City where do-goodism caused a lot of trouble.

A capsule explanation that has to be one of the best of the many reasons that for making the switch:

A Democrat by birth, Thomas became more conservative in adulthood as reality taught him that dreams of perfecting human society always run smack into human nature.??????

Yesss!

Main target the demon gentrification,

[Ald. Roberto] Maldonado [new chair of caucus] identifies gentrification as the biggest threat facing Latinos in Chicago. ???We are being pushed out at a very fast pace,??? Maldonado said.[Biggest threat? Neither gangs nor crime nor bad schools?] On the Northwest Side, homes in the Puerto Rican stronghold of Humboldt Park are selling for over $1 million dollars as homeowners flip three-flats into single family homes. Wicker Park and Logan Square, once Hispanic strongholds, are now majority white.

And this threatens Hispanic incumbents with loss of elections?

On the Southwest Side, Pilsen has become a nationally recognized neighborhood. [There’s your problem, loss of
anonymity!] That has created a real estate boom [stop it! now!] that???s now spreading to adjacent historically Mexican working class neighborhoods.

???Some of our communities are being completely gentrified,??? Maldonado said. ???We need to stop that, we need to slow it down.??? [Which? Stop it or slow it down! Hey, it’s political
speechmaking.]

Ah socialism.

But wait. Neighborhoods are changing? Egad. As if it’s not probably the oldest internal migration pattern in the city’s history. But this time it’s bad, says the head of the Latino Caucus, flexing its muscles in this brave new world that has come upon us. [It’s
our moment, says Ald. Andre Vasquez of the 40th.]

Wow. people are making money out of building new and better housing or rehabbing the old to make them newer and better. We can’t have that. There oughta be a law. Rent control? Not mentioned these days. It drove NYC’s housing shortages sky high, to provide one example.

Nope. Now it’s government-mandated affordable housing, worthy of immediate close scrutiny because it interferes with the free market and like many such programs makes matter worse, as argued in this 2016 LA Times opinion piece. And discussed frequently at this site.

All in all, if an alderman says he loves to give you things, check it out.

Clearly a socialist ploy.

Not kidding, btw.

Let them get high.

(Apologies to Marie Antoinette, who never said let her subjects eat cake, but most think she did.)

Well gosh, we knew that. Has looked to Benedict for guidance from the start.

Gulp.

. . . Touching.

What happens if you challenge a dictator pope:

This week John Rist, who had been conducting scholarly research at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum, learned that he had suddenly become persona non grata at the venerable Roman institution. He was given neither warning nor formal notice; he learned of his new status only when he was unable to gain access to the parking lot.

John Rist is a world-class scholar, noted for decades of outstanding contributions to the history of philosophy. Among his academic credentials are an honorary doctorate from the Pontifical Institute of the Holy Cross and a chaired professorship at the Catholic University of America. He had been, until this week, a visiting professor at the Augustinianum.

What did Rist do, to prompt the Augustinianum to banish him? He signed the open letter charging the Pope with heresy.

The writer concludes:

The crude treatment of John Rist—which the professor rightly described as “grotesque discourtesy”—highlights a disturbing trend in Rome. Call it the new ultramontanism: the aggressive attitude of the Pope’s overeager defenders, who treat criticism of the Pontiff as a far more serious offense than attacks on the Catholic faith.

All the pope’s men do this.

The man has a memory like a sieve.

In his latest interview Pope Francis says that he does not remember whether or not Archbishop Vigano told him about Theodore McCarrick’s sexual misconduct. He also insists that he knew “nothing, obviously, nothing, nothing” about McCarrick’s misconduct. Those two claims do not sit comfortably side by side.

If you told me that you studied French in high school, I might not recall that fact five years later; it wouldn’t stand out in my mind. But if you told me that you had wrestled a grizzly bear, whether or not I believed you, I would certainly remember the claim. Is the Pope suggesting that the news Archbishop Vigano says he conveyed—that a cardinal-archbishop had been bedding seminarians, and had been ordered by the previous Pontiff to retire from public life—would not have made a lasting impression?

He can’t be serious.

Yet even that outlandish suggestion is not enough to bring the Pope’s two claims into a workable alignment. Because if Archbishop Vigano had informed him, then even if the Pope somehow forgot, he could not truthfully say that he knew “nothing” about the McCarrick scandal.

Oh my.

He’s hard to pin down, as in a recent interview.

Pope Francis . . . went on to say that he could not remember whether Vigan?? had mentioned Uncle Ted [Cardinal McCarrick] to him. Francis seems to have a tough time remembering lots of things. He can???t remember what he told the Argentinian woman who wrote to him seeking counsel on her irregular marital situation and her relationship with the Church.

Pope Francis has never said what happened to the letter Juan Carlos Cruz wrote him. One wonders what happened to it, especially since the Pope reportedly received it some three years before he claimed never to have received any proof evidence against Bishop Juan Barros.

In the absence of a paper trail, ???I don???t recall,??? is usually enough to keep a formal indictment at arm???s length from heads of state (from ones, at least, who are subject to the law), but Pope Francis is not subject to any earthly judgment. He doesn???t have to run for re-election, either.

He’s home free.