Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

Damning OIG report leads to an obvious conclusion: Chicago Public Schools system has too much money

Posted: January 14, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, education, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

When I was in sixth grade at Palos East Elementary School near Chicago, for two semesters the school principal withheld my report card–pretty good ones by the way–because the shrewish school librarian said I failed to return a book. I told her that I did, but that wasn’t good enough for her. 

Eventually, the missing book turned up. It was a school library employee, possibly “the Shrew” herself, who misplaced that book. 

Which brings me to a story out of Chicago that is not getting nearly enough coverage The disappearance from mid-2022 to mid-2023 of electronic devices–laptops, iPads, and more–over 77,000 devices, according to a report from the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of the Inspector General. 

Sure, the local media reported on the OIG report for a couple of days. But they of course lean left, and the sympathetic media has moved on to other stories, such as criticizing Texas governor Greg Abbott for sending buses with illegal migrants to the Chicago area. Of course, our “betters” in the media rarely condemn the politician who is at fault for the migrant crisis–Joe Biden.

Back to CPS: The OIG says there have been no repercussions for the students who failed to return them. Their parents weren’t sent a bill–and yes, the kids certainly received their report cards. The value of those lost and stolen devices is massive, over $23 million. In 2021-2022, CPS spend $123 million on technology devices. “You can’t pin this on COVID,” CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher told CBS Chicago. “You can pin this on students who are just taking devices and not returning them.”

CPS, with COVID-related funding drying up next year, faces a huge deficit. But when reading the OIG report, one can conclude Chicago Public Schools has too much money. It’s time for CPS to go on a diet, or be put into some kind receivership, possibly under federal control–but only with a Republican in the White House.

Too much money? Yeppo. If $23 million in equipment goes “missing” and it only becomes public knowledge because of an OIG report, then there is not a lack of money issue for Chicago schools.

Let’s not place all of the blame on the students for the thievery. The report also notes that at three dozen CPS schools, every tech device was marked lost or stolen. All of them. An inside job? That’s likely, in my opinion.

Here’s some more waste: Could these devices have been tracked. Yes. OIG Fletcher also told CBS Chicago, “The district spends about two and a half million dollars on software that’s meant to track and locate devices, but the district just wasn’t using that software.”

The Office of the Inspector General previously discovered over a dozen CPS employees, some in leadership roles and collecting six-figure annual sinecure salaries, allegedly fraudulently obtained PPP loans. And one elementary school assistant principal has allegedly stole over $270,000 from her school.

Even worse than theft and incompetence is sexual assault. During the same time period covering the thefts, the OIG discovered eight substantiated adult-against-child incidents of sexual abuse.

Last year Chicagoans made the horrible mistake of electing leftist Brandon Johnson mayor. He’s a former CPS teacher and Chicago Teachers Union instructor. Johnson apparently is too busy criticizing Greg Abbott–a Google News search retrieved no comments from Johnson, the CTU pick for mayor, about the OIG report.

Chicagoans voted for more failure.

Are the students learning anything at CPS schools? Not really, over three-quarters of them test below grade level. 

Now back to report cards: Here is my grade for Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Teachers Union, and Brandon Johnson.

It’s an F minus. 

And I will happily hand out those report cards.

John Ruberry, who attended a CPS school as a kindergartener, regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Five Basic Questions Under the Fedora: Biden Admin, Schultz Disease, How Many Days Will Belichick Have Off?, Getting Drafty, Cue Yamamoto

Posted: January 11, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, culture, education, medicine, nfl, politics
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Can somebody answer this: 

For the sake this basic Question I’ll stipulate that Joe Biden won the last election cleanly and is not the figurehead of a foreign or domestic enemy whose was worried about the success of the US and set a goal to bring US down.

So my question: “If you were a foreign and/or domestic enemy of the United States whose goal was to bring down the country that was prospering under Trump and to that end stole election 2020 to put a puppet regime in place to enact that goal, how would your actions and agenda differ from the Biden Administrations over the last four years?”

Speaking of people trying to bring down the country apparently Dr. Anthony Fauci must not have taken his medication yesterday as he had quite a series of memory lapses.

Testifying under oath before congress he replied “I don’t recall” over 100 times. It’s a rather nasty case of Schultz disease:

So the question: How is it that being under oath tends to undermine the memory of people who are supposedly competent intelligent and in charge? 

Unexpectedly of courseTM

As I was tying this post a tweet from Rapoport & Pelissero tweeted and the NFL reported that Bill Belichick is out in New England. A news conference has been called for Noon.

I question the wisdom here as Mike Vrabel not withstanding it’s unlikely they will find a better coach but be that as it may.

While Bill might enjoy the first days off he had over the last quarter century the next question is obvious:

How many days off is he going to get before he is snatched up by a team?

If I owned a team I wouldn’t wait and let someone else get him. He’ll need time to evaluate prior to the April draft. 

Apparently the number of white recruits in the US army has practically been halved since 2018.

Think about it barely 25K recruits.

This is via gateway pundit and Military.com as is this tweet that says it all:

https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1745251068903039388

The question is obvious:

How much longer can the US avoid bringing back the draft?

I’m thinking even with a Trump or DeSantis admin not very long because unless you completely purge the woke you aren’t getting men.

Finally we now have learned that the story concerning Bill Ackman’s wife was shopped to multiple press outlets who rejected it out of hand before Business Insider decided to run with it and then have it blow up in their faces to the point where the owner of the company is rather worried:

Ackman seems to be on the warpath and the folks who green lighted this must be feeling like Admiral Yamamoto at the end of the movie Tora Tora Tora

All of this is interesting and amusing but nobody seems to have the answer to the obvious question:

Who were the people shopping this story?

We need to know their names because if the DEI state falls ironically we will have them to thank for it

Ouch-ouch: Failures of Latvia’s new electric trains serve as a warning for the rest of us

Posted: January 7, 2024 by John Ruberry in business, culture, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

During those rare occasions I get into a political discussion with leftists, often the back-and-forth veers into a predictable detour–whether the topic is health care, energy, or the environment–with this reply, “But in Europe they do it this way.” 

For the most part, I don’t care how things are done in Europe. 

One exception is Latvia, where Mrs. Marathon Pundit was born–and both of us visited this EU nation last summer.

What is the biggest story in Latvia in the first week of 2024?

The failure of new electric trains there, replacing old electrics. The new trains are operated by a company called Vivi. and the trains were built by Skoda Group, a Czech company.

From Public Broadcasting of Latvia last week:

On Tuesday morning, trains were delayed by up to three hours on the Rīga-Skulte line. Latvian Radio correspondent Viktors Demidovs was among those inconvenienced by the delay.

“I saw the new electric train at the station Garciems. I pushed the button to open the door but nothing happened. The conductor opened it manually. There was complete darkness in the train and climate control was not working either. [..] It turned out the train had been standing there for half an hour.”

Vivi representative Sigita Zviedre said there had been an issue with the power collector and the train’s battery had run out.

Vivi also stated that Latvia is not unique in finding deficiencies with new trains after putting them in traffic and said that Lithuania and Estonia had faced similar issues at the beginning. 

For emphasis, I’m repeating part of the last sentence of the third paragraph, “…the train’s battery had run out.”

Commuters rely on these trains, and not surprisingly, their malfunctions are a major inconvenience for many of them. Some passengers have been to forced to hail taxi or Uber rides to get them to their destination, and for now, Vivi is offering to reimburse those riders inconvenienced.

Of the 11 Vivi trains that are supposed to be operational, according to Public Broadcasting of Latvia, only six are currently running. While yes, with any new transportation product, some minor and infrequent hiccups are expected, but five of eleven trains not running is too high of a failure rate for just about everyone. Imagine if we were talking about new automobiles instead–and it’s a model that you were considering buying.

Okay, you are very likely reading this blog post from everywhere else but Latvia. What does this have to do with me?

Remember what I said that leftists are obsessed with how things are done in Europe. And they want to replicate, failures and all, the European way here. By the way, much of the funding for Vivi trains comes from the Cohesion Fund of the European Union.

Electric trains, failures and all, may be coming here.

Here’s an op-ed from Forbes, written by “climate futurist,” Michael Barnard:

North America has a railroad problem that the rest of the world doesn’t have. As a result, a lot of North Americans think it’s too expensive to electrify that mode of transportation. As we explore electrifying everything everywhere all at once as a key wedge in solving global warming it’s time to debunk that notion. 

Why am I singling out North America and North Americans? Because the Americas are singular in their lack of ability and willingness to do what the rest of the world has already mostly done.

Climate futurist? Yep. That’s a thing among those pushing the green agenda. And of course, I’ve noted before that liberals adore trains because they only go where there are rails.

In a practical way, it’s beneficial in North America to see how Latvia is enduring its electric train problems.

Meanwhile, the electric trains debacle is a Latvian cultural phenomenon.

Jānis Liepiņš adds another song to the many tunes about trains, although his mournful ballad, “Dzeltens Melns” (Yellow Black), unlike most train songs, does not celebrate riding the rails. Because of course, when you sit in a Vivi train car, the yellow and black cars often sit still as well.

Mrs. Marathon Pundit also noticed that Latvians on social media are quipping that instead of Vivi, the new electric trains should be named Vai-Vai, which translates into “Ouch-Ouch.”

UPDATE January 9:

The temperature this morning in Riga, Latvia was 32 degrees Fahrenheit (Zero Celsius). The “impact of frost” is being blamed for some Vivi electric trains not running today. Latvia is northern Europe and it borders Russia. It can get much colder than it is today there.

From Public Broadcasting of Latvia:

Due to the ‘impact of frost’ on the new electric trains as well as health issues of drivers, several trains in the directions of Sloka and Skulte have been canceled on Tuesday, January 9, passenger carrier Vivi said on Facebook.

And what are these ” health issues of drivers?”

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Raise Your Hand if Trump Turned You Into a Newt During His First Term

Posted: January 6, 2024 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, Blame Trump, election 2024, politics
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  • Sir Bedevere: What makes you think she’s a witch?
  • Peasant: Well, she turned me into a newt!
  • Sir Bedevere: A newt?
  • Peasant: [meekly after a long pause] Got better.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975

The Jack Smith “Trump is going to have his enemies killed if elected” story brought back memories of a young lady I once knew.

About 7 years or so ago, just before my temp job became a full time one I used to work with a particular young lady.

She was 30 years younger than me, very intelligent and a hard worker. Her older sister had gone to school with my youngest son and also worked at the place but as a full timer. 

We got along like a house on fire although we were about as politically and religiously different as we could be. I was a straight devout Catholic who after Ted Cruz had lost in the primaries was all in on Trump and while she was a lesbian or perhaps bi who was all in or Bernie and had walked away from the Church, though devoted to her still devout French Canadian grandmother.

While as I said we got along well one of the things about her that regularly dove me nuts was her INSISTANCE that Donald Trump was going to put her in a gulag for being a lesbian.

No argument or evidence could convince her otherwise and even after Trump’s election she remained convinced that any day now a Trumpian gestapo would come for her to her final day at the company back in January of 2018 she clung to this belief. I ran into her older sister who left the company a year or so ago (a great loss to the place) last week and inquired about her. She told me her sister was doing well and apart from the COVID isolation that everyone had gone through had not in fact ended up in a gulag during the entire span of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Which brings us to election 2024.

I’ve already noted the invincible irrational hatred that some have for Trump which I think will be a real problem come election day, but the only thing more irrational than that hatred (particularly from some conservatives) is the abject fear of some liberals of a 2nd Trump term in terms of their personal freedom.

To put it simply. If there is one thing that was perfectly clear during the Trump years is that while he had harsh words and abrasive and even insulting tweets for those who opposed him Trump did not censor nor imprison those who opposed him loudly.

You’d think that if Trump was a wanna be dictator he might have, you know, acted like a dictator, imprisoned a few folks on “Trumped” up charges, used the power of the FBI or the IRS against them or even gone after those burning cities and thrown the book at them for their terroristic actions.

Or to put it another way: If you ask people to raise their hand if Donald Trump imprisoned or even censored you for speaking out against him during his first term the number of hands that will go up will be equal to the number of Camels this person has spotted.

On the contrary it was In fact it was Trump himself who was often censored and/or misrepresented particularly when he suggested that there were treatments for COVID out there that were effective and the Biden administration who has used all of these tactics on those who might dare suggest that the previous election was not clean and the government’s statements on COVID might not be all that accurate.

Put simply Trump has a record of not imprisoning’s or harming his foes, so what makes anybody think that he’s going to be doing so if re-elected, particularly since he will go into office as an instant lame duck who can’t run for a 3rd term?

Of course this kind of logic is lost on the Jack Smiths of the world and on those who think looting and burning cities is fine but walking through the capital while police hold doors open for you is high treason and can’t tell the difference between barbarians who rape murder and kidnap women and children and those who retaliate against the folks who do so.

No amount of argument will apply here. This is a matter of faith for them and if we are blessed with a 2nd Trump term they will insist that their lack of imprisonment was simply because he either didn’t get around to it or that the brave democrats of the house prevented him from doing so.

Unexpectedly of course.

Little Christmas is here and we’re still $2345 & 10 subscribers short of our goal. If you’d like to change that please hit DaTipJar below

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