The Big Smear

“The past leaves you behind.”

That’s what my 89-year-old mother told me on a Sunday afternoon phone call. I had asked her to recall a time in 1959 that she had never mentioned.

Much of the past had been lost to mom because of time and her meds. And when her husband of 67 years and my father passed away a few years before, memories began to be wiped away with tears and “Why did he leave me behind?”

***

Some memories lie under coats of paint. So, when I recently came across old photographs and saw original hardwood flooring, I began scraping to expose more of it during that Sunday afternoon call.

Some memories have been laid bare; the paint worn away with retraced steps.

When you are six-years old you take account of things like busy streets, alleys, empty lots, school buildings with playgrounds, creaky back porches, neighborhood kids, cereal, cartoons and the predatory smell of cigarettes. You know, kiddom.

In 1959 our small family – dad, mom, me and my younger brother – lived in a three flat on Franklin Boulevard in Chicago. Our two-bedroom apartment was the one above the garden apartment. An open grey back porch with creaky boards and stairs connected each flat to the small back yard. Whenever I ran out the back door a voice from somewhere would yell “Don’t run down the stairs!”

Nikki, a single woman, lived downstairs. From time to time, Nikki babysat us two boys while my parents went out. I can’t recall who lived upstairs. Maybe it was the voice.

The Wood Back Porch – Photo: trippchicago/Flickr

Our three flat was the second one in from a busy street corner. On the other side, two empty lots. The street in front was lined with trees. Behind us, an alley.

The empty lots were a dirt playground where neighborhood kids gathered. There, we played tag, cowboys and Indians, and baseball among the rocks, sticks, and clumps of overgrown grass. Those empty lots were grounds for all kinds of childhood amusements.

A tire-tracked path ran through the middle of the two lots. Sometimes a van drove onto it, parked, opened up its side and gave us tracts and Bible stories with puppets. Sometimes an ice cream truck drove on to it and handed out multicolored popsicles from its open side. And sometimes a shoe repair van came with repaired shoes and to claim shoes in need of repair.

I played with my younger brother at least one time.

The two of us decided to play catch, not on the empty lot, but on that small stretch of grassy space between our building and the corner building. There was a chain link fence separating the yards. What could go wrong?

Well, young arms don’t throw straight. I stood between the buildings and my brother, who had to chase my last throw, threw from the backyard. Crash! The baseball went through the neighbor’s bathroom window of his garden apartment. An angry face appeared within the jagged edges. “Can’t you boys find somewhere else to play!”

Dad was none too pleased. He apologized to the neighbor and paid for the repair. We were sent back to the turf of the empty lots with a whiffle ball and bat. Our nickel allowances were put on hold. The moment they returned, I made sure to hold on to it. I put the nickel in my mouth.

When you jump on the bed with a nickel in your mouth one tends to forget the nickel in all the wild up and down. The nickel went into my throat and I went into the living room going “ga gaaa ga gaaa ga gaaa! My father picked me up by the ankles and shook me until the nickel popped out. He later gave a piggy bank to hold my loot.

Jumping on the bed before being put to bed was a way to release all the pent-up energy in a glass of Ovaltine. It’s also the way for your head to encounter a radiator. My parents rushed me, in my cowboy pajamas, to the hospital. I received ten stiches in the back of my skull. That impact and three later concussions may account for a whole of things popping out of my noggin. But the blows didn’t knock 1959 from my memory.

***

Across the alley from our three flat and the empty lots stood a four-story brick apartment building with the same grey connected porches. Clothes drying on clotheslines, dogs barking, kids running up and down stairs, people yelling, radios blasting, furniture moving up or down, and aromas of all kinds of food– the Chicago back porch, meant as a second fire escape, was where melting pot life vented.

We knew it was supper time when a short plump woman wearing an apron came out onto the wooden porch of her second-floor apartment, leaned over the railing and bellowed in a thick Italian accent “Carmennnnn Carmennn”.  When her son, a baby-faced replica of his mother, toddled home we knew it was time to go in.

Of course, our group of neighborhood friends teased Carmen and each other mercilessly. It was a way of having fun at each other’s expense. We operated at the limits of friendship. If we went too far, we backed off and included the teased in whatever fun we devised to make it all better. Sometimes a ball went through a window and we needed to apologize and repair it.

A black and white class photo, found in a box of keepsakes, confirms that I attended “Ryerson Elementary First Grade Class”. In the photo I’m seated in the second row with classmates. I am grinning with a gap-toothed smile and freckled face. With a colorized version of the photo, you’d swear it was Alfred E. Neuman sitting there. I have red hair.

I recall school being a few blocks from home.

Memory has me sitting at my desk in my first-grade class. A tall figure approaches me. He leans over and says “Danny, you brother has left school. He’s walking home. Go after him.” I put on my coat and go after him.

The next thing I see in my head: I am walking my brother across a busy street corner. Cars are stopped at the light. I bring him home. End of reel.

My mother had never mentioned that time once over a lifetime. And that is why when I recalled it, I asked her about it that Sunday. Maybe for her it was just another thing, like a spill, and it was wiped away and forgotten. Life and neighborhoods were different then too, less charged.

Certain memories have charges, though. Besides being my brother’s keeper, I was the subject of humiliation.

Memory has it that I am standing in line in the school hallway with my first-grade classmates. We were waiting to go out on the stage, one at a time, and say our piece to a room full of parents. I don’t recall the what the presentation was for.

One of the room parents was going down the line putting lipstick on the kids. She grabbed and held my chin and began to apply red stuff to my lips. When she finished, I immediately used the back of my hand to rub off it off. A big red smear went across the right side of my face. The parent went “Ohhhhgggugg! Danny! You can’t go on!” That was fine for me.

I don’t know where the red lipstick ended up. Maybe on the sleeve of my white shirt. And I don’t know where my mom was in all this. She’s not in the memory. Was she in the audience waiting for me to come out? Did she see the red smear on my face and sleeve? The memory ends after the smear.

I think it was Kierkegaard who said Why bother remembering a past that cannot be made into a present? Maybe that’s why my mother said the past leaves you behind.

©Jennifer Ann Johnson, Kingdom Venturers, 2023, All Rights Reserved

That Was No Dream

Ezekiel Evans looked out the front room window. A snow-buried Camry sat dormant under the streetlight. “Still there” Ezekiel said to the glass reflection of Tonya decorating the Christmas tree.  He stood there another minute to reassure himself and then returned to his chair. “You never know what will happen next around this doggone place. The city’s gone to hell.”

“Don’t worry, Ez,” Tonya teased, “Chicago has an intersectional mayor. All you have to do is believe in her just like weez all spose to pretend to believe in Santa Claus.”

“I’ll believe in Santa Claus before I believe in her!” Ezekiel replied.

When they moved to the Chicago area several years before, Ezekiel and Tonya overlooked a lot of things. Coming from a Georgia farm, they saw the cosmopolitan city as an upgrade. It was a place to live independently and experience new things. They moved to the Roseland neighborhood on Chicago’s south side.

The five-bedroom brick bungalow on Wentworth Avenue was big enough for their growing family. It was something they could afford. What they couldn’t afford was a carjacking and what some hoodlums were doing in the neighborhood – robberies, burglaries, thefts, assaults, shootings and sex trafficking.

“We’ve got to get that garage door fixed so we can park the car inside. Then you can have some peace of mind Ez,” Tonya offered.

“Yeah, but my peace of mind needs to cover a lot of ground. The kids need food and clothes and shoes, doctor visits, and . . . a decent place to live.”

When they bought the place, it needed a lot of work. Ezekiel spent what extra money they had to fix the place. But the more things in the neighborhood became unsettling the more unsettled he became. His uncle’s Georgia farm, where he lived after his father died suddenly, was a touchstone that kept coming back to mind.

Uncle Abrams raised grass-fed and pasture-raised beef, lamb, goat, and pork. During his time with his uncle, Ezekiel learned animal husbandry and the ways of the Lord. His uncle was a godly man. But a time came when Ezekiel felt he had to find his own way and be his own man. He saw the farm as restraint holding him back.

After his marriage to Tonya, he headed north to the south side of Chicago. There he opened a butcher shop that sold meats from a local packer and from his uncle’s farm. The enterprise was fairly successful, but also a struggle. Maintaining a decent price for the quality being offered hindered sales. His cousin John drove the Georgia meat up to Chicago once a week. John had to be paid.

And there were substantial losses at one point. Around Christmas last winter the store was broken into. The meats on display were taken. A police report was filed but no suspects arrested. Insurance covered the loss and then raised rates six months later. Ezekiel didn’t like putting window grating on his store windows – the cost and the eyesore -but he did what he had to do to maintain business.

Andre was asleep in his crib. Alana was carried to bed by her father. After a retelling of the Christmas story – the one about shepherds and the stable and of Joseph and Mary and the baby – four-year old Alana asked, “Did baby Jesus cry like baby Andre?”

“The story doesn’t say, Alana,” her father replied. “Babies don’t have words yet to say what they want like you and me. Baby Andre fusses and cries when he is hungry and uncomfortable.”

Alana thought for a moment. “I think baby Jesus cried. But then his mama fed him like mama feeds baby Andre.”

“I think you are right.” Dad gave Alana a kiss on the head and tucked the covers around her.

“I’ll leave the hall light on for you. Mom and I will be right here in the next room.”

Ezekiel and Tonya sat in their kitchen listening to the radio. A local station played Christmas carols. Ezekiel looked through the bills and Tonya her grocery list.

“Do you think your uncle will send us another roast for Christmas?” Tonya asked.

“Maybe. I don’t know Tonya.” Ezekiel replied

“Ask him. He’s a good man, a man of faith.” Tonya pushed.

“Yeah, he is a good man. I’m not so sure I’m a good man for taking off and leaving the way I did.”

“I thought you two had worked that out.”

“I worked out that I wanted to go my own way. And when I told my uncle he offered me my choice of acreage on the farm . . . “to build your own future” he said. Uncle Abrams had no problem offering me the better pastures. I guess he figured that God would keep blessing him. He often talked about following God’s leading. I’ve been thinking ‘bout that for a while now.”

“I’m sure he’d like to hear from you other than about another order,” Tonya urged. “Call him tomorrow.”

Ezekiel got up from his chair and headed to the front room window to check on the car. He looked out and saw the car. And some trouble heading his way.

There was a sudden frantic pounding on the front door. “What the . . .!”

Looking out onto the lighted porch he saw two terrified young men. When they saw Ezekiel, they screamed louder. Ezekiel opened the door.

“Help us mister! They’re coming!”

“Who is coming?” Ezekiel shouted through the storm door.

“Those men!” One of the boys pointed. “Let us in mister please!”

Ezekiel hesitated, not sure if it was a ruse. Then he saw four men running down the sidewalk towards the house. Something didn’t seem right. The boys were only wearing sweatshirts, sweat pants and dirty socks.

“Come in. Let me find out what this is all about.” Ezekiel opened the storm door and the two teenagers bounded in behind Ezekiel. Tonya grabbed some blankets from the hallway closet and handed them to the boys.

“What’s this all about?” Ezekiel looked at the boys and then at the approaching men.

The shorter boy started, speaking as fast as he could. “Those men took us off the street. They said they had plans for us.” He stopped to catch his breath. “We escaped the van when it got stuck in the snow . . . we saw you looking through the window . . .”

“What plans?”

The taller boy spoke. “Something about service jobs for me and him,” he pointed to the other boy chattering his teeth, “we’ve been friends for a while . . . we want nothing to do with them.”

“Where do you live?”

“Mister, we have no home. The street’s our home. These guys came up to us and said we could be warm and have food if we came with them. We thought it would be OK. One of them looked like he was a priest.”

“Go on,” Ezekiel pressed. But now the men were on the front porch. One of them was rattling the storm door by its handle.

“Where are those boys? Bring them out to us so that we can talk to them.”

Ezekiel opened the storm door and the men backed up. He came out and folded his arms. “I’ll do their talking. What do you want with them?”

A large bald man stood in front. Behind and to the left of him stood a squirrelly-looking man with a pockmarked face. He kept looking around. Next to him, on the other side of the bald man, stood a thin goateed man making a solemn look The other man who was out of view down on the sidewalk. The bald man spoke.

“Mister we just want to talk to them. We saw them on the street they looked like they needed shelter and food. We don’t know why they ran . . .  these two young boys need our help. We do this all the time – help homeless kids”

“I see. You need their help in a service industry?”

“We wanted to give them jobs . . . you know, . . . helping . . .  serving people.”

“I see. Well, these boys want no part of it.”

“Listen mister . . . “, the bald man growled and grabbed Ezekiel by his shirt to pull him away from the door.

At that moment Ezekiel thought he made out the face of his lawyer friend. “Ken . . . Ken! . . . is that you?”

The man on the sidewalk turned and walked away.

The large bald man began to pull harder on Ezekiel. “Listen mister . . . it’s none of your affair.” The two other men tried to open the storm door behind Ezekiel.

The two boys saw this and pulled Ezekiel inside. Ezekiel locked the door. Through the glass he shouted “My wife has called the neighbors. You better not come back here lookin’ for what ain’t yours!”

The men turned and saw porch lights turning on. Neighbors came out to see what was happening.

“Get back in your van and get the hell outta here! NOW!” Ezekiel eyes blazed.

The four men took off down the sidewalk, hiding their faces in their collars as they ran.

Ezekiel watched the van drive off. He stood there for a long time to reassure himself that it was gone.

Tonya had the boys settled at the kitchen table. While talking with the neighbors on the phone Tonya made hot cocoa and oatmeal for the boys. They still shook from the cold under the blankets and their eyes remained wide open.

One of the boys asked “You didn’t call the police?” Tonya stopped what she was doing and replied.

“Even if those four predators were caught and arrested, they would be released without bail. That’s how things go around here. Criminals run free and good people are supposed to put up with it.”

Ezekiel walked into the kitchen for a moment and then turned and walked down the hallway. He returned ten minutes later.

“I’ve made up some bedding for you two in the back room. You don’t go anywhere tonight.”

The boys looked at each other. “Thank you, . . . mister?”

“Ezekiel, and this is my wife, Tonya. In the morning you’ll meet our two little ones.”

****

Baby Andre made the first sound in the morning. His cries woke Tonya. She got him up and nursed him. A while later Alana came into the kitchen rubbing her eyes.

“Alana, we have two guests in our house. They slept overnight in the back room.”

“Who are they mama?”

“Two young men who needed some food and a place to sleep.”

“Were they crying?”

“No Alana. We knew what they needed. I’ll make you oatmeal.”

Ezekiel walked in the front door. He’d been out clearing off the car. Tonya handed him a cup of coffee.

Ezekiel spoke in hushed tones. “Those two . . .,” he nodded to the back room, “let them sleep in. I’ll bring home some extra ground beef for dinner. Find out their names”

That evening Ezekiel, Tonya, Alana, baby Andre, Booker and Darius sat around the table eating a casserole and potato salad. After a blessing they talked about the day. Alana, who couldn’t hold back, started.

She told her father about building a snowman with the two boys. Tonya had given the boys some of Ez’s old coats and gloves and shoes and socks to wear. The boys each said that they had never built a snowman. And though still somewhat pensive about everything, they began to open up.

Each boy talked about living in the projects and taking care of their mother. They talked about people coming around. They talked about their mothers becoming drug addicts. They talked about their baby sisters being taken away. And of not knowing who their father was. And then Booker and Darius stopped talking. Alana began asking questions. Tonya assured Alana that she would tell her what she needed to know later.

Baby Andre’s day, per Tonya, consisted of wide-eyed wonder and giggling when the boys played peek-a-boo with her. The boys helped keep baby Andre occupied while she did what she had to do.

Tonya’s unreported day consisted of changing diapers, laundry, fixing lunch, and neighbor phone calls. After last night, neighbors wanted to know if the Evans family was OK. One neighbor brought over a meal to find out. “This cornbread chicken bake comes from the James family next door,” was Tonya’s update.

After the meal Ezekiel read Psalm 34. Then he repeated these words:

This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord
    and was saved from every trouble.
The angel of the Lord encamps
    around those who fear him and delivers them.

The next morning, Christmas morning, it wasn’t the aroma of a grits and sausage casserole warming in the oven that brought the boys to the kitchen. They had something they wanted to get out. They walked back and forth nervously. Ezekiel had them sit down at the table across from him and Tonya.

With a terrified look Darius blurted out “We had a dream, mister Ezekiel, ma’am.”

“We both did,” Booker interjected.

Darius continued. “We both saw very bad things heading this way. We both heard “Leave this place!”

“What do you think it means Ez?” Tonya asked.

Ezekiel began rubbing his forehead. “It means . . .  it means . . .  it means we better leave.”

“What?! But my brother and his family live here . . . we can’t just pick up and leave!”

“We will warn them to leave.” Ezekiel came back.

“Ha, good luck with that!” Tonya snapped. She got up and put her hands on her hips.

“Ezekiel, a dream? We’re gonna pick up and leave based on a dream?! What about the store?”

“Tonya, if that isn’t a warning, Ezekiel replied, “nothing is. And look what happened to these boys. That was no dream.”

©Jennifer Ann Johnson, Kingdom Venturers, 2022, All Rights Reserved

Fourth of July with an Eye on the Horizon

“Good riddance!” That’s what I said leaving the Progressive pothole that is Illinois. I moved to a “less restrictive state” per a co-worker who lives in Indiana. “Enough Already!” of the growing idiocracy with its pagan overlords.

Cook County and Chicago are going to hell under DEI Progressives – the intersectional Lori Lightfoot and Soros-sponsored AG Kim Foxx.

The governor, the multidimensional J.B. “Jelly Belly” Pritzker, put Illinois at the bottom of the economic barrel. Per the Illinois Policy Institute website:

In a new report on America’s 50 governors, Gov. J.B Pritzker was ranked 47th because of the harm he’s done to the state economy. Voters saved him from a lower rank by rejecting his ‘fair tax.’ . . .

The American Legislative Exchange Council’s rankings are in the 2021 report on Economic Freedom: Grading America’s 50 Governors. The report ranked Pritzker overall at No. 47 – fourth from the bottom – by using a combination of Pritzker’s policies and the state’s economic performance under his leadership to form a list of 12 criteria. . ..

Economic performance was mainly held back by Illinoisans moving out of the state. Illinois lost population during 2021 in 81 of 102 counties.

2022 is where I come in . . ., I mean, where I go out! I rejected Jelly Belly’s progressive income tax. I rejected his progressive ways. And, I rejected his tyrannical, unscientific, and unconstitutional COVID mandates.

“All of this was in the pursuit of one goal and one goal only — saving as many lives as possible,” the empathetic poser said of his pandemic restrictions.

One opinion piece comments that [Pritzker] shut down businesses, churches, schools and everything nonessential, except abortion clinics, liquor stores and marijuana shops.

Do the politicians ever consider that losing one’s job may lead to despair, which may possibly lead to suicide? Kids not going to school and seeing their friends may lead to depression.

The left, always worried about abortion being illegal one day, kept the clinics open. I wonder why the governor and health department don’t tell us how many children died from abortion the way they touted the deaths of COVID.

Chicago’s mayor Lori Lightfoot fined churches for defying Jelly Belly’s stay-at-home orders. (The heathen delight in exercising their will on others And, the heathen rage . . . ‘F*** Clarence Thomas!’: Chicago mayor unleashes tirade against SCOTUS justice at Pride Parade | Daily Mail Online)

It took churches going to court to put a stop the ‘empathetic’ Jelly Belly’s draconian ways with Illinois churches:

It is a stunning victory for Elim Romananican Chuch, Pastor Cristian Ionescu, and Logos Baptist Ministries. These two Churches have been fighting alone on behalf of all churches in the state. They’ve been staying steadfast and have endured resistance and harassment from the local and state government. They’ve been given fines, had their church parking blocked by police, had their building surrounded by No ‘Parking’ signs, were publicly excoriated by governmental officials, and most recently were declared a ‘public nuisance‘ by the city and threatened to be locked out of their building, and even having it destroyed.

But hours after the two Romanian churches filed an emergency injunction pending appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the governor backed down and failed to offer a response to the appeal, instead releasing new “
guidelines” for churches. 

Governor J.B Pritzker, the draconian Governor who has been imposing unconstitutional restrictions on churches in the state by forbidding them from opening, has folded his hand and removed all restrictions on churches that had been previously implemented.

The churches in my area didn’t join in the court fight. They just went along to get along.  One church used Romans 13 as the cover for its cowardice. I stopped attending that church because of that attitude.

(The Romans 13 passage is not Paul’s treatise of the church and state. Rather, it is a directive to the Christians in Rome to not be involved in riots and get thrown out of Rome because of them.)

The church submitted believing that submission to a governing authority was required per scripture. Yet, no church should obey these unconstitutional and irrational mandates and especially when a priest preaches that faith in God and not fear is the mandate for a Christian. Bending the knee to the mandates was a show of cowardice and lack of discernment for the sake of going along to get along.

Senators Durbin and Duckworth and representative Lauren Underwood -Democrats all- support the opposite of what is good and right and just. They support Progressive Leftist narratives that do not represent me one iota let alone the kingdom of God. I’ve written to each over time about policy directions they were taking. And that is how I know about their Leftist stance– from their responses. They echo what one would hear on MSNBC and CNN, and even Fox News, these days.

Progressives, like the Illinois snakes, beguile and charm their naïve voters with talk of saving lives, of saving the planet, of absolving you of responsibility by paying off your student loan and of hating people who disagree with them. They will even convince their disciples to hate their own country for the sake of their self-serving vision. They are a destructive bunch who believe that their ends justify their ad hoc social justice means.

They break the rules and cheat. They bully all the educational, medical, entertainment, and all other institutions into oppressing all of us normal people. They rig speech, social media, apps, search browsers, the internet, the work place, the schools, the universities, the movies, tv, the media, the magazines, Hollywood, and the “medical experts” against people like you and me. People are terrified to openly say what they think and dissent because they know that the democrat mob will come after them. And though these snakes talk about saving our democracy, they want nothing to do with democracy. They want their way. They want total control.

 They work the agenda of the 45 Goals of Communism, including . . .

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural and healthy.”

Enter Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. She has a “long record” of letting child porn offenders “off the hook” during sentencing.

Durbin pushed through the Supreme Court nomination of this pagan DEI choice. She enters the court with a progressive zeitgeist that keeps her from defining what a woman is or when life begins.

Like Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot, local rep. Lauren Underwood is a token DEI Democrat. She repeats what she is told to repeat on the Democrat plantation.

In March 2020 the so-called COVID “pandemic” became the means for social engineering across the globe and in Illinois. “Public health and “hospital capacity” were given as the reasons to shut down society and rework it. Irrational anti-human COVID mandates – lockdowns, masks, social distancing – were imposed, not in the service of Mankind, but in the service of the state. As a result, life was subverted to such a degree that state media became the voice of an idol telling us how to serve the state, telling us how one should live and move and have their being:

Wear the mask. Don’t question it.
Lock down the church. Don’t question it.
Take the experimental DNA-altering aborted fetal tissue vaccine. Don’t question it.
Accept the election results despite the rampant irregularities. Don’t question it.
Support Congress sending $40 billion to Ukraine. Don’t question it.
Hand over your guns. Don’t question it.
Attack, demonize, and destroy anyone who questions it.

It should be obvious by now that the state wants to re-birth each us to be its offspring. Hence the manipulative talk of paying off student debt and the constant pandemic and climate change fear porn and the gushing DEI/Pride propaganda. Hence the alienation and atomization process of the mandates. You must be separated from the past, from your tradition, from your family, from your property, and from your identity. You are to receive everything from the state as its offspring.

The impetus to move out of Illinois had been growing in me for several years. My workplace is located in Chicago so I stayed. The final straw came during the 2+ years of idiotic and destructive COVID edicts imposed by J.B. “Jelly Belly” Pritzker. My company played along with the mandates, and so it was that started working from home. I continue to work from home in my new home state.

Why move to Indiana? For one thing, Indiana is a less taxing state (marginal tax rate of 3.23%) than Illinois (marginal tax rate 4.95%). Qualified Hoosiers may get a refund if Indiana has enough budget surplus at the end of the fiscal year.

In Ill Annoy, the Illinois Policy Institute notes . . .

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has added more than $5.24 billion in new or higher taxes and fees since taking office. Despite all that new revenue, the nation’s highest taxed state remains a fiscal mess unable to balance a budget for 21 years.

Illinois has the second highest property tax rate behind New Jersey.

Indiana, a “less restricted state”, is # 6 behind New Hampshire, Florida, Nevada, Tennessee and South Dakota according to the overall freedom ranking. It remains to be seen if Indiana will remain less restricted and free or if it will become another Progressive pothole like Illinois. It concerns me that Indiana’s Gov. Holcomb attended the WEF in Davos.

Before my departure, I wrote to the three reps mentioned above: “I am an American. I refuse to be a slave to the Democrat party and to the state and to the World Economic Forum. I refuse to be controlled opposition. I am leaving Illinois for good.”

This message, I have no doubt, fell on deaf ears just like Democrat James Carville’s words to Democrats during an election: “It’s the economy stupid!” The Biden regime is not hard of hearing. It just ignores humanity for the sake of a draconian green agenda. You can’t help noting the destruction the regime is wreaking on the U.S. economy.

While you take in the Fourth, keep watch on the horizon. Look for the pagan hordes coming for your children. See the ghost in the machine coming with AI transplants into your body. See the amassing army of barbarians – globalists – who are bringing about a worldwide famine and chaos in their self-aggrandizing pursuit to “save the planet” and to make you conform to their pagan ways. They are coming for your property and your person.

Consent of the governed” is a phrase found in the United States Declaration of Independence. J.B. Pritzker and a host of other democrats disregarded the consent of the governed with the mandates. They disregarded democracy when they stole the election. These are intent on making people their dependent offspring.

Being the offspring of God, I do not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination. (Acts 17:28-29) The state is not a divine being, though it acts like one. The globalist state would have you make sacrifices to its image: “you will own nothing and be happy! -Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

So, I say to Illinois Democrats and globalists “July 4th is about liberty stupid!” To the rest I say, “Keep your eyes on the horizon.”

****

God selects those who will do battle for him. In the account recorded in Judges chapter 7, God works with Gideon to select soldiers to do battle against the Midianites.

Starting with 32,000 soldiers,10,000 remain after the “fearful and trembling” are sent packing. Still not the right amount and quality of soldiers. The final number of soldiers, chosen by a water test, is 300. God chose the alert soldiers, ones who drank and kept an eye on the horizon and the enemy. The self-indulgent water drinkers were told to go home. A good explanation of all this is here: Gideon’s Doglike Lappers (israelbiblicalstudies.com)

So he brought the troops down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, “All those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, you shall put to one side; all those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths,[c] you shall put to the other side.” The number of those who lapped was three hundred, but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water. Then the Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred who lapped I will deliver you and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others go to their homes.”

****

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Steve Bannon with Archbishop Viganò. A Fundamental Interview, Absolutely Must Read. : STILUM CURIAE (marcotosatti.com)

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Informed Dissent:

This 4 min video should be mandatory viewing for all parents considering vaccinating their kids (substack.com)

MSN quietly deleted a story revealing that severe COVID-19 is rarely found in the unvaccinated – NaturalNews.com

Thousands Of Kids Injured, Disabled By COVID Jab | NaturalHealth365

Immune Imprinting, Comirnaty and Omicron (part 1) (substack.com)

The FDA’s proposed “Future Framework” is the worst idea in the history of public health (substack.com)

Testimony and Remarks, Pandemic Response (substack.com)

SHF’s oral public comment at FDA’s meeting on COVID shot strain replacement | Stand for Health Freedom

Marxism: “You Will Own NOTHING and Be Happy” (substack.com)

Failed and Murderous Biden regime Policies:

The Infiltration – Alberto Rivera Explains Jesuit Control in the USA & Communism 1976 (bitchute.com)

Ask Yourself …

Ask yourself …

Did the media just elect Geritol-ad Joe Biden as president-elect of their sock puppet theater?

Does the media care whether your one vote is disenfranchised by two illegal/invalid votes?

Did illegal votes pour in just like illegal aliens poured in at the behest of Democrats?

Are you buying the narrative that by not conceding to the main stream media/Democrats and by demanding a thorough investigation into alleged election corruption you are delegitimizing Democracy?

Was the NYT headline of Nov. 11, 2020 American Democracy DEMANDS every legal vote to be counted and the rest tossed? Or, was it Election Officials Nationwide Find no Fraud?

Should we just get on with our lives and assume that what the NYT and the media tells us (“Nothing to see here.”) is “good enough for me”?

During the takeover of a country by the forces of a dictatorship, does the media ‘cooperate’ with the power they are in cahoots with?

Do you believe that the media has your best interest at heart?

Are you aware that the media and social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.,) pose the greatest threats to democracy?

Are you OK with and feel secure in Groupthink?

Are you Ok with the shadow government of Democrats/media operating to take down President Trump the last four years?

Is the Democrat/Progressive party the party of Bolshevism?

Are you OK with submitting your income, your rights, yourself and your country to Bernie Sanders, BLM and the Socialist spice girls (Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar)?

Are you OK with the intolerance of the Democrats/Progressives/media and their desire to cancel you (your thoughts, your words, your religion) out?

Are you OK with being reduced to the lowest common denominator of life because socialism/Marxism says it must be so for equality?

Are you OK with Biden rescinding, through executive order, the immigration policies put in place to protect the country?

Have you heard of any terrorist attack on U.S. soil during the last four years?

Have you heard of the U.S. starting wars the last four years?

Are you OK with Biden placing America – its resources, its tax revenue and its people – at the behest of the self-serving token Paris Accord (a Tower of Babel) while the American private sector, the last four years, has produced alternative green energy sources and has made America energy independent?

What really matters: numbers of cases and positivity OR deaths directly and solely related to COVID-19?

Are you OK with a state government that shuts down your business and your livelihood as it plays God seeking to control a virus?

Will state government shut down communities and businesses for climate change and racism and “gun control” calling each a “public health crisis?

Who is the “public” in “public health”?

Is the “greater good” proffered by the state as the reason for its coercive and overbearing control of your life really the greater good?

Do you agree with a member of Biden’s new coronavirus task force and lockdown enthusiast, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, that life is not worth living past 75?

Who should have the say about your health: the state or you?

Do you believe the state is the answer to healthcare and not yourself?

Are we to obey all laws?

Am I ready for civil disobedience?

Are you OK with increased cases of depression, drug use, suicides, and child and spousal abuse that the lockdowns have produced?

Are you ready to disobey all state orders that hinder human flourishing, that are antisocial and inhuman and, that produce the negative effects as mentioned above?

Should we obey stay-at home advisories and orders? And, why?

Should we “cancel Thanksgiving” as Chicago’s Mayor Lightfoot has strongly advised?

Who should be quarantined?

Who should not be quarantined?

Should you be quarantined?

Who should not be forced to stay at home and to cancel Thanksgiving?

When Democrats propose policies do you challenge them and ask economist Thomas Sowell’s questions: “Compared to what?” and “At what cost?” and “What hard evidence do you have?”

Are you able to challenge them or are you cut off because you are not making them look good and they don’t have the answers to your questions?

Do Progressives care more about their vision than about humans they want to impose their vision on?

Are you able to think for yourself or do you need the state/media to tell you what to think?

Do you operate out of a sense of fear that has been relentlessly generated by the media and the state?

Should casinos operate with greater freedom and flexibility than houses of worship?

Should Illinois restauranteurs defy state mandates that drive them out of business and create massive unemployment?

 Should parents of school-age children in Illinois rally and protest to reopen schools?

Are the U.S. (and world) public health officials joined at the hip with China?

Are the U.S. public health policies driven by China, as are Hollywood and pro-sports?

Will compulsory vaccines, contact tracing and vaccine cards become the means to separate who’s in and who’s out of the New Globalist World Order in the coming days?

Are you OK with abuse of power and a Stalinist type enemies list and another Great Purge?

Do you rant and rave, calling America “racist” and society “systemically racist”, because you grew up in a single parent home without a father and never learned how to succeed in the world?

Are you OK with the individual being crushed, worn down, and reduced to powder in the mortar and pestle of the totalitarian Progressive Left?

Are you concerned about and afraid of firearms because the TV has relentlessly told you that you should be concerned about and afraid of firearms, as it has with Covid-19 and climate change and healthcare and a host of other socialist initiatives to get you feeding from the same trough?

Ask yourself: Am I still in America?

Juxtaposed! News ™ Lightfoot and Barrett

Intersectionality Wins the Day

“For years, they’ve said Chicago ain’t ready for reform. Well, get ready, because reform is here,” announced Chicago’s first openly gay and African-American female mayor Lori Lightfoot during her inaugural address. Lightfoot defeated Preckwinkle in the runoff election, becoming mayor-elect of Chicago. on May 20, 2019.

Lori Lightfoot Mayor of

The mayoral election results confirmed that the threefer intersectionality of Lightfoot (black, female, lesbian) trumped the twofer intersectionality of Toni Preckwinkle (black, female) and that identity politics matters to Chicago Democrats. The election results confirmed that “change” was just one more label away.

“I campaigned on change. You voted for change. And I plan to deliver change to our government.”

In her latest attempt to “deliver change” and show Chicago that “reform is here”, Mayor Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor, a former president of the Chicago Police Board and former chair of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, is taking steps to deal with the city’s crime and the coronavirus. “Change” is just a ticket and a mask away.

Mayor Lightfoot has proposed an intersectional two-fer to handle Chicago’s violent offenders and its budget crises:  a city budget that includes speed-camera ticketing of drivers going over six MPH over the speed limit. If enacted, cars that speed away from drive-by shootings will be ticketed and the city will gain revenue. Reform is here. But, what about the city and state’s Covid-19 initiative?

Defeating Covid-19 and enforcing what some are calling “a culture of safetyism” are behind Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s latest mandate outlining new rules for restaurants, bars and social gatherings in multiple counties including Chicago’s Cook County. The rules included a decision to close indoor dining. The Governor, throwing the full weight of his office behind the new mandate, said Wednesday that he would send the Illinois State Police to the regions where restaurants and bars were defying his orders.

Mayor Lightfoot and Gov. Pritzker

In the shadow of Gov. Pritzker, Mayor Lightfoot, on Oct. 1, 2020, offered her own tour de force – subjecting the Coronavirus to a triple threat of her intersectional power in super hero fashion. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, donned “Rona Destroyer” costumes for a pre-Halloween press conference.

Lightfoot as Rona Destroyer

On May 20, 2019, Lori Lightfoot was awarded Chicago’s four stars. Elections have consequences. So, watch out Covid-19.

Intersectionality at the Crossroad

On Tuesday Oct. 27th, 2020, following a private ceremony in the Supreme Court’s East Conference Room, Judge Amy Coney Barrett officially became Justice Barrett. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the Judicial Oath to Barrett, as husband Jesse held the family Bible. Justice Barrett – wife, mother of seven, adoptive parent, lawyer, circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and, academic – became the ninth member of the Supreme Court.

Justice Barrett sworn in

Justice Barrett’s nomination was supported by every law clerk she had worked with and by all of her 49 faculty colleagues at Notre Dame Law school. The American Bar Assoc. Standing Committee gave her a “Well Qualified” rating. Colleagues and close associates lauded her as “Whip smart” “Brilliant writer and thinker” “Intellectual giant”.

Justice Barrett’s family

Justice Barrett revealed her legal aptitude and intellectual prowess during the senate committee’s questioning. Without notes, Judge Barrett answered each question with aplomb. And, unlike her activist predecessor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Barrett made it clear during the confirmation hearings that she would abide by the Constitution and not substitute her own views in rulings.

“A judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they might hold.”

Yet, the recounting of Barrett’s positive recommendations and stellar qualifications and her adroit answers fell on some deaf ears. The Democratic senators wanted to be heard instead.

During Barrett’s confirmation hearing the Democratic senators decried the timing of the nomination to their GOP colleagues on the committee. They also repeatedly questioned Barrett hoping that she would reveal a bias against the policies and laws they favor. They pleaded with her to recuse herself from cases where they desired favorable rulings, including a probable election case. The Democratic senators then brought in “expert witnesses” to echo their concerns and to provoke an activist sympathy in Judge Barrett. The witnesses gave pro-emotive accounts of abortion and the Affordable Care Act. One of the witnesses spoke of the “real-world harm of ending the ACA”.

The media, along with the Democratic Senators speaking outside the hearing, presented Barrett’s intersectionality – her faith and the law – as a problem. As a Catholic, conservative and Constitution Originalist, Justice Barret is seen as a triple threat to LGBT rights, abortion rights and healthcare rights held sacred by Progressives. Social media echoed the main stream media’s negative take.

After Justice Barrett was sworn in, the Girl Scouts of America congratulated her on their Twitter and Facebook pages. But the posts were quickly deleted after social media erupted and began spewing vitriol against “the 5th woman appointed to the Supreme Court since its inception in 1789.” 

Replying to the deletion, actress Amber Tamblyn tweeted “@girlscouts thank you for deleting the tweet. Be on our side – the side of girls who grow up to become women who fight for other women and girls and not the opposite.”

The Days of Cain

 

In fourteen hundred ninety-two

Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain;

He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day;

He used the stars to find his way.

A compass also helped him know

How to find the way to go.

-Columbus Day poem

 

So, here we are. The summer of 2020. And we find, once again, activists without actualities, wandering through a universe circumscribed by themselves. That which stands in their way, whether human or representation, must be removed, cancelled, done away with. Only their likeness must stand.

The statue of Christopher Columbus was removed from Grant Park during the night. Chicago’s Mayor Lightfoot said the likeness was a “public safety issue”. So, to appease the raging horde who had emerged from their cramped safe spaces (perhaps a darkened basement in their parent’s home lit only by the glare of a computer monitor) Lightfoot removed the static and mute reminder of a discoverer who used fixed reference points outside of himself to voyage to a new world.

As we have come to witness in Chicago, Portland and, Seattle, wanderers with no reference point other than their own solipsistic compass create a world of lawlessness. There is nothing new or Progressive about the ways of the lawless wanderer. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remarked when hearing about the toppled statue, “People will do what they do.” The way of the wanderer is a return to the old world of Cain.

You remember the story of brothers Cain and Abel. Their relationship was removed, cancelled, done away with. The sibling dysfunction began with their mother Eve. After giving birth she declared “I have created a man with the Lord”. Her words go well beyond acknowledging God’s help in the birth of her son. She ascribes to herself equality with God as a source of life. And so, she named her first born Cain (translated in this context: “to create”), imparting to her firstborn the same delusional thinking, the same self-actualization and self-divination, that she and Adam had chosen when they ate from the forbidden tree and were kicked out of the garden for doing so.

(It is interesting to note that Eve named her second son Abel, meaning “breath” or breeze”. Perhaps Eve, after seeing herself in Cain, chose the name to acknowledge that man is ephemeral, transient and, mortal and not equal with God after all.)

Both Cain and Abel worked the land, exerting dominion over it as God had charged in the first chapter of Genesis. Both were aware of God’s presence. Both offer the fruits of their labor to him as a sacrifice. But there is an issue with one of their sacrifices. The issue is not so much the quality of the sacrifice. They both offer yields from God’s good creation. The issue lies beneath the surface.

Abel offers the best cuts from the first born of his flock. Cain offers portions of what’s growing. It cost him nothing to do this. Abel’s sacrifice is a recognition that the growth and flourishing of his flocks were gifts from God. His sacrifice is a recognition that God is God and therefore deserves respect and the best creation has to offer, no matter the cost. Cain’s sacrifice is a recognition that Cain is co-creator with God. He had worked the land and thought of himself as the one who made it grow and flourish. As such, Cain’s sacrifice is an attempt to bribe God into blessing him as caretaker, to make things go well for him.

When his sacrifice is rejected by God, Cain became angry. His face became downcast. Cain felt that he had rights by placing God in debt to him. He did what he felt was required and now God must do what is required and give him his favor. Freedom from anxiety, peace of mind and pleasure were of the highest priority to Cain. He traded some token of produce in order to receive back empathy for his epicurean life.

Cain’s quid pro quo religion – seeking to broker with the god/s for order and harmony in one’s life, would go on to become the religious practice for many in the world, old and new. But religion is mere formality. Doing what is right is more important than sacrifice before God. Doing what is morally and ethically right begins with the acknowledgement of and respect for God as God. So, God gives Cain a choice: do right and be the offering that is accepted or continue his self-divinization; rule over the works of God’s own hands or let the works of his own hands rule over him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4: 6-7

Cain made his choice. He brought Abel to a field and out of jealousy killed him. Perhaps he thought, “I shall have no other gods before me”. But what happens on the field does not stay on the field. Abel’s blood cried out to the Lord. And the just Lord came looking for accountability.

After Adam and Eve made their choice, God asked “where are you?”. Adam answered “I was afraid…” After the murder, Cain was asked: “Where is your brother Abel?”  Cain answered “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain denies culpability. Perhaps he thought, “If I remove the competition the god will have to deal with only me. Besides, I did my due diligence and have nothing to show for it. So there!”. Maybe he said, “People will do what they do”.

Genesis 2:15 tells us that The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Mankind’s vocation was to care for God’s creation, His Temple. That care would include God’s image bearers placed in the temple. Abel did the work of caring for creation and bringing its best back to God. Cain would have none of it. He evaded his responsibility with self-deception and denial. He canceled it. So, God dealt with Cain. Cain was cursed.

The curse God imposed on Adam, Cursed is the ground because of you is similar to but lesser than the curse imposed on Cain: You are cursed from the groundWhen you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth. The land and now a man are cursed.

The form of justice to be imposed on Cain could have been a life for a life. Instead, Cain is exiled by God. He is to be a wanderer. But Cain decides to be a whiner and not a repenter.

 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Genesis 4: 13-14

In exile, Cain has a chance to repent and turn back to God. God will look after Cain. God put a mark on Cain so that anyone who came across him would not kill him. The mark of protection, not described in Gen. 4:15, reminds me of the Passover lamb’s blood put on the two doorposts and lintel of the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. Clearly, God is patient and merciful with Cain. He could have canceled Cain from the face of the earth. Yet, God watches over Cain; God does for Cain what Cain should have done for Abel.

But none of that matters to Cain. Cain will watch after Cain. The self-indulgent Cain goes his own way. Instead of wandering he builds a city. He wanted to make a name for himself and become the kingpin of his own domain, his own safe space. Cain’s descendants glory in their barbarism and in possessing women as objects (Gen. 4:19-24). The dysfunction that began in the garden continued in the line of Cain. He is the father of the self-reliant god-like superheroes who control their own destinies with force.

Genesis chapter 4 ends with the birth of Seth to Adam and Eve. Eve has had a change of heart after the tragedy of Cain and Abel: God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him. There is no talk of being a god-like superwoman. And the line of Seth does not go the way of autonomous Cain.

So, here we are. The summer of 2020. And we find, once again, activists without actualities, wandering through a universe circumscribed by themselves. That which stands in their way, whether human or representation, must be removed, canceled and, destroyed. These are the days of Cain.

 

It is easy to rail against the anarchists and their subjectivist view of morality. It is easy to condemn the barbarism and destruction of the wanderers. It is easy to denounce those who kneel to false gods before games. It is easy to deride the Democrat pols who appease and dismiss the angry mobs with “People will do what they do”. But what about the choices we each make to go our own way and to do what we do thereby creating dysfunction and havoc in our relationships? What happens when we cancel relationships by not forgiving? Some may thumb their noses at God under the guise of American Individualism and self-sufficiency. Some may have even offered some token to God (going to church, putting money in the plate, etc.) hoping to receive back the American Dream (a “Made in the U.S.” sticker placed on a cask of Greek Epicureanism). We make relational choices based on our relationship with God. We become what we do with God. Have you become a likeness of Cain?

In addition to the behavior describe above, Cain is impatient, short-tempered and, 

…self-referring.

…demands tokens of assurance, of victory, of winning.

…uses fear mongering to gain and remain in power.

…avoids all risk to obtain security and protectionism.

…seeks to replace the timeless with the temporal.

…obtains identity from tribal sources and denigrates all others

…is self-centered and narcissistic in his demand for self-preservation.

…makes everything personal.

…has no problem inflicting pain on others

…shuts down discussion and debate

…goes his own way; is his own man.

 

The choices presented to Cain are the same choices presented to each of us. But we don’t have to live the days of Cain. If someone has made wrong choices and has wandered far from God, they should know that God, as he had done with Cain, is asking, “Where are you?” God is ready to show mercy. He wants to bring the wanderer back from exile and to redeem his life from the garbage pit and crown him with love and compassion. God seeks to restore His likeness in His image-bearers. No other likeness will stand before him.

 

He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. Psalm 147:10, 11 

Identity Politics or American Like Me

Do black Americans want to be called African-Americans?

Why do black Americans hyphenate their identity?

What do conservative black Americans think? And, why do we talk about minorities? There are no minorities in America. There are only legal Americans.

After watching the video ask yourself why Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson and Eric Holder and Al Sharpton and the SPLC (the “Hate Watchers”) et al want to divide the country into black and white, rich and poor, big “G” Government versus John Doe and Christians? Why create class and race division and also animus towards Christians (remember “bitter clingers” comment?) among the people of the United States of America?

Take a look:

 

Al Sharpton’s Chicago Town Hall Erupts into Anti-Machine Revolt

Black Americans are rejecting Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the whole Obama-Liberal-Progresive-hate America agenda

Chicago at a Glance

Everyone comes to Chicago.

When I take my lunch-time walks through Millennium Park I hear cacophony:  voices from foreign lands.  I hear Mandarin, Polish, German, Portuguese and Spanish –  a Bable of noise from everywhere.  And, everywhere I look there are cameras and iphones – e-devices capturing the moment to share with another.

Chciago 6-5-2013 025 -R1

The Grant Park Orchestra rehearses for its weekly concert at Wednesday noon under the Pritzker Music Pavilion.  Recently I  was lucky enough to listen to them rehearse the fourth movement of Shostakovich’s Fifth SymphonyAllegro Non Troppo. This is one of my favorite pieces of music. I had to stay.  I became enamored like the rest of the foreign gaggle.

(Did I mention Lurie Gardern shown in the bottom third of the photo that I had taken that day? Lurie Garden is a garden only a Dutchman could create. The stainless steel  waves of the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Music Pavilion appear just above the hedge. The “Bean” is off to the left of the pavilion and not shown.)

Chicago 6-5-2013 Lurie 1

Lurie Garden

Chicago 6-5-2013 Lurie 2

The Walk along Lurie Garden to the Modern Wing of the Chicago Art Institute

Chicago 6-5-2013 entrance to Lurie

The Entrance to Lurie Garden from the Great lawn and the Pritzker Music Pavilion

Chicago 6-5-2013 Pritzker Gehry Bandshell

Chicago 6-5-2013 Art Inst Piano Ramp

In Lurie Garden looking toward the Modern Wing of the Chicago Art Institute designed by Renzo Piano.  The half-tube ramp across the middle of the photo is the Piano-designed walkway connecting Millenium Park and the Art Institute.

(I work in one of the buildings in the background.)

All photos © Sally Paradise, 2013, All Rights Reserved

Vivian Maier – Street Photographer


You have to check out this extraordinary street photographer Vivian Maier
– a nanny with a Rolflex camera.

Punxsutawney Phil Bites Back

CHICAGO:

Snowfall, 20-25″.

Winds reaching 60-70 MPH.

Chicago Public Schools are closed.

LSD is closed.

Travel bans are in effect.

Tonight: Wind chill to create temperatures of 25-35 degrees below zero.

Advised to stay home: Snow day. Pajamas. My car waiting for the gallant snow plow to arrive.

Not quite the Chicago blizzard of 1967. Not yet.

Mayor Daley is praying that he doesn’t see the shadow of Mayor Bilandic in a blizzard of Brrreaucracy!