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Tag: Chicago

Time Flies

Published by pvbella on August 31, 2021
Image: PV Bella

And just like that, summer is almost over. In a few weeks, autumn will be upon us. This summer blew by like a derecho.  I remember the first day of summer like it was yesterday. Labor Day, the harbinger of Autumn, is right around the corner.

Speaking of Labor Day. It is a day we usually recognize Organized Labor. This year we should expand the celebration to honor all the essential workers who risked their health to keep the rest of us going during the COVID pandemic. Medical professionals and personnel should be singled out for special praise for their heroic round-the-clock labors.

School started Monday. Parents are relieved their children will be out of the house yet concerned that schools may cause further spread of COVID. Their fears are not unfounded since CPS and CTU complicated the return with their petty bickering. No one knows how safe the precautions are.

Football season is nigh, though the Bears are not near and dear to my heart due to the terrible management by the bumbling McCaskey Family. Baseball season will continue until the boys of summer become the boys of fall. The Cubs are being flushed down the toilet. Sunday’s 13-1 loss to the Sox was an embarrassment. The Sox are going into the post-season. Maybe Chicago will see another World Series.

Fall is the time of year when the multi-ingredient coffee aficionados start adding f**cking pumpkin spice to their concoctions. Pumpkin spice will be everywhere and in everything. The stuff is fake, synthetic. It was developed in a lab, not a kitchen. It tastes horrible, but stupid lemmings have no taste. If someone told them they could get high on pumpkin spice, they would snort or shoot it. Someone in Bubbaland will promote pumpkin spice to prevent or cure COVTD. At least it is safer than horse dewormer.

The willingly unvaccinated in Chicago are helping drive up the COVID numbers. Mask wearing, social distancing, and stay the f**k away from me are my mantras again. It could be a long fall and winter if the cases keep rising.

Luckily our elected officials and most of the citizens in Chicago are not freedumb lovers. We do not see the dramatic rise in numbers like parts of Illinois, the South, and Southwest portions of the country.

Handling COVID is the only positive thing Chicago politicians and bureaucrats did during this summer of violence, incompetence, stumbling, and bumbling. The mayor is out of touch, the city council is useless, and parts of the city are turning into third-world type war zones, especially at night.

The leaves will start changing colors, then dropping off. The weather will cool down, and when all is baren, we will prepare for winter. COVID is not going away, and with the fall comes flu season. It is a pity our politicians and public health officials must beg people to get vaccinated. Maybe they could promise people a pumpkin spice non-dairy soy vegan mocha decaf latte made with socially conscious sustainable beans if they get jabbed.

Yeah, winter is coming too. I m hoping the days and weeks slow down. Summer blew by way too fast. I want to enjoy a long mild fall before the blast of winter drives us indoors.

Chicago Retail Politics

Published by pvbella on August 15, 2021

Image: PV Bella

Today is Sunday. At 8:30 this morning, my mail carrier delivered the mail. It got me thinking about retail politics. Retail politics is the political religion in Chicago. Mayor Richard J. Daley was responsible for creating the Church of Retail Politics, hence the phrase, “Chicago is the city that works.” He and his successors spoiled the citizens. We not only expect city services, we demand them, especially when there are blips.

The worst thing a city employee can tell citizens is there is nothing they can do. They find a way to resolve the issue fast.

Citizens want, demand, and expect 24/7/365:

  • Police, fire, and EMS to show up yesterday when called
  • The streetlights on at night
  • Uninterrupted utilities
  • Public health and sanitation
  • Safe and efficient public transportation
  • Scheduled garbage pick-up
  • Clean streets
  • Good schools
  • Good and safe parks
  • Potholes fixed
  • Snow plowed in the winter
  • Flood control
  • Consumer protection
  • Safe buildings
  • Safe roads
  • Tree trimming
  • Mail delivery
  • Quick removal of debris after major storms
  • Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and glitter spewing unicorns

Alderpersons and the mayor will not survive if the basic city and other services are interrupted too long or too often. People in charge of agencies, utilities, and even the Chicago Postmaster General shudder when the phone rings, and it’s an alderperson or the mayor on the other end.

Thanks to improving communications technology, service interruptions are mitigated fast and efficiently. Toward the end of my police career, it was not unusual to see a commissioner, department head, alderperson, or other executive show up for some major issue in the wee morning hours. During major emergencies, the who’s who of politics and utility executives showed up on the scene.

I used to work out with one of former Mayor, Richard M. Daley’s bodyguards. He regularly told me if they were driving through the city and Daley saw something amiss, he got on the phone and made sure the problem was resolved ASAP, sometimes yelling and swearing.

No one cares about the political ideology of the mayor or alderpersons when it comes to services. Rightwing, leftwing, progressive, socialist, whatever. They may get elected spewing weasel words drafted by weasels. If they fail to resolve, implement, or create city services, Chicago’s retail bread, and butter, they will not get re-elected.

Some alderpersons do not get this. It is more critical for them to wax ideologically, attend protests, be in solidarity, and down with whatever cause of the day or hour is. Some of these alderpersons represent distressed wards where things are deteriorating every day. They are blind to the needs of the people in their quest to be right on their petty ideological issues versus serving the public.

The mayor is the CEO of the Chicago Retail Store. The alderpersons are the regional managers. Most do a good to fair job. Others are so far in the weeds they cannot see a two-story building. These are wards suffering from decades of economic and social neglect. Nothing changes except, sometimes, the alderperson.

Chicago is suffering from a long hot summer of rampant violent criminality. The mayor is just about the only one discussing it. We hear crickets from too many alderpersons. The mayor may be the one responsible. In Chicagoese, she wears the hat. But the alderpersons are just as responsible. They are supposed to work with the police commanders in their wards to ensure people are safe. Many would rather spout nonsense instead of common sense. Some would not be caught dead, seen with a member of the police department.

My former alderperson was AWOL for six of his eight terms in office. His successor is hands-on. He is also feet on as he walks through the ward. When he sees something, he says something. He gets on the phone to resolve the issue. I may disagree with his political views, but he is doing what the people of this ward want, ensuring city services are ongoing.

Never listen to the political horse manure alderpersons spout. Look at what they do. Weasel words are meaningless. Action is the only thing that counts. We have a responsibility to hold alderpersons’ feet under the fire. If they get complacent or talk, we need to demand, loudly, more from them. If not, no matter how “beloved” they are, we organize and raise money to vote them out. That is the Chicago Way.

USA USA USA Numba One

Published by pvbella on August 14, 2021

Image: PV Bella

We are the champions, my friends
And we’ll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
‘Cause we are the champions of the World (Queen Music Limited)

“In the month of August, the US has so far reported more than 1.5 million new cases of Covid-19, more than three times the numbers for Iran and India — which now hold second and third place, JHU data shows. And the seven-day average has topped more than 135,000 cases, well ahead of other nations.” 

Yep, the good ole USA is number one. We are on top. We are beating other nations and beating them bad. Cry freedom. God, guns, apple pie, mom, sex, drugs, rock and roll, and COVID make us the top dogs in the world. WOOF, WOOF, WOOF!

We must celebrate those good ole southern patriots who gave our nation of freedom lovin, God fearin, people this distinction. The South finally rose agin, makin ‘Merica NUMBA ONE. Git them gold medals ready. Break out the bands and fireworks. There oughta be ticker-tape parades in our major cities for these selfless American heroes.

How did our nation get this honor? Freedom! We are born free, and we will die free, from COVID.

Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to Louisiana for the highest number of cases per capita, followed by Florida. In Alabama, there is a surge in teenagers and children coming down with COVID. They are suffering some of the worst symptoms. God shine his blessings on Team Bama and the COVID Tide for standing tall against dictatorship.

COVID cases are spreading fast across the south and southwest regions of the nation. These are regions where people only worship and fear God, not the false idol, so-called science.

Yep, folks, those good ole boys and gals made us proud. This is what freedom is all about. The great ‘Merican experiment of a free country is a proven success. A free people have the God givin right to suffer and die a horrible death. Freedom is ringing out across the south and southwest. Hot damn, Bubba! I git goosebumps over the pride I feel of being number one.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis should get the Congressional Medal of Freedom for helping to put our country in the number one position for his promotion of freedom. He is the voice of freedom in this nation, tilting towards dictatorship. DeSantis is the epitome of freedom-loving leaders. He took a stand, stood his ground, and is still standing tall and proud. That, people, is what ‘Merican Way is all about.

While most of the nation followed experts in infectious diseases, DeSantis and other elected officials got their information scrolling through their cell phones while sitting on the toilet or in the outhouse. This proves the great American axiom, “Some of the best and brightest ideas come while sittin and s**tin.

Who needs masks, distancing, and vaccines? As one of the great philosophical sages of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, stated the other day, “We can’t live forever.” Man, that gal sure talks pretty. We all gonna die is the red, white, and blue biblical truth. Wrap her in Bubble Wrap Stars and Stripes and put her on the cover of a magazine or in a tire company pin-up calendar. Greene should be the spokeswoman for Kohler or Glacier Bay. Dang, and ain’t that Senator, Rand Paul sumptin. He should be the poster boy for Charmin.

I, for one, am embarrassed and ashamed to live under the dictatorship of Chicago, where masking was mandated and still is in some situations. I am ashamed those vaccinations are so rampant. I do not feel like a red-blooded patriot who does not want to live forever. I am ashamed to admit I submitted to wearing the dreaded mask, got vaccinated, and kept away from my fellow Americans. I feel sullied that I did not love my country enough to fight, suffer, and die for freedom.

It is embarrassing that Chicago, with its stellar medical institutions, could be so far behind the COVID curve. We should be number one. We should be the winners. But, no, we did not listen to the toilet bowl and outhouse experts. We followed the “science.”

There is something very wrong in this country when red-blooded patriots are willing to suffer and die for freedom while the rest live in dictated safety. Those southerners from Louisiana and Florida and the rest of the South and Southwest are the true frontline heroes, fighting to keep freedom alive, suffering and dying for our country. Elected officials like DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbot are the toilet bowl and outhouse generals leading the charge to keep freedom alive and giving the death knell to dictatorship.

God bless America, God bless those sick and dying heroes, God bless their leaders for making America number one.

USA, USA, USA!