Taxpayers should be able to sue crooked politicians for their corruption

Posted: December 24, 2023 by John Ruberry in crime, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

“Some men see things as they are and say, ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and say, ‘Why not?’” Robert F. Kennedy Sr.

“When people fear the government, there is tyranny. When government fears the people, there is liberty.” Thomas Paine.

Former Chicago alderman alderperson Edward M. Burke, who for much of his–wait for it–54 years as a member of Chicago’s City Council, was the second-most powerful politician in the city, because he was the chairman of that body’s Finance Committee. 

Last week Burke was convicted on over a dozen corruption and racketeering charges. Burke, according to federal prosecutors, abused the powers of his office to shakedown businesses, such as the owner of a Burger King restaurant in his ward who was told by Burke if he wanted a construction permit, he needed to retain the alderman’s law firm. 

Developers of the massive old US Post Office and even the venerable Field Museum were victims of Burke’s extortion schemes. I suspect there were hundreds more.

Burke is appealing his guilty verdict of course. Once the appeals are exhausted, barring a successful appeal, the lifetime politician is likely headed to prison.

I’m not a lawyer–so forgive my naivete here. Then again, since I’m not an attorney–and not enmeshed in the gears of the rotten system–maybe I’m the right person to tackle this subject.

For thirteen years of Burke’s crooked career, I was a resident of Chicago. Because I was denied honest services by Burke, so that gives me standing to sue Burke for damages. Right?

Wrong. 

Qualified immunity protects public officials from such suits. My interpretation of the legal concept–again, I’m not an attorney—is that if officials, let’s say the head of a state highway department, fears being sued over a possible bridge collapse, it may mean that no new bridges are built.

Back to Burke.

It’s difficult to see where Burke’s public career as an alderman alderperson began and where his private legal practice ended. It was a hybrid beast. In short, Burke was running a racket.

So, since a jury ruled that Burke was using his public office for private gain, why should qualified immunity protect him?

Why shouldn’t Burke, and other corrupt Illinois pols such as former governors Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan, be subject to taxpayer lawsuits? Or class action lawsuits?

“To join this lawsuit now–call the 800 number on the bottom of your screen–time is limited! Make that politician pay!”

Taking my idea to the federal level, there’s a recent case with bribery allegations against a sitting US senator and his wife. I mean, I’m just saying…

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if crooked pols could be sued for every penny they have? And their vacation homes? And their gold bars?

Everything!

That just might scare these pols into honesty.

Change the law. Or laws. 

Drop qualified immunity for crooked public officials. Call it–ahem–Ruberry’s Law. Consider it my Christmas gift this year.

Back to Illinois.

As Illinois’ SAFE-T Act law–which by the way I believe it should be repealed–was being drafted, dropping qualified immunity for police officers was suggested. So clearly, at least in Illinois, qualified immunity is not sacred.

One more item. Since 1973, 38 members of the Chicago City Council have been convicted of crimes.

John Ruberry regularly blogs from Illinois at Marathon Pundit. During his lifetime, four Illinois governors have served time in federal prison.

Litmus Testa, Keeping the Base Happy, Dead American Hostages Wrong Perps, The choice of Agonies, and the Real Danger to California is Ohtani Under The Fedora

Posted: December 24, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east, under the fedora
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Q: How can you tell if President Trump has a Chance of winning a state with a Democrat Governor?

A: If said governor publicly opposes the move in Colorado, odds are Trump would have zero chance of carrying their state.

Although in fairness in Gavin Newsom’s case, the voting process in California is so corrupt that even if Trump was polling in the 60’s the chances of him winning would be under 50-50

RFK Jr. has been denied Secret Service Protection for the 3rd time by the Biden Administration, or whoever is actually making those decisions in the administration.

I suspect that it’s a question of keeping the left’s violent base happy because after this video

They would be really pissed if old Joe didn’t let them get a crack at him.

Oh and we’ve had the first American Hostage held by Hamas who has died offically

Biden was in office when American Hostages were taken once before but neither those hostages nor the dozens of Americans killed by Hamas on Oct 7th are newsworthy to the left or a source of outrage for the Media/left.

Of course for the left/media American lives don’t matter unless their deaths can be blamed on the right people do they?

It hit me today that I have a few Jewish relatives as one of my nephews married a nice Jewish girl and have a fair sized family.

Haven’t seen him in years and the kids are now grown but I’m hoping they aren’t getting trouble where they are. 

Of course if anyone decided to harm any of them the real question would not be what would happen to such people, it would be a question of which grandparent on my nephew’s side would take vengeance, the special forces one or the Sicilian one. I suspect the special forces one would be quicker but the Sicilian one would be more memorable and lasting.

As a devout Catholic I of course could not condone either but if it did happen the Sicilian in me would be nodding. Personally I don’t think vengeance is worth losing one’s soul over.

And finally on a financial note a lot of folks in LA are celebrating the signing of Ohtani to his $700 million dollar deal but I suspect the folks in Sacramento are horrified at the deal’s structure because of the precedent it might set:

Ohtani this month agreed to play for the Dodgers for a decade at $70 million per season, but from 2024-33, he’ll draw just $2 million per season. Ohtani is deferring $680 million — more than 97 percent of his earnings — until after his 10-year deal with the Dodgers expires, when that money comes back to him in equal annual payments from 2034-43.

When Ohtani receives the bulk of the money, he’ll no longer be under contract with the Dodgers; experts say that the structure of the contract appears likely to save Ohtani between $90 and $100 million in state taxes, so long as he lives outside of California when the deferred money is paid out.

Another key component in potential tax savings is how he has timed the deferral payments, spanning a decade. A 1996 federal law forbids states from taxing retirement income on out-of-state residents when payments are made in “substantially equal periodic” amounts over at least 10 years

Athletes playing on California teams are the one set of millionaires not in a position to leave the state, but if they go the Ohtani route, not only will they wisely have funds to live on when their playing days are done but will keep the state from taking the bulk of their cash when they do.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer state.

Blocking military nominations is bipartisan

Posted: December 23, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized
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Senator Tuberville is 100% correct to be concerned that the DoD is spending taxpayer money, in violation of the law, to allow women birthing people to travel across state lines to pursue an abortion.

Sadly, he recently caved from RINO pressure on this point. If you don’t know history you’d think it was only the eeeevil Republicans that stopped nominations. And you’d be wrong.

What about Democrat Senator Tammy Duckworth, blocking over 1,000 promotions in 2020? Why is that conveniently left out of every article?

Or the curious case of Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill blocking General Susan Helms, an Obama nominee, from her fourth star? General Helms was a female astronaut and selected to be the vice commander of Air Force Space Command. Senator McCaskill didn’t like that General Helms overturned a sexual assault charge on an appeal, so she simply blocked the general until she retired.

Now, personally I think Susan Helms made the right call and overturned a case that was lacking evidence. But Senator McCaskill was on a “believe all women claiming sexual assault” intifada, so that was never going to fly. Susan Helms was more than qualified to lead Space Command, but politics got in the way. That is Senator McCaskill’s right to do so. My issue is that if I search for “senator blocked nomination,” every link on Google is about Tuberville. Even adding “Democrat” and “2013” to my search doesn’t bring up McCaskill’s blocked nomination. I just happen to remember it at the time, and was able to dig it back up.

I don’t want to hear anymore about Senator’s “playing politics” with military nominations until I see references to Claire McCaskill and Tammy Duckworth at the end of those articles.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

The Single Most Important Bit of the Douglas Murray Cenk Uygur Bit

Posted: December 23, 2023 by datechguy in Israel vs Hamas, middle east
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There are plenty of stories in conservative media celebrating Douglas Murray taking apart Cenk Uygur in their discussion on the Israel/Hamas war (and full credit to Uygur for having the guts to have the discussion). That Murray could do this was no surprise as he does tend to do shoe leather reporting and such work regardless of the quality of sources always superior from pontificating from afar.

But the real news here wasn’t that debate or even that it took place, the news was an assertion Murray made during the exchange that I think is the single most important fact concerning the Palestinians in the west bank of the Jordan. To wit:

If there was an election tomorrow in the West Bank, Hamas would win. 

emphasis mine

Run that through your head for a second.

Hamas has committed one of the worst and most barbaric attacks on civilians that we have seen in decades including the mass rape of women, the desecrations of corpus and the kidnap, murder and even baking of babies. The video of the livestreams of these events have left people who have seen this video, even seasoned reporters and those experienced in dealing with trauma visibly shaken.

Furthermore the actions of Hamas has led to the Jewish state invading Gaza and putting the residents in such a state due to it being a war zone that they have an issue with basic supplies, their economy such as it is, is crushed and their future prospects for anything resembling a normal life are shaky at best and non-existent at worst.

Yet despite these facts Murray, an experienced reporter who has direct experience of the area asserts that Palestinians in the west bank would, not a year ago, not before Oct 7th, not before seeing the end result that it has led to for Palestinians in Gaza, TODAY despite everything choose to vote for Hamas to lead them.

In fairness the kleptocracy of the Palestinian Authority does deserve some credit here but even so the idea that they would vote Hamas seems insane. But if we are to believe Murray consider:

  • The murder of the Jews doesn’t bother them
  • The kidnapping, atrocities against woman and babies doesn’t bother them
  • The risk of their own areas being flattened in response to a potential Hamas attack bothers them

All that matters to them is that Hamas is willing to attack and kill Jews. That willingness to do so overrides all other considerations.

You can’t make peace with such people, the only thing you can do short of destroying them, expelling them or ruling them with an iron fist, is contain them which seems to be the goal of Israel. It involves risk and will cost lives but is the only way to avoid the other unacceptable choices.

The sooner the world learns that the better.

Update: Been gone all day to the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette which in addition to being an awesome Catholic shrine with mass, confession and a large collection of Christmas Creches from all over the world has a rather more famous Christmas light display so I didn’t have any idea that I’d been Instalanched till my son mentioned it in passing as we were getting ready to leave for home. Thanks Ed and welcome all, take a look around. Be aware that our first fundraiser in a couple of years will be kicking off after Christmas. The goal is $3k overall with 5 new subs at $20 a month. If you want to get us started toward that goal it would be much appreciated.

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