, they occurred with such brutal regularity — and with scant information provided by police — that most have escaped public scrutiny. . . .

The Tribune's analysis showed that Chicago police are the only witnesses listed in most of the shootings, with civilian witnesses identified in just 83 of the incidents.
Alexa Van Brunt, an attorney with Northwestern University's Roderick MacArthur Justice Center, said it's often challenging to prove misconduct or a cover-up when it comes to an officer's word against that of a civilian.
"We don't have video evidence often," Van Brunt said. "And if you have police officers lying on reports, that becomes the official record."

The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times have helped create the daily blood bath that is Chicago - they have been a huge help.   In taking the side of the crusading Cadillac Commie and Buzz-cut Bolshevics of People Law Office and the Northwestern University's Bernardine Dorhn tutored journalism and legal think tanks and Centers For ( MacArthur/Blum/Wrongful) over law enforcement professionals, experienced non-partisan judges like Boyle and Egan and promoting the loud and consistent voices of  Advocacy Politics flim-flamers like Pfleger both papers succeeded in bring the City of Chicago to its daily blood bath.

The Better Government Association covers up the crimes of the powers that be and holds worker bees of the Justice System up for public lynchings. Commander Glenn Evans is one and now there are ten officers denied due process in the Laquan McDonald shooting - none of the ten pulled a trigger. The BGA has the gall to ask for people to think outside the box and throw more money at Ceasefire - the gang-bangers alumni association.

Today, the Chicago Tribune presents another data stew stirred by a pre-cast iron conclusion.

The end game is no more CPD.

An Approved Sun Times Letter Writer Is Way Off Base on Police Officers

OPINION (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Wednesday letters: Cops not alone in contending with danger

In an editorial last week, you asked what other job, other than police officer, requires people to “take such a risk.” Residents of black, brown, poor or mixed-income communities with high crime rates take those risks every day — in every aspect of our lives. We risk our lives stepping out our front doors, watching TV in our front rooms while listening to shots fired outside, riding public transportation to and from work, and, worst of all, being stopped and harassed or assaulted by those charged to “serve and protect.”

I have been robbed on the L on the way home from work, mugged returning to my office from lunch and assaulted by a drunken security guard at a music festival. I have been a passenger when my partner was stopped for “driving while black.” On numerous occasions, persons who thought my small stature made me an easy target tried to intimidate or maul me on the street or on the CTA. How many police officers have experienced as many dangerous situations as I have? I am not armed, nor do I wear a bullet-proof vest or carry a badge of authority. Nevertheless, I have been able to intervene when I have seen wrongdoing.

Police officers need to quit whining and focus on being part of the solution, not part of the problem. The press needs to stop calling police heroic for doing the jobs they are paid to do. If all police are heroes, so is everybody — residents, teachers, mail carriers, etc. — who live or work in high-crime areas.

Muriel B#$%^, Hyde Park (emphases my own)

Sorry for your troubles Muriel, it is a jungle out there.  Even more of a jungle.  

You and I have first world problems; cops attempt to keep Chicago from sliding into Third World status - NPR loves The Third World, emerging nations, developing countries and diverse cultures, but it really hates American culture.  I expect you just might be a huge fan of public radio, television and the Progressive weltanschauung it promotes, when not talking pledge drive.

Life in Chicago can be combative.  The only people who answer calls to danger are cops and firemen; newsmen hear about the calls; activists get a heads up from the editors, or social media.

Only cops and fire fighters show up to stop brawls, thefts, murders, harassments, sexual predators and public nuisances. You and I and other witnesses stand on the wrong side of the yellow tape.  We can have our thoughts and opinions so long as they are somewhat fair.

I believe you are out of line.  No biggie.  You have a great deal of company from our President, to Mary Schmich to Ja'mal Green.

Read, however, the recent account of a midnight shift reporter and his three years in the jungle hell of Chicago's Thug Comfort Zone. 

Peter Nickeas has written an account worthy of John Steinbeck and Richard Tregaskis's World War II correspondence.

The first scene I went to on my next shift was the shooting of the man police suspected of the previous night’s crime. He’d been shot on the West Side and was in critical condition. Police said he’d been set up by his getaway driver.
I barely had time to process any of that. The following night, multiple witnesses started calling in gunfire from a single neighborhood, many giving descriptions of the shooters. I was just a mile away. As I got closer, driving slow along a stretch of 47th Street where giant trees loomed overhead, creating the effect of a tunnel, I cracked my window, listening. There were no cops in sight. From about a block away, I saw a handful of guys standing in the street, one of them shooting. I saw the muzzle flash, could smell the smoke, saw it hanging over 47th Street in the cool blue of early morning. Everything slowed down at that moment. Each shot echoed and reverberated. It was as if I could feel the sound moving toward me.
I pulled over and watched the guys jump into two cars and start speeding in my direction. They flew past, toward the Dan Ryan Expressway. Two SUVs followed. I could hear the engine of the first one thrumming as it sped through a red light at the intersection where I was parked. The trailing SUV swerved around a van coming out of the old stockyards and careened through the intersection. I watched the SUVs in my rearview mirror, and just as I was thinking, Please don’t crash, they did. One into the back of the other.
Two guys jumped out of one of the SUVs and fled south. The other SUV kept flying toward the Dan Ryan. Feeling exposed, I pulled into a tiny parking lot just off the intersection and turned my lights off. A car circled the block twice. The third time, the driver slowed down, leaned forward to make eye contact with me, yelled something I couldn’t understand, and drove off. I waited a few seconds and, sensing a safe moment to get a little farther from the scene, started to pull away just as a police Tahoe approached. One of the officers got out, shouldered an AR-15, and made a wide circle around the passenger side of the smoldering SUV while his partner walked up to the driver’s side, right hand on her gun. I thought there was a chance that they would find a victim or a shooter inside, but the SUV was empty.
I got out to talk with the officers. They said the crashed vehicle was registered to someone who lived nearby. It was a “rammer,” bought by gangbangers for a few hundred dollars so they could wreck it chasing other guys around the neighborhood. In the end, no one had been shot. Just a bit of chaos, barely a city news footnote.
When it was all over, I was shaking a little, but I felt good. I hadn’t freaked out. I’d kept my head clear and my eyes open.

I had my eyes open on more than a few occasions, myself.  What is true in those occasions is merely a very small part of what I experienced, like Peter Niceas, in medias res.

Classical tragedy always begins in medias res.  The audience has some of the truth 'revealed' or has its collective eyes opened by the drama unfolding on the stage.

Life is prosaic.  It is not neat and tidy, like the poetry of a Sophocles, or Shakespeare and no where near as tight and complete as the agreed upon narrative played out in the media and by the grandstanding investors of social engineering.

There is no right side of history. That phrase was first used by Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes in his 1903 book Old Eygpt.   The right/wrong side of history is only determined well after the impact of events can be determined.

Cops are heroes.  A scant few of them are not.  The efforts of heroes to stop the madness of urban thug-ery remains smeared by poetic rhetoric emanating from academic/lawyers and politicians with the goal of ending all local law enforcement and instituting a National police force.  God help us.

If you are supporting that, just say so.  Do not diminish the truth of what police officers experience.

The Sun Times has taken the side against the police, but not a right or wrong side of history.

Ceasefire: Throwing Money on a Blood Soaked Street

Ceasefire was ceased back in March of 2015.   That means simply that Ceasefire received no more State Money from us to them.

Ceasefire's web page commands, Cure Violence.  Well, Ceasefire is smoked, salted, honeyed and cured like any great piece of pork and it is done.

Now, the Illinois voices that depend upon Illinois Alzheiner's (IA) are calling for the return of cash to Ceasefire $$$$$$. Illinois Alzheimer's- voters forget everything, every screwing, every promise, every election.  IA is the only explanation for the continued public life of Dick Durbin, Jan Schakowsky, Mike Quigley, Forrest Claypool, Toni Preckwinkle, 90% of the Chicago City Council and the guy from over by Midway, what runs the State. IA allows Ralph Martire to continue to pie-chart Illinois into the poor house.  IA allows Lisa Madigan to shine the light on workers and not the real gonifs - SEE Above.

Illinois Alzeheimers is chronic, progressive and fatal.

IA comes from being a person of normal intelligence, generous sentiments and modest income being too afraid to tell his neighbors, that 'No, I do not think that Andy Shaw is not a goof, I do believe that WBEZ is as lame as Derrick Rose, I am not with Hillary, Abortion is always killing a baby and the Sun Times is the Tribune with more wasted space.'

This fear being termed a Tea Party Palin-ite, Earth Hating, Meat Eating, Cretinous Downton Abbey Ignorant, Trumper Bumper Sticker, Racist Homophobe is all too real and has made all of us afraid to speak our minds and our expeinces, for fear that Bill Moyers will pop out the bushes and DEFINE US!  Being defined by other people who need social reassurances verfied by WTTW, only hurts once.  You get over it. It gets better and that is the Savage Truth.


Now, Ceasefire is back on the tongues of people taking the Metra to the Merc, looking for great seats to Hamilton and finding just the right candelabra for the last picnics of the summer at Ravinia.

Only last night I heard a jazz fan at the Serbian Village, a Chicago Police Officer say, " Ceasefire will get funded, but cops will get railroaded out of existence."  I agreed and we listened to the music, Waiting for the Train to Come In.

Rich Miller's Capitol Fax Blog - the Illinois Clearing House of Budget Scams and Legislation lashing, is all in for Ceasefire. Miller offers a hand-wringing lament over the numbers of Chicago's fallen citizens,

Today’s number: 425
Monday, Aug 22, 2016
* Tribune…
Through Sunday, 425 people were slain in Chicago, up 50 percent from 283 in a year-earlier period, according to official police statistics. During the same period, shooting incidents rose by 48 percent to 2,136, up from 1,443, the data show.
Other violent crimes such as sexual assaults, robberies and aggravated batteries also have spiked by double digits.
- Posted by Rich Miller      

and opens the door for commentary by lobbyists and Democratic operatives around Illinois

 - uptown progressive - Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 11:11 am:
There is no magic bullet - but in my community we lost CeaseFire funding (violence interrupters) and the CCBYS funding (crisis intervention with at-risk youth) was greatly reduced. No expansion in youth employment opportunities or for fully funded afterschool programing. These programs do make a difference.

Examples, please?  No?

 - Earnest - Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 11:31 am:
>These programs do make a difference.
If only Rauner worried that his intentional destruction of the social service system could result in him appearing “soft on crime.”

Examples, please,  of Ceasefire bringing thug violence to a $hit-screaming halt? One deep thinker lamented the fact that blood is not spilled in Switzerland Chicago -

- cassandra - Monday, Aug 22, 16 @ 12:02 pm:
Let’s not forget that some parts of Chicago are said to be a safe as Switzerland, and those of us who live in or near Chicago know which these (predominantly white, upper-middle-class) areas are.
Chicago is deeply segregated, by race and economic status. More police and social services and persuading more folks to get married may help around the edges, but it is persistent segregation which must be addressed–and isn’t being addressed adequately at any level of goverment. Too risky for our political masters, I guess.

Well, Ride the Nine Down on my Broad Manly White Ass!   I live in Geneva!  Morgan Park!

That same Monday morning, The Better Government Association's Andy Shaw thundered loudly for all of us to "Think Ouside the Box" on thug violence ( often referred to as gun, or police violence in the Media), including opening the coffers to Tio Hardiman's Ceasefire Interrupters and Gang-banger Alumni Association

Are there any solutions?  While we’re waiting for City Hall and CPD to implement reforms spelled out several months ago in a task force report, including a new agency to replace the ineffectual Independent Police Review Authority, other well- intentioned suggestions are surfacing:
Veteran Chicago journalist Jim O’Shea, writing in the Sun-Times, encourages CPD to resurrect the Cease Fire program that enlists former gang members and ex-convicts to work with police to curb violence.
O’Shea points to the program’s impact over the July 4th weekend in Englewood last year—no homicides or shootings—compared with 11 shootings this year, after the program was sidelined by insufficient funding and CPD’s reluctance to work with the group.
“City officials and the Chicago Police Department,” O’Shea writes, “seem willing to try anything to stop the violence…except something that actually works.”

Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck and civil rights lawyer Connie Rice, writing in the New York Times, argue for the kind of sophisticated community policing that’s reduced violence in some of LA’s toughest sections.
Success, they write, depends on communities cooperating with “humane, compassionate, culturally fluent cops who have a mind set of respect, do not fear black men, and serve long enough to know residents’ names, speak their language and help improve their neighborhoods.”

Microphone!!!!!!!

Ceasefire has done . . .nothing to stop, curb. or hinder thug violence.

LA is not Chicago, Andy. Chicago is more like Philly, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, or Baton Rouge, because the Media, the political oligarchs. academics and Marxist lawyers have destroyed policing.

The answer to the problem is radical.  Stop listening to morons, grifters and Reds.  Even more radical - start voting out the morons, grifters and Reds.  That is how one avoids Illinois Alzheimers.

President Skips 2016 Water Hazzard - America the Emerging Nation

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Afternoon at the Beach and Dinner Date in Edgartown
8 hours 42 sec ago
The Obama family headed to the beach on Saturday, their final full day of their Vineyard vacation.
The family arrived at a beach off Pohogonot Road in Edgartown around 1:30 p.m. After spending the afternoon at the south shore beach with friends, the First Family departed at about 5:30 p.m.
Later in the evening the President and First Lady went back to Edgartown for dinner at Chesca's on North Water street. The sidewalk outside Chesca's was blocked off with yellow tape, and the summer crowd lined the street.
Chesca's, a restaurant "marrying gourmet and comfort food on Martha's Vineyard," is owned by chefs Jo Maxwell and David Joyce. According to a meal ticket the restaurant posted on Facebook, the President's party ordered spinach salad, braised beef shortribs, and pappardelle bolognese, and creme caramel for dessert.
The couple arrived at 7:45 p.m and departed at 9:28 p.m. to head home for one last night in Chilmark.

DENHAM SPRINGS  — After floods devastated pockets of south Louisiana, mental scars are already showing on the youngest victims of a disaster that prompted more than 30,000 rescues and left an estimated 40,000 homes damaged.
Children who endured harrowing rescues are returning home to a jarring landscape that even their parents can scarcely grasp: Homes filled with ruined possessions must be quickly gutted. Damaged schools and daycare centers are closed indefinitely. Parents juggling jobs and cleanup work must also line up caretakers for their kids.

Hey, I ain't judging; I'm just saying.   I have 1st World Problems, generally of my own creation.  Yesterday. it rained like a cow peeing on a flat rock and my basement took on water, like a Nazi sub in them black and white movies.  If a neighbor's pooch cocks his leg on one of my three parkway trees, I get 'some moisture,' as the real estate agents say. So I shop Vac'd most of the afternoon and night - no big deal.

I did not toss my fists heavenward and scream, " What kind of a God would do this.?"  I am pretty centered.  I don't take Public Radio, or television seriously at all.  I don't give a hoot to listen to hours and hours of sap about emerging nations.  Ask the Olympic Committee how all of that gushy bullshite about host cities being from emerging nations.  Ask NBC about Rio?   Ask that Turkeybird Ticket Scalper Pat Hickey about the accommodations in Rio's Iron Hotel.  NPR - when a nation emerges, get back to me.

Baton Rouge, Denham Springs and Martha's Vineyard are all in a fully emerged nation that is President-ed by a South Side with You guy who wants this emerged nation to become an emerging nation - to sort of equal things out,

In an emerging nation, the Jefe, Generalismo, or Dear Leader never visits suffering people.  Emerging Nations tend to be run by war-lords and when all of the blood settles, oligarchs.  Dear Leaders do not jet down to famine relief stations, they have Khat, Coco , or betel leaf chawers armed with AK-47s and big Toyota Flat beds with heavy machine guns to do that.  Oligarchs go to hot spots, casinos, springs and The Emerson, or Graystone in L.A. to unwind.

President Obama is taking much needed vacation-time in Martha's Vineyard. Can't fault any family man for that.  Me?  I'd rather go up to New Glarus, Wisconsin.  At least he's not dragging the wife and kids around Civil War battlefields.

Hey, he plays golf; so what.  I read, or watch Maverick re-runs, or go out for a great meal with a gorgeous woman, or catch some live jazz.  Whatever floats your boat.

However, if yesterday's down-pour produced crashing waves along my window sills, I know that my Alderman Matt O'Shea ( D-19th Ward) would be in a row boat outside of my picture window.  Were he on vacation in Sisters Lakes,MI, Delavan, WI, or Flint Lake, IN ( the Irish Rivieras)Matt O'Shea would drive back to his Ward an personally see to it that the elderly, kids and the more delicate of souls were safe.

He would, and has in times of danger, personally put himself out on the line and direct the more robust of heart in salvage and rescue efforts behind the First Responders ( cops, fire fighters and EMTs) already on the job.

You see Matt O'Shea, belongs to the same political party as the President, but not of the same Progressive mindset.

President Obama is exiting the job in January.

In November, America will decide if it is becoming an emerging nation.   If it is, Matt O'Shea will have no business being Alderman of the 19th Ward.

Mary Schmich, Tell Me Quick, Before I Fainst; Iz We Friends. or Iz We Ain't? Why The Liars of the Media Love Narrative, Not Truth

False statement is a fancy term for lie. Mary Schmich Pulitzer Prize Recipient

Mary Schmich grew up in Georgia in a family of 10. She went to high school in Phoenix and attended Pomona College in California, where she co-edited the college newspaper. She still remembers the smell of rubber cement. . . .Mary Schmich Tribune Bio

I usually take a pass on Chicago Tribune's Mary Schmich columns.  They have the tone of an NPR passive aggressive on crack.  Hey, but that's just me. Ms. Schmich is a Pulitzer Prize Recipient. Here is what Pulitzer says about Ms. Schmich, " (The Prize) For her wide range of down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city."  

Like this prairie fire of blazing thought:

We can all agree that certain kinds of people are unfit to be mayor of Chicago.
Crooks. Wimps. Anyone who can’t at least pretend to love baseball.
And how about people who went to high school on the North Shore?
When the rivals to replace Mayor Richard Daley met for a debate Thursday, Gery Chico suggested that Rahm Emanuel doesn’t pass mayoral muster because of where he’s from.
“He comes from the wealthy North Shore, I come from the Back of the Yards,” Chico said, talking with the media after the debate. “If you come from the South Side, you think of Chicago like a South Sider. He’s North Shore wealth, entitlement and privilege.”
Chico pointed out that Emanuel attended “the wealthiest high school in the state of Illinois.” That’s New Trier in Winnetka.
“If you come from Wilmette, Winnetka, Lake Forest, that’s what you think like,” Chico said. “I didn’t go to some elite high school. I went to Kelly High School.”
Chico is partly right. The North Shore is different from Chicago.  

 Boy, howdy it sure is, Mary!  Mary went on to take no position.  Outsiders, are people too,

" . . .Gery Chico undoubtedly understands some things about Chicago that Rahm Emanuel doesn’t.
But that doesn’t indicate who can best manage this city. Governing a city requires seeing it on many levels, and sometimes an outsider’s eye is the clearest one.
Emanuel, insider and outsider, is the front-runner in the mayor’s race. Chico is his closest rival. They’d both, probably, make decent mayors."  

  Yet, within this equivocation, buried deeply, is this Schmichian insight,

" The city remains deeply segregated, racially and economically. Its mansions and skyscrapers are surrounded by neighborhoods where jobs are scarce, guns are abundant, schools are chaotic and it’s hard to buy a fresh vegetable.

The candidate who sees those divisions clearly, and has the best plan for repairs, is the one to vote for, regardless of where he or she went to high school.  

 Something to that - Five Mayors attended De La Salle Institute and only four left the City in something like good shape and one teamed up with the Progressive elites and gave us our Balkan Banana Republic as Chicago stands today, where a gal can't buy a fresh vegetable, except at Whole Foods, Jewel, Caputo's, Pete's Produce, Tony's Mariano's, or Cermak Produce.

Well Rahm won and Mary wants some truth.

She knows what cops go through - she is a Pulitzer Prize Recipient.

Today, Mary Schmich goes all Gangsta on Lies and Liars who give false statements, like ' No Ransom was paid, but a plane load of Euros and Swisse Francs on pallets landed when the four were released,' or ' Pastor Pfleger has done, so much for the people of Auburn Gresham,' or ' Police killings are rooted in systemic racism,'  or ' more of your money makes better public schools,' or  well you have read plenty and here is more, Mary Schmich: 

"On Thursday, Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson recommended that seven officers be fired for lying.In an email to the force, he said the seven had made false statements about what happened on the now-infamous night that a 17-year-old African-American named Laquan McDonald was shot to death on a city street by a Chicago cop. False Statement is a fancy term for a lie."

 Now, you may recall my mention of the fact Mary Schmich is a Pulitzer Prize Recipient because of  "her wide range  of down-to-earth columns that reflect the character and capture the culture of her famed city."  I know of another 'down-to-earth' voice that captures the culture of our famed city - Second City Cop*. The great Steve Allen once said that Chicago had an authentic voice that he described as " a tone that one hears. . . that of a nice friendly Detective, . . . you hear it more in the male and the middle class . . . it is an un-neurotic voice. "  

So, I went to that voice and I heard this, "So now, the Department is firing people for statements contradictory to the video? Were the officers allowed to review the video prior to signing statements? Were statement even signed or were Detective summaries of interviews used to "justify" this travesty? (emphases my own)

Here's a neat little graphic: What a video camera records from a fixed spot is different from what an officer may see ten feet to the left, twenty feet to the right, from behind cover, from a moving vehicle, from across the street. That doesn't make it wrong and it certainly doesn't make it criminal, let alone an offense deserving of separation. Johnson is playing politics with seven coppers lives while three or more exempts skate into secure futures." (emphases my own)

Yeah, about that false statement being a lie - it can be Ms. Schmich.  How about a lie of omission?

Two words, five little syllables are missing from Mary Schmich's scold: Rahm Emanuel.

The video release of the 2014 shooting of the PCB jacked-up knife wielding menace-er of Burger Kings in Garfield Ridge, Laquan McDonald by a Chicago Police Officer, was delayed by the man who hires the Superintendent of Police.  

Mary Schmich, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, spins the compelling narratives that keeps the liars in the game and praises the judas-goating of random cops.

Any truth to that?

* from the SCC comments - this merits a prize:

 Anonymous said...Knowing the officers involved it disgusts me what the supt is doing. These officers did NOTHING wrong. You cannot tell anyone what they saw from their vantage point. It's a complete railroad job by this asshole and good coppers and more importantly good people are losing their jobs because of politics and racial rhetoric
8/19/2016 12:19:00 AM

Who's A'Scared of the Big Red Scare? The Media Don't Want to Be Old Ernest T.

Milwaukee Burns - here is why.

Flynn(Milwaukee Police Chief) cast blame on some Chicago-based activists representing the Revolutionary Communist Party, who apparently organized young people to take to the streets and march on the then-barricaded District 7 police station, which received a number of threats.
"The (group) showed up, and actually they’re the ones who started to cause problems leading into evening by marching and trying to take over Sherman and Burleigh," Flynn said. "That was about 11:30 at night. We made it to 11:30 in the evening, and we had these characters show up …" The Chicago Tribune

 In October 1947, 10 members of the Hollywood film industry publicly denounced the tactics employed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), an investigative committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, during its probe of alleged communist influence in the American motion picture business. These prominent screenwriters and directors, who became known as the Hollywood Ten, received jail sentences and were banned from working for the major Hollywood studios. Their defiant stands also placed them at center stage in a national debate over the controversial anti-communist crackdown that swept through the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Besides the Hollywood Ten, other members of the film industry with alleged communist ties were later banned from working for the big movie studios. The Hollywood blacklist came to an end in the 1960s. History.com

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the prospect of communist subversion at home and abroad seemed frighteningly real to many people in the United States. These fears came to define–and, in some cases, corrode–the era’s political culture. For many Americans, the most enduring symbol of this “Red Scare” was Republican Senator Joseph P. McCarthy of Wisconsin. Senator McCarthy spent almost five years trying in vain to expose communists and other left-wing “loyalty risks” in the U.S. government. In the hyper-suspicious atmosphere of the Cold War, insinuations of disloyalty were enough to convince many Americans that their government was packed with traitors and spies. McCarthy’s accusations were so intimidating that few people dared to speak out against him. It was not until he attacked the Army in 1954 that his actions earned him the censure of the U.S. Senate. History.com

“Maybe his [Satan’s] greatest achievement in these times has been to make us believe that he does not exist, and that all can be fixed on a purely human level,”  Pope Francis

I can almost hear Eric Zorn in The Chicago Tribune boning up to Change the Subject,"The Hollywood Blacklist, Senator Joe McCarthy, Chilling.  Who believes that Satan is cause of the world's evil?  Come on! Where's the science in that?"

Social Science? Physics?

Milwaukee, like Baton Rouge, St. Paul, Philadelphia and Dallas have been treated to riots, media circus-es, murders and assaults on police officers, because funded, well- organized little devils enthralled with the hammer and sickle and hot rhetoric and sloganeering ventured to those post-Ferguson flash points, with signage, fliers and bull horned cheerleaders from not only the Black Live Matters newbies, but veteran agitators from CPUSA, the Revolutionary Communist Party and International Solidarity Organization.  Reds and the usual useful idiots.






Snopes - a fact countering mill of Occupy,inc. says, don't believe our lying eyes." In fact, Reds are behind the more violent encounters in post-Ferguson America.
 

The American Journalist ( Medill School/Columbia variety) eschews the shoe-leather reporter image, for the Brand Journalist: gone to the finest schools, Miss Lonely, and got used to it; activist with ink and a soul-patch; Glenn Greenwald approved and Howard Zinn washed in the blood of revolutionary martyrs, but still maintain hip and with it ironic lifestyle.

One sure path to journalistic self-immolation is to walk on the wild side of the agreed upon narratives.  For example, when was the last time a Chicago, New York, or BumHump, Iowa journalist connected the dots pointing to Marxist lawyers and journalists involved in the Wrongful Conviction/ Police Torture industries? Never.  You never read a columnist like Mark Brown, Neil Steinberg, Eric Zorn, or Carol Marin question the number of times Judge Robert Gettleman ruled for G. Flint Taylor - judge shopping.

Shucks when was the last time any one of the above mentioned CTU puppet-master Jesse Sharkey's take over of the public service union for the International Solidarity Organization?  Wha?  Whaa?
Atticus Finch
It is unseemly to suggest, much less point out the very real and tangible evidence of organized and well-funded Marxist agenda at work on in our streets, courts, schools and public service unions.  Can't do that; it's called Red baiting.

One can Hillbilly Bait.  One can Evangelical Christian bait. One may Jew bait,so long as it is for the Death of Israel.  One does not need to Catholic bait, because our clergy and hierarchy does a pretty good job sneering at us in the press. But, Red bait.  No way, Jose Stalin.

Progressives (most columnists and editorial board members) tend to view themselves as Atticus Finch. especially activist lawyers who even dress like old Atticus.  Progressives view the rest of us as Ernest T. Bass.
Many of us deemed to be Ernest Ts, do not want to be considered so and we join along with group thought and ape the narratives and end up looking like Ernest T. Bass in a slick panama suit.

The media hides the fact that Reds are agitating the violence.

The potential for a revolutionary crisis lies within the very nature of this capitalist system itself—with its repeated economic convulsions, its unemployment and poverty, its profound inequalities, its discrimination and degradation, its brutality, torture and wars, its wanton destruction. All this causes great suffering. And at times it leads to crisis on one level or another—sudden jolts and breakdowns in the “normal functioning” of society, which compel many people to question and to resist what they usually accept. No one can say in advance exactly what will happen in these situations—how deep the crisis may go, in what ways and to what extent it might pose challenges to the system as a whole, and to what degree and in what ways it might call forth unrest and rebellion among people who are normally caught up in, or feel powerless to stand up against, what this system does. But two points are very important:
1) Such “jolts” in the “normal functioning” of things, even if they do not develop all the way to a fundamental crisis for the system as a whole, do create situations in which many more people are searching for answers and open to considering radical change. The work of building the movement for revolution must be consistently carried out at all times, but in these situations of sharp breaks with the “normal routine” there is greater possibility, and greater potential, to make advances. This must be fully recognized and built on to the greatest degree possible, so that through such situations, leaps are made in building up the movement and the organized forces for revolution, creating in this way a stronger basis from which to work for further advances.
2) In certain situations, major events or big changes can happen in society and the world and can come together in such a way that the system is shaken to its foundations...deep cracks appear and magnify within the ruling structures and institutions...the raw relations of oppression are more sharply exposed...conflicts among the powers-that-be deepen, and cannot be easily resolved, and it becomes much more difficult for them to hold things together under their control and keep people down. In this kind of situation, for great numbers of people, the “legitimacy” of the current system, and the right and ability of the ruling powers to keep on ruling, can be called seriously and directly into question, with millions hungering for a radical change that only a revolution can bring about. RevCom

The riots in Milwaukee prove that but the media wants us to believe that Reds don't exist - just like Satan

Meet Ald. Brian Hopkins The Gentry Liberal of the Liberal Gentry

"It (softball fields) really ties up the park for hours a day all summer long," Hopkins said. "You don't even want to be on the running track because you'll be hit by a fly ball."

Gentry Liberalism - "Gentry liberalism combines four basic elements: faith in postindustrial “creative” financial capitalism, cultural liberalism, Gore-ite environmentalism and the backing of the nation’s arguably best-organized political force, public employee unions. Obama rose to power on the back of all these forces and, until now, has governed as their tribune."

To the doctrines of Gentry Liberalism I would add the concept of the smart city - that high-density living in the core, rather than suburban sprawl, is the optimal design for the modern urbanopolis.

Chicago was a city of villages, called neighborhoods occupied by African Americans, Lithuanians, Croatians, Serbs, Poles, Italians, Irish and Germans.  The city center, the Loop, was where you might go to work, take the bus, or L home to your neighborhood - West Lawn, Clearing, Englewood, or Hegewisch.

Real estate, banks, TIFs, University of Chicago social scientists, Northwestern journalists and Shakman exempted public grifters, as well operators of gyms, bike fascists and empty nesters bought into city center living.  The south Loop, west of the Loop and Goose Island became choice real estate, once Richie Daley was convinced to knock down the Jets.  HUD sprinkled FHA tenants out into Englewood, Gresham, Lawndale, Austin and the immediate suburbs to cut off white flight.

This Progressive, affluent and self-concerned coalition changed the Chicago landscape, language and lifestyle.  Neighborhoods became communities.  The Fort Dearborn Massacre became a battle and the verbal "shootings" were padded with the modifiers gang-related and police - to ensure media purity of language and litigation surety.  Fried boneless chicken breast is not a Chicago Value. Bike lanes replaced everything, Divvy stations took up parking spaces and fruit flavored IPAs replaced beer.

A few weeks ago two of the more idiotic members of City government put their dainty toes in the waters to see how a private army of real estate cops would fly.  One of these worthies is Alderman Brian Hopkins!  Along with Proco Joe Moreno, Hopkins shares the Wicker Park community, as hipster-doofi barons.  Proco Joe, at the prodding of Rahm Emanuel, made a national joke of himself ( always a good litmus test for a Progressive - see Jan Schakowsky and Mike Quigley) when he thundered against fried boneless chicken.

Well, Brian Hopkins is plunging into similar notoriety with his indictment of 16" Chicago, Clincher softball ( God, I hope it is that and not the dweeb-happy 'play with gloves' variety) being played in Chicago Parks.

Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) told the Chicago Park District board last week that he would prefer a "grassy meadow" over the ball fields at Lake Shore Park, 808 N. Lake Shore Drive, citing concerns from neighbors who say its adult softball league has outgrown the quaint park surrounded by luxury high-rises.

I would prefer a greasy cheeseburger smothered in grilled onions basket with cheesefries over a new bike lane any day, but that ain't about to happen.

Parks are for people not some hipster doofus with a sinecure. The mission of the Chicago Park District is to:

• Enhance the quality of life in Chicago by becoming the leading provider of recreation and leisure opportunities
• Provide safe, inviting and beautifully maintained parks and facilities
• Create a customer-focused and responsive park system that prioritizes the needs of children and families 

Looks like Brian fails the sniff test on all three infinitives; undaunted the Progressive crank is undeterred:

"It ( people playing a team sport) really ties up the park for hours a day all summer long," Hopkins said. "You don't even want to be on the running track because you'll be hit by a fly ball." HIKE THAT SKIRT!
The park has two diamonds that are primarily used by an adult coed league run by Chicago Sport & Social Club. Hopkins said the diamonds "are not really in an ideal place" for the league, which has some "pretty good players" who often hit the ball out of the park.
"One ball hit the side of a CTA bus not too long ago," he said. "It's an accident waiting to happen." ( emphases, sarcasm, sexist irony and parenthetical notes my own)

Think of the Buses, People!!!!!!!!!

Hopkins ends his appeal with that grand old Progressive chestnut -The Children, "If you want to use the field to teach your kid to kick a soccer ball, throw a Frisbee, lay a blanket down for a picnic, you can’t,"

Send your kid with other kids to the prairie like normal people. You picnic in a Chicago mini-park?  Vote this clown down.

These clowns really are too much, but not nearly as "too much" as the voting Chicagoan who goes along with our protected morons.

Shakman Exempt Career Grifter Forrest Claypool Explains The Pad in The Sun Times

 Career Grifter and Shakman exempt Forrest Claypool CPS Boss and Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney are amused. So would we all, were we oligarchs and not helots.

To be "On the pad" means that someone, usually in law enforcement or other position of authority, regularly takes bribes.Detective Dolan was kicked off the force because he had been on the pad to local wiseguys for years.Urban Dictionary

Shakman Exempt - Anyone Micheal Shakman deems to be

• A-OK, on-the-level, a stand-up Progressive, really great person, who will feed all news outlets precious pieces of propaganda to ensure that no helots, their fat breeder wives, or horrible kids ever get a fair shake, much less a job dragging a shovel behind a big, blue City, operated Garbage truck and just keep their damn traps shut about how good Shakman Exempts have it . .  . well, not as good as Michael Shakman, but then again, Michael was blessed by the late Abner Mikva

• Necessary to maintaining "Our Village City," for US, By Us and only US in this urban Banana Republic

Forrest Claypool, more than any other public person in Chicago, is the perfect Progressive Shakman Statesman.

Since the fabled and idiotic 1983 Federal Decree, limited to Cook County, gelded the Cook County Democratic Committee and made a Committeeman as useless as a mint flavored suppository.

Claypool boarded the Cook County Ship of State,right after law school where he branded himself as "an attorney and served in several non-elected positions in state and county government, including deputy commissioner of the Cook County Board of Appeals and as Deputy State Treasurer " and yadda, yadda, yadda from meeting Dave Axelrod to Kopping a plea in the Chicago Sun Times this morning, and has been looting it to the scuttles ever since.

Today, Forrest fogs the facts with his love of children and heroic chinless jaw thrusting in the name of the people, as well as working his Huckleberry Hound-like-Carbondale Hillrod eyes in perplexed self-pity at being caught out.

In response to your editorial (CPS can’t afford to flunk ethics, transparency class — Aug. 12), as CEO of Chicago Public Schools, I take seriously the trust the public places in us and my responsibility to protect every dollar for our classrooms. ( scan for giggles, tittering, or rolled eyes and go thundering!)
That’s why my administration pursued (BUT never brought) a potential ( Yeah, I said Potential) civil rights lawsuit against the state of Illinois. With the district’s very survival at stake, and years of academic progress at risk because of a racially discriminatory funding system, retaining the finest legal counsel was paramount.
A last-minute settlement by Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislators altered the need for such a drastic measure. However, had the lawsuit been necessary, the skills of outside counsel could have been the difference between defeat and victory. That’s why, with the concurrence of CPS Board President Frank Clark ( AKA- The COMEd Mailroom Guy), I sought out Jenner & Block, perhaps the nation’s leading litigation firm with a proven track record in civil rights cases. CPS’ general counsel himself ( Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney).is one of the country’s preeminent litigators,( Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney.).having served as the American Bar Association’s litigation chair.
The Sun-Times’ character aspersions are beneath the well-considered views of this editorial page. Our general counsel ( Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney).earns a tiny fraction of his private-sector pay and the attorneys at Jenner & Block took this case at steeply discounted rates, because of their belief in the cause. Few attorneys (Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney). or firms of this stature and expertise would do so. . . ."

And so on with the firm belief that everyone in Cook County is a dope and  Forrest Claypool is not - he's a Shakman Exempt!

The Inspector General told the Sun Times these pearl onions of interest left out of Claypool's gimlet:

• Acting in closed session on July 27, the school board voted to pay as much as $250,000 to Jenner & Block, which spent months preparing a never-filed lawsuit against the state seeking increased funding.
• The Sun-Times reported Marmer left the law firm in 2013 but has continued to receive yearly payments of $200,000, which are to end in 2018.
• Under CPS’ code of ethics, school officials can’t have any “contract management authority” over any deal with a contractor “with whom the employee has a business relationship” — defined as any transaction worth at least $2,500 in a calendar year to the school system employee.
• According to Claypool, Marmer wasn’t involved in hiring Jenner & Block, which he said “was my decision” along with Frank Clark, the board president.
• A CPS spokeswoman declined to comment Monday. ( You Know It, Mabel!)
• The lawsuit Jenner & Block was preparing didn’t get filed because legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner agreed on a stopgap budget deal on June 30 that’s to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to CPS.
• Marmer and Claypool once worked together at Jenner & Block. Claypool worked there in 1982 — his first job out of law school. Marmer was at the firm from 1978 to 1993 and 1997 until 2013.
• Marmer — who had a solo law practice after leaving Jenner & Block and started his $185,000-a-year job at CPS on Nov. 2, 2015 — has made $29,000 in campaign contributions to Claypool’s bids for elected office since 2003. That includes $10,000 toward Claypool’s unsuccessful run for Cook County assessor in 2010. Marmer also gave $5,000 to Rahm Emanuel’s first campaign for mayor in 2011. (And Forrest Got the CTA! Ventra and Bomdardier!!!)
• Jenner & Block began working for CPS on March 3, though the contract with the firm that Claypool’s administration released last month was dated June 20.
• Through June 30, the firm had billed the school system for more than $182,000.
• CPS had refused to release any of the firm’s invoices for more than two months after the Sun-Times filed a public records request seeking them in May.
• The Jenner & Block lawyer who signed the deal with CPS was Randall Mehrberg, who worked for the Chicago Park District in the 1990s when Claypool was parks chief under then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. State election board records show Mehrberg contributed a total of $30,500 to Claypool’s campaigns and $10,000 to Emanuel.

Let's all join hands and sing the joys we all share in our Chicago oligarchy and let's try to remember that Forrest Clypool, really, really  "takes seriously  the trust the public places in us and my responsibility to protect every dollar for our classrooms."

Stosh and Stella in Garfield Ridge can't call Cap Mizenshky, over by the Ward, to see, if, maybe, their son Marek, in the Marines after St. Rita, can get a job on the trucks, when he gets back from KAIA by the Kabul airport this September, because no that would be just Shakman wrong.  Ask Forrest Claypool.