Tag archive: Chicago

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Happy St Valentine’s Day (Massacre)

Yeah, well, you can’t expect cupids and flowers from yours truly on Valentine’s Day, right?  Something a bit more twisted is on offer here, but it does involve asteroid Valentine 447.

It’s the infamous St Valentine’s Day massacre, perpetrated in 1929, when seven gang members were slain in a Chicago garage by associates of a rival gang, competing for dominance in Prohibition-era Illinois.  The killers have never been positively identified, but suspicion rests with former members of Egan’s Rats, now working for Al Capone, in the mass shooting at 2122 Clark Street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park section.  Competition for bootleg liquor smuggled from Canada was the proximate cause of the feud between the North Side Gang and Capone’s Chicago Outfit; some of the killers were disguised as police and the rival mobsters were slain with Thompson submachine guns, the romanticized “Tommy gun,” the most powerful weaponry of the period.

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DNC 24 cover

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The 2024 Democratic National Convention

The 2024 DNC kicked off in Chicago on 19 August, under very different circumstances than those under which it was conceived and planned.  Originally intended as a re-up ceremony for incumbent US President Joe Biden, likely a fairly sedate affair (given his age and the flagging poll numbers in the race against Donald Trump), after the former withdrew from the race and passed the baton to VP Kamala Harris, things changed dramatically. 

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Jussie Smollett: Truth or Fiction?

Jussie Smollett is a biracial actor and singer, who came to national attention in the hit Fox drama “Empire”, where he portrays a gay black man caught up in the backstage machinations of the music industry. Smollett is himself gay, and very publically so, coming out on Ellen DeGeneres’ show in 2015. He began his acting career as a child, in such films as “The Mighty Ducks” and “North”, before moving into commercials and guest spots, then returning to a lead role in 2015 with “Empire”. Smollett’s portrayal has received international acclaim as “groundbreaking” for gays of color.

 

On January 29, 2019, Smollett filed a report with the Chicago Police Department alleging he had been attacked and brutalized by two white men in the street, who hurled fists and both racial and sexual epithets at him, including putting a rope around his neck. According to Smollett, the attackers yelled “This is MAGA country!” as they assaulted him, an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign theme. Smollett claims he fought them off, and was released from the hospital the next morning with only superficial injuries.

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