Forrest Claypool -Our Rula Lenska for Assessor

Carol Felsenthal wrote a nice piece about the Rula Lenska ( the person who claimed and everyone believed to be 'Somebody') of Illinois - Forrest Claypool. Back in the 80's Rula Lenska was believed to be a celebrity - the commercials for hairspray said so; these days, Forrest Claypool is believed by similar folks to be a Reformer and political genius, because Carol and Walter and the editorial clown operas say so.

Carol Marin, Walter Jacobson (homeless street cred dude) and every other goof with a column or a 30 second TV Feed perch are loudly smearing Joe Berrios and blowing smooches to Forrest Lenska - the guy that John Stroger defeated while on life support.

Ms. Felsenthal and the redoubatble John Kass know that Forrest Claypool is a public relations manufactured product. So do voters.

So who is Forrest Claypool?

A native of Southern Illinois (St. Elmo, population 1,300) and son of a man in the oil-drilling business, he graduated from Southern Illinois University and then the University of Illinois Law School. He lives in Ravenswood and has three children, all of whom were educated in private schools.

Claypool twice served as chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley and ran the Chicago Park District in the ’90s. Like politicians at every level, he’s a mix of reformer and—Kass had it right—conventional party loyalist.

He’s in good company, as the record shows.

Claypool’s loyalist side comes out in the race for Barack Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat. I interviewed him just hours after the feds took over Broadway Bank. He told me that he backs Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias, Broadway’s former VP and senior loan officer, and has done so from the start—even after the squeaky-clean Inspector General David Hoffman entered the primary.

In the Democratic primary for county board president, Claypool did not endorse Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, the candidate with whom the good-government types were most comfortable. He offers a lofty explanation: he was not persuaded that Preckwinkle or any of her opponents would repeal “the hated [Todd] Stroger sales tax.” (Claypool didn’t endorse any candidate in that race.) He now says that he’ll support her in the general election.

Preckwinkle has said publicly that she’s supporting Berrios, a man Claypool describes as “exhibit A of how the insider culture works, where the people who have clout make out and the rest of us get higher taxes.” Claypool told me that he made his decision to run after the primary, when Berrios defeated Raymond Figueroa—a former alderman “who has independent ties that go back to Harold Washington.” When asked if he considered supporting the Republican candidate, former Evanston assessor Sharon Storbeck-Eckersall, he said, “No, no. I don’t really know enough about her, but I do think [Cook County assessor] is a very, very big job.”

Claypool has known Rahm Emanuel for 30 years and is close friends with David Axelrod, and he has visited the White House several times—most recently on March 28, according to visitor logs. He also claims a friendship with the President—he was chairman of then-Senator Obama’s transition committee in 2004-05—and, during those White House visits, he “chatted” with the President in the Oval Office.

In 2006, Claypool lost in the primary for county board president to incumbent Democrat John Stroger—after Stroger had already suffered a debilitating stroke. Obama—then a senator—didn’t endorse Claypool. “Why?” I asked. “You’ll have to ask [the President],” Claypool said. I already knew the answer: Obama, for all his idealism, is a politician.

Why, Carol, Forrest Claypool is Rula Lenska!


Forrest Claypool is as genuine as Rula Lenska. Complete Rules available wherever this fine product is sold -WTTW, CBS-2 and Chicago Sun Times.

Career Grifter and CPS Boss Forrest Claypool's Trail of Slime Pointed Out by Juan Perez!

The Chicago Tribune's Juan Perez, Jr. is asking the questions about the Rula Lenska of Progressive Chicago Politics, that I have asked for years.  My heart is warmed.  Mr. Perez has a nice set of teeth. 

Forrest Claypool, the Rula Lenska* of Chicago politics,  has had one helluva run!  For decades this fading beauty has been treated to quality moisturizers, Dior Air-Flash foundation, blot & powder and just the right blush on those apple cheeks, by the stooge propagandists at WTTW, ABC 7, NBC5, and . . .oh, what the hell CBS2.

About the time Rula Lenska was bombarding the TV airwaves hawking  Alberto Culver products and stunning millions of Americans into raising the question " Just Who IS Rula Lensaka?"  Forrest Claypool was brushing the Saluki moss from the back of his grey worsted Brooks Brothers and insinuating his way into the corridors of power on La Salle and Clark between Washington and Randolph.  Soon, Chicagoans were saying, " Just Who IS Forrest Claypool?"

No one seemed to have the insight, or the gumption to say," He's a grifter and damn well-practiced one, Rubes."

Nope, we are too nice.  We swallow anything, because our news papers and electronic media is as much a part of the political anatomy of Chicago, as the 14th Ward Regular Democratic Liver, Bacon and Onions Boosters.

Forrest Claypool oozed into Chicago Power Politics with David Axelrod, Judson Miner,  and Rahm Emanuel.  They helped Abner Mikva and Michael Shakman remove the City That Works' political limbs, leaving a Progressive torso that requires much more monetary sustenance, than the once functioning apparatus had ever dreamed of stealing.

The old time political crooks never stole everything.   Progressives do.

Progressives are loyal only to power and those who bring more power to the table. Claypool is master of the game. He requires short memories and no interested inquiry on the part of people who should know better.  Do any Progressive a favor and a politician will soon find a six inch blade where his kidneys once functioned.  The political landscape is littered with corpses of once trusting and effective public servants.

Claypool gets appointments via his network.  If he runs for office, he generally gets his ass handed to him - County Board President and Cook County Assessor. He did manage to squeak by Ted Lechowicz  and grab a comfy seat on the county Board

He has been appointed

• to Cook County Board of Appeals
•  as Deputy State Treasurer
• Mayor Daley's Chief of Staff
• Head of Chicago Parks
• CEO CTA
• CEO CPS

Succeeding where?  Rula Lenska has more chops.

Now, with digital media some people begin to ask " Who Exactly IS Forrest Claypool?"  Even the always pliable Chicago Tribune has turned its blind but gimlet eye on Forrest Claypool and his modus operandi.

The inspector general for the Chicago Board of Education says his work has been obstructed and duplicated by a better-funded arm of CPS chief Forrest Claypool's office, according to a report that lays out a political scuffle between the legally mandated watchdog and the mayoral-appointed administration.

In his report, Nicholas Schuler accuses auditors for Chicago Public Schools of "significant interference" with his investigation into the alleged theft of tens of thousands of dollars worth of CTA fare cards by a district employee.

A "parallel investigation" of that case by CPS' Office of Internal Audit and Compliance last year "compromised a criminal investigation by prematurely alerting a main subject, and sowing fear and confusion in the minds of key witnesses," Schuler said in his report, which was sent to Claypool and the school board. 

Auditors also contacted Cook County prosecutors in an effort to inject their department into the inspector general's fare card investigation, Schuler's office said. He said "very troubling issues remain" with other investigations being undertaken by the auditor's office.

Gee, who'd a thunk?  Carol Marin? Jay Levine? Neil Steinberg?  Mark Brown? Jamie Kalvan?

No one worried too much when Rahm made Claypool the CTA Boss and got Rev. Pfleger to do a politcial hatchet job on the Presidentod Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 308, or about Bombardier contracts, or the Ventra Card Boondoggles. Why should WTTW worry about the fighting Progressive beaten by Joe Berrios, when he took over CPS, after Triple B sold the store to SUPES?

Forrest Claypool pads himself with dollars and silence afforded by trhe compliant media.  Now, that same padding is getting shredded. Lookee H'yar!

The district's internal audit team is led by Andrell Holloway, who previously worked with Claypool in a similar role at the CTA. The unit has received significant funding increases since Claypool took office.

CPS budgeted a little more than $958,000 for the audit department in 2015. This year, the budget for Holloway's office is roughly $4.4 million, not including up to $14 million worth of consulting contracts that he manages. 

This year's budget for Schuler's office is about $2 million, relatively unchanged from recent years. The office perennially asks the school board for more money and staff.
"I think there's a fundamental disagreement, at some level, about the importance of the IG's office," Schuler said in an interview. "I've been told that at the end of the day, nobody's going to stand in our way. We're free to do what we can. But I see that as something different than a wholehearted embrace of the inspector general's function and the idea that there's going to be independent and transparent investigations. CPS declined requests to interview Claypool and Holloway about Schuler's report." (emphasis my own)

Forrest managed to drag poor old Frank "The Mailroom Guy" Clark -former CEO of ComEd into the bed of Claypool's making

Frank Clark, the school board's president and a mediator in the dispute, said Holloway's unit needed more firepower after "not meeting even the minimal obligations of an internal audit department."
"Of course he would like more people," Clark said of Schuler's office. "That could be said for almost every office in central office. But it's unrealistic."
CTA and CPS, like Chicago Park District all seem to have the same players and same grift.  The IG's concern now is the connection between Claypool's CTA Boss-Time and his CPS Boss-Time.
Schuler's office concluded the CPS employee "participated in a criminal conspiracy" in which he would steal transit passes from his office, then distribute them to accomplices who sold them on the black market.
Schuler's investigators believed the employee, who has not been charged with a crime, took at least $72,700 worth of transit passes over about seven months.
The CPS employee was fired in November, according to Schuler's report, which said Holloway's audit department conducted an "improper separate and parallel investigation" into the theft.
Schuler's office said the audit team "disregarded repeated requests … to refrain from simultaneously and separately investigating the matter."
According to the report, Holloway and other members of his team instructed one person interviewed by the IG's office to contact the audit department about the investigation, and conducted separate interviews that Schuler said "prematurely alerted" the suspected employee.
"This investigation implicated a subject who had been hired from the CTA," said a summary of Schuler's investigation.
"Thus, so as to avoid the mere appearance of any impropriety or undue influence on any investigation into the theft of CTA transit passes purchased by CPS, Internal Audit clearly should have stepped aside and let the (IG's office) — the statutorily independent investigative body — undertake its own investigation," the report said.

The IG's investigation applies the Bounty to the slug trails going back to Claypool's Boss-time at CTA and his Boss-time for the children at CPS.

Schuler's office concluded the CPS employee "participated in a criminal conspiracy" in which he would steal transit passes from his office, then distribute them to accomplices who sold them on the black market.

Schuler's investigators believed the employee, who has not been charged with a crime, took at least $72,700 worth of transit passes over about seven months.
The CPS employee was fired in November, according to Schuler's report, which said Holloway's audit department conducted an "improper separate and parallel investigation" into the theft.

Schuler's office said the audit team "disregarded repeated requests … to refrain from simultaneously and separately investigating the matter."
According to the report, Holloway and other members of his team instructed one person interviewed by the IG's office to contact the audit department about the investigation, and conducted separate interviews that Schuler said "prematurely alerted" the suspected employee.

"This investigation implicated a subject who had been hired from the CTA," said a summary of Schuler's investigation.
"Thus, so as to avoid the mere appearance of any impropriety or undue influence on any investigation into the theft of CTA transit passes purchased by CPS, Internal Audit clearly should have stepped aside and let the (IG's office) — the statutorily independent investigative body — undertake its own investigation," the report said.

Back in Jaunary of 2016. Juan Perez wrote a brilliant study of Claypool's long and slimy trail of grift in public service.

The career grifter has the Winston Strawn attorney Ron Marmer and the mega donor Ron DeNard and all of the old gang in his wagon train.  Now, it's in a tight defensive circle.

Juan Perez is attacking the wagons!  Watch you back, Juan. Bruce Dold has long ridden in Claypool's wagons.

Just who is Forrest Claypool?  He's no Rula Lenska.  Better ask Juan Perez!  Tell it, Son!

Tribune Editorial Board Boosts the Progressive Fatwah Against Labor Issued by Imam Pfleger

Man, if you had the juice of the droopy-eyed mope and career grifter of the CTA - Forrest Claypool - you could wake up any morning with a dead Mormon family in bed with you, start the morning off with a big bowl of Jello shots swimming in Maker's Mark, drive to work like Danny Davis, do as little as Governor Quinn for a straight six hours and draw a pay check and change with no less than six zeros behind the arabic numeral of your choice.

However, you are not Forrest Claypool, Sheila Simon, Pat Quinn, Toni Preckwinkle, or Deb Mell;  you needs to work and be accountable.

Robert Kelly is the President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308.  I have never met Bob Kelly.  I have read about the man in the newspapers and find him to be a genuine man of labor.  I have met Forrest Claypool and read about his. I can't say deeds, jobs in government going back to Mayor Harold Washington.  The guy, in my opinion, is a dope, but the luckiest dope in the world, to paraphrase Babs Streisand   Forrest Claypool is job-hopping grifter.

Bob Kelly has had a job with Chicago Transit Authority in nearly every capacity concering rail cars and has earned the trust of his co-workers who made Kelly their agent and finally union President. They elected Bob Kelly.   I can not remember the last time Forrest Claypool earned the votes of anyone for anything.  He is a career appointee. Wait!  Claypooly narrowly beat Ted Leschowisz for a County Board seat, but had his patrician rump handed to him by Todd Stoger in the county Board President race and most recently Joe Berrios for Cook County Assessor. Todd Stoger???

Well, Rahm got elected Mayor and appointed Forrest Claypool to the presidency of the Chicago Transit Authority, because that post is a Non-Shakman patronage haven.

In the spring of last year, following a series of bumps on the rails caused by Claypool, Rahm, Pfleger and Claypool announced a Progressive feel-good dodge that gave 65 ex-felons jobs cleaning CTA rail cars. That trio of grifters never bothered to chat with Local 308 about this Studs Terkel of an initiative.

When it came time to renew those hand-outs, it was discovered that Kelly and Local 308 wanted to pay these ex-cons a better salary than Clayppol's coffers could stand. Rahm tossed Claypool the Progressive Playbook.

• Problem - Kelly
• Solution - Destroy the man and his reputation!
• Enlist Sneed, Andy 'The Microphone" Shaw's BGA, the ususal sheep

So beginning in late November, Claypool had smooched the proper Progressive fannies and had Citizen Michael Phleger, Robby Rush, Danny Davis and the Later-Day Marats of both city editorial boards geared up to go Full Axelrod on White Boy Kelly!

Citizen Pfleger decided to issue a Fatwah on Robert Kelly in January*.

Today, Bruce Dold and the Tribne Editorial Board joined that Imam Pfeger's fatwah and used a stale Sun Times smear from December impyling that Robert Kelly fixed a scholarship and shook down companies doing business with Claypool's CTA.

This editorial  is a political hack-job done only to smear a genuine labor leader of a skilled trades local. Robert Kelly has stood up to Mayor Rahm and his hapless. job-hopping appointee CTA President Forrest Claypool. The charge against Robert Kelly crawled from under the stove in December hours after Claypool allies ( Bobby Rush and Michael Pfleger) protested at Local 308 over the placement of ex-felons in union jobs without the consultation of Local 308. The Sun Times did that story which Bruce Dold and Editorial Board uses today. Pfleger has issued a Fatwah on Robert Kelly, the media has taken the side Forrest Claypool whose tenure with CTA has been one screw-up after another -called out onl;y by Robert Kelly at each ( potty Breaks, Bombardier wheels, the Forset Park wreck of Old 98, Ventra & etc.). The Tribune editorial board loves Progressives and shugs when progress come to a screaming halt, when a proteceted species of Progressive Cook County pulls the brakes and not the throttle. This is character assasination worthy of Joseph Medill.

I f you really want to know why things are so screwed up, read the papers, watch the news and remember something, anything.


*

Father Michael Pfleger

January 2

Robert Kelly, President of ATU Local 308 did not get his New Year wish to fire 65 Ex-Offenders from their jobs at CTA. Thankfully CTA moved them to another Union 241 so that they could continue to Work! This Second Chance Apprentice Program for Ex-Offenders has helped hundreds of Brothers and Sisters get a second Chance and sent a message to thousands that a Second Chance is possible, but Robert Kelly in his Arrogance and Power Play threw them UNDER THE BUS on Dec 31st. TO ALL 308 UNION MEMBERS, YOU NEED TO THROW MR. KELLY UNDER THE BUS IN THE NEXT ELECTION!!!!!!!

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  Matthew Deal I think Father Pfleger is just mad that he has to stay a Virgin for life so he taking it out on Robert Kelly. Smh

  January 2 at 5:36pm · Like · 3
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  Don Mack WOOHH!!! That's Great 65 people still get to keep there Jobs

Chicago's Progressive War on Labor - Watch CTA Assault on ATU Local 308

Forrest Claypool and Rahm Emanuel have a real problem with people who actually know how to fix a rail that has come loose due to miscalculated gauges and neglected grading, folks who meet a shift in any kind of weather and start up a bus that has not been overhauled due to cut-backs and pick up angry, cold, wet impatient commuters who can not use cash anymore, nor the efficient and easy to use pass cards, or start up a rail car and maintain a safe level speed, in a sober and serious state of mind and body, while moving thousands of souls to and from stations, and  members of the Chicago community from all neighborhoods who maintain a careful watch over routes with aid of complicated technical gadgets, monitors and headsets.    They have a real problem with these people because they, like many Chicagoans, belong to a union of skilled trades persons with an elected leadership comprised of skilled trades persons.

CTA President Forrest Claypool has not held any tax-funded public job longer than five years by my simple empirical estimation and has managed to have his patrician shanks appointed to comfy chairs by Progressives, or dinosaur Democrats foolish enough to trust Forrest Claypool with or about anything.

If a CTA electrician's tool bag were dumped out on Forrest Claypool's desk, I would Ventra to say that this CTA President would be hard pressed to identify any of the items. "Well," one might say, " Forrest Claypool is far too important a media created Reform Minded Champion of the Working Poor to bother with such minutia. He is a macro-manager of all things micro."

True.  However, one might just suggest that such a puffed-up pinch of an oligarch might fain respect for the people who can and do know the nomeclatures and applications of such items.  He most certainly does not.

Forrest Claypool, appointed to the plum political posting of CTA President by Rahm Emanuel,  has displayed nothing but very public contempt for all CTA workers and the trade union local, Amalgamated Transit Union # 308 and its President, Robert Kelly, from the moment Claypool began collecting huge public pay checks and Robert Kelly has always proven to be the class  cat of the many exchanges - only concerned for the rights and safety of his fellow union members.

Forrest Claypool is a creature of the media and the Illinois Progressive oligarchy that controls city, county and State of Illinois government.  Bob Kelly is a working stiff elected by the rank and file membership to lead Local 308 - most members are proud African American heads of households.  I know the CTA workers who come in to pay tuition wearing their CTA uniforms, whose sons at Leo High School might follow them into the trade of their mothers and fathers.  They are Local 308.

This week, after months of having his head handed to him by the forthright Mr. Kelly, Claypool enlisted Chicago's Progressive pan policy preacher and public person assassin Michael Pfleger to cast a union man in the role of racist power broker.  Mr. Kelly, as I recall, from the March 2013 declaration of released convict employment with CTA, had no part in the initiative for which he is portrayed as some union Simon Legree, nor a place at the public podium with Pfleger, Clapool and Emanuel.  Claypool promised ex-cons jobs with his CTA. The jobs require membership in Local 308.  Did anyone mention this to Local 308 ?  ? ?

Well, Preacher Pfleger does what he wants, where he wants, and to whom he wants.  The facts matter not.  This is an orchestrated campaign of character assassination ( the two Chicago paper editorial boards, Planned Parenthood, the Chicago Urban League, Midnight Basketball, The GDs/Vice Lords/ Four Corner Hustlers and UICC will all have something to say), because Pfleger, unlike Claypool, never draws an uncalculated breath.

Did anyone speak with President Kelly?

Nope.

Skilled trades set the standards for membership and not merely the payment of dues  Can the applicant pass a test?  Can the applicant provide a valid drivers license with and accurate address, can the applicant pass a drug test?  Has the applicant ever been convicted of a felony?  Progressives hate skilled trades unions and want all labor to come under the aegis of the State government.  Skilled trades unions do not have massive memberships, because membership requires skills and accountability.  Blind kids do make great high beam walkers with the Iron Workers.  A guy who can ot tell 1/8" from 1/32 should not cut anything.    Now, given the litany of crimes perpetrated aboard CTA vehicles by non-members of Local 308 as passengers, does it make any sense to have criminals emeriti add to the mix?

Progressives believe so and demand that everyone of the unevolved people* who work for a living also believe so.

Pfleger, Claypool, Rahm Emanuel and their media creatures will heap scorn and lies about Bob Kelly for a while.  How that will end?  I do not know. . .I can guess.

Know this - this is about a public character assasination of working man, because Forrest Claypool is a trainwreck for CTA, but the Progressive coalitions have too much invested in Forrest Claypool to admit that.  No Republican has ever threatened organized labor as much as the Progressive.

More importantly, this is opening act for a tragedy.  Once again, Progressive Grifters will seek to destroy Labor autonomy and stewardship of apprentice programs in Illinois. If the skilled trades unions of Chicago do not support Local 308 and Bob Kelly in this battle, you can expect Illinois labor to lose the war.

* But the Progressive coalition eventually became a victim of its own success. The economic difficulties of the Depression and the costs of World War Two were followed by the relative comfort and security of the late forties and the 1950s. Political pressures began to shift, and the Progressive concern moved away from wealth and toward other indicia of hardship, such as race, extreme political, social or religious views, indigent criminal defendants, alienage, and eventually gender, affectional preference and disabilities. Although Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights movement were essential steps to fairness, they came at a very high price: the new Progressive concerns tended to divide rather than unite the coalition. Since the 1960s welfare liberals have increasingly played the game of recognizing new groups as disadvantaged, while risking the allegiance of others. At its best, the Democratic coalition has been barely held together by its fear of the political alternative. At its worse, it has been a set of bickering groups struggling for recognition as disadvantaged so that its members can also become the beneficiaries of government largesse. Meanwhile, government entitlement programs such as social security and Medicare began to move up the social scale until their principal beneficiaries became, not the poor and unemployed, but the employed and relatively affluent middle class.
The kind of "boutique" liberalism that has characterized the 1970s and particularly the 1980s has found political unity almost impossible to maintain. Each new group brought into the coalition is marginally less attractive to those already in than the previous group had been. For example, bringing in abortion rights and gays came at a heavy price in terms of loss of support from the Catholic and evangelical working classes - indeed, the political losses were almost certainly greater than the gains.
The result has been disjointed, fragmented governmental policy that has had an extraordinarily difficult time presenting a coherent ideology. Against this background, the classical vision of the market looks pretty good, particularly to those who see themselves as the financial contributors rather than the beneficiaries of this unfocused Progressive largesse.
Today, the legacy of Progressive legal thought is important but no less controversial than it was a half century ago. For more than thirty years Progressivism's critics have railed on its distrust of markets and the naivete of its faith in government. Ronald R. Coase's famous article on "The Problem of Social Cost," published in 1960, was thought to describe a common law system that inevitably produced efficient results. But the last ten years has seen substantial scholarship challenging the robustness of the Coase Theorem and limiting its domain. As a result, our once-firm belief in "deregulation" is gradually giving way to a belief that faith in unregulated markets can be carried too far, and that there are numerous areas where carefully designed government intervention can make things better. The concern for equal treatment to people of every race has perhaps suffered from a period of neglect, but concerns for equal treatment for others continues to carry political momentum. Legal Progressivism continues to produce its greatest successes, when it focuses on bread and butter issues related to wages, employment and economic equality and security. In the final analysis, it seems, escaping the legacy of Progressive legal thought is much more easily said than done.

Shakman Exempt Career Grifter Forrest Claypool Explains The Pad in The Sun Times

 Career Grifter and Shakman exempt Forrest Claypool CPS Boss and Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney are amused. So would we all, were we oligarchs and not helots.

To be "On the pad" means that someone, usually in law enforcement or other position of authority, regularly takes bribes.Detective Dolan was kicked off the force because he had been on the pad to local wiseguys for years.Urban Dictionary

Shakman Exempt - Anyone Micheal Shakman deems to be

• A-OK, on-the-level, a stand-up Progressive, really great person, who will feed all news outlets precious pieces of propaganda to ensure that no helots, their fat breeder wives, or horrible kids ever get a fair shake, much less a job dragging a shovel behind a big, blue City, operated Garbage truck and just keep their damn traps shut about how good Shakman Exempts have it . .  . well, not as good as Michael Shakman, but then again, Michael was blessed by the late Abner Mikva

• Necessary to maintaining "Our Village City," for US, By Us and only US in this urban Banana Republic

Forrest Claypool, more than any other public person in Chicago, is the perfect Progressive Shakman Statesman.

Since the fabled and idiotic 1983 Federal Decree, limited to Cook County, gelded the Cook County Democratic Committee and made a Committeeman as useless as a mint flavored suppository.

Claypool boarded the Cook County Ship of State,right after law school where he branded himself as "an attorney and served in several non-elected positions in state and county government, including deputy commissioner of the Cook County Board of Appeals and as Deputy State Treasurer " and yadda, yadda, yadda from meeting Dave Axelrod to Kopping a plea in the Chicago Sun Times this morning, and has been looting it to the scuttles ever since.

Today, Forrest fogs the facts with his love of children and heroic chinless jaw thrusting in the name of the people, as well as working his Huckleberry Hound-like-Carbondale Hillrod eyes in perplexed self-pity at being caught out.

In response to your editorial (CPS can’t afford to flunk ethics, transparency class — Aug. 12), as CEO of Chicago Public Schools, I take seriously the trust the public places in us and my responsibility to protect every dollar for our classrooms. ( scan for giggles, tittering, or rolled eyes and go thundering!)
That’s why my administration pursued (BUT never brought) a potential ( Yeah, I said Potential) civil rights lawsuit against the state of Illinois. With the district’s very survival at stake, and years of academic progress at risk because of a racially discriminatory funding system, retaining the finest legal counsel was paramount.
A last-minute settlement by Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislators altered the need for such a drastic measure. However, had the lawsuit been necessary, the skills of outside counsel could have been the difference between defeat and victory. That’s why, with the concurrence of CPS Board President Frank Clark ( AKA- The COMEd Mailroom Guy), I sought out Jenner & Block, perhaps the nation’s leading litigation firm with a proven track record in civil rights cases. CPS’ general counsel himself ( Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney).is one of the country’s preeminent litigators,( Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney.).having served as the American Bar Association’s litigation chair.
The Sun-Times’ character aspersions are beneath the well-considered views of this editorial page. Our general counsel ( Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney).earns a tiny fraction of his private-sector pay and the attorneys at Jenner & Block took this case at steeply discounted rates, because of their belief in the cause. Few attorneys (Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney). or firms of this stature and expertise would do so. . . ."

And so on with the firm belief that everyone in Cook County is a dope and  Forrest Claypool is not - he's a Shakman Exempt!

The Inspector General told the Sun Times these pearl onions of interest left out of Claypool's gimlet:

• Acting in closed session on July 27, the school board voted to pay as much as $250,000 to Jenner & Block, which spent months preparing a never-filed lawsuit against the state seeking increased funding.
• The Sun-Times reported Marmer left the law firm in 2013 but has continued to receive yearly payments of $200,000, which are to end in 2018.
• Under CPS’ code of ethics, school officials can’t have any “contract management authority” over any deal with a contractor “with whom the employee has a business relationship” — defined as any transaction worth at least $2,500 in a calendar year to the school system employee.
• According to Claypool, Marmer wasn’t involved in hiring Jenner & Block, which he said “was my decision” along with Frank Clark, the board president.
• A CPS spokeswoman declined to comment Monday. ( You Know It, Mabel!)
• The lawsuit Jenner & Block was preparing didn’t get filed because legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner agreed on a stopgap budget deal on June 30 that’s to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to CPS.
• Marmer and Claypool once worked together at Jenner & Block. Claypool worked there in 1982 — his first job out of law school. Marmer was at the firm from 1978 to 1993 and 1997 until 2013.
• Marmer — who had a solo law practice after leaving Jenner & Block and started his $185,000-a-year job at CPS on Nov. 2, 2015 — has made $29,000 in campaign contributions to Claypool’s bids for elected office since 2003. That includes $10,000 toward Claypool’s unsuccessful run for Cook County assessor in 2010. Marmer also gave $5,000 to Rahm Emanuel’s first campaign for mayor in 2011. (And Forrest Got the CTA! Ventra and Bomdardier!!!)
• Jenner & Block began working for CPS on March 3, though the contract with the firm that Claypool’s administration released last month was dated June 20.
• Through June 30, the firm had billed the school system for more than $182,000.
• CPS had refused to release any of the firm’s invoices for more than two months after the Sun-Times filed a public records request seeking them in May.
• The Jenner & Block lawyer who signed the deal with CPS was Randall Mehrberg, who worked for the Chicago Park District in the 1990s when Claypool was parks chief under then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. State election board records show Mehrberg contributed a total of $30,500 to Claypool’s campaigns and $10,000 to Emanuel.

Let's all join hands and sing the joys we all share in our Chicago oligarchy and let's try to remember that Forrest Clypool, really, really  "takes seriously  the trust the public places in us and my responsibility to protect every dollar for our classrooms."

Stosh and Stella in Garfield Ridge can't call Cap Mizenshky, over by the Ward, to see, if, maybe, their son Marek, in the Marines after St. Rita, can get a job on the trucks, when he gets back from KAIA by the Kabul airport this September, because no that would be just Shakman wrong.  Ask Forrest Claypool.

Labor Videte -The Attack on Bob Kelly ATU 308 Will Happen to All Skilled Trades

              

                         Labor Advovates Videte - Labor Leaders, be watchful.

Again, the Chicago Tribune lines up with the political power class and makes war on a genuine labor leader who has confronted the insular Claypool's CTA whenever Claypool attempted to afflict people who actually work for a living. The Tribune and the Sun Times Editorial Boards are protecting 'pay-to-play' grifters like Emanuel and Claypool, perhaps to maintain friendly access at the CTA and City Hall or perhaps to benefit from the venture capitalism rooted in Progressive deal making. The hypocrisy behind the 'death by a thousand cuts' ordered and organized by Claypool and his protected cronies and the willing participation in the public and personal attacks on Mr. Robert Kelly of ATU Local 308 is worthy of Saul Alinsky. If the skilled trades unions think that they will not also become targets of these pompous asses, they should give close attention to the stories.  All of skilled trades unions will get the same treatment, as that meted out to Robert Kelly.

The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board continues its punitive war on Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308's President Robert Kelly.  This is another exercise in the Saul Alinsky tactic perfected here in Chicago by David Axelrod known as the death by a thousand cuts. It is a Progressive thing.  It works.

Forrest Claypool, Rahm Emanuel's appointee to the CTA, is off limits to the bovine media who graze only with the approval of the Progressive Elites. The bovine media ( editorial boards, some columnists, activists lawyers, foundations controlled by Progressives, academics and their patrons) work in concert with a limited number of voices all rooted in the ideals, goals and tactics of the Hyde Park Mafia.  The Democratic Party, once called the Machine has not existed since Harold Washington won the 5th Floor. Forrest Claypool has flourished in these times.

Forrest Claypool, like every Progressive political animal I could name, is not a people person.  He is a some people person - people who can protect him, enrich him, do favors for him and advance him.  People who can not do for him need to stay put. stay quiet, or stay dead.

Robert Kelly is skilled tradesman who earned his advancement by dint of study and careful attention to the job at hand.  So competent is Mr. Kelly, that his fellow workers asked Kelly to represent them and lead them.   Kelly is life-long member of a skilled trades union and skilled tradesman.  Unlike other public sector unions, the skilled trades are led by one of their own - someone who went through the apprenticeship and certified each step up the pay scales with studies and practices paid for our of his own pocket.  The monster public sector unions, especially SEIU, are led by degree-waving social science majors from big universities.

The Progressive political class and the bovine media changed the meaning of Labor away from the skilled and industrial trades to the massive Political Action Corporations of SEIU, AFSCME which provide cash and T-shirted mobs to political aspirants.

The Skilled Trades ( Carpenters, Engineers, Plumbers, Pipe Fitters, Machinists & etc.) are open targets for smears, ridicule and death by a thousand cuts from the bovine media.  The Skilled Trades are and at the moment remain autonomous.  They control the qualifications for and admission to the apprenticeship programs they run.  Progressives have long wanted all apprenticeship programs controlled by the State of Illinois, where they would intensify the power of people in control -Rahm Emanuel, Toni Preckwinkle and Pat Quinn.

Robert Kelly became the target of bovine media only because he refused to sell-out the membership of Local 308.  Forrest Claypool only plays with people who do for Forrest Claypool.  Kelly will not scratch Claypool's  confortable belly.

The last straw was over Kelly's refusal to play ball with Claypool, Rahm and Pfleger over the ex-con CTA job hop.  Since December, Citizen Mike Pfleger issued a Fatwah on Kelly, led a protest that included Bobby Rush at the Local 308; the Sun Times accused Kelly of snitching a scholarship for his child, even though Kelly has been a life-long dues paying member of Local 308; Sneed smeared Kelly, BGA Andy Shaw, no stranger to pay-to-play himself and Crain's Chicago Business answered Claypools whine that Bob Kelly would not roll-over,

What is happening to Bob Kelly in media and in the flatulent out-cries at CTA and City Hall is a towering hypocrisy and gross injustice.

I hope the leaders of the skilled trades unions of greater Chicago and Illinois are noticing what is happening to one their own, because as sure as Forrest Claypool will resign his post at CTA and land another big salary and government appointment, Progressives are going to end skilled trade union autonomy.

You are next, Fitters, Carpenters, Plumbers, Machinists and Engineers.

Rahm Wasn't Bilked in a Day - Took Many Months on the CTA

Let Me Tell All a Story 'Bout Dude Named Forrest/Who Never, Ever Had a Bad Day.
He's got money in his pocket 'n no 'countabilly/ He's President of the CTA!

From the Man Who Never Leaves -Forrest on the CTA

I wonder if Rahm Emanuel's 1st Anniversary as Mayor of Chicago -Urban Center - will be as joyous as one might think it should be. . . prolly nut, as young but cynical Danny McGuinn (3yrs) might opine.

What a year!

G-8 - bagged by the guy in the Oval with only an hour's notice.

CTA wheels from Red China prove a brittle as a CTA gandy-dancer's pee-stream in most Chicago winters.

Governors, Mayors, Cops, Firemen, Catholic Archbishops, City Workers always get lousy treatment from the Chicago Media. However, there are folks the media protects, like they were Lladro pieces. Three come to mind immediately - G. ( "Gimme") Flint Taylor, Andy Thayer and Forrest Claypool are about the Chicagoans who never seem to go away: G is an ambulance chasing Cadillac Commie; Andy Thayer is a speech challenged pan-Activitht Media Goof; Forrest Claypool gets appointed to everything and anything. These unexamined lives are worth living . . .why exactly?


Last April, Rahm appointed Forrest Claypool President of the CTA, when job-jumping, experience unnecessary Forrest, chirped "You don’t negotiate in public. … There’s obviously significant financial problems at CTA, but that’s part of the discussions and negotiations.” Like Bombardier?

Oh. Hell no! Unless it is to tune-up helot CTA workers, Forrest don't meet the press.

. Forrest quickly showed his cost-cutting mettle by denying CTA employees Pee Breaks . . .damn them perks!

Claypool trotted out the new L-Cars from the good Folks at Bombardier Canada on my Birthday of all days! November 8, 2011 not only did I turn 59 years old enough to know better, but "Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool today unveiled new 5000-series rail cars. . .
After a successful prototype testing period, the first of 706 brand new, full production model cars will debut on the Pink Line. As more cars continue to arrive, they will be tested internally to ensure all components are operating properly before going into service. “The 5000-series cars provide a more enjoyable ride for customers,” said CTA President Forrest Claypool. “These cars have wider aisles and roomier interiors, electronic destination signs and security cameras in each car for enhanced safety.”

BUT the wheels disintegrate! Shortly, thereafter, the cars were pulled. The new 5 000 Series -Chinese Wheels and all, like their sponsor,Forrest Claypool, remain without any previous experience.

Now, purchase of these fine products with wheels made in Red China were no doubt greassed along the tracks long before Mayor Rahm.

Forrest Claypool owns the 5000 series, unless he cares to divulge the names and wallet sizes of those who made a proper profit along the way.
The media won't be mean to Forrest. In fact, Mike Sneed and Carol Marin will get the poor sad-eyed mope a plate of Lorna Doone's and a big-ass glass of ice-cold Oberweiss, while petting the lad for his troubles brought on by Bosses.

In a real world Claypool would be fitted for a swell-two button Pee Yellow jacket with CTA Wheels for buttons. Instead the Mayor will get the heat.

No wonder Mayor Rahm has 'Coon Eyes.

He's The Man Who Ne'er Leaves, But Always Returns in Some new Capacity

http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2011/november_2011/mayor_emanuel_andctapresidentforrestclaypoolunveilnewrailcars.html
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/4915438-418/rahm-emanuel-picks-forrest-claypool-to-head-cta.html

There's a whole bunch here:

https://news.google.com/news/more?q=forrest+claypool+CTA+%26+bombardier+Cars&hl=en&pwst=1&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GGIH_enUS268&prmd=imvnsuo&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=999&bih=579&wrapid=tlif133130686039210&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ncl=dbpcllPVcbLTS6MmIwlxMzpzkS_5M&ei=VCFaT5GIFcqigwewkfGhCw&sa=X&oi=news_result&ct=more-results&resnum=1&ved=0CDcQqgIwAA

Progressive War on Labor: Now, The Creeps Go After a Union Man Personally

“It’s a widely-accepted concept that you’re paid for work performed. It’s only in the Alice in Wonderland world of these crazy work rules that people are paid millions of dollars to do nothing,” Claypool said.

Gutless little twerp Forrest Claypool has Michael Pfleger and Dane Placko beat up a family man labor leader who actually can do his job.

Robert Kelly was elected as President/Business Agent of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 in 2008. Mr. Kelly is responsible for protecting the collective bargaining rights of over 4000 active and retired Chicago Transit Authority workers who work on the rail side. Mr. Kelly serves as a Vice President of the Illinois AFL-CIO and is President of the ATU Local 308 Scholarship committee. He is the proud father of 11 children.

Fox 32 ran another in a very long string of nasty caricatures of citizens.  Dan Placko, is the Ron Burgundy heir to the throne once occupied by Andy Shaw ( ABC clown emeritus and BGA Boss).  Placko gets spoon fed stories by leaders if agendas - in this case Michael Pfleger acting as the sword and shield of Forrest Claypool's CTA.

Over the last few weeks the President of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 has been the target of activist preacher Michael Pfleger.  Pfleger is the priest who answers only to the cameras and his legion of media elves, who owns plenty of Progressive political juice.  Forrest Claypool is the job hopping career grifter who presently draws a tax-funded salary in a political appointment at CTA President.  Claypool by my calculations has not held a political gig longer than five years.

Dane Placko of Fox 32 couldn't find a donut in a police station, but answers the call of his masters:

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
The powerful head of Chicago's largest transit union, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), is coming under fire Thursday after FOX 32 learned his daughter won the union's top scholarship prize last year.
In addition to his daughter, the children of three leaders of the ATU local 308 won union scholarships worth up to $5,000 apiece.
Normally that wouldn't attract much attention, but in light of the fact that the union is now trying to kill a popular program that gives ex-offenders a second chance some African-American political leaders are incensed.

Incensed, I tells you! 

Now, Dane is only a highly paid suit who reads anything put under his nose, remember,  Placko is to reporting as marshmallows are to Kimchi.

Bob Kelly's daughter won a union sponsored scholarship, because Bob Kelly is and has been a member of the union for decades -

Robert Kelly has been a member since October 1, 1986. Employed by the "Authority" on August 27, 1986. Robert has worked the classifications of Conductor, Motorman, Flagmen, Foot Collector, Switchman and Towerman. Appointed a steward in 1997 until he was elected as President/Business Agent on December 16, 2008. Robert demonstrates vision, insight and tenacity in representing Local 308's priorities. Re-elected to a second term on November 15, 2011 winning over 55% of the votes against 4 other candidates

Bob Kelly has fought Forrest Claypool and best the job hopper, since Claypool's appointment (not election, mind you) by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011.

• Pee Breaks 
• The Bombardier Wheel Scandal -now swept under the media rug
• Ventra
• The Elves crashing the Transit Car in Forrest Park
• CTA Seniority Rules slashed by Claypool
• More Ventra

Now, Michael Pfleger is doing his patented Hillary Clinton speech on the head of a genuine labor union leader.

Dane Placko is always handy.  I remember a few years back when  tried to ambush the Cardinal on his little Sunday chat show, when he made a BS report on two political enemies of Toni Preckwinkle that proved to be nonsense and now going to work for Pfleger Industries Coalition, LLC.

Fox 32 has learned Kelly's daughter was awarded the $5,000 union scholarship in 2012 for an essay she wrote on funding mass transit.
In addition, three other children of top union officials won scholarships in the past three years.
The union represents a total of about 3,500 CTA rail workers
In a phone interview, Kelly told FOX 32 he didn't even know his daughter had entered the contest.
"I was shocked (when she won). But I have no problem with it. I think it's a witch hunt they're engaged in," Kelly said.
He continued saying the essays are submitted without names to an outside panel for judging.
He said only 11 essays were submitted the year his daughter won, and all of those who entered got some scholarship money.
Kelly makes $134,000 a year as union president. The average CTA union worker makes about $60,000.
"She may be very, very smart and very, very talented, very gifted in writing essays and deserved to win. But monetarily, there are probably people more deserving to win," Trotter said.
But it's the 65 ex-offenders about to lose their jobs that has inflamed the situation.

" Fox has learned,"  because Pfleger wrote your copy, you mope. This has nothing to do  with jobs for felon emeriti otherwise Forrest would have placed them in high paying jobs by appointment - like his own bad self.

The only reason Mr. Kelly is taking any heat is because Claypool can't make change, let alone provide change. Nothing that goof has done in his career as grifter has saved a nickel or benefited anyone but Claypool.

Dane Placko slings out more crap than a backed-up Kohler.

Ventra Cards - Why Can't We See (Hear) Forrest for the Fees?

You got that right, my brother!

Career Grifter and Government Job Hopper, CTA Boss Forrest Claypool, is invisible in today's Chicago Tribune article and only mentioned in passing by the Sun Times' account of the Ventra Card Debacle. 

CTA employees are being “verbally attacked daily by angry riders’’ who are blaming them for problems with the new transit fare-payment system, the rail worker union’s leader said Thursday, calling on the agency to scrap Ventra until all the bugs are worked out.
“The Ventra program is not working. There are people who are getting triple-, double-, quadruple-billed. Their credit cards are being billed that shouldn’t be. People are mad, they’re angry,’’ said Robert Kelly, Local 308 president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
“But they are mad at the wrong person,’’ Kelly said at union headquarters downtown. “CTA should stop (Ventra) now, pull back, until they can work out all the kinks.’’ Tribune

Concerning double-charges, CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase said previously that Ventra customers could be double charged if they tap a Ventra reader and get a “go” signal and then change turnstile lanes and get a second “go” signal. However, Ventra customers are not charged for “stop” messages, even multiple ones, she said.
Cubic Transportation Systems, which won a contract worth up to $454 million to manage and operate Ventra, was so inundated with calls in early October that, on Oct. 9, CTA President Forrest Claypool cancelled some Ventra deadlines. The move was intended to give Cubic time to triple the number of operators — from 100 to 300 — in its call centers and reduce the hold times of frustrated customers. Sun Times

 The Chicago Sun Times appears to Gimme Shelter Forrest with this passing props for cancelling some Ventra Rollout deadlines after the metaphorical halibut had already rotted on the transit poop deck.

I like to ride the bus to work and I would buy the CTA/PACE cards at CVS on 79th street.  They worked great and their value was obvious.  When something is not broken, a Progressive like Forrest Claypool will come in with an already divvied up deal to screw things into loam.  The newspapers will nod with conviction -"Ain't He Great?"

You see both Chicago papers ( read Editorial Boards) have a great deal of time, talent and treasure invested in the Carbondale Career Grifter.

Forrest Claypool can not keep his yap closed most times, because words are easy and deeds are tough.  When deeds follow the words that spill out of Claypool like mysterious Avondale fence ooze things get pretty tough on people other than Forrest Claypool - CTA workers' potty breaks get snipped off in mid - stream, Peep-hole camera's get located in locker rooms, a CTA yard worker* gets sanctioned, hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans, get their nickels snitched by Cubic Transportation Systems, and the Chinese wheels of the Canadian Bombardier L Cars don't fit the tracks.

How did Ventra become the "This CAN'T Wait" opportunity of a lifetime for CTA riders?

Forrest Claypool yapped up a storm for months.

Today?

It's a very different story but the same old song.

If Forrest Claypool is involved, we all pay.

*
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 President Bob Kelly is what real labor is all about - he stared done the Chinless Claypool over the Pee Break Embargo, called out the Bomdardier Wheel scam and is standing up for his people.  He should be doing Forrest's job.
n.b.- Robert Kelly was elected as President/Business Agent of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308 in 2008. Mr. Kelly is responsible for protecting the collective bargaining rights of over 4000 active and retired Chicago Transit Authority workers who work on the rail side. Mr. Kelly serves as a Vice President of the Illinois AFL-CIO and is President of the ATU Local 308 Scholarship committee. He is the proud father of 11 children.
ATU 308 Officers

www.atu308.org, 13 Dec 2012 [cached]
Robert Kelly has been a member since October 1, 1986. Employed by the "Authority" on August 27, 1986. Robert has worked the classifications of Conductor, Motorman, Flagmen, Foot Collector, Switchman and Towerman. Appointed a steward in 1997 until he was elected as President/Business Agent on December 16, 2008. Robert demonstrates vision, insight and tenacity in representing Local 308's priorities. Re-elected to a second term on November 15, 2011 winning over 55% of the votes against 4 other candidates (emphasis my own)