Friday, December 31, 2021
Or maybe you should get all in
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2021
Last Chance to Get Out Before the Crash
The interesting feature of the 'last chance to get out' is nobody sees it until after the crash has done its damage.
Every asset bubble has a last chance to get out before the crash point that becomes obvious in the aftermath. But at the time, this last opportunity to exit before the wipeout is difficult to identify for a number of reasons.
One is the general mood at the top of bubbles is extreme confidence that there are further gains just ahead. Everyone who attempted to identify
Thursday, December 30, 2021
Left wing extremist derive their power from wimps!
Tinley Park Mayor Glotz also stands up to tyrannical decrees and won't enforce Cook County's vaccine mandate, calling it an "abuse of power"
For years Tinley Park was run by hacks. Those days are finally over.
By FOX 32 News
Tinley Park will not enforce Cook County vaccine mandate
Another suburb has announced that it won't enforce Cook County's vaccine mandate for indoor venues.
TINLEY PARK, Ill. - Another suburb has announced that
Whatever he said to her is a secret!
Cook County Judge Raul Vega accused of making comment that ‘likely’ violated conduct code
He was put on administrative duty and replaced as presiding judge of the domestic violence division after being accused of making the comment to another judge. What Vega said hasn’t been revealed.
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A Cook County judge who was recently replaced as the presiding judge of the domestic violence division has been
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Mayors stand up to the tyrant
Cook County suburbs push back on vaccine mandate
Starting Jan. 3, proof of vaccination will be required
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Satanic Christmastime Displays Are NOT Constitutionally Required
What does it say about a civilization when it feels compelled to place a satanic display next to baby Jesus at Christmastime? As a general question, you can answer that for yourself. But among other things, in our case it means too many Americans — including judges — wouldn’t know the Constitution from the Communist Manifesto.
The story here is that the baby Baphomet, a goat-like creature worshiped by satanists, has been placed alongside a Christmas tree, a Nativity and a menorah in Springfield, Illinois State Capitol Rotunda. This isn’t just a one-off, either, but reflects now common insanity. It also isn’t just limited to “liberal” states.
YouTube screengrab
For example, at the Florida State Capitol in 2015, a display showing “an angel falling into flames with the message ‘Happy
Monday, December 27, 2021
It’s Time For Black Americans To Embrace A Post-Racial America
This is the least racist period in the history of our country. If black Americans want to address disparity, we must start with the black nuclear family.
In some respects, I feel as if we are living through a time like Charles Dickens, “The Tale of Two Cities,” of which he wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”
We are bombarded with messages claiming America is overflowing with systemic racism and white supremacists. Even the National Council on Family Relations now labels the
Sunday, December 26, 2021
Lies, Lies and more Lies
CPD dispatcher fumes over lack of police resources: ‘CPD is short manpower and you are being lied to by the mayor’
Keith Thornton, who gained widespread praise for his handling of Chicago police dispatching duties in the minutes after a gunman fatally shot Officer Ella French and gravely wounded her partner during a traffic stop in August, is fed up.
“Keith is p*ssed. Keith is p*ssed right now,” Thornton said as he opened a nearly 30-minute-long Facebook video rant about anemic staffing levels in a North Side police district.
You can watch the video here.
Thornton, who grew up in Chicago,
Something about this is disgusting. White House Invites Nurses To Sing And Dance While Jill Biden Goes Maskless
The lead singer is an actress (they all are) who used to work as a double for Hillary.
Saturday, December 25, 2021
Friday, December 24, 2021
Preckwinkle is making plans....for 2023
Good luck with that. Preckwinkle needs to decisively clean up the mess at the States Attorney's office first. If Foxx is still the States Attorney, her sponsor will be held accountable and pay the price.
Thursday, December 23, 2021
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Lightfoot blames crime spike on everything and everyone except Kim Foxx
With homicides, shootings and carjackings rising and her reelection prospects dimming, Mayor Lori Lightfoot called Monday for an immediate moratorium on electronic monitoring for violent offenders and a surge in federal prosecutors and ATF agents to prosecute gun crimes.
By Fran Spielman Updated Dec 20, 2021, 9:28pm CST
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70299336/KENNEDYKING_121421_15.0.jpeg) |
| likes the way Kim Foxx says "just say no to prosecution" |
Mayor Lori Lightfoot delivered a pre-Christmas address Monday about the surge of violent crime that threatens to undermine Chicago’s economic future. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file photo
With homicides, shootings and carjackings rising and her reelection prospects dimming, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday demanded an immediate moratorium on electronic monitoring for the most violent offenders and a surge in federal prosecutors and ATF agents to prosecute gun crimes.
In a speech designed to reassure frightened Chicago residents and visitors, Lightfoot also promised to “dramatically expand the reach of cameras with license plates readers” and renewed her push for City Council approval of her stalled gang asset forfeiture ordinance.
“Public safety has been, is and will continue to be my highest priority. Keeping you safe is my priority...I wake every morning with this as my first concern, and I push myself every day and all involved to step up and do more because we cannot continue to endure the level of violence we are now experiencing,” she said.
Although she claims to have been “aggressively executing on a comprehensive plan,” Lightfoot acknowledged that Chicago will “end the year far short of the expectation that we all had when the year began.”
“That is a great disappointment to me personally, the superintendent and all involved. No excuses. We must do better,” she said.
“We have taken stock, analyzed the data and will be making the necessary changes going into the new year....None of us will rest until we bring peace to our city.”
The mayor’s pre-Christmas address about the surge of violent crime that threatens to undermine Chicago’s economic future was delivered before a friendly audience at the Gold Dome Fieldhouse at Garfield Park, 100 N. Central Park Ave.
Reading from a teleprompter, Lightfoot sounded familiar themes , but unveiled no new policing strategies: Too many guns. Too many gangs. Too many people “being murdered by offenders out on electronic monitoring” with “virtually no supervision” or “community interventions.”
“The Cook County electronic monitoring system is fundamentally broken in a way that is making our city unsafe. The Cook County courts need to get the balance back and reserve electronic monitoring for only non-violent offenders,” the mayor said.
“But, until that happens, I am calling for an immediate moratorium on electronic monitoring for offenders where the lead charge is murder, attempted murder, aggravated gun possession, felons in possession, sex crimes, illegal gun possession, vehicular carjacking, kidnapping or attempted kidnapping or other crimes of violence.”
Before the pandemic, Lightfoot argued that there were “around 1,200” offenders on electronic monitoring. Now, the number is “almost 3,400” with “violent, dangerous criminals” accounting for “much of the increase,” she said.
As of Monday, the sheriff’s office had 2,706 offenders on electronic monitoring. That’s up from 2,417 before the pandemic.
“The time for talk is over. We need concrete and definitive steps to be taken...As a city, we cannot make progress on combatting violence in our neighborhoods if the county is not doing its part,” she said.
Matt Walberg, a spokesperson for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, declined to comment on Lightfoot’s moratorium demand.
Mary Wisniewski, a spokesperson for Chief Cook County Judge Tim Evans, said Monday in an email statement, “We have been informed that the mayor made a statement regarding electronic monitoring, however, we have not yet received her request.
“We share the concerns about the tragic violence in our community. This is both a local and a national problem. We look forward to continuing to work with our partners in finding solutions to this complex issue.”
Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell said Monday the mayor’s solutions were “based on fear.”
“The mayor’s regressive proposal calls for the pretrial detention of thousands of people who haven’t been convicted of anything and the plan could only be achieved by exploding the population of Cook County Jail in the middle of a pandemic,” according to an email statement.
“It’s clearly unconstitutional, given that everyone is entitled to an individualized hearing on the specifics of their case, but more importantly it would result in the incarceration of an untold number of people who did nothing but get accused of a criminal offense.”
To increase the number of gun investigations and gun seizures, Lightfoot asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to detail additional ATF agents to Chicago for six months along with yet another increase in federal prosecutors and ATF agents.
Although it comes as “cold comfort” to victims’ families, Lightfoot reiterated that Chicago’s crime surge is part of a national trend being duplicated in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, St. Louis and Denver.
What she failed to mention is the fact that Chicago once again has nearly twice as many murders as New York and L.A., combined.
Lightfoot touted the 48 percent homicide clearance rate she called “improved, but not good enough.” But that figure was also misleading.
The city’s own data portal shows there were 169 arrests out of 774 homicides this year. The 337 homicides that Lightfoot counted as “solved” include cases that were closed “exceptionally” because prosecutors wouldn’t approve charges or detectives say they know who did it but can’t get enough evidence to seek charges. It also includes murders from previous years that were solved this year.
So, only about 22% of the 2021 homicides listed in the city’s data portal have resulted in arrests, according to the city’s own data.
Lightfoot devoted a healthy chunk of her speech to highlighting her efforts to confront the entrenched poverty and decades of neglect that she firmly believes are the root causes of crime.
“Violence and crime are the manifestations of deeper problems. They are the offspring of poverty and neglect and the psychological trauma that comes with it,” she said.
“I have and will commit every bit of law enforcement muscle to fighting this fight. But, I also know that lasting peace and safety will only come to this city when the underlying root causes of violence and crime are also addressed once and for all.”
Through Dec. 20, there have been 812 homicides, Chicago’s highest total since the 789 homicides recorded in 1995, according to records compiled by the Cook County medical examiner’s office. That’s up from 504 homicides in 2019 and 762 homicides last year.
At least 4,360 people have been shot in Chicago this year, compared to 4,038 shooting victims in 2020 and 2,573 in 2019.
Carjackings are at their highest point ever, according to records going back to 2001.
They’re up from 552 in 2019 to 1,324 last year and 1,734 through Dec. 12 of this year.
As Chicago inched toward the dreaded homicide mark she tried desperately to avoid, Lightfoot acknowledged that, unless the Chicago Police Department produces the results that reduce that fear factor, “Nothing else matters.”
But, the mayor has also tried without success to shift the blame away from demoralized and overworked Chicago Police officers and toward prosecutors, judges and retailers.
In recent weeks, everyday residents, business and political leaders have started fighting back.
To Lightfoot’s chagrin, Bucktown residents hired their own private security firm at their own expense to combat the epidemic of carjackings in the neighborhood.
Ald. George Cardenas (12th), the mayor’s own deputy floor leader, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Lightfoot should give her top cop a few more months to get a handle on Chicago’s “crime pandemic,’ but if he can’t she should dump Police Supt. David Brown and his leadership team.
Business leaders have also turned up the heat on City Hall.
Illinois Retail Merchants Association President Rob Karr accused Lightfoot of abdicating responsibility for the retail crime wave sweeping Chicago and, instead, pressuring merchants to implement their own costly, unworkable and racially insensitive security measures.
Jack Lavin, president and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said Chicago was “at a crossroads” because of rising crime and “skyrocketing” commercial property taxes, with the “low murmur” now becoming a “loud roar.”
Last week, the Chicago Sun-Times added even more fuel to the fire by shining a spotlight on “Our City, Our Safety,” the mayor’s ambitious plan to flood Chicago’s 15 most violent community areas with resources — not just violence intervention programs but help with jobs and housing and health.
The newspaper disclosed that, nearly a year into the effort, gun violence is up in at least nine of the areas.
Lightfoot closed her anti-crime address by appealing to Chicago’s business and philanthropic communities to “do even more”—by donating their money and their time to, what she called “the most urgent and noble cause of our time.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we need you. No one mayor or police superintendent can do this alone. We need partners and partnerships that are broad and deep,” she said.
“There is no greater or higher calling than to be relentless in our shared mission to bring peace to our communities. I need all of you to be on this journey with me....There is no problem that we cannot tackle if we lock arms and do it together.”
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Chicago firefighter dies days after being critically injured in Belmont Central fire
A procession for MaShawn Plummer was planned for later Tuesday.
By Sun-Times Wire Dec 21, 2021, 3:24pm CST/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70303262/Plummer.7.jpeg)
MaShawn Plummer Chicago Fire Department
A Chicago firefighter critically injured in an apartment fire in Belmont Central last week has died.
MaShawn Plummer, who had been a firefighter for just a year,
Chicago At the Breaking Point
Can politics fuel a renaissance?December 20, 2021
By the end of November, homicides in Cook County, which includes Chicago, reached 1,000 for the first time since 1994. A 71-year-old Chinese immigrant who came to the United States almost penniless and worked his way to success as a restaurant operator was shot 22 times and killed in broad daylight near his home. A Christmas-light decorator was killed in front of his home;
Calls for her resignation!!!!
In light of revelations contained within Dan Webb's 60-page report on Jussie Smollett case; calls for States Attorney Kim Foxx to resign can be heard.
Among those calling for her resignation are a Cook County commissioner and a former Cook County judge. More such calls are expected today. It will be interesting to see if the politicians representing those areas plagued by the recent crime wave, also step up and call for a Foxx resignation.
At this juncture, it is questionable as to whether Foxx will survive an almost certain ARDC inquiry into her conduct.
Monday, December 20, 2021
Retired Judge O'Brien calls Kim Foxx a liar and says Foxx should resign!
Full 60-page report on Jussie Smollett case details confusion, controversy in state’s attorney’s office.
State’s Attorney Kim Foxx told Dan Webb’s investigators she herself was surprised by the deal made by her prosecutors to drop charges against the “Empire” actor.
By Andy Grimm@agrimm34 Updated Dec 20, 2021, 4:04pm CST/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70297293/merlin_102940362.7.jpg)
Special Prosecutor Dan Webb walks to the media pen after Judge Michael Toomin ordered the release of his report, which details how Kim Foxx and her staff handled the decision to drop charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, at the Cook County Juvenile Center in the Illinois Medical District, Monday morning, Dec. 16, 2021. The investigation was completed in August 2020 and Webb requested to unseal it now that Smollett was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct and acquitted on a sixth count. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Details surrounding the confusion and controversy that surrounding the abrupt dismissal of charges against Jussie Smollett extended even to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her top staff in the spring of 2019, Special Prosecutor Dan Webb’s full 60-page report on the matter reveals.
Foxx told Webb’s investigators she herself was surprised by the deal made by prosecutors, and that the “Empire” actor was not going to be required to admit guilt or do community service, and seemed not to know why the the actor was getting off so easily, according to the report, which Judge Michael Toomin ordered unsealed Monday.
The conclusions of Webb’s report were made public in August 2020, with the former federal prosecutor stating that there were multiple ethical lapses
Justice is being had
Full 60-page report on Jussie Smollett case released. Bottom line, prosecutors cannot rig a criminal case for any reason. Be it political, friendship, philosophical or something of value, all case rigging is wrong.
Special Prosecutor Dan Webb’s full 60-page report details how State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s staff handled the criminal charges against the ‘Empire’ star.
By Andy Grimm@agrimm34 Updated Dec 20, 2021, 11:18am CSTSpecial Prosecutor Dan Webb walks to the media pen after Judge Michael Toomin ordered the release of his report, which details how Kim Foxx and her staff handled the decision to drop charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, at the Cook County Juvenile Center in the Illinois Medical District, Monday morning, Dec. 16, 2021. The investigation was completed in August 2020 and Webb requested to unseal it now that Smollett was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct and acquitted on a sixth count. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A Cook County judge Monday allowed the release
Sunday, December 19, 2021
State and Madison.....not a cop around
Firebomber injures two inside downtown 7-Eleven; store “totaled”
Where were the police you might ask? Guarding Beetlejuice's house
Police are looking for a man who assaulted a female cashier and set a Loop convenience store on fire with a Molotov cocktail over the weekend, according to police and a source.
The store clerk and another victim were taken to
‘A Dark and Disgraceful Moment’
Bishop Paprocki: Illinois Repeal of Parental Notice Abortion Law ‘A Dark and Disgraceful Moment’
Not only does the repeal endanger children who have abortions and facilitate the murder of children in those abortions, Bishop Paprocki stated, but it also grants “a free pass to sex traffickers” who would enslave women and young girls and force them to have abortions.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed a repeal of the state’s Parental Notice of Abortion Act, a move
Who is doing this?
Harassment Of Navy Destroyers By Mysterious Drone Swarms Off California Went On For Weeks
A new trove of documents shows that the still unsolved incidents continued far longer than previously understood.
BY ADAM KEHOE AND MARC CECOTTI DECEMBER 17, 2021
USN/FOIA DOCUMENTS
Earlier this year The War Zone exclusively reported about a series of 2019 incidents that involved unidentified drones stalking US Navy vessels over several nights in the waters off of Southern California. Our initial report also covered the Navy’s investigation into the incidents, which appeared to struggle to identify either the aircraft or their operators. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday later clarified that the aircraft were never identified, and that there have been similar incidents across the service branches and allied militaries.
Newly released documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that the full scope of these drone incursions was greater than it initially appeared, and they persisted well after the Navy’s investigation was launched. Deck logs indicate that drone sightings continued throughout the month of July 2019 and included events where drone
People are over-reacting, it's just transitory crime
Drive-by gunman opens fire on a packed Gold Coast bar, but no injuries are reported
It’s a recipe for disaster, and it could have produced much different results.
Chicago police say a drive-by gunman opened fire on a packed Division Street nightclub in the Gold Coast early Sunday, breaking a front window and damaging a TV inside the bar. But, miraculously, no injuries were reported.
It happened just west of the intersection of State