Friday we have yet another 11 am overtime edition of DaTechGuy off DaRadio No frills livestream podcast thanks to the ravages of the horrible Trump economy that is going so poorly that for the 3rd week in a row I was asked to work on my day off.
Our topic list for Friday’s podcast is:
More Democrat riots
More Trump Rallies
and More Supreme Court hearings
plus a short quip about the difference between worshiping a God and expecting him to be your manservant.
It all starts at 11 AM EST instead of 3 PM because at 3 PM I’ll be on the road to work to get the overtime to help pay for the car part I found.
You can watch the festivities here (last week’s show is the placeholder)
The current show will be inserted about 10 min before we start.
Oh and if you missed my special Justice Ginsberg bonus livestream held after the news of her death broke it’s here
Last week CNN hosted a town hall for Joe Biden where he was given softball questions. No, on second thought they were T-ball questions.
The demands on whoever is president are brutal. If CNN believes that Biden can’t handle challenging queries then that in my opinion disqualifies him to be leader of the most powerful nation on the planet. And if CNN is just shilling for the Democrats, then no one should take them seriously as a news outlet. Based on their poor ratings, most people already do not.
Here are some questions that responsible reporters should be asking Biden. The wonderful thing about the questions I’ve devised is that most of them can be posed to President Trump. Yes, a few of these queries have been given to Biden, but generally only once and with dismissive answers from the Democratic nominee.
Here we go:
Will you be releasing the names of your potential Supreme Court nominees, as President Trump did as a candidate in 2016 and did earlier this month?
Do you support “packing the Supreme Court,” that is, nominating additional justices to the court to go beyond nine members?
Where’s Hunter?
Do you unconditionally oppose Antifa?
Will a Biden administration investigate plots by Antifa and other groups to incite riots in cities such as Portland?
You favor a nationwide mask mandate to fight COVID-19. What is your legal basis for instituting one?
Do you support statehood for the District of Columbia? And for Puerto Rico?
Many states, such as Illinois, Kentucky, and New Jersey, have public-sector worker pension plans that are essentially bankrupt. Do you support a federal bailout of these and other state worker pension plans?
Numerous cities also have similarly under-funded pension plans. Will you back a bailout of those plans?
What is your position on bailing out states whose tax revenues have plummeted because of COVID-19 lockdowns?
Do you favor allowing states to declare bankruptcy?
Speaking of Illinois, in 2008 the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Patrick Fitzgerald, was in the midst of a corruption investigation of Rod Blagojevich, the governor of the state, and Tony Rezko, a member of Blago’s inner circle who donated large sums to the campaigns of Barack Obama. Your ticket mate kept Fitzgerald in his post after becoming president. This year John Lausch, the current US Attorney in Chicago, is in the thick of investigating more public corruption. The center of this scandal appears to be longtime Illinois state House speaker Michael Madigan who is also the chairman of the state Democratic Party. If elected will you keep Lausch in his post?
Where’s Hunter?
If elected you will be older than Ronald Reagan, the oldest person to serve as president, was when he left office after two terms. Are you physically and mentally up to the office? If you are now what will happen if you one day are not?
Do you support the Green New Deal?
Do you support fracking?
Do you support nuclear power?
Do you support coal power?
Do you back amnesty for illegal immigrants?
Do you utilize teleprompters during interviews and question-and-answer sessions?
Where’s Hunter?
I’m sure there are many more questions readers can come up with.
Today at 3 PM EST DaTechGuy off DaRadio graces the podcast Livestream waves once again.
Today we’ll be taking questions from people in chat on the issue of the Day and also talking these two topics
Racism at Princeton
Secrets in Nashville
And I’ll of course throw in a dig at Wendys.
The “preshow” starts at 2:55 when I go live and the show proper begins at 3 PM you can watch the livestream below (last weeks show is a placeholder for the post till 2:50 or so)
I’ve been writing here about the Illinois Exodus for several years. The COVID-19 outbreak, as it has many other societal trends, is accelerating the people drain. But two rounds of riots and looting, one after the homicide of George Floyd, and the second last month, after false rumors that Chicago Police had killed a man now charged with murder, are gut punches that the city will not quickly recover from.
In my DTG post-second riot post about the decline and fall of the city, Welcome to Detroit, Chicago, I wrote, “But when Chicago’s downtown area is dominated by boarded up store-fronts with signs declaring ‘Move in now–lease rates reduced again–first month free!’ you’ll know the downtown descent is well under way.” The vacancy rate for luxury units in downtown Chicago are at their highest level ever recorded according to Mike Flannery (more on him in a bit).
I haven’t been downtown since that “Detroit” entry, but on my own blog, Marathon Pundit, an automated Google Ads banner from a downtown Chicago apartment building offered this promo, “First two months rent free.”
Decline and fall.
And keep in mind that over seventy percent of Chicago’s economic activity comes from the downtown area. And Chicago is of course Illinois’ largest and most important city.
Downstate things aren’t much better. AP is reporting on three towns in St. Clair County, which is across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, that are considering merging because of “severe population decline.” St. Clair County, like Chicago and Cook County, are Democratic strongholds where corruption is widespread.
The Prairie State has lost population for six straight years. It’s a safe bet that when the counting is over for 2020 it will be seven.
On the usually-worth watching–Fox Chicago’s Flannery Fired Up, three cheerleaders for the city and one moderate skeptic talked about its descent and for the most part, it’s quick bounce back. But this weekend’s episode was an aberration. The show sucked. It was up to the host, Mike Flannery, to bring up the two 800-pound gorillas in Chicago’s otherwise looted basement: rampant corruption and the worst-funded municipal pensions in the nation.
Since 1973 over thirty members of Chicago City Council have been sentenced to prison. At one time he was the city’s most powerful alderman, but now Ed Burke is under indictment for allegedly shaking down a fast food franchisee. Do you want to bring your business to Chicago? You may have to endure having your pockets picked by a pol. Or by several of them.
Where do I sign up?
Burke has been an alderman since 1969. Chicago needs term limits. And so does Illinois. Boss Michael Madigan, who is from the same part of the city as Burke, has been speaker of the state House since 1983 except for two years in the 1990s when the Republicans had a majority in the lower chamber. Madigan is also a Chicago ward committeeman. He’s been chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party since 1997. Illinois’ most powerful Dem is also currently under investigation as part of an evolving federal corruption probe that has already ended the careers of several Chicago and suburban politicians.
There is no way out of Chicago’s pension bomb other than a municipal bankruptcy, one that may also force many city vendors to go under, or a federal bailout. Even if the the Democrats capture the Senate and the White House in November, such a rescue for irresponsible spending, a backhanded reward really, faces tall odds in Washington. But under current Illinois law, government bodies are prevented from declaring bankruptcy.
The “moderate skeptic” on Flannery Fired Up mentioned transportation as a city selling point. While O’Hare is one of the world’s busiest airports–it used to be ranked first in traffic–and Chicago is a rail hub and it has many miles of interstate highways, that “expert” needs to drive on Chicago’s streets. They are falling apart.
And if you don’t own a car and you use your feet to get around? Watch out, walking on crumbling sidewalks often requires strong ankles and a steady balance.
Violence in Chicago was declining over the last few years but shootings are way up since the pandemic was declared.
As I’ve mentioned before, like an alcoholic, Chicago’s cure won’t begin until it admits complete and utter defeat.
That point has not been reached. But it’s probably coming soon.
As it is for the rest of Illinois. The state’s pension programs are almost as poorly funded as Chicago’s.
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