By John Kass

November 12, 2022

As some of you may know, I’ve been a bit obsessed with the recent national midterm elections, the Chicago mayoral election, and an ancient Claymation version of the Lernaean Hydra, a terrible creature from Greek mythology.

Each time Hercules (or was that Jason) lopped of one of the Hydra’s deadly hissing and biting snakelike heads, another two heads would sprout from the stump. When one election is done, several sprout from the stump.

And so, Jeff Carlin and I called on our friend Thom Serafin of Serafin and Associates to join us as our special guest on this edition of The Chicago Way podcast.

We didn’t call on Thom to kill the Hydra, per se, but to help us process the elections: the Illinois elections, the Chicago mayoral election and whether former President Donald Trump ruined himself and finally jumped the shark with his jealous attacks on rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and more.

And I keep wondering what famous Hollywood classic Claymation animator Ray Harryhausen have done to create a creature with many heads that all looked like Cook County Boss Toni Preckwinkle.

Because in the Chicago mayoral election the main issue will be the crime wave that Mayor Lori Lightfoot has proven  incapable of handing. It’ll be crime, crime and crime. Lightfoot won’t like it. She may even call me a racist or misogynist, but really, the task of providing for public safety is just too much for the mayor. She’s vexed and suffers the vapors. She knows it. So does her city.

 But Boss Toni—Lightfoot’s one-time rival who Lightfoot tried to buy off with an endorsement of Preckwinkle protegee Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx—is quite another matter.

How does Boss Toni figure into this?

Boss Toni is the hard left’s behind-the-scenes driving force of the failed crime policy in Illinois, including the controversial Illinois “Safe-T Act” that will end cash bail for most violent crime. And, according to 100 of the state’s 102 county prosecutors (Democrats and Republicans) will force the release of thousands currently in jail for violent crime.

“She’s chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party and of the four legs of the Cook County criminal justice system,” Serafin said, “she controls the budget for the Cook County Sheriff’s office [Tom Dart], the Cook County judges’ budget [Chief Judge Tim Evans]. And, and she controls (Cook County State’s Attorney) Kim Foxx’s budget.  The mayor of Chicago has the police.

“Chairman Preckwinkle will be a major player in how this campaign is going to evolve.”

Crime is uncontrolled in Chicago and Cook County. That’s why people are fleeing. Preckwinkle doesn’t care if the go. They wouldn’t vote for her. Boss Toni installed Kim Foxx as Cook County State’s Attorney, and Foxx is considered to be one of the no-prosecution prosecutors of George Soros. Also, Foxx turned her office into a national laughingstock with the Jussie Smollett case, when Foxx tossed the case with no explanation. She still has her law license? Perfect.

As long as Preckwinkle is in power, protected by the corporate media, endorsed by the newspapers that once held public officials to account, protected by public worker (government worker) unions and Pritzker bucks, can Chicago hope to impose an end to crime and violent chaos in the city? No.

If you believe otherwise, you’ll be called a chumbolone. And as the Chicago mayoral election has begun, you really don’t want to look like “some chumbolone, idiot, stoopid” as the Outfit cop said to the federal jury.

So don’t be a chumbolone. Enter the No Chumbolone Zone and listen to The Chicago Way. Just click on the link in the photo at the top of this FREE Column and listen to us FREE.

With Foxx, Chief Judge Tim  Evans and Preckwinkle secure, violent crime will get worse, not better. And I’ll have more to say about it in my Sunday column.

Oh, and one more thing. The lair of the deadly Hydra was to be found in the marshes and springs near ancient Lerna, now near the town of Mylois, Argolis in the Peloponnese. A cousin of Hercules helped him on his labor. He held the torch.

But what did they eat while waiting for the many-headed Hydra to show?

Garlic Nan?

No. I have a theory. Before the modern highway was built in Greece that ruined the great roadside tavernas, the sleepy village of Myloi was renowned years ago for its famous charcoal-grilled souvlakia, just as the town of Achlothokambo was renowned for its Goat Soup.

 I hear they’re both still dang tasty, even if the highway has killed much of the business.

Listen to the Chicago Way podcast.

And don’t be a chumbolone.

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(Copyright 2022 John Kass)