Chicago March for Life 2018 - Absent from Both Chicago Newspapers

Today Chicagoans, as well as scores of suburban citizens, will meet at Federal Plaza to protest the American Genocide for the 10th time.  Today is the March for Life. 

You will not find this event in the Tribune or the Sun Times - The Patch has it.  How many will brave cold and wind to pray away America's slaughter of the innocents?  If thousand show up, I am sure it will be recorded as " a few dozen."

Since 1973, America has declined as the moral force and beacon of hope on this planet.

America will never be great again,until Roe v. Wade is overturned.


The two Chicago papers print every exchange between two Anti-Trumpers, every hint and rumor of racism and all of the salacious nonsense eminating from the American Entertainment Class.

Both papers ignored the massive interest in today's March for Life

• Rex Hupke of the Tribune is taking down names of people who are not outraged by Trump potty mouth-geography.  I am not.  He's correct.  Haiti is a shithole, in the same way that my grandmother scorned the poverty and hopelessness of Ireland when she was 13 years old - never to return, but she did get all six of her little sisters to Chicago.
• Lynn Sweet of Sun Times gives global props to the most practiced hypocrite in Washington D.C. - Dick Durbin who did not confront president Trump over 'vile' thoughts words and deeds

I don't March.  I find it to be a self-serving and self-satisfying exercise that never makes a difference in anything.  I have proudly walked labor picket lines and never crossed one.  I will go to Federal Plaza.  I hope that thousands do as well.

Our media and our Chicago, Cook County and Illinois elected officials are fine with abortion.  If you are OK with abortion, you will be agreeable to anything. Nothing is too outrageous for you. 

Save your public outrage, if you are for abortion. You are wasting oxygen.

Chris Kennedy Looking Good For My Vote - Press Going Full Press Michigan Avenue Fats

Chris Kennedy is an exceptionally nice man.  Like many liberals of the old cloth (Don Rose, the late great Phil Krone & etc.) Chris Kennedy belies the conservative mind-set of intolerant automatons in lock -step with Marxism, Planned Parenthood and Globalism.   Rather Mr. Kennedy is an active do-gooder who walks the talk.

In my two decades and change of work for Leo High School, I have encountered Chris Kennedy and his kids quietly delivering goods and services to people in and around 79th Street, right in Pflegerland between Ashland and Halsted.  Unlike the blonde Jesus who rules St. Sabina like a political ward healer, who never clears his throat, nor breaks wind without CBS,ABC,NBC, WGN, Tribune, Chicago Sun Times and Windy City Times acolytes holding back dozen or so nodding activists around Pastor Pfleger, the son of RFK does good without fanfare, applause and hack reporters.

That said, Chris Kennedy tows the Durbin Dogma too much for my liking.

I understand that.  Chris Kennedy, an Irish Catholic, is not like me, or most of the people (white black, Mexican, ethnic) I encounter.  He comes from the Lace-Curtain traditions that eschew rock-ribbed core values as obnoxiously quaint.  He is a PBS Catholic, stamped and approved by Bill Moyers.  His politics is not unlike many of the people in the more comfortable Zip Codes - Chris Kennedy is much more of 60643 than he is a 60620, or 60655.

My temperament has been formed by my faith, family and friends.  Please note, that I might be the only member of my vast to have not cast a vote for Barack Obama and hurled one into the mix for Donald Trump.  I vote Catholic, organized labor and working class values.  Lately, I have voted for Republicans but I largely loathe the GOP as party of the Quisling tasseled loafer crowd ( Bruuce Rauner, Mark Kirk, Judy Barr Topinka, Chuck Percy, John McCain and John Boehner)  and for  Socialists (Bernie and Chewy Garcia).

Can you  say"Property Taxes?"  Chris Kennedy called our Cook County/Madiganistan system "extortion."The Democrats only have them to bleed and nothing else and Chris Kennedy has criticized County and State abuses. The is sucking dry!

The only GOP voice in Illinois that registers with me is Rep. Jeannie Ives.

Jeannie Ives has more balls than a bowling alley, if may hazard an indelicate metaphor in her praise.

Because the media is feasting on Chris Kennedy's liver, because he has offended the Cook County Democratic Titans and shall be cast eternally into the chthonic depths of Tartarus, or Peotone, maybe, that I am moved to shout for all and sundry within my limited sphere to vote for him against JB Pritzker, The Michigan Avenue Fats of the Pritzker pedigree,

Today the Chicago Tribune lifted a story from Ohio that was all the news back in July, in order to gin up some Chris Kennedy hate.  Maybe SEIU can get the huge Rat put up in front of the Merchandise Mart.

It may take the Sun Times a day or two to catch up, because Sneed is working to help Kimm Fox.

If the media is piling on Chris Kennedy, I am all for him

I'd vote for Chris Kennedy.

I probably will take a GOP ballot to make sure that Jeannie Ives takes down Bruce Rauner.

Chance the Rapper Cleaned My Gutters and Made Me Breakfast This Morning!!!!

I have been really cynical.  That's harsh.

I read most papers and most Chicago papers offer at least one account of Chance the Rapper

• Hands out money for arts programs at 20 CPS schools
• Raises $ 2m for CPS
• Grand Marshalls the Bud Billiken Parade
• Grills Chicken at Nando's for charity
• Explains 'becoming upper-management' to CNBC
• Announces free concerts ( hourly)
• Lectures Rahm Emanuel at La Lapalooza
• Gets Props from Obama as needed
• Changes the trajectory of North Korean missiles away from Guam, Japan and the Philippines.
• Swims the English channel
• Cuts every tree in the Sahara Forest
• Eats Kyptonite with soy milk

He does these mighty deeds and produces many dope tunes and videos

The guy is prodigious and what do a I do with my life?

Teach.  Go to Mariano's and Brother Rice Freshman football games.

I thought that Chance the Rapper was merely the figment of a public relations man's genius.

Was I wrong. 

This morning I woke to the sound of footsteps on my roof.  No it was not Santa!  It was better.

Chancery Bennett, better known as Chance the Rapper was atop my home in the Morgan Park neighborhood of Chicago, armed with 55 gallon plastic garbage bags and cleaning my gutters of branches, Maple tree whirlybirds, bottle rockets from 4th of July and other air-born gutter chokers.

The young man worked my roof like the crowds at the Apollo in Manchester, UK on November 26, 2016.

I called up to him, " What are you doing up there, young fella?"

He smiled, " I think it's so dope that I'm here in Chicago and contributing to the music scene that's thriving. People are so happy Chicago's shining that everyone is willing to say 'I represent Chicago.' That wasn't always the case."

" No, I meant specifically, Kid.  Why are you doing my gutters?"  I replied. 

The Rapper shrugged, "Music can kind of make you one-dimensional. People see what's on the surface and what you rap about, and they make their decision on who you are from there." He finished the job, emptied the plastic bags into environmentally friendly brown yard waste bags, placed the black plastic bags in a haversack for re-use, carefully took down the extension ladder and attached it to the frames of his Escalade and asked to use my bathroom.

When Chance the Rapper had given his hands a good scrubbing with Lava - the hand soap - He immediately went to my ice-box and prepared to make me a slap-up breakfast of 

• Monkey-Bread Danish. Danish meets monkey bread. ...
• Red Velvet Pancakes. Sexiest breakfast ever. ...
• Onion & Arugula Frittata. ...
• Sweet Crepes with Caramelized Pears. ...
• Candied Bacon. ...
• Homemade Toaster Pastries. ...
• Yogurt Biscuits with Honey Butter. ...
• Green Smoothie with Avocado and Apple.

I asked Chance the Rapper to join me and tuck-into the great feed that he had prepared.

With his thumb he pushed up the flat over-sized brim of his # 3 White Sox cap and with a quizzical smile said, "The whole point of 'Acid Rap' was just to ask people a question: does the music business side of this dictate what type of project this is? If it's all original music and it's got this much emotion around it and it connects this way with this many people, is it a mixtape? What's an 'album' these days, anyways?"

What, indeed?

With that, he vanished between chews.

Am I cynical?  

Northwestern Prof and Test-Tube Baby Wyndham Lathem Returns to Chicago!

Wyndham Lathem was born August 10, 1974. He completed his AB in biology at Vassar College (1992-96). He was a research technician at Rockefeller University from 1996 to 1998 in the laboratory of James E. Darnell, Jr., and earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in microbiology (2003) in the laboratory of Rod Welch. Wiki entry

Wyndham Willoughby Lathem is his name and he was born and the immediately graduated from . . . Vasser.  Vasser went co-ed in 1969 - five years before Wyndham was born . . somewhere.

The biggest mystery in this summer-break slaughter on North State is the Northwestern University and Chicago Media code of silence surrounding the place of birth and the wonder years of Wyndham Willoughby Lathem.

• We know he didn't go to De La Salle, or he might have been groomed for Mayor
• We know he is not a member of Polish Highlanders
• We kno0w he never belonged to the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge
• We know that Professor WWL didn't 'play some 'Ball' at Mount Carmel
• We know that he is not from Amish Country near Arcola
• Could he be a Yellahammer from Custer Park?
• Had he a membership at Essex Rod and Gun Club?
• Did Wyndham take the Mikva Challenge?
• Was young Wyndham a 'test-tube' baby?

We know that his boon chum from Old Blighty was on holiday and that all and sundry (back home) are shocked . . .shocked, I say.  to learn in the Guardian that Andrew Warren, an Oxford University, bean counter, might have possibly had a hand in this murder-most-foul of young hair-dresser Trenton Cornell-Duranleau.

Was Professor Purple Wildcat, unbeknownst to his Pukka Pomey Pal ( Capt. Andy -above),  a Deep State player as well as a Lake Geneva Library patron?

Well the boys are gonna be back in town!

Expect no news.

Jimmy Hoffa's gravesite is easier to find,  thanks to the Medill Omerta Code. 

The Problem of the Chicago Voter Outside of the Ensorcelled Circle

Imagine if a Mayor of Chicago, had at one time been a civil engineer and actually read Mary Wisniewski's fine piece of reporting in the editorially awful Chicago Tribune - all crap that Rahm approves.  Too bad a Mayor is not a civil engineer by trade . . . Oh, that's right . . .one (Ed Kelly) was but that was long before Ms.Wiszniewski wrote about crumbling bridges.

Instead, we live in a politics and policy driven Progressive, global, Banana Republic. This is a malicious make-believe palace, a fairy tale world where magical things can happen for an Oh, so very few, including an eight year stay in the White House for a very special lad, or where a little guy can sit on another little guy's lap and tell him that he too dreams of being Mayor.

It is a place where big dreams count as nothing and fortunes trump virtue.

It is a tight ensorcelled circle that welcomes only the approved - the businesses, the banks, the law firms, the real estate wizards, the University and 501(c)3 public policy tax vacuums and the very few people enchanted for windfalls.

Outside of the ensorcelled circle only those with an immediate connection to the source of gold some few benefit with multiple pensions, Shakman exempt appointments, or sinecures beyond  of the vision of  everyone else.

That leaves out millions of Chicagoans and many more Cook County residents.

Outside of the ensorcelled circle people make due, beef about water bills, tax increases, burgeoning crimes against person and property, horrific public schools and worse public servants.

Yet, these same put-upon people vote the ticket every election and every time.

Gun Violence and Police Misconduct keep every eye on flaccid media writers like Eric Zorn, Neil Steinberg, Stephen Chapman and Mary Schmich, or smarmy echo-chamber Orwellians on WBEZ, or WTTW.

Chicagoans nod, sigh and wait for the Cubbies. Sadly band wagon south siders feel a tingle in the thighs over the baby bear and forget 2005 as a time past. Same goes with political villainy.  Chicagoans are too nice by half.

They scratch their heads about

• Forrest Claypool's latest six figure job and pension package
• Suzanne Mendoza's leap from Herbie Pulgar to the Comptoller's chair
• Pat Quinn
• Proco Joe
• Toni Preckwinkle
• Mike Quigley
• Jan Schakowsky

And think nothing about putting an " I'm With Rahm" sign on the their lawns

Chicagoans will always do a neighbor a solid; even if the neighbor works against every fundmental core value you have, makes a ton of money and pension for following orders.

The only thing necessary for the perpetuation of evil in Cook County is for good people to do a solid for Frannie, Billy, Tommy, or any other knucklehead with a government gig.

It is one thing to break wind in the bath tub; it is another thing altogether to bite the bubbles.

DNAinfo Chicago Runs Free Political Ads for Illinois' U.S. Senators Double Ds

 Old Aeschylus knew war.

The media is at War with President Trump and it will take no prisoners.

Whatever.  A fun read is becoming as tiresome as SNL and the two Chicago dailies.

The Double D brand has been burned into the hide of DNAinfo Chicago.  That is too bad, because the otherwise entertaining and marginally informative 'neighborhood news' site, has been turned into yet another propaganda sheet for Illinois Oligarchs.

DNAinfo Chicago features two of Chicago's most honest, witty and ethical writers - Mark Schipper and Eddie Komenda.  These gentlemen present the news and the background a Chicagoan requires, without the mewling belly-rubs by power brokers required of too many in journalism. Sadly, the need to divide, silence and besmear people with differing political points of view erases their quality work.  Cow-Towing to oligarchs is becoming a regular feature.

Durbin and his creature Duckworth are Double D Industries.  A double dose of fatuous bargainers, representing Illinois in the 'greatest deliberative body' on the planet.  You know the one where recently Senate Majority Leader Yertle the Turtle hushed up the Socialist Saccagewea.

For the better part of a month DNAinfo has posted this Barnum-esque bunkum:

See How Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth Vote On Trump's Cabinet Picks

Wow!  See -Hercules Defeat the Minotaur!  See - Moses Part Donald's Weave!

Got it!  Every rag in this hick burg, delighted to be lorded over by jerks, cretins, grifters and well-healed oligarchs, begins and ends each day with a list of Trump Thumping nonsense that no one reads.

The Chicago Sun Times and Tribune can not cover Chicago high school sports with anything  resembling competence, but will crow like starlings in Bridgeport about its hard-hitting political coverage and ignore the daily thievery and bullying emanating from execrable City Hall and the egregious County Building.

Now, DNAinfo is a full time propaganda slinger.  Well, old Aeschylus also seems to have advised our 21st Century ink-slingers and nodders in his play Agamemnon - Do not kick against the pricks.

Much safer. 

Meet the Press - They Do Not Respect You

 Police said the incident began when an off-duty Chicago firefighter began to argue with motorists in the funeral procession who were blocking a fire lane. Police said the argument became “verbal and physical.”
Beal’s family members have said the incident began when an off-duty police officer tried to run one of their relatives off the road. Sun Times Frank Main &Mitch Dudek  

The shooting, which took place three days before Donald Trump's election as president, happened in Mount Greenwood, a largely white enclave heavily populated by police and firefighters on the mostly black and Hispanic South Side. Dueling protests followed, and the groups traded racial slurs and insults; supporters of the police, largely white, made clear those protesting the shooting, mostly black, were not welcome in the neighborhood. Chicago Tribune - Elvvia Malagon

         Kofi Ademola is a community organizer with Black Lives Matter Chicago and has been in                    regular contact with the Beal family since the fatal shooting.

He had not spoken to the family Thursday but reached out to offer some encouragement during this difficult time. Ademola said the family was already grieving when Beal was fatally shot. And now they are dealing with the arrest of Beal's brother Michael, who was taken into custody following the shooting for allegedly tackling with the officer and attempting to grab his gun.
For Ademola, what stood out among the new information was the 911 call from the officer. He said the officer's tone backs up the family's claims that painted the officer as both "aggressive" and "antagonistic." DNAinfo Kelly Bauer and Howard Ludwig

The media comments on a shooting that took place in November.  The accounts of the video released by the lame-duck Independent Police Review Board and soon to be Rahm-reconfigured as COPA, indicate a good police shooting.

Meet the Press!

None of the above reports from today's sources are accurate.  The funeral possession went on without the family Beal - they were weaving in and out of traffic, one vehicle was doing a U-Turn on 111th Street at Troy and then blocked the entrance to the FIRE HOUSE - which dispatches an Ambulance to black and white residents of Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood.

DNAinfo has been disgraceful from the day of the shooting. Only Ed Komenda presented exactly what had happened.

The incident happened about 3 p.m. Saturday near 111th Street and Troy Avenue. Joshua Beal was in a procession of cars returning from a funeral when he stopped in front of a firehouse on 111th Street, according to prosecutors.
An off-duty police officer told Beal that he was blocking access to the firehouse and the confrontation started, prosecutors said. Another off-duty officer in a nearby barber shop joined in on the confrontation, prosecutors said.
A group of nine people approached the second officer and started punching him, prosecutors said.A police sergeant driving to work saw the fight. He got out of his car, drew his gun and said he was a police officer, authorities said.
"You're not the only mother------- out there with guns," Joshua Beal said and waved the gun "back and forth," according to prosecutors. Joshua Beal then pulled the trigger, prosecutors said. It was unclear whether the gun actually fired.
Beal, who was in town to serve as a pallbearer at his cousin's funeral, refused to drop his gun, and he was shot multiple times, prosecutors said. He later died at Advocate Christ Medical Center.
Michael Beal then tried to pick up his brother's gun, prosecutors said.
"F--- you," Michael Beal said, according to prosecutors. "You killed my brother. I'm going to kill you."

Ed Komenda wrote that accurate account on November 8th and has not written about the Beal shooting since - Howard Ludwig, Kelly Bauer, Joe Ward are the compelling narrators.

The Tribune uses 'dogwhistle' racism and race baiting.

Has a black or Hispanic Community ever been referred to as an enclave?  Is Boystown an enclave?
Might Hyde Park be an enclave?  What is the diversity of Chinatown?  Mount Greewood is a neighborhood and black people live there next door to white people.

Enclave's etymology from the French for 'enclosure' and the Latin root word clavis offers a dog whistle to sensitive ears.  Clavis or 'key' suggests locked up, violent and hostile.  Shucks, link up Google's images for enclave and it jibs with Neil Steinberg's smears.

We get it.  The story of what actually happened on November 5, 2017 at around 3 PM on the north side of 111th Street in Mount Greenwood has yet to be told in the Chicago press, dissected by Phil Ponce on WTTW, or smirked about on WBEZ.

The core of the story is lost in the feathers and boas of 'compelling narrative.'

• 60's style racism
• Tweets from high school girls
• Ja'mal Green's political future
• Pastor Pfleger's grift box
• CPUSA and REVCOM
• Racism, racism and more racism

No an idiot who violated traffic laws with easy contempt, was confronted by people who are not idiots. A fight ensued.  Police officers announced them selves and pulled service weapons when the idiot was 'unresponsive' to police orders. The idiot pulled a gun on the announced police officers who returned fire.  The idiot died, God be good to him, and the press, Ja'mal Green, Black Lives Matter, REVCOM and Pastor Pfleger did the rest - Oh, and Kofi Ademola wants in too. 

Meet the Press!  With contempt. 

Day Two of NO News ABOUT BOB CREAMER - Spineless Chicago Papers

"Bruce runs a vigorous editorial page, one that engages seriously and constantly on issues that matter," says an admirer. If he has baggage, it might be a couple of things in combination. An ardent champion of Governor Bruce Rauner, Dold's editorial page hasn't wrestled with the possibility that Rauner, however sound his grasp of Illinois's fiscal crisis, is an overreaching jerk and his own worst enemy. Furthermore, Dold is perceived to be vastly more plugged into the city and state power structure than Kern ever was. Can he draw a line between his connections, his editorial beliefs, and the need of the newsroom to be unfettered by either? Chicago Reader

Citizen, Please! The guy is a Progressive politician's purse puppy.

Neither Chicago newspaper wasted any ink on Bob Creamer, because he is a protected Progressive species in the delicate ecosystem of American Oligarchy.

The Pre-Dold Tribune was a pretty fair paper and even allowed real reporters to give readers the full story. Like Laurie Cohen's great piece that tore the cover off of Bob Creamer. 

Bruce Dold's Tribune and the gang at Sun Times are "This" cozy with Mr. Schakowsky and Frau Creamer and have long ago tossed Bob's 'check kiting' thefts from an ecology scam into the memory hole.  Neither paper mentions the fact that James O'Keefe's Veritas Project caught the Terra Haute Federal Pen Alumnus bragging up his street cred and Trump thumping on camera. Even the Clintonista CNN offers this with an opening smear of Mr. O'Keefe

Illinois0 W. Hubbard St. Ste. 200Chicago 

Washington (CNN)A Democratic operative whose organization was helping Hillary Clinton's campaign announced Tuesday that he would be "stepping back" from the campaign after an edited video suggested that he and other staffers hired people to attend Donald Trump's campaign rallies and incite violence.
Robert Creamer -- husband of Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky -- announced his resignation in a statement after conservative activist James O'Keefe released a video under his organization Project Veritas Action, which showed Creamer and other operatives purportedly discussing methods for inciting violence at rallies for the Republican nominee.

CNN at least tried to smear James O'Keefe for doing exactly what CNN, CBS, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, ABC-DISNEY, Chicago Tribune and Sun Times do every day.

Bruce Dold's Tribune and the editorial crowd at Sun Times have a long history with Bob Creamer and his wife Rep. Jan Schakowsky and they are power players in the American Oligarchy.

A Chicago Cop offered this on Second City Cop

 Anonymous said...
I knew Creamer and worked for him. Creamer and Jan had an organization called "citizens for a better environment"on the 1980-1990s. What they did was get young black men and women, called producers, in a van and go to the far suburbs, door to door, and solicit money "for the environment". They would write a check to get rid of you. Typically$ 25 . You would get a very small percentage of what you kept. I did this . Creamer went to prison for ten years. In prison, he wrote a book, "Stand up straight". Worth reading,.some say it defined Obamacare. I met schakovsky once, she was surprised when I told her I knew creamer and worked citizens with him. It was the 80s, people were desperate and would do scammy shit like this for a dollar. I did. Later in life, I would drop a yellow slip for time and a half. Creamer exploited a lot of young black people with this scam.
10/18/2016 07:17:00 AM

CNN wen to great pains to discredit O'Keefe and mentioned his conviction and never said that Bob Creamer is a . . .Convicted Felon.

Senator Dick Durbin is tight with Creamer.

Stand Up Straight was oozed over by Senator Dick Durbin, because Creamer oozed all over Dick Durbin. 

To the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times - NO NEWS - Is Good news - for a very few, powerful, nasty, thieving and creepy people.

Ventra Cards - Why Can't We See (Hear) Forrest for the Fees?

You got that right, my brother!

Career Grifter and Government Job Hopper, CTA Boss Forrest Claypool, is invisible in today's Chicago Tribune article and only mentioned in passing by the Sun Times' account of the Ventra Card Debacle. 

CTA employees are being “verbally attacked daily by angry riders’’ who are blaming them for problems with the new transit fare-payment system, the rail worker union’s leader said Thursday, calling on the agency to scrap Ventra until all the bugs are worked out.
“The Ventra program is not working. There are people who are getting triple-, double-, quadruple-billed. Their credit cards are being billed that shouldn’t be. People are mad, they’re angry,’’ said Robert Kelly, Local 308 president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
“But they are mad at the wrong person,’’ Kelly said at union headquarters downtown. “CTA should stop (Ventra) now, pull back, until they can work out all the kinks.’’ Tribune

Concerning double-charges, CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase said previously that Ventra customers could be double charged if they tap a Ventra reader and get a “go” signal and then change turnstile lanes and get a second “go” signal. However, Ventra customers are not charged for “stop” messages, even multiple ones, she said.
Cubic Transportation Systems, which won a contract worth up to $454 million to manage and operate Ventra, was so inundated with calls in early October that, on Oct. 9, CTA President Forrest Claypool cancelled some Ventra deadlines. The move was intended to give Cubic time to triple the number of operators — from 100 to 300 — in its call centers and reduce the hold times of frustrated customers. Sun Times

 The Chicago Sun Times appears to Gimme Shelter Forrest with this passing props for cancelling some Ventra Rollout deadlines after the metaphorical halibut had already rotted on the transit poop deck.

I like to ride the bus to work and I would buy the CTA/PACE cards at CVS on 79th street.  They worked great and their value was obvious.  When something is not broken, a Progressive like Forrest Claypool will come in with an already divvied up deal to screw things into loam.  The newspapers will nod with conviction -"Ain't He Great?"

You see both Chicago papers ( read Editorial Boards) have a great deal of time, talent and treasure invested in the Carbondale Career Grifter.

Forrest Claypool can not keep his yap closed most times, because words are easy and deeds are tough.  When deeds follow the words that spill out of Claypool like mysterious Avondale fence ooze things get pretty tough on people other than Forrest Claypool - CTA workers' potty breaks get snipped off in mid - stream, Peep-hole camera's get located in locker rooms, a CTA yard worker* gets sanctioned, hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans, get their nickels snitched by Cubic Transportation Systems, and the Chinese wheels of the Canadian Bombardier L Cars don't fit the tracks.

How did Ventra become the "This CAN'T Wait" opportunity of a lifetime for CTA riders?

Forrest Claypool yapped up a storm for months.

Today?

It's a very different story but the same old song.

If Forrest Claypool is involved, we all pay.

*
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 President Bob Kelly is what real labor is all about - he stared done the Chinless Claypool over the Pee Break Embargo, called out the Bomdardier Wheel scam and is standing up for his people.  He should be doing Forrest's job.
n.b.- Robert Kelly was elected as President/Business Agent of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 in 2008. Mr. Kelly is responsible for protecting the collective bargaining rights of over 4000 active and retired Chicago Transit Authority workers who work on the rail side. Mr. Kelly serves as a Vice President of the Illinois AFL-CIO and is President of the ATU Local 308 Scholarship committee. He is the proud father of 11 children.
ATU 308 Officers

www.atu308.org, 13 Dec 2012 [cached]
Robert Kelly has been a member since October 1, 1986. Employed by the "Authority" on August 27, 1986. Robert has worked the classifications of Conductor, Motorman, Flagmen, Foot Collector, Switchman and Towerman. Appointed a steward in 1997 until he was elected as President/Business Agent on December 16, 2008. Robert demonstrates vision, insight and tenacity in representing Local 308's priorities. Re-elected to a second term on November 15, 2011 winning over 55% of the votes against 4 other candidates (emphasis my own)

Chicago Print Journalism, Really? - Depends Upon the Journalist

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes." John Swinton 1829-1901)

The Nicene Creed has worked pretty well, given the bumps and starts and start again nature of history.  I more than go along with that code and have a devil of a time living up to that Athansian paradigm almost as much as the four gospels, Acts, Epistles and Apocalypse sequel to the Old Testament.

Aside from that Code, pretty much everything else depends upon how well I think and act in its light.  Trial and error have had a remarkable effect upon me - I no longer light tire fires under viaducts, climb water towers upon challenge, vote the Party line, answer 1800-# phone announcements, regard Male Lo T or The Mood On Demand Products commercials with anything short of a belly-laugh, or worry about fairness in print journalism. By journalists, I refer to the opinion makers and heart breakers who go unchallenged in this traditionally hick burg.  I leave out of this very inky mix - news writers - reporters, Tim Novak, Natasha Korecki, Maureen O'Donnell, Dan Mihiopoulas, Chris Fusco & etc. They are a credit to the canons of taste.

For journalists I must include the disc jockeys turned editors and their peers who run opinion in both papers.

Journalism is as hit-or-miss as American movies. Sometimes you get My Weekend With Marilyn, most times you get what ever is playing On Demand.( Hey, at least you didn't spring for AMC& Lowes prices and the $12 small combo, parking and gas!).

There's good stuff out there, but you really must be discerning -trial and error - I'd take one Steve Rhodes over any number of Eric Zorns, Carol Marins, Mary Schmichs, or Richard Roepers; one Dennis Byrne over a parliament of  Steve Chapmans, Clarence Pages, Neil Steinbergs, or David Brooks-eses..

They are the cheerleaders for the powers that be and wanna be, if funded and sanctioned by the political social engineers and their wallets .Shucks, a hack ink-slinger who barks on demand may . . . .just may end up as a career king maker, or helping the thieves steal more efficiently.

John Kass remains the only true link to the Arrch Wards, Ray Coffeys, Nick Von Hoffmans, Herman Kogans and Mike Roykos of Chicago's great writers.

Wit has been replaced with snark -whatever the Hell that is; opinion is not wanted - e.g. Steve Rhodes.

Like betting on clams in the Midwest, too many of the passed along and institutionally agreed-upon talents ( Manya Brachear, Megan Daum, Mary Mitchell, Stella Emerita, Dawn Turner Trice, Rich Miller and the Latino Line-up at the Sun Times -Alejandro Escalano, Suzanne Ontiveros, et.al.) will give that uncomfortable tum-tum followed by 

• A feeling that your teeth are loose and about to fall out
• Confusing hot and cold temperatures (for instance, you will feel that an ice cube is burning you, while a match is freezing your skin)
• Headache (probably the most common)
• Low heart rate and low blood pressure (in very severe cases)
• Metallic taste in the mouth
• 
  

Trial and error, the gradus to discernment, may lead one to believe that there are more than one bad clam in the bag.

At Issue - CBS Radio Chicago Plays Softball with Cook County Crypt Keeper Toni Preckwinkle

Toni tells another of her disarming knee-slappers.

Catholic school testing begins this morning and in order to get the young scholars' sugar supply honing their brain-pans as sharp as their # 2 pencils, this old boy picked up a whole mess of Dunkin Donut  Long Johns and Donuts and orange juice early this AM.

Kareem and the crew at the 104th Street Station had the load ready to go and I enjoyed the cruise to Leo with WXRT's broadcast of CBS Chicago's At Issue with Craig Dellimore and his guest Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Now, to be perfectly fair, I believe that Mrs. Preckwinkle is as sharp as a bowling ball and as bright as our sun when fully eclipsed.  Hey, I'm just sayin'!

You see, Dame Preckwinkle is a member of the untouchable political caste of Progressive darlings: The Debs ( Mell and Shore), Doyens like Hit The Help Jan Schakowsky,  Red Dawn Clark Netsch, office roving mendicants Forrest Claypool,  Mike Quigley, silly goose Joe Moore, or the malocclusion varietals Sheila Simon, , Dave Orr & etc.  These folks get a pass universal from the media . . .until they become roadkill like Sandy and Jesse Jackson.

A Progressive fallen from grace's past due date is usually marked by a Carol Marin piece. GREEN LIGHT! - Indicted IL Rep. LaShawn Ford is still officially off-limits; until Rep.  Ricky Hendon -Emeritus points to the kittens in LaShawn's basement freezer.

Prior to such time, they belong to the Ain't They Great narrative

This standard and compelling narrative holds that Toni Preckwinkle, a Progressive pet-politician,  as quick on the draw as Django Unchained and smarter than Rachel Maddow on payday. Sadly, I have yet to experience anything, empirical or in public record, to support this meme.

My last personal encounter with the tardy and dour Dame Preckwinkle, occured during the waning days of her campaign for President and Pat Quinn's hoodwinking of the workers rally in Mount Greenwood.  It rained cats and dogs and hundreds of Union men and women from the real trades, Electricians, Carpenters, Engineers, Pipe-fitters and Laborers, many who would be laid off by Dame Preckwinkle months after she took Todd Stroger's seat, waited in the downpour - Replacement Governor Pat Quinn arrived shortly before the start of the rally, but Toni Preckwinkle was running late . . .real late. . . .she'll be there when she gets there. . .!  The perfect person for a grey rainy day, Toni Preckwinkle -late, unapologetic and unsmiling.

Folks got wet. No apoplogies.  Just Vote for Toni and Governor Squeezey! We did, more dummies us.  Hey, I'm just sayin' . . .!

Anyhoo, . . .Toni  is in the driver's seat at the Cook County Board - boss of St. Roger Hospital, All the Forest Preserves, Cook County Jail, the Sheriff and of course the Cook County Morgue and Craig Dellimore joined the President in her office for a chin-wag.

Give this AM's At Issue show a listen.  Mr. Dellimore asks about

•  the Cook Count Budget and Toni's bullet taxes
• Slot machine taxes
• Gay Marriage and religious intolerance and why black ministers are like Cardinal George
• Springfield
• Alderman Mell's movie reviews
• Props to Todd's sales tax

Softballs all and tossed under-hand  with mucho simpatico; all to which The Crypt Keeper answered with the metaphorical bat never leaving her globose shoulder

• "I don't have the figures( 4Xs by my count on budget items along with an odd equine gafaw concerning the budget extent)
• "Can't say at this time"
• Right Side of History from a history teacher
• " I don't know no Springfield!"
• " Nice Man, but I hate him."
• " As if . . ."

Toni was Toni, snarky, disdainful and as interesting as a dial tone.

Toni's Crypt - AKA -Cook County Morgue

The Late Mr. Khan

Most shocking, given the fact that a recent Lotto Winner became morgue-friendly, news hound Dellimore asked not a jot about the Cook County Crypt Kept by Dame Preckwinkle nor the state of the score of stiffs stacked like Chesty Morgan.?

Craig Dellimore no way asked "How's the Morgue, Toni?  How's she stackin'  there, Tee?"

No way he'd ask about the Crypt Keeper's Manchild Kyle going all Vanecko on some homeless dude.

Those questions are for the unprotected species of public and private person.

Hey, I'm just sayin'!