“Big Bad Bruce”
Wednesday, Feb 24, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I have some subscriber stuff to finish, so chew on this reader e-mail for a bit…
I came home last night to find a new book in our house, “Big Bad Bruce.” I thought of our Governor, obviously, and chuckled.
But then later on I read it to my kids. Trust me, take a 15 second to look through the pages on the attached link. (“look inside” on the top left) The pictures and captions are really spot on.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395329221?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00
If I hadn’t known any better I would think this was a parable somebody had written about our Governor and the budget stalemate (though he does turn it around after he gets a taste of his own medicine).
I thought you would get a kick out of it.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:28 am:
(Goes on laptop, pulls up file titled ‘Big Bad Bobby’ treatment, stares at the screen, pauses and sighs, tilts head then closes eyes in defeated moment, head droops. Big sigh as head rises, moves to ‘delete’, deletes file, closes laptop, walks away)
- Chicago Cynic - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:30 am:
Ummm, where’s the happy ending? Children’s books always have some kind of happy ending.
- Small Town Girl - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:38 am:
Bill Peet. Best guess which legislator wrote this under the pseudonym?
- Rabid - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:39 am:
Bare’s frustration-aggression hypothesis
- JoanP - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:40 am:
Hmm, according to the reviewers, the moral of the book is “braggy people lose, humble people win”, “hubris will not prevail”, “you get in trouble if you are a bully”.
I’d suggest everyone buy a copy and send it to the Guv, but I’m not sure he’d get the point.
- Wensicia - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:41 am:
It’s copyrighted, Superstars, you can’t use this material in Rauner’s next campaign.
- Gumby - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:42 am:
When did Madigan start authoring children’s books under a pen name?
- Timmeh - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:46 am:
“Bruce, a bear bully, never picks on anyone his own size until he is diminished in more ways than one by a small but very independent witch.”
Sheila Simon, is that you?
- Me too - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:47 am:
Happy ending? All of the poor people and elderly or informed, leave for Iowa after they start starving and freezing. Then out budget problems are fixed. Medicaid is zeroed out, and everyone who remotes on government programs will be gone, but will still have the same number of actual tax payers. Revenue trays the same, but spending hours down dramatically. Oh and state employees leave in drivers after losing their homes as they can no longer keep up with mortgage payments. Foreclosures reduce average home value, so real estate taxes, although the same percent are lowered. #winning /s
Never mind that the money we have to the next was spent and had a multiplier effect on GSP, and state employees leaving out having take home pay cut would destroy the economy of Springfield and hurt locations of state facilities. That’s just that Keynes baloney. Businesses will hire people even when there’s reduced demand because they have reduced taxes. I mean they don’t want to increase their margin, so if they have reduced taxes, they’ll want to hire people so they can spend that money rather than keep it. Heavy snark, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the Superstars actually think this way. It’s all upside and if they could just destroy unions they could build Rauner a Randian utopia.
- Me too - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:49 am:
Well autocorrect didn’t work so well there. I hope the point is still discernable.
- Illinoisvoter - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 9:55 am:
Before he wrote and illustrated children’s books
Bill Peet was a Disney animator, working on
Fantasia with the wonderful Sorcerer’s Apprentice
sequence.
- RIJ - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 10:00 am:
Sadly, JBT is no longer here to play the role of the “small but very independent” witch.
- Boone's is Back - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 10:09 am:
This is pretty great. Looks like Bruce really knew how to “shake things up” in that forest.
- crazybleedingheart - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 10:23 am:
Our state is broke but the Governor’s Office can drop cash on illustrations for the Turnaround Agenda!??!
- IL17 - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 10:24 am:
Time to purchase copies to distribute to every GOP member of IL legislature after attaching name tags of Gov to the bear and citizens to the many harmed creatures.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 10:28 am:
Problem is, that Bruce is fictional and so is the damage he is doing. The animals in the forest were smart enough not to elect him governor. Bruce did not find support from skunks, rabbits or turtles demanding that he wreck havoc upon the forest and make the lives of the deer, quail and bumblebees horrid. In Forevergreen Forest, the animals all saw that Bruce was a big turd of a bear. In Illinois Forest however, we have a small group of jealous wretched animals who think the other animals have it too good and want Bruce to hurt them as pay back.
Sadly our Bruce is real, although he too is a comic book joke.
- Huh? - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 10:34 am:
17 for the win!!
Now we know where 1.4% got his idea to shake up Springfield.
- Mama - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 10:38 am:
The Capitol Fax posters need the Big Bad Bruce T-shirt!
- a drop in - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 11:07 am:
Someone knew what was going to happen 34 years ago. Amazing!
- RNUG - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 11:19 am:
I think AFSCME just found their next T-shirt if they can acquire reprint rights to the illustration(s).
- Whatever - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 11:24 am:
I see no resemblance between the bear and the governor. The bear actually seems to be enjoying his mischief.
- Qui Tam - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 12:26 pm:
What VM said @10:28am.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 12:53 pm:
One of my favorite books. Read it frequently to my children.
- Harry - Wednesday, Feb 24, 16 @ 1:22 pm:
I wonder how the publisher got Bruce Rauner to pose for all those drawings.