I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!

I do not know this personally to be true, but Occupy Democrats hasn't let me down yet.

Of all the gifts that wise Providence
grants us to make life full and happy,
friendship is the most beautiful.

Epicurus

Apparently, the Diocese of San Francisco has ordered all its churches to deny Nancy Pelosi communion. (She should come to my neighborhood parish church here in Chicago).

Jackie, I wish you would stop referring to IlDuceBag/Cinnamon Hitler/Mango Mussolini as "the Loon." That is an insult to waterfowl everywhere, even those that carry & spread avian flu.

It's silly season again here in IL (our primary is in a few weeks & early voting has just started). We're an open-primary state, which means any registered voter can take any party's primary ballot regardless of their own party affiliation. (As opposed to a "blanket primary," in which you can hopscotch across party lines for different offices). We have the usual brace of Repugnicans trying to out-reactionary each other in a circular firing squad, whereas on the Dem. side our incumbent Gov. Pritzker is running practically unopposed except for a recently declared fringe ultra-progressive.

The three leading Repubs are Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin--who was a Democrat until the biggest right-wing donor in the state made him an offer he couldn't refuse (probably because he's tired of being Mayor of the second-largest city in IL, a collar-county Chicago suburb which has all of Chicago's corruption & crime with none of the charm). In 2020 he wholeheartedly supported Black Lives Matter and in March 2021 he introduced Pritzker at an event, praising his leadership and calling him a friend. Before he became a prosecutor he was a successful criminal defense attorney. Now that he wants to swap Aurora for Springfield, he suddenly declares "all lives matter," claims he called out the Nat'l Guard during the summer 2020 riots (a lie--only a Gov. can do that) and successfully quelled the riots in Aurora (he didn't--its downtown saw proportionately nearly as much looting as Chicago's); that he brought law & order to Aurora's streets, busting & convicting drug dealers (as Mayor he didn't, and before that as a prosecutor that was sort of his job--though police have to make arrests first). He contends that as a Black Republican ("a Republican who looks like me") he's Pritzker's worst nightmare. He says he'll cut taxes (he can't if the legislature won't), will push for term limits (which almost every GOPer who said that changed their mind when it was time to declare for re-election) and that he won't commute disgraced former majority leader Mike Madigan's sentence (but neither will Pritzker). He's being attacked by both his opponents and the Democratic Governors' Association (DGA) which is running ads against all three with incongruous results--see infra).

Then there's State Sen. Darren Bailey, a downstate right-wing crank who has spent the last several years filing unsuccessful lawsuits against Pritzker's, the IDPH's and local leaders' anti-COVID measures. Until Irvin decided to switch teams, Bailey was the obvious front-runner. But both Irvin & the third Stooge, Jesse Sullivan, are accusing him of being "Pritzker's favorite Republican" (intoned by that infamous gruff-voiced "get-off-my-lawn" voice-over guy who's done every right-wing commercial nationwide since the Reagan era) and insufficiently conservative.

Sullivan--a totally inexperienced dimple-chinned Madison Cawthorn doppelganger sans wheelchair--runs ads with his wife front & center, said wife sporting a prominent crucifix that would make Mike Lindell jealous, and their five kids. (Some of the ads have the couple speaking to the camera from a pew in an empty church, darkly declaring that Illinois is about to become "the abortion capital of the country"). He claims he will cut taxes (yawn), cut the gas tax (which Pritzker already has) and eliminate the sales tax on groceries (Pritzker already did that too). He claims to have served in wartime (implying combat) overseas, showing pictures of him in camo fatigues--but he was deployed as a civilian contractor...a social worker. Irvin's campaign is running an ad calling him out on that (with an older vet saying he "wouldn't vote for him for dogcatcher"). Natch, Sullivan is running a counter-ad with other vets saying his service was noble & invaluable and that Irvin's trying to smear him. (The DGA has chimed in, taking Sullivan's side)

Here's the fun part. The Democratic Governors' Assn. is running an ad ostensibly against Darren Bailey, calling him "too conservative for Illinois;" accusing him of being an NRA member opposed to common-sense gun control--but the onscreen graphic reads "opposed to liberal gun control." The ad goes on to say he supports the right to bear arms, while the graphic reads "Support the Second Amendment." The announcer intones that Bailey would end reproductive freedom of choice, while the graphic reads "Support the Right to Life." Obviously, Bailey would be a far weaker opponent in November than would Irvin, who's boasting major police union & downstate law enforcement endorsements. So the DGA (a dark money PAC) is dog-whistling to mainstream conservative voters--by ostensibly condemning him verbally as the most extreme conservative while simultaneously graphically praising him as such. All Bailey can do is run ads touting himself as a farmer, a grandpa and a legislator, with his running mate (like Pritzker's, an African-American woman) praising him to the skies.

Add to that dueling Dem. candidates for Sec'y of State and an ad for the incumbent Cook County Assessor (who faces no real primary opposition) and you have roughly 3/4 of the commercials currently running in Chicago. And we have more than a month of this ahead of us.

Sandy, I likely will continue on using Loon to refer to any of those names you spew out for Trump. Loon used as a noun means a very foolish person which fits loony Trump pretty well. I love birds of all kinds and mean no disrespect.

Speaking of him, the Loon, he is in a real jam. Trying to take back his Perdue endorsement and that just isn't going to work out, and why would it??? He has not done well with his endorsement picks and likely feels highly exasperated, maybe even some desperation. He can't blame Democrats for this stuff. He is the one putting these people forward and the party Reps. won't vote for them. He's calling it all fake news as he tends to do, but in the meantime, he is against his own party. Not at all a good look.

all about priorities.

Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which people cease to live unreflectively and begin to devote themselves to their lives with reverence in order to raise them to their true value. To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will-to-live.

Albert Schweitzer

Does a body good to see this. A non-political church is nice to see.

Well, this is an interesting development.