Posts Tagged ‘datechguy's magnificent seven’

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.

First aid vs fighting back

Posted: January 13, 2024 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Blame Biden Administration, official oppression, vaccine mandates
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To nobody’s huge surprise, “Dr” Fauci revealed that the 6 foot “social distancing” rule was basically made up.

Lest anyone forget, there were plenty of 6-foot Nazis that screamed at you for getting inside the 6 foot distance…unless it was at a BLM riot. People were doing all sorts of logical backflips to justify riots while shutting down church services. I remember having to open church doors and stream service using a cell phone, laptop and projector so the people outside could still attend.

What frickin’ rubbish.

But that’s not the point of this article. During this time thousands of service members were dismissed from service for refusing the vaccine, which we are finding doesn’t work well, and that COVID is going to essentially be like the flu: annoying, even temporarily incapacitating, but not really a threat to young and healthy that (at least now) make up our military force. Most of these were General Discharges, which can negate the amount of VA benefits you receive. Worse still, this was done as businesses were recovering from the shutdown, so many servicemembers and their families suffered through unemployment and underemployment.

Plenty of Republican lawmakers are making it easy for those members to return to service, and most are…not taking it. These same lawmakers are proposing legislation to open VA benefits to these servicemembers and discharge upgrades. I don’t have an issue with any of this, except that this is first aid, and in reality people should be fighting back.

First aid helps people that have been hurt. In this case, servicemembers got screwed out of good jobs, retirement benefits, VA benefits, and all the other things they were promised if they raised their hand to defend our country. Restoring those things will help in the near term, but its not going to repair the long term damage done. Look at how poorly our recruiting efforts are going. More than a few young people watched how a loved one was poorly treated and said “Gee, I’m not signing up for that!”

First aid isn’t enough. People need to fight back.

Every official that pushed this nonsense needs to be punished.

  • Send Fauci to jail. Sounds extreme? The man admitted to spending US money in CHINA developing bioweapons. I see people getting angry over retired service members caught helping the Chinese learn how to land on aircraft carriers. How is this any different?
  • Court martial flag officers that pushed for General Discharges. At least the Navy had the good sense to use Honorable Discharges for most of its folks. Every flag officer that used a General Discharge knew they were screwing people out of benefits, and even late in the game they continued to push for it. Court martial every, single one of them. For the ones already retired, bring them back and charge them, which is still legal (although perhaps bringing back a few admirals and generals will get this thrown out).
  • Fire the civilian leaders that pushed this nonsense. Their zeal and glee in punishing people needs to be matched with stiff fines and jail time.

First aid doesn’t save you when you’re being assaulted. Only fighting back will.

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.

Is this why the Biden Regime tried to cancel William Penn?

Posted: January 11, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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The cancel culture has become bolder and more asinine since this historically illiterate mob first declared war on the history and founding principles of the United States.  This rabble of brainwashed Marxists is operating under the direction of the leadership of the Democratic party.  

Statue after statue featuring our founding fathers have been torn down by either mobs of leftists, or progressive politicians, all under the guise of stamping out racism.  This supposed racism is only a smoke screen for disguising the true motive behind their reign of terror waged against statues.  Like all leftists, the cancel culture mobs here in the United States despise individual liberty.

At first I was perplexed at the latest victim of the cancel culture, William Penn.

The National Park Service proposes to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors. Welcome Park was designed by the internationally acclaimed design firm Venturi & Scott Brown Associates. The park is located on the site of William Penn’s home, the Slate Roof House, and is named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia. The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982.

The proposed rehabilitation of Welcome Park includes expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. The reimagined Welcome Park maintains certain aspects of the original design such as the street grid, the rivers and the east wall while adding a new planted buffer on three sides, and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches. The Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not reinstalled. In a separate and future effort, new exhibit panels will be installed on the south site wall to replace the Penn timeline.

It is unconscionable that the National Park Service under Joe Biden was responsible for this outrage.  There is some good news though: Biden Admin Retracts ‘Inclusive’ Proposal to Remove Statue from Park After Major Backlash (westernjournal.com)

Independence National Historical Park has withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period,” the National Park Service said in a statement.

“The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted,” it said. “No changes to the William Penn statue are planned.

It became abundantly clear why The Statue of William Penn was targeted by the Biden regime when the following quote by William Penn appeared in my Facebook Newsfeed in the form of a meme:

If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants.

I was so impressed by this quote that I did a Google search for others.  Here is what I found on this website: Quotations from William Penn (ushistory.org)

Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we do evil, that good may come of it…To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals

It is certain that the most natural and human government is that of consent, for that binds freely, … when men hold their liberty by true obedience to rules of their own making.”

No people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyments of civil liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Conscience as to their Religious Profession and Worship.

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.

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