Royko’s People to Congress: You Have Forgotten Your Place

What happens when radical becomes mainstream

By Rich Kozlovich

If you're paying any attention to the news you can't help but notice just how radical and....quite frankly.... how stunningly stupid so many are in the media.  One of the nitwits on The View, Sunny Hostin, claimed global warming caused the "solar eclipse, a recent earthquake, and the impending cicada breeding season".  Even Whoopie knew better, and since she's about the dullest pebble in the brook, and she got it right, you have to wonder who picks these nitwits for this show?   Well, actually, for that matter, you could say that about MSNBC, and the rest of the mainstream media. 

That wasn't always true.  

I've written about Mike Royko in the past, and truth be told, the more I see going on, the more I miss him.  For those who aren’t old enough to remember Mike Royko let me tell you about him. Mike Royko, who died in 1997, was a syndicated columnist out of Chicago where he grew up. Royko was an ethnic kid of Polish/Ukrainian origin, and was the voice of “everyman Chicago”. He was sarcastic, caustic, and totally skeptical of elitists and their thinking. Royko took the view, as Studs Terkel pointed out"

“Somebody’s up against it”! Royko wanted to make sure there was someone who would do something about it. Him! A healthy attitude in my opinion!

It was clear that Royko had very little respect for politicians and hated political correctness. He hated hypocrisy, special privileges for special people, and had little tolerance for them.  Royko was all about basic fair play. 

Everything had become about superficial imagery and money and he hated it. But, Mike’s gone now and the problems he was so concerned about have only become exacerbated by time, and if Mike had lived he's be 88 now, and I have no doubt if he was still capable he'd be taking a stand against the insanity.   Sadly, he's no longer here, and for a number of reason, there just hasn't anyone who could take his place in the minds of Americans.   

So where does that leave "Royko's people"? 

Royko was sensitive to people who were suffering, and he had a way of cutting right past the smoke screen of nonsense spewed out by those who are prominent and powerful and right into the fire. Have we lost sight of the need for that? Are we capable of seeing past the activity that has become a substitute for accomplishment? Are we capable of standing up on our hind legs and saying:

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore?” As someone once said: “It’s a falsehood; history doesn’t repeat itself; people just fail to grasp the lessons of history”.

We have the world’s governments spending billions and billions of dollars on projects that they claim are to save the world’s environment. Money they don’t have! They pass laws to make the world change from perfectly operating power generation systems to systems that are completely incapable of meeting current energy needs, let alone future needs.

Eleven years ago people in Eastern Europe froze to death due to a lack of sufficient energy production. All due to their governments desire to reduce CO2 emissions, based on the false premise that CO2 is causing global warming. Yet all these ‘alternative’ power generating schemes are failures. They have always been failures. And they will always be failures unless there is some kind of massive technological breakthrough that currently isn’t even on the horizon. Result; people die, people suffer and people pay through the nose for the energy they are supplied. All based on lies from the green movement.

We have placed unaccountable bureaucrats in charge of determining what pesticides are to be used even when we know, and have known from the very beginning, they are basing their rules on ideology and not science. We shouldn’t have to be even discussing this reality. We now know the EPA has sweetheart deals with the green movement called “Sue and Settle”.

The greenies sue the EPA and the EPA gives a half hearted attempt to defend itself and then settles with the activists to get power they want that Congress never intended for them to have. The result? We have people suffering all over the world from the lack of inexpensive, effective chemistry that saves lives from diseases and starvation. In the U.S. we suffer from an ever growing bed bug plague, yet the EPA and the green movement continue going down their insane path with speculative claims that pesticides represent grave dangers; speculations that have no relationship to reality.

We have bureaucrats impose serious limitations on people’s use of their own property in total violation of their Constitutional rights based on the whim of some self important government employee. And then they claim they have no legal recourse because the courts have no jurisdiction over their actions.  That's called the administrative state, and finally, the courts are taking this up and saying there's nothing in the constitution that permits Congress to transfer their power and responsibilities to bureaucrats.

When radical thinking becomes mainstream this is what happens to “Royko’s people”. Because it’s average people just trying to live their lives who suffer from the actions of the elite, the arrogant and the insane. Becky Gerritson told Congress:

“I’m not here as a serf or a vassal. I’m not begging my lords for mercy. I’m a born free American woman. Wife, mother, and citizen. And I’m telling my government that you’ve forgotten your place. It’s not your responsibility to look out for my wellbeing and to monitor my speech. It’s not your right to assert an agenda. Your post, the post that you occupy, exists to preserve American liberty. You’ve sworn to perform that duty, and you have faltered…”You have forgotten your place”....... 

That sent electric waves through anyone who heard it. Aren’t you glad someone said it?  Royko thrived on confrontation more than willing to stand up for what's right, and I'm just sorry that Royko wasn't here to see that.  He would have loved it!

When rulers forget their oaths -  April 11, 2024 by Richard C. Lyons - Such people have the perfect moral chemistry to engage in tyranny.  In self-governing societies, choosing a leader of the nation is the most important responsibility a citizen has.  In our United States, where the presidency has grown to be so powerful an office, it is even more so.  Through time immemorial, whether in Greece or Rome, in England, or among native Americans, a few vital questions have always been foremost when questioning those who sought powerful office: will they obey their oath to follow the constitution?  Will they faithfully execute the law and obey the law themselves?  Do they believe in a higher moral calling, a higher power, as in God?

The reason for these questions is perhaps not obvious.  But if a person in power does not perceive himself as being bound by his oath or by a constitution of law, the powerful tend to change from humans into wolves.  And if one does not believe in a higher moral authority there is no moral code or power he will respect between here and hell. .............And it is why this alliance of the Democrat party, its Administrative State, and its subsidiary media is so dangerous.  In pursuit of absolute power, the Democrat party is prepared to wrench the Constitution out of existence and break any law or faith they have to, if it stands in their way.  The Democrat party literally holds to no oath, no law, no altar...

 

Congress is Out of Control! What Would Mike Royko Have Thought?

"You know that little voice in your head that keeps you from saying the things you shouldn't say? Yeah, I don't have that!"

By Rich Kozlovich

A great many of you are probably too young to remember that great Chicago columnist Mike Royko, one of my all time favorite writers, who died in 1997 at age 64.  That just seems like yesterday to me, but that was 27 years ago, and time really does go by faster the older you get.

I didn't always agree with Mike, but he didn't have that little voice in his head that prevented him from saying things he shouldn't say either, and had an amazing ability to cut through the crap, cut to the chase, talking to and for "Royko's people, and he could really tic people off.   I really liked that. In 1980 he wrote a column about Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne, which I've no doubt almost none of you remember who she was either, saying:

The mayor “has managed to surround herself with as amazing a collection of political connivers, wheeler-dealers, misfits, incompetents, and deadbeats as I’ve ever seen.” 

Ya just gotta love that kind of verbiage.  I always admired Royko, and some years ago I wrote an article about Mike entitled, Let Me Tell You About Mike Royko, saying: 

I really miss Royko! He understood what everyday people were suffering and had a way of cutting right past the smoke screen of nonsense spewed out by those who are prominent and right into the fire. Have we lost sight of it? Are we capable of seeing past the claptrap that has become a substitute for accomplishment?

I was very pleased his son commented on my article saying:

I see many blog comments and commentaries about Dad, almost daily (thank you Google Alerts!), and I very rarely comment on them, but I really enjoyed yours. I think Dad would have too. Thanks, and keep on exterminatin'!

 Royko was:

The voice of the Everyman Chicago. Although caustically sarcastic, he never condescended to his readers, considering himself one of the people and maintaining a healthy skepticism about elites of all kinds. We could use more Roykos now........typically from the perspective of "somebody up against it....[America became laminated, with] its politicians phony, its values spiffed up and over-starched, its social discourse spooked by political correctness. It gnawed at him.....He cared about privilege, street-level fairness and hypocrisy........The ballplayers were in it for the money, the baby boomers were in it for the self-indulgence, and the politicians were in it for the polls. Whatever happened to the people behind the polls--to Royko's people?”

Royko was all about "Royko's people"!

From his articles you got the impression Royko had "confidants", mostly from his favorite bar, who allegedly kept him informed and insightful.  Well, in my case, I have Mike, a very conservative friend who is politically involved but not a politician.  

He's apparently on Ron Paul's email list, and during election cycles it's amazing how many of those lists one can appear on asking for donations, and that's what this was.  If interested,  support Campaign for Liberty with a contribution.  

Mostly I just ignore this stuff, especially when I get e-mails and phone messages from Joe Biden, who is somehow under the impression I'm his friend.  Remarkable!  However, in this case the Senator had a lot of insights worth reading from his commentary, Congressional Omnibus is Like a Bad Hollywood Movie Sequel, which also appeared in the Orange County Register, saying:

This weekend’s late-night spending vote in Congress seems like another in an endless series of sequels to a bad suspense movie. Just at the brink of “disaster,” just before the stroke of midnight, Congress pulls off a miracle and passes an omnibus bill to save us from a “government shutdown!”

The heroes have saved the day! (Editor's Note:  For those who don't get it, he's being snarky.  RK)

 Unfortunately, this latest sequel is as bad as the previous ones, as the American people are left with a massive $1.2 trillion dollar spending package to add to our already $34 trillion in debt. Military spending will, of course, be increased yet again, as the military-industrial complex demands more of our wealth to feed its ever-increasing appetite. And if this military spending increase is not enough, Congressional leadership is promising another huge supplemental bill to further fuel proxy wars in Ukraine and Gaza – with some money to provoke China as well.

Republicans like to talk a good game about reining in spending – especially during election season – but as we learned with this “compromise” and all previous “compromises, it’s all talk. At the end of all the dramatic warnings about shutting the government down, we are left with a Washington-style compromise, meaning the leadership of both parties gets to throw anything and everything they want into the massive bill. Because it is only presented to the rank and file at the last moment before “disaster,” none of the Members get a chance to even read it, much less shape it through amendments and debate.

The Republican House leadership promised the Members 72 hours to read any new bill before a vote, but they broke their promise without hesitation. Members would not have the chance to read the more than 1,000 page bill, which was worked out in secret behind closed doors

There is likely a reason that Congressional leaders did not want Members to get the chance to read the bill. As Rep. Thomas Massie discovered, buried in the bill is funding for 13 year old children to get help with gender transitioning without consent from their parents. He also pointed out that although nowhere was it in the authorization bill, just hours after the omnibus passes the Department of Justice announces the creation of a Federal “Red Flag” center to attack our Second Amendment rights.

Who knows how many more items like these – and far worse – are deeply buried in the “must-pass” spending bill. Keeping these items from the American people by secretly embedding them in “must pass” legislation increasingly looks like a feature, not a bug. No wonder Congress enjoys such a low approval rate among the American people.

In the end, the bill only passed the Republican-controlled House with the support of Democrats, fueling a growing rebellion against Speaker Johnson among House conservatives.

The media-celebrated “bipartisanship” is not all it’s cracked up to be. It means that both parties embrace policies that are leading to our financial bankruptcy. This further threatens the dollar as the world’s reserve currency and will result in catastrophic changes worldwide that nearly no one in Congress seems capable of imagining.

Republicans capitulating to Democrat demands to “save us” from a government shutdown may temporarily keep the appearance that “this is fine,” but in the end they are making the coming crash all the worse.

There's a reason the Republicans are called the Stupid Party.  They earned it.  And what about Royko's people?  They could care less.  If Mike was alive today what would he say?  Paraphrasing him he would have said the Republican leadership “has managed to surround itself with as amazing a collection of political connivers, wheeler-dealers, misfits, incompetents, and deadbeats as I’ve ever seen.”  .

Let Me Tell You About Mike Royko

By Rich Kozlovich

I intend to have some kind of weekly update on the world of bedbugs and the torment they are causing. There is a large contingent of “experts” who have been spewing out absolute nonsense when they should know better. I intend to outline what is wrong with their views, I intend to embarrass them.

What really disturbs me about all of this is that it appears we have entirely too many pest control professionals, (we used to be exterminators, but now we are pest control professionals) who have lost sight of reality when it comes to bedbugs. I still really want to exterminate them…I know, I know….I have attitude. After all, what constitutes that which is professional is in the service and the outcome. Isn’t it?

Mike Royko, the great columnist for the Chicago Tribune, once wrote about our industry saying:

“I preferred exterminators because that was specific. Pest control could mean anything from a school teacher to a tavern bouncer.” 

I wonder what he would have thought about Pest Management Professionals or Entomological Consultants, or Environmental Specialists. I bet he could have had a field day with Integrated Pest Management, Green Pest Control and all these Green Shields. He wasn’t impressed with anyone’s image of professionalism unless they “kilt” the bugs; everything else followed.

Royko was “the voice of the Everyman Chicago. Although caustically sarcastic, he never condescended to his readers, considering himself one of the people and maintaining a healthy skepticism about elites of all kinds.  We could use more Roykos now. His columns are prophetic. In the book's foreword, Studs Terkel, also of Chicago, also of the people, writes that it was "the real" that Royko searched out typically from the perspective of "somebody up against it.  Royko saw America become laminated; its politicians phony, its values spiffed up and over-starched, its social discourse spooked by political correctness. It gnawed at him from his first column on. He cared about privilege, street-level fairness and hypocrisy.” 

Royko got more difficult , more caustic, and more insensitive as the years went by (although I think it was society that changed…Royko was always Royko, just older, crabbier and tired of being “nice", (that last part was a joke by the way):

“because of the superficial glitz of contemporary society. The ballplayers were in it for the money, the baby boomers were in it for the self-indulgence, and the politicians were in it for the polls. Whatever happened to the people behind the polls--to Royko's people?”

I didn’t always agree with him, but I really miss Royko! He understood what everyday people were suffering and had a way of cutting right past the smoke screen of nonsense spewed out by those who are prominent and right into the fire. Have we lost sight of it? Are we capable of seeing past the claptrap that has become a substitute for accomplishment? I can tell you that exterminators haven’t, although I am not so sure about Pest Management Professionals!

Efficacious chemistry in everyone’s hands was the answer in 1946 and it will have to be the answer once again in 2010 or there will be no answer. That is the historical lesson. People are fond of saying that “history repeats itself”. As someone once said; that is a falsehood, history doesn’t repeat itself; people just fail to grasp the lessons of history.

At my age people like for things to go smoothly in their lives; well life is becoming very complicated for me. My own fault too! But at least I haven’t forgotten that I am an exterminator and that is what I will continue to be. I just hope that I never desire “smooth” so much that I forget Royko’s people.

Quotes from Wikipedia and an article by JACK C. DOPPELT, a professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

___________________________