Snow Job

From The Shepherd Express:

by Art Kumbalek

Jan. 22, 2019

4:28 p.m.

 I’m Art Kumbalek and man oh manischewitz what a world, ain’a? And no sooner returned am I from my one-eye cataract-extract ordeal (one down, one to go) than I see everybody and his/her brother/sister declare to run for president on the Democratic side of the fence for the opportunity to run against that flaming fatuous fockstick from the Republican side, the flaming fatuous fockstick who I imagine would have difficulty remembering the phone number for 911 if needed, what the fock.

Of course, I’m thinking to throw mine own hat into the ring, so no essay this week ’cause I’ve called for a cocktail conclave of the brain trust I always rely upon to guide me in my grab for higher office; called it for over there by the Uptowner tavern/charm school at the wistfully historic corner of Humboldt & Center. Hey, tag along if you’d like, but you buy the first round.
Herbie: No, I do not give a flying rat’s ass who’s in the focking Super Bowl, goddamn it. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 100 times. Those games ten-times-out-of-nine are the most butt-boring ones of the year. Call it the Stupor Bore—a game that goes so on and on and on that by the time it’s over, not only is your kid out of diapers but his voice has changed and his second divorce is almost final. The only thing that could be better than the sound of the final gun is if it’s also pointed at my aching forehead.
Little Jimmy Iodine: I liked the commercial they showed in the game the other year that had the monkeys in it. I wish they would’ve said what the commercial was for. Maybe they did, but I don’t remember—except for the monkeys.
Julius: There’s science researchers out there who say the chimpan-focking-zees have 99 percent of all the same genetic genes that the human being does. Ninety-nine percent, I shit you not.
Ray: That’s even closer to humans than the jackass Republicans in the state Legislature, ain’a?
Emil: You got to give those chimps a lot of credit. There’s nobody I’d rather have on my side in a cafeteria food fight than a chimp, I kid you not.
Ray: Speaking of jackasses…
Little Jimmy Iodine: Hey, Artie! Over here. Put a load on your keister.
Art: Hey gents, what do you hear, what do you know.
Julius: What’s with the eye patch, Artie?
Art: Had me some cataract surgery, so right now I’ve essentially got two different eyes and I’ve got to cover one so I can see when I put on my old glasses.
Ray: I like the pirate look, Artie. Now you need some kind of foul-mouthed support parrot, like for when some jag cuts in front of you at the grocery store check-out lane, the parrot can pipe up and say, “Hey, kiss my green ass, asshole, what the fock.”
Ernie: I heard Easter’s late this year, and I remember some Italian atheist guy wants to take a priest to court ’cause the guy says the priest is unlawfully asserting that Jesus Christ existed.
Emil: You got to be jerking my beefaroni. Some guy believes that the Babe Ruth of organized religion never swung a rosary? So if he wins the case, what’re they supposed to do—put an asterisk next to Jesus’ name in the Bible and say all his records are a crock?
Herbie: Come to think of it, that court’s got a handful in its hands. How you going to technically prove that the Jesus did exist? As far as I know, there’s no photos of the guy, no legal documents like the deed to a three-bedroom Cape Cod or a car-rental contract with his John Hancock on it. He’s like an old school Mafia don—didn’t want to leave a traceable trace that the Feds could nail him on.
Julius: Yeah, but what about all those paintings, the ones where he looks like a roadie for the Allman Brothers Band? Are you telling me that’s all bullshit?
Ray: Speaking of Jesus, I’ve got a little story: So this guy is driving through the city and his car is weaving all over the road for christ sakes. Cop pulls him over and says, “So mister, where are you coming from?” The tipsy driver says he’s on his way home from the tavern. The officer says, “Looks to me like you’ve had more than a couple, three, ain’a?” And the drunk says, “Well sir, I did all right for myself, thanks for asking.”
“Did you know,” says the cop, standing ramrod straight with arms folded, “that a few intersections back, your wife fell out of your car?” And the drunk says, “Praise the Lord! For a minute there, I thought I’d gone deaf.” Ba-ding!
(It’s getting late and I know you got to go, but thanks for letting us bend your ear, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.

From:  https://shepherdexpress.com/advice/art-kumbalek/snow-job/

Mind Control

https://www.wiwd.uscourts.gov/opinions/pdfs/2003-2005/04-C-203-C4-27-04.pdf

More Foxscam

OOPS ! It's gonna cost taxpayers more.... 
 
and Foxconn may not develop all areas.... 
 
And if they walk away..... I suppose they can always sue..... 
 
https://journaltimes.com/local-foxconn-project-estimates-increase-by-million/article_35fbbbf0-011f-5c17-9ea8-6e3a041ae6eb.html

Full-Size LEGO® Silverado | Chevrolet

Government worker who voted for Trump: I feel betrayed

Open Blog - Tuesday

Have a good day.

It is truly a crazy, crazy world.

Glad I can smile from time to time.... 
 
MADISON — Madison police say a 34-year-old man who thought his wife 
damaged his action figures retaliated by taking an ax to the family's 
car, television and laptop in the house. 
 
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval says the man called police just after 
10 p.m. Sunday and told them he had too much to drink and overreacted 
about his action figures. 
 
The man's name was not released. He was arrested and faces charges of 
disorderly conduct and felony damage to property. Police say he caused 
more than $5,000 in damages. 
 
https://journaltimes.com/news/local/madison-man-uses-ax-on-his-property-after-spat-over/article_501a6ae5-0452-5ea5-9821-6a259369b98a.html#tncms-source=infinity-scroll-summary-siderail-lates

The 'Gilets Jaunes' Are Unstoppable: "Now, The Elites Are Afraid"

Authored by Christophe Guilluy via Spiked-Online.com, 
 
The gilets jaunes (yellow vest) movement has rattled the French 
establishment. For several months, crowds ranging from tens of 
thousands to hundreds of thousands have been taking to the streets 
every weekend across the whole of France. They have had enormous 
success, extracting major concessions from the government. They 
continue to march. 
 
Back in 2014, geographer Christopher Guilluy’s study of la France 
périphérique (peripheral France) caused a media sensation. It drew 
attention to the economic, cultural and political exclusion of the 
working classes, most of whom now live outside the major cities. It 
highlighted the conditions that would later give rise to the 
yellow-vest phenomenon. Guilluy has developed on these themes in his 
recent books, No Society and The Twilight of the Elite: Prosperity, 
the Periphery and the Future of France. spiked caught up with Guilluy 
to get his view on the causes and consequences of the yellow-vest 
movement. 
 
spiked: What exactly do you mean by ‘peripheral France’? 
 
Christophe Guilluy: ‘Peripheral France’ is about the geographic 
distribution of the working classes across France. Fifteen years ago, 
I noticed that the majority of working-class people actually live very 
far away from the major globalised cities – far from Paris, Lyon and 
Toulouse, and also very far from London and New York. 
 
Technically, our globalised economic model performs well. It produces 
a lot of wealth. But it doesn’t need the majority of the population to 
function. It has no real need for the manual workers, labourers and 
even small-business owners outside of the big cities. Paris creates 
enough wealth for the whole of France, and London does the same in 
Britain. But you cannot build a society around this. The gilets jaunes 
is a revolt of the working classes who live in these places. 
 
They tend to be people in work, but who don’t earn very much, between 
1000€ and 2000€ per month. Some of them are very poor if they are 
unemployed. Others were once middle-class. What they all have in 
common is that they live in areas where there is hardly any work left. 
They know that even if they have a job today, they could lose it 
tomorrow and they won’t find anything else. 
 
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-21/gilets-jaunes-are-unstoppable-now-elites-are-afr

Katelyn Ohashi - 10.0 Floor (1-12-19)

Wow!

Open Blog - Martin Luther King Jr. Day

No mail or banking today.

Surreal

A black woman accuses Jews of being White Supremacists! 
 
Women's March co-President Tamika Mallory appears to suggest that Jews 
are white supremacists during an interview about the allegations that 
she is an anti-Semite. 
 
Meanwhile.... 
 
Ocasio-Cortez won't condemn the Women's March founders or Hamas, but 
it's President Trump - who has a Jewish daughter, Jewish son-in-law, 
Jewish grandkids and a close relationship with the (Jewish) Prime 
Minister of Israel, and who recently moved the US embassy to 
Jerusalem, fulfilling a long-standing promise made by American 
presidents to the Jewish state, who is the real anti-semite. In other 
words, the logic behind this is roughly equivalent to a 
Kindergartener's chants of "I am rubber, you are glue - whatever you 
say bounces off me and sticks to you." 
 
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-20/ocasio-cortez-refuses-condemn-anti-semitism-within-womens-march-top-dems-cut-ties

Dear Village Board

Dear Village Board, 
 
Since building empty cities to prop up economic growth in China is the 
order of the day - why not also here, in Mount Pleasant? The model 
seems to work.... for now.... 
 
"Fancy villas, high-rise apartment blocks, lakes, parks and sprawling 
road networks: Ghost cities in China have it all. Just one crucial 
element is missing — the people. 
 
Built for a population that never came, about 50 of these surreal 
sites lay desolate across the country. But still the construction 
continues. 
 
These new cities are usually built in rural areas on the outskirts of 
existing cities. 
 
Designed for populations numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the 
mass construction projects can include towering high-rise 
condominiums, huge shopping centres, city squares, street lights and 
replicas of cities in Europe and elsewhere. 
 
"The phenomenon very much has been driven by the debt splurge that 
really kicked into gear after the global financial crisis," Mr McMahon 
said. 
 
"Local governments around the country tried to juice and stimulate 
their economies by building more infrastructure and stimulating the 
property market." 
 
This seemingly wasteful construction is carried out by both 
state-owned firms and private companies". 
 
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-27/china-ghost-cities-show-growth-driven-by-debt/9912186 
 
Meanwhile Foxconn plans to lay off 50,000 workers due to slumping 
demand for iphones. In addition - the carnage of daily job cuts 
continues across the economy - while the price for fossil fuels 
remains too high for consumers, but too low for producers. 
 
The Yellow Vest Protests continue in France, Venezuela is a 
Humanitarian disaster, and Zimbabwe is in total shutdown. 
 
Zimbabwe is once again at the brink of economic collapse, making a 
mockery of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s claim that the country is 
open for business. 
 
As Bloomberg reports,  many shops and factories have shut their doors 
because of a lack of customers and those that continue to trade are 
open to haggling over prices to secure hard currency. At an appliance 
shop in the capital, Harare, a salesman whispers that a Whirlpool 
Corp. washing machine priced at about $5,000 if paid for 
electronically will sell for $1,500 in cash, while at a nearby 
electrical warehouse, a $600 invoice is whittled down to $145 for 
payment in dollar bills. 
 
But, as OilPrice.com's Tsvetana Paraskova reports, Zimbabwe is on a 
three-day nationwide strike and protests are erupting in the streets 
after the government of the southern African country doubled fuel 
prices, making gasoline sold in Zimbabwe the most expensive gasoline 
in the world. 
 
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-20/it-feels-apocalyptic-letter-zimbabwe-where-country-remains-total-shutdown 
 
I note that Tesla is laying off 3,000! GM and Ford - also getting rid 
of thousands and closing down production facilities in USA. Take a 
look around at the employment carnage which is on going in USA. 
 
http://www.dailyjobcuts.com/ 
 
When the Foxconn miracle fails to materialize - sure hope you have 
that "Plan B" ready.... 
 
Sincerely, 
 
Tim & Cindy 

The Law of the Wolf - Richard Kelly Hoskins

China FIRST! Mount Pleasant and Racine NEXT

China's eerie ghost cities a 'symptom' of the country's economic troubles and housing bubble. Fancy villas, high-rise apartment blocks, lakes, parks and sprawling road networks: Ghost cities in China have it all. Just one crucial element is missing — the people. Key points: There may be as many as 64 million empty apartments in China Many people buy the properties as an investment with no intention of ever moving in Author says ghost cities show growth is driven by debt in China Built for a population that never came, about 50 of these surreal sites lay desolate across the country. But still the construction continues. These new cities are usually built in rural areas on the outskirts of existing cities. Designed for populations numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the mass construction projects can include towering high-rise condominiums, huge shopping centres, city squares, street lights and replicas of cities in Europe and elsewhere. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-27/china-ghost-cities-show-growth-driven-by-debt/9912186

Going Full Lincoln

Aka Civil War II 
 
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-major-announcement.html 
 
"I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian 
Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 
3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse." 
-Donald J. Trump 
 
It had better be one of two things. 
 
    The God-Emperor is declaring martial law and Draining the Swamp. 
    The God-Emperor is announcing the Building of the Big Beautiful Wall. 
 
... 
 
It had better be one of two things. 
 
The God-Emperor is declaring martial law and Draining the Swamp. 
The God-Emperor is announcing the Building of the Big Beautiful Wall. 
 
 
Both would be way better than either. 
 
As others noted, Lefty judges will issue injunctions against any 
actual actions, so Trump better have a plan for going full-Lincoln if 
he's actually going to act 

Left Right Out of Your Heart (Hi-Lee Hi-Lo Hi-Lup Up Up)

Dangers Of Red Meat

I want a hamburger.

Open Blog - Weekend

Don't forget snoozing the day away.

Four for Fridays!

Good morning everyone I hope you are all doing well and I hope you had a good week. Here are your questions.

1) Are you ready for the nasty S word tonight?

2) If you go out are you prepared if you have car problems?

3) Do you have plans to go out tonight?

4) Are you just going to hibernate until Spring comes?

Try to have a great weekend!

" Column: Mothers of gang members must wake up and see their sons for who they are"

From Chicago Tribune:

April Ward, mother of Micheail Ward, gives a statement at her son's sentencing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on Jan. 14, 2019. Micheail Ward was found guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated battery in the 2013 slaying of Hadiya Pendleton. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Dahleen GlantonContact ReporterChicago Tribune

 

Micheail Ward was sentenced this week to 84 years in prison for killing Hadiya Pendleton. At Ward’s age of 24, that amounts to a lifetime.

Some would say that Ward, a gang member who was in and out of trouble with the law, had been working his way to this point for a long time. But his mother apparently never saw it coming. Maybe it’s because she would not open her eyes.
In an interview during the waning days of her son’s murder trial last summer, April Ward sat down with me to talk about the son she knew. She insisted, just as she did on the witness stand during the sentencing hearing Monday, that he was a good son. She told me he was never in a gang, and most certainly is not a murderer.
“I raised him spiritually, always in church,” Ward, 45, said during a lunch break in the courthouse cafeteria last year. “My son can quote Scripture. He knows it well. His grandma taught him that.”
The young man who confessed to police on video that he went to a South Side park one afternoon in 2013 and fired into a group of high school students, striking Hadiya, was not the child she had raised with her husband.
There was no need for any sort of retaliation against a rival gang because the young people her son hung out with were just innocent kids, she said. It was a tragedy that the 15-year-old honor student’s life was taken, but her son was not responsible.
“They say he’s a leader of the gang. I’m trying to understand how that is possible. He was 14 or 16, and he’s the leader of some gang that’s been around 20 years?
“That makes him look bad. It makes him look like an animal. My son is not an animal. He’s not a mad dog walking around crazy.”
It is understandable that a mother would not want to believe that her son is some sort of monster. No mother would.
The sentencing and trial in the 2013 fatal shooting of Hadiya Pendleton, at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago.
Perhaps Ward isn’t evil. But he certainly isn’t the choirboy his mother has tried to make him out to be. And that’s a problem, not just with her, but also with many mothers of gang members.
Of course, they love their sons unconditionally, as most mothers do. When a son is shot down in the street, his mother grieves as you or I would. And when she realizes that he could spend the rest of his life in prison, she cries out that, like the victim’s mother, she, too, has lost a child in the tragedy.
By now, no one cares. Her son is just another gangbanger who has been taken off the streets, and most of us feel relieved.
Rather than deal with the truth, it is easier for a mother to look at the gang symbol tattooed on her son’s arm and convince herself that it’s just a fad. It is less disheartening to see his social media posts — pictures of him posing with wads of dollar bills and sometimes even a gun — and convince herself that he’s just playing around.
It is less painful to believe that every time her son is arrested for anything, police got the wrong kid. It requires less energy to decide that when her teenager walks out the door at 10 or 11 p.m., he’s just going for a bit of fresh air.
Most mothers, though, know the truth about their sons. They just don’t know what to do about it.
Along the way, they lost control as a parent. At some point, the young man figured out that there are no real consequences at home for his behavior. He saw that no one is paying attention, and in some cases, that no one cares.
Gang violence almost always is confined to neighborhoods rife with poverty. Even in a two-parent household like Ward’s, parents struggle to make ends meet. April Ward and her husband, Thaddeus Bridgeman, 45, hold respectable, low-paying jobs. But their home life is far from perfect.
Still, April Ward said she thought that she and Ward’s father, whom she has been with for 27 years, were doing as much as they could to raise their son and his three brothers right in a neighborhood filled with violence.
“When my boys were growing up, I talked to each one and said, ‘This is what you’re going to do once you graduate. You’re going to the Army, the Marines, trade school or college,’ ” she said. “Most of them gave it to me.”
But in neighborhoods like theirs, it takes a village to save a child.
In 2016, the National Science Foundation released a study looking at the factors associated with mass shootings and street violence. It concluded that parents play a significant role in either increasing or decreasing violence.
Though rampage shootings and street violence are different in many ways, the study found that children with lower risk of youth violence had “close attachment bonds with consistently supportive caregivers” and received “effective and developmentally sensitive parenting.”
But the study also revealed something else. When it comes to street violence, parents, schools, neighborhoods, and a wide range of other entities and support systems have to work together.
Even so, it is still up to young men to make their own choices. According to the prosecutor, no one else can be blamed for the decision Micheail Ward made.
“He made choices, he’s chosen to ignore his family and the opportunities,” Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Holmes said in court. “He chose to join a gang. He chose to pick up a gun.”
It is hard to argue with that.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng

From:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/glanton/ct-met-dahleen-glanton-micheail-ward-mother-denial-20190116-story.html

Open Blog - Friday

Friday is always happy.

2019: World Economy Is Reaching Growth Limits; Expect Low Oil Prices, Financial Turbulence

Financial markets have been behaving in a very turbulent manner in the last couple of months. The issue, as I see it, is that the world economy is gradually changing from a growth mode to a mode of shrinkage. This is something like a ship changing course, from going in one direction to going in reverse. The system acts as if the brakes are being very forcefully applied, and reaction of the economy is to almost shake.

What seems to be happening is that the world economy is reaching Limits to Growth, as predicted in the computer simulations modeled in the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth. In fact, the base model of that set of simulations indicated that peak industrial output per capita might be reached right about now. Peak food per capita might be reached about the same time. I have added a dotted line to the forecast from this model, indicating where the economy seems to be in 2019, relative to the base model.¹

Figure 1. Base scenario from The Limits to Growth, printed using today’s graphics by Charles Hall and John Day in Revisiting Limits to Growth After Peak Oil with dotted line at 2019 added by author. The 2019 line is drawn based on where the world economy seems to be now, rather than on precisely where the base model would put the year 2019.

^{Read more:  https://ourfiniteworld.com/2019/01/09/2019-world-economy-is-reaching-growth-limits-expect-low-oil-prices-financial-turbulence/}

Someone please bathe and shave Letteney!

The man is an embarrassment.  Our city attorney has terrible personal hygiene.  He smells and offends all who come near.  This bearded yahoo should not be allowed to represent our city.  Let's start a lottery.  The winner gets to bathe and shave Letteney.  Or should that be the loser?

Zombie

10 Commercials That Were Ripped Off The Air

Open Blog - Thursday

Millennials can't read cursive.  Ah ha ha ha!

"Move over, jewelry and leggings. Selling CBD oil is the new side hustle for moms"

Teressa Sworsky, right, of Plainfield, speaks with Carmen Barr, of Mokena, at her CBD oil booth during the Mokena Park District's January Flea Market on Jan. 13, 2019. Sworsky sells hemp products for people and pets. (Warren Skalski/for the Chicago Tribune)

Kate ThayerContact ReporterChicago Tribune

"Looking to relieve her miniature dachshund Parky’s arthritis, Plainfield mother of two Teressa Sworsky discovered hemp oil.

"After researching the exploding industry of products infused with cannabidiol, or CBD, Sworsky, 36, a registered nurse who works full time in the corporate office of a hospital system, soon learned about other uses for the substance, which is most often derived from hemp, a plant in the cannabis family, but without the mind-altering properties of THC. After giving the CBD oil to her dog, she decided to try it for herself as an alternative to her side effect-ridden anxiety medication.

"It worked, said Sworsky, who realized she could also sell it for side cash."

Read more:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-moms-sell-hemp-oil-20190108-story.html


I have a friend whose eczema on his hands and arms have tortured him for years.  Nothing the MD's prescribed worked.  Then he tried CBD salve.  His eczema was gone within two weeks and hasn't returned.  His doctor's response was a flat "Oh."

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my m and m's!  How are you?  That nasty flu is making the rounds, so beware.  I got a flu shot.  I get one every year.  Señor Zanza doesn't.  Guess who ends up in bed being tended by the other.  It isn't me.  No, he gets the flu and I take care of him.  When I ask him why he doesn't get a flu shot, he says it's better for the body to be exposed to whatever is going around.  Yeah, right.

Junior is picking up on this.  I had a heck of a time getting him to take this year's flu shot.  I'm not going to have two men down, whiners, while I do all the work.  I told Junior to get the shot or expect absolutely NO help from me.  He got it, I think.

Taking down the Christmas tree is a sad affair.  It's so beautiful, but so dead.  I think if you lit a match within 6 feet of it, it would burst into flames.  So, it's taken down and the needles are vacuumed up and the decorations put away.  Now comes the part of winter I usually hate the most.  Usually, it's subzero throughout much of the next two months.  I hate that.  However, thanks to climate change, it's not too bad out there.  Still, boring and nothing to do.

I haven't followed anymore Packer news.  Until they dump Rodgers, I don't give a damn.  So there.

What is going on with Sandy Weidner and Judge Eugene Gakfidgrtwyuvcngksh?  How does a request for files turn into such a mess?  She's already been found guilty and fined, but it's been suspended until the rest of the mess plays out.  Rock on, Judge Gaskfloeudyvbtdsnmmhjlpd!

I want to go skiing.  Have the local resorts generated enough snow?  Let's go bust a leg.

I'm so glad that Jayme Closs was rescued.  I knew she was alive and tried a number of times to offer my services in the search for her, but I was rebuffed.  She might have spent far less time in captivity if the authorities could get over their prejudices.  You have to read the serial numbers off of the bills in their pockets, first.  How denigrating!

I'm used to it.  Nonbelievers have always been a part of the business.  I usually ignore them.  I just do what I do, which shames them.  If any of them are particularly nasty in their criticisms, I just turn them into pigs.

No, I don't have that power.  Do I?

Thank you all for tuning in this week.  I love all of my readers. madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com

Enjoy the weather.   Who knows when it will change?
_________________________ 
Please donate: paypal.me/jgmazelis  If you don't like PayPal, send me a note at madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com and I'll send you my street address so you can send a check or money order.  Thank you.

Open Blog - Wednesday

That owl scares me.  He looks hungry.

Arlo and Janis

Open Blog - Tuesday

All right!

The *BEST* MOPAR years!

Open Blog - Monday

Woof.

How do you bleed the brakes on your 1961 DeSoto?

With the power booster mounted directly above the master cylinder?

Open Blog - Weekend

The best time on the clock.

Four for Fridays!

Good morning everyone I hope your having a good week. Drew has been working ten hour days this week and believe it or not he actually has the weekend off. here are your questions.

1) With this crazy weather have you been hibernating?

2) Have you come down sick with the weather?

3) Has the weather made you just want to stay in bed?

4) When it is cold out what do you do?

Have a great weekend!

"Elwood, Illinois (Pop. 2,200), Has Become a Vital Hub of America’s Consumer Economy. And It’s Hell."

Elwood, a gateway to six major rail lines, has seen the emergence of immense warehouse projects from the country’s biggest companies.

 

 

"The rural town south of Chicago is now a crucial stop for Amazon, Wal-Mart, IKEA, Home Depot, and other giant retailers. Developers had promised growth and good jobs. So why is everyone so miserable?"

Read more:  https://newrepublic.com/article/152836/elwood-illinois-pop-2200-become-vital-hub-americas-consumer-economy-its-hell

Open Blog - Friday

Time for a fish fry.

"Open records hearing closed to public, Racine judge says"

From The Journal Times.com:

https://journaltimes.com/news/local/open-records-hearing-closed-to-public-racine-judge-says/article_22b24316-6fe4-55db-a323-50b28af9af0c.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-2

From Racine County Corruption:

http://racinecountycorruption.blogspot.com/

To stay abreast of the real story involving Sandy Weidner and the courts, check Racine County Corruption daily.

Edit: https://journaltimes.com/news/local/majority-of-weidner-case-files-to-reopen-with-redactions/article_2d94f517-2025-50f4-94e3-0b0430c11525.html

10 Ways The World Will Change By 2050

Open Blog - Thursday

Eat some ice cream.

The End of DIY Car Repair, Why New Cars are So Hard to Work On

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my merry munchkins! How are you? As I write this, the sun is trying to peek out, but for the most part the days have been a winter gray. What's been abundantly missing is the s-word. (Shhhh! Don't say it too loud.) The lack of it is disastrous for the wildlife and the landscape. What can you do? I think it's the result of climate change. The weather is screwed up everywhere. Glaciers and arctic areas are melting. Scientists are discovering permafrost uncovered, and melting. (Not so perma-,eh?) Much of the worst of our winters has disappeared. Nature has difficulty responding quickly. A hundred species a day go extinct. We're all going to hell. 

It looks like the Green Bay Packers are hiring Matt LaFleur, offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, as their new head coach. Oh boy. That still doesn't help the problem of an injury prone quarterback. Give Rodgers some coaching position. Try to dump him. Groom a new quarterback, one that doesn't get his bell rung in every game. Or else put a steel cage around Rodgers.

Speaking of steel cages, have you seen this travesty yet? https://journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-nets-probation-for-norway-case-where-girl-was-kept/article_508dbe46-2b7c-5f7f-96b5-0a6dc768ecd8.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-2 The man kept one of his daughters in a kennel cage. His sentence? Well, after the derelict Judge Nielsen dropped four felonies against him, he ended up with probation. Children in Racine are just so much meat. Everyone knows it, everyone tries to hide it, and it spills out regularly. Judge Nielsen deserves to be put in a kennel cage. What kind of monster is he? My God.

I wonder if Foxconn took into consideration the effect that just their announcements have had on local labor and supplies. Everything has gone way up in cost, and even if you can afford it, you can't find it. Will this slow down the progress of Foxconn in building their factories? I would assume so. The stresses that such an operation inflict upon our local economy are telling. It's kind of like the gold rush in the wild West. Every man for himself! Soon, there will be gunfire over something. Welcome to the USA!

We have a new governor in Wisconsin, Tony Evers. He says he's going to veto the poop out of a lot of the so-called “lame-duck legislation” that the Republicans enacted. Oh boy. Another fight. Nationally, Trump picks fights left and right. Half the government is shut down because of his fight with Democrats over The Wall. His fight with China has resulted in trade wars that are hurting both sides. Everyone is fighting someone. What happened to the love generation? Boy, that “revolution” didn't last long.

I once held the door to a fast food restaurant open for an elderly gentleman and his wife. His eyes met mine and he said, “The world is changing.” I said, “I know.” I should have added that I'm not going to change for the sake of change. Let the world change. I'll still have manners and dignity. As will Señor Zanza and Junior.  Or I'll slap them silly.

Here's a funny from Lewis Black on drinking in Wisconsin:

I love you, one and all.  If you need help, contact: madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com

Enjoy the "warm" weather.  Take a walk.  Say "hi" to your neighbors.  Pet a dog.  Chase a cat.  Wave to motorists.  Don't get beat up.
 _________________________ 
Please donate: paypal.me/jgmazelis  If you don't like PayPal, send me a note at madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com and I'll send you my street address so you can send a check or money order.  Thank you.

Open Blog - Wednesday

Happy Wednesday.

The Eyes Have It

From The Shepherd Express:

by Art Kumbalek

Jan. 08, 2019

4:26 p.m.

I’m Art Kumbalek and man oh manischewitz what a world, ain’a? So yeah yeah, there was no regular Shepherd issue last week and if you enjoyed my absence, you’re in luck ’cause come next issue I’ll be on a week’s medical leave on account of having one cataract carved out of an eyeball—the other one due to be scraped out in February sometime I’m guessing, what the fock.

And you bet I’m sure as heck looking forward to this schmutz-removal, so much that I’ve been on the inter-focking-net pricing tin cups and canes so that when my procedure somehow gets botched, I’ll have the necessary means to earn a living.
So right now, I’m at the Shepherd office to pick up a couple, three items, whip out this essay and check the mail since I haven’t been here for a while. And lo and behold, I got a package from my would-be guardian angel El Jefe out of Maryland, the “Old Line State,” containing a fabulous tub of Old Crow, I kid you not.
God bless the Jef’ because the Crow is the only thing I got for Christmas that I asked for. Once again this year, Santa, the fat fock, did not deliver to me the busload of Vegas showgirls I asked for. Nor did he deliver the personal butler I requested, the one who would keep me seasonally sartorially correct, manage my daily schedule such as it is, and make me a nice egg sandwich now and then.
So I really ought to cut this essay short and commence taste-testing the Old Crow to make sure it hasn’t gone bad. But before I do, I also got to tell you I noticed I received a letter postmarked sometime before Christmas. The writer asked me for advice, what the fock. He wrote:
Hey Artie, the wife wants a new puppy for Christmas. I know they don’t sell them at your Best Buy or Old Navy. Any idea where I should go?
The letter even contained a self-addressed stamped envelope for my reply. Well, Christmas has come and gone, hasn’t it. Had I been able to reply in a timely fashion, this is what I would’ve wrote:
Yeah, I’ve got an idea where you should go. How ’bout Divorce Court? Full disclosure: My scariest thought is whether or not animals get to go to heaven. For christ sakes, that’s all a guy like me needs is to spend his entire focking life busting his butt, finally gets puking sick, croaks, walks through the Pearly Gates and the first thing that happens is he steps right smack-dab into one heaping, heaving pile of dog-doo. Praise the lord.
And this is supposed to be for eternity ever-after? I’ll tell you’s, I want to be buried with a rolled-up newspaper so that when I’m shaking hands with St. Peter and some canine starts humping my leg, I can give it one good ol’ whack right across the goddamn snout.
I pray they must go to the other place, ’cause spending a couple, three eternities in the company of household pets and assorted animals sure sounds like focking hell to me. Or at least that these creatures would have their own animal heaven where they could all go and sniff each other’s butts and leave mine alone. That I could live with ’cause when it comes to other species—your animal and insect societies to name two—you can call me a “specie-ist,” but I firmly believe in a “separate, the hell with equal” kind of arrangement, you betcha.
So, before I go, I really ought to close-up Art’s Ba-ding! Boutique now that the holidays are mercifully focking kaput. But I see I’ve got one item left, so take it if you can use it. It’s yours:
A very spiritual and holy priest dies and is swept up to heaven. St. Peter greets him at the Pearly Gates, and says, “Hello Father, welcome to Heaven! You are very well known here, and as a special reward because you are such a devout man, we’re going to grant you anything you wish even before we enter the Kingdom. What can I grant you?”
And the priest says, “I am a great admirer of the Virgin Mother. I’ve always wanted to talk to her.” St. Pete nods his head to one side, and who should approach the priest but the Virgin Mary!
The priest is overcome with joy and says, “Mother, I have always been a great admirer of yours and followed your life as best I could. I have studied everything I could about you—every painting and portrait ever made of you, and I’ve noticed without fail that you are portrayed bearing a wistful expression. Forever I’ve wondered what it was that made you seemingly so melancholy.” And Mother Mary says, “Honestly, I was really hoping for a girl.” Ba-ding!
That’s it. See you next time, I hope, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.

From:  https://shepherdexpress.com/advice/art-kumbalek/the-eyes-have-it/

Open Blog - Tuesday

Happy Tuesday.

New Car

On December 19th Drew and  I got in a car accident with our 2011 Ford Escape XLT on Main St. and Yougt after delivering Christmas cookies. I was waiting for a car to make a left turn then the car made the left turn and another car hit us in the back on the passenger side of the car. The side air bags came down and Drew's glasses flew onto the dashboard. Our car ended up on the double yellow lines in the middle of the street and the other car ended up on the grass. Come to find out the jerk had no insurance so our insurance paid for a rental car. We are so thankful we gave my daughter our HHR so Drew called her and she came and got us. We are fine.

On January 2nd we got a 2009 Ford Escape XLT with 56,000 miles it is gray. Yes it is a couple years older and has everything the same we had in the other one. We both like this kind of car so this is what we looked for. This time we did not get it from the Ford dealership on Washington Ave in Racine. They did try to sell us a 2009 Ford Escape with 106,000 miles on it for the same price and was forcing a Ford Taurus X on us for the same price this think is like a boat and we kept saying no. I wanted to choke these people so bad. We told them that we would think it over and call them back. So Drew and I picked the one that we have and we got it from Budget Motors of Wisconsin in Kenosha. I did call the dealership back and told them we decided on this one and not to call us back at all.

First picture is from the accident and the second one is the new car.

Open Blog - Monday

Smile.

Bethlehem Steel, The People Who Built America

Women working destroys marriage

The social science backs up common sense and observation concerning 
the terrible social policy of encouraging women to work outside the 
home rather than marry and raise children. 
 
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2019/01/women-working-destroys-marriage.html