Showing posts with label Sun Times Editorial Mensa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sun Times Editorial Mensa. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Sun Times Board Schools Chris Kennedy in the Art of Playing the Race Card




"[Because] the proletariat is still so divided, so degraded, so corrupted in parts ... that an organization taking in the whole proletariat cannot directly exercise proletarian dictatorship. It can be exercised only by a vanguard that has absorbed the revolutionary energy of the class."
—Lenin, explaining the increasingly dictatorial nature of the regime
A “totalitarian regime?”
And here we thought we lived in Chicago, a city struggling with problems of violence, poverty and racism, but full of people — including more than a few in City Hall — making a good-faith effort to get things right. Chicago Sun Times Editorial Board
In addition to the Chicago Federation of Labor, union investors include SEIU Local 1 and Operating Engineers Local 150. In a way, the investment group resembles the city itself—or, at least, the people who run it. Columbia Journalism Review
 

Chris Kennedy is a good guy.

A Good guy has no business playing with Progressives/

Progressives are not liberal Democrat; they are Stalinists drooling to denounce . . .anyone.

Chris Kennedy noted Rahm Emanuel's  'small urban center' plans for Chicago are forcing black families out of the city.

The Sun Times is progressive and the voice of its masters -the oligarchs who run this city. 

The dodge is that Labor owns the Sun Times.  Labor's investment dollars are the mere candy-coating.

This is an organ of the oligarchs - the plutocrats like our Governor and our Governor to be, as well as the Axelrods, Obamas, Eychaners, Emanuels, Claypools, Preckwinkles, Cosgroves and Pritzkers who reap millions  of dollars from what they sow - discontent, chaos, racial antipathy, confusion  and anger.

Chris Kennedy got himself on the wrong side of oligarchical history last week and is enduring the death by a thousand cuts from the master race-baiters of the Chicago media.

The Sun Times has a decades long record of playing the race card and today they mapped out the lessons Chris Kennedy must learn, if he wants back in with the powers that is.

Kennedy is playing a dangerous game. He is playing the race card unfairly, knowing that’s the quickest way to get a headline in Chicago. But playing the race card — in this case without the goods — also is the quickest way to destroy a reputation, divide us against each other, and set back whatever progress in racial fairness our city has made.
Or translated into regular Chicagoan, When are you going to stop hitting yourself, Chris Kennedy?  Stop hitting yourself!  Why are you hitting yourself?

The above is the familiar sound of pissy little sneaks.

Chris Kennedy is a good guy. 

A good guy would tell the Sun Times to duck off, . . .  or something that sounds like that.



Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Sun Times: Man Stabbed in Kennedy Park - Stop Gun Violence!

Image result for man stabbed in kennedy parkImage result for Kennedy Park chicago

A 41-year-old man was stabbed Monday evening in the Kennedy Park neighborhood on the Far Southwest Side.
He was walking down the street about 5:50 p.m. in the 11100 block of South Washtenaw when an unknown person stabbed him, according to Chicago Police.  The man suffered a puncture wound to the abdomen and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in good condition, police said.Stop Gun Violence
Was the man Stabbed with a Gun?

The Sun Times casts great light on gun violence, but keeps the savagery of the individuals perpetrating the perpetual attacks on innocent people like toddlers, children, tourists and people walking near a Chicago park at 5:30 P.M. in any neighborhood.

This is because the Sun Times is all about making it possible for individuals to bring lawsuit against the society that protects their actions and give the lie to the pre-caste political narratives of the Chicago oligarchs. The Chicago Reader, owned by the Sun Times, calls the 19th Ward( especially Mount Greenwood)  the Upside Down.  

In short, dead fish would jump from the pages of the Sun Times, rather than be shrouded in lies.

Kennedy Park is in the Morgan Park neighborhood.  I live here.  The news media goes to great pains to portray this neighborhood as some kind of Celtic Copland-  Leave it To Beaver Oasis for White Flight Racists, where Rahm Emanuel counts upon and gets high voter turn-outs and matching Rahm Votes each election cycle.  In return, Rahm flips pancakes at Original House of Pancakes on Western, blesses a Blackhawks endowed Hockey Rink at Kennedy Park.  Rahm also solemnly nods with the news media about the people who live here, pay taxes, obey the law and call 911  more than they should.

People, white black, brown and yellow in this neighborhood as well as  Beverly and Mount Greenwood are robbed, burglarized, threatened, assaulted and mugged by thugs - frequently. With the great number of CPD, County, State and Federal law enforcement professionals residing here, one might think - The Bad Guys Know Us, But They Leave Us Alone.  No.  They get around.

Last week,  and off-duty cop was attacked by young thugs with pistols, a number of thugs came into The Upside Down to rob UPS, FEDEX and USPS deliveries.

Image result for Thug Comfort Zone
Chicago is a Thug Comfort Zone.

A comfort zone denotes that limited set of behaviors that a person will engage without becoming anxious. Alternatively denoted as a "plateau" it describes that set of behaviors that have become comfortable, without creating a sense of risk. A person's personality can be described by his or her comfort zones. Highly successful persons may routinely step outside their comfort zones, to accomplish what they wish. A comfort zone is a type of mental conditioning that causes a person to create and operate mental boundaries that are not real. Such boundaries create an unfounded sense of security. Like inertia, a person who has established a comfort zone in a particular axis of his or her life, will tend to stay within that zone without stepping outside of it. To step outside a person's comfort zone, he must experiment with new and different behaviors, and then experience the new and different responses that then occur within his environment.

Following the thug murder of Leo High School Valedictorian, Golden Gloves Champion and college student Jason Riley in 2007, I wrote the following:

I accuse the news media of creating a Thug Comfort Zone here in Chicago. Only cases where Police can and will be accused of abuse based upon race receive any attention - the more ludicrous and outrageous accusations get tried in the public glare with the full support of cynical creeps who sit their milky fat asses on Editorial Boards.
I use cynical creeps because 1. - they are cynical - 'Let's get into it!' and sell some papers - easier than being good at your work and 2. creeps because only a creep would actively engage in 'criminal' enterprise to enrich lawyers and thugs, while bankrupting public monies and public confidence.
It is now 2017 and milky rumps remain on editorial boards and chirp about - gun violence.

Thugs feel very free to rob, steal, assault and use guns to kill people, because There's a 73% chance that Foxxx (Cook County States Attorney)won't charge you

  • and another 78% chance you'll make bail, even on murder and hate crime charges
  • and another 82% chance you beat the charge at court.  ( emphases and parenthetical my own) 
Thugs Kill People
Thugs Rob People
Thugs Terrorize People, because they can. 



Guns kill people, like pencils flunk tests.


Monday, December 11, 2017

Chicago Tribune Does Rahm Recovery and Dan Mihalopoulos Tosses Red Meat to Real Readers



It does not take a Jeremiah, a Daniel, or an Ezra to read Chicago Tea-leaves and know with 100% certainty that Chicago's Media will apply rouge, mascara and pancake to the potholes on Rahm Emanuel's mug only seconds after every disaster. 

Immediately after the weekend's whirlwind "Forget about it!  Good Men Make Mistakes"  from Bruce Dold's Chicago Tribune, the greasepaint got slapped on with hefty trowel:

Top news
CLOUT STREET
Trying to dig out of turmoil of second term, Emanuel looks ahead to re-election bid:
Bill Ruthhart
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in the back half of a second term filled with controversies and challenges that would have left many politically weakened if not finished for good, but he’s as cocksure as ever about his future.
Gee, what a scrappy kid!  What a with it guy!  Them controversies???  Go on; pick one!

Whoever runs against Emanuel, the Tribune will morph him/her into 'The Trump Candidate.'

Already Dold's hacks, Steve Chapman, Rex Hupke, as well as imported features are dominating the most read section with Trump Thumping tub-thumpers.


  • I Study Liars fro  Living. I've Never Seen One Like President Trump
  • A lesson in history: Why the furor behind declaring Jerusalem Israel's capital?
  • Donald Trump's biggest flaw: He's not that bright
  • Don't underestimate how low Trump can go
  • Trump endorses Moore — something for Gross America to ...
We get it Bruce, Trump is bad, very, very, very very bad.   So is the Tribune.


Rahm Emanuel is Cocksure that he can depend upon the purse-puppies in the Tribune Tower to lick-spittle up a storm for him! Membership in the Progressive Democratic Oligarchy requires lock-step from stooges.

However, West of the tower along the river, the Sun Times' Dan Mihalopoulos  has tossed raw meat to real readers

Mayor Rahm Emanuel will get a brief break from his troubles here next week — thanks to a star in the vast constellation of brother Ari.
When news broke that Emanuel will go to New York to be a guest on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Monday, I couldn’t help but immediately suspect Colbert is one of the many entertainers who make gobs of money for uber-agent (and Uber investor) Ari Emanuel.Well, sure enough, what could seem like a cynical question yielded just the answer I suspected: Ari Emanuel’s massive Endeavor talent agency owns the company that manages Colbert’s career.
Ari Emanuel is the chief executive of Beverly Hills-based Endeavor (which recently changed its name from WME-IMG). A couple years ago, Endeavor acquired New York-based Dixon Talent, which represents Colbert.
Think Colbert will ask about the Feds circling around Forrest Claypool and not Cook County Forest Preserve workers? Not a chance!

Well, sure enough, what could seem like a cynical question yielded just the answer I suspected: Ari Emanuel’s massive Endeavor talent agency owns the company that manages Colbert’s career.
Ari Emanuel is the chief executive of Beverly Hills-based Endeavor (which recently changed its name from WME-IMG). A couple years ago, Endeavor acquired New York-based Dixon Talent, which represents Colbert.

Mihalopoulos goes for the jugular . . .and all south side Irish . . .by forcing readers to remember Robert Redford's lousy docu-drama that attempted to present Rahm as a human being

As with CNN’s fawning “Chicagoland” series — which starred Rahm Emanuel and his then-loyal top cop Garry McCarthy during Emanuel’s first term — the mayor is again benefitting from people who are financially connected to his little brother.
Clients of Ari Emanuel directed CNN’s 2014 homage to Rahm and Garry. Before that show aired, the directors promised to be so fair and balanced that Mayor Emanuel would be irked.  The final result was virtually a propaganda film, with Emanuel and McCarthy portrayed like urban superheroes. Emails later revealed the show’s producers privately coordinated scenes with mayoral aides and even promised to present Emanuel as “the star that he really is.”

You Steven Colbert works for Ari Emanuel's talent rodeo.  He is in with the Chicago Progressive Democratic Oligarchs and a HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE Trump Thumper.

Dan Mihalopoulos cuts through the PR stooging from Rahm's office person and gets to meat of the matter:

An Endeavor spokesman on Friday confirmed Colbert is a client of Dixon Talent, but Dixon Talent did not return messages seeking comment on Rahm Emanuel’s appearance with Colbert.
A spokeswoman for CBS, the network that airs Colbert’s show, had no interest in elaborating on why they would want the mayor of Chicago on their show.
“So you’re aware, we don’t comment on our booking process,” said the spokeswoman, Lauren Kamm. “Photos of the mayor’s appearance will be available on Monday evening and the full clip of the interview will post on The Late Show’s YouTube page on Tuesday morning.”
We local yokels also can tune in to CBS-Channel 2 at 10:35 p.m. Monday. The mayor is scheduled to appear between Oscar winner Matt Damon and Colombian musician Juanes.
Emanuel should hope he gets glowing reviews in Beverly and other neighborhoods of his city — and not just in Beverly Hills. (emphasis my own)
Rahm plays Ok in Beverly, but west of Western and East of Longwood Drive ? Morgan Park?  Roseland?  Auburn-Gresham? Mount Greenwood?  West Beverly?   Garfield Ridge?  West Lawn?  Noyt so much.

Dan Mihiapolous shows real fangs and claws, unlike his editorial board.

Sun Times will back the SEIU/AFSCME approved candidate and then curry favor with the Third Term Rahm Administration, once the stalking horses white, black and Latino divide the votes again.

Here's hoping the Feds still have a RICO bullet in the chamber for Forrest Claypool and the will to let fly.

If not Rahm will face Trump and win again.

Colbert ought to be ashamed, but he is not. He is Hollywood.

Until then, Nothing is on Square and the Nine Digit Midget remains on Five.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Homework for Our Sun Times Watch Dogs - Connect the Dots Between Cop-Hating Policy and Jamie Kalven's Real Estate Ventures

“We'll go wherever the conversation takes us, but our point of departure will be an exchange about the stories our lives become in the world — the narratives we construct with our actions, the narratives others impose on us, strategies of narrative self-defense (including silence), and questions of narrative stewardship and responsibility.These issues, which are present for anyone who intervenes and acts in the world, are boldly dramatized by the lives of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.” Jamie Kalven
 Hyde Park journalist Jamie Kalven is distributing across the city this weekend 40,000 copies of his four-year project to uncover corruption in the Chicago Police Department.
You just gotta say, 'Dude' when Jamie Kalven appears. You just gotta.
Photo published for In the Chicago Police Department, If the Bosses Say It Didn’t Happen, It Didn’t Happen


Here's some weekend fun!  I tried to make homework fun when I was an English teacher.  Well, unless I wasn't pissed off, or feeling sorry for myself because Catholic high school's paid such crumby salaries. . .sorry. . . .and I attempted to give the kids a chance to make some intellectual inquiries that were of some use to them. Make up a Canterbury Tale of your own that makes fun of your English teacher, or the guy working at Belscott's who never seems to bathe.  Go fishing on the mighty Kankakee River and do a Nick Adams Story like Old Ernie. Stuff like that.

I have one for the very best investigative journalists in Chicago - the Sun Times Watchdogs  a changing band of brother reporters.   The Watchdogs of the Sun Times, far too often confused by the editors with the always hapless Andy Shaw, presented the fruits of Jamie Kalven's labors - the long list of beefs against cops going back to 1967 - and never once mention Jamie Kalven.

Just wondering.  The CRs listed are the ones that came after Kalven's Citizens Police Data Project and the subsequent Justice Department inquiries, but shucks it's Jamie Kalven!

Now, how about some extra-credit!

Do a fun piece on Jamie Kalven, because this week he is all the rage!

I would like the Watchdogs to connect some dots for us - here is the clue - Real Estate!

Task: Find out how many real estate ventures Jamie Kalven had connected to Allison Davis and Altegeld Gardens and offer a commentary.  Was it interesting?  Was it lucrative> Does it have impact on Policing?  Bet it does.

Jamie Kalven is not only an activist but he is a well -insulated Progressive real estate player! He used to present himself as a real estate novelist a la Billy Joel, but has Google washed that past.

Yesterday DNAinfo informed all of us that Jamie Kalven - the hard-hitting Real Estate Novelist, Venture Marxist and founder of the Invisible Institute ( leading the way for a Shakman-like Empire in Cook County) - papered the City of Chicago with more than 40,000 copies of his findings
HYDE PARK — If you haven’t read Hyde Park journalist Jamie Kalven’s four-year-long reporting project on corruption in the Chicago Police Department, it’s about to become almost unavoidable.
Starting this weekend, Kalven will distribute to 400 locations across the city 40,000 free copies of his 20,000-word, four-part series on an alleged criminal gang of drug dealers operating within the police department for nearly 10 years with the knowledge of police leadership.
Kalven has become the leading voice on problems within Chicago’s police ranks. He has released documents showing officers subject to frequent complaints from the public go unpunished and was an early voice pointing out problems with the shooting of Laquan McDonald by officer Jason Van Dyke.
Not only that, but also - there is a Jamie Kalven Mythology roll-out Nationwide! It's sensational - in the real meaning of the word!

James Warren of Vanity Fair and formerly Chicago Tribune calls it a hit that only needs a great musical score!
Imagine “The Wire,” “Serpico,” “Prince of the City” and “The Shield” rolled into one. It's why Hollywood producers should read “The Code of Silence” and give Chicago freelance journalist Jamie Kalven a call. . . .It's also a tale both of how mainstream media often blows law enforcement coverage and how potentially important stories run smack into journalistic conventions and just get lost. . . .His expose is like the grittiest fictionalized drama: dirty cops, abject poverty in crime-ridden projects, people wearing wires, murders to silence informants, the good guys being demonized and put in real peril, and ultimately a department hierarchy looking the other way.
Set it to music, Chief Keef!

 Can you say Hamilton?  How about Kalven?  Too, close to that other Calvin - the Klein guy?  Maybe.  How about Jamie!  Jamie, Lad! Right out of Master of Ballintrae. Sen-SAYSHUNAL!

Every left leaning magazine, broadcast outlet, talk-hub, podcast, website, newspaper and cop hating rag in the nation, Huffington Post, Slate, Jet, Vanity Fair, Al Jazeera, and, of course, NPR, are picking up James Warren's Poynter Piece - Meet Jamie Kalven.

James Warren not only wrote the Vanity Fair fallation, but seems to be the media's go-to narrative, which can only mean legal and cultural policy to follow close on the act - root and branch.

Jamie Kalven is talking up a plenty his own bad self! Kalven lays out the coordination orchestrated over decades of Burge Bashing and honed sharply during the Richie Daley Final Days.  A tiny Polish bartender female was horribly beaten by drunken monster, taking the day off as a cop, and that was caught on camera.  Kalven lays out just how quickly two leading Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers welded up the off-duty heroics of Abbate to the Burge Mythology = Futterman and Bowman.

The joint motion created a situation in which the public interest was unrepresented. Two law professors who specialize in police abuse cases — Craig Futterman of the University of Chicago and Locke Bowman of Northwestern University — intervened on behalf of the public. They argued that if the city was allowed to “buy its way out of” the judgment, it would have no incentive to make the necessary reforms. Judge St. Eve ruled against the city, holding that the jury verdict regarding the code of silence “has a social value to the judicial system and public at large.”
In their effort to have the code of silence verdict set aside, city lawyers argued that the CPD had enacted significant reforms since the 2007 bar incident. And they emphasized that the department was now led by a new superintendent who would not permit such behavior to go unpunished.

Did it?  Seems to me things dragged not at all.

Kalven leaves out the looong Koschman Case championed by Carol Marin.  Why is that?

The Sun Times played code of silence with louder frequency than a Packey Webb Ford's jingle and the masterpiece of a Locke Bowman return to fray with the Batman of Burge Bashing and Jon Burge Mythology Author horry old G. Flint Taylor and together they fronted for the Carol Marin aggrieved and the completed welding job on Systemic Racist Code of Silence Culture of Corruption  that was G. Flint Taylor-made for a spot at Penny Pritzker Park.

I sure would like to see some real investigation by our Watchdogs.

I would like to be brought fully up to speed on Jamie Kalven and all of his works.

This is extra credit.  You are not being paid to do this.   Have fun!  I hope.









Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Sun Times, Yet Again, Sides With Corporatist Mayor Rahm Disney Star Wars



If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Jiminy Cricket chirps them sentiments.  Chicago is populated with Jiminy Crickets - goofs and goo-goos who not only go along with the destruction of neighborhoods, but see the rainbow and a crock of gold.  Jiminy Cricket got Rahm re-elected, put Toni Preckwinkle in her President's chair, backed every single digit I.Q. in Springfield and will do it all over again.

Every Jiminy Cricket Chicagoan (Ready for Hillary/Thinks the BGA Works for People Other Than the People Screwing Our Lives/Still Read The Trib and Sun Times Without Laughing, or Tossing The Old Cookies/Votes Straight Ticket Like It Was 1963) will be only too delighted to know the Narrative Created for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts Continues.

The Friends have abandoned their loftiest argument, that a 1973 ordinance and the spirit of a “free and open” lakefront prohibit further private development east of Lake Shore Drive. Now they’re just trying to cut a deal on the particulars of the museum, like everybody else.
You mean like Becky and Stan across the street who can be sure to profit handsomely by Rahm's Public Land Yard Sale to the wee Lad with bags of gold doubloons and happens to be married to a Hyde Park Mafia Princess? Chomsky, Please! Those two are  'real' players and Becky and Stan are, like every non-in-the-mix Chicago citizen, abstractions - votes.

The Compelling narrative voices of the Sun Times Editorial Board, like the castrati on the Chicago Tribune's, are in full harmony here -

But in giving up the high ground of pure principle, the Friends have lost much of their authority in this debate. Why should anybody listen to them? They are a respected and valued group, undoubtedly, but elected by nobody. If it is not a violation of fundamental civic values to grant the Lucas Museum a lakefront location, as the Friends appear to have conceded, then they should step aside. They should drop their law suit and leave it to those who actually were elected by somebody — the mayor and the City Council — to cut the best deal for our city.
Maybe then this negotiation can move into the real world.

Really? Gee. So, the unelected must shut up?  Brave New World; Well, compel my britches!


  • The BGA has a niche right smack dab in the middle of the Sun Times Thought Cathedral seven days a week.  No one elected Andy Shaw and the laid off former Sun Times and Tribune ink-slingers who support the Rahm Disney Star Wars Magic Kingdom . . .I mean Chicago.
  • Jesse L. Jackson, Ist of His Name, and one of most practiced and accomplished stick up artist in Social Justice Mythology continues to prop up the power on Chicago's leading tabloid. - No One Elected the King of Beers
  • Madeleine Dubeck, came to the Sun Times at the Birth of ReBoot Illinois and no one elected this former editor of the Daily Herald to ReBoot the old Illinois Hard Drive, but she slings ink now and then for the Sun Times, whenever the billionaires ( Crown/Griffin et al) need to gin up some grassroots horseshit for some more Green.
The Sun Times sanctions columns for "advocates and activists" who help draw up compelling narratives to change the social, moral, culture and political landscape of America and heap profits upon the chosen few in league with the Progressive Corporatist Power at City Hall, in Cook County and even out in Springfield.

Jiminy Crickets! When I wish upon a star, I sure don't expect to see Forrest Claypool, Pat Quinn, Toni Preckwinkle, Bruce Rauner, Rahm Emanuel, or Valerie Jarrett to get sprinkled with Hollywood Star Wars Dust and an Obama Museum.  Jiminy Crickets all over Chicago do and the Sun Times is always there to make their Dreams Come True.

Next Mayoral Election - I'm Voting Straight Friends of the Park.




Monday, February 29, 2016

Sun Times Editorials Add Up, Only If You You Really Stink At Math


I took a sound beat down every day from Sisters Doralese and Gertrudis, ( Sisters of Mercy ,bye the by) through Sixth and Seventh Grades at Little Flower Grammar School in the mid-1960's, due to my profound inabilities where numbers are concerned.

Pay attention, or I'll give something to whimper about . . .' take the sum of any . . . .' and shave that mustache, Boyo!

In Eight Grade, I took B Honors, because the nun I had thought that I was someone else and graded accordingly.

I did learn to add, subtract, multiply and divide and fractions.

The Editorial Board of the Chicago Sun Times?  I would have been proud to have them sit around around me in those swell desks bolted to the hardwood of Little Flower.  I would have been spared a few cuts and thrashings, from the two Irish women, my Bogman Grandpa Hickey called 'Life's Unplucked Flowers,' when women were present, or 'hairy-faced old Galway Bitches,' between the two of us.

The Chicago Sun Times thumps its Saltine-like chest and thunders like Governor Le Petomane in Blazing Saddles, because the Workers Compensation Payouts are not like New York City's and that the Finance Committee is operating according to the rules of its charter.

The City paid out a whopping 115 million dollars 2011, but no where in the editorial is proof of illegality.

What the editorial amounts to is this - the City is bleeding dollars from the public schools, the CTA and special relationships like this between Friends of Richie Daley and Valerie Jarret in real estate swindles that add up actual theft.

In same edition is Watchdogs ( Tim Novak who investigated Obama/Rezko/Jarret/Allison Davis slum real estates in 2008, but magically vanished around election day), but appears again with Vanecko lad, in keeping with the  paper's Kochman bleatings.

The editorial deals with John Dewey Math (there might be theft Q.E.D. there is!) and Watchdogs in math that Archimedes could understand.

Now, Lookee H'yar!
Here’s how the Davises and Vanecko handled the pension money, according to documents obtained over the past nine years from the five pension funds.

• $9.9 million was lost on the purchase of the 344-unit building at 1212 S. Michigan Ave. Using pension money, Davis and Vanecko paid $65.2 million in September 2006 to buy it — and sold it about five years later for $65.5 million. The pension funds never got any money from the sale.

• $2.8 million was lost on two loans to the owners of the Chicago Defender’s former home, a boarded-up building at 2400 S. Michigan Ave. It’s unclear why DV Urban lent pension money to developers Brian O’Connell of LaGrange and his partner, Matthew A. O’Malley, a politically connected restaurateur who has been battling City Hall over a sweetheart deal to operate the Park Grill restaurant in Millennium Park. After a bank foreclosed on the Defender building, O’Connell and O’Malley sold the property in 2014. The pension funds didn’t get any money from the sale.

• $2.65 million helped DV Urban pay $11.7 million in 2007 for a commercial building at 217 N. Jefferson St. The building was sold last year for $14.5 million — one of the deals that helped the pension funds recover $6 million.

• $6.5 million was used by DV Urban toward $11.5 million it paid for a 162-unit apartment building at 7100 S. South Shore Dr. It was sold last year for $6.75 million, helping return some money to the pension funds.

• $3.5 million went toward $4.2 million DV Urban paid for the stores at 3508 S. State St., part of the CHA’s redevelopment of Stateway Gardens. The pension funds hope to sell the land this year.

• $16.9 million went to loans to developers of 3030 N. Broadway, where a Mariano’s store is being built, and to buy adjacent land at 3013-17 N. Waterloo. The property is expected to be sold this year.

• $4.2 million was invested with the firm Sydney Partners, which paid $10.5 million for a 15.6-acre industrial property at 3348 S. Pulaski. DV Urban leased part of the space to the city. But, beset by environmental problems including polluted soil, the property was sold for just $5.4 million in 2014, and the pension fund money was lost.

• $4.5 million was earmarked to buy the former headquarters of the National Association of Letter Carriers’ Chicago branch at 1411 S. Michigan, next door to the Chicago Firehouse restaurant owned by O’Malley. The deal ended up in court when DV Urban backed out of the deal, asking the letter carriers to return the money — which the union had used to build its new headquarters. The lawsuit was settled out of court, but the pension funds lost all of their money.

Now, I was taught round off decimals at .5 and adding these here figures comes to -

$30 M in losses from City Worker Contributions to Pension Funds - no how about that?  Might call for a old timey stem-winder of an editorial!

Instead, Michael Shakman beefed that he was not getting his cut from Ed Burke's Finance Committee and the harrumphing went viral.

$ 30M is a not, to be sure, a whopping 115 million dollars paid out to workers compensation claims according to the existing law and rules, but $30M in real loss to people who trusted politicians and had their savings picked clean by Progressively Approved Valerie Jarrett slumlords, just might be investigation worthy of city newspaper.  Nah.  Gentlemen, we goota protect our phoney baloney jobs!

Now, here is smelly part.  While cops and school teachers took an investment beating that would have warmed cold-hearts of the two above-mentioned Sisters of Mercy.

Valerie Jarret's slum-lord partner ( Valerie is somehow absent from Tim Novak's investigation) Allison Davis and one of the Vanecko boys made out like porch-climbers.


“The investment was effectively a total loss for DV Urban,” says Miller-May of the teachers pension fund.
DV Urban was paid $8 million in management fees between 2006 and 2012, when the pension funds got permission from a Delaware judge to fire the company.
A little over $1 million, for property-management fees, went to a company owned by Cullen Davis*, another Davis son, who oversaw some of the apartment buildings bought with pension money.
Another $1.7 million went to two companies, including Newport Capital Partners, to manage the DV Urban portfolio and sell off the assets in an effort to recover as much money as possible for the pension funds.
Beyond the money lost on the investments with DV Urban, the pension funds also had to pay $2.5 million for attorneys who fought the firm for two years in courtrooms from Chicago to Delaware over control of the real estate investments.
That's $13 million in money looted from City Workers and tucked in the wallets of slumlords added to $30m in losses comes to a very real $ 43 M beat down of City Workers, not a possible boondoggle.

Where is the editorial on this one?  Somethings don't add up.  Like editorial three-monte providing cover for Rahm, while doing absolutely nothing.

Alderman Ed Burke is playing according to the rules approved by the City of Chicago and he does seem worried a bit nor should he.  He knows this is not newspaper, but a daily political fog machine.

* Like the Ayers/Obama papers held hostage at Cement City, better late than never.
Whenever I am near a Progressive Do-Gooder, I throw both hands over the Left check of my ass to protect my wallet.
Whenever a Progressive Do-Gooder gets near poor people, they rake in millions, properties get boarded up, and people die.

Monday, February 09, 2015

Rahm Emanuel has "Earned" My Vote? BS, MBS & PhD!


There was a an old response to an outrageous assertion from a person who had college degrees after his name, that I no longer hear in Chicago.  It went  " Listen to him. He's an important guy. Look at the letters after his name BS, Master of BS, Piled High and Deep!"

We no longer live in Chicago.  We reside in Chicagoland.

Editorial Boards in Chicago are umbilical chords pumping life and vitality into the misery that is Illinois still-born government.  Editorial Boards in Chicago shined no light on Candidate Obama long association with Chicago Slum Warlords: Allsion Davis and Valerie Jarrett who trotted out bundler Tony Rezko - The Man in The Iron Mask. Nor did they point out the daffy irregularities of  Blago, Burris, Quinn & Company, Ralph Martire: The Architect of Pension Three Card Monte, Daley's Sell off of Assets.

Reporters did that. No paper has better reporter than Chicago Sun Times: Tim Novak, Dan Mihiapolous, Chris Fusco, the silenced Dave McKinney and Natasha Korecki. They are the Casandras of our  City.  Chicago went the way of the stockyards and became Chicagoland, which is gussied up with verbal arugula from Sundance Films and Sundance Bob Redford doing a solid for Ari Emanuel  We are asked to pretend that Rahm Emanuel is 'one of us.' Chicagoland is Hollywood-lite.

That is Okay with both Chicagoland Papers.

These twin Chicagoland editorial boards work to get Rahm a permanent place on the 5th Floor.

That is their right and privilege.  The pin-stripe crowd that comes into Chicagoland from Lake County and points tonier and exits at sunset command the skype-ready board rooms that look down on Chicagoland and giggle with pride and snide, knowing full well that Rahm Emanuel will direct more cash to their vaults.  They nod with conviction and solemn agreement when the Twin Chicagoland Medill Brat Pack inks its endorsement.

The twin pulp endorsements are as glued to the truth as a Brian Williams combat yarn and tell us that our lot is Resignation.  "Resignation is the lot of the helot with thirty year mortgage and $ 487 water every six months.  Resign yourselves to the inevitable, pay your bills and shut the duck up, or Rahms sake."

I am told by the editorial board of the Sun Times, the paper with fanged talent I listed above, that Rahm Emanuel 'Earned My Vote.'

Bullshit!

Was that too intemperate and un-WTTW?

How about Horseshit - you know the stuff Ed Burke so solemnly banned from the Gold Coast.

I earn my pay.  I earn the love of my children and respect and courtesy of my neighbors.

The very same editorial ink that tells me, in no uncertain terms, that I owe my vote to Dancing Priam, tells me also that, " The city’s four main pension systems are underfunded by a stunning $20 billion. Workers and retirees will have to pay in more and get back less. There is no other way. Homeowners, best we can tell, will have to pay higher taxes. Absolutely nobody will be happy."

Gee, you think?

I will bet that my Ward, the 19th, will go along with Rahm, because for too many of my neighbors personal obligations will demand it.  They will be a doing a solid for the guy who desperately believes that Rahm wil save his job on the Garbage trucks, or down at the Hall, or help his kid get a pipes trades job, in some way.

I know. I have been there and voted that.

Vote for whomever you believe to the best person, be it Rahm, Bob, Chuy, Willie, Doc or Jimmy the Two-Headed Boy.

You owe no one your vote.   You don't need a PhD to tell you that, but he will.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Mayor Prickly, or Toni Preckwinkle? With Whom Would You Share a Pizza and Cold Pitcher of Draft at Vito & Nick's?





Rahm Emanuel can be Prickly*. Polls can be Picky - skewed to serve up just the right conclusion., like every poll conducted by the Paul Simon Institute.  Polls tell us the foregone conclusion to every thing - science, my boy, science.

Now, we helots are treated to a poll conducted to belabor the obvious ( Rahm is just Prickly) and conclude that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is sweeter than bear meat.“Right now, Rahm is not connecting. If he doesn’t do that, he’s gonna lose,” McKeon said.
Emanuel is raising campaign cash at a frenzied pace — with more than $7 million in the bank already and former President Bill Clinton headlining a mega-fundraiser next month — in hopes of scaring off serious challengers.
He’d better hope the strategy works, according to the new poll, which measured Emanuel’s support against County Board President Toni Preckwinkle — the challenger City Hall fears most — along with three others: Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd); Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis and former Ald. Robert Shaw (9th).
Shaw is the only declared mayoral challenger.
If the election were held today, Emanuel would find himself in a horse race.
The mayor would get 29 percent of the vote to Preckwinkle’s 26 percent. The poll shows Lewis finishing third with 10 percent, followed by Fioretti at 5 percent and Shaw with 3 percent. An estimated 27 percent of voters interviewed were undecided.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points, higher when the results are broken down by demographic factors. More than 39 percent of respondents were interviewed on their cellphones.Chicago Sun Times - The Progressive Praetorian Guard of Chicago
Rahm is a Progressive, Toni Preckwinkle is a Progressive, Ald. Bob Fioretti is a Progressive, Karen Lewis is a Progressive coached by a Socialist - Jesse Sharkey. They each one of them have the personality of a dial tone.

Former Alderman Bob Shaw is not a Progressive.  So, he's got that going for him.  Bob Shaw is a rascal and that can't hurt. Bob Shaw is a fun guy and very comfortable in his own larcenous skin. The choice in this case would be like choosing a night of succotash and warm milk with Bill Moyers, or cards, a jug, a swell Dame and maybe some family friendly gun-play with Bret Maverick.

My test for political office is always determining the intrinsic worth of a candidate based upon past performance - would I care to spend any time with that person?

Would you -female, gay, Catholic, Unitarian, Agnostic, breeder, affluent, financially challenged, male, sixteen inch softball Alumna/i , homeowner, or homeless - care to nail a few squares from a Vito & Nick's family sized 18" Pizza Supreme and an ice cold pitcher of whatever domestic malted grain beverage is on tap with either Rahm Emanuel or Toni Preckwinkle?

Man, I'd rather have my gums scraped a Parkinson's afflicted orthdontis with dirty fingers and world-class halitosis.

Toni Preckwinkle makes Mayor Prickly seem like Bing Crosby on Quaalude.  The two of them must have spent their childhood happy hours torturing G.I. Joe and Barbie and then matriculated to social studies.

Now, I'd grease up my fingers, face and formal wear over piping hot 360 Degrees of Vito & Nick's with former Ald. Bob Shaw any hour of the day.  I have witnessed the way Bob Shaw treats people far less fortunate than himself and it was according to Gospel I hear read homilized on Sunday's at Sacred Heart Misssion Church, St, Odilo's in Berwyn and St. John Cantius.

I'll take a larcenous rascal with shady history who treats poor, helpless and needy people like they are the most important people on the planet and Bob Shaw does exactly that.  I know he might tweak "opportunity" to his personal gain, because he's tell me so.

I know Toni Preckwinkle and Rahm Emanuel would light a box of kittens on fire, if policy dictates, and that they would not leave a nickel left un-stolen from people of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and the United States. They are Progressives, Reformers, BGA Approved and Media Protected Foregone Conclusions.

Poll your neighbors, boys and girls.  The Progressive pole will continue  whack us all between the eyes.

Mayor Prickly is the sobriquette coined by Chicago writer and Vito & Nick;'s habitue John Kass.  At first I thought Mayor Prickly was an homage to Jane Austen, William Congreve and Capt. Dick Steele.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Oh, Bitter Dicta! Sun Times Editorial Board Re-Writes St. Francis to Welcome Pope Francis

 Listen to her!  About what*, I have absolutely no clue.

St. Francis, though born to wealth and position, cared nothing for material things and even less for hierarchy or rules. Sun Times Editorial 3/14/13

Pope Francis no sooner appeared through the curtains of the Papal window above St. Peter's Square than the 40 Watt powered intellects of the Sun Times Editorial Team ( read Carol Marin) decided to do a solid for abortion - gay marriage happy and sacerdotal ordination sappy nuns.  Now, though Ms. Marin is not, per se, a member of this august opinion panel, the tracks of her tears for the protesting nuns flood this tabloid. Hence, today's Papal Marin-ade!
Too often in recent decades, the Catholic Church has been defined — and defined itself — by what it opposes in modern life. It has stood mightily against abortion. It has opposed premarital sex and all forms of contraception. It has opposed same-sex marriage.
It has opposed the ordination of women as priests. It has called on the carpet American nuns whose only offense was to look and sound a little too liberal, focusing on issues of poverty and health care rather than on abortion.
While Chicago Catholics obviously are not of one mind on such public policy issues, we suspect they share our concern that the Church should be less a “party of no” and more a force for enlightened good. (emphases my own)

Egads, Citizens!  Pope City is GOP Headquarters!

Placing the Church universal in the Carol Marinade might boost interest among Ms. Marin's legion of fan in taking a gander, in deference to the geese, at her Sun Times Video All About Carol World print and electronic app, but  it is spoiled sauce.

First of all this editorial balloon juice holds that the 13th Century mystic monk  "cared nothing for material things and even less for hierarchy or rules."

Francis of Assisi was not named Francis by Mom and Pop.   He was baptized Giovanni son of Pietro and his bride Pica:  Pete and Pica's boy Jack..  Old Pete did pretty well as a merchant.  This was the time of the Crusades, which did more for building the middle class of Europe than it did freeing Jerusalem from the Turks and like any doting Dad, Old Pete decked the kid out in some snappy duds and tossed him the keys to the charabanc, or a stallion.

So taken was opulent young Jack with the latest fashions from . . .France! . . .that Old Pete started calling the boy Frenchy, or Franchesco - "No one loved pleasure more than Francis; he had a ready wit, sang merrily, delighted in fine clothes and showy display. Handsome, gay, gallant, and courteous, he soon became the prime favourite among the young nobles of Assisi, the foremost in every feat of arms, the leader of the civil revels, the very king of frolic." Thomas of Celano

Giovanni is no different from all  regular guys universal and historical .  One of the rites of passage is having other people define you in recognition of physical traits, quirks of character, or unresolved issues in manly development - to some tepidly blooded individual that is called bullying.  A guy with a head the size of a boulder in a Gene Autry movie might be called Headsy; one with auditory appendages that give him the appearance of a Taxi speeding at you with its driver and passenger side doors open, might be the recipient of the appellation Ears. Frenchy it was; thus, it shall be.

The kid went off to the army of Assisi , which had its collective ass handed to it by Perugia and Frenchy became a POW. Being a prisoner of war, even for a well-to-do kid of privilege, wakes one up I imagine and I am sure that Franceso of the Army Assisi learned all about cold, hunger, loneliness and pain.  Old Pete eventually bought the lad out and Pete's boy returned to his roistering ways, which got the boy pretty run-down and liverish.

Frenchy slowed down his alcoholic intake, laid off the trans fatty acids and gave the bread basket a pass.With the  spare time clean living afforded him, Frenchy took to reflection, meditation and prayer.  He had changed.

He had changed so much that he decided his rather brief military dreams should allow God to turn the swords into crosses.  He would command Crusaders for the Pope - that's hierarchy by the way. Guess what Frenchy asked permission to group like minded gents, not ladies, to form up with him to help the Church. Instead of chasing skirts and busting heads in gin-mills Frenchy and his pals went about nursing lepers and eventually sold their colorful high-priced duds and bling and now sported wool tunics the color of donkeys and jackasses.  At first these guys were hooted at and verbally bullied, but managed to act in a manner that was on-the-level.  More guys wanted to good. Just like in real life.

Francis asked permission to form the Friars Minor - the little brothers; not the big shots.  They had no 13th Centiry ad men designing frescoes to tout The Frenchy Report is a fast-paced, insightful look at the day's top news from renowned Perugia POW and Veteran monk Frenchy Assisi. Watch it each weekday at noon. Instead he wrote THE RULE OF THIRD ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR!

St. Francis, though born to wealth and position, cared nothing for material things and even less for hierarchy or rules. Sun Times Editorial 3/14/13

One -Frenchy cared for material goods and services -BUt he gave them a pass.
Two -Frenchy respected authority and sought out permission from the Hierarchy
Three- He not only followed the rules; he wrote the Rules.

It seems to me that the ego-maniacal Ms. Marin bullied the balance of board into making the paper's Gaudeamus Papam an idiotic Progressivo Monialis Edictum - Rebel Nunsense.  The disident nuns are not to be confused with the real nuns.  The disident nuns are whackjobs who demand that priests be women, Catholic doctrine must be acceptable to Pope Bill Moyers and WTTW and that heart wants what the heart wants.  I never run into the dissident nuns, because I work at a Catholic school.  Dissident nuns have time on the hands. Real nuns are too busy actually doing some good.

This silly editorial demand that the Nuns be Heard! by Pope Francis.Who, Pope, Preacher, or Pimp has NOT heard the loud Ladies of Liturgical Dance?   Again, the answer will be a resounding no. A priest is a guy.  Two guys can not make a baby.  Promiscuity can not be parsed.

The dissident nun is unhappy.  She is a woman.  The Church hierarchy is guys.  For too many dissident nuns, becoming an Anglican (Episcopalian priest) is no-longer an option due to age and Unitarians do not have Nun Retirement communities.  Unhappy.

Sad to say, these unhappy women will never cheer up.

If the editorial geniuses can be so wrong about their initial premise ( Francis WAS a Rebel Marxist), imagine how wrong, silly, sad and stupid the rest of the piece can be . . .on so many levels.

 Sun Times Editorial Board? As far as I know,  the Editorial Page Editor is Tom McNamee and he has help.

 Obiter Dicta - An obiter dictum is a remark or observation made by a judge that, although included in the body of the court's opinion, does not form a necessary part of the court's decision. 

Monday, January 31, 2011

Sun Times Endorsement of Rahm Emanuel - Convinced Me.


Less than a week after the Illinois Supreme Court allowed Rahm Emanuel to be a native son of Chicago, the Chicago Sun Times editorial board applied the oils to the brow of Rahm and here's why.

As we see it, only two of the six candidates for mayor, Emanuel and Gery Chico, are fully up to the job. Both have the record of achievement, the toughness and the smarts to lead Chicago through what is sure to be a brutal era of budget cutting and government restructuring, while at the same time protecting and advancing those assets and attributes that make Chicago great.

Emanuel stands apart from Chico, however, in his relative independence from city contractors and unions. Because Emanuel largely made his career in Washington, he simply owes fewer people here.


"Relative Independence from contractors and unions ( Oh, bother those nasty contractors and unions)" annnnnnnnnnnnndddddddd "he simply owes fewer people here!" Do he owe a whole passel of folks elsewhere, do he?

Hey, Sister and Brother Rubes! And you think the Wednesday Snow Job will be something?

My path is clear! I'm getting me to the Polling Place at the CPD Morgan Park 22nd District, today to cast my vote for . . . one of the six candidates for Mayor of Chicago!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Sun Times Demands Eddie V Do-Over"" Let's Find a Judge Who Will Do What We Want!"


Months ago Judge Shadur sentenced Edward R. Vrdolyak and the Sun Times Editorial Board screamed like Rag Sheenies. They fully expected Eddie V to go to the Guillotine!

They screamed the same way about George Ryan.

They Scream about everything, They are screamers.

Judge Richard Posner is a scream. He looks like Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm and from everything that I've read about and by him over the last thirty years, I'll bet he is as about as warm and as genuine as that character. Take a look at this - right out of the HBO script -


Posner noted that anyone once prominent in government can gin up a lot of letters.

"The business with the letters? It's ridiculous," he argued. "You have a person like this, he could generate a thousand letters."


'Letters????!!!! Anyone can get letters! You gotta write letters to get letters! I got Letters! Track, Glee Club! Alger Hiss Society! Letters? What's Letters?'


Posner's the appeals judge, anti-trust litigation game setter ( Founder of Compass Lexecon* - the Dictionary of getting, acquiring or keeping your billions of dollars), University of Chicago Professor, Abortion Friendly Judge, Dope Friendly Judge and Sun Times Editorial Board friendly judge.

I have always liked and admired Eddie Vrdolyak.

Judge Posner is a Protected White Elephant - 'Oh so, thoroughly above reproach, Me Lawd!'

I am thoroughly unimpressed by Appeals Judge Posner. He's an Ayn Rand character in the flesh. Posner plays with Microsoft and Fast Eddie does deals for people. I'll cotton to Alderman Vrodolyak any day.

Judge Posner screams that Eddie Vrodolyak should be sentenced in a judicial do-over.

The Sun Times Mensa Our Gang Comedians scream along with the Judge. Hell, I'll bet they asked the Judge to do the screaming.

I would love to see Sun Times pitbull journalist sink is buckers into the career and cases and confederates of Judge Richard Posner. They won't take the leash off of Novak because he'd tear buttocks -cheek to cheek - off of Posner and Pals. They'd make fast Eddie seem like a stylite.

It is interesting what Judge Posner screamed, when damning the already tried, convicted and sentenced Edward R. Vrdolyak: - "If you get old enough, you can commit a white-collar crime, and nothing's going to happen to you,"

Sic em, Novak!


Founded in 1977, Compass Lexecon's Chicago office pioneered the application of economics to legal and regulatory matters. We currently have a professional staff of more than 200 individuals, including 60 highly skilled Ph.D. economists and econometricians and more than 60 other individuals with advanced degrees located in seven offices.

Our practices are led by some of the most recognized and respected economic thinkers in the world including six former chief economists of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. We maintain relationships with numerous high-profile academic affiliates, including Nobel Prize winners.

Antitrust, our founding practice area, remains a central part of our business. Our practice areas have expanded to include other areas of litigation including securities, intellectual property, accounting, risk management, valuation, corporate governance and employment matters. In all these areas, we often provide detailed damages analyses. Our non-litigation-related practice areas include matters such as business consulting, regulatory policy and public policy.

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