Judicial Watch Might Own the Obama Legacy

"The public has a right to know precisely how Obama and his senior White House advisors Emanuel and Jarrett responded to Blagojevich's corrupt attempts sell Obama's Senate seat."

Hell, yes, I want to know.  More than this, I want to know President Obama's academic records.  I have been under the impression that the man is a dim-bulb from my first encounter with him back in 1997.  Subsequent person-to-person encounters, chats and directions through the ropes of a boxing ring ( 2004) upheld my impression.  My empirical experiences conflicted with the approved narrative that the young man from the Choom Gang was none other than Solon, Moses, Jack Marshall and Bill Moyers wrapped in flesh.  Could I have been wrong in my assessment?  It would not be the first, or the last time.

I believe that we would see a rather weak set of records for the efforts of  a lazy, callow, ambitious, but not overly energetic, disinterested and less than bright student.  Poor attendence, sloppy work, more excuses than pregnant nun will be noted in some columns.

However, I am pleased that Judicial Watch continues to shovel the heavy coal for skeptical old me.

Judicial Watch's lawsuit asks the court to order the interview reports' release, noting:

[U]nder the circumstances it cannot be said that release of the requested records could reasonably be expected to interfere with whatever is left of Blagojevich's criminal prosecution. The public should not be forced to wait any longer to review the FBI 302s of President Obama, former White House Chief of Staff and now City of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, or Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett while Blagojevich pursues his second, plainly futile appeal.

"The FBI interviewed Barack Obama eight years ago about the selling of his Senate seat. The American people should finally get to see these FBI interview reports," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "The public has a right to know precisely how Obama and his senior White House advisors Emanuel and Jarrett responded to Blagojevich's corrupt attempts sell Obama's Senate seat."

Short of seeing the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Laurette's report cards, I will be satisfied to read Senate Seat baiting and Valerie Jarrett's negotiations with the incarcerated Great White Smelt of Patrick Fitzgerald, former Governor, WLS DJ, Elvis Impersonator and Mell Family public money Master Key, Rod Blagojevich.

The Obama Legacy, might, just might be found in the ink transcripts and notebooks of F.B.I. investigators.  This inquiry , subsequent to the release of documents, will be the first peel of the Valerie Jarrett Vidalia!  Madame Jarrett has been Obama's chief handler long before Rahm Emanuel, Dave Axelrod and Bill Daley acted as his Kevlar.

This should be interesting.  I getting big jar of Salted and Black Pepper Cashews when it happens.

Father Tony Brankin, Chicago's Polonia and Zero Chicago News Coverage

“It begins with Mass, the great engine of life. Then the regular prayers of the rosary, Breviary, meditations through the rest of the day and in the car. My spiritual reading is from journals and the classics. I don’t meditate while sculpting. If I’m working on Jesus’ knuckles – that’s what I’m concentrating on.” Father Tony Brankin, St. Odilo's Parish, Berwyn, Illinois

On Nov. 19, when Poland and the Polish people, from the bishops to the government, did that ( Proclaimed Christ the King) through the Jubilee Act of Acceptance, their example became a testimony to the world to do the same. Catholic Register

I spent a wonderful day with the lady I love trolling the shops on Lake Street in Oak Park, while Chicago took on its first snow toupee of the year. We hit bookshops, hat stores and that great Indian Restaurant The Khyber Pass. It was a lovely continuation for a day begun at Mass.

I had gone to Mass at Sacred Heart in Morgan Park with Father Gallagher, an octogenarian hero, who spent most of his priesthood as a missionary in Mexico, who must be the greatest homilist in my Church. Sweetly and succinctly, Father Gallagher relates the Gospel to the daily lives of the blue collar worshipers, who enjoy saying the Memorare after the Creed and singing the standards at Mass.

The only match to Father Gallagher's simple and no-nonsense path to the Cross is a sermon  by Father Tony Brankin, pastor of St. Odilio's in Berwyn.

My lady friend attends Mass at St. Odilo's when not singing at St. John Cantius Church and old Polish parish rated the most beautiful Church in America.  It is.

The Polish attend to the smallest details in all things, from Copernicus to Madame Curie to Pope St. John Paul II.   Poles are one of the largest ethnic (white) demographics in Chicago.  They are arguably the most organized (non-Alinsky) of Chicago's neighbors: Polish National Alliance,Polish Roman Catholic Union, the magnificent Copernicus Center and any number of the many morphed credit unions and savings and loans.

Miss Sullivan, the lovely and elegant lady who deigns to be seen in public with me, showed me a homily by Father Brankin.  It celebrated the fact that Poland, in this Jubilee Year announced by Pope Francis, proclaimed Jesus Christ the King of Poland - both Church and State.

"Immortal King of Ages Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savior! In the Jubilee Year 1050 anniversary of the Baptism of Polish [people], in the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, here we Poles stand in front of you (together with their authorities, clergy and laity) to acknowledge your reign, surrender to Thy law, entrust and take you to our homeland and the whole nation…We confess before heaven and earth, that your reign we need…Wishing to worship the majesty of Thy power and glory, with great faith and love, we cry out: Rule us Christ!”

So prayed the Polish bishops at the Church of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland, on Nov. 19 in a major ceremony formally declaring Jesus Christ as King of Poland. It was the day before the feast of Christ the King in the Church’s liturgical calendar. Poland’s President Andrzei Duda took part along with thousands of pilgrims in the Mass and ceremony. (Scroll down to read the entire prayer-declaration here.) The ceremony marked the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy and the 1,050 anniversary of Polish Christianity.

I had heard of this, but had not lodged it into my tiny brain's 'full attention chamber.'  Father Brankin praised the fact that people of faith can and do live meaningful and important lives with faith active in every aspect. In fact, politicians and the government wholly agreed.

On television, Senator Jan Maria Jackowski explained that the faith is the strength of Poland. He said “if we keep our core values, we build the common good. However…if we forget about the great heritage of this force that gives us faith and what gives us the heritage of the Gospel, it would not be so good. We see what is happening in the countries where de-Christianization is progressing at a rapid pace.”

Father Brankin, whose flock includes many, many, many immigrants from Mexico, Central America and Poland, as well as Czechs, Ukrainians and Lithuanians, honored the Poles.  The Chicago newspapers wholly ignored this event, so did the Catholic New World.   There was plenty on the new Cardinal, diversity workshops at UCCB, kids wearing Red for Cardinal Cupich, but no mention of Poland's most severe blow to world secularism.

Father Brankin always argues that spiritual life must begin with attendance at Mass.  I know many Catholics who consider themselves to be more 'spiritual' than active.  That is like joining a club and never attending a meeting.  Too many of us no longer want to go to Mass.  Let's be Unitarians.

That's cool.  Mass is what keeps me from going off the rails and craving my baser instincts.  I told the kids at Brother Rice that I attend services and receive the Eucharist every morning at St. John Fisher - no brag, just fact.

" Does that mean you are Holy?" asked one chap from St. John Fisher Parish, with more than a spoonful of obvious irony.

I told him. " No, not by a jug full.  It does make me less of a jerk, however.  Somewhat."

Kids, like all of us are pulled to be secular, overly cynical and fundamentally intolerant, by the broader HBO culture.  Poland seems to have kicked that trend to the curb.

I went to Mass yesterday, met my lovely friend, heard from her about Father Brankin's homily, delighted in Poland's stand to proclaim Christ it's King, and noted the lack of coverage - ignoring is also a sharp form of censorship.

God Bless Poland. God Bless great priests.  God Bless young people.  God whack the media on the back of the noggin.  It will not do much, but would be a start.

America's Obama Mission Drift and All That Jazz

Hollywood *created our President through American Mission drift.

I spent twenty-five years of my forty year career in Catholic education as a fund-raiser - Director of Development is usual term, or more the MBA school of B.S. nomenclature Director of Institutional Advancement.  Either term means 'the person who makes calls on people to make donations.'

Calls mean pitches to potential donors that involve matching Mission to Operations.

You state -"Here is what we stand for" and through a series of infinitives:

• To expand its ability
• To provide a quality Catholic education
• To instill the virtues of 
• To prepare students

attempt to match mission to peration . . . and all that jazz.  This is followed by a representation of programs and activities, budget, financials and needs assessment and the ask.  The ask is usually in keeping with the need, but it was my happy experience that the give often exceeded the ask.

The Mission; the Operation/Needs and the Ask - that is the job - it ain't brain surgery.  Tell that to an Institutional Advancement Suit.  I lived by the dictum of the late Father Ken Yarno, C.S.V. - " Be Brief and Be Gone!"  Donors don't want pals, or neat guys for lunch dates.  They want to help a school, a program, or a cause with a minimum of BS.

It was my experience that 80 % of the money came from  20% of our donors.   That is a very healthy match of mission to operation.

One of my tasks was to make sure that the 20% included new donors and gift grants from foundations.

I found that in my last years, foundations drifted from their stated missions.  Likewise, big individual donors wanted to make more impact on the broader society.  Foundations that had been family faith spirited became more social justice locked-up and giving templates became 'systemic' gives to hot-button causes like immigration reform, public education reform, public health reform, law reform and out-reach programs.

Foundations were driven by big donors and big causes by big agendas.

Today in 2016, Americans gave over 300 Billion dollars to charity.  However, the donations are being driven by fewer people.  It is now something like a 90/10.

One of the most useful works for fund-raisers in Catholic education was Peter Greer's 2014 Mission Drift:The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities and Churches. Greer argues that,  faith-based organizations drift from their found missions "Slowly, silently, and with little fanfare, organizations routinely drift from their purpose, and many never return to their original intent. Harvard and the YMCA are among those that no longer embrace the Christian principles on which they were founded. But they didn't drift off course overnight. Drift often happens in small and subtle ways. Left unchecked, it eventually becomes significant. "

Let's say, one day that Bubs Murtaugh, a wildly wealthy alumnus of St. Regular Guy's Catholic Prep, is harpied by his third trophy wife to get more Catholic kids educated to the benefits of Planned Parenthood, the Revolutionary Communist Party USA and NAMBLA.  To that end, Bubs writes check in the amount of $ 6,095, 285, 000,000 to St. Regular Guy.  That would be some Board to tear up that check.

No one would give that much?

Could happen.  I had a guy write a $500,000 check without an ask.

My guy said put it to good use - scholarships.  A crowd of Alums owe their sheepskins to this guy, but he is no Bubs Murtaugh.   

I know schools that have 'go be along with the Big Bangers,' some to a great end and others not so much.  Mission drift.

America, like world of philanthropy, had undergone a massive mission drift at the very same time.  Money drives political parties and political parties drive people who are not paying attention.

Catholics who find abortion to be a necessary 'distraction' from the really wonderful things that Planned Parenthood does for women's health did not arrive at that goofy premise over-night.  Slowly, in 'in small subtle ways'  crazy notions that roll over eternal truths become the intellectual currency of people who do not pay attention.

Dick Durbin did not happen over night.  He needed time and a lack of attention.

My Democratic Party, the one that beat fascism, fought back Communism, created the American Middle Class and our once great standard of living suffered mission drift from 1972 DNC in Miami to the present. 

Gradually, an entire nation that honored valor, worth, integrity, competence and fierce of love of country found Barack Obama to be its Chief Executive.  Hollywood, GM, GE, Goldman Sachs, Sierra Club, George Soros, Henry Van Amerigen, Fred Eychaner, SEIU, ALF-CIO were driving the mission of the Democratic Party which had shed Hubert Humphrey, Scoop Jackson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan for the likes of Anthony Weiner, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Nancy Pelosi as its face and voice.

Why not an untested bi-racial back bencher as Chief Executive?  People no longer pay attention.

Occupy Wall Street and Move-on.org blew up more of America than Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dorhn and Weathermen ever dreamed of bombing.  God bless them, as Speaker Pelosi cooed.

Mission drift happened.  It happened in philanthropy and it happened in government.

November 8th was a push back at mission drift. And all that jazz - America Great Again, Mad Dog Mathis, Carrier.

Hey, that's super.  However foundations are rooted in their agendas - looking downstream, Polk Brothers, Woods Fund MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, Hearst and  all the rest are still driven to the rive gauche.

Let's see if people will pay attention. 

 * with very few execptions.

Really, Really Hate America? Read This, Unless It Has Been Banned by Your Local Public Library of School District

           

           educere Latin - to lead away (from ignorance)

education- give intellectual, moral, and social instruction to (someone, especially a child), typically at a school or university. Merriam Webster 2016

"I want beginning teachers to resist, to rebel against all of it, to reject these clichés, to stand on their own feet, and to make their way toward the moral heart of teaching at its best." - Bill Ayers, Terrorist and Retired College of Education Professor.

Colin Kaepernick and other foolish youngsters who do bloodless, inconsequential and juvenile demonstrations accepted by the script writers for Social Justice Warriors should be forgiven.  They do not know any better.

Kneeling during the National Anthem, stomping, burning and desecrating the American flag, yelling, or spray painting obscenities about police, the President Elect, Jews, Israel, white neighbors, black neighbors, Mexican Americans, or Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are just ignorant and spoiled people acting out.

Reacting to such actions with anything but a raised eyebrow, must be reserved to Veterans.

Me, I'm as yellow as a duck's foot and drew a magic Draft lottery that allowed me to finish college and become an English teacher.  Most guys my age (64), were as lucky.  The guys a few years older, went to Vietnam and many did not come home; many more came home without limbs, attached to colostomy bags, in wheel chairs and all with more horror than Joseph Conrad novel.

Kids no longer are introduced to Joseph Conrad, William Thackeray, Walter Scott, Owen Wister, or Edward E. Hale*, because Marxists like William Ayers dominated American Colleges of Education since the 1980's.  Literature has been denied its common humanity, by disciples of idiotic critical theorists and semiotic totalitarians like Noam Chomsky.

Had high teachers been trained in rigorous mastery of their disciplines (math, science, literature & composition, history and government) rather than John Dewey inspired radical theories and social engineering nonsense,  more informed intellects would be voting.

Saturday, the Chicago Bears will play the San Francisco 49-ers and their daffy QB Colin Kapernick.

Kaepernick's PR guru seems to have given the bad advice, just like Bill Ayers poisoned legions of current public school teachers in his time at UICC.

Education means the condition of having been led away from ignorance.  The evidence points to a condition contrary to it its purpose.

Colin Kaepernick, a child of the bi-racial union of an African American father, who abandoned the union before the child was born and a young white woman who could not care for the child. Colin Kaepernick was adopted by a white family in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin and moved with them to California, where the boy displayed great athletic talents in baseball ( Colin was drafted by the CUBS in 2009) and football ( he decided to QB for the University of Nevada Wolves.  He took a degree in business and was drafted into the NFL.

Things seem to indicate to me that Colin Kaepernick might never have been assigned much less read Edward Everrett Hale's very long short story - The Man Without a Country.

I suggest that contemporaries of Colin Kaepernick are wholly unfamiliar with this work of American Literature - deemed to be an artifact of dead white men and a document of Imperialism, by too many American colleges.

Here is an assignment.

Read this story linked here

Tomorrow - let's talk about it.

Do you think that if Colin Kaepernick and thousands of young people and far too many older folks, behaving like him, would act better, had they been educated by a competent teacher about the truths made evident in the Man Without a Country? 

* for my lazy lads:

 On trial for supporting Aaron Burr, U.S. Army lieutenant Philip Nolan denounces the U.S. and says that he never wants to hear about his country again. Exiled to U.S. Naval warships, Philip moves from ship to ship, never returning to or hearing about America.
At first he is unrepentant, but over time he becomes desperate for news of his country. He asks a young sailor for news of America and urges him to never speak ill of America. "Stand by her, boy, as you would stand by your mother, " he says, referring to America as "her," which he does each time he talks about the United States. While at a ship party, he asks a woman with whom he dances for news of America, but she refuses and walks away.
Years after his sentence, he realizes he is dying. He shows an officer named Danforth a shrine he built to America. The shrine includes a portrait of George Washington, a painted bald eagle and an outdated map. This map, he says, is proof that he has a country. He asks again for news, and Danforth gives in, sharing all of the major events that occurred since his trial except the Civil War.
After he dies, an epitaph he wrote is discovered. He describes himself as loving his country like no other man loves her but acknowledges that he deserved nothing from her.

Trump and the Battered, Dipped and Fried Media: "Who Wants Rainbow Cones????"

Trump tweets* and people who expect hushed attention every time they open their yaps, or scribble deep thoughts, media types go off the rails bat-guano like a crowd of eight-year olds within earshot of my late uncle Bart Hickey.

Bart would watch his nieces and nephews at play in Grand Pa Hickey's patch of Crinnie Hill, his yard along the north side of his house at 7535 S. Marshfield, and decide to wind them up.

Bart was the tallest of the Hickey males and looked every bit the Korean War Marine Staff Sergeant that he had been, as well as a D.I., before his return to Chicago.  He was Hollywood handsome and full of the devil. Not unlike this guy 

"Goofs and Split-tails!  Who wants Rainbow Cones?"

Who would not?  Since 1926, Rainbow Cone has been the south side Chicago Ice Cream Mecca, May the Prophet Bless it.

Ice Cream had been a treat, rather than part of the American food pyramid. . .Rainbow Cones!!!!  and any chance to raise the bar on the Good Humor truck or Dixie Cups from Hamilton Dairy was a release of juvenile passion known only to my generation, but appreciable to the broader culture.

Uncle Bart would pack his Buick full of Hickeys, Brennans and Winters no less than twelve at a time with a few in the trunk and drive way out to 9223 S. Western on the edge of the City - Ultima Thule in our provincial Visitation, St. Killian's, Little Flower and St. Tommy More Parish experiences.

Rainbow Cones are towers of Orange sherbet, Pistachio, Palmer House vanilla with cherries and walnuts,, Strawberry and chocolate ice creams wrapped in a Belgian Waffle come . It ain't ice cream; it's Ambrosia.  Rainbow Cone the establishment looks like an old Spanish hacienda, right out of Zorro and remains open only from late March to early November.

Once we were baited, Uncle Bart would periodically shout out, " Who wants Rainbow Cones" and get the boomeranged universal " WE DO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

To which he'd reply, " Hey, who wouldn't?" and then go off to work.

Or, he might toss that one out at tender moments when Grandpa Hickey was regaling us of with tales of his strength, " I picked that Connacht bullock up over the wall by the ring in nose and he was that happy to be on the good side of Conway's line over with a better family, so."

" Who wants Rainbow Cones?"

Adios, to you, old Turkeybird!  Nice story. We're getting Rainbow Cones (sotta voce)

Only to wait, wait and wait. Are we ggoing to Rainbow Cones, Uncle Bart?

" Sure, when it snows in the Philippines!"

Cruel, hell no it was funny as hell.  We got toughened up to a world where one can not have everything.  In the words of Steven Wright, "where would we put it?"

Winding up eight olds is funny. Winding up Anderson Cooper, David Brooks, E. J. Dionne and the New York Times is hilarious. What a pack of dip-wads!

Donald Trump tweets to the media, like Uncle Bart tested his tribe with offers of Rainbow Cones.

The fun was in the watching.  I'd love a Rainbow Cone, right now!

* Trump's tweets to the media remind me of this great scene from the The Guard.

Meditation: Art - The Last Refuge For This Scoundral

 "The president is a study in intelligence, thoughtfulness and the ability to articulate and express himself in a clear and concise manner. " Thomas Frisbie, Sun Times Editorial Writer

Long Tom Frisbie is consistent and the Sun Times always delivers lip-service to citizen-taxpayers and rump munches for the oligarchs who ascended in 2008, blazed wildly and pop-fizzled into irrelevance on November 8th.

Cook County, the soil that seeded, cultivated and harvested the Obama Age Apogee( 2008-2016) that included the rise and fall of Pat Quinn and Rahm Emanuel, remains unaffected by the events, the messages and the spirit caused the Progressive Apogee to fall.

Like the Chicago Tribune ( Bruce Dold ed.), the Sun Times pretends that Obama ruled Camelot, when it fact it was merely Hollywood Squares.

Unlike Tom Frisbie, or Bruce Dold, I have not been anything but underwhelmed by Barack Obama, from my first encounter with him at Woods Funds, through his hack-work as a pass-along  seat occupier in the Illinois and U.S. Senate and his rather sad Presidency.

I remember more than a few of these public moments. when Barack Obama truly revealed exactly who he happens to be - kind of a dope:




Then there was this valediction for a Mass Murderer.

" At this time of Fidel Castro’s passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. We know that this moment fills Cubans - in Cuba and in the United States - with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him.
For nearly six decades, the relationship between the United States and Cuba was marked by discord and profound political disagreements. During my presidency, we have worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing a future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined not by our differences but by the many things that we share as neighbors and friends - bonds of family, culture, commerce, and common humanity. This engagement includes the contributions of Cuban Americans, who have done so much for our country and who care deeply about their loved ones in Cuba.
Today, we offer condolences to Fidel Castro's family, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Cuban people. In the days ahead, they will recall the past and also look to the future. As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America." President Obama upon the death of a Dictator

Today, at Mass I thought about a story my late wife related to me.  Mary was an art teacher.  She told me a story that is probably apocryphal, but passed from one teacher to her.

An Art Teacher gave her class the opportunity to draw and color whatever they wanted.  The guys did dinosaurs eating jet fighters and the most of the girls smiling studies of themselves outside of their homes.  One little girl who did not care for art at all perked up and excitedly went to work.

The teacher walked over and asked, "Molly, what are you going to draw?"

"God."  was the answer.

The teacher said, " People don't know what God looks like, Molly."

Molly continued, " They will."

Art only works for the childlike.  Michealangelo, Duccio, Dali and Mary's Molly were all as children, like George Bernard Shaw whose death resulted from a fall from a ladder while pruning an apple tree.

You will never hear of Bob Costa, Chris Matthews, or Tom Frisbie doing the same.

Art gives us meaning in the same way faith directs our actions. Belief in nothing requires nothing of us - YOLO notwithstanding.

Read books; not the New York Times Review of Books. Enjoy a musical and not make a statement by gushing over Hamilton.

We will not find comfort among hacks.  We will not find meaning among hacks.  We can go very far towards meaning, by being like Molly.

We can study the childlike musings of Dr. Samuel Johnson who wrote the most prophetic study of the Obama Apogee in his poem London, 1738 : An Imitation of Juvenal's Sixth Satire.

 Since Worth, he cries, in these degen'rate Days,Wants ev'n the cheap Reward of empty Praise;In those curst Walls, devote to Vice and Gain,Since unrewarded Science toils in vain;Since Hope but sooths to double my Distress,And ev'ry Moment leaves my Little less;While yet my steady Steps no Staff sustains,And Life still vig'rous revels in my Veins;Grant me, kind Heaven, to find some happier Place,Where Honesty and Sense are no Disgrace;Some pleasing Bank where verdant Osiers play,Some peaceful Vale with Nature's Paintings gay;Where once the harass'd Briton found Repose,And safe in Poverty defy'd his Foes;Some secret Cell, ye Pow'rs, indulgent give.Let —— live here, for —— has learn'd to live.Here let those reign, whom Pensions can inciteTo vote a Patriot black, a Courtier white;Explain their Country's dear-bought Rights away,And plead for Pirates in the Face of Day;With slavish Tenets taint our poison'd Youth,And lend a Lye the confidence of Truth.

  from London 1738 by Samuel Johnson

I must remember to turn to Art and take the journalists for poisoners of Youth that they be - people who will never fall out of an apple tree.

I Shall Arise and Go, And Make Some Corn Bread!

I had a swell Thanksgiving!  Did not overdo the helpings and avoided my usual the Gibraltar-like renditions of smashed garlic spuds and stuffing and decided to forego the traditional fifth helpings.

Took a vigorous walk from the garage to my couch in the basement and watched recored episodes of Cheyenne. Where will he be camping tonight?

It is now Saturday and I made a pot of Brunswick stew* last last week.  My son is stopping by after work this afternoon and the lad can work a fork like his Mom and Pop.

Nothing goes better with Brunswick stew like a golden brown cast iron skillet full of corn bread.

I do corn bread good. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Butter a good cast iron skillet  9" diameter I used soft Kerry Gold

1. Cup of Gold Medal Flour
1. Cup of Quaker Corn Meal
1. Cup of sugar
1.tsp. of sea salt
1/4 cup of Honey
1. Jumbo Egg from Marianno's
1. 10 oz. can of Green Giant nibblets corn
3 & 1/2 teaspooons of Calumet Brand Baking Powder
1/3 cup of Peanut Oil - Mr. Planters, Please.
1 generous dash of Vanilla extract

Mix it all in a bowl with good sized fork.  Don't mix too well.  Spread it pie tin and toss it in the oven for 25 minutes.  Check with a butter knife for doneness. Dance to doneness~!




When it is 'doneness' let oven cool down to 145 degrees F. and keep corn bread nice and warm until your eaters bang open the back door and squeal, " It it done?"

Then ladle out some Brunswick stew 
Cut corn bread into diagonal slices for dipping.

Use softened Kerry Gold butter for eating corn bread, like an American.


*I use chicken thighs and pork shoulder, corn scraped from the oven roasted cob and replace Greathern Beans for the lima bean - lima beans are just wrong on so many levels.

The Reds Want Black Friday - You Might Just Shop on Amazon

Note the sign in the middle of this Sun Times photo by Ashlee Rezin, the one that says GET ORGANIZED FOR AN ACTUAL REVOLUTION www.revcom.us.  Note that it is professionally printed, but I do not see the stand Union bug.  I never the see the old union bug on the palm cards of Progressive Democrats. Look at Forrest Claypool's, or Toni Preckwinkle's.  Reds never worked with labor. 

That is because revcom.us is the website of the Revolutionary Communists.

Working with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle?  Rainbow Push and Jesse Jackson?
Black Lives Matter? International Workers of the World (IWW)?  Subcribers of public television and viewers like you?

Yep.  The article, by Sam Charles,  accompanying the dramatic photo of diverse peoples crying and pleading for Justice for Laquan McDonald and ACTUAL REVOLUTION never once ( yet again) mentions the active role of Revolutionary Communists in every bit of race-baiting street theatre in the country.

We had the REVCOMS in my neighborhood for the past month and only once were they mentioned by Howard Ludwig of DNAinfo Chicago and only in passing.

Today, in the Tribune Birkenstock Partisan and professional lefty, Ron Grossman worries that Trump's election might, just might, mind you, signal an age of 'air-brushed' history.  You know, American history without  gnawing racial, gender and class guilt. Ron likes the scab yanking yarns of the fatuous John Hope Franklin and the mythopoeic Howard Zinn.  Ron has been napping for the last eight years.  His trade has been doing the work of ten Dmitri Shepilovs keeping the truth out of the way of the news on a daily basis. Eight years of 'white-out history.'  It continues in Cook County, with every edition of every paper and every blab from the yap of Carol Marin.

This Black Friday, please think of the Reds.  They deserve some credit - after all every Cook County slated candidate won on Trump Tuesday and that is something.

Homeboy Bruce Dold Wants President 45 and His Whole Fam-Damily Right Where Bruce Can Find Him!

Urban League CEO James Compton, former Tribune Editor Gerould Kern and Trib editor Bruce Dold, former Governor Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel in simpler times.

"Our advice to the Trumps is to move, sooner rather than later, and avoid returning home often. That approach would greatly ease the trouble in Manhattan, simplify the task of protecting the family, minimize costs for the federal government and New York City, and reassure the public that Trump will give the presidency his full attention." Bruce Dold et al

The Editorial genius of that great metropolitan newspaper, the one that endorsed Governor Hemp of Allepo, wants President-elect Donald Trump and Melania and the kid right where Bruce Dold can find them.

The Chicago Tribune did not want Francis Cardinal George to live in the Archbishop's Residence, bought and paid for by Chicago Catholics.  Cardinal George wanted to sell the place in 2002, by was over-ruled by his flock and the Tribune and the rest of the supine Chicago media cat-called his home until the man went to Heaven.  How many times did Manya " The Seeker" Brachear pooh-poo its opulence while poor black girls like Dorothy Brown had to struggle until the caged bird sang?  Lots.

The White House is different.  It is a dump to a man like Trump.  If Bruce Dold took a call from gilded Trump Tower, NYC, how in the name of Sweet Fanny Adams would he report such a missive?

You see things get confusing . If Trump is staying in Manhattan, how in the name of Sweet Fanny Adams will The Chicago Tribune report any executive pronouncements with its iron-clad accuracy - like Dewey Wins!

Bruce Dold is a simple man who likes his politics served up steaming, warm and plentiful and placed right in front of him by Rahm Emanuel, Forrest Claypool, Dick Durbin, Pat Quinn, Cardinal Cupich, Rev. Jackson, Pastor Pfleger, Toni Preckwinkle and Mr, & Mrs. Bob Creamer.

Keep things simple. Bruce is simple.  Rahm says something and the Dold abides.  Keep the narrative.

Prose often is required to apply rhetorical devices to keep readers from falling asleep on the Red Line, or finding another news source. Rhetorical devices are keen ways of expressing the obvious - if Mitt Romney says that Vladimir Putin is a dangerous man.  A really funny guy might say, " The 80's are calling and want their foreign policy back." That is so cool and he's a community organizer!

So, newspaper guys like Bruce Dold need to use things like metonymy and synechdoche.

Metonymy is figure of speech (rhetorical device) in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated, like Hollywood, the Pentagon and the White House.

Metonymy's sister device is Synechdoche, or using a part of something to represent the whole, as in " All Hands on Deck,!"  Bruce would not see a bunch of hands flopping from keel to forecastle via ladders and passageways, or perhaps he might given his endorsement of Gary Johnson.

Keeping the Trump family in the White House makes things easy for Bruce, Mary Schmich and Eric Zorn.

The White House called, Bruce Dold!

Just kidding.

Sophie Went to Heaven

Sophie, a black feline critter, who pawed kitty litter
Into my Bass Pro Size 10 Waders,
Scratched Wallpaper like an S/M Dominatrix, bitter
At being Prom Queen with no Daters
In her youth,  Died just before the needle
from Doctor Libby was applied

In the booth, of BevLab Animal Care.
And I cried.

I cried for Sophie and cried for me,
And debit carded her ashes for the family.

Sophie had a score and five and
was bloated with Cancer cells
That ate up her hide, as well
As well as the IAMS cat tucker

I am gonna miss the little . . .
Cat.

Cardinal Combine? Strange Smoke from Pope City

Crain's Chicago Business February 1998 :Chicago's Archbishop Francis George, 61, was elevated to cardinal by Pope John Paul II during ceremonies in Rome. The new cardinal led a special mass in Vilnius, Lithuania, in honor of Valdas Adamkus, 71, the Chicago-area resident who was sworn in last week as Lithuania's new president. . . 

So I'm wondering, rhetorically for the purposes of a Sunday column, what do we call this relationship, again? This Illinois custom of quiet sharing of power across party lines for the benefit of a fat connected few? . . .What is it? What is it, again? John Kass, Chicago Tribune

The Combine!  The Illinois Combine!  That Illinois peace in the valley when the 'two parties can be as one when there's money on the table,' Brother Kass! Praise Mammon and bless his name.

Now, it appears that the once secular band of boodlers opened its arms to Holy Mother Church via our media darling Archbishop.

I do not recall a caravan of Illinois politicians, grifters, hangers-on and venture capitalists going to Rome for the elevation of Archbishop Francis Eugene George, O.M. I. to Prince of the Church , a kid from Portage Park and St. Paschal's Parish.

I recall members of his family and childhood pals making the pilgrimage.  Cardinal George returned to Chicago as 'Francis our Neighbor' and was treated to having his house and person egged, T-p'd and porch poop-bagged at least twice a month by theological room temperature I.Q.s of the Chicago Tribune, Sun Times, WTTW and the likes of  Manya Brachear, Cathleen Falsani, Michael Sneed, Elizabeth Brackin and Carol Marin, as well as all the political creeps at City Hall and the County Building.

Agenda and Grievance politics played out in the media against a real priest, who took it all with grace, patience and good humor. Chicago Values conflicted regularly with traditional - some might say ultramontane - values.

Francis Cardinal George was a Lion of the Church and simple parish priest, who could have cared less what Jay Levine, Chuck Gowdy, Windy City Times or Toni Preckwinkle thought of him. But touch his flock, or mock his faith and Cardinal George would throw down, like a Canaryville tough guy on St. Paddy's Day.

The media detest straight froward people.

I was gobsmacked by the embrace of the Catholic Church by the very people who made Cardinal George's life a bed of nails, even during his final days. Here are the members of the Chicago entourage for Blase Cupich:

The mayor and first lady of Chicago Amy Rule will lead the delgation (sic) at which Cupich will be elevated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica on Nov. 19, a dinner in support of Catholic Extension in Rome that evening and a celebratory Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 20.
Among those joining Emanuel’s entourage: Father Tom Hurley of Old St. Patrick’s Church; Reverend Stan Davis, co-Executive Director of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago; Bishop Wayne Miller, President of the Council of Religious Leaders; Jo Ann Rooney, President of Loyola University; Dennis Holtschneider, President of DePaul University; Gov. Bruce Rauner; Senator Dick Durbin; State Senate President John Cullerton; State Comptroller-elect and current City Clerk Susana Mendoza; Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke; Congressman Mike Quigley; Aldermen Ed Burke, Pat O’Connor, Danny Solis, Michelle Harris and Marge Laurino; Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer; Anne Pramaggiore, president and CEO of ComEd; Stefano Pessina, executive vice chairman and CEO of Walgreen Boots Alliance; Desiree Rogers of Choose Chicago; Don Edwards, CEO of Flexpoint Ford; Daniel McCaffrey, CEO and Chairman, McCaffery Interests; Margaret Houlihan Smith of United Airlines; Wynona Redmond, of Wyn-Win Communications; Cherryl Thomas of Ardmore Associates; Senator Renato Turano of Turano Bakery; former NBA star Isiah Thomas;  Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson; Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago; Rocco Claps, director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights; a Cristo Rey Jesuit High School student and a Christ the King High School student–both of whom work in the mayor’s office. Shia Kapos in Chicago Sun Times 11/ 15/2016

The only name I read above without having the feeling that I was wearing spun-glass underwear is Father Tom Hurley.

I was surprised Pat Quinn didn't make the trip.

Perhaps, this is signals a new spirit of cooperation between Church and State, a cismontane rapprochement.  Maybe it is just all Civic Spirited, good fellowship.  Maybe.  Maybe, I should lace up my Converse Chuck Taylors and pound the boards against Dwayne Wade.

Or, maybe, . . . . perhaps the sleaze of the Illinois  Combine will be now sanctified. That would be dispiriting.

Cardinal Kilroy has some funny pals.

Mass will be interesting all this week.

Thank You, Cyril O'Brien: The Most Flattering Review I Ever Received: The Late Great Cyril O'Brien

I wrote a novel in 2007, The Chorito Hog Leg: A Novel of Guam in Time of War.  

I was disappointed in the book as I did not do a very good job of editing the work, I had paid an editor to do.  Plenty of typos.

Nevertheless, the book was favorably reviewed by Rose Keefe , the noted Crime biographer and historian, the late Martin J. Tully, USSF(ret), CPD (ret) and several combat veterans.

One of those heroes was the great Cyril O'Brien*, a Baltimore journalist and former White house correspondent who was Marine Combat correspondent on Guam. His review appeared in the Mariannas Islands Press and on Borders Books Review.

I have a very blessed life and this man's opinion of my work means almost as much to me as the good wishes from the hundreds of "kids" that I have taught over these past forty years,

Here is Cy O'Brien's review:

Guam Novel Praises the Chamorros as well as Marines

3190 days ago

Book depicts Chamorros going above and beyond By Cyril J. O'Brien There's an interesting novel with a different scenario on the liberation of Guam by Chicago, Ill., school teacher Pat Hickey. It depicts the often underwritten action on Chonito Ridge, and describes the Chamorro people as going above and beyond. It relates the battle story through fictional as well as actual leaders as a way of demonstrating the caliber of the people who fought that war on Guam. A student of the battle, Hickey is well into Able Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, led by Capt. Gary Bundshu in its impossible, day-and-a-half assault straight up to the crest of Chonito Ridge, a cliff overlooking the Asan beaches on Guam. The top was taken late in the second day after Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, secured the rear and flank to let Able finish its ascent and hold it.

Using the Marines' nickname for the ridge, Hickey, in The Chorito Hog Leg' '(AuthorHouse 2007, Bloomington, Ind.) intersperses the story with surprising incidents, heroic actions, including the gratuitous cruelty of Japanese captors on the Guamanian people. The book is also punctuated with bits of holiness of sisters, mothers and girlfriends back in Chicago with rosaries and novenas. Hickey spices it with some seasoned ribald troop vernacular and surprises you with incidents and anecdotes that could make you lose the course of what is going on. Hickey also brings in the colorful gangster days that represented the Windy City at its zenith because it is from where the young Marines he describes are from.

Action started at sea And you may have forgotten how the first combat action of Guam was at sea. Pat describes it: the Japanese Kate spinning a torpedo toward the troop-jammed tank landing ship. (I was on the starboard side where the torpedo beaded). But a little LCI (landing craft infantry) ship in our assault convey, there to protect the troopship, nosed her bow into the torpedo bound for our ship. It blew off the LCI's bow and killed all on station there. We watched the next morning as a destroyer sunk the remains of the heroic little LCI.

Within the carnage of battle is a conflict arrayed in the book pitting a young man named Tim Cullen against his battalion commander over the possession of an 1860 Army Cold .45 Hog Leg revolver, which can be traced back to a captain who was with Custer. It brings in diversion and other interests, and continues the novel, but makes no 'neverminds' to history. Hickey, well anointed as an author, is a career educator, graduate of Loyola University, Chicago and now with St. Leo's High School in the city.

 

*Cyril J. O'Brien was a combat correspondent with the 3rd Marine Division in World War II, which helped liberate Guam. He lives in Silver Spring, Md.

When Will The Cast of "Hamilton" Sing The Praises of the Electoral College?

"Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States" Federalist # 68 by Al Hamilton

 “It’s an incredible feat of storytelling about the fight for the heart and soul of our very nation. It’s a look at history that feels immediately relevant today. It’s a beautiful piece of art with empathy to spare.” Hillary Clinton from Victory for Hillary 2016 Hamilton Fundraiser*

The Both Coast-ers, who adored the production, hip-hop songs and diverse casting of the smash Broadway and national hit musical Hamilton, which funded the Hillary Clinton Campaign, really hate that old, antiquated Electoral College.  I include the western shore of Lake Michigan in the Both Coasters demographic, as Cook County and Chicago has been wholly unaffected by the election of Donald J. Trump - President-elect of the United States.

From Barbara Boxer to CNN, from Keith Olbermann to Eric Zorn, The Electoral College must go the way of traditional marriage between a man and a woman, because the heart wants what the heart wants.  Broken hearts of fans of the Global American Oligarchy want it right now.

They have even blessed the children of Portland and on the exit ramps of highways in Oakland and New York to stamp feet and beat drums in a national tantrum.

(CNN)There is a real chance that we have just held the last presidential election that will ignore the results of the national popular vote.
Most people believe the mechanism for electing a president can only be changed through a constitutional amendment, an extremely cumbersome process that requires the approval of two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate, as well as the approval of three-quarters of all the states. (Amendments can also be adopted by a constitutional convention, but one hasn't been held since the founding of the republic.)But the truth is, a decade ago, a computer scientist named John Koza -- one of the inventors of the scratch-off lottery ticket -- came up with an ingenious way to institute the election of presidents through the popular vote, without touching the Constitution. . . .

Koza's solution is possible because the Constitution specifies that state legislatures can decide to choose presidential electors any way they want to. Koza proposed an interstate compact, enforceable through the impairments clause of the Constitution.

The compact says that every state that adopts it will appoint electors who promise to abide by the result of the national popular vote, as soon as enough states are participating to cast 270 votes -- the number needed to elect a president. Between 2007 and 2014, 10 states and the District of Columbia, with a total of 165 votes, adopted the compact.

Hey, that's hip!

Not as hip as Hamilton!

 The electoral system of the United States was designed by Hamilton to “weed out” those that are not fit to become the commander in chief of the United States. The election phase has the popular vote and the newly proposed “Electoral College”. The electoral college is a body of people that is voted in by the public to elect the president of the United States. Even though the election has a popular vote, the electoral college is the one that officially elects the new president. But, the electors usually vote for the candidate that has the popular vote in their respective states. Those candidate later on would earn the votes of the electors, and the numbers vary within states because it is population based. That “the candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes, currently 270, wins the presidency”.[6] Though the system may sound acceptable to most people, it does not come without a consequence. One of them being the Electoral College. The “Electoral College allows for the possibility that the winner of the national popular vote does not actually win the presidency”

Now, How about that?


*Organized by the Hillary Victory Fund, seats for the matinee performance start at $2,700 and go to $100,000 for “event chair” tickets, which includes two premium seats, a wrap party with Clinton and “other special guests,” and an invite to the Democratic National Convention. Tickets are available on Clinton's website.

It's Okay to Hate Sarah Palin, Because She is Happy.

The Nation, a singularly obnoxious drum circle for trust fund babies in need of purpose and talking points, said this prior to the Iowa Primary:

Palin’s star has faded since she turned the Republican Party’s 2008 campaign into a theater-of-the-absurd production. But that star still shines with a small but very significant group voters that Trump needs. Although Palin became something of a laughingstock by the end of the 2008 campaign, a lot of conservative purists refused to laugh at her. Rather, they laughed with her—and many still do.

Palin’s favorable rating among Republicans in general has collapsed over the past seven years—from well above 80 percent when she joined John McCain’s ticket, to around 30 percent in recent years—but Palin can still headline a Tea Party rally and draw cheers. The most exaggerated conservatives, especially social conservatives, still view her as a “one-of-us” right-winger who believes what they believe. ( italics my own)

This is the standard yin/yang mix of Progressive logic.  Sarah Palin is a laughingstock and yet a force to be reckoned with.

Republicans, I am a Democrat, do sneer and go-along with the smart set and this is a principal symptom of that anemic Party's problem.

My understanding of the GOP can best be understood in a thorough study of the anthro-metaphor, Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois.  If a Republican wishes to soul-surf, as soul searching has gone out of practise, study Kirk in his thoughts, words and deeds.  He was tossed out on his well-padded rump, which has never been attached to a spine.

Kirk detested Sarah Palin, because Senator Dick Durbin ( D.IL) told him to do so.  Mark Kirk was and always had been a creature of the Illinois Combine ( see John Kass). Kirk scorned Palin, but was not beneath begging Sarah Palin to endorse him over Tammy Duckworth - Governor Palin ignored Kirk's squeal and went on the Oprah Winfrey show instead.

Sarah Palin came from a very happy, but hard-scrabble family in small town Alaska. Without connections, endorsements, clout, but with batteries of will, talents and courage became the popular mayor of her town and then a very popular Governor.  All the while mothering a growing family and being devoted partner to her  husband a hard working union man.

I find Sarah Palin to be all of these

• She is a superb athlete - she could humiliate Obama on the B-ball court
• Skilled hunter and fisherman
• Good cook
• Looks like a knockout
• Enjoys her family
• Lives her faith
• Helps her neighbors
• Never whines about horrible treatment meted out almost daily in the media
• She is detested by David  Brooks, Chris Matthews, Eric Zorn, Katrina vanden Heuvel (lower case v -you idiots!), Bill Moyers, Van Jones and most of the leading clowns in our political circus

Sarah Palin is the figure of feminism, but she does not believe babies should be slaughtered.  She was a politician without corporate logos patched all over her, like a NASCAR driver.  She was smart, but spoke her mind and with a very funny voice.  Sarah Palin is the People - you know the people polled by CNN who said that Hillary Clinton loved 'the average, hard-working American.'

Hillary, Wolf Blitzer, Gloria Borger, John King and Gloria Vanderbilt's little boy Anderson detest 'the average, hard-working American.'

The Democrat/GOP Globalist Secularist Oligarchs hate everything about people with grit, initiative, piety, duty to country, self-lessness, and self-deprecating humor.  Sarah Palin who not only kept her baby with Downs Syndrome, to the absolute horror of Cecile Richards and blood-harpies of Planned Parenthood, but held her baby up proudly to the entire Nation, not the magazine.

The hipsite Wonkette whooped up the elites when the Palin family celebrated the baby's third birthday:

That strange man yelling unintelligibly at Sarah Palin? He’s merely a lowly shepherd proclaiming the birth of our savior. Today is the day we come together to celebrate the snowbilly grifter’s magical journey from Texas to Alaska to deliver to the America the great gentleman scholar Trig Palin. Is Palin his true mother? Or was Bristol? (And why is it that nobody questions who the father is? Because, either way, Todd definitely did it.) It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are privileged to live in a time when we can witness the greatest prop in world political history.

Good old David Letterman loved that material, too.

I am not that sophisticated.  I respect women who heroically defend their children.  More so, I really respect a tough father, who loves his bride and is slow to anger.  I wish Todd Palin could have shared a phone booth with David Letterman and that dead creep of a writer who moved in next door to the Palins. Conor MacGregor could do no better.

In the second year of her term as Governor of Alaska, John McCain vetted and begged Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

After the GOP Convention, McCain Strategists Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace felt that their access to Hollywood & Fifty Rock was in peril and they helped the media to savage Sarah Palin and her family.  Soon, John McCain had an excuse for bailing out of the 2008 Campaign that had turned from Terrorism to Bank Failure.  McCain all but  vanished after the first week of September, 2008 - Sarah Palin took all of the blame and still does.

Now, Sarah Palin stands to serve as Interior Secretary.   Now, the GOP owes its thin-blooded life to Truman Democrats and Reagan Republicans like Sarah Palin.  Trump is not of us - the average, hard working American, but he is not above us.  Trump surprised me.  He won Iowa, after Sarah Palin endorsed him.

Sarah Palin was the only forgotten American, crucified all through Obama's eight year memory lapse that African American shoe salesmen, CTA train and bus drivers, Greek American restaurant owners, Irish American pipe fitters, French American hog farmers and Jewish carpenters celebrated hope and change.  Sarah Palin and the Tea Party folks tried to snap Obama out of his reveries with Beyonce, Jay Z and George Clooney. Palin took the most of the very personal hits.

My personal belief is that intellectuals, academics, pollsters, lobbyists, consultants and community organizers - the mandarins of oligarchy - hate happy people.  They want, need and love the faceless down trodden Refugees, Unempowered, Masses, who , or whatever they happen to be. Sarah Palin is very happy.

It is Ok to hate, losers.  How'd that work for you on November 8th?  Stay happy America!