Archive for the ‘News/opinion’ Category

Brandon Johnson’s Chicago follies: The board of education disaster

Posted: November 3, 2024 by John Ruberry in education, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, who is probably a socialist, is on his way to being remembered as one of America’s worst big city mayors.

Among the awful history gives us are New York’s John Lindsay, Cleveland’s Dennis Kucinich, and Detroit’s Coleman Young.

“Branjo” has been mayor for only 18 months. 

In another post at Da Tech Guy, I discussed his propensity to blame any criticism of him on his race–Johnson is black. 

Last month I discussed his Friday Afternoon Massacre. Consider this post a sequel. 

Johnson was a longtime paid organizer for the radical Chicago Teachers Union. And by the way, when someone calls himself an organizer, consider that a code word for left-wing radical.  He was also Cook County Commissioner, a part-time job. Cook County government doesn’t have much power. 

Branjo is an empty suit with an empty head. 

Chicago is broke, thanks to fiscal mismanagement by Richard M. Daley, Chicago is essentially bankrupt. Its municipal pension funds are the worst funded in the nation.

Daley belongs in that worst mayors ever list too.

But the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson’s former employer and the chief financial backer of his mayoral campaign, wants a big raise for teachers. To pay for that, as well as a looming pension bill for non-teacher CPS employees, Branjo ordered the CEO of CPS, Pedro Martinez, to take out what the media is collectively calling a high interest “payday loan” to pay for both. CPS faces a $500 million dollar deficit while Chicago proper faces a nearly $1 billion deficit. CPS bonds are rated as junk.

Martinez said no to the mayor, and in solidarity with him, the entire school board, all seven of them Johnson appointees, resigned, in short, the Friday Afternoon Massacre.

In Brandon Johnson’s Chicago, things can always get worse.

Johnson quickly replaced the school board with seven new members, who have so far done nothing. Martinez hasn’t been fired and no payday loan has been taken out. In a few weeks, that board will be replaced with a hybrid board, half elected—the election is this week–and half appointed by Johnson. 

Of the soon-to-be former board, two members, including the president of the board, Mitchell Ikenna Johnson (no relation) are an embarrassment. The day after he was sworn in, it was reported that Mitchell was disbarred for life in Ohio for “engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, deceit, fraud, or misrepresentation.” The mayor, who almost certainly lives in a leftist pseudo-intellectual monoculture, should have immediately called for Mitchell Ikenna Johnson’s resignation. He didn’t. Then it was learned that Mitchell was active on social media supporting 9/11 conspiracy theories and promoting anti-Semitic hate. On Friday, Mitchell finally resigned.

Apparently, there is no vetting at Chicago’s City Hall. Competence is absent too.

Another of Branjo’s recent board appointees, Olga Bautista–a socialist–faces accusations of anti-semitism, which led Illinois’ treasurer, Susana Mendoza, a Democrat, to comment on X, “Springfield should intervene. There clearly needs to be Chgo City Council vetting, oversight & consent of these mayoral appointments to the Chgo Public School Board. Antisemites should be automatically disqualified, full stop. As should socialists calling for the fall of the U.S.”

Mendoza, a Democrat, is rumored to be considering a mayoral run in 2027.

Meanwhile, another radical left-winger, Kennedy Bartley, a top Branjo aide who is in charge of lobbying with other public officials, including the City Council, on behalf of the mayor, has called Chicago Police officers “f*cking pigs” and has made anti-Semitic comments on social media. She’s still on the job.

Johnson is rumored to have a police detail of 125-150 officers.

Clearly, being an anti-Semite, or at the very least, anti-Israel, is on the checklist to be included in leftist government employment circles.

And incompetence is on that checklist too.

As I’ve mentioned a few times at DaTechGuy, the warning signs were all there with Brandon Johnson. Chicagoans voted him in anyway.

While Chicago has some able aldermen–Brendan Reilly, Anthony Beale, and Ray Lopez come to mind–there are many leftist losers there too.

But that’s a topic for another time.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Social media influencers add no votes for Kamala Harris

Posted: October 27, 2024 by John Ruberry in culture, election 2024, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics, twitter
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By John Ruberry

There’s a tendency by the left to refer to supporters of Donald J. Trump as a cult.

We’re not.

Oh, before I move on, if you plan to vote for the Trump-Vance ticket and other Republican candidates, do so now. While our side typically likes to vote on Election Day, there’s always that chance you’ll be ill that day, have car problems, a family emergency might arise, or inclement weather might sneak up on you. All of these things can happen tomorrow–however, there’s always the day after.

Except on Election Day.

Mrs. Marathon Pundit and I voted–for Trump of course–last week. Up until post-election day in 2020, both of us opposed early voting. But we’re against the Democrats even more.

Back to “the cult.”

The Democrats dragged a senile old man over the finish line in 2020. So instead of wandering the beaches of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Joe Biden was living in the world’s priciest nursing home, the White House. Now the Dems, citing first “joy,” and now “Trump is Hitler,” are trying to accomplish the same stunt for Kamala Harris, the poster child of that disease of the public sector, failing upwards.

Cult-leaders believe their followers will fall for anything. Which brings me to influencers.

One bizarre campaign strategy of the Dems is the use of social media influencers who mindlessly cheer on the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket. They were just as zombie-like for Biden-Harris. Since they often post on social media on the same topic almost simultaneously, I suspect all of them are being fed the same lies, oops, make that lines, by the Democratic Party or Dem PACs.

Cult members fall for such appeals to emotion.

The worst of the bunch is the man-child, Harry Sisson. More often than the others, Sissons begins many of his posts with “BOOM,” or “OMG.” And he regularly claims, almost always falsely, that a Trump rally venue is dominated by empty seats, or has attendees leaving early, which course, Sisson will say, cause the Trump-Vance campaign to “panic.”

Thru a couple of liberal PACs, Sisson is paid for his X blather, according to Community Notes on X.

A couple of other influence tools are almost as bad. Until the day Biden was pushed out of the campaign, the Kamala’s Wins X page was known as Biden’s Wins.

What wins?

In an X post last week, Kamala’s Wins said about a Tempe event, “BREAKING: Local reporters in Arizona are reporting that Donald Trump is struggling to fill seats for his rally tonight. Trump’s rallies have been emptier than ever lately.”

That Tempe rally, according to an X video posted in that account’s comments feed, didn’t seem to have a single empty seat.

Then there is Victor Shi, another influencer. Today he said on X, “This matters,” about a Madden game between Tim Walz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Because he appears to be about 60 years old, the worst of the Harris influencer ilk is Jon Cooper.

For the last few days, Cooper has been claiming on X that a “devastating” video damaging to Trump would be released soon. We’re still waiting. If such a video existed, it would be out by now. What was that I said earlier about early voting? Depending on where you live, it began days ago–or weeks ago.

If Kamala Harris believes these influencers change or add a single vote for her, then it’s solid proof that she is too dumb to be president.

In the 2028 presidential campaign, I predict the use of influencers by Democratic presidential campaigns will be greatly diminished.

But Dem cultists, like shell game operators who can’t fool anyone anymore, will move on to something else.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Chicago Public Schools took COVID money and splurged, now that source of funds has dried up

Posted: October 23, 2024 by John Ruberry in education, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

William J. Bennett, when he was Education Secretary under Ronald Reagan, declared the Chicago Public Schools system was the worst in the nation.

Decades later, CPS still might be at the bottom, despite a recent influx of federal COVID-19 relief cash.

According to Illinois State Board of Education test results, nearly three-quarters of CPS students can’t read at grade level and over eighty-percent of them aren’t proficient in math.

Not shockingly, many Chicago parents are finding alternatives their children’s education, such charter and private schools, or moving out of Chicago altogether. 

The sad irony is that many CPS schools call themselves things like “school of excellence,” or “STEM academy,” or “college prep high school.” 

One-third of Chicago’s traditional public schools, Wirepoints reports, are under half of enrollment capacity. One high school, the somewhat modestly named Manley Career Academy, which was built for 1,000 pupils, has just 100 students enrolled there. “Journey to world class” is the school’s motto.

There’s state-enforced moratorium preventing school closings, but that expires next year. But the Chicago Teachers Union, the straw that stirs the drink in city politics, is vehemently opposed to that.

Fewer schools means fewer union jobs. 

The CTU and its allies say that Chicago schools are underfunded. However, they never say what the proper amount is. Just more, more, and more.

CPS-per-student funding has increased by 40-percent since 2019, when scores were higher, the district now spends nearly $30,000 student, while the statewide average is just $24,000.

As I reported here earlier this month, Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, who prior to his election last year was a CTU organizer, saw his school board resign because, according to media reports, “Branjo” was pressuring them to fire the CEO of CPS. 

Johnson appointed that entire board.

CTU was the primary funder of Johnson’s campaign. That union is fond of Alinskyite tactics, particularly creating and demonizing an enemy. Usually that’s the mayor, but Johnson is on the CTU team.

Johnson and CTU–assuming there is a difference between the two–are pushing for high-interest loans to increase spending for schools on things like salaries and pension obligations, rather than for capital projects, which is what fiscally responsible school districts use loans for.

CPS has a junk credit rating. 

Johnson’s new appointees will be out of office soon. A new 21-member board–10 elected and 11 appointed by the mayor, will take over shortly after Election Day next month. Many of the electoral candidates for the new school board are endorsed by the CTU.

Things have gotten so bad that even the Washington Post has taken notice.

Chicago and CPS appear to be in a death spiral. How both got there goes back decades. As for the misdeeds of the last few years, the Chicago Teachers Union deserves much of the blame.

Getting out of this mess won’t be easy. While Governor J.B. Pritzker is also a Democrat, he and Branjo aren’t close. Pritzker is a liberal, but Johnson is a quasi-socialist. But a state takeover of CPS isn’t likely. Pritzker wants to run for president one day and if the state is in charge of Chicago’s schools, then CPS becomes his problem.

Even if Kamala Harris wins the presidency next month, a federal bailout of CPS is very unlikely, especially because the district squandered COVID funds.

And Chicagoans are stuck with Johnson until at least 2027.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The Great Chicago Train Robbery offers more proof of the city’s decline and fall

Posted: October 13, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, culture, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

The evidence of Chicago’s decline and fall keeps piling up.

On Friday evening, at least 30 thugs looted Union Pacific rail cars in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on the West Side.

The city’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, who lives in Austin, was in London in advance of Sunday’s Chicago Bears game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Although he later backed away, slightly, from his statement, in 2020 “Branjo” called defunding the police “a political goal.”

As you’ll see, the looters are so casual in these videos as they unload the U.P. freight cars, it’s as if they calmly enjoying a visit to a suburban pick-your-own pumpkin patch. They’re not hiding their faces; they’re not covering up their licence plates. One enterprising criminal even brought a cargo truck to speed their 100-percent discounts along.

The mass thievery was so vast that commuter rail traffic on those rail lines was suspended for hours.

Society is rotting in Chicago–as well as suburban Cook County, because we have had a pro-criminal George Soros-funded so-called prosecutor, Democrat Kim Foxx, lackadaisically enforcing the law for that last eight years. Thankfully, she’ll be out of office in two months.

Criminals don’t fear getting caught in Chicago–and if they are–only those accused of the most heinous crimes are locked up to await trial. Since last year, courtesy of JB Pritzker’s SAFE-T Act, cash bail is banned in Illinois.

The Chicago establishment media, TV stations are an exception, are shameful. They minimize rampant criminality, calling it “a perception problem.”

On Facebook, an hour after the brazen looting, a Chicagoan on Facebook, a self-described “entrepreneur,” was advertising a back yard full of widescreen televisions for sale. As of this writing, 5:00pm EDT, those TVs are still for sale on the social network. Facebook doesn’t seem concerned. It’s a good thing this “entrepreneur” isn’t claiming that masks don’t work against COVID.

Then again, maybe it’s a coincidence that the “entrepreneur” is selling those televisions. But there are a lot of “coincidences” in America’s third-largest city.

So far only six people have been arrested for allegedly participating in the Great Chicago Train Robbery. Where were the Chicago Police on Friday? It took the cops over an hour to arrive to the West Side rail yard. ABC 7 News’ traffic chopper showed up much more quickly. Where was Union Pacific’s security detail? Just a thought, but U.P. may want to investigate their West Side employees. I suspect that this heist may have been aided by a tip from someone working in that freight yard.

There have been other thefts of U.P. trains in Chicago recently.

Finally, where are the decent Chicagoans?

There are some, right?

John Ruberry regularly blogs just north of Chicago at Marathon Pundit.

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