Author: Jim Bowman

Jim Bowman covered religion 1968-78 for the Chicago Daily News, since then has written books, articles, etc., mostly on corporate history but also on religion (Company Man: My Jesuit Life, 1950-1968), and more recently on politics (Illinois Blues: How the Ruling Party Talks to Voters -- Lulu.com, Kindle). Longtime Oak Park, Illinois, resident, he lives now on Chicago's North Side, where four of his and Winnie's six children live close by.

Violence Breaks Out at Trump Rally in San Jose, Protesters Hurl Eggs, Throw Punches, Intimidate Supporters – ABC News

First-amendment rights stretched beyond recognition in above-pictured rioting.

Here’s what the day’s candidate had to say:

The drumbeat of Trump’s attacks on the former secretary of state has only grown louder in the last several weeks as he has also targeted her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and President Barack Obama.

“Anything Obama wants, she’s going forward with, because you know why? She doesn’t want to go to jail. That’s why, folks,” Trump said.

“Bill Clinton hated [Obama]. And Hillary Clinton hated Obama. The only reason she’s behaving like this and the only reason she’s been dragged so far left, believe me, is she doesn’t want to go to jail over the emails, OK? Believe me. That’s the only reason.”

Yes indeed. Ed Klein’s books have it all.  

Source: Violence Breaks Out at Trump Rally in San Jose, Protesters Hurl Eggs, Throw Punches, Intimidate Supporters – ABC News

Sen. Harmon of Oak Park an uber-loyal Democrat

It’s this Madigan budget. If party loyalty is Sen. Don Harmon’s (D-Oak Park) strong suit, as in his voting to short-change Oak Park schools, then it’s no surprise that he voted for the Madigan budget, with its absurd $7-billion deficit. On the minority side of a 17-31 vote, no less!

You dance with the one who brought you, of course. Harmon knows (and endorses) that. Where would he be without the party? So he went with the leadership, such as it is, and let the devil take the hindmost.

You can read more about Harmon, Rep. Camille Lilly, and others of the Ruling Party in my new book, Illinois Blues: How the Ruling Party Talks to Voters, available also in Kindle format.

Major thing Trump has going for him

 

He does not mind his p’s and q’s.

The core of the Trump Phenomenon is the question of freedom of expression.

Donald Trump has come to be seen by both his enemies and his supporters as the living embodiment of a potential revival of the American tradition of free speech after the Obama ice age of political correctness.

Trump’s backers tend to believe they have more to gain from frank, outspoken debate (whether in pragmatic advantages or simply in entertainment value), while his opponents assume that they, personally, have more to lose from a return to a freer market for ideas

Go to Taki’s Mag for the rest of it.

In the massive Brooklyn Headquarters of the Hillary campaign, they know something is happening, but . . .

. . . they don’t know what it is (to paraphrase Bob Dylan’s taunting lyric). A fundraising email sent out by campaign manager Robbie Mook is sta…

Source: In the massive Brooklyn Headquarters of the Hillary campaign, they know something is happening, but they don’t know what it is (to paraphrase Bob Dylan’s taunting lyric). A fundraising email sent out by campaign manager Robbie Mook is sta…

In defense of stingy government

Some quotes to run a country by:

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger
on that article of the Constitution
which granted a right to Congress of expending,
on the objects of benevolence,
the money of their constituents.”
— James Madison
(1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President
Source: 1792, in disapproval of Congress appropriating $15,000 to assist some French refugees
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/James.Madison.Quote.24FE


“The real destroyer of the liberties of the people
is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.”
— Plutarch
(c.45-125 A.D.) Priest of the Delphic Oracle
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Plutarch.Quote.E3A1


“If the right to vote were expanded to seven year olds … its policies would most definitely reflect the ‘legitimate concerns’ of children to have ‘adequate’ and ‘equal’ access to ‘free’ french fries, lemonade and videos.”
— Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Source: Democracy–The God That Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy, and Natural Order
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Hans-Hermann.Hoppe.Quote.6452

Couldn’t pass these up.

Newsalert: Television Networks Struggle to Provide Equal Airtime in the Era of Trump

He’s available, she usually isn’t. Our presumptive Dem candidate, that is.

“Maybe, Hillary has something to hide,” comments Newalert’s Steve Bartin.

I endorse that comment.

Besides, she’s brittle, he’s quick on his feet, a far better campaigner.

Source: Newsalert: Television Networks Struggle to Provide Equal Airtime in the Era of Trump

Gov. Rauner vows to veto Madigan budget if it reaches his desk – Chicago Tribune

Budget that tries to reverse the state’s downward trajectory vs. one that kicks can down road:

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Sunday vowed to veto a House Democratic state budget bill if it gets to his desk, setting up a potential election-year blame game against Speaker Michael Madigan should public schools throughout Illinois fail to open this fall.

Pension debt solution vs. same-old, same-old:

The threat came as Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel ratcheted up their battle over the governor’s Friday veto of a bill that would have created a new funding timetable for Chicago police and fire pensions. Emanuel labeled a city property tax hike that now could be needed to fund pensions a “Rauner tax,” while the governor faulted the mayor for failing to come to Springfield to work for comprehensive reforms.

Businesses vs. unions and trial lawyers:

The spring session is scheduled to end at midnight Tuesday, but Madigan said Sunday that the House would remain in “continuous session” past the deadline — the same term he used at the end of May 2015 when the stalemate started — and disregarded Rauner’s call for a quick grand compromise that included elements of the governor’s pro-business agenda, parts of which would come at the expense of Democratic allies in organized labor and civil liability attorneys

Trouble is, businesses create jobs if given a chance, unions work to raise cost of doing business while taking care of their own, lawyers love high-payout cases in which they profit handsomely.

Guess who helps or hinders economic growth and prosperity.

Source: Gov. Rauner vows to veto Madigan budget if it reaches his desk – Chicago Tribune

Worldly wisdom from a long-ago Jesuit, #2

What to tell people and when to tell them. Keep cards close to the vest:

iii Keep Matters for a Time in Suspense.

Admiration at their novelty heightens the value of your achievements, It is both useless and insipid to play with the cards on the table. If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation, especially when the importance of your position makes you the object of general attention.

Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery arouses veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit, just as you do not expose your inmost thoughts in ordinary intercourse. Cautious silence is the holy of holies of worldly wisdom.

A resolution declared is never highly thought of; it only leaves room for criticism. And if it happens to fail, you are doubly unfortunate. Besides you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder and watch

He published several best-sellers without permission, this one in 1647, and paid for that sin.

Source: The Art of Worldly Wisdom: The Art of Worldly Wisdom: 1-49

Tips from a Jesuit on how to survive in the modern world

Worldly-wise advice from the 17th century:

Balthasar Gracian [1601-1658], a Jesuit priest, wrote this collection of pithy sayings four centuries ago.

Gracian speaks to the twenty-first century as well as the seventeenth. It’s only a matter of time before someone markets Gracian’s life advice to busy executives, like Sun Tzu or the Book of Five Rings (if it hasn’t been already). . . .

Blithe Spirit readers should be apprised of at least two other, more recent, translations, by Christopher Maurer (Doubleday ,1992) and Jeremy Robbins (Penguin, 2011).

Robbins notes in his introduction that Gracian (1601-1658) in 1657 was “punished by the Jesuits for his consistent failure to obtain formal permission to publish, as required” — not only this “oracle” but a novel and other works.

This included being removed from his teaching post, being publicly reprimanded, and put on a diet of bread and water. He considered leaving the Jesuits for another order, but was rehabilitated and sent to a college, where he died months later.

Begin with this first epigram, from the 1892 translation by Joseph Jacobs.

i Everything is at its Acme;

especially the art of making one’s way in the world. There is more required nowadays to make a single wise man than formerly to make Seven Sages, and more is needed nowadays to deal with a single person than was required with a whole people in former times.

So matters stood in the 17th century, as now in the 21st, when the advice applies as precisely now as when written.

Source: The Art of Worldly Wisdom Index