Tag Archives: Chicago

Reviews

The “Root”

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Today is a day that we Marines of yesteryear will never forget.  Some of you reading this post may not have even been alive on that dreadful day. It was a day where we as Marines suffered more losses in one day since the battle for that infamous island of Iwo Jima. While I was not there in the heat of all of it, I was impacted indirectly. I was the CO of the Corps’ largest recruiting station at the time, and two of the Marines  lost on that tragic day were from Chicago. The city mourned and SgtMaj Collins and I participated in its mourning. Quite a memorable experience for us both. It’s all in “The Book.”

My friend and Marine brother Greg pays tribute to that fateful day. Thank you Greg.

Twenty and Counting                                        By: Greg Maresca

For those not keeping count, it was 20-years ago that this column first appeared in these pages. Through the auspices of the now retired Jake Betz, former editor of The News Item, he gave a fledgling part-time sports’ stringer and broadcaster an opportunity to write a featured op/ed.

Sometimes I wonder if Jake regrets unleashing this space that grew like a cancer – slow at first and then metastasizing to other publications and outlets who were willing to give it a play. That first column has mushroomed to nearly 1,000 was something I debated about writing.

I had possessed no desire to write it but felt compelled. Such an overreaching sentiment would rise like a phoenix about many subsequent issues, questions, and concerns that live rent free within my DNA.

Back in 2003, as the run up to the 20th anniversary of the Hezbollah attack on the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit’s headquarters at the Beirut International Airport approached, I waded through TV guides searching for at least one program on this forsaken piece of American history that should be anything but.  Sadly, and to no surprise, there was nothing, no documentary to be seen, heard, or read about. Not one news’ program discussing where the genesis of the War on Terror had its deadly roots firmly planted.

Seemingly, the day was going to innocuously pass like any other.

This was not going to happen on my watch.

There was just too much blood and treasure spent on that fateful early Sunday morning nearly half a world away to not remember.  The casualty count on this cowardly suicide attack on the Marine Corps hadn’t been that high since the battle for Iwo Jima.  The largest non-nuclear blast since both atomic bombs were unleashed during World War II would claim 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers nestled away in their bunks at 6:22 on that fateful Sunday morning October 23, 1983.

Being a used book aficionado, I found one of the few tomes written on the Beirut deployment in a flea market for the pricy sum of a quarter.  The volume was practically brand new, and I wondered if anyone had even read it before being exiled to the flea market circuit. No bookmarks or any notations were found within its pristine binding.  The late esteemed military history writer Eric Hammel’s “The Root: The Marines in Beirut” now stands guard over my ever-growing stack of must reads.

John Chipura had quite an incomparable story to tell but never would have the opportunity, but I would.  When I read about his tale months after the 9/11 attack, its irony was nauseating. Chipura, a New York City native of Staten Island, was serving in Beirut the day of the attack. He returned unscathed only to meet his end as a member of the NYFD based out of Brooklyn at the World Trade Center nearly 18 years later.

Regrettably, not much has changed as the Middle East remains the graveyard of American foreign policy after years of trying to fashion the region into a stable, peaceful, and prosperous place.

Taking on edgy and provocative issues encouraged me to read widely, while at the same time fostering the principles of an open society and free markets, which are today more important than ever in a culture growing with leftist orthodoxy and fanaticism.

Facts, analysis, and experience are the guide where edification matters more than good intentions or telling folks what they want to hear.  You cannot be concerned with what people think, do, or say, since being called into question and criticized is the byproduct and where having the skin and guile of a crocodile is all part of the gig. For those who disagree, the hope is to challenge them with a better understanding of an alternate yet reasoned out perspective.

Putting accuracy ahead of popularity and running counter to the contemporary ethos is both costly personally and professionally. There are plenty who do not care for this column, but thankfully there are also plenty more who do.

Out of fidelity to the truth, certain things must be said and written about.

There is no other way.

Thank you for reading.

Very well said Greg, thank you kind sir!

 

 

 

 

Originally posted 2023-10-23 11:09:15.

Recent Posts

Life Has No Meaning Any More

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If anyone doesn’t think or believe we have become a third world sh*thole they are living under a rock. How can we ask for God’s help to re-right our once beloved country when we have killed millions of His unborn children, and continue to do so daily?

As for the mass shootings, I don’t have the full answer, but a step in the right direction might be for the federal government to outlaw the production and sale of todays video games that are all about shooting humans. For those parents who allow their young children to play those games, do not be surprised if he/she grows up to be a disoriented, disconnected human being who has no feelings for the value of  human life. You are the sick ones . My children were born and raised before those awful games were available, but you can bet your sweet bippee had they been around they would not have been allowed in my house. SICK, absolutely SICK!

Have you listened to the music your children are playing their ears phones? I doubt it. We are a country of no morals, no conscience, and surely no empathy for one another or the sanctity of life.

The part of Greg’s article in red is mine not his.

 

Anesthetized America

By: G. Maresca

It was nearly halfway through the class I facilitate on violence prevention that the massacre in Uvalde, Texas finally came up. I was beginning to wonder if the subject would ever be broached as we simply had picked up where we had left off from the previous class.

It was quite telling.

America has been anesthetized over the past generation to the cancer of mass shootings. And as much as the media wants to turn it into a racial issue, they can’t overcome the facts that the latest shooter was Latino, the Brooklyn subway gunman, Black and the Buffalo triggerman, White.

The insight these incarcerated men had went far beyond any critical media talking points. The group consists of long-term guys who, despite their predicament, have a sober understanding of the issues. On “gun free zones” they collectively viewed it as just another soft target begging for trouble. In jest, it was suggested that those who favor such things need to post a sign saying so in front of their homes.

The class is well acquainted with the nonstop howling about gun control and how it provides a perfect excuse to cloak the failures in recognizing and dealing with society’s real and mounting social problems. Anyone who believes more gun legislation will end mass shootings refuses to see the big picture. Ban guns yet the evil remains, and so do the guns but in the hands of society’s villains.

We have a crisis of fatherless homes more than a crisis of too many guns. We have too many enraged and directionless young men, where the root of the problem lies in the breakdown of the nuclear family and a depravity of traditional morals and values.

Most of the men in my charge come from such homes.

More anti-gun laws will not end mass shootings, nor heal these deep-seated social problems. Advocating for “action, any kind of action,” as Barack Obama suggested will not solve the problems that penetrate the American soul.

Author James Howard Kunstler summarized: “This is exactly what you get in a culture where anything goes, and nothing matters.” Many young men are living in what Kunstler describes as an “abyss of missing social relations” with “no communities, no fathers, no mentors, no initiations into personal responsibility, no daily organizing principles, no instruction in useful trades, no productive activities, no opportunities for love and affection, and no way out.”

Then we pile on social media for peer-pressure, and conceit, while remaining reluctant to report any fringe behavior for fear of reprisals.

When I was questioned by the group, I suggested the root of the problem lies in a Supreme Court decision made nearly 50-years ago: Roe v. Wade. The group seemed incredulous, at first.

Our culture does not value the sacredness of human life in its most innocent form – in a mother’s womb and yet we wonder why things are imploding. When I questioned them on how many lives abortion has claimed in its “legalized right” of a 49-year run, the highest guess was one million – 64-million souls short.

Is this not mass murder?

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Chicago experienced its most violent holiday in five years with 10 killed, and 42 wounded despite increased policing. Other than the members of my class, few will mention this or the carnage going on daily throughout the Black community. The Left could care less about Blacks killing Blacks as long as it is kept in their neighborhood.

Leftists refuse to acknowledge most murders are committed by Black and Latino gangbangers, not by White dues-paying members of the NRA, the ones Obama dismissed as “clinging to their guns and their religion.”

Banishing God and prayer from the public square, abortion, broken families, a war on morality, ubiquitous pornography, violent video games, movies, and music has nothing to do with gun violence. To suggest otherwise, gets you not only cancelled but assigned your share of the blame.

Firearms are not the problem. In the hands of heroes, they are often the only solution.

The exceptionally violent are a small percentage, but those who believe that life from conception to natural death is equally sacred remains just as small.

And that is the true tragedy.

Way to go Chicago, another great weekend huh? Ain’t it great that you have the tightest gun laws of any city in the U.S. How’s that working out for you?

PS, How about the latest news about  NASCAR’s woke moves? Never was a NASCAR enthusiast, so I don’t have to worry about it. But I’ll bet there are lot of enthusiasts who giving the organization a second thought.

Originally posted 2022-06-03 12:57:35.

Current Events

Chicago Makes the News Again.

3 Comments

Another Barn Burner from my good friend and brother Marine, Mustang. Chicago, what a nice place to live – NOT.  When I had the RS there in 1982-85 my office was smack dab in the downtown (the Loop), and it was not a bad place t live. My last two years I lived in downtown and used to walk to work when it wasn’t -10 degrees. And most of time I didn’t leave my office till very late, like around 2100-2200. Never “packed” and had no fear of anything. Hell, I would not do that now unless I was packing an AK-47 and had a Marine Rifle Squad accompanying me.

Mayor Lightfoot walked out of a meeting with a million dollar crime victim — then a city inspector showed up

by bunkerville

In the scheme of things, this story could be about just another brazen robbery held in broad daylight on The Magnificent Mile of Chicago. A few clips for the local news: the victim gives a moving story about crime in the city. Attacks Mayor Lightfoot over the terrible crime wave. Story makes the national news. Mayor decides to visit the victim in a PR move. What could go wrong? Well it turns out plenty. More importantly, there is a lesson for those who “poke the bear.” The meeting did not go well. In fact

Days after the smash-and-grab, Lightfoot walked in to Perillo’s showroom at 834 North Rush Street, where Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, and Bentley models are on display. She wasn’t there to buy.

Instead, she met with Perillo and, according to two sources familiar with the conversation, it did not go well. One said that the famously abrasive mayor “got into a fight and walked out.”

The second source confirmed the conversation soured and said Lightfoot called Perillo an “idiot” as she headed for the door.

If only this was the end of the story… but there is more. There is the lesson for all of us. Multiply the ending of the story to the tenth power and one has the force of the federal government. Thus we now have the new DOJ’s FBI’s Counterterrorism Division . They will keep track of those who attend school board meetings and disagree. In truth, they will no doubt keep track of anyone who disagrees with the apparatchiks. Then we get a visit. IRS? Or another agency that can turn our life upside down. Need to watch this video, 

After two men smashed a display case in Joe Perillo’s Gold Coast Exotic Motor Cars showroom and escaped with over $1 million in luxury watches on December 11, the well-known car dealer appeared on local and national TV news programs, demanding that the city and county take immediate steps to curb crime.

A mayor’s office spokesperson confirmed that Lightfoot met with Perillo but declined to provide details about the conversation, citing privacy expectations.

“The Mayor routinely meets with victims of crime and reached out to Mr. Perillo which resulted in a meeting. The Mayor offered to work with him to address safety and security matters at any of his dealership locations,” the spokesperson said.

A day or two after Lightfoot walked out, Perillo’s dealership received another visitor from the city: an inspector from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP). She brought her ticket book.

Lightfoot’s spokesperson said the inspector was following up on an anonymous complaint that the city received on December 15 about a public health violation at the dealership.

“It was unrelated to the mayor’s meeting with Mr. Perillo,” the spokesperson said.

In fact, CWBChicago has learned, the city inspector slapped Perillo’s dealership with four tickets for six violations during her visit shortly after 2 p.m. on December 17. Only one ticket and two of the alleged violations are health-related.

The inspector allegedly saw three employees and one customer not wearing COVID masks inside the dealership. She issued a ticket for two violations: failing to comply with the commissioner of health’s mask order and failing to comply with BACP’s order to comply with the commissioner of health’s mask order.

Perillo received another ticket for “storing, receiving, possessing, selling nineteen bottles of liquor. One whiskey, champagnes, wine, etc.” The fourth ticket alleges two violations: failure to display an incidental consumption liquor license and failure to have a required liquor license.

The inspector wrote a fourth ticket for “interfering with or obstructing the commissioner’s designee in the performance of duties.” According to the citation, the inspector announced an inspection at the dealership’s front desk, and the attendant presented her with the business’ licenses. When she asked for the man’s personal identification or the ID of any of the company’s representatives, he walked away, the inspector wrote.

And we all know, no one walks away from an agent of the government.

The best of the swamp today

I have a question for all my followers. How can a human being with a functioning left and right brain believe all the democratic BS and vote people like Mayor Lightfoot into office and honestly think they will be better off? That answer has slayed for years.

Thank you Mustang for another great post!

Originally posted 2022-01-13 14:15:54.

Current Events

Joe Dumbkirk

7 Comments

Tomorrow is a day that as Churchill stated many more years ago, “A day that live in infamy.’ For those who who were alive and coherent enough to remember that day, it was the most tragic incident of my lifetime. I was a mere year old when Pearl Harbour happened; therefore, this one is significant for me. I know, as I am sure you do as well, exactly where I was and what I was doing when it happened. I was mending fences on my ranch in Montana when my wife came streaming looking for me May we never forget that day and WHO it was that caused it.

Here’s another good one from my frequent contributor and friend Greg Maresca, a noted historian who only write facts!

By Greg Maresca

It was theatrical in its design and a Shakespearean tragedy in its unfolding. As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approached, President Biden desperately desired a historical and symbolic end to the nation’s longest war.

Biden’s vision turned out to be nothing short of a ‘70s era U.S. military and intelligence debacle taken to an unprecedented scale paid for in American blood, fortitude and treasure.

Where are the resignations of all the generals and admirals who argued against capitulation?

Robert Gates, the respected former secretary of defense under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, wrote in his memoir that Biden had been wrong on “nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

Some things never change.

Biden’s foreign policy rewards our enemies and punishes our allies.

It was in June as the Taliban began their march to Kabul that all U.S. embassies throughout the world celebrated sodomy via “Gay Pride Month,” as part of the Biden’s Administration’s foreign policy.

American exceptionalism was replaced with American perversion.

As Great Britain’s Neville Chamberlain is remembered for appeasement in the Nazi takeover of Sudetenland, Biden will be remembered for leaving Afghanistan to the Taliban, while abandoning thousands of America’s allies and rebooting Islamist fundamentalists the world over.

Allowing the Taliban to dictate the terms of withdrawal was reprehensible and irresponsible. As such, it raised the threat of terrorism to levels it had not witnessed in years.

Biden is a shoo-in for the Nobel Appeasement Prize for his military retreat – Dumbkirk.

Biden bequeathed the Taliban a reported $85 billion in military hardware that will allow them to wage war and terror for years. Moreover, Bagram Air Base is now China’s de facto world class central Asian integrated air headquarters courtesy of the American taxpayer. Likewise, Afghanistan is rich in rare earth minerals that China will certainly exploit and profit from.

Biden’s surrender plays daily throughout our fruited plain. Portland, Oregon is lawless permitting Antifa, and the Proud Boys to wage battle without consequences. In Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco homeless bivouacs and unbridled crime have turned these cities into dystopian, democrat nightmares. In Chicago, gang warfare runs rampant with shootings far worse than what our military experienced in Afghanistan especially over the last 18 months going without casualties.

What Biden has succeeded in doing is uniting nearly two-thirds of Americans — all of whom believe his flight from Afghanistan was a colossal disaster.  It is the one-third who believe Biden is actually doing a good job that is most concerning.

In a successful military and intelligence campaign in Afghanistan, we had 2,500 troops with a strategic presence in central Asia’s foremost terrorist breeding grounds. Continued funding certainly could have been found in the series of COVID relief packages passed by Congress, of which less than half went to anything remotely COVID.

For over 70 years, we have maintained thousands of troops in South Korea, and since the end of World War II we have had troops in Japan and Germany. Maintaining a contingent of troops in Afghanistan that have been successful in deterring terrorism at home you think would be a given.

The Russians, Chinese, Iranians and the North Koreans will certainly test our defenses especially in cyberspace.

Come 9/11 our enemies will be dancing in the streets as our southern border is wide open and we are lectured about how vaccinations, global warming, and systemic racism are the most pressing problems facing the nation.

Perhaps Biden should send an army of social workers and psychologists into Afghanistan who could reason with the Taliban and show them the errors of their ways. Instructing them how they were wrongfully utilizing microaggression, ignorant of Facebook’s 58 genders, and the wonders and marvels of applied critical race theory.

Such a pathetic ending in Afghanistan was most unworthy of this 20-year epic struggle.

It was not a departure but an abandonment.

Could there have been any less planning and foresight?

Whatever possessed Biden to believe that the 20th anniversary of 9/11 was the right time for such a pullout?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ensuing chaos at Kabul’s airport with people falling to their deaths from American Air Force planes is seared into the Biden legacy.

Postscript: This will be my last post for a little over a week. My bride and I will depart on the 11th, Saturday, on a LONG overdue Honeymoon (35 years). We never had one as I was in the middle of SOC workups , then deployed for six months. She understood completely as all Marine wives do. So we are going to some faraway place and hideout for a week. No, I won’t tell you until we return. No phones, no internet, and no TV. Swim, snorkel, scuba dive, sail board, relax, refresh, drink umbrella drinks under a canopy on the beach, and have a specially prepared dinner for us on our day — 13 September — on the beach under the same personal umbrella. 

I wish you all the best, stay safe, keep up the pressure on you know who and all the holders of his many puppet strings. I hope he hasn’t destroyed America so we have a place to which to return. Semper Fi; Jim and my bride of thirty-five years.

 

 

Originally posted 2021-09-10 13:38:27.