Peter V. Bella Posts

The McCaskey Bears released a rendering of what their new stadium in Arlington Heights may look like. If you like Legos¨, you may love this piece of dung. The hormonally charged McCaskey fanbase Chicago sports news media went gaga over the release, claiming the McCaskey Bears move would be a boon for Chicagoland.

How dumb, never mind. The Chicago news media are the dumbest people in this city, next to our elected officials. There will be no boon for “Chicagoland.” Long-time Chicago reporter, Fran Spielman, was interviewed on WBEZ this morning. She was bubbling over the economic boon “Chicagoland” will receive if the Arlington Heights deal goes through. She also reported the McCaskey’s are eligible for a forgivable loan from the NFL to build their stadium. The Cheapskate and chiseling McCaskey’s must be in greenback heaven. They will put up pennies on the dollar of their own fortunes.

There will be no economic boon for “Chicagoland.” There will be a boon for North Suburban Land. Chicago will lose out big time. People come from all over to see the Bears or their home teams play here, especially Midwesterners. They stay in Chicago hotels for the weekend or a night. They eat in Chicago restaurants. They visit tourist attractions. They pay fees and taxes that go to the city for their tickets and sales taxes on food and other purchases. All that revenue will dry up. Who benefits? Arlington Heights and the surrounding suburbs, not Chicago.

As I wrote before, the Bears could have had a world-class stadium in Chicago anytime they wanted over the past forty-plus years. George Halas, his son-in-law, and his grandkids are all cheapskates and chiselers. They would not put up or borrow one red cent to build a stadium in Chicago. They wanted the City of Chicago to front all the costs. The McCaskeys squeeze a penny so hard they make Old Abe scream. That is how cheap they are.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is delusional if she thinks she can keep the Bears in Chicago. The McCaskey’s are suburbanites and exurbanites. They hate this city. Their headquarters are in Lake Forest, not Chicago. One brother lives in Kane County. They grew up in the suburbs. They are not Chicagoans. They do not and never had a relationship with the city except getting wealthy from Chicago fans.

It would be nice if the hormonally charged teenagers in Chicago’s news media would do some historical research on the offers made by past mayors to build a stadium and the team’s refusal to pony up money or loans to pay for it. But it is the Chicago news media, a poor excuse for journalism in this city that had a history of fearless journalism and courageous editorial boards.

I wrote this in my office away from home, my local saloon. When a discussion started about this issue, all the patrons were against the deal. There was derision spewed against the team and the McCaskey’s. The saloons that will benefit from this are the ones devoted to opposing teams like the Lions, Packers, and Vikings. The rest of the city will see no benefit.

I said it before, and I will say it again. The Bears deserve the door to hit them in the a$$ on their way out. Hard enough to sack the McCaskey’s. Chicago owes nothing to them. They did little for this city. As for me, a former fervent Bears fan, I will always root for the Bears opposing teams.

“The city seems so serene this morning. Quiet and peaceful, but so far this Labor Day weekend, there have been over 40 shootings and 6 deaths! This is unacceptable! I stood in the South and West sides of Chicago yesterday witnessing cash drug deals and empty meth bags at my feet! This is not how it is supposed to be! This is the bad fruit of failed government, and JB Pritzker is responsible for it. As your next governor, our streets will be safe, our schools will teach our children to work and thrive, and you will benefit more from your hard work!” (Darren Bailey/Facebook Post)

GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey posted the above photo on Facebook today, Apparently, he is enjoying the lux pleasures of the Gold Coast, high above the city responsible for the labor movement.

Yesterday, Darren Bailey posted several photos on Facebook with his wife attending and enjoying themselves at the Taste of Polonia on the Northwest Side. They met with, pressed the flesh, and had photos taken with the people they met.

Pictures tell the truth.

There are no photos of Bailey campaigning on the South and West Side streets of the city, not one. No photos of Bailey attending outdoor events in those neighborhoods. No photos of him meeting, greeting, or pressing the flesh with citizens in those neighborhoods. There are also no photos of cash drug deals or the empty meth bags at his feet. By the way, how does Bailey know they were meth bags? Were they labeled? Did he have them tested? How do we even know Bailey visited those areas this weekend?

Where are pictures of Bailey at Chicago’s Labor Day Parade Saturday on the Southeast Side or the earlier Bud Bilikin Day Parade? Where are pictures of Bailey at other major public events in Chicago?

How is Governor Pritzker responsible for the decades-long problems plaguing those neighborhoods? What about all the past Democrat and Republican governors? Were they too responsible for the public safety issues in Chicago?

What about the state legislature that he is a member of? Will he bypass their powers, wave his wand, and save Chicago? Does Darren Bailey even know about the separation of powers or how Illinois government is supposed to operate? By the way, Bailey voted no on every public safety bill passed by the legislature this year, including the prohibition of the sale and possession of ghost guns and law enforcement notifying the F.B.I. if human remains cannot be identified within 72 hrs.  

Darren Bailey never states how he is going to solve these intractable issues if, by the slim to none chance, he is elected. He has no solutions or policies. Not one. He is all talk and empty vague promises.

The governor is not responsible for crime control or education in Chicago. The governor cannot keep Chicago’s streets safe. The mayor and City Council are responsible for public safety and education. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the City Council failed Chicago.

Bailey avoids the Chicago news media like the plague. They are rarely, if ever, at the events he attends in the city. Why didn’t he have them on hand to record the supposed drug sales and meth bags? Why didn’t he have them follow him campaigning on the streets of the South and West Sides?

Every time Darren Bailey flaps his soup coolers about Chicago he exposes his total ignorance of urban issues, especially public safety, education, and the limited powers of the governor.

Darren Bailey is no champion of public safety or any other critical urban issue. To advocate issues, one needs knowledge of them. Bailey lacks knowledge of urban issues and basically anything else. He must be the most unlearned gubernatorial candidate to run for high office in this state in modern times. Unfortunately, he will still have his seat in the state senate when he loses the election, where he can vote no on more public safety issues.

It did not take long for another lie by Chicago Superintendent of Police. David Brown got caught telling another whopper. If Brown gets better at this, he could be a Chicago politician. This week Brown claimed he would not cancel officers’ days off over the Labor Day weekend.

After Brown made his claim on Monday, CWBChicago reported that CPD had already distributed two “weekend cancellation matrix” spreadsheets that showed officers would have days off canceled for Labor Day and other major holidays, including Christmas. (CWBChicago)

Then there is this:

Brown’s backtrack on Tuesday afternoon came in a written statement in which he outlined “safeguards” to “ensure [officers] have time to rest and re-energize.”

But, the statement only promises to give cops two consecutive days off once every 13 weeks. (CWBChicag0)

Superintendent David Brown has been abusing his police officers mercilessly. He does not care about their health and welfare, which is the highest responsibility a leader has. Brown is no leader. He is a petty tyrant. Brown has no sense of decency.

Brown and all the exempt command staff must work their days off (Saturdays and Sundays) every time officer time off is canceled. If the officers are suffering, the command staff and their families should suffer too. The whole idea of rank has its privilege should be tossed aside. Leaders should lead by example. Funny how our local news media editorial boards did not think of this.

If Brown lied about this, how many more lies has he fed the gullible Chicago news media and the public over his reign? It cannot be repeated enough. Brown is incompetent, should have been fired long ago, and should be fired now before things worsen.

Where are the alderpersons? They should be furious with Brown and Mayor Lightfoot. They should demand that Lightfoot fire Brown. The police officers and we are their constituents. We are paying the price for Brown’s failures and lies. Yet, most aldermen do not care about their constituents or public safety.

In another inept, poorly thought-out plan, strategy, deployment, whatever, Brown laid out how he will stop drifting, the shutting down of intersections for street racing.

“If they don’t have their cars, we don’t have this problem,” Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said. “So our efforts all culminate to do one thing. We’re focused on taking the cars that are drag racing and drifting in Chicago such that they can’t do it again.” (ABC 7 Chicago)

His dim idea is to have police with other city agencies intervene with salt trucks, and tow trucks task force style to break up the events and tow the cars involved. Past efforts by police to break up the races led to police cars being damaged, violent encounters, and officers injured.

If the bystanders and racers are willing to attack police vehicles and officers, what will stop them from attacking tow and other truck drivers? He should lead the task force in person. He should be on the street with the task force. Make him face the mobs leading from the front, instead of being a chairborne commando.

We are going from Mayor Lightfoot’s Summer of Joy to David Browns Fall of Folly.

“I can’t even put it into words… 300 to 400 young people just converge on this community and it becomes gridlock.” (ABC 7 Chicago)

 Another weekend passed with more incidents of dangerous street takeovers and racing. One was on the Near Southside, at 25^th and MLK Drive. This was one of several weekends where residents in that area woke up in the early hours to noise, the smell of burning rubber, and several hundred people creating gridlock on the streets.

According to CBS 2 Chicago, there were incidents at Morgan and Washington and 50^th and Cicero. Two cars leaving the Cicero event were allegedly racing south. One caused an accident in which a pedestrian was killed. In Pilsen, bystanders attacked and damaged six police vehicles responding to a race.

“When we see more and more of these incidents happening, we got to talk about the root causes,” said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez.” (CBS 2 Chicago)

Root causes? Really? Lopez does not deserve to sit on the Chicago City Council. Maybe he should join some useless, think tank where he can navel gaze and woolgather about root vegetables. “We got to talk about” the root causes of why less-ons (Lower than morons) become aldermen.

Mayor Lightfoot’s Summer of Joy is getting out of control. The dangerous, fun-loving racers care nothing about the laws. They and their fans just want to have fun, no matter the potential peril, tragedy or mass disturbance they create. It is all about them. Only they and their fun matter.

Where are the aldermen? Very few spoke up against the lack of public safety in this city for two or more years. Now, most are silent about this dangerous activity. Alderman Lopez is looking for any excuse to justify this peril on our streets.

What Will it Take to Stop Street Racing in Chicago? Here’s What The City’s Top Cop Says (msn.com) As with most of Superintendent Brown’s past plans, strategies, and deployments, whatever he comes up with will fail. He too has been silent for too long.

Where are the property owners of parking lots? Why can’t they figure out how to keep these dangerous racers from trespassing on their property? Will it take a tragedy to get them to act? There are people advocating that owners of large parking lots allow this dangerous activity on their property to make the streets safe. A total takeover-temporary confiscation- of private property for fun and joy.

Worse, WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times published this irresponsible puff piece about the racers. You know, in order to understand their side of the story. (Subscription may be required)

When it comes to fun activities, no matter how dangerous or illegal, no one cares. This is the Summer of Joy and her Mayorship will not curtail enjoyment. Who cares if noise and the pollution of burning rubber awaken people in the wee hours of the morning? Who cares if emergency services cannot access the streets to save lives? Who cares if police vehicles are damaged or officers are injured? Who cares if litter is left on the streets? Joy and fun override public safety, public health, life, and death.

Fun and joy are mayoral edicts. So Lightfoot decreed. So it shall be. Lightfoot will deprive no one of fun, no matter the dangers. Having fun, no matter how illegal or perilous is the new civil rights issue during our Summer of Joy in Chicago.

Thirteen years ago, the Chicago Tribune launched a branded blogging platform, ChicagoNow. ChicagoNow contributors published over 100,000 posts. It hosted 300 active bloggers, and drew 25 million page views per month, according to the original community manager, Jimmy Greenfield. Eventually, Greenfield was rotated to other reporting duties and a new community manager took over.

I had two blogs on ChicagoNow, Interesting Chicago, and the Cooking Cop. I eventually spun off the Cooking Cop to its own website. Interesting Chicago was about the fascinating things in this city and a showcase for my freelance photojournalism. After Mr. Greenfield left, things were not the same, and I eventually decided to leave.

There was a benefit to ChicagoNow. When I wrote and photographed events like the Chicago Auto show or the National Restaurant and Housewares show, I received offers to photograph events from event planners. I made a tidy sum from these various jobs. I also got invited to various events to write about them. They offered free food and drinks. I met all kinds of people in various fields. I received free tickets to plays and concerts too from PR agencies to photograph and write about their clients.

There was a strong community of writers at ChicagoNow. Writers blogged about just about every topic imaginable. There were a few gatherings a year that was part social and part professional. I met some great people there. One of whom I worked with later.

When Alden Capital, AKA The Vultures, took over, there was some uncertainty if they would keep ChicagoNow alive. Eventually, Greenfield’s replacement disappeared, which caused more consternation. Then, without warning, the Chicago Tribune pulled the plug on the website. They gave content creators no notice, and they could not retrieve their content. No explanation was given. They just closed up shop and hid in the darkness like cockroaches.

Granted, the Tribune owned the blogging platform and could do what they want. News economics kept changing over the past few years. Add to that The Vultures, Alden, buying the paper, and you have a recipe for a declining once historic newspaper.

However, there are two ways to do things, the right and proper way and the lower than low life despicable way. The right and proper way would have been to give the bloggers notice so they could retrieve their material. They took the lower-than-low life despicable way, shuttering ChicagoNow with no notice.

Former ChicagoNow bloggers on social media are rightfully furious over the situation and are scrambling to find other venues to continue their writing. The problem is that their followers have no way to find them. They will be starting all over again from scratch. I know how hard that is. But, with social media and time, they can rebound.

As for the Chicago Tribune, I am torn about canceling my online subscription. It is no longer the great historic paper it used to be. But, there are still good people who work there and provide content I enjoy.

“The things that need to change are the fact that the city of Chicago has become the O.K. Corral with shootouts and homicides every night because people don’t feel safe,” Bailey told a crowd of about 100 people, many of them farmers during the forum in rural McLean County. “It’s real. Especially on the South Side where they’re being ignored.” (Chicago Tribune)

I was not going to write about GOP gubernatorial candidate, Darren Bailey again. But, damn, I just cannot help myself. He is like syphilis, the gift that keeps on giving. He keeps ranting and raving like a lunatic about things he knows nothing about.

I am a lifelong Chicagoan. I spent almost 30 years as a Chicago Police Officer. When I bash City Hall and other local politicians, I do so from a position of knowledge and know-how, as in knowing HOW THINGS WORK or should work in this city. Bailey knows nothing.

Governor J.B. Pritzker and Darren Bailey, gave what the Chicago Tribune described as “back to back” speeches at the Agriculture Legislative Roundtable in Lexington, Illinois. Bailey, a millionaire multi-generational farmer, should have shone like a star. He knows agriculture and the agriculture business. Instead, he had to wallow and roll in the manure talking about Chicago crime, something he knows nothing about. I do not believe downstate farmers care one wit about criminality in Chicago. It was a farming conference, not a crime or urban issues conference.

Instead of sticking to his knitting and discussing his area of expertise, he went off on another rant about Chicago. He bashed Chicago and Governor Pritzker’s supposed failure to curb criminality in our city. Bailey’s lack of knowledge and potential abuse of the governor’s powers make him unfit to hold the office of governor or any other public office.

Pritzker is not just some “entitled heir to a fortune,” as Bailey called him. Before he became governor, he was a business executive. A simple search showed the extent of his business holdings employing over 10,000 people.

Like Pritzker, Bailey inherited his wealth, a large farming operation. He is not and never was a member of the middle class or blue-collar communities. One could say he was born with a golden corn cob in his mouth. He also owns a freight company and construction business. He is the pot calling the kettle black while throwing stones inside glass houses. Pritzker released his income taxes. Bailey refuses to. What is Bailey hiding? Or is it his love of freedumb? If he is not required to do it, he won’t. Is Bailey a tempestuous two-year-old?

Chicago is the economic engine of Illinois. Illinois is a major national agribusiness state, from small farmers to farmers like Bailey, who own thousands of acres of land. Agriculture is a big business in Illinois. Bailey should have talked about how he would be a benefit to farmers and agribusiness- at a farmers’ conference– if by a slim to no chance voters elect him governor.

Bailey just cannot get Chicago off his mind. He is like a madman when it comes to our city. What next? Will he run naked through the streets of Chicago screaming like some mad, drunk Russian poet? It appears Bailey is a one-issue candidate, Chicago crime. Few, if any, people in Chicago will vote for him. He is fighting a losing campaign by ranting and raving about Chicago, especially downstate, which is not affected by Chicago crime.

Bailey is running one of the dumbest campaigns for high office in Illinois history. There is no other way to describe it. His whole campaign is based on gross ignorance. When he loses, Bailey probably will claim the election was stolen and make accusations of massive voter fraud. He may even claim the cemeteries in Chicago emptied out to cast votes for his opponent.

“I don’t think there’s any dispute that I’m African American,” Lightfoot said Tuesday. “I’m Black and I’m very proud of that, so why do you need to blacken what I look like to send this ad out to suburban communities?

Chicago Mayor Lightfoot accuses a PAC supporting Bailey of running a “racist” ad. The PAC is accused of darkening the skin of Mayor Lori Lightfoot from a news clip. There are also video clips of looters with an ominous voiceover warning Chicago crime is coming to the suburbs.

It appears the Bailey campaign went from the manure pile to the sewer. There has been no word from the Bailey campaign about the racial nature of the ad. The only response was from a Bailey spokesperson:

Bailey spokesman Joe DeBose said Pritzker and Lightfoot have control over crime afflicting Chicago “and they should be more concerned with the people being killed and set on fire in the city.” (Chicago Tribune)

People, plural, are not being set on fire. Only one person was, the Walking Man. DeBose knows as little about Illinois government as his boss, Darren Bailey. The governor of Illinois has no control over crime and public safety in Chicago. They know nothing, or they are lying to scare people and garner votes.

Darren Bailey, his campaign, and those supporting his campaign, including PACs and donors, know nothing about urban affairs or issues. Chicago is not some idyllic postage stamp-sized village in the middle of nowhere. Chicago is a major city. Major cities have major issues, including crime. Mayors control cities, not governors.

Political fairy tales start with, “If elected, I promise…” The Bailey campaign is a political fairy tale, a fantasy. Bailey has not said what exactly he would do as governor to curb the rampant crime in Chicago. He offered no solutions or policies. He has none. As they say in Texas, Darren Bailey is all hat and no cattle.

Darren Bailey is the worst Illinois gubernatorial candidate from either party in my voting lifetime (Over 50 years). If you are running for high public office against an incumbent, you should demonstrate why you deserve to oust them. You should have clear-cut policy issues with believable and deliverable solutions. You should be able to articulate them. All Bailey does is blow smoke.

Governor Pritzker angered many in the law enforcement and prosecutorial communities by signing the SAFE-T act, which is anything but. Some claim he should have vetoed or used a line-item veto on certain portions of the legislation. What good would that do? The legislature has a veto-proof majority and could or would have overridden him. It is called reality. The bill does not go into effect until next year. Pritzker and some Democratic legislators promised to take a second look at the legislation and fix issues of concern.

The Pritzker family started in Chicago. Governor Pritzker lives in Chicago. He made Chicago his hometown. Pritzker is a Chicagoan. Some of the violent crimes occur near his Chicago home. If Pritzker had the power to curb the rampant crime in this city, he would have wielded it long ago. Pritzker knows the limitations of his powers. Darren Bailey and his backers do not know anything.

Darren Bailey is in a no lose situation. He gets his mug plastered all over the state. He went from being a nobody nobody knew to a known high-profile commodity. When he loses the general election, he will still have his part-time job as a legislator. He can go back to fighting the fairy tale demons that he has apocalyptic visions of who are destroying Illinois.

“Our legislators are going soft on criminals to the point that they’ve made Chicago a hellhole, friends,” Bailey, who is challenging first-term Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, told an audience of several hundred people at the director’s lawn at the state fairgrounds…

“Chicago, that once great city, well it didn’t become a hellhole just because of (Mayor) Lori Lightfoot and (Cook County State’s Attorney) Kim Foxx. Starting with J.B. Pritzker, our leaders are all in cahoots. They’re knee-deep in corruption. And they don’t care about the working people like you and I. They’ve proven that,” Bailey said. (Chicago Tribune)

Darren Bailey keeps besmirching Chicago, even when he does not know what he is talking about. He does not live here. He knows nothing about Chicago or urban issues. Bailey knows nothing about the criminal justice system. He knows nothing about governance or even “Civics for Dummies.” Illinois governors do not have the power Bailey claims he will wield to tackle Chicago’s issues.

What does Bailey know about urban working people? I know for a fact we are not like him, a millionaire farmer and businessman,

Cahoots? Corruption? Is he accusing Governor Pritzker and Lori Lightfoot of crimes or being part of a political criminal enterprise? Bailey is knee-deep in livestock droppings. He is a legend in his own mind, a hero of a kingdom that does not exist. Governor Pritzker has never been accused of being corrupt or in “cahoots” with anyone. Well, there was that embarrassing toilet scandal, but Pritzker did the right thing and paid the taxes owed. It was not criminal.

Bailey believes he can change Chicago by waving his hands with his staff in one hand and a Bible in the other. He does not realize the Great Comedian took off on vacation on the seventh day and has not come back. He left us to fend for ourselves.

“Asked by reporters later Thursday if he thought Chicago residents believed they lived in a hellhole, Bailey said, “I believe they do because it’s unsafe. But it’s going to change. Chicagoans deserve better. I call it out, friends, and you know that.” (Chicago Tribune)

I do not know any Chicagoans who “believe” they live in a hellhole. How is Bailey going to change what does not exist? Bailey’s ego is so big that the only reason he does not walk on water is he doesn’t want to get his s**t kickers wet.

Chicago is still a great city. Yes, it has some intractable issues that were over a century in the making. So do other great cities. But how does a candidate who knows nothing about urban problems going to solve anything? Chicago faced crises in the past, and we will overcome the current public safety crisis. We live here. Bailey does not. He lives in a postage stamp-sized medieval village.

Darren Bailey is the worst gubernatorial candidate from either party in my voting lifetime. I do not remember a candidate that was so ignorant and unlearned. Bailey makes stuff up as he goes along. His horse manure might fertilize the minds of downstate voters, but intelligent people know the difference between s**t and Shinola.

Darren Bailey is an extremist theocrat, a White Christian Nationalist. He made an anti-Semitic comment comparing abortion to the Holocaust. He claimed rabbis verified his claim, though he did not name them or their congregations.

After the 4^th of July mass shooting and murders in Highland Park, Bailey gayly said people should just set it aside and celebrate the nation’s founding. Bailey’s freedumb loving patriotism has no compassion, sympathy, or empathy. The man is devoid of human feelings. Hell, he may not even be human. He should provide a DNA test to prove it.

Darren Bailey refuses to release his income taxes. He is a supposed millionaire farmer and a businessman. What is Bailey hiding? What is he afraid of? Who is he in cahoots with? Bailey is a freedumb lover, so he will do nothing he is not required to because, you know, freedumb.

Bailey and Pritzker agreed to two televised debates. Pritzker is going to eat Bailey alive and wipe the floor with him. Bailey will have to polish his stand-up comic skills because he is a grim joke. A cheap hustler, a charlatan, and a fraud. He will prove it during the debates.

Bailey’s chances of winning the election are slim to none, and Slim left Illinois, joining the Great Comedian on an island beach somewhere. Even if Slim returned, Bailey is still going headfirst into a buzz saw. When he loses, Bailey can go back home and pretend to be some heroic freedumb fighting, rootin, tootin, shooting, som of a gum patriotic hero wrapped in Old Glory, the Stars and Bars, or maybe both.

Make-believe is a beautiful thing.

Ah, it is almost that time of year. That overblown coffee shop, Starbucks, will roll out that disgusting pumpkin spice coffee to all the precious fools who can’t get enough of it. They will wait in long lines to get it like addicts at a dope house.

Another disgusting treat will follow, Candy Corn. For Easter, there are Peeps. When my daughter was young, it was a fad to assassinate Peeps by microwaving them. Even young kids would not eat them.

In Chicago there is Malort, a horrible tasting liquor that some people cannot get enough of and brag about drinking that swill. But wait, there’s more. There is cookie dough whiskey. There is also Alaskan salmon-infused vodka.

It is bad enough that people in Chicago still insist on putting ketchup on hotdogs, a thoroughly disgusting practice.

If all the above is not disgusting enough, along comes the Velvetini. A Velveeta-inspired vodka martini. When I first read about this concoction, I had to double-check check I was not reading the Onion or some other comedy site. Velveeta teamed up with the BLT Restaurant Group to sell the $15.00 concoction while supplies last.

The Velvetini is described as “unapologetic, outrageously cheesy.” The Velvetini is made with Velveeta infused vodka. It is garnished with Velveeta stuffed olives, Velveeta mac and cheese shells, and the glass is dripped with melted Velveeta cheese. They also have a DIY kit with all the ingredients except the vodka, along with the recipe. (It is sold out. Yeah, and they let these consumers vote too).

Just what America needs. What will they dream up next? Maybe a pizzatini, an Italian beeftini, a corndogtini, a PB&Jtini or a hamburgertini? Geeze, it is not bad enough that high-end Bloody Mary’s are a meal in a glass.

This is a terrific marketing ploy for Velveeta, and the publicity gives their brand cachet. Just the thought of drinking one makes me want to blow chow.

Hell, maybe Starbucks will come up with a pumpkin spice coffeetini in their stores that sell alcohol. That will give the oh so precious people with no palate something to wait in line forever for.

Political logic- All liars are not politicians. All politicians are liars. Politicians give liars an excellent reputation.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot ran a campaign promising to end the Chicago Way. She promised transparency and accountability. She provided neither. Lightfoot is just as secretive and unaccountable as her predecessors. She lied.

She conducted the negotiations with NASCAR in private. It appears much of the 10-year negotiations with the Lollapalooza contract were done in a proverbial smoked filled backroom too. Who knows what else she does behind closed doors?

There is one other thing we know nothing about. Superintendent of Police David Brown’s contract is a secret. The city never made it public. She did not make the negotiations to bring him here from Dallas public.

This is important because she refuses to fire him over his total incompetence. One could speculate there is a termination clause in the employment contract with a huge payout if they fired him before the contract expires.

It is time Brown’s employment contract is made public. He is not technically an employee. He is an appointee. The city deserves full transparency over Brown’s hiring. The city deserves full accountability too.

We could ask why the news media is not questioning City Hall over Brown’s contract or serving a FOIA on the city for an unredacted copy. It would be a waste of time, as they are the mayor’s public relations firms and are enamored of Brown like super charged hormonal teenagers. They do not criticize him over his proven continuous failures or lies.

No past mayor would tolerate Brown’s long list of failures. No mayor would allow the total devastation of morale and esprit de corps in the police rank and file that Brown created. Every day we see violent crimes all over Chicago. On any day, any of us could be an innocent victim of a violent crime. The streets are not safe. Public transit is not safe. There is no safe in Chicago.

Yet, the mayor stands by her man. Brown is still employed and continuing to fail the citizens of this city. It is intolerable that failure is his only plan, tactic, deployment, or strategy. Time and time again.

We deserve answers. Why is failure the plan and strategy? Why is Brown still the Superintendent of Police? Why is Mayor Lightfoot protecting Brown? Why the secrecy over his contract?

Brown’s unredacted contract with the city should be made public immediately. We deserve answers. Lightfoot keeps supporting a failure. We need to know why. Lightfoot failed us. She shirked her most important duty, public safety. She is more concerned with bread and circuses, public appearances at weekend events, and her image as a good-time party hearty mayor than keeping the city safe.

The Chicago news media is failing us. They are cowards. They just nod and smile at all the lies coming from the notorious Fifth Floor of City Hall and Brown’s daily dishonest media availabilities. The big lie is alive and well in Chicago. The Chicago Way continues.

Mayor Lightfoot does not deserve another term in office. She failed the city. Lightfoot proves daily she is not fit to be mayor of Chicago.

David Brown brought discredit and shame to the Chicago Police Department. He does not deserve to wear the uniform he disgraced. He is inept and out of his league. He knows nothing about Chicago and refuses to learn. In effect, he is not only incompetent. He is ignorant.

Make his unredacted contract public. Let us see the truth.