What to Do on Comey Thursday ! N.B. John Kass, Alone, Brings Readers to the Chicago Tribune

John Kass, a river to his people!



Big Jim Comey Spills to Congress, Doo,Dah, DooDah! ( repeat as needed)

Fired F.B.I. Director and J. Edgar Hoover to the Stars, James Comey will dominate the airwaves and suck the oxygen out of this rapidly dying planet, when he tells all to Congress today.

Well, that should clear things up around the Swamp and get them bells of freedom a 'chiming all through this land that's made for you and me.

I read the Chicago Tribune just prior to hitting these keys and it seems Trump is a really, really bad guy and will soon be shown the back exit door of the White House; maybe, even before Baron and Melania show up with the Mayflower vans from Trump Tower, or wherever the tribe lights the campfire.

The always prissy Steve Chapman and the editorial eel-spine-ed Bruce Dold detest President Trump, which always is a stack of chips in his favor for this citizen. On Sunday, Rex Huppke went wee-wee all over Deplorables like me and so many others.

I could punch a mime and pee off the edge of the Eiffel Tower while shouting "America First!" and I would still, without question, be viewed as a higher caliber American than the president.
European vacations are now going to be a blast. We can get away with anything and still seem classy by comparison.
Thanks, President Trump! The people of the United State of Inanity salute you.

Rex Huppke Micturates into above said river.  

What a gas!  What wit! What a self-absorbed asshole! Rex Huppke might get knowing snorks from the beret and knit cap crowd, but his bile is only read by us working stiffs to see just how badly the oligarchs detest us.  The only inane Americans I know of call themselves journalists.

John Kass alone is why people read the Chicago Tribune, Rex.   Rex Huppke, Steve Chapman, Clarence Page the Al Roker of African American Opinion, Mary Schmich and Eric Zorn  all get salaries to insult, deprecate and smarm their contempt for working Americans and college-educated citizens in possession of common sense.  Rave on, Resistance writers, John Kass is providing you the trump to carry on.

Yep, Trump is crispy,over-heated bread. What can Comey add to conversation in the media wind tunnel?

Nuttin'!

So, today, after a nice two mile round trip to St. John Fisher for Communion and vigorous scrubbing of the kitchen floor, I intend to walk the precincts of the 19th Ward and inhale the vapors of this beautiful and sunny day.

I shall get a haircut at Cutrone's barbershop on 111th and learn about London's vote, as Giovanni's daughter-in-law and her brother are from Old Blighty.  Brother-in-law is a barber and will have something to say on the London Bridge massacre. Cutrone's has English Football playing every day.  Patrons watch Limey Football.  John Kass would love this place. I have never seen a Chicago Tribune at Cutrone's and Sun Times is folded over to the near invisible sports section.

No Bears, no Bulls, but plenty of Chelsea F.C., Tottenham, West Ham United F.C., Chrystal Palace F.C. and Arsenal F.C.  dominate Cutrones huge flat screen T.V.s.   Arsenal ?  Yep.


The leader of the ISIS trio was wearing an Arsenal jumper when he gored tourists and neighbors with his blade.

Yep, that Trump's a tramp.

And tramp I shall with my locks shorn and smelling like Clubman these feet will meet the concrete all the way to Oak Lawn (2.3 miles in 45 minutes) and drop in my granddaughter for sound feeding and changing at the hands of a practiced baby-wrangler. After an hour or two of rubber-caged mugging and idiotic imitations of Mel Blanc to coax out a smile from Miss Lily, I will beat a retreat.

Another 45 minutes of invigorating strides and home to shower and change for my early evening assignation with Miss Terry Sullivan and a stroll through Little Italy's Columbus Park to take in some Thursday T-ball and minor softball, before a light supper at Tufano's Vernon Parkway Tap.

We will engage in lively issues concerning art, film, jazz and real estate in Forest Park.

This makes a swell day.

Comey?

No, I got a haircut at Cutrone's.

Obama Girl Busted - Reality7 Sara Winner Now Alpha Mike Foxtrot!

 Reality7 Sara Winner - HBO series in the line-up?   Sorry, that was mean.

Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled as they have been during the Bush administration. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.  Obama & Biden 2008

On Monday, she ( Reality7 Sara Winner) was charged after the FBI arrested her Saturday at her home in Augusta, Georgia. She faces up to 10 years in prison for the classified leak, according to CNN. She's back in court on Thursday.
Winner was accused of leaking a report that showed Russian intelligence tried to hack U.S. voting systems before the election in November. The Intercept shared printed pages of the report, and the folds and creases in the documents gave away that they had been "printed and hand-carried out of a secured space." From that, the agency saw six people had printed the report and then tracked down the one person from the group who had emailed the news outlet.
Her motivations for leaking are not yet known. But she left a lot information about herself online. She was active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for years and shared her anti-Trump and other political sentiments on the platforms. Mashable.com

Sara Winners @Reezlie@JZarif There are many Americans protesting US govt aggression towards Iran. If our Tangerine in Chief declares war, we stand with you!

 @JZarif "There are many Americans protesting US govt aggression towards Iran." Name two.

Oh, that's right.  Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett.

Reality7 Sara Winner too. . . . and Baby Makes Three! But, what about Vlad the Bad and the Muscovite Deplorables?

Reality7 Sara Winners is Federal Employee, an NSA contractor, and she and people like her are the reason Barack Obama became President and remained President. She looks like a character created by HBO - quirky, smirky and no fan of the man with Orange tan and mane in the White House.

This is odd.  One might, might mind you, suppose, that having consumed the memes pumped out by the minute at CNN and New York Times that the Russian colluder would be some Spaulding-like cousin of President Trump, or an Obama fired ex-military snake eater.

Rather, we have a Lena Dunham look-alike with a real metaphorical stiffy for President Trump and a Federal Employee covered by Obama's Whistle Blower Deep State Spakle.

Four neat guys, called the Intercept, received classified documents from Reality Sara Winner and the Russians got a back door to the NSA firewall. The Intercept is owned by Pierre Omidyar and has a dubious record of achievement,

NSA info is as easy to get as one of them Walgreens Red Noses.  Everyone has it.  Wee Little Mike Quigley of Congress wildly waved his crocidile arms to all one and sundry about Russkies tweaking the Illinois Board of Elections, "If you had read what I had read and heard and so forth, and you watch this president and how he's acted under certain situations, if there's ever a president who would defy the Supreme Court, this is the one," Quigley said..

Little Mike is on the House Intelligence Committee and is gabbier than Col. McCormick about Midway Codes. 

Reality7 is one of Barack Obama's heroic patriots playing at whistleblower.

Boy, that Trump is sure dangerous.

Common? Not a Bit; a Most Singular Man in Our Cookie Cutter Culture

I see Common is in a new movie. I will see it.  Common is a great actor.

Common is the name of a Rap artist and very solid actor. He is a south side kid from Calumet Heights, under the Skyway and over by the Avalon Theater, around 87th. and Chicago Ave. sliced by Stoney Island.

Rap, Hip-Hop and Gangstah Rap is not to my tastes.  However, no genre is all bad or all good and true genius emerges unexpectedly from music panned by old timers, just as novelty pop had been in my 1960's era- Alley Oop is no novelty tune; it is the swagger of American manhood: " He walks thru the jungle tearin' limbs off a trees/ Knocks BIG monsters flat on their knees." Q.E.D. Look at that caveman go!

Every American male should be baptized in this song*. The cats don't bug him, because they no better/ He's mean-motor-scooter and bad go-getter.

In the first decade of this new century, roughly 2006, I bothered Leo High School's Executive Assistant,Miss Natasha Adams, almost daily about a tune that was played on WGCI 107.5 FM.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6mnKNr2Tiq8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

" 'Tash, who does that song again?" I would ask. . ..every time I passed Miss Adams' desk.

"Common."

" Who are they?"

"Common is one man."

"Common what?"

" Just "Common," Mr. Hickey, like Cher?"

"Is that his real name?"

" No, he has a real name and he graduated from Luther South."

" I like that song. What's it called?"

" Corner"

"Corner, by Common?"

" Yes."

" One word?"

"What?"

"One word - he got a thing for one word?"

" Songs over, Mr. Hickey.  Scat!  I must type these letters for Mr. ( President) Foster."

"Why one word?"

"Ask Mr. Foster."

" Thing for one word.  Weird."

" Hickey! Go raise money and leave me alone, please."

"One word - Hickey!  Like Common."

"No, not like Common!  Go!"

I got.

I liked Corner.  I did not care for most Hip-Hop, but this was authentic and deep and included the OGs of the genre The Last Poets.  I was introduced to the Last Poets just before I began teaching in Kankakee, IL and teachers like Dave Raiche, Jim Frogge and Nick Novich were most hip to the Last Poets.  I loved Jazz and Nick Novich pointed out the jazz nuances reflected in the scatting and percussive hammering of inages by The Last Poets, a la Sun Ra and Rashan Roland Kirk.

I next became steeped  in Common watching that wonderful tale of the transcontinental railroad Hell on Wheels.   He was riveting.  Common played the role of a recently freed black man as a tower of dignity and fierce intelligence.

The young man is no screaming Samuel L. Jackson minstrel show player. He uses his powerful and studied voice like the musician he is and paints the vocal tower of singular poise that matches his physical grace.     <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XcbaXH2PN8I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> See what I mean?

Also, Common never manages to make a complete goof of himself and presents youngsters with a solid image of a centered man.  He is not a media creep and political weasel like Chance the Rapper seems to be, nor is he a knuckle head with a death wish like Chief Keef AND  HE DOES NOT SCREAM AT THE TOP OF HIS VOICE ABOUT NONSENSE LIKE SAMUEL L. JACKSON@# Dialit down.

Common exudes dignity.

Few actors can carry this off - Spencer Tracy and Anthony Quinn come to mind. No notices anyone else when they are on screen. Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe and Common are about the two best examples of this quality today.


* alternatives:

•  Expressway to Your Heart - Soul Survivors
• The Joint is Jumpin' - Fats Waller
• But It's Alright - JJ Jackson
• It's a Shame - The Detroit Spinners
• Cook Jerk - The Capitols
• In Crowd - Dobie Gray and Ramsey Lewis
• Love is a Hurting Thing - Lou Rawls
• Ain't Peculiar - Marvin Gaye
• Young Blood - The Coasters
• Um,umm,mmm.mmmm - Major Lance

  

It Takes a Special Kind of SOB to Stab Anyone and a Gang of Very Special SOBs to Stage a Fake PC CNN Feel-Good Protest

London Bridge terror attack First victim of London Bridge massacre identified as "beautiful" Canadian bride-to-be Chrissy Archibald. She was butchered by the son of a bitch bleeding out on the London sidewalk. 

Have any of you been stabbed?  I worked as a meat cutter for Jewel Foods in the late 1960's and bear the scars from accidental ( I hope) stabbings to my wrist, thigh and arms.  We wore chain-mail gloves when cutting huge pieces from beef, pig and lamb carcasses.  We were especially careful with one another, but accidents do happen. I was cut about eight or ten times and only needed stitches for three slices to my lard.  Nothing too horrific, but a sharp blade cuts deep and really begins to hurt hours later. 

I gained a deep and abiding respect for the trade and what the tools can do to living flesh.  There is also a deep sympathy in my heart for stabbing victims.

A gun takes no amount of will, courage, or hate to let fly at another person.  It is a coward's weapon of choice. A bat, length of pipe and especially a knife requires a true psychopathic person to bring on the suffering.

You must be some kind of deeply disturbed and rotten human being to beat or stab another human being to death.  You are a practiced son of a bitch, if you can do either. This London hero witnessed the stabbers and helped the police knock them off.  Here is a compelling report from the London Mirror: 



You must practice to this kind of violence. This could not have been the ISIS trio's first rodeo.
Practice on small and large animals, graduated to harming small and harmless people and perfected in the act of murder to 'send a message.'

I can understand the hate and frustration that might volcano into a passionate stabbing of a person by a person who has had some conflict - eating the last pizza slice, or kissing the wrong girl - but to conduct a stabbing rampage on anonymous people as a gift to Allah?  That is some sick stuff.

In London, this past weekend, the world once again witnessed the devout disciples of the Religion of Peace run-over and stab scores of people going about their lives, only a few weeks after their brethren set off shrapnel spewing bomb vests a concert hall full of little girls.  By Allah's beard, these are not Mormons doing this, nor are they Knights of Columbus, Greek Orthodox monks and sure as hell are not members of B'nai B'rith.  They are Muslims.

The IRA were Catholic lads.  The UVF were Protestant Boys.  They were sectarian sons of bitches who blew up one another as well as non Celts. ISIS is not a secular club.

Muslims are victims as much as non-Muslims.  However, the stabbing, beating, beheading, butchering and vehicle assaulting sons of bitches tune-up at Mosques and not around  Salvation Army kettles. CAIR never comes down hard on terror.   CAIR is Sinn Fein with a Koran.

Our secular theology of global ecology hootenanny harmony is the dogma attached to those who benefit from  terror, science jihad and wealth redistribution scams.  CNN is one of the most oily, obvious and obnoxious defenders of Globalist Secular Theology - No God, No Master but Mammon.

Immediately after the horrific stabbings and crushings of innocent tourists and Londoners.  CNN offered this:



I saw it and felt in my heart, " This is pure bullshit, worthy of PBS."  I read quite a bit and one source I choose is from Israel Artuz Sheva 7.   Israel knows all about the stabbing for Allah trope.  Their site offered a confirmation of my suspicions.




And they offered insight to the goings on behind the cameras and mic-booms.

The reporter narrating the segment is Becky Anderson an Abu Dhabi-based CNN news anchor, who praises the gathering as “a wonderful scene”.
But footage recorded just behind CNN’s cameras cast some doubt as to the veracity of Anderon’s coverage of the alleged protest. he behind-the-scenes footage, which quickly went viral, shows Anderson calling over the “Muslim Mothers” and positioning them in front of the cameras.
Criticism of what some dubbed CNN’s “fake news” or the “fake protest” spread like wildfire.
According to the original uploader of the behind-the-scenes clip, Mark Antro, CNN not only positioned the demonstrators in front of the cameras for a better shot, but also brought in minority police officers for the filming of the clip.
“Note the white police officers leaving before the CNN shot & the Asian officers coming in,” wrote Antro. “They then left after they went off air!”

CNN has claimed Antro’s footage is misleading, telling Mediaite that the demonstrators were simply allowed through a police cordon at the CNN crew’s request, and that the demonstration was quite real.

You have to be some kind son of a bitch to stab another human being.  Worse, it takes a practiced and soul-less bunch of bastards (CNN) to skew a tale of terror.  CNN says, the report is "quite real."

Quite real.  As genuine as CNN, the Paris Accord, Lord Mayor Khan's concerns and Kathy Griffin's apologies.

" God, or Bust?" Military Becomes More of Cult State Force Than Imperial Rome

 One Man's Church is another Man's Truth*

  ""Beyond Humanism, the new listing is a win for diversity in general, . . . abandon the outdated concept of a god-or-bust chaplaincy," Jason Torpey, Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers,

 "Moses has words. Pharaoh has spears!"  Dathan in Ten Commandments

Yeah, Father Duffy would want more Wiccans in The Fighting 69th.

Inclusive, diverse and as remarkable as the Defense Department's new policy of expanding the list of approved religions to include the " Church of the Spiral Tree" and other earth-centered people of faith, one wonders which god is being served - Mars Invictus, or Lady Gaia.

You see not only did Barack Obama sign America up for Paris Peace Accord by a stroke of the pen, he also signed an Amended Religious Freedom Act just before Christmas, or Saturnalia in 2016, which, on the surface, is an Atticus Finch-like defense of humanism, atheism, agnosticism, and by golly just anything old thing one might like to believe with all of one's little heart.

The Defense Department which has struggled to defeat monotheistic bigots in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the globe, has planted  the Rainbow Flag for the LGBTQ community and managed to cover the Cross and Star of David, when devotees of the Crescent Moon get upset. Threats, really imagined and trumpeted loudly.

Anyway, Chaplain Charlie's Light Show now includes - New Age Churches, Unclassified Churches, Pagans, Wiccans, Magick and Spitualist, Agnostic, Atheist, Unknown, No Preference, No Religion and the Unknown faiths.

Humanism was recognized by the military in 2014, but until this order it wasn't recognized by all branches of the military.
"There have been prior declarations that the government or the military has recognized Humanism in one way or another," Torpy said. "But this is different."
While many new faith groups, such as the "Church Of The Spiral Tree" and "Dianic Wicca" have been added to the list, there are some that have been discarded. Faith groups such as the Tioga River Christian Conference, as well as nondenominational Protestants have been removed from the list.

This sprang for the unofficial religion of the United States the First Church, Temple, Mosque and Meetin' House of the Victim:

The Army has disciplined a military chaplain for making references to the Bible during a suicide-prevention seminar last month.

A serviceman brought the Judeo-Christian religious content to the attention of an atheist group, which complained about it. Now, the chaplain is fighting back, maintaining he did nothing wrong.

The dispute has renewed a debate over the appropriate role of faith in the military.
The chaplain, Capt. Joe Lawhorn, conducted the training session on suicide prevention Nov. 20 at the University of North Georgia. During the session, he shared his personal struggles with depression while an Army Ranger.
What upset the atheist group is that Lawhorn explained how he learned to conquer adversity by following the example of Israel’s warrior king, David, one of the great heroes of the Old Testament.

The three tenets of this secular faith are - Beef, Lawyer-up, Collect.

All these iconoclastic measures against Military Chaplaincy rooted in Judeo-Christian traditions were applauded wildly by the same folks who worship at the Church of Climate Change.

The Roman Legions of the Republic were comprised of citizens who served in in times of crisis and then went home.  The Roman Legions of Imperial Rome were given cults to follow - especially the cult of the State. Ennius wrote in his Annals " Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque." - trans. "The Roman state survives by its ancient customs and its manhood." Annals, Book V

The Roman Army was the last bastion of the pagan. The American Military seems to have reversed that under Obama.

You see, when you do not choose to believe in God, you choose another thing to believe in like The Spiral Tree,

 * 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF EUTHANASIA

The Church of Euthanasia was inspired by a dream, in which Rev. Chris Korda confronted an alien intelligence known as The Being who speaks for the inhabitants of Earth in other dimensions. The Being warned that our planet's ecosystem is failing, and that our leaders deny this. The Being asked why our leaders lie to us, and why so many of us believe these lies. Rev. Korda awoke from the dream moaning the Church's infamous slogan, Save the Planet - Kill Yourself.

Every aspect of the deepening global environmental crisis, including climate change, poisoning of the water and atmosphere, reduction of biodiversity, and topsoil erosion, directly results from the over-abundance of a single species: homo sapiens. The human population is increasing by one million every four days, according the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau. This is a net increase of 95 million per year, the current population of Mexico.

Even a major war or epidemic hardly dents the rate of growth, and modern wars have tremendous environmental consequences. It is for these practical reasons, as well as moral ones, that Euthanasians support only voluntary forms of population reduction, including suicide, free abortion, and sodomy, which they define as any sexual act not intended for procreation. They are also fiercely vegetarian, and support cannibalism for those who insist on eating flesh.

The planet is a living, breathing organism, and is capable of defending itself if necessary. The Church hopes to avoid the suffering this would entail by achieving a massive leap of consciousness in which human beings begin to think of themselves, not as individuals belonging to races or nation-states, but as a species. This species awareness would be the first step towards what Biodiversity author and population expert Paul Erlich calls "our absolute responsibility to protect what are our only known living companions in the universe."

June 1st - Today's Gospel is about the Gospel

Gospel JN 17:20-26
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
"I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them."

I am not a big fan of John's gospel - too esoteric and "closed community" for my tastes.  All that Illuminated Word and stuff  -  " In principio erat verbum, et verbum erat apud D(eu)m, et D(eu)s . . . " In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and . . ."

 It is a big hit with Unitarian's and Catholic Call to Action types who tune-in to NPR when XRT is playing Flashback to 1965. John's gospel is loosey-goosey on the matter of judgment and unlike the other three Matthew, Mark & Luke appeals to Clown Jesus - non-judgmental COEXIST Jesus.

My preference is  " I shall smite your ass, Hickey!" voice of the Triuun God.  I believe in consequences and pray mightily to avoid them.

John's gospel is said to be anonymous ( written by a bunch of guys at a bunch of times) but unified around the "Beloved Apostle."  There are four divisions: The Prologue, The Book for Signs, The Book of Glory and the Epilogue - like a Quinn Martin Production.

Today's gospel section comes from what scholars call the Book of Glory and takes place after the Resurrection.  The money quote is " I pray not only for these ( Disciples and hangers-on), but also for those who will believe in me through their word ( Us). 

I have been a teacher for more than forty years.   Young people are not hard-wired to read Paradise Lost, Absalom & Achitophel, Look Homeward Angel, The Divine Comedy, Canterbury Tales, or Anna Karenina.   That's the task.

Christ prayed  for teachers, cops, nurses, electricians, pipe-fitters and locksmiths - anyone who passes on the codes to Universal Truth: not my truth, or group think.

Things are Pretty Darn Good. Overcoming Trumpanoia and Worrying About What I Think

The establishment pushed the wars and free trade and their partners in the corporate-government matrix agreed to the sending off of capital (and jobs) to foreign lands.
For all the talk of partisanship, Democrats and Republicans were the two horns on the head of the goat.
And Trump voters? They were forgotten, left behind, mocked as deplorable. John Kass

This Memorial Day weekend, America paid tribute to the men and women who gave all in defense of our Nation.

I thought of my Dad and his brothers who fought in the Pacific, North Africa, Italy and later Korea , my older neighbors pre-Draft Lottery,  from the high school classes of 1962-1968, who went to Vietnam.  Fewer of us from 1969-1973, served thanks to the Lottery and Vietnamization.  I remembered the many, many kids that I taught at Bishop McNamara, La Lumiere and Leo High School who served in Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Iraq,  Afghanistan - kids like Adam Voight (La Lumiere 1988) who gave up scholarships to enlist as privates and eventually fly Apache helicopters in Desert Storm, and Pat Donley, Bishop McNamara 1979, who served as Marine aboard the USS Iowa, when his brothers were murdered by terrorists in Beriut.

I have it very good.


Kathy Griffin, the alleged comic for CNN, is so upset with the Trump American atmosphere that she needed to ritualistically imitate ISIS and lop off President Trump's head.  How tough is that?  The poor thing must really have a time of it opening that tricky foil cover over the Velveeta cheese logs.  It's a struggle.

Some people are upset that I do not want President Trump any more humiliated than he manages on his own.  In fact, I am more than surprised and happy with Trump's Presidency.  He has all of the worst people leading the Resistance against him.  Sadly, too many very good people have joined them.

Some say "my blog sucks and I suck,"  because I write honestly - I do not, nor have I ever held Barack Obama in anything like regard and I am not bothered a jot by the election of Donald Trump.
My blog and I might suck for reasons other than that, but not because the point of view challenges the meme du jour.

That said, love me, or leave me, lamb.  I write because I love people - all people, until they prove themselves to be bullies, grifters, sneaks, hypocrites and moral cowards. Them I might love in the big Christian thematic way, but I 'd rather not have their company, much less their good opinion of me.

I could give a . . . (you fill it in).   I have it good and that ain't bad, to quote the late Louis Prima.

As it is, I own a home, shop at Marianno's, own a car, a library card, my cable works fine, my kids are all educated, moral and employed, the grass is cut, the garbage was picked up yesterday, I teach, I write, I read, John Kass remains a powerful voice in a city of dotards, no one can force me to watch Big Bang Theory, let alone watch it, the only thing Russian that keeps me awake at night is Borscht (hate beets), I have not witnessed any mass executions of Pussy Hat owners, nor is the Planned Parenthood block-house at 51st & Ashland ablaze, my girlfriend still gives me direction on dress, manners and general deportment outside of my bubble here in the 19th Ward, my granddaughter is healthy,chubby and beautiful, gas at Thornton's in Blue Island is $2.46 per gallon, and Cracovia Pitted Sour Cherries mixed with Greek vanilla yogurt is like heroin.

If Trump has you that down, see a medical professional.  Cheer up!  Only suckers beef!  Mix some cherries and yogurt.

If that is not enough for you, House of Cards, season five will take on Trump.  Wash it down with a swell IPA and a good gulp or two of bile. That seems to be the only things that make some folks happy. 

Meet the Smith Brothers - William Wallace and Andrew Smith

The legend of the first cough drop in America begins in a family-owned, small-batch candy store in 1847 and continues with soothing relief that has remedied sore throats and coughs for generations.  Smith Brothers Cough and Throat Drops are a great tasting way to find comfort when you need it.

I have a tickle in my throat today and I wish I had a box of Smith Brothers Cough Drops; well, now they are no more and at the end they came in bags. Bags don't cut it. Though born in Poughkeepsie, Smith Brothers died right here in on the south side of Chicago. The box made them.

At one time, James Smith, a Poughkeepsie, NY candymaker from Fife, Scotland, kept his tasty remedy in sealed glass jars.   Smith had purchased the recipe for the cough drops from a peddler by the name of Sly Hawkins - if ever there was a great name, Old Sly had it nailed down.  However, he had a price for his healthy confection.

James Smith had cherry-flavored gold mine and two sons with canny marketing and public relations skills.  William Wallace and Andrew Smith took Faither's legacy on one very wild ride - from 1856 New York State to 2015 Brighton Park, Chicago:

The last Smith Bros. cough drop rolled off the factory line on Sept. 23, when an equipment malfunction shut down dwindling production for good. Smith Bros. was placed into assignment for the benefit of creditors on Sept. 25, an insolvency proceeding under state law that facilitates liquidating and distributing assets. Chicago Tribune

Back in the day, Smith Brothers dominated the market glutted with Ludens, Halls, Sucrets,  Cepocal, and others, especially the Swiss Ricola.  I loved Smith Brothers. Ludens did nothing for me. Cepocal meant you were dying of TB and Sucrets would gag a maggot.

The Smith Brothers were a testament to soothed toncils and as effective as crossed candles at  the wind pipe of the Feast of St. Blaise. 

I am sorry that this iconic box with the bearded Bros is thing of the past.

Perhaps, we might resurrect the brand. Write screenplay about the adventures of tee-totalling, pinch-penny William Wallace and his whisky tolerant and jovial sibling Andy during the 

• Civil War Camp Douglas - cough drops denied to Confederate prisoners
•  the Cross-Continental Railways competition
•  the Reconstruction of the South with carpet-baggers seeking to foist Ludens on driven-down Dixie
•  the Plains Indians Wars
•  the Rise of Captialism, and the coughing children of Mother Jones' March on the White House
•   Boxes of Smith Brothers in the haversacks of Marines defending the Legation at Peking from the Boxers
•  Smith Brothers and fellow Scot, Allan Pinkerton, unmask  and hang the Molly Maguires - no Green Lives Mattered back then
• Smith Brothers and the Knights of Labor 
• Smith Brothers sent to Panama Canal workers by Teddy Rex
• Jane Addams gives an Italian child Ludens cough drops and he dies and haunts Hull House to this day
•  Smith Brothers Cough Drops aid strikers  in the Stockyards Meat-cutters Walk-outs of 1904 and 1912.

Have Mel Gibson take namesake brother William Wallace, as he played Braveheart already and his little brother, the merry wee-Andy, could be played by the Wolverine - Hugh Jackman

William Wallace Smith - Mel Gibson





Andrew Smith - Hugh Jackman


How's that for Marvel-ous treatment.  Perhaps, Hollywood could do something useful for a change and get a good American product developed by an immigrant and his boys back on the shelves.  Look what movies did for comic books.  But, Please God, NO Stan Lee cameo.  The guy creeps me out. 

Smith Brothers, we hardly knew ye!

Democrats Continue to Get Body Slammed Like Prissy Provocateur and Fox News is Going Down Like a White House Intern of Yore

But outside a handful of small legislative races over the past four months, there hasn’t been a true test of the new, Trump-driven political dynamic at the ballot box. Tuesday, however, begins a series of special elections that will examine whether increased Democratic enthusiasm can deal Trump stinging defeats and reshape the narrative a year-and-a-half before the midterms. Politico

“And you just broke my glasses. You just body slammed me and broke my glasses.” Ben Jacobs, The Guardian




The world of the losers is bright with hope, potential, gritty determination and optimistic by gollyness.

Losers have potential.  Winners do something about losing.

Since November 9th, people who read only the New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Salon, Vanity Fair, Politico, The Atlantic, watch only CNN, NBC, Public Television, MSNBC,CBS and Disney, listen only to NPR, drink only craft beverages, eat organic, think globally and live in gated community have done everything but calm down, in order to unseat the Orange Monster in the White House.

Fox News, to be perfectly fair and balanced, is no CNN and its ratings have proved that in the post-Megyn Kelly era of Shepard Smith.


People who like to see every kid get a participation trophy and omnipresent bullies expelled to Ultima Thule, or at least another school district have eschewed the Phyrgian bonnet rouge of Resistence fighters past, for the pink Pussy Hat in solidarity with the vagina and the nameless oppressed everywhere.  

Women continue to be the superior gender and life matters, to most people.

In all of this Wagnerian sturm and drang  there remains the fact that most Americans ( Elector college-wise) continue to be pretty much satisfied with our hyper -texting, bumptious and Pontifically fat-shamed President and his efforts to undo the idiotically Transformed America of President 44.

In proof, voters have rejected the key puffed-up persons slotted to defeat Trump through Congressional victories, but point to the small ball races in Delaware and Iowa as signal events of our Republic's proud history.  Stephanie Hansen is a Delaware State Senator, because the DNC pumped people and plutocrats into the the local cat-fight.  Huzzah!

However, in key Congressional races in Montana, Georgia and Kansas the cowboy, the kid and ambulance chaser were thumped, dumped and Trumped,

Likewise, the First Reformed Unitarian Fox News channel has tanked.  Post-Reformation heretics like Brett Baier, Catherine Herridge, Britt Hume, Jennifer Griffin, James Rosen,  and Tucker Carlson continue to do credit to their professions. Hannity is the last man standing of the Lonesome Rhodes variety that pumped up sales of gold, silver and used cars for decades.

The Murdoch Boys have come a gutser, by presiding over a news with no pitch and timber indecipherable from CNN and MSNBC and as dry as a Dingo's donger.  Shep Smith all day and all night?  Not worth a Zack, Mates.

Voters continue to reject elitist globalism and viewers ignore the anemic Fox News because it's dryer than a Nun's nasty.  London to a brick, Cobbers!

The message - keep doing what you are doing: have contempt for people, sell style over substance, push idiotic scams couched as social justice and civil rights, exchange the truth for "your truths," and act like spoiled children, but expect real resistance.

They will, "Democrats can also draw some encouragement from the fact that this race was close even before the Republican candidate was charged with misdemeanor assault. Democratic candidates have overperformed their expected vote shares in every House special election of the Trump presidency, all of which have been held in strongly Republican districts. Donald Trump won Montana by 20 points over Hillary Clinton, so Gianforte's seven-point victory over Quist should put the wind up any GOP congressman from a less reliably Republican district."

Uh,huh.