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Shot Across the Bow of the Illinois Ship of State
President Trump has a pen and a phone, too. He used the pen to send a letter to Chicago Mayor Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. Pritzker on Friday, June 26, 2020. He made no overt threat, but the letter must be read in the context of his repeated statements about domestic security in these United States. President Trump’s two-page letter followed up his Thursday Fox News town hall, and his lengthy Federalist interview in the Oval Office on Friday. The letter cited the recent death toll in Chicago, a butcher’s bill added in the 72 hours that followed.
The Chicago Sun-Times tells the grim tale:
18 dead, 47 wounded in Chicago weekend shootings
Four children were among the weekend’s victims, including a 1-year-old boy fatally shot in Englewood, a 10-year-old girl killed in Logan Square and a 17-year-old boy killed in Humboldt Park.[. . .]
A 10-year-old girl was fatally shot Saturday night when a stray bullet hit her inside a Logan Square home on the Northwest Side. [. . .] Lina Nunez was taken to Stroger Hospital, where she was pronounced dead hours later, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
[. . .]
Earlier that afternoon, a 1-year-old boy was killed and his mother was wounded in Englewood on the South Side.
The woman and her child were driving home from a laundromat just after 2 p.m. when a gunman pulled up alongside them in another vehicle and opened fire near 60th and Halsted streets, according to police. The child was struck once in the chest, while his mother, 22, was grazed on the head. She drove them to St. Bernard Hospital, where the child died. The mother was later taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center for treatment and her condition was stabilized.
The medical examiner’s office identified the boy as Sincere A. Gaston. He lived in South Chicago.
[. . .]
Antiwon Douglas, 17, was in a large crowd at 11:25 a.m. in the 1100 block of North Monticello Avenue when he got into an altercation and someone from the group pulled out a gun and fired shots, authorities said.
Kayleigh McEneny opened the Monday press briefing with a reflection on the murders in New York City and Chicago. She should be calling the roll of every person under the age of 18 who is killed in our cities when they are not engaged in crime themselves. The press jackals continued to show their depraved indifference to inconvenient black lives, deaths that do not advance their radical leftist agenda. Next Monday, Kayleigh McEneny needs to conclude the briefing by reciting all the names and showing available pictures of the child victims from the past three weekends. She needs to then denounce the pack for their complete indifference, for killing the memories of these children and call on them to soften their hearts and repent.
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany
Issued on: June 29, 2020James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
1:25 P.M. EDT
MS. MCENANY: Hello, everyone. Law and order are the building blocks to the American Dream, but if anarchy prevails, this dream comes crum- — comes crumbling down. Anarchy in our streets is unacceptable, and anger is not enough. You have a President committed to action.
The DOJ has arrested over 100 anarchists for rioting and destruction of federal property. The DOJ has also charged four men in federal court for attempting to tear down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square. The FBI has over 200 open domestic terrorism investigations ongoing. AG Barr has created a task force on violent anti-government extremists led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Northern Texas.
With 200 Trump-appointed judges confirmed, the rule of law will be upheld. Democrats at all lev- — at all levels — federal, state, and local — have done nothing. Senate Democrats blocked bipartisan police reform. Minnesota’s Democrat governor failed to urgently deploy the National Guard — it took President Trump for that to eventually happen; his suggestion — and the ultimate descendance into chaos there in Minneapolis.
Three Democrat Minneapolis councilmembers voted to abolish the police, while they themselves were getting a private security detail. That’s quite rich.
Democrat mayor of Seattle called the CHOP zone — the autonomous zone — “the summer of love.” It is anything but that with one dead, multiple shootings, and desperate pleas for help unanswered by business owners and others.
Eleven people were shot in 12 hours this weekend in the Democrat-run New York City. And 61 people were shot in Democrat-run Chicago, and 15 fatally killed — a Democrat state, a Democrat city.
President Trump stands against defunding our brave police officers, caving to mob rule, and cancel culture which seeks to erase our history.
Let’s be clear: The rampant destruction of statues is not a part of any ideology, but this anarchy is aided by failed Democrat leadership. And as President Trump has tweeted, these statues, quote, “are great works of art, but all represent our History & Heritage, both the good and the bad. It is important for us to understand and remember, even in turbulent and difficult times, and to learn from them.”
So let’s stand for law and order, for peace in our streets, and against anarchy. This is President Trump’s vision for the future.
Rauner was an interesting figure. Fiscally conservative but with some socially liberal stands which were probably the reason he was elected. However (and @illiniguy might want to step in here) Michael Madigan, who has been the Democrat Speaker of the House since ‘83 except for 2 years, controls Springfield and the Democratic purse-strings and you don’t get much done without tripping over him. So it feels to me like Republicans are powerless to move good and necessary legislation forward because it gets stalled.
A taste of Madigan…
As far as I can tell the Republican party doesn’t exist in Illinois. No inroads whatsoever at least not in Chicago. The collar counties used to be solid R, but I dont think that’s the case anymore.
I tried getting involved a few times. I never even got a response from the local committee.
Rauner. Ugh, he was the best we could put up. With mismanagement and craziness like we have in IL it should be easier to compete. I think that’s part if the problem: we don’t have competition as much as going along and walking on egg shells.
There’s the problem. Failure to compete, and lack of a national party pushing local chapters to show engagement leads to a little club that accomplishes nothing.
Republicans/conservatives in general don’t even think government is what should be doing all of these things, so a lack of enthusiasm is not surprising. Of course, it’s exactly the opposite on the other side.
No. Republicans/conservatives, so-called, are not serious about the Constitution to which they pay lip service when cued. We were born a nation of civically engaged citizens. That is why postal roads and a post office are in the Constitution. It was necessary to provide a communications infrastructure to allow people to be informed and to share views between remote locations.