It is the 'Morality' that Causes Chicago's Mortalities - Bikes, Crotch-Rockets, Guns, or 2 X 4's

Yingying Zhang was about a month into a yearlong appointment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign when she disappeared June 9, 2017. | Courtesy of the University of Illinois Police Department via AP

Morality -a particular system of values and principles of conduct, especially one held by a specified person or society.

Idiot - is a person perceived to be lacking intelligence, or someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way. 

Yesterday, the White House offered the only conclusive explanation for Chicago's murders, it's lawless disregard of people and it's perpetual state of moral paralysis.

WASHINGTON – Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Friday crime in Chicago was ‘driven more by morality” than access to guns, commenting after the Trump administration sent 20 more U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents to the city to combat gun violence.

Those four words comprising the only government disambiguation over last ten years, immediately sparked more foolish from the media and it's nodding public.

• elako02Member1 hour(s) ago:And how knows more about morality than Trump and his aides?

• Dannoday1Member10 hour(s) ago: Immoral guns.

• 1Realistic1Visitor10 hour(s) ago: Morality?!? Sarah Huckabee Sanders has the gall to lecture on morality? The same Sarah Huckabee Sanders whose daddy, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, publicly defended Josh Duggar, the admitted child molester who fondled his own kid sisters?    She should check herself.

 Chicago Sun Times Obama Cheerleader Lynn Sweet was quick to pounce with Journo-perfect snark:

The extra agents were heralded by President Donald Trump in a Friday Twitter post.
“Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!”
According to the Sun-Times’ count, even more people, 1,737, have been shot this year, 306 of them killed. This comes as Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been asking Trump to send in more federal help for six months.
Gun trafficking is a leading contributing factor in Chicago shootings. The Trump Justice Department created the Chicago Crime Gun Strike Force to hunt down and prosecute firearms traffickers.
Sanders ( Sarah Huckabee-Sanders) at the White House briefing deflected a question about the link between guns and crime in Chicago even as more ATF agents were assigned to Chicago.
Asked if Chicago’s problems were due in part to access to firearms Sanders replied, “I think that the problem there is pretty clear that it’s a crime problem. I think that crime is probably driven more by morality than anything else.”

Sweet is sour on anything not torn from the John Dewey Pre-cast Policy Dispenser, used by the Presidential Bush Boys, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  Guns Kill People -end of story.

However, two-thousand years plus of Western Civilization, from Genesis through Socrates and beyond Thomas Aquinas, argues that Guns Kill People, like Pencil Flunk Tests.

You will never find Pastor Pfleger leading Jesse Jackson and a dozen solemn faced martyrs in front of School R Us, because young Cuthbert and Amy continue to fail Common Core Math.

Think of that, children.

No.  Guns are to nodders, as Donald Trump is to nodders - a cardboard figure to be hated, reviled, destroyed.

People who have not the time, treasure and talents to be nodders, make informed judgments about actions and their results.  People kill people with guns, knives, bikes, crotch-rockets, sweat pants, chairs, pickle jars, umbrellas and 2 x 4s.  People kill people because they can.  Some people return to kill more people, because Judges, Sheriffs and States Attorneys need core voters.

Yesterday, a Chinese family learned the name of the person charged with abducting their beautiful and talented daughter from the streets around University of Illinois and possibly murdering the innocent. This poor baby.

The person charged is as brilliant as Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, a professor like President Obama was and a man of science like Bill Nye, the Monsanto Guy.  Did he purchase a hand gun?

Yingying Zhang, the daughter of a working-class factory driver from China, disappeared on June 9, just weeks after arriving at the University of Illinois where she was pursuing studies in agriculture sciences.
Federal authorities say 27-year-old Brendt Christensen of Champaign, Illinois, is accused of kidnapping Zhang shortly after she stepped off a bus near the university campus. Video show her getting into the front seat of a black Saturn Astra.   The affidavit filed in federal court in support of the complaint says Christensen was under surveillance Thursday when agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang. Authorities say based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation, agents believe Zhang is no longer alive.
Authorities have not indicated if a body has been found.

Was a gun involved?

We do not know, as yet. What we do know at this time is that Brendt Christensen's cell phone is described as "a means, a facility and instrumentality of Interstate Commerce" and, " therefore, used in committing and in futherance of the commission of this crime."

A cell phone - smart phone no doubt.

I anguish over the abduction of this little girl. Yingying is my youngest daughter's age.  I anguish and pray for the Zhang family.

I shudder at the accused.  I shudder, because he is someone's child and he is the same age as my son.  My son had no use for school, other than what shaped him ( sports, buddies, shared obligations, religious center) as an honest, thoughtful, courageous and courteous gentleman.  This accused son of someone reaped academic honors and developed into a monster, or so it seems. A brilliant idiot.
Brendt Christensen - the accused

Guns and bullets might surface, but I kind of doubt that - the monster a man of science and hubris and consider himself the superior of his victim, or so it seems to me.  Like the killers of Bobby Franks at the University of Chicago in the 1920's, the Democratic Precinct Captain and Clown who slaughtered Gay, Bisexual and Questioning boys in the 1970's, or superior-quality strapped thugs who shot up an end-of-school picnic last month, Brandt Christensen felt comfortable doing what he did.

This is what we do!  

That is the idiot's Rebel yell!  When a person is the center of the universe and not gifted with other-directed thoughts, that person will roller-blade, skate-board, run, bike, or motor through other people and shout "This is What We Do!"

Not all idiots are strapped - armed with a 9mm -but all idiots are ballistically lethal. Here is a video of Chicago values aboard expensive crotch rockets ( The Ducati 999, Suzuki GSXR1000 and Yamaha YZF-R1 are good examples of ~1000cc crotch-rockets.) 'doing what they do'






The action occurred on Irving Park Road near O'Hare International Airport.  Imagine what would  have happened to the police officers interdicting "This is What We Do!" had there been a collision.

I imagine that they would appear before a Grand Jury, once the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times rolled out a series on police pursuit policies and Rahm squeaked, " The streets belong to all of us!"

Retired Chicago Police officer Larry Casey offered me this look at the ballistic idiots and the website that seems to defend their actions.

Morality is a state of being and it includes immorality as accepted.

Idiots grow in an immoral society.  No moral society Balkanizes behavior.  Chicago Values do that. 

Rahm's Water World: Flood the Attention Way From His Culture of Corruption

Chicago Media watch dogs are all over . . .whatever Rahm tells them to be all over.

“The pervasive culture of racism at the Water Department has been an open secret for years,” said Black Caucus Chairman Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th Ward). “We hope that this moment can serve as a wake-up call for all those in the department and in other departments where this behavior is still tolerated or even encouraged.” Sun Times

Let's see here. True reform begins and ends with three important Progressive catch-phrases

• Pervasive Culture of Racism ( the lingua franca of Progressive Oligarchs)
• Open Secret 
• Wake-up Call

Yep, young Alderman Roderick Sawyer has all three and appears to be rocking Rahm's world. He is not; he is helping Rahm deflect attention from Rahm and real big money-making ventures (Textalyzer)  for Chicago oligarchs.  Problem: Yep, attention was on Rahm.  Solution:Turn the Water Department *into the Chicago Police Department! Now, it is gone. Swept away in the flood. 

Yet only few days and weeks ago some of the newshounds wanted to know more about Rahm's private e-mails - 

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel is still receiving e-mails with ideas on city matters from "campaign contributors and others with clout" on his private account, according to the Sun-Times. The newspaper obtained Emanuel's private e-mails from January and February 2017 through a Freedom of Information Act request. The people who have been e-mailing the mayor include: "mayoral pal Peter Cunningham, JAM Productions honcho Jerry Mickelson, developer Robert Judelson and the mega-donor Abrams family, which owns Medline Industries." [Sun-Times] Chicago Reader

It seems it was time to toss his purse puppies of the Chicago media a few of  Beautiful Joe’s Ethical Dog Treats - they can not chase their tails everyday.

What better way to drown bad news than a flood of biblical proportions!

Last Friday, the see-through Irish pelts of Barrett Murphy and William Bresnahan were tossed to the snarling ShihTzu's of WTTW, the Sun Times and the always dependable Chicago Tribune.

Whenever Daley got in Dutch with the press, like his kid's bat-party in Grand Beach, Michigan, a couple of cops on the detail took the heat.

In 2004, during the Hired Truck scandal Carol Marin changed the subject to young Andy Ryan and again, in 2006, right about the time everyone was getting sick of Richie Daley, another building inspector scandal allowed Chicagoans to micro-analyze clout once again, yet never stay focused on real problems.

A poor slob, or his kids become the focus of rage and outrage!  Slap in the Face!

Same problem today, same solution. Toss the room temperature I.Q.s at the Tower or the Merchandise Mart some pink meat.

Even one of Progressive Rep. Mike Quigley's pals,Paul Hansen,  was fed to the tiny-toothed terriers.
Wee Mike was Alderman Bernie Hansen's rat-catcher and shaker-down of Gay bars like Christopher Street back in the day.

This could never have been possible without the ofay nodders of the City Council, like Independent go-along Scott Waguespeck and the pink and jowly flesh of dean Ed Burke ,“Every citizen should be appalled by it, especially that they were allowed to keep working there,” said Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward).  “We need to make sure that the human resources department is actually doing their job and rooting this activity out and firing people.”  Can I get a Harrumph!!!!!!!!

Harrumph, Harrumph, Harrumph!

Mel Brooks could not have scripted this better.

Then of course there is that corps of cagey crusaders of the City Council Black Caucus led by the Son of Mayor Mumbles,
The City Council Black Caucus on Monday said they were deeply disturbed by the alleged culture at the department.

“The pervasive culture of racism at the Water Department has been an open secret for years,” said Black Caucus Chairman Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th Ward). “We hope that this moment can serve as a wake-up call for all those in the department and in other departments where this behavior is still tolerated or even encouraged.”

I kind of flipped the order from that swell WTTW screed.

Water our most precious planetary  provision contaminated by racist, sexist, homophobic troglodytes with decades of experience in the ways of Chicago's political swamp!!!!!!  This pervasive culture of racism!  Rahm has been mayor twice now.

 Rahm thanks "The pervasive culture of racism at the Water Department (that) has been an open secret for years,” just before the runoff election in 2015

This pervasive culture of racism was the tip of Rahm's spear against Chuy Garcia ( read Mike Houlihan's new book on the campaign -Nothing Is On the Level) and "legitimized" the anti-labor actions of Mayor Emanuel with a gift of $ 53,000 from the Chicagoland Pipe Trades and the first massive bill board located on the east side of the south bound  Dan Ryan at 79th Street.  Funny.  All photos of that sign have been scrubbed on Google.

Yep the Water Guys and Rahm are cultured up!

Yet, Rahm has people looking into his e-mails.  Let the flood, Brothers and Sisters, wash away Rahm's iniquities.  It shall. Now, get you bile up about the clouted racist, homophobic cultural Irish Catholics.  Why not?

Everyone hates the Irish, including the Irish and for some very good reasons.

The two clouted but temporarily disgraced Micks will be fine.  With time and a supine media they will find six-figure salaries on the public teat!


* City of Chicago Water Department workers are heroes who fix busted water-mains at 3AM in sub-zero temperatures and then get beefed in a Chuck Goudie sham show about how much money an hour a caulker makes.  God bless Chicago workers taken for granted and treated like dogs in the media. 

Sun Times is Rahm's Gunga Din; Also, Carries Water for United Airlines

 

" If there is a void, people fill it." Oscar Munoz Unite Airlines CEO Feb. 28, 2017

"The question for both Chicago’s hometown airline and city leaders was ‘Did the apologies come too little, too late?’
United risks a backlash from passengers who could boycott the airline as the busy summer travel season is about to begin. For Chicago , which has become known internationally for violence and police-corruption problems — took beatings on social media."  The Sun Times Water Team: Lynn Sweet, Fran Spielman et al

Violence for sure.  The lean Sun Times and the flabby Chicago Tribune both use the anthropomorphic - gun violence, when thugs kill people and Police shooting when a law enforcement officer employs deadly  force.

Police Corruption?  Captains on the pad?  Free stuff for the Fuzz at Rakan's Dollar and Up?  Real Serpico-Type mischief by Blue Miscreants?

Really?  Detail all those police corruption cases for me.

Let's see:

• Back in 2009  four cops were indicted for stealing drugs and cash from dope dealers.
• Last year two narcotics cops, schooled by Jamie Kalven a friend of the Sun Times, charged that the Department was corrupt, but nothing came of that
• Mayor Emanuel tucked away the Laqaun McDonald video
• No cops have ever been convicted of torture these last forty years

So, police corruption must be an portmanteau synonym for City Hall Corruption.

Then, United: The Airline that stuffs human beings into aluminum casing like a Bobak's sausage and then ejects paid customers from the seats they purchase, in good faith, to fly the Friendly Skies, sic'd the Chicago Aviation Police on 69 year old grandpa.

Yesterday the Sun Times went all black bag on the good Doctor, papering the issue with salacious morsels from Grandpa's past and smearing the man who is the victim of United's Corporate greed.  

The root problem is corporate greed nourished in a corporatist global city ( Chicago Banana Republic)  and the viral video of ancient Doc being bumped and bloodied by Rahm's corporate bouncers is but the symptom.

The supine media's role is guardian of this corrupt incubator.

Kristen McQueary Warns of Rahm Emanuel's Turd Therm, er, Third Term!

“I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans,” wrote her campaign manager, John Podesta, in an email. Wikileaks
 

The smart, honest and bovine scat -free member of Col. McCormick's Editorial Board is Kristen McQueary.  A reporter, special feature and political opinion columnist, who wore out her Keds chasing stories for the venerable Daily Southtown, Kristen McQueary retains her chops as an editorial board member.

That confuses me.  She is on the Chicago Tribune. 

But, Hey! So is the one of the only authentic voices of middle America, John Kass.

Well, I guess if they want some readers to look at Mary Schmich, Eric Zorn, Ron Grossman, Rex Huppke and read Bruce Dold's anonymous nonsense that the reverse logic of the Col.'s Tower must toss some Kielbasa and Spuds before the Swedish Fish and Gummy Patch Worms out onto the sidewalks for Stosh, Stell, Nacho, Al, Ruby and Monroe.

Kass and Kristen are the wholesome nutritious inducements for the empty calories. No candy until the meat and spuds are ate up. 

God.  No wonder Hillary Hates everyday Americans.

Kristen McQueary Loves Us!

She is one of us.  You can catch her rolling her eyes over the business end of a Fat Tommy's hot dog, at bad softball calls all summer up at Kennedy Park.

Kristen McQueary is one of us and does not treat people with contempt, but respect and hard-won facts, figures and opinion whether we agree or not.

She gets to it right off the bat.

In  three years, Chicago voters will be back at the polls weighing candidates for mayor. That's a long time for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to rehabilitate his relationship with voters, should he decide to seek a third term.
More to the point: Three years is long enough for voters to forget.

That we do.  We might not forgive, but we easily forget.  That is why Americans need a free uncorrupted press.

Kristen McQueary is a fine example.   Like a BevMom, McQueary points to our bikes left on old Jack McNicholas's lawn and the twenty or so empty Capri Sun Juice bags tossed here and about.

The city's and Chicago Public Schools' finances have tanked. Instead of tackling the budget books immediately in 2011, Emanuel embarked on the politically safe route of borrowing money for operations and counting it as revenue. He wasn't honest about the need to downsize city government and yes, raise property taxes. Even if Gov. Bruce Rauner signs a law that enables the property tax increase Emanuel pushed through City Council last fall, the money won't be enough to meet the obligations city leaders have racked up. Not even close. The city's pension funds remain dangerously underfunded, and the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plan to fix two of them.

Fleeing crime-ridden neighborhoods for the suburbs are Chicago's lifeblood: sturdy, middle-class families who embody this city's poetic "big shoulders." Carl Sandburg would be alarmed.
Despite that backdrop, Emanuel and the City Council spent the last few months touting new tourist attractions and bike paths, boasting of the elimination of a tampon tax, and proposing an increased fine for not picking up dog poop, which is contributing to a growing rat population citywide.
You can't make this stuff up.

Would that were the case, Mrs. McQueary.  Laid out for us are all the things we tend to forget about with the passage of time and cascades of idiotic Council Ordinances and taxes.

Kristen McQueary gives voice to the things we tend to forget with a sharp, but loving "Patrick Francis! Get back here and pick up all of your 'last few months touting new tourist attractions and bike paths, boasting of the elimination of a tampon tax, and proposing an increased fine for not picking up dog poop, which is contributing to a growing rat population citywide.' Now, take care of your things!  Remember that!  Get busy!"

Alright.


In 1961 Steve Allen* said, Chicagoans had an "unneurotic voice."   It is a clear, uncomplicated, direct and authentic voice.

Kristen McQueary is a diva!





* Going Home  Chicago Voice 49.00

Chicago Alderman, Cop Hater and Celebrated Nit-Wit Lets Rahm's Rats Out of the Bag - The Privatization of City Policing

"I loved police work.  It was all about helping people. In those days, when you had to answer a call in a high-rise, your radio was in the car. If you got into trouble, if the neighbors wouldn't call for help, you wouldn't get any help. But I never felt scared or threatened, even in public housing. The people respected you and even the gangs feared you." former Alderman William Beavers 2006.

"We need every possible resource in our neighborhoods to commit to stopping crime. It can't rest on the police alone. We have money in the SSA in Wicker Park, let's use it for the security of our residents," Alderman Proco Joe Moreno

Chicago Police Department shields millions of people from idiots, thugs, syrupy nit-wits who get simple folks to put themselves in harms way (activists) and thieves and has done so ever since Archibald Clybourn was named High Constable in 1837.

Cops are wonderful - no equivocation whatsoever.  They are my neighbors; they protect the kids going to Leo High School in Auburn Gresham: they birth babies - I know six who have done so and they take the heat and the light of scrutiny for the corrupt, venal and cowardly politicians.

The police officers I know are African American ( many, many Leo High School alums), white ( many, many, many Irish, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian Catholic League athletes, military veterans) woman and men ( only men are Leo graduates) who happen to be tough, energetic, ethical, great-hearted and the wittiest of human beings. Cops are the greatest humorists this side of hell's elevator doors.

Politicians?  I know one who actually works -Alderman Matt O'Shea. One of the most great-hearted politicians was former Alderman William Beavers, who spent 21 years in the blue shirt of CPD. Alderman Beavers was and is the real deal.  He fell afoul of the Hyde Park Mafia and found the news media and the Feds crawling all over him.  The Tribune and Sun Times and WTTW could have dialed up the heat on Mother Theresa.  Bill Beavers is no Mother Theresa and did six months for gambling with his Campaign funds.  Some Progressive tulip dime'd him out to the G.  Beavers was always a gentleman and never put himself above the people of Chicago neighborhoods.

One Chicago neighborhood is home to the hip and the hip eat where it is hip to dine, drink where an Old Style is considered ironic and groove to the tunes all over Milwaukee Avenue - Wicker Park.  Wicker Park is so hip that Spike Lee decided to film Englewood, Auburn Gresham, Grand Crossing and Chatham in Wicker Park for his epic pandering Race Hustle ChiRaq - starring John Cusack as Pastor Pfleger. Wicker Park is home to 26,000 residents.

The Aldermen for Wicker Park (there are two - Brian Hopkins & Proco Joe) want to hire private security for Wicker Park.  Proco Joe Moreno, the Chick Fil A clown and Mayor Emanuel's Number One Go-to-Rump-Muncher, is testing the waters for Rahm Emanuel's eventual privatization of the Chicago's policing.

This is fine. President Obama will push for his Civilian National Security Force today as he meets with Activists and a couple of compliant cops, after talking about himself at the Dallas Memorial for five slain officers on Tuesday.

You see Wicker Park is a Chicago Lab School for Police Outcome.

Politicians want something, usually to benefit themselves, or their brothers Ari and Zeke, and get the Paul Simon Institute* to do polling ( I'll bet Ald. Proco Joe already put in the call to Carbondale) and feed outcomes and data to Eric Zorn and other media myna birds with the caveat "THIS can't Wait! The Time Has Come!  Chicago is ready for its own Sturmabteilung 

Alds. Brian Hopkins and Joe Moreno said Tuesday they want to use $100,000 from a Wicker Park/Bucktown taxpayer fund surplus to hire security guards from private firms who can augment the local police force.
“This is a common sense measure with the goal of enhancing security for the Wicker Park and Bucktown communities within the [Shakespeare Police/14th District],” Hopkins said. “It’s unacceptable not to use available resources in addressing issues that are impacting the safety and security of our communities.”
Special Service Area districts, sometimes called Business Improvement Districts, levy a special tax on property owners for communal services such as snow removal, landscaping, sidewalk cleaning and graffiti removal.( emphasis my own) 

Both Aldermen vote with Rahm and would argue that there are "plenty of cops" serving the city.

This is the opening step to the long awaited destruction of Chicago Police Department.

If you like this common sense  measure to provide hired guns in Wicker Park, you will love Barack Obama's National Police Force - a Progressive Geheime Staatspolizei.

It can not wait!


*Governments, whose police exceed the use of force, violate
fundamental individual rights. Changes are necessary to balance
police performance with current rules. Although the mechanisms of
control are part of this perspective, police reform does not primarily
intend to punish those who abuse the force. Changes focus on
correcting faults and improving the structure of the police
organization in order to improve the performance of individual police
officers, so that it is possible to prevent the occurrence of abuse.
Such changes also seek to increase the capacity of the police to
control crimes as well as violence. In this sense, police reform is a

determinant of democratic development - Paul Simon Institute 2010

Croesus Would Have Loved Chicago's Annointed and Appointed Grifters!

"There! That Old Lady Sneaked on!  Shoot Her!  Good catch, Forrest!  Here's another Double Saw-buck to put in your sling!"

Teachers!  7% pay cut! Sophisticated economics!  Let's here it!  Forest Claypool is still with us!

Imagine being someone like Frank Kuesi, Ron Huberman, Dave Mosena, or Forrest Claypool!  That is not a question.  Imagine if you, some poor slob of a Streets and Sanitation worker, CPS teacher, or white collar drudge saddled with dues to AFCSME had some how caught the eyes and ears of a Richie Daley, or Rahm Emanuel and somehow had flattered their vanities, or had some nasty bit of dirt on them and suddenly found yourself appointed to some lofty post with perquisites out the Ying Yang and six figure salary - then you'd be bullet-proof, frost-proof and BGA proof. BGA is run by Andy Shaw - a guy who could not find a microphone wrapped around his noggin.

Andy Shaw, boys and girls!

Such imaginings go back as far as Herodatus (485-425 BC).  Herodatus, the Father of History, wrote wonderful tales ancient glories about kings, commoners and culture in the ancient world of Persia and Greece.

One of his favorite early topics was Croesus King of Lydia.  One yarn had to do with Alcmaeon, Son of Megacles The First Archon of Athens who was booted from town for sacrilege.  Alcmeaon was the son of a judge, which always put one in good stead with someone who might need a judge on the hip. Croesus invited Alcmeaon to Sardis for doing him some good services. Alcmaeon has helped kill the suppliants of Cylon the guy who started the Olympics. It's a religious thing and religion had nothing much to do with Croesus who was all about the gold.

Croesus allowed Alcmaeon to carry off as much gold as he could carry - on his person. Alcmaeon immediately

stuffed his legs with as much gold as his boots could hold, and then, after he had filled the fold in his tunic brim-full with gold, he sprinkled gold-dust over the hair on his scalp, shoved some more into his mouth and left the treasury barely able to drag his boots along as he went.

Croesus was so tickled by the sight of this impious gonif that he allowed Alcmaeon to carry twice that weight and by Cylon's Jockstrap . . .he did.Nowadays, People who make absolutely no impact on the public good whatsoever do exactly the same thing -

Although Carter, 57, was bypassed for the CTA's top job some years ago, he held a number of posts that count there, including executive vice president and chief administrative officer. That puts him miles ahead of other CTA presidents of recent years, including Forrest Claypool (who now will be Emanuel's chief of staff), Frank Kruesi, Ron Huberman and David Mosena. None of them had any transit experience of note when they were tapped to head an agency that provides 1.6 million rides every workday.

Beyond that, Carter most recently has been chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Transportation, the mothership for aging urban transit agencies that need federal cash.
"I now have an ally who can work his Rolodex just like me," Emanuel said today—for once, not exaggerating. "We can play tag team."

Not Red Tag, Coon eyes!

Forrest Claypool received a   $198000 annual salary for insulting CTA employees, staging L Rides, Shilling for Ventra Cards and Bombardier Rail Car Wheels that didn't fit the gauge of the Chicago rail line tracks, oustin the union leadership of Amalgamated Transit Worker with Michael Pfleger and wowing the britches off of Carol Marin on WTTW.  It stands to reason that Dorval Carter will pack that much in his wallet.

Claypool, as Coon-Eyes' Chief of Staff, will get a signing bonus and points above that  $198000. It will not be public record, I imagine - executive do have privilege.

Croesus to Kruesi, to Huberman, to Mosena, to Claypool! It's all about the gold . . . .which used to be in your wallet. 

Rahm's Fiscal Plan? No There There - except sell-offs, sell-outs and Career Grifter Cellulite

The Rahm Campaign demands, demands I tell you, that Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia explain why he has yet to deliver an Iron-Clad Fiscal Plan to dig Chicago out of mess created by decades of Daley and only four years of Rahm Emanuel free-booting.

The only plan Rahm Emanuel has is to sell off any asset, unlooted by Daley like the public lands owned by the Chicago Parks District for President Bro-hugs and the midget who made Star Wars.  Add that huge property tax increases, more Red Light Cameras, highter water rates and the systematic privatization of City Departments - out sourcing and smart sizing.

Rahm is a tough guy who makes the tough choices. Okay.

Rahm is also a misanthropic dismissive little prique.

I have met the man and like the President he once served, I am thoroughly repulsed by him, but never disappointed.

Here is Rahm's Fiscal Finesse Writ Public.

• Find better ways of providing government services. We will continue to ask a fundamental question about every service we provide: are we providing it for the most competitive cost, or can we improve the way we deliver it? We used this approach to cut the City’s structural deficit in half since 2011. We took the politics out of garbage pick up, saving $17 million a year, and saved more than $75 million by reducing senior management positions, merging city departments, canceling unnecessary leases, and improving coordination between our infrastructure departments. Rahm will seek additional savings through consolidating services like information technology, procurement, and facilities management in one place, eliminating the need for those services to exist at sister agencies. This reform alone could save at least $20 million for the city and sister agencies. ( Streets and Sanitation is toast!  Rahm will privatize the police and fire departments as well) 
• 
  
• Control the cost of health care. Another example of Rahm’s collaboration with labor has been in his efforts to reduce the cost of healthcare. The reforms we have made to our health care for workers has improved health outcomes and saved taxpayers millions of dollars. Our wellness program focused on preventative screening and healthy lifestyle choices, and has enrolled more than 40,000 city workers. Our reforms to the retiree health system protects the most vulnerable, moves retirees to the health care exchanges with a variety of benefit structures, while producing a total of $100 million in annual savings – including an additional $25 million next year alone.
• End the inequitable teacher pension funding formula. The current reform structure passed for downstate and suburban teachers will save the City of Chicago hundreds of millions each year if applied to our funds. But that will only get us part of the way there. Rahm will also fight to end an unfair system that forces Chicago taxpayers to pay twice for teacher pensions – once for Chicago educators and a second time for suburban and downstate teachers. Local taxpayers should not be subsidizing pensions for teachers in Naperville, Winnetka, Peoria and Decatur. Fixing this inequitable mandate would further reduce our obligations to our teachers’ pension fund by $500 million ( More Charters, No Catholic Schools and Teachers Get What They Can!)

• Ensure Chicago gets its fair share from closing of State tax loopholes. We will work with our partners in Springfield to close loopholes and dedicate a significant portion of the additional hundreds of millions in revenue to shore up pensions. For example, dozens of professional services are exempt from the sales tax, meaning working families pay a tax of nearly 10% on food, clothes, and other basics while those who hire attorneys, accountants, and advertising consultants pay none. Similarly, satellite broadcasters and internet retailers have a competitive advantage compared to cable companies and brick and mortar retailers because they pay less in taxes. As the state closes these loopholes, we will ensure Chicago gets its fair share.(Bruce Will Be Loose, If Rahm Wahns Some Gelt!)
• 
  
• Continue active surplus strategy of Tax Increment Finance (TIF) funds. Early in the first term, Rahm established the city’s first-ever TIF surplus policy through Executive Order to formalize and expand the practice of declaring a TIF surplus. The policy requires the declaration of a surplus in TIF districts that are older than three years, were not created for single redevelopment projects, are not transferring funds to other TIF districts to pay legacy school debt service costs, and have a balance of at least $1 million. The amount of the surplus is at least 25 percent of the available cash balance in the TIF. As part of a reform agreement, half of that surplus could be dedicated to pension funding. ( Ask Mike Quigley for Entree!  He Hates TIFs only when talking to Mark Brown) 
• 
  
• Explore non-tax revenue options. We will continue to fight for an increased share of Local Government Distributive Share funding, with any additional revenue dedicated to paying down debt, pension obligations and other long-term liabilities. A gaming proposal, similar to the one Rahm passed in 2013, would attract revenue that currently goes to northwest Indiana by creating a publicly-owned casino in Chicago ( Red Light District Coming Back to the Levee!)
• 
  
• We would also work to continue reforming the worker compensation system to save taxpayer dollars that can be dedicated to pension obligations. (How's that for Passive Agresive Voice?)

• Ensure property taxes are a last resort, and protect those struggling to make ends meet.Stabilizing our finances and securing the retirement security of our workers will require us to look to a broad mix of potential revenue sources, but a property tax increase is the very last place Rahm will look to help right the city’s financial ship. The fact is, without any real reforms, relying on taxpayers to foot the entire bill for pensions only makes a property tax increase more likely. And as it stands, without reform a property tax increase will be required in order to make the state-mandated payments Rahm’s administration inherited unless the law is reformed. If a property tax is ultimately necessary in order to save our pension funds even after implementing the reform and revenue framework outlined above, then Rahm ensure that working and low- and middle-income families do not bear the brunt of an increase. There are a number of ways to achieve this, like increasing the homeowner exemption, which hasn’t increased since 2003, and the preservation of the senior freeze.( Tough Talk from a Tough Guy!  You Want Water or Cholera ? Take Your Choice.)

. . . " then Rahm ensure that working and low- and middle-income families do not bear the brunt of an increase.  Now, I make typos, all the time, but do so at no cost to you and especially no cost to John Q. Public.  This is an exact past-up of Rahm Campaign brag points. Then Rahm Ensure, Then Rahm Ensure . . .no big deal, as they say.  

BOLD PARENTHETICALS MY OWN,BOLD OUT OF THE PARENTHESIS ARE RAHM's,  because Rahm is trying to bully voters and convice people that he is the only Choice.  I am underwhelmed, Sneedless to say.

Choose Chuy. He is no bully. 

The Chicago " Dewey Wins" Tribune Pulls the Trigger without Loading It's Rahm 9mm

You can't beat The Chicago Tribune - it would be a hate crime, like beating on a slow witted six-year old who just does not like À la Recherche du temps Perdu.  What?  Who doesn't prefer Proust to a bigg-ass wad of cotton candy? Not Bruce Dold.

You ( Mr. & Mrs. Chicago)  knew it would come, everybody knew it would come: How can City Hall make a mandatory $550 million payment to police and fire pension funds? Sure enough, kaboom, first question. What followed was Monday evening's mayoral debate, reduced to its essence:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's staccato recipe for fixing City Hall's pension crisis leapt from higher employee contributions to a broader-based sales tax, to a city-run casino, to TIF surpluses. He concluded with an overarching rationale: Financial stability will give people "the confidence to bring jobs and people back to Chicago." Not every Chicagoan is jake with all that, but it's a responsible answer that gores several sacred oxen.
And Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia? The first words from his mouth: "It depends." Because his team has to "open up the books to understand what the real finances of the city are." Garcia didn't answer the question but did get in an off-topic jab about Emanuel subsidizing rich people.
OK, we thought, he'll find his footing. Soon came a question many Chicagoans ask: Property tax increase. Discuss.( parnthetical my own) 

Whar's to discus?  If wanted to be told what to think, I'd ask people with Rahm lawnsigns.  I was talked to to on parade day and told that Chuy Garcia has no fiscal finesse.

Rahm has fiscal finesse?

" Oh, @#$% you, Hickey.  You voted for McCain and Pailin."

Can't argue that.

I never tell anyone whom to vote for, when asked I'll say, " I like Sarah Palin."

"How can you she's and idiot. Didn't you see Game Changer on HBO?"

Matter of fact I did and I also caught the 1940 masterpiece Der ewige Jude at an art house revival.  Matter of fact, I saw the Chicagoland series on CNN and found it comparable to the 1935 epic Triumph des Willens.  We need a strong man.

So, Chuy lost the debate that I watched last night.

The Chicago Tribune editorial again tells Chicagoans what they want and they obviously want a 9.5 fingered misanthropic sububarnite to make hard the choices, like making kindergarten kids endure longer hours of training necessary to become John Dewey robots by third grade.

Chicagoans lust for the strong personality needed to amass millions of Hollywood and Wall Street dollars necessary to make helot's water bill jump in cost by 86%.

Financial stability means taking public lands from the parks and giving them to a bunch of Hyde Park grifters so that Barack Obama Presidential Library will not require that Barack and Michele Obama crack their wallets to finance it, like Mrs. Reagan and Mrs. Ford.

Bruce Dold mocks Chuy's response to the little strongman's fiscal platitudes.  Chuy replied, "You cannot move forward until you show the taxpayers of Chicago where the money is going."

Ouch. A second admission from Garcia that, nearly five months into his campaign for mayor, he doesn't talk even to the nearest billion about City Hall finances. The closest he got was a shot at Emanuel for failing to get Chicago's house in order, and "now talking in a sophisticated way about how he's going to do it." The obligatory next line — Here's how I'm going to do it — never arrived.

Bill Murray-style book editorial scribbling aside, this Well-Poisoning 101, which is an Honors Course at the Dave Axelrod Harris School of Political Bludgeoning.  Bruce Dold must be auditing that class.

Rahm was not told any of us 'How he plans to save us.'   Rahm will loot whatever city assest remain, ala Richie Daley. He will balloon any and all city taxes.  He will strip essential 1st Responder services to the bone.  He will out source the Department of Streets and Sanitation ( my prediction 2016) and work on doing the same to the cops and fireman. He will pander and propagandize through the Chicago Media.

Voters know that.  Some voters are for Rahm, fiercely for Rahm, loudly for Rahm, powerfully for Rahm. That's fine, for them. I appreciate their candor and devotion.  Rahm voters are fine with the way things are and hope to do even better for themselves if Chuy loses on April 7th.  They are good people and they tell you loudly and with pride " I'm with Rahm!"

I am not.  I had anough of Rahm Emanuel, when he was glued to Richie Daley by the Stepan Family in the 1980's when Richie ran for States Attorney.  I've had enough and I am even siding with SEIU, Jesse Sharkey of CTU and Ricardo Munoz for Chrissakes.  Mike Klonsky is a Chuyista and so am I.

I had enough.  I am voting for Chuy Garcia for Mayor of Chicago.

I Believe in Neighborhood People and Not Polls Conducted By and For Pols Who Don't Care About People

Polls are conducted by 'scientists' - rather number crunching hired guns.

The Chicago Tribune conducted a poll that give Rahm Emanuel a 12 point lead over the winner of the April 7th 2015 Mayoral Election, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.

Polls, are said to be random samplings taken from snatches of would be voters.

Okay.

If I conducted a random sampling of people with whom I come in contact with everyday, you see a diverse cross-section of Chicago demographics.

I start my day at Dunkin Donuts located near my house and operated by a gentleman from Morocco and staffed by a lovely couple from Bangladesh and a gorgeous graduate student from India. The manager lives on 103rd just west of Western Avenue in what most people call St. John Fisher parish.  The manager is Muslim. He is voting for Chuy.

The couple who work with Kareem live in Homer Glen and can not vote in the City election - they are Hindi

The young graduate student lives on Walden Drive in Beverly and is Muslim as well. She has not registered to vote.

Of the this random sampling of persons - Chuy Garcia has 100% of the vote.

Polls.

Now, let's talk people.  I work in Auburn Gresham at 79th & Sangamon in Chicago's 17th Ward.  Guess what?  Rahm's and Father Pfleger's hand-picked candidate of Alderman was beaten by David Moore.

David Moore was told to back Rahm, or else.  David Moore told the messengers to go pound sand, some other similar message. Looks like Alderman David Moore is an independent voice.  An African American Alderman in Ward 17 goes off the Pfleger P . . .Reservation.  Chuy?  I'd say so, but that is not very scientific.  I know the man who helped David Moore win the aldermanic and he is also instrumental in helping Chuy Garcia take the 5th Floor.

I live south of 103rd Street and west of Western Ave. and our homes are somewhat modest and match our incomes ( usually two incomes as Mom and Dad both work).  East of Western around 103rd Street sit pricier big bunglow's for families earning bigger incomes.

Of my neighbors, thick with public pensions and long association with the Chicago, Cook County and State Democratic Organizations there is great distrust of Rahm Emanuel and Governor Rauner.  Tough times and a tougher vote.  From chats with my 19th Ward neighbors ( firemen, cops, CPS teachers, skilled tradesmen, City, County and State office workers), we won't see a sea of red, white and blue Chuy signs on lawns, but we should see my precinct (23rd, 19th Ward) go for Chuy.  Raised ranch and Georgian dwellers, as well as modest apartment dwellers all.

West of the cemetaries sits Mount Greenwood and that will go overwhelmingly for Chuy.

The precinct immediately to the east of Western Avernue and hugging 103rd Street will go again for Rahm.

There are many families in that precinct with 'this close' ties to City, County and State Demographic power-that-be as well as some heavier than whale poop lobbyists living in the bungalows - like Rahm, or not, they will go with the current flow.

Like my Dunkin Donuts poll, very unscientific and all too human.  I see the 19th Ward, like the 17th Ward shifting away from Rahm.

In the end, Chuy will beat Rahm by a whisker, but whisker is all it takes, Rahm will need to do a Deb Mell to win.  That might fly in the 39th Ward of Blagostahn, but no way city wide.

The Tribune, the Big Cat money bags, the Progressives and the academics want Rahm on Five, they need Rahm on Five.  They can't handle the truth.

The truth is that Chicago is about to redeem itself from decades laissez fair civics and lazy-ass voting.

Basta Rahm!  Enough Rahm, Daley, Durbin, Mell, Quinn, Rauner, Marque Kirque Chicago!

Viva Chuy and Chicago might live again.

Sophisticated Finances He Said? Here's What Bruce Rauner's Fellow Wine Sophisticate Said . . ."We Strongly Disagree!"

Every neighbor of mine in Chicago gets his finances rated.  Try getting a couple of buckeens from any bank, or Easy-Credit-Big VIG loan operation and wait with your two weeks of recent pay stubs, utility bills and bank statement without sweating blood while the loan officer checks in with TransUnion and the Twins to get your score.

Chicago has been governed by really sophisticated buccaneers supported by pie-chart policy looters like Ralph Martire and academic tweed nodders ever since Old Richard J. had that grabber in the Doc's office.

Here we are today, with Rahm peeing on our Thom McCann's and telling us it is soft tears of heaven moistening grass-roots with help from his wine guzzling compeer Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Bruce Rauner is Governor of Illinois because he is not Pat Quinn.

Now, The Two-Headed Coin Governor -'heads I win and heads Rahm wins' - tells the Tribune Tower of Babble that Chicago needs a financially sophisticated mayor - like Rahm.

Asked by reporters if it matters who is mayor, Rauner said voters should “look at who’s financially sophisticated to deal with the issues, who’s ready to stand up to…and fight for the taxpayers in the city and take on some of these government union power issues.”
Added Rauner: “The voters got to decide … but they better look at it 'cause Chicago financially is going down the drain.”

Emanuel has shown financial sophistication in his past private dealings with Rauner. During a lucrative stint in investment banking after leaving the Bill Clinton White House as a senior adviser, Emanuel was part of a deal that helped make hundreds of millions of dollars for Rauner’s equity investment firm. Emanuel also became a millionaire during his short time in investment banking.

Rauner’s urging of a mayor with “financial sophistication” is in line with the latest campaign tactic being used by Emanuel’s campaign to criticize Garcia, contending the challenger has lacked specifics in dealing with the city’s budget woes. But Emanuel also has offered little in the way of financial solutions, preferring instead to talk about his past four years.

I am not a craven sophisticate with a heady wine subscription, but I know when I bollix-up my personal finances by liberally larding my pet urges and inclinations with cash.  In my unsophisticated accounting practices, I borrow what I can afford from savings, retirement and debtors with less humor than my own.  It works . . .so far.

• the kids are Okay -schooled, clothed, healthy, happy and out of here
• the mortgage and bills are paid . . .largely on time
• no threats from collection
• credit rating is good
• had me a steak on Wednesday

I am doing better than City of Chicagoland - From The New American:

Within hours of Moody’s Investors Service announcing another downgrade to Chicago’s general obligation bonds last Friday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration responded, saying that Moody’s was out of touch with reality:

We strongly disagree with Moody’s decision to reduce the city’s credit rating and would note that Moody’s has been consistently and substantially out of step with the other rating agencies [Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings], ignoring progress that has been achieved.

At the moment those other two agencies rate Chicago’s debt at A-plus or A-minus, with a negative outlook. But in light of an imminent court ruling that could invalidate efforts to cut pension benefits, along with the crushing and increasing burden of those benefits, observers are just waiting for the next two shoes to drop.


Comment très sophistiqué de Vous , Bruce -Pass la Night Train Express '15 !

That'll do, Rahm.  Vote for Chuy, Neighbors. We can't afford sophisticated finanaces.


 

 .

Beltway Shocker: Could Rahm Really Lose? Yes, Yes He Can. This is Sunday After Mass Turkeybowl Tackle Football; not It's Academic Quiz Bowl

K-Streets Kreature and Fave Mayor -Rahm "Gimme 9.5" Emanuel is proving that Polls, Pundits and Progressive Platitudes have had their day.

Alex Isenstadt, no really that's the kid's name who wrote the piece on Rahm, Alex Isenstadt says

A runoff that was expected to be a slam dunk for Rahm Emanuel is turning out to be uncomfortably — even dangerously — close, leading the Chicago mayor to ready a scorched-earth offensive to save his job.
Recent polling shows the race between Emanuel and his unknown and underfunded rival, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, has closed to within single digits. With local and national progressive groups lining up behind Garcia and promising to pour cash into the effort to deny Emanuel a second term, the mayor is suddenly scratching and clawing for his political existence.

Polling, Punditry and Progressive lollipops just in case Rahm does in fact lose can be unwrapped to sweet defeat like it was an in-the-tank victory all along.

Rahm is a Progressive's Progressive -a mean spirited, policy-over-people, power -grabbing plutocrat.

The fact that DeBlasi-oaffish cadres of former hippies and Fish fans opened offices in Chicago under the name of Chicago Forward has nothing to do with the crest of approval jetting Jesus 'Chuy" Garcia comfortably over Rahm's Corral Reef.  Chuy is ahead because Chicagoans are more concerned about their neighborhoods than fois gras on menus, bike paths, Divvy Bikes, Speed Camera Pick Pockets and Rahm's next national move,.  The only people making a Progressive case for Chuy are national web and print outlets and the three score TieDyed wearing Sixty Somethings trying to get medical majijuana licensing for their whole-grain outlet stores in Wicker Park.

Alex Isenstadt, . . . .wait a minute . . . .there . . . .sorry . . . Alex   Alex this is not Academic Quiz Bowl, this Chicago elecetion on April 7, 2015, It is No-$hit No Pads Tackle Football.  . . .more that later, sorry to interrrupt,   Alex Isenstadt went directly to the very sources that helped propel Rahm's Chicagoland in the first place to see just how Rahm might lose.

Emanuel’s progressive foes, sensing an opportunity, are rushing into the contest. A pair of liberal groups, Democracy for America and MoveOn.org, are partnering on field efforts, and a third, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, is raising money for the cash-starved Garcia. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has repeatedly clashed with Emanuel, said her group would also help out the challenger.

“He needs funding to make the case, and he needs boots on the ground to make the case,” she said.

Randi Weingarten?  Don't she live over-by the Jewels near Midway?

Alex, you are barking up the wrong tree in forest full of wrong trees, son! Rahm is what being Progressive is all about and only managed to get hiumself eleceted to office with help from Real political pros.  Progressives couldn't find a Chinaman on 22nd Street on a sunny day and if they did they'd ridicule his religion.  Progressives only win elections when Regular Ward Organizations do all the work.  That's the fact, Jack?

Alex, can you name Chuy Garcia's Campaign Manager?  Didn't think so. You think that this is some PBS Bill Moyers scripted conflict of mythical Progressives against Bosses.

Chicagoans are nice people - not stupid people. Progressives always forget that.  Ask the rank and file and the outgoing President of Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 308.

Chuy will be Mayor because Chicagoans are sick to death Rahm, Barack Obama, PBS, Editorial Boards, Dave Axelrod and having their wallets lifted at every turn the CTA makes.

This is a UW, son. Not Progressive v. Machine.

This Unconventional Guerrilla Warfare - Voters taking back their dignity and denying their past sins of commission ( voters for idiots like Durbin, Schakowsky, Quigley and Quinn in Illinois) and omission (saying 'What Difference Does it Make?")

This is not Birkenstock Warfare/Ben & Jerry Combat/MSNBC ALL In Tickle Fests - this Sunday After Mass No Pads Full Contact Catholic League Tackle Football Without Insurance.

Chuy!!!! . . . because Rahm Progressivisim is insipid.

Alex Isenstadt come on over sit on the porch with Joe, Doreen, Killer, Ignacio and Jan and me. Knock back a couple of domestics, fire up a Marlboro and we'll explain things to you and then order pizza from Vito and Nicks.