By John Kass

It was an honor that Tom Bevan, my good friend and co-founder and president of Real Clear Politics, asked me to be his guest for the full hour on The Tom Bevan Show on WLS AM on Sunday.

We had fun. I’m linking to it here, in case you missed Bevan asking me to play a big-headed Greek Nostradamus and predict the big stories to come in 2022.

“I’m going to break out the crystal ball and ask Kasstradamus what lies ahead,” he told his audience.

I told Tom that I’d conjure some imaginary ravens. And catch them in a fishing net, from an imaginary back stoop facing the alley of the now-imaginary three-flat. Like any reputable soothsayer, I vowed to read their entrails and make my predictions.

“No real birds were harmed in the making of this radio show,” Bevan said. “Just so PETA is clear on that.”

Bevan and I also talked of something personal, namely this adventure many of you have  joined here at johnkassnews.com

Bevan is a paid subscriber. He told his audience to start the year off right by getting a full-year subscription, fifty bucks, two months free. And he teased that he might even write a guest column for me. I promised to blue-pencil the heck out of it.

Tom had me on his show to bring in new subscribers. The timing couldn’t have been better, because right now many of you are walking away, as did I, from corrupt corporate legacy media that is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

Corporate legacy media just can’t help squeezing the news through its thick woke cheesecloth. Bevan understands and laments this. On Real Clear Politics he’s scrupulous about prominently linking pieces from all sides, from the left, the right and center. Allowing for real dialogue–without cancelling out those with whom you disagree–is the way we can keep this republic.

“But media has set this narrative, and anything that does not conform to that narrative is immediately attacked and discredited, and in the case of Big Tech and social media, it is censored, removed, stifled,” he said. “I just wonder if it’s going to get worse.”

It’ll get worse. After November 2022, we’ll see how the new Congress deals with Big Tech censors. Will they roll over for Big Tech political cash? Who can say?

But I also hope that those of you who haven’t yet subscribed will heed his words, and that you’ll subscribe and tell your friends and family to join us.

“You’re now a small business owner,” he said. “How’s it going?”

Thanks to readers, better than I dared hope. At least I can pay the bills. We talked about  “the paper,” and the  false accusations made against me by woke colleagues for writing the truth, and why I felt I had no choice but to take the buyout, leave, and start this thing of ours.  You can hear what Bevan had to say about all that by clicking on the link in the first paragraph of this column.

And how am I feeling now?

Great. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Since we’re both political animals, naturally we talked politics. Chicago politics is consumed by one issue: increasing violent crime. And Illinois politics with the governor’s race heating up, and national politics with the 2022 mid-terms coming in November.

President Joe Biden’s poll numbers keep dropping quickly, like cannon balls off a frozen brass monkey. No one with a thimbleful of brains thinks that the Biden Harris administration has a clue. Even Democrats don’t think Biden has a clue. Perhaps this explains why the Democrats are in full panic mode.

To deal with their panic, they hunt for Republican witches with their Jan. 6 committee. With their allies in left-wing corporate media, and a few RINO handmaidens like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, the Democrats fan the flames, the same way they hawk Omicron fear porn, the way they shouted about Russia until the nation finally figured out that the only ones colluding with Russia were Hillary and her crew of despicables.

They’re desperate to burn Republicans and change the subject from inflation, from Biden’s porous Southern border, Afghanistan, rising violent crime in the cities and rules-for-thee-but-not-for-me blue state politicians partying mask-free in the Florida sun.

CNN calls Jan. 6 “the deadly insurrection.” But do they call the Black Lives Matter riots in the cities the “deadly” riots? Or are they still just the  “somewhat fiery but mostly peaceful” protests?

All this is about shadow puppets on the wall of the cave and the shrieking about Jan. 6 is predictable political theater. But they can’t let go, because they have nothing else left to hold.

Bevan and I talked at length of media and culture. Politics, as Andrew Breitbart famously observed, is always downstream of culture. How true. You can’t even mention “Let’s Go Brandon” without some leftist editor from “The Atlantic” accusing you of being an “insurrectionist” worse than the ominous Chewbacca Shaman. So much for Free Speech.

I received many messages from readers about the Tom Bevan Show. One was a call from my buddy Steve the Pilot and Legendary Fly Fisherman. His takeaway?

“The sound was excellent,” Steve said. “But will you please fix that damn squeaking desk chair of yours?! It’s driving me crazy. If you don’t spray it with WD-40, I’m going to have to come up there and spray the hell out of it myself.”

Steve, it only squeaked once or twice.

Between squeaks of my chair, Bevan and I talked of increasing Chicago crime, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s chances of re-election (slim if any).

And, how I don’t want Paul Vallas to run again, even though Vallas is the only one I can see who could do the job and perhaps stop the city from tearing itself apart.

But he shouldn’t run. That’s right. I said it. Vallas shouldn’t run. The only way Vallas should even think of running for mayor would be if a few big-bucks Chicago business types put $10 million into his political fund. He’d be a serious candidate then. With that kind of cash the political hacks would back off.

And if not, well, Chicago is doing a pretty good job of devouring itself.

If not, then the business leaders are free to play a mournful violin like sad black and white clowns in a Fellini film, as refugees flee Chicago from ever-increasing crime, taxes, the teachers’ union locking down schools again. as Chicago pols play their favorite poker game: Race Cards.

I did tell Bevan of a rumor, that Arne “The White Shadow” Duncan, positioned to challenge Lightfoot, may now have cold feet and has become just a stalking horse/placeholder for someone else.

Who?

Bill Daley.

Bill, if you’re not interested, you’re still invited to write a column for this site to tell us why the Democratic Party of your father’s has driven itself to Crazy Town, and whether it can turn the clown car back around to a semblance of sanity before 2024.

Talking with Bevan, I did get a couple column ideas, one on Voter ID vs. The Vax Pass. And another about a politician with sensible shoes who is hardly ever mentioned, yet lives at the direct center of what plagues the region. Think of the dog that didn’t bark. Isn’t an ostentatiously silent dog worth a story, too?

I just might write them. That’s how things work when you talk with smart colleagues. Just by talking and listening, by allowing dialogue, notions are born. They stick to each other and become ideas.

But first I’d better take care of this squeaking chair before Steve shows up from Florida. It’s driving me crazy, too.

(Copyright 2022 John Kass)

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