Tuesday, March 06, 2018

The November General Election Will be Jeanne Ives v. Chris Kennedy

Image result for chris kennedy and jeanne ives
March Primary Winners

And the losers!Image result for JB and Bruce Rauner

Mike Houlihan and I were talking about the looming general election and both of us feel it will be a barn burner, thanks to this March Primary shenanigans ( JB's Black Blago Blather & Bruce's Bosco Bunkum larded with his Ives/Madigan Metamorphosis) indicating a less than vigorous turn-out for JB and a dandy Rauner kick-to-the-curb.

The two people with the millions invested in their own personal interests will be disappointed. Rauner and Pritzker will have wasted more dollars than a rouge Gamblers Anonymous junket to Vegas. 

Jeanne Ives has a mere 3.5 millions dollars in her war chest and Chris Kennedy bests her pile by a mere $2m.


Daniel Biss is the guy that New York wants, but he is still Danny Biss. Chris Kennedy and Jeanne Ives are mirror campaigns; Ives is the right choice and Chris Kennedy is the one the other side will settle upon, by March 20, 2018.


  • Black voters won't and JB will need to content himself with marijuana futures.
  • Unions will stay for JB, but the rank and file will vote for Chris Kennedy
  • Ives will get many Democrat votes, retired, or non-union voters who could careless about drawing a GOP ballot this go-around
  • Illinois is more than ready for a huge change and Chris Kennedy's primary victory will be the starting gun for the challenge to Rahm Emanuel
  • The beating of JB Pritzker by Primary voters is the thumbs-way-down on Mayor Coon-eyes -definately and the oafish Dick Durbin - early JB cheerleader.


Houlihan and I agree, " The plutocrats have jumped the shark."   Pro Publica's Mick Dumke offers this graphic:

tracking the Illinois Governor's Race


TOTAL RAISEDSELF-FUNDEDPAST MONTHSPENT
Image of Bruce Rauner

Bruce Rauner (R, incumbent)

$102.7m
$57.8m$238k
$46.4m
Image of Jeanne Ives

Jeanne Ives (R)

$3.6m
$0$520k
$36k
Image of JB Pritzker

JB Pritzker (D)

$63.2m
$63.2m$14.0m
$34.3m
Image of Daniel Biss

Daniel Biss (D)

$6.8m
$0$1.6m
$2.0m
Image of Chris Kennedy

Chris Kennedy (D)

$5.6m
$1.3m$1.3m
$3.0m
$182.0m$122.3m$17.6m$85.9m

Monday, March 05, 2018

I Have One Vote and It Will Go to Jeanne Ives


Tonight Jeanne Ives will join the Irish for Ives crowd at Reilly's Daughter Pub, in Oak Lawn.  Today, I will vote for Jeanne Ives.

I have one vote for Governor in this Illinois Primary Election and it requires that I take a Republican Ballot to cast this vote.   I am early voting today here in the 19th Ward at Mount Greenwood Park    3721 W 111th St, when it opens around 9AM.  First day is always delayed, but our judges and poll watchers do a terrific job.  Alderman Matt O'Shea will be on hand to make sure everything rolls-out smoothly. They usually do, here in a neighborhood Ward that takes voting very seriously.

This is the most important vote that I need to cast in years.  I normally take a Democratic Primary ballot, but not this time. This is a game changing vote.

Illinois is choking to death.

My neighbors, of whom the majority hold public service pensions,  agonize as they watch the IOUs passed to them from Big Jim Thompson to Bruce Rauner, turn into Confederate Money, or Illinois high-speed rail bonds. 

Squeezy the Python is doing very well. Image result for Squeezy the python

Hard working people worry about Jeanne Ives and believe the bilge given out by the media and the Rauner Campaign that she wants to take away their IOUs from Republican  and Democrat grifters and oligarchs.

Illinois Public Pensions are the ultimate Ponzi Pyramid.  If you worked for Illinois and have gotten out with your 85%, all is good.

The millions more of you - not so much.Pension_primer_graphics_2-19_clean-01

Pensions were looted to make a very few people rich.

Public school teachers,cops, firemen and later AFSCME workers were treated to the following:
Shorting pension payments to buy immediate budgetary relief. The nonpartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, the fiscal research arm of the General Assembly, concluded in 2013 that the largest cause of the unfunded pension liabilities was inadequate contributions from the state. Underpayments between 1985 and 2012 totaled $41.2 billion, the agency calculated.
•Enhancing pension benefits. Former GOP Gov. James Thompson agreed in 1989 to establish a compounding, 3 percent cost-of-living increase for retirees. Another round of benefit enhancements followed in the late 1990s. In May, the state Supreme Court ruled that those changes can't ever be revoked for tens of thousands of current and retired government workers.
•Clearing a bloated state payroll by letting workers retire early. A 2002 plan created under Republican Ryan and pushed by Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan cost the pension systems at least four times more than originally billed and won't be paid off until after 2045, when early-century budgetary ills will be the stuff of history books. David McKinney in Crain's Chicago Business ( emphases my own) 

That is Bi-Partisan Suicide, neighbors.  The oligarchs found their solution - Soak the Rich, code for increase income and property taxes via a heavy progressive tax, or plank # 2 from the Communist Manifesto*.

I believe that Jeanne Ives intends to reform pensions.  She has a plan. None of the other's have anything, except legalize weed and increase Illinois progressive taxes, while feeding  empty pensions and killing off what remains of the middle class in this state for good.

Jeanne Ives is the only candidate who stands against the American Holocaust - abortion. America will never be great again, until this horror of slaughtering a babies is euphemized as health care ends.  Jeanne Ives stands against abortion and the Planned Parenthood abortion industry.

I you are fine with abortion, you are OK with anything.

Jeanne Ives does not pander for votes and understands that the word illegal
 means something.

I might be the only DNA in my vast family of hard-working skilled trades people to cast this vote, but I believe it will topple Bruce Rauner's place-holding tenure as governor.

Come the general election, Jeanne Ives can count on my solitary vote again.

If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.

Illinois has had a very long and perilous fall.


*Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, in the Communist Manifesto, advocated a heavy progressive tax as a means of despoiling the “bourgeoisie” and softening middleclass society up for the dictatorshp of the proletariat.

Sunday, March 04, 2018

Meatball Soup to Make Way for Friday's Fish Fry





I love Lent.  Fish on Fridays and weekdays dedicated to carnivoric catering at home. One of my favorite recipes for Lenten days-avant Friday is meatball soup.

I use Progresso Italian breadcrumbs and 1 pound of ground beef 90% lean and 1 pound of ground pork from Jack & Pat's Old Fashioned Butcher Shop in Chicago Ridge.  These guys are wizards with meats.

First I make the meatballs

1-pound ground beef 90% lean
1-pound of ground pork
2- large eggs
4-large cloves of garlic smashed and chopped
1 -cup of Progresso Italian Breadcrumbs
1-pinch of kosher sea salt
1-Vigorous round of black pepper mill twisting, choking and turning like it was the neck of an elected official on your front porch
1-pinch of red pepper flakes
1-pinch of Frigo Four Cheeses flakes
A handful of fresh basil chopped up fine.

In a clean bowl and with clean hands mix all of the above

Make meatballs the size of a Titleist Pro V1 about two dozen - place a dozen on each of two cookie sheets that have been cover with wax paper.  Freeze one for later.  Refrigerate the other cover with more waxed paper overnight.

In a two quart pot*add the following:
Hot Smoky
Make or purchase four cups of Beef Broth
Rough chop a large red, or white onion
Add one cup of fresh lime juice
1/2 cup of brown sugar
Three crushed and chopped garlic cloves
One cup of Lillies' Hot Smoky Barbecue Sauce
One 12 oz. can of chopped tomatoes
Chopped fresh basil

Bring to a gentle boil and add 12 meatballs.

Reduce heat to low and cook until meatballs are done. Usually on the stove top about twenty-five minutes.  I prefer to leave it on a very simmer for more than a bit longer.

Add a couple of handfuls of baby spinach a bit before serving and  cook until wilted.

Serves 4 people or four nice meals with three meatballs each and garnish with Frigo Four Cheeses flakes.

It is mighty fine.  Serve with real crusty Italian bread.


*You may also use a Hamilton Beach slow cooker set on low four hours. Do not set on high, unless you intend to keep a close eye on the soup. Here (above) is what it looks like getting underway.