Month: December 2021

America’s worst year since 1864

Blogger this year at the Chickamauga battlefield

By John Ruberry

With Christmas past us it’s time to look back at the current year, 2021. And with a less than a week left we can say that 2021 was America’s worst year since 1864.

Why was 1864 so bad? While there were significant military successes for the Northern armies fighting to keep the United States together–Atlanta and Savannah were captured and General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was locked into siege warfare in Virginia–and a potential political victory of the Confederacy was averted by Abraham Lincoln’s reelection, Americans were still killing each other by the thousands. The following year was an improvement, despite Lincoln’s assassination. The Civil War ended in the spring of 1865 and the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, was ratified. 

As for 2021, it got off to a wretched start when hostiles, American ones, stormed the US Capitol in a riot. We have to go back to another horrible year for America, 1814, when the British Army seized the Capitol, for the only other time that happened. The hooligans who entered the Senate and House chambers on January 6 were not participating in an insurrection, despite claims made to this day by CNN and MSNBC. Sure, the rioters wanted to keep Donald J. Trump in power, but they had no plans for a coup, such as imprisoning Joe Biden, taking control of the military, and dissolving Congress.

Bad people? Yes. Nutty? That too. And sorry leftists, President Trump did not call for an insurrection.

And what about the people who were supposed to protect the Capitol, such as the Capitol Hill Police and the who they report to? You know, Congress, which is run by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They failed America.

In the fraught election of 2020, a feeble old man, Joe Biden, was elected president. “Lunch Bucket Joe from Scranton” was chosen as the Democratic nominee because he was viewed by many as the “safe” alternative to Trump, and not a radical like Bernie Sanders. Biden’s “good years,” assuming he ever had them, are well in the past. Biden, and the people who control him, such as Ron Klain or Susan Rice, went full-blown leftist on Inauguration Day. Economically, the result is the highest level of inflation in decades. These price increases, once dismissed by the Biden White House as “transitory,” will likely continue indefinitely, serving as a hidden tax for all Americans.

While not quite energy independent as Trump claimed, our nation was headed into that direction under his leadership. Shortly after his inauguration Biden suspended new drilling and fracking on federal lands. It has since been reversed in court, but the White House maintains a malevolent attitude towards the world’s most reliable form of energy, fossil fuels. Gasoline costs over $1 more per gallon since Biden became president. Biden also cancelled the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, essentially firing thousands of union workers.

An effective commander-in-chief, such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, does his job so well it appears that he is doing nothing at all. While Trump certainly doesn’t have Ike’s soft touch, I’m of the belief that Trump would have seen the possibility of a supply chain crisis coming and would have taken steps to ensure we would not have seen the bottleneck of cargo ships outside America’s largest harbors. 

Meanwhile in the Biden administration the cabinet officer in charge of our supply chain, Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, went on an unannounced two-month paternity leave just as the shipping crisis began. Rather than resigning for failure or dereliction of duty, Buttigieg’s is being hawked by some Democrats as a possible 2024 Democratic presidential candidate should Biden choose not to run for reelection. While family is of course important, liberals often claim that public service is the highest calling. Buttigieg could have simply quit as Transporation secretary. Or not taken the job at all.

While not something that the federal government is directly in charge of, violent crime plagued America’s largest cities this year–and all of those cities are run by Democrats. A dozen cities endured record murder totals. Some jurisdictions, such as San Francisco, Philadelphia, Los Angeles County, Milwaukee County, and Cook County (Chicago), are burdened with woke prosecutors engaging in catch-and-release policies regarding criminals.

Biden was elected last November because more voters saw him as more capable to fight the COVID-19 epidemic than Trump. But wait, what’s this? There were more COVID deaths in the United States in 2021 than in 2020, despite the availability of vaccines. And lockdown and mask mandates are ramping up again with the new omicron variant, which so far has killed one American. That number will surely climb but I have a strong suspicion that omicron will not be killing 15,000 Americans a week as soon as next month, which is what the politicized CDC is predicting. 

In order to prove Trump wrong, Biden has proved him right in regard to enforcing the law at our southern border. In late October the Washington Post reported that a record 1.7 million people arrested while trying to cross that border. In addition to illegal aliens, it’s believed that large amounts of fentanyl have been smuggled across the border in 2021.

As Biden as Biden is, his vice president is even worse, the inept cackler, Kamala Harris.

I’ve saved the worst for last. America suffered a humiliating military defeat in Afghanistan. Biden vowed that our departure from Afghanistan would look nothing like our bugging-out from South Vietnam in 1975. He was right, it was worse. As with the border crisis, the Biden White House blamed Trump for the debacle. While Trump did enter an agreement to pull our troops out of Afghanistan this year, it was not a treaty. We could have back out. Trump says, and I believe him, that he never would have made our country look so feeble, yes, feeble like Biden physically and mentally is, if we had departed Afghanistan under his watch.

When the next international crisis comes, our allies will have understandable doubts about American resolve. 

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Merry Christmas!!

Make today a positive day. Don’t bother reading the news, or browsing social media. Enjoy Christmas for what it is: a time to spend with family and friends. All that bad news and fighting social media posts will be there tomorrow for you to scroll through and waste your time on.

Plenty of people will want you to spend your holiday in fear. Fear for the future, and whether you’ll leave a better place for future generations. Or fear about the present, and between inflation and the latest Wu-Flu variant, there is plenty to stoke fear over. Or even fear of the past, judging past actions out of context in order to shame us about crimes we never committed ourselves.

Don’t give in to that fear. Celebrate Our Lord’s birth today. Call your friends and wish them a Merry Christmas. Gather with family and friends. Cook up a tasty feast. Push off any fears until tomorrow…they will still be there, like fears always tend to be. Positive feelings are the first to leave under the fire of those that think they know better. Resist those urges today and enjoy the holiday.

While these views don’t represent the views of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency (obviously, since most agencies want you to cower in fear today or submit to a battery of tests to just enjoy it with friends), it does represent my views and hopes for you today. Please accept my wishes of Merry Christmas to you and your family today.

The ‘science’ isn’t working

By Christopher Harper

The “science” isn’t working!

We’ve been masked-up, socially distanced, shut down, and vaccinated. But COVID keeps winning.

Maybe it’s time to reassess our hypotheses?

The underlying “science” of masks has always been suspect because the studies are old and dubious.

The underlying “science” of social distancing also has been suspect because no one could determine what the distance should be.

The underlying “science” of shutting down was suspect and had various adverse effects, such as economic and personal depression.

Vaccinations may have reduced the number of deaths but now seem incapable of halting each new variant that occurs.

Amid the renewed calls to intensify the old policies, a few voices of reason seem to be appearing in the fog of war.

“The reality is that we are all going to be infected at some point with omicron or something else,” said Bill Hanage, a Harvard epidemiologist.

Instead of government intervention, which doesn’t seem to be working to eliminate COVID, people need to ask themselves various questions. What is my risk? If I decide to get vaccinated, am I willing to accept the risks? If I am unvaccinated, am I willing to accept the risks?

Even in blue states, politicians seem to be bowing to pandemic fatigue: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said this week that the public health emergency “is over.” He said he doesn’t want to impose new restrictions on vaccinated people who have done their part to control the pandemic.

The government has to stop blaming those who don’t want to get the vaccination, making them seem like some country bumpkins without ethics. The vaccines have little impact on the omicron variant.

Moreover, the government needs to provide information on just how much money the pharmaceutical companies make on these vaccines and their boosters. More and more people like me are convinced that the drug companies are far from benevolent.

Fear-mongering no longer works. Rather than following the same flawed policies, perhaps it’s time to look at other alternatives, which may include allowing the disease to run its course.

As one of my friends suggested, perhaps it’s time to recommend the tenets of the Barrington Declaration to protect the sick and very elderly. See https://gbdeclaration.org/

Hey Salon, Hollywood remaking South Korean movies is not racist

By John Ruberry

Every once in a while I come across an article on the internet that makes me want to scream in disbelief. Such as is the case with a piece on Salon by Carolyn Hinds with the headline, “Hollywood, please stop adapting K-dramas. It’s not just unnecessary, it’s racist.”

Wow, look who is woke.

While acknowledging adaptation of motion pictures from one culture to another is commonplace, Hinds, who begins one sentence with, “As a Black woman, cultural appropriation is behavior I’m all too familiar with,” unloads on the wave of Hollywood remaking South Korean movies. And she spews this awful offal, “Instead, I’m referring specifically to how Hollywood seems to be making a concerted effort to focus on South Korean – as well Japanese – content, for the sole purpose of remaking the stories to appeal to American audiences, i.e. white audience.”

But as Mark Levin so often responds on his radio show to a recording of some liberal, “Oh, shut up you idiot!”

Hinds calls the Asia-to-Hollywood artistic transfer “whitewashing.”

There are plans in Hollywood to remake the Korean thriller Parasite, a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed and one that I felt was deserving of its Best Picture Oscar. In her Salon piece Hinds brings up other movies from South Korea that were remade by Hollywood, including Oldboy, another fabulous film. The flat American version (or so I’ve heard, I haven’t seen it) was directed by Spike Lee. Il Mare was redone as The Lake House, which starred Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Moving beyond South Korea, Hinds notes that Martin Scorsese’s The Departed was inspired by a Hong Kong flick, Internal Affairs.

No society exists in a vacuum, not even North Korea, which is it should be. Culture crosses borders, as does science as well as political notions. The modern version of democracy comes from the European Enlightenment. The greatest form of government is utilized not just in the United States, but also in South Korea and Japan.

Another South Korean film I enjoyed is The Good, the Bad, the Weird, which as you probably guessed is a remake of Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. And weird it is–instead of an American Civil War setting, this Western takes place in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in 1939. Hinds ignores this specific cultural transfer in her Salon piece. The soundtrack of The Good, The Bad, The Weird includes an instrumental rendition of the Animals’ 1965 hit “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” The original was recorded by Nina Simone, an African-American woman.

Moving on to television, do you know that there is a Korean version of the American television series, Designated Survivor?

What about Japan, which Hinds mentioned earlier. The stellar collective of writers here at Da Tech Guy is known as Da Magnificent Seven, a tip of the hat to the 1960 Western that starred Yul Brynner and many others. That film is an acknowledged remake of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai. The first movie of Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy,” A Fistful of Dollars, is an unacknowledged remake of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo.

Kurosawa, who named John Ford as one of his major influences, filmed a Japanese warlord version of Shakespeare’s King Lear, a brilliant epic, Ran.

So now you know why I called Hinds an idiot.

Dan Bongino on his radio show often notes that the unhinged left run will run out of enemies, so it is doomed to devour itself.

Hey Hollywood: Remake more South Korean and Japanese movies.

Hey South Korea and Japan: Remake more Hollywood movies.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The NDAA…still a joke, just 25 Billion dollars less funny

The National Defense Authorization Act for FY22 just passed this week. While there are some nice changes, like a 2.7% pay increase (sadly offset by rampant inflation) and some additional baby leave, there is a lot that is left to be desired.

Now, given looming war with China and Russia, our gaps in hypersonic technology, space, bioweapons, and cyber, and our poorly maintained “battle” fleet that seems to barely limp along from extended deployment to extended deployment, you would think anyone writing the executive summary of this bill would want to reassure the public that its going to make us stronger and ready for war with the hopes of deterring it to make peace.

And well, you’d be wrong. Here’s the highlighted portion of page one of the summary:

The FY22 NDAA builds on previous attempts to close the pay gap by authorizing support for a 2.7 percent pay increase for our service men and women in uniform, makes historic and sweeping
changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice to combat sexual assault in the military,
authorizes record funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, contains
measures to ensure our military is diverse and inclusive, and makes key investments to
address the threat of climate change and bolster energy resiliency across the Department
of Defense, and takes full advantage of our diverse talent pool to meet the complex national
security challenges of today and tomorrow.

House Armed Service Committee NDAA FY22 executive summary

What the heck is this? HBCUs? Diversity? Climate Change? Seriously?

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have got to be laughing at this.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all about getting research money to HBCUs to support weapons and tactics development. Why not? It would be awesome to see an HBCU open a cyber center, or contribute to space warfare, or some other highly technical area. That would have long reaching benefits, encouraging young black kids to aspire to be great engineers and scientists. There is a lot to love with ideas like that, and its a win-win for the Department of Defense.

But how is that the highlight? Defense is about combating our enemies and helping our policy makers negotiate peace from the best possible position. Think about World War 2. Could we have negotiated a lasting peace with Hitler or the Japanese Emperor without being in a position of strength? I’d argue that half of the reason Hitler rose to power in the first place was that he saw weakness and pushed against it. The same could be said for Putin today as he gazes at Ukraine, challenging the US and its NATO allies to do something.

Nothing in those opening paragraphs radiate strength. As you dig through the document, the increases in equipment are buried, but they are paltry. We’re getting 13 additional ships, if they can be built on time. We really need another actual shipyard, yet that piece of vital infrastructure isn’t in the bill, since it would compete with companies that already have a lock on shipbuilding (and the Congress-people on their payroll to prove it). If you need proof of how bad it is, just check our CDR Salamander’s blog.

From CDR Salamander

But most disingenuous is that military personnel are going down in numbers. Yup. Hidden away in the actual text is a decrease in manpower:

With regard to military end strength, the number of Army soldiers would drop by 900 (to 485,000) compared to this year’s levels and the Marine Corps would cut its troop numbers by 2,700 (to 178,500). That’s in line with White House end strength plans. The Navy’s end strength total would drop by about 900 (to 346,920), about 700 more sailors than the White House requested. The Air Force would see a decrease of about 4,200 personnel (to 329,220), about 1,000 more airmen than the administration requested.

From Military Times

If we’re already not doing a good enough job keeping up with China, how on earth will we do that with less people, specifically less people in the Navy and Air Force, the services that will take the brunt of any Pacific conflict?

This year’s NDAA is a joke. It’s laser locked on social justice issues while missing all the important items needed for any future conflict. Sadly, it’ll likely take a war where we lose thousands of service members before Congress will shelve the pet programs and get serious about winning.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. If you liked this article, please consider supporting the author by buying his book on Amazon, also available as an audiobook on Audible.

Update Waivers List 1969 league

I’m going to consign all 1969 baseball league here to the backup blog:

Here is the current waivers list:

Waivers

Here is the current waivers list:

Batters:

  • Aaron Tommie Taken Montreal Early Waivers Round 2 Pick 2
  • Adair Jerry Taken Chicago White Sox Early Waivers Round 2 pick 1
  • Alvis Max
  • Amaro Ruben
  • Baker Frank
  • Barry Rich
  • Barton Bob
  • Bateman John
  • Beauchamp Jim
  • Billings Dick
  • Blefray Curt Taken NY Mets Early waivers round 1
  • Bobb Randy
  • Boehmer Len
  • Bosch Don
  • Bowens Sam
  • Boyer Ken
  • Breeden Danny
  • Brinkman Chuck
  • Brooks Bobby
  • Brown Gates
  • Brown Larry
  • Browne Byron
  • Bryant Don
  • Burda Bob
  • Campanis Jim
  • Campbell Dave (Claimed by NYY off waivers)
  • Cannizzaro Chris Taken by Washington Early waivers round 1
  • Chaney Darrel
  • Charles Ed
  • Christian Bob
  • Clark Ron
  • Collins Kevin
  • Corrales Pat
  • coulter Chip
  • DaVanon Jerry
  • Davis Bill
  • Davis Ron
  • Dean Thomas
  • Donaldson John
  • Duncan Dave
  • Ellis John
  • Etheridge Bobby
  • Fairey Jim (Claimed by White Sox pending till 12/1/21 at 1 AM)
  • Floyd Bobby
  • Gabrielson Len (Taken Pittsburgh early waivers round 2)
  • Gamble Oscar
  • Gaspar Ronald (released into waivers by NYY)
  • Geiger Gary
  • Gil Bus
  • Gosger Jim
  • Gutierrez Cesar
  • Hague Joe
  • Hall Jimmie
  • Haney Larry
  • Harrell John
  • Harrison Chuck
  • Healy Fran
  • Heath Bill
  • Hermoso Remy
  • Hershberger Mike
  • Hicks Jim
  • Hinton Chuck
  • Holman Gary
  • Hriniak Walt
  • Hutton Tom (Claimed by Pittsburgh acquired by Chicago by counter claim)
  • Jackson Sonny
  • Jeter Johnny (Claimed by New York Yankees / Highlanders)
  • Johnson Lou
  • Jones Dalton
  • Kelly Van
  • Kendall Fred
  • Keough Joe
  • Kolb Gary
  • Krug Chris
  • Lahoud Joe
  • Lee Leron
  • Llenas Winston
  • Lock Don
  • Lyttle Jim
  • Manuel Charlie
  • Martin JC
  • Matchick Tommy
  • May Dave
  • McGraw Tommy
  • McDonald Dave
  • McFadden Leon
  • McNulty Bill
  • Miller John
  • Morales Jerry
  • Nagelson Russ
  • Nelson Dave
  • Northey Scott
  • Oliver Gene
  • Oliver Nate
  • Oyler Ray (PIcked Round 3 Cincinnati early waivers)
  • Paepke Dennis
  • Pagliaroni
  • Peterson Cap
  • Phillips Adolfo
  • Qualls Jim
  • Quilici Frank
  • Ranew Merritt
  • Reid Scott
  • Renick Rick
  • Repoz Roger
  • Ricketts Dave
  • Rico Fred
  • Rios Juan
  • Robinson Bill
  • Robles Rafael
  • Rogers Buck
  • Rollins Rich
  • Roznovsky Rick
  • Ruberto Sonny
  • Rudolph Ken
  • Satriano Tom
  • Scheinblum Richie
  • Shannon Mike (picked round 4 early waivers SF Giants)
  • Shopay Tom
  • Simpson Dick
  • Sipin John
  • Slocum Ron
  • Smith Dick
  • Snyder Russ
  • Spangler Al
  • Spence Bob
  • Spriggs George
  • Stahl Larry
  • Stanley Fred
  • Stephenson John
  • Stewart Jimmy
  • Stinson Bob
  • Stone Gene
  • Stone Ron
  • Stuart Dick
  • Tartabull Jose
  • Tatum Javis
  • Tepedino Frank
  • Tischinski Tom
  • Torres Hector
  • Valdespino Sandy
  • Velazquez Freddie
  • Vidal Jose
  • Ward Pete
  • Watkins Dave
  • Webster Ramon
  • White Bill
  • Whitfield Fred
  • Wicker Floyd
  • Williams Jim
  • Woods Ron

Pitchers

  • Allen Lloyd
  • Arlin Steve
  • Baldschun Jack
  • Baney Dick
  • Barber Steve (Taken Chicago W Sox early waivers wk 1 1st pick)
  • Belinsky Bo
  • Bell Gary
  • Bertaina Frank
  • Boozer John
  • Boyd Gary
  • Brandon Bucky
  • Buchart Larry
  • George Brunet LHP SEA (Released by NYY to make room for Johnny Jeter)
  • Carlos Cisco
  • Champion Bill
  • Clark Rickey
  • Corkins Mike
  • Crider Jerry
  • Culver George
  • Dukes Tom
  • Ellis Sammy
  • Everitt Leon
  • Farrell Turk
  • Fisher Jack
  • Fitzmorris Al
  • Foster Alan
  • Fuentes Miguel
  • Garman Mike
  • Geishert Vern
  • Guinn Skip
  • Hamilton Jack
  • Jackson Al
  • James Jeff
  • Jaster Larry
  • Jones Steve
  • Kealey Steve
  • Kline Ron
  • Koonce Cal
  • Kroll Gary
  • Lamb Ray
  • Law Ron
  • Lazar Danny
  • Lersch Barry
  • McBean Al
  • Miles Jim
  • Morehead Dave
  • Morris John
  • Nottebart Don
  • Nye Rich
  • O’Riley Don
  • Palmer Lowell
  • Pascual Camilo
  • Pina Horacio
  • Priddy Bob
  • Purdin John
  • Raffo Al
  • Ramos Pedro
  • Rath Fred
  • Raymond Claude
  • Ribant Dennis
  • Robertson Rich
  • Roggenburk Garry
  • Ross Gary (Taken Pittsburgh early waivers round 3)
  • Sembera Carroll (Taken White Sox Early Waives Round 4)
  • Severinsen Al (Picked White Sox Early Wavers round 3 pick 1)
  • Shaw Don
  • Shea Steve
  • Short Chris
  • Sisk Tommie
  • Spama Joe
  • Sprague Ed
  • Talbot Fred (Taken NY Mets early waivers round 3)
  • Taylor Gary
  • Wagner Gary
  • Washburn Greg
  • Wsahbum Greg
  • Watkins Bob
  • Wynne Billy (Taken NY Mets early waivers round 2)
  • Zachary Chris

I include the waviers claims in this list because these roster changes don’t appear on the regular list.

Tone deaf in Killadelphia

By Christopher Harper

One of the main reasons my wife and I decided to move out of Philadelphia was the soaring crime rate in the city.

Even so, it was surprising how bad it got this year. Philadelphia has recorded more homicides this year than the nation’s two largest cities – New York City and Los Angeles – with 528 homicides to date. New York City has recorded 443 as of Dec. 5 and Los Angeles 352 as of Nov. 27.

Philadelphia is not alone in recording a record number of murders. Eleven other cities—all governed by Democrats—have set records: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Austin, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Louisville, Kentucky; Portland, Oregon; St. Paul, Minnesota; Toledo, Ohio; Tucson, Arizona; and Rochester, New York.

What’s just as surprising is the tone-dear responses to the crime spree from Democrats.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a George Soros darling and recently re-elected to his post, said that the city wasn’t experiencing a crime wave.

“We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence,” the district attorney said last week. “It’s important that we don’t let this become mushy and bleed into the notion that there is some kind of big spike in crime.” He added that tourists should feel safe in the city.

The usually calm Michael Nutter, who served as mayor for eight years, denounced Krasner’s comments as “some of the worst, most ignorant, and most insulting comments I have ever heard spoken by an elected official.”

Nutter, who is Black, added in a column in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “I have to wonder what kind of messed up world of white wokeness Krasner is living in to have so little regard for human lives lost, many of them Black and brown, while he advances his own national profile as a progressive district attorney.”

After widespread condemnation for his remarks, Krasner, who is white, assembled a bevy of leftist political and religious leaders to announce an apology.

But it wasn’t only Krasner who didn’t understand the nature of the murder spree.

Two students from Temple University, where I teach, were murdered—a rare occurrence even though the college is located in the center of the city.

The president of the faculty, a Black woman, offered this disingenuous analysis of what’s going on.

“There are so many systemic issues at play—not just here in North Philadelphia—but in most urban centers across the nation that need to be addressed. Issues of poverty, severely compromised urban education systems, joblessness amidst a consumer culture that is always reminding us of the class divide between the haves and the have nots—complicated by COVID-19 and nearly two years of its wake—making these issues even more nuanced than they have been in previous years. But loss of life is a tragedy—no matter where it occurs or why. We have much work to do, and we need everyone to join in that struggle,” a statement said.

It’s impossible to unpack the illogical analysis in the statement above.

The facts, however, are clear: Two people died! Two or more people killed them!

The Democrats running the cities and the academy are out of synch with most people, who can easily point to the cause for rising crime rates: a lack of police enforcement and investigation. That’s because the Democrats don’t like law and order.

Lightfoot’s blame-the-victim response about flash mob thieves reminiscent of pre-woke SNL sketch

By John Ruberry

If you give a press conference and the result looks like a Saturday Night Live sketch, a pre-woke version of the show that is, then you have a big problem.

So it was last week with Chicago’s inept leftist mayor, Lori Lightfoot, when she blamed retail crime victims for the rise of flash mob thieves plaguing Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shopping area.

“We still have retailers that won’t institute plans like having security officers in their stores, making sure that they’ve got cameras that are actually operational, locking up their merchandise at night, chaining high-end bags,” the first-term Democrat said. “These purses can be something that is attracting a lot of organized retail theft units.”

So it’s the victims’ fault.

Just like it was in this SNL skit from 1991, featuring Chicago native Joe Mantegna, where he blames New York City crime victims for their problems.

“Yeah, I was flying to Florida, and we had a stopover in New York,” a caller to a talk radio show told Mantegna. “Well, while we were sitting on the ground a group of ‘wilding’ teenagers boarded the plane and beat with me on the head with a pipe.”

“And which airport was this,” Mantegna asked,

“LaGuardia,” was the reply.

“Well, there you go,” Mantegna scolded the caller.

Chicago Police brass were said to have a plan in place to combat smash-and-grab thieves and avoid scenes such as what happened when a Burberry’s on North Michigan Avenue was emptied of purses–each handbag was worth more than a thousand dollars. 

If there was a plan by the CPD, then it clearly didn’t work. Since Lightfoot’s delusional presser a North Face store on the Mag Mile was struck twice. But proving that the Burberry’s looting was just a tame opening act, yesterday a luxury car dealer just off of the Magnificent Mile was robbed of an estimated $2 million worth of high-end watches–which, are you paying attention Mayor Lightfoot?– were locked up inside a locked glass display case. Yep, $2 million.

The dealership is now seeing customers on an appointment basis only–its doors are locked during store hours. Welcome to the new Chicago.

On Friday night’s Flannery Fired Up show on Fox 32 Chicago, host Mike Flannery estimated that 20 percent of the storefronts on North Michigan Avenue are empty. Regular readers of my posts know that the Mag Mile was devastated by two rounds of looting–oops, I mean “mostly peaceful protests”–in 2020. 

The luxury dealership, which sells Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis, is owned by Joe Perillo, who is rethinking operating in Chicago.

“It is wrong for someone to break into a place – if they get caught, they get let out!” Perillo explained to ABC 7. “If they get arrested, they get let go. So, how do you intend to ever solve that problem?” He added, “If they don’t do anything about this, they’re going to lose a lot of businesses. They lost Macy’s. They’re losing Neiman Marcus. They may lose this store.”

While Neiman Marcus still has a store on the North Michigan Avenue, the Gap and Disney have also left in the last year. And remember what Flannery said about Mag Mile vacancies. 

It’s not just Lightfoot’s fault.

Kim Foxx is one of those woke so-called prosecutors whose campaign was funded by radical leftist George Soros. She’s received plenty of well-deserved scorn for her mishandling of the Jussie Smollett case. But the greater sin of the Cook County state’s attorney is her catch-and-release policy involving criminals accused of serious offenses. Even some alleged murderers are out of jail on electronic surveillance.

How ’bout if a non-woke SNL updated that skit with a Chicago twist?

“Hello, my store was emptied of merchandise by flash mob looters,” a caller to that SNL-radio show might say.

“What do you sell,” Lori Lightfoot would reply.

“Purses worth more than $1,000.”

Lightfoot’s retort would be, “Well, there you go.”

Retail groups have been complaining that shoppers are now afraid to visit North Michigan Avenue. Who can blame them?

Chicago is dying. The cause of death? Woke politicians.

Well, there you go.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Man, creating stuff is hard work!

It’s tough watching people destroy things.

I remember watching the second plane ram into the Twin Towers on 9-11, eventually bringing down both buildings that had taken years to build and had created so many jobs and generated so much wealth for this country.

I watched in similar dismay as riots broke out last year and scores of businesses were looted and burned, putting hundreds if not thousands of people out of work and out of savings.

I think its hard, especially for me, to watch this destruction because I know first hand just how difficult it is to create something. It took me years to build my own home, having to wade through mountains of paperwork and battle the elements, city bureaucrats and even my own builder at times. I could never stand by and let someone destroy it needlessly because they had some imagined offense in their head that somehow justified their actions. Destruction is far too easy, especially when destroying someone else’s property.

Once you’ve put in the sweat and tears to build something, you immediately learn to place value on the building process. It’s only the truly lazy among us and those that have never had to build anything who can stomach the wanton destruction of private property.

In a similar fashion, its easy to complain that the media is a basket case of loser, left-leaning literature, but are most of us doing much about it? This blog here, and others like Instapundit, are a good start. It’s not cheap though, and I’d encourage you to donate to DaTechGuy so that he can keep it running.

And if you’ve liked the content I’ve produced this year, why not get my book? It makes a great Christmas present for that hard-to-please person. If you’re not into reading things on paper or a Kindle, you can now get the Audible audiobook version here. Sharing the link with your friends and having at least a few purchase it really helps me out.

Remember that creation is hard. Give your favorite creators some love this Christmas season.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Please check out my book on Amazon, its the easiest way you can directly support me!

Liars figure

By Christopher Harper

Figures don’t lie, but liars figure. 

Mark Twain’s quotation couldn’t have described Dana Milbank of the Washington Post any better.

Milbank, one of the most-biased political analysts in Washington, set out to prove that Joe Biden is getting worse press than Donald Trump. 

“After a honeymoon of slightly positive coverage in the first three months of the year, Biden’s press for the past four months has been as bad as—and for a time worse than—the coverage Trump received for the same four months of 2020,” Milbank writes. “Sure, Biden has had his troubles, with the delta variant Afghanistan, and inflation. But the economy is rebounding impressively, he has signed major legislation, and he has restored some measure of decency, calm, and respect for democratic institutions.”

Milbank bases his analysis on artificial intelligence evaluation of news sources, providing a “sentiment analysis” in which Biden does not do well.

But Milbank doesn’t list the usual caveats researchers have about such analysis. The simple, one-dimensional sentiment model from negative to positive yields rather little actionable information for a client worrying about the effect of public discourse on one’s reputation. As a result, the AI analysis should be put through the hands of actual humans.

These misgivings would stand in the way of a good story. So, Milbank, the liar, uses his illicit figures. Here is the fog of journalistic war against Trump:

“

FiscalNote, combed through more than 200,000 articles from 65 news websites (newspapers, network, and cable news, political publications, news wires, and more) to do a ‘sentiment analysis’ of coverage. Using algorithms that give weight to certain adjectives based on their placement in the story, it rated Biden’s coverage in the first 11 months of 2021 and the coverage President Donald Trump got in the first 11 months of 2020.

“Sentiment analysis ranks coverage from entirely negative (-1.0) to entirely positive (1.0), and most outlets are in a relatively tight band between -0.1 and 0.1. Overall, Biden was slightly positive or neutral for seven months, ranging from 0.02 to -0.01. That plummeted to -0.07 in August – a lower number than Trump hit in all of 2020 (or 2019) – and has been between -0.04 and -0.03 ever since. Trump never left a narrow range of -0.03 to -0.04.”

As noted earlier, a human has to sort through these data—an expert human rather than a journalist who’s often guilty of confirmation bias, which basically means he sets out to prove his point rather than interpreting the actual information.

I’ve done what is known as content analysis, where two analysts sift through the news to determine its bias, a system that has its flaws but is far more time tested than what Milbank uses.

But the liar doesn’t let these problems stand in his way as he pontificates on.

“How to explain why Biden would be treated more harshly than a president who actively subverted democracy? Perhaps journalists, pressured by Trump’s complaints about the press, pulled punches. Perhaps media outlets, after losing the readership and viewership Trump brought, think tough coverage will generate interest….

“Too many journalists are caught in a mindless neutrality between democracy and its saboteurs, between fact and fiction. It’s time to take a stand.”

Milbank’s argument doesn’t pass the smell test. It’s difficult for anyone to believe that Biden is getting worse press than Trump. It’s simply a way to try to turn the conversation back to blaming Trump for everything that has gone wrong in the world for the past century.