There are times, even in these WORST of times that the wonderful City of my youth (YEA all 75 years) reminds me of the dearly EXTINCT Barnum and Bailey Circus. Of course, most of our favorite memories of circuses past (at least for me) were the elephants and the clowns. Elephants can only be seen now in environments that are less hostile and more humane. However, the same cannot be said for the clowns. They are actually running amuck all over America, and a great majority of them seem to reside in Chicago and are performing sans the Big Top on a daily basis. Some even manage to have performed so well they hold elective offices and other places of high visibility. I’m not going to take the place of the Ringmaster and announce who the clowns are, I will leave that to all of you to decide on your own.

First off just yesterday, the new Managing Editor of the Tribune decided that for the sake of DIFFERENTIATING OPINION WRITING, FROM NEWS COVERAGE FOR IT’S READERS HE’S MOVING ALL OF THE TRIBUNE COLUMNISTS TO THE BACK PAGES. Being one of its readers it got me to thinking maybe the guy thinks I’m a bit lame along with the thousands of others who read the Tribune on a daily basis. I know that I speak for thousands of you out there that can do that DIFFERENTIATING on our own, thank you. The move to the back pages included John Kass who has occupied page 2 at the Tribune since the Death of the Great Mike Royko in 1997. Mr. Kass just happens to be one of the few remaining conservative columnists who is left at the Tribune.

However, as they say, timing seems to be everything.  Just last week Mr. Kass wrote a column, “SOMETHING GROWS IN THE BIG CITIES RUN BY DEMOCRATS: AN OVERWHELMING SENSE OF LAWLESSNESS.”  He pointed out that left-wing billionaire George Soros has spent millions to help social justice warriors get elected as prosecutors in America’s big cities. Those Soros funded prosecutors are the ones who help release violent criminals on little or no bond.

Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx,  who Soros has given 2 million dollars to for her upcoming election,  has been on the receiving end of the Soros funding since her last election 4 years ago. When Foxx took office she promptly announced that she would no longer aggressively prosecute shoplifters. This preceded a wave of shoplifting gangs violently hitting boutiques and other high-end stores on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue and the Gold Coast. As of right now, Chicago is facing an unprecedented 40% rise in murders and shootings for 2020. July alone is up 80% from past years with over over 101 murders and  556 people shot.

There are over 3,170 people on home confinement, and over 70 of them are charged with first-degree murder. Report after report shows that the Home Confinement Monitors have no idea where most of these criminals are. Chicago and Cook County’s violent criminals are facing very little or no accountability. Not too difficult to see why Chicago has a catastrophic Epidemic of Violence.

Now we turn back to John Kass and his relegation to the back pages. Immediately after he wrote his article on Soros and the funding of prosecutors soft on criminals, a group belonging to the Newspaper Guild, who Mr. Kass has rebuffed in the past to become a member, filed a grievance saying that Kass was an Antisemite for his depiction of George Soros. This without the slightest mention of his being Jewish.  Some say this leap was equal to a long jump over the Grand Canyon. However, within a week the Tribune boss, despite saying the move was not to silence the Conservative Kass but to help us poor ignorant souls, to DIFFERENTIATE OPINION WRITING FROM NEWS COVERAGE. This from a guy who runs a paper that recently had at least 2 Kim Kardashian stories front and center on the online page.

I remember a time some years back. I was waiting inside the lobby of Tribune Tower for my softball playing buddy Mike Royko (name dropper) and I looked up at an etching prominently displayed on one wall. I never forgot the words of VOLTAIRE.  “I DISAPPROVE OF WHAT YOU SAY: BUT I WILL DEFEND TO TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.” The Tribune has since moved from that tower, but in my opinion, its present leadership might want to creep back and have a look at those words. Granted moving Mr. Kass back to the back pages might not be the death of journalism as we know it, but there is a solid reason why the Comic sections are in the back pages and why Ted Williams and Mike Trout never batted 9th in a lineup.

Contrary to the babbling slop that gets pitched in Chicago about guns from clueless Politicians comes the truth. It makes someone who has been hearing the same false theme for decades want to scream out IT’S NOT THE GUNS STUPID IT’S THE VICIOUS THUGS DOING THE SHOOTINGS. Cars don’t drunk drive, Spoons and Forks don’t make you fat, Pencils don’t misspell words, you’re delusional confused leaders are selling that crap as many times as they can get away with it.  Kids as young as 10 years old using guns and doing Carjackings cannot be laid off on guns. At some point, the finger has to be pointed at the real reason, the home and Mommy and Daddy, where is your 10-year-old? How did he get a Gun?

Since mayor Lightfoot has been in office, her 14 months have produced over 786 souls murdered and over 4300 shot. The slaughter has included babies, toddlers, and hundreds of teens, all shot down in a horrid reign of unprecedented bloodshed. To make statements that imply that guns are to blame is absolutely insane.  In the last month, there have been 6 mass shootings including 15 alone attending a Funeral. When thinking about what John Kass has said about Kim Foxx and George Soros we also might want to remember an old saying. “THE MAN WHO IS RIGHT IS SELDOM LEFT.” Find the back pages until sanity returns.