This week Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced what everyone knew. Bally got the nod for Chicago’s first casino. It will be located on the Tribune publishing site. Some alderpersons are going all NIMBY over the selection. Alderpersons and community groups were screaming Not In My Back Yard over the casino proposals during the selection process. They wanted the casino, just not in their communities. There were only a few areas where the casino should be built. They were near downtown and the convention center at McCormick Place.
CWBChicago, the only crime and justice- or lack thereof- reporting worth reading in this city, obtained a video of a vicious robbery in the Lincoln Park/DePaul neighborhood. The video shows the robbery victim being shot while lying on the ground. It is about time people see how vicious some of our pampered criminals are.
The whiny bike people are once again complaining about the inadequate bike lanes in some parts of the city after a cyclist was killed in an accident. It appears some streets are not suited to the whims of the cyclists. The intelligent thing to do would be to ban cyclists on those streets during certain hours. Also, it is past time for the city to crack down on lawless cyclists who do not obey traffic laws. The city could make a boatload of money ticketing cyclists. Like reckless drivers and motorcyclists, there is one set of laws the most reckless cyclists keep violating to their fatal peril: the laws of physics.
The City of Chicago has a new publishitty (Misspelling intentional) stunt. Free branded canned water. Yep, instead of going to the nearest water tap, you can get Chicagwa. It may be an old Native American word for idiot or stench of leaders. Indicted Aldercreature, Ed Burke promoted bottling the city’s water years ago. People thought he was, ahem, off. It looks like our current leadership is way off.
The oldest operating neon sign in Chicago hit the auction block. The sign outside the Orange Garden restaurant, also the longest operating Chinese restaurant in the city, was bought by Chloe Mendel, wife of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. Her winning bid was $17,000. Corgan is currently touring in Mexico with the band.
There are two things you can count on in Chicago. The politics and the weather suck. “It’s not your imagination: It truly has been more gloomy, rainy and wet than usual in Chicago this spring.” I don’t remember a cold, dreary, and wet spring like this one. Politics and weather, misery loves company.
Nine people were shot this week in the downtown area. It appears “Tex” Brown ran out of plans, strategies, and deployments to keep the public safe. Once the weather gets warm, the spring and summer offensive will be in full force in our neighborhoods. One would hope the City Council would finally do something or say something. Hope dies in City Hall.
The Age of Ignorance and Pumpkin Spice
Published by pvbella on September 2, 2021From the time I was a small boy until my early teen years, my sainted mother always told me to never talk to strangers. It was the only good advice I remember her giving. It is the reason I am anti-social. The Chicago Police Department paid me to talk to strangers, even stranger danger. My attitude is, if a stranger wants to talk to me, they can pay me, buy me a drink, or a meal.
Like most sane, intelligent people (Cough, cough), I spent a lot of time alone during the COVID pandemic. Most of the time, I did not feel lonely. I stayed in my own bubble, fishbowl, or whatever you want to call it when I ventured out. I was happy in my cantankerous solitude.
During the lockdown, I took daily long walks, weather permitting. During the coldest winter days, I spent way too much time on the Internet or streaming videos. If it wasn’t for my phone, I would have been an ideal hermit. I could have emerged as a wandering shouting preacher of the coming rapture. Just look what is going around in this nation of dips**ts.
When things loosened up, everyone wanted to be a social butterfly. People wanted to chat about everything. What’s your name, what do you do, where do you live, are you married. single, divorced, gay, why are you here every day, on and on with questions. It is like the pandemic bred and trained a host of FBI interrogators. I started asking people for their credentials and if they were wearing a wire.
I had a lot of time to think, which in my case, is a dangerous proposition. Most of the news was terrible. I followed the Greatest Show on Earth, the circus in Washington. I kept a close eye on the comedy show in Chicago and Springfield. I concluded that politics is a s**t show, and the politicians are full of it. From the White House to the outhouse, it is all cazzate*.
Spending time on the Internet, I realized, social media is inhabited by angry, angsty teenagers from all age groups. Some middle-aged and older people make teenagers look happy. I found out a good portion of my city and the nation is inhabited and run by some of the dumbest best-educated people in the world.
From the anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, anti-child vaxxers to those promoting a livestock dewormer to cure and prevent COVID. They will not get vaccinated to prevent the disease, but they will take Ivermectin to prevent COVID. It is Logic -100.
Since Fall is upon us, if I were a social media influencer, I would be a full-blown anti-vaxxer. I would promote pumpkin spice as a preventative and cure for COVID. People would be lining up to gulp, snort, or inject that crap. Ivy League-educated politicians from Bubbaland would be mandating it.
Pumpkin spice is readily available and does nothing to take away freedumb. The more the FDA or CDC condemned pumpkin spice, the more people would want it. They would trade everything, including sex, to get it. The drug cartels would start making and exporting it.
People ask me why I am so angry. I am not mad. Anger implies I have the power or control to change things. If I did, we would live in a fairytale world where unicorns run free, and there would be pumpkin spice for everyone.
I am more disappointed than angry. The only people who are trying to make a difference in this country do so in relative anonymity. They do what is morally required, feed and clothe the poor, take care of children, give hope to the hopeless, and love to the unloved. Politicians are useless. They are all talk and no action. They tout values and morals they do not have or believe in.
I have voted in elections for fifty years. From the local level to the federal level, every politician promised to change things to make our lives better. They changed nothing, did nothing, and continue to do nothing. There is no such thing as a good politician.
Now, if you will excuse me, I need to get to the stores and on the Internet to stock up and horde pumpkin spice. It will be my road to massive wealth. Pumpkin spice will rival cryptocurrency, and I want to be in on the basement floor.
*Bulls**t in Italian