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And Another One Falls Over
It’s been a while since I wrote about Chicago, and I have to admit that unlike the feeling of schadenfreude that come over me when I contemplate the ruins of once-fine cities like San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Portland and Boston, there is a slight twinge of sadness when I see the Second City also trembling on the edge of the abyss as its civic fabric unravels.
Reader Brad_In_IL however, despite being a near-denizen of same, has no such compunction, and shares this article by the great John Kass:
It is a woman’s scream, a real scream of fear that was randomly captured the other day on a Ring doorbell security camera as she was attacked, pulled to the ground, and robbed by thugs as she walked on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Chicago’s “mostly peaceful” and leafy Lakeview* neighborhood.
Within that scream of terror hides another, buried sound, part of what the writer Matt Rosenberg, senior editor at wirepoints.org, brilliantly calls “the great unraveling.”
It is the sigh of a once-great but thoroughly exhausted city, a Chicago bone-tired, spent by decades of political corruption, hammered by the brutal application of race card politics in a city of tribes, and in 2020 Lightfoot’s City Hall failed miserably to stop the riots and looting that grew out of the George Floyd protests, and then Lightfoot endorsed the Soros-backed State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for re-election.
It is a city drained by street gang violence and political indifference, where police have been weakened and demoralized, even as private security forces crop up, paid for by those with means who demand protection. In this, Chicago is like Rome.
*Lakeview, for those who may have forgotten, was where I used to live and it was beautiful, safe and home to about four dozen (non-chain) restaurants within three blocks’ walk from our apartment. I loved living there, and left only because of pressing family commitments.
You should read the whole of Kass’s brilliantly-written article, because it is depressingly similar to the horror shows of America’s other metropolises, and shares many of the governmental sins that are endemic to any place run by today’s Democrats.
I say “today’s Democrats” because no matter his faults, I absolutely cannot imagine that former Mayor Richard M. Daley would have tolerated today’s carnage — and his father, Richard J. Daley (of ’68 Democrat Convention fame) would have reacted even more violently.
Oh well… sic transit and all that.
Theme Tune
Click on the pic for background music, and listen carefully to the lyrics.
Two Strikes
Oh, how pleasant. First, from the Democratic Soviet of Minnesoduh:
About 15,000 nurses in Minnesota walked off the job Monday to protest understaffing and overwork — marking the largest strike of private-sector nurses in U.S. history.
Slated to last three days, the strike spotlights nationwide nursing shortages exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic that often result in patients not receiving adequate care. Tensions remain high between nurses and health-care administrators across the country, and there are signs that work stoppages could spread to other states.
Interesting, that. It’s not like the hospital administrators can just round up random people in the streets and say, “Hey, wanna job?” (although I suspect that Parkland in Dallas has been doing just that for years already).
Round about now, I bet those same hospital administrators kinda regret firing all those people for refusing to be guinea-pigs for an untested vaccine.
Anyway, the next bit of end-of-summer cheer comes from the railroads:
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said on Wednesday that its members rejected a tentative deal by its leaders intended to avoid a nationwide railroad strike.
BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific — four of the nation’s largest rail lines — announced embargoes on certain shipments earlier this week as negotiations continued, although 10 of the nation’s 12 largest railroad unions had tentatively endorsed an agreement outlined by the White House. However, IAM — which was originally among the 10 unions — announced its members rejected the deal.
Strikes could begin later this week if union leaders and rail companies fail to make a deal. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said on Monday that Congress, which has the authority to block strikes, would intervene “if needed.”
Supply chain bottlenecks driven by labor shortages and worldwide government lockdowns have impacted the American economy over the past two years, leading to inflationary pressures as consumer goods fail to reach shelves. The daily cost of a nationwide rail shutdown could amount to $2 billion, according to a report from the Association of American Railroads, which noted that trucking companies and other alternatives do not presently have the capacity to carry freight previously handled by rail lines.
Hands up all those who think that the current Administration has the ability to prevent either of these — oh, none of you, huh?
Me neither.
News Roundup
Today’s Roundup is sponsored by:
And off we go, guns blazing:
…man should have got a medal instead of jail, but let’s not go there.
…fuck you, Secretary Buttplug.
…and not just Europe, either. As usual, Orban has it right.
…it is. You lot are going to get flattened.
And now a double feature (no link) from the groves of academe:
…note that Teacher Of The Year #1 is a woman, as was the student, while #2 was just some dirty old (heterosexual) man. And #1 is fugly, even for a lesbian.
…why not add the number of wee lambs saved, just to be doubleplusextra virtuous?
…at first reading, I thought it said “Gun disease”, but that’s just my old-man eyes, not dementia. I think.
…actually, Daddy Dearest got whacked because he was a total asshole — the Bible thing was just the final straw.
…our Feelgood Story Of The Day.
…key word: Iranian.
And in INSIGNIFICA:
…under the “No Eggs Before the King Law” of 1427.
And finally:
…in the Biblical sense, no doubt. And some pics of said houri:
Now granted, at age 27 she’s a little old for him; but maybe the boy wants to settle down with someone closer to his own age (47).
And if that ain’t news, I don’t know what is.
Self-Destruction
Victor Davis Hanson delivers an almighty spanking on America’s well-deserving backside:
Our enemies abroad, particularly China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia, are watching all this woke, comic madness with absolute glee.
They are delighted the United States is diverting trillions of dollars and man-hours away from production to ideological witch hunts, woke cannibalism, green virtue-signaling, spendthrift consumption, racial and gender fixations, warped science, suicidal surveillance, and commissariat indoctrination.
Woke means that Americans have less money, labor, and time to hone their military readiness. They will produce less competitive energy, but more pseudo-science, non-meritocratic advancement, and unsound investment—all the reasons why America will no longer dominate the world.
As with all VDH’s musings, you must read them all.