When Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot was sworn in as Mayor of Chicago, she was asked about the City notorious epidemic of violence and what she proposed to do about it.  Her answer was not surprising since she was a progressive liberal who probably believed the late Father Flanagan, the founder of Boys Town orphanage in Douglas County Nebraska who once famously said”THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BAD BOY.” Lightfoots answer was that”CHICAGO IS NOT GOING TO ARREST IT’S WAY OUT OF THE VIOLENCE PROBLEM.” She extended the library hours, opened and set up youth camps where Chicago’s youth could gather and make nice, with various sports and other cultural activities. All well-intentioned without question, however, the reality soon set in.

In 14 Months since she has become Chicago’s mayor, the cities violence has taken a stunning upward surge. Somehow the gangs and their affiliates ignored the libraries and all those other opportunities to make nice and decided to wage a war on each other that has the entire city stunned. Since January, over 9 people a day have been shot, and 332 have been murdered, 1,700 have been wounded and the trend is spiraling upward at an alarming rate. See the illustration above. In just one week 150 people have been shot and 25 souls were murdered. Victims included a 3-year-old and several teens under 17. Last month saw 95 murders and over 450 people wounded. The worst May violence in 60 years.

This past weekend not to be outdone by  Fathers Day weekend in which there were 15 murders and 95 people shot, another 18 souls were murdered and 48 were wounded. Stunning numbers even in a war zone to be sure. Writing about the violence week after week to some might seem like “beating a dead horse, but the reality seems to have completely transfixed the elected Politicians who continue to be in a state of bewilderment. A scapegoat needs to be uncovered and very soon or the folks in Chicago are going to get a clue that YES indeed (sorry Father Flanagan)  there are hundreds of bad boys running loose and terrorizing a once great City to the point people in the neighborhoods are in fear of their lives and rightfully so.

People often ask what is the solution.? There is no one sure-fire solution but a big, big step would be to arrest the shooters and violent criminals and hold them accountable for criminal behavior, stop releasing violent offenders on low bonds, and no bonds, especially those who are arrested for crimes with guns. Prosecute those who are arrested and seek the maximum prison time. The Cook County  Criminal Justice  System is completely broken and in the hands of politicians who favor the criminals over the victims, and it’s just a repeat cycle as everyone can plainly see by the violence numbers Chicago is enduring.

Something is very wrong with the theories that there is no such thing as a bad boy, (believe me only evil people kill like they have been doing and will continue to do) or everyone deserves one chance after another, is nothing short of insane thinking. Imagine a Governor releasing over 4,000 convicted felons and over 65 convicted murderers because of a worry that they might be vulnerable to the VIRUS  and not realize they are heading right back to the same neighborhoods they previously terrorized. Cook County has over 5,000 people on the home monitoring program, that is not being monitored, this includes people charged with murder and other serious felonies.

Last week President Trump sent a letter to Governor Pritzker and Mayor Lighgtfoot denouncing the unprecedented violence taking place against Chicago’s citizens and offered FEDERAL HELP in formalizing a plan to stop the shootings and killing that are grossly out of control. Their response was that the President was JUST TRYING TO DEFLECT HIS BAD RESPONSE ON THE VIRUS. Insane thinking by two very clueless politicians who are dancing a political dance while blood is running all over Chicago’s streets. Two classic politicians that are either clueless or totally incompetent. How many more need to die at the hands of THUGS who are in control of entire neighborhoods. Next weekend is the 4th of July, I’m betting they are ecstatic that it is only a 3 day weekend. The search for a proper Scapegoat is most likely underway.

Political Marketing was my favorite class when I was in graduate school, and many lessons learned from that course stick with me to this day. I selected jingoism, extremist patriotism and all things marketing of the red, white and blue as my term paper topic for this specific course.

Although I penned that paper back during the Bush 43 administration, insights reached back then have as much relevance today as ever. In studying the Star Spangled Banner as well as everyone who takes the national anthem way too seriously, I saw that the plot to Francis Scott Key’s tune was lost a long time ago. We really don’t need it to be played anymore at every single sporting event. It really needs to be reserved for just international competitions at this point.

When US Soccer legend and FOX Sports commentator Alexi Lalas gave his really bad take, via Twitter, on the topic and then apologized later, I really felt that this has all jumped the shark. Just like Drew Brees, you have a sports icon who doesn’t get it, then walks it back, and sounds extremely disingenuine in doing so.

Of course, what the anthem really means or is/was supposed to mean is something that went away a long time ago. We’ll explain why shortly, but for now it’s probably best to just move on. Don’t take my word for it though, just listen to former United States Men’s Soccer Head Coach Bruce Arena.

“I question why we’re playing the anthem in professional sporting events in our country … it puts people in awkward positions,” said Arena, currently the head coach of Major League Soccer club New England Revolution (a side that have about as patriotic or jingoistic a brand identity as anyone in American sports.

FOXBORO, MA – SEPTEMBER 24: Members of the New England Patriots kneel during the National Anthem before a game against the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium on September 24, 2017 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

“We don’t use the anthem in movie theatres, on Broadway, other events in the US. I don’t think it’s appropriate to have a national anthem before a baseball game or an MLS game.”

Arena pointed out how many MLS players were born outside the U.S.

“In MLS, most of the players standing on the field during the national anthem are international players. They aren’t even Americans. So why are we playing the national anthem?… Having said that, I want it understood, I’m very patriotic, but I just think it’s inappropriate. And today, it’s becoming too big of an issue.”

“I understand why people are kneeling … if they’re respectful, it’s appropriate. I’m the most patriotic person you’re going to be around … Honored to represent the US in World Cups and international matches. I think playing the national anthem is clearly appropriate at those levels.”

I couldn’t agree more! For nation vs. nation, blare the Star Spangled Banner as loud as you want! For band of athletic mercenaries loosely affiliated with my city vs. band of athletic mercenaries loosely affiliated with your city, let’s just forego the anthem. 

The longer we don’t have sports, on account of how are federal government mishandling the pandemic worse than every other nation on Earth, the more time will be filled with sports figures saying dumb things about the Star Spangled Banner and the more weary we’ll grow of all the hot takes, reactions and reactions to the reactions. It’s best to just let it go and move on.

Long before much of the population completely misunderstood what Colin Kaepernick and company were trying to say by taking a knee during the playing of the anthem, the meaning of the ritual was bastardized.

More specifically, it was just sold out. The anthem became synonymous with paid for patriotism, as “reunions” between armed services members and their families was conducted on field.

It’s amazing that the military-industrial complex believed that the general populace would not eventually catch on to these publicity stunts, as if the people would somehow be too stupid to realize that these “reunions” were all put on for the cameras.

Most of the time, these are sponsored by the Boeings, Lockheed-Martins and other defense contractors.

Simply put it was just sponsored content that you were required to stand for, just like all the sports network programming during Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Patriots Day, Flag Day and Veterans Day.

The last one is when it gets ramped up the most, as November typically brings the most extreme nationalism within the sports world.

Although the Indianapolis 500 is really on its own level entirely.

Prior to the race, there is an onslaught of patriotic rituals and songs, and the level of excess is truly something to behold. Regardless of your views on the national anthem, I would reccommend seeing this at least once, as it’s the most interesting part of the annual spectacle. Here’s the 2018 Indy 500 pregame set list (includes a GREAT use of taxpayer dollars by utilizing one of the most expensive airplanes in history!)

The military does a lot of recruiting and advertising within the sports world, and they pay clubs and networks handsomely to do so. Really, this is what it’s all about- money and that’s it!

It’s advertising, but it comes under the guise of nationalism. You’ll notice that Arena mentioned how patriotic he was, several times, while putting forth his stance.

That’s required these days, if you want to say something like that and still minimize individual brand damage. You have to do the Jeff Winger on “Community” campaign applause line-

“if you ask me what my favorite color is, I’ll tell you that it’s a three way tie between red, white and blue.”

You’re not supposed to use Old Glory for the purpose of crass commercialization.

The U.S. Flag Code reads as follows:

“The Flag Code addresses the impropriety of using the flag as an article of personal adornment, a design of items of temporary use, and item of clothing. The evident purpose of these suggested restraints is to limit the commercial or common usage of the flag, and, thus, maintain its dignity.”

Exploiting the flag, with contrived publicity stunts, is American as apple pie. The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima photo-opp was about as fraudulent as Enron. I suggest you screen the film “Flags of Our Fathers” for more on that topic. Kaepernick was right, he was far ahead of his time and the NFL has now come as close as they will ever come to admitting it.

However, those who thought he was taking a sacred ritual and desecrating it don’t realize, the so-called purity of it, which never truly existed in the first place, was a long time gone by that point.

Hey, when you come across a sign that is literally the name of this site….of course it’s the cover/featured image

This Fourth of July weekend, if/when you debate these topics, remember the words of Teddy Roosevelt:

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”

Happy Independence Day everybody! Celebrate safely!

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.

You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.

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Anybody else feel like the world is out to get them?

Sorry. That statement was SO DRAMATIC. (I know my flaws! Lol!)

But really, does anybody feel like the world is just challenging them at this point in time?

These last couple of months have been difficult for all of us for a multitude of reasons. The world is just going through A LOT. And through going through all of that everybody keeps having the attitude that “it’s just life.”

I will be the first to admit that I am so sick of hearing “it’s just life.” That isn’t enough of a reason or excuse for me anymore.

I am OVER IT.

(This might be coming off sassy, and truthfully – it should. I feel very passionate about this.)

Instead, I have chosen to be in charge of my own mindset and my own life.

I have chosen to find the lessons that I am being taught from these situations and scenarios and grow from them.

I have chosen to not give in or give up just because the outcome isn’t what I wanted or hoped.

I have chosen to get through this bump in the road, no matter how bumpy it gets.

I have chosen to continue finding the positives. (THEY ARE OUT THERE!)

I have chosen to put more effort and energy into the things that I do. (Be strategic. Have a purpose.)

I have chosen to make a difference in my OWN life.

I have chosen to SUCCEED.

If you are feeling this way lately because of everything going on in the world, please know YOU ARE NOT ALONE. But also know, that at some point in this crazy life… you need to make the conscious decision to choose you.

Now more than ever, it’s important to put focus on maintaining good health. Adding music to your life is one way to lessen the everyday worries. Did you know that playing an instrument, listening to music and singing can have positive health benefits? Listening to music can help reduce anxiety and has shown to lower blood pressure. Music can also improve sleep, reduce pain and improve memory. Studies have shown that music can actually strengthen different portions of the brain.

Research tells us that listening to music is great therapy as our brains age. It is always good to enjoy familiar pieces of music but listening to something new has the added benefit of taxing and challenging the brain’s ability to interpret. Learning new music can be helpful in improving one’s ability to understand conversation in a noisy environment.

Problems understanding speech in noise is one of the most common reasons to schedule a baseline hearing test. Music is one way to improve and change the brain’s ability to sharpen listening skills. Listening to music gives your brain a chance to work differently.

Studies have shown that training with music can improve one’s ability to understand speech in noise. It’s great to know that listening to music, playing an instrument or singing can reap positive benefits.

If you have musical abilities, by all means use them. Listen to music, play music, and sing out loud because there are health related benefits. If music doesn’t come naturally, you can always belt out a song in the shower or on your drive home from work. It’s never too late to start and you will give your brain a great work out.

I originally met Kerry Turgeon when I looked at a gorgeous house in Hinsdale, Illinois, via Zillow. It was my dream home. Having a great experience with her reminded me of three important qualities you want in your realtor.

Great Customer Service

Because of Kerry Turgeon’s amazing customer service, when it was time for me to decide to move back to Chicago, I knew the person that I wanted to call. I knew that this decision could not be trusted to just anyone. There were many different layers to the home buying process.  Because I was moving from out of state,  I needed to be cared for and loved in a certain way and Kerry did it. She was attentive, responsive, kind, respectful, and gave me within six hours all the choices that I would need to make the right decision.

Knowledge

Kerry’s knowledge was amazing. A broker with the Baird & Warner Hinsdale office, Kerry Turgeon has been working in real estate for 14 years, the past five of which she’s made the Baird & Warner Presidents Club. She is dedicated to every client and works extremely hard to help them achieve their real estate goals, whether they’re buying or selling a $200,000 condo or a $5 million home.

Turgeon has particular expertise in helping young families relocate from Chicago to suburban towns such as Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Western Springs, Burr Ridge, La Grange and Oak Brook. She understands the hesitation young people have in making the transition from city to suburbs, having been in that situation 20 years ago. Kerry knows it’s both an exciting and nerve-racking time, and that her job is to give clients all the information they need to make that transition easy.

Experience

Kerry has a vast amount of experience. Below is a quote from another satisfied customer. 

“Kerry was compassionate,” says one client. “She knew we had anxiety about leaving the city. Kerry showed us her favorite restaurants, proximity to Oak Brook Mall, and how easy it was to get to the city. We moved to Hinsdale a year ago, and I wish we did it sooner.”

Kerry constantly thinks about how she can better serve her clients. She recently launched her own website,kerryturgeonteam.com, to provide helpful information. Most recently, Kerry was beginning to see her past clients and friends transition to the next phase of their life in sunny southwest Florida. During the Illinois stay-at-home order, she took the next step to further her career by getting her Florida real estate license so she could assist in the sale of her clients’ homes in Illinois, while also helping them find their next ones in Florida.

“I saw a need and thought, ‘Why not become a one-stop shop and ensure my clients get the attention they deserve,whether they’re moving to the western suburbs or out of the western suburbs?’ I am very excited about this and cannot wait to get started.”

The “Good Morning Football” crew plays NFL history trivia.

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It’s unlikely that many readers noticed, or cared, when news outlets started using % instead of percent after a numeral — a change prescribed by the Associate Press Stylebook last year.

Many newspaper readers have probably noticed a change made in the last month, however. AP, along with many news organizations, now recommends capitalizing Black in reference to people.

It’s a change long sought by activists and finally realized during nationwide protests against racial injustice. The change presumes that Black signifies an identity, not a skin color.

“AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa,” John Daniszewski, AP’s vice president for standards, said in the announcement on Juneteenth. “The lowercase black is a color, not a person.”

The AP Stylebook is used by the majority of the nation’s newspapers. Major newspapers and news chains that have their own usage guides, including the Los Angeles Times and USA Today, also shifted to Black this month. Locally, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times made the change.

“[I]n light of recent and ongoing events and the evidence of a real shift in usage across many sources,” the Chicago Manual of Style followed the AP’s lead a few days later. The Chicago Manual is used in publishing offices, including the Northwestern University office from which I retired.

The New York Times and the Washington Post, arguably the country’s two most influential newspapers, are still debating whether to make the change. Their hesitation isn’t reactionary — they are known as liberal publications — but reflects the complexity of the issue. It was debated two years by AP journalists in consultation with outside groups and thinkers.

Opponents of the change expressed concern that it fails to recognize that people brought from Africa as slaves came from many diverse backgrounds.

Then there is the matter of what to do about white when you capitalize Black. Those who argue against capitalizing white say that it is a skin color, not an ethnic identity, and that white people do not share a culture or an experience such as slavery. Also, capitalization could seem supportive of the white supremacists who capitalize the w.

On the other side is the argument that capitalizing white would be a needed reminder of white privilege. “Whiteness is endowed with social meaning that allows people to move through the world in a way that people who are not white are not able to do,” University of Chicago sociologist Eve Ewing tweeted in calling for the capitalization of W.

The Chicago Manual of Style, “as a matter of editorial consistency,” is allowing the capitalization of “White and similar terms” when referring to racial and ethnic identity.

AP now recommends capitalizing Indigenous in reference to the original inhabitants of a place, and it will make a decision within a month about whether to capitalize white. Thousands of newspapers, magazines, and public relations offices that use its stylebook would follow its lead.

The National Association of Black Journalists has come out in favor of capitalizing all racial identifiers. The Chicago Sun-Times has announced that it is also capitalizing Brown when “the terms Black and Brown are used together to collectively describe a group.” The Sun-Times is continuing to lowercase white, however, because “cultural trends among white people . . . are much more disparate.”

Those of you who aren’t editors and writers might be surprised to learn that editorial style is about more than where to place a comma. Style guides are updated to reflect social change. For instance, women were referred to as Miss or Mrs. when I began my career, then Ms., and finally by their last name only, just like men. Later came the movement toward person-first language — for example, “people with disabilities” rather than “disabled people.” More recently, both AP and the Chicago Manual of Style decided it was acceptable to use the singular “they” to be sensitive to nonbinary people for whom neither he nor she is appropriate.

*****

ANTI-TRUMP COMMENTS: 120TH IN AN ONGOING SERIES

“They are grasping at straws to try and explain this away. We’re looking at people picking at the margins for explanations to deny that we are seeing a surge.”
— Jeffrey Shaman, an infectious disease researcher at the Columbia University School of Public Health, about Trump and the Republicans who point to fewer coronavirus deaths to suggest that the worst of the pandemic has passed

Robin DiAngelo‘s best seller, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” is getting scooped up by white idiots who want to know that they are racist to the core, without knowing it.

In DiAngelo’s view, the very fact that I am critical of the idea that racism is as embedded in my white DNA as my skin color is proof beyond doubt that I am a racist.

She knows this because, well, she knows it. It’s based on her years of conducting clinics shaming white people for their hidden bigotry.  If you challenge her methodology and epistemology as anecdotal, fraudulent, pseudo-scientific, idiotic and blinkered beyond belief, you might as well tattoo “racist” across your forehead.

My pathetic fellow white racists, you can’t see your racism because you have been unconsciously programed by your white privilege to deny your intrinsic racism. Despite your most passionate denials, it’s there, lurking just, well, skin deep. Rest assured, DiAngelo, herself a person of white, will set you straight. 

Somehow, she has pried open the heads of millions of white people to discover the rot hidden there, even though she doesn’t know me, or you, or you.

It gets even better.

As described in a review in New Yorker:

In DiAngelo’s almost epidemiological vision of white racism, our minds and bodies play host to a pathogen that seeks to replicate itself, sickening us in the process. Like a mutating virus, racism shape-shifts in order to stay alive; when its explicit expression becomes taboo, it hides in coded language. Nor does prejudice disappear when people decide that they will no longer tolerate it.

Like Covid-19 is a disease, racism is a disease for which there is no vaccine. You can’t get rid of it by wanting or trying to gt rid of it.

More from the above review:

Even the racial beliefs and responses that feel authentic or well-intentioned have likely been programmed by white supremacy, to perpetuate white supremacy.

In other words, your belief that all black lives matter is programed by white supremacy to perpetuate white supremacy.”

And in the face of this, do you dare to think that you are an individual, a product of your free will, your experiences, your reasoning and even your own emotions? No way:

Such ideologies include individualism, or the distinctly white-American dream that one writes one’s own destiny, and objectivity, the confidence that one can free oneself entirely from bias.

And for those whites who so strongly despise and speak out against  racism, your feelings might only be a dodge to avoid facing your obligation to, well, genuflect and repent:

You may have subconsciously developed your strong negative feelings about racism in order to escape having to help dismantle it.

The absurdity, irrationality and high-flying speculation of all this (and more) is breath-taking. It’s bizarre. More than that, it is dangerous.

This is food for those who see life as simply explained, in terms of black and white and in ways that appeal to emotion instead of reason. It is trash posing as scholarship. It is designed to guilt well-meaning people. It is does exactly the opposite of what it claims to do: it divide us into combating groups.

This book frightens. That so many people, many of them well-intentioned, take this as The Word, is alarming. It fuels the hatred and violence that maims America today.

But I’m glad that it is published. It exposes the warped thinking to the bright light of truth.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I want to start by saying: Stay tuned for the quiz at the end of this week’s Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast. I am on a roll …

That done, we had a couple of interesting news items to discuss. Kicking off the podcast, we looked at the JD Power Initial Quality Study, which was released last week, and wonder of wonders, Dodge actually took the No. 1 spot for the first time in ever. Actually, a lot of domestic brands were “above the fold” this year, and that’s a refreshing change from years past. We talk about what this really means … and what it doesn’t mean.

We also discussed an Automotive News article on Mitsubishi, and we postulate that the automaker may be getting ready to pull up stakes in the U.S. — though, of course, they’ve said nothing of the kind.

Our guest this week was Larry Nutson, executive producer and Chicago bureauchief at The Auto Channel, who talked about the quality time he spent with the Cadillac XT6, and what he liked about this new SUV.

While I will continue to post the podcast to my blog each week, you can subscribe to the Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast on any podcast subscription service or visit the Buzzsprout link. New episodes are usually posted on Friday, and then the show itself airs on WCPT 820 AM on Sundays from 1 to 2 p.m.

Be sure to let us know if you have questions or if there are any topics you’d like us to cover on future podcasts.

You can follow us on social at:

• Jill: @jillciminillo (instagram/twitter)
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