“folly…that is, the pursuit of policy contrary to the self-interest of the constituency or state involved,” Barbara Tuchman from The March of Folly
Firefighters, union electricians, tradesmen...the very people Rahm has been campaigning against publicly for years. There's also a list of out-of-state financiers, bankers, and other big money types looking at RAhm's national ambitions - like maybe Kirk's Senate seat. Second City Cop
Just imagine if Rahm put this much effort into raising money for the pension balloon payment - we'd be sitting pretty.
Filtered through a dependable Media myna bird, Rahm Emanuel will announce more support for his mayoral re-set from Skilled Trades Unions:
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (representing two locals)
• Laborers District Council (represents eight locals)
• International Union of Operating Engineers (represents two locals)
• Ironworkers District Council (representing three locals)
• Painters District Council 14 (representing 13 locals)
Rahm is anathema to public sector unions, but he is no Scott Walker - he is a nastier Bruce Rauner, who is no stranger to nasty.
The public salaried 'unions' are backing Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia and they are remarkable because of the numbers.
Rahm has cur a deal with 'real labor' - trades that actually earn their salaries and benefits, through sweat equity, personal sacrifice and contract negotiation.
Public sector employees depend up later-day Trotskies and Jesse Sharkey, who writes the script for the Teachers Union and retired Weathermen like Mike Klonsky. These Cadillac Commies share brie with the likes of Progressive Mandarins in Hyde Park and Evanston, like Dr. Quentin Young and Abner Mikva, followed by vigorous policy bullying of National Honor Society/Phi Beta Kappa Gold Key ink slingers and news readers of the Chicago media and then bulldoze legislation to give teachers, clerks and go-fers in government employ more money in salary, pension and medical bennies than Lotto player could ever dream of - and call it Labor.
The Skilled Trades are the middle class, because they built the middle class in America, when teachers, clerks and bureaucratic go-fers crossed theor picket lines from the 1920's through the 1960's. Add globs of John Dewey mis-education for decades and pour on rhetorical bullshit seven days a week in the media and Chicago voters accept SEIU, CTU, AFSCME as children from Terrence Powderly and Sam Gompers. Voila!
I became aware that Rahm was gioing to play Middle Class Hold 'Em early this fall when a massive billboard went up on the Dan Ryan Expressway on the south east corner of 79th Street. I see it every morning as I drive a van load of Leo HS students to school - big as a The Big Lie.
N.B. Try and find an image of that sign on Google!
Anyway. Rahm Emanuel, like every Progressive, hates the middle class down to the marrow. Rahm hates Catholic (private -non Chicago Lab) schools, parking spaces, streets without bike lanes, neighborhoods and the people who live in them.
Plumbers, pipe-fitters, pipe-coverers, electricians, laborers, carpenters, firemen, machinists and teamsters live in Gresham, Mount Greenwood, Portage Park, Garfield Ridge, Canaryville, Back of the Yards, Pilsen, and over by Midway.
I would never tell anyone for whom she/he should vote. Never have. Me, I have made the mistake of voting for people like Dick Durbin, Pat Quinn and others who pretend to be my friend, but work to destroy the values and prosperity of my middle class standard of living. Rahm Emanuel makes Durbin and Quinn seem like nice, straight-forward gents.
I am just a school teacher and a pretty good one. I know my trade, because I work at it - just like a pipefitter.
I read much and remember more. Barbara Tuchman wrote a book on stupid decisions in history that were based upon foolish self-interest. I taught that book. Tuchman details the lust for power that operates the motives of a Priam, a Pope Sixtus, A George III and a Rahm Emanuel, "Chief among the forces affecting political folly is lust for power, named by Tacitus as "the most flagrant of all passions.” Power for the sake of agenda, usually Progressive these days, gives us Thug Comfort Zones, Massive Water Bills, Red Light Cameras, Lousy Schools in Perpetuity, Higher Property Taxes, Diminished Savings and less opportunity.
Tuchman elaborates, “A phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period is the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests. Mankind, it seems, makes a poorer performance of government than of almost any other human activity. In this sphere, wisdom, which may be defined as the exercise of judgment acting on experience, common sense and available information, is less operative and more frustrated than it should be. Why do holders of high office so often act contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests? Why does intelligent mental process seem so often not to function?”
Finally she warns, like Cassandra herself, about our massive memory loss, “The attitude was a sense of superiority so dense as to be impenetrable. A feeling of this kind leads to ignorance of the world and of others because it suppresses curiosity.”
