CTU leaders take the wrong side in sexual harassment scandal

Machine boss Mike Madigan & whistle-blower Alaina Hampton

Chicago unions have no choice but to work with House Speaker Michael Madigan if they want to get anything done in Springfield. But working with Madigan is one thing. Embedding within what's left of Madigan's political machine and colluding with him to blackball his victims of sexual harassment is something else. And that appears to be exactly what CTU leaders have done.

Case in point -- CTU's collusion with Madigan's gaggle of sexual harassers in the Alaina Hampton case. First, after offering to hire Alaina as a political consultant, CTU withdrew its offer, apparently under pressure from Madigan. Then they foolishly held back documents implicating themselves from investigators until they were forced to make them available.

After Alaina sued and won a settlement in the case, which cost Madigan's political committee about $900,000 (Alaina received $75K with the rest going to the lawyers), the teachers union picked up a large chunk of the tab.

As for Madigan, the powerful Southwest Side Democrat likely won’t be holding any benefits to pay for the settlement and his own court costs. Since September, labor unions have stepped up to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to Friends of Michael J. Madigan, the same fund used to pay the settlement. -- Sun-Times

And this from Politico...

The case is now settled, but Hampton says CTU has continued to disparage her on social media, so her legal team filed a cease and desist order. Hampton revealed the legal move Monday in a tweet directed to CTU after a spokeswoman described the case as having "factual distortions, hyperbole and outright lies." The spokeswoman's tweet was deleted, but not before Hampton responded with her own tweet: "You can't hide from the truth. That's one reason my attorneys sent you and CTU a cease and desist for defamation a month ago."

Even with reports finding bullying, inappropriate behavior and fear pervasive in Springfield under Madigan's rule, union leaders are reportedly still currying favor from the machine boss and still apparently following his lead on who to hire and fire.

CTU leaders are on the wrong side of this one.

CTU hit with defamation cease and desist letter https://t.co/O2eNh5W3dl

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) December 17, 2019

Can someone please explain to me why @CTULocal1 and @stacydavisgates/@SharkeyCTU1 can meet with Madigan weekly and never criticize him, but relentlessly attack @LightfootForChi at every turn? #twill

— Jeff O (@JeffO773) December 16, 2019

QUOTABLES

COUNTING VOTES -- 81% of the teachers who voted backed the contract.

CTU Prez Jesse Sharkey

...called the contract, "a powerful advance for our city and our movement for real equity and educational justice for our school communities and the children we serve." -- Channel 3000

Ald. Ed Burke "Diminished and preoccupied"

That's how Sun-Times Fran Spielman describes indicted Ald. Edward Burke. "He's no longer the center of attention at council meetings he once dominated. He occupies the front-row seat closest to the door, arrives late, leaves immediately and seldom if ever, speaks." --Illinois Playbook

Barack Obama vs. the party's 'left activist' wing

He tells wealthy donors: “The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.” -- New York Times

Now contrite former N.Y. Mayor Michael Bloomberg 

“I got something important wrong. I got something important really wrong. I didn’t understand back then, the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities.” -- New York Times

Under Bloomberg, NYPD increased stop and frisk from 100,000 stops to nearly 700,000 stops per year. 90% of those impacted were people of color - overwhelmingly black and brown men. Bloomberg personally has the money to begin paying reparations for this harm. “Sorry” isn’t enough. https://t.co/kF1n9nLhfT

— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) November 17, 2019

Bill Russell accepts HOF ring 44 years after his induction

In a private ceremony w/my wife & close friends A.Mourning @AnnMeyers @billwalton & others I accepted my #HOF ring. In ‘75 I refused being the 1st black player to go into the @Hoophall I felt others before me should have that honor. Good to see progress; ChuckCooperHOF19 @NBA pic.twitter.com/2FI5U7ThTg

— TheBillRussell (@RealBillRussell) November 15, 2019

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

A blue sign, reading “Veterans for Impeachment,” grabbed national audience views at the World Series last night, when the cameras trained on batters at Nationals Park. The sign also appeared on the Jumbotron in the stadium where Donald Trump watched the game. When the president and first lady appeared on the Jumbotron as well, the crowd booed him and chanted “lock him up.”

SEIU 73 Pres. Dian Palmer, celebrating union's agreement with the city.

“This is a victory for working people in Chicago and shows what is possible when we unite and take action,” the head of SEIU 73 said. -- Sun-Times

CPS Board Pres. Miguel del Valle to Parents and teachers of students with disabilities

Tentative agreement in SEIU 73 strike

 “We can’t deny we’ve been deficient as a system about it. We have to do something about it, and we have to do it now,” del Valle told the group Saturday. -- Block Club Chicago

 Curtis Black

 Lori Lightfoot is not actually Rahm 2.0, and demonizing her risks isolating progressive voices vital to Chicago's future. -- Chicago Reporter

Cassie Cresswell, Illinois Families for Public Schools

“One of the issues with having hard caps is that if your system overall is underfunded, as soon as you set requirements in one area, then other stuff gets cut... If you snapped your fingers and put class caps in place, the overall system is so underfunded still, you’d end up just pushing around the dollars that you have. So you’d end up with people cutting arts or libraries. Some things (would) improve but other things won’t.” -- Tribune

David Orr

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s budget shows leadership, equity, guts and a lot of smarts...Progressive change doesn’t happen overnight, and the mayor’s doing what she responsibly can with the limitations she has. -- Letter to Sun-Times

Columnist Laura Washington on today's anti-Trump protest

Chicago has not been a go-to stop for Trump. In March 2016, then-candidate Trump was virtually run out of Chi-Town in the wake of a highly-touted campaign event. -- Sun-Times

Jacky Grimshaw, former Harold Washington aide

“We’re inviting everyone to join the effort to help change the narrative and actions coming from President Trump and the White House that are endangering people’s lives, our democracy, and the survival of the planet.” said Jacky Grimshaw, who now chairs Chicago Women Take Action. -- Tribune

Fope Olaleye

Although the term “reverse racism” is waning in popularity, its rhetoric is still rife. Many people are still reluctant to truly understand what racism is, confining themselves to dictionary definitions, which speak abstractly about “prejudice” rather than discussing what that looks like in the real world. -- Guardian

Yes, that Eddie Burke...

There were three teacher strikes when Harold Washington was mayor

The 19-day CTU strike in 1987 was longest in city history

In 1983, Harold Washington made history in two ways. He became Chicago's first African-American mayor and the first whose election grew directly from a high tide of black resistance to racist machine rule. That movement was joined by a grassroots coalition of progressive forces citywide. During his first term, a racist cabal of 29 white aldermen, led by the two Eddies, Vrdolyak and Burke, blocked his every move in the City Council. However, by 1987, when Washington won re-election, court-ordered reapportionment of wards led to the election of some allied Latino aldermen and the mayor gained some breathing room.

At that time, the public schools, the most racially segregated in the nation, were in a state of deep crisis. Badly underfunded by Republicans in Springfield, who referred to CPS as "a black hole," and ruled by a self-perpetuating top-heavy bureaucracy, Chicago's school system was the picture of abject failure. Chicago-hating Pres. Reagan went so far as to send his racist Sec. of Education William Bennett to the city to denounce CPS as the "nation's worst" school system.

In the wake of the record 19-day teachers' strike (Sept. 8 to Oct. 2), angry and frustrated parents raised their demand for sweeping change. While the mayor met separately with the two sides in the strike, urging reconciliation, he refused to get involved directly in the talks or to dictate terms of a settlement.

''Everyone says I was not involved, but you solve problems through discussions,'' he said. ''I had some of our best people working on the problem. There was a constant quest on my part to resolve the strike.'' -- NY Times

The five-week shutdown, which became the longest teacher strike in city history, and the third during Washington's tenure, concluded with a tentative agreement of a two-year contract that the CTU membership ratified the following day. The new contract mandated a 4% pay increase the first year, followed by another 4% the second year, "if adequate funds could be found," and a reduction in class sizes by two students in grades K-3. But since neither side had a plan for generating new revenue, the raises came at the expense of the firing of 1,700 teachers, low-level administrators, and staff.

However, change was in the air, thanks to a resurgence of a powerful reform movement of CPS parents and community activists. Washington had been working behind closed doors on a plan to overhaul the school district. When the teachers’ strike hit, he seized on the political unrest and anger in the black community to make a public commitment to school reform.

He announced plans for an education summit that would search for a path forward that included all stakeholders. The Summit, held at UIC (Circle Campus) was attended by more than a thousand participants. Washington died of a heart attack before the summit could carry out its work, but the momentum for change remained alive.

It's important to note that at the time, black leadership of the school system was apparent. The city's mayor, school board chief, superintendent, and teachers' union president were all African-Americans.

The sweeping changes that followed were marked by a shift in power from the top of the bureaucratic machinery down to the local school level, including the creation of parent/community-dominated Local School Councils (LSCs). While the victories were short-lived and later reversed completely during the next Mayor Daley's regime, they still showed what is possible through grass-roots community organizing.

Of course, conditions today are markedly different. Since 1995, the schools are under mayoral control which the Daley and Emanuel regimes have used to maintain corporate control of the schools through privatization, charter schools and mass school closings.

Harold Washington didn't have that kind of power and didn't want it.  A new progressive tide has put the first African-American, gay, woman in the mayor's seat, along with her appointed school board, composed mainly of progressives and people of color. There's also a new crop of city council members including 6 who identify as "socialists" fresh off of election victories over the machine.

Oh, if only Harold had that going for him back in '87.

The CTU has lost its dynamic leader, Karen Lewis, but remains a strong and vital part of the progressive movement in Chicago.

One thing hasn't changed. CPS remains just as racially segregated as it was 30 years ago and has lost thousands of African-American students, teachers, and parents since then. While the legislature is now dominated by Democrats and a Democratic governor, the school system is still badly in debt,  underfunded and desperately in need of teachers, nurses, librarians, social workers, and wrap-around services.

Unfortunately, another CTU strike now seems inevitable. But strike or no strike, the union and the board will ultimately reach an agreement and hopefully move forward together.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia shake hands and hand out “know your rights” cards in Little Village.

Chuy and the Mayor

“The hateful words that we hear on a regular basis from President Trump and other people in his administration do great harm,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. “Whether they’re intending to take action or not, we have to be diligent and we have to push back against the hate.”

Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., said the reversal it was “typical of the president’s bullyish ways.”  -- Sun-Times

Dr. Dolly Lucio Sevier 

After visiting Ursula facility in McAllen, which is the largest CBP detention center in the country, Dr. Sevier wrote in a medical declaration: "The conditions within which they are held could be compared to torture facilities." -- ABC News

Sen. Dick Durbin (IL)

"I voted for the war on drugs. I know why I did it." -- Politico

Danny Green

When asked if NBA champions Toronto Raptors would visit the White House, he answered: "To put it politely, I think it's a hard no." -- Sporting News

 Mick Jagger at Soldier Field concert

  'I want to welcome Lori Lightfoot ... I'm sorry Ed Burke couldn't make it tonight." -- Sun-Times

“He should apologize to the children that have been separated from their parents,” said Rep. @AOC of GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who demanded she apologize for calling ICE detention centers “concentration camps.” https://t.co/zf2Zdt9diu by @nicholasballasy pic.twitter.com/jjLXI0bjcV

— The Intercept (@theintercept) June 21, 2019

Chicago reporters broke the story wide open. Mayor Lightfoot went to New York!

Jet-setters? Really?

Chicago's ace political reporters, Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times and wing-nut Kristen McQueary of the Trib, broke the story wide open. It's all about Lori Lightfoot, the city's first black, gay, woman mayor and it's a doozie.

No, she didn't close 50 public schools or cover up a police murder, like her predecessor, Rahm Emanuel. No, she didn't sell off the Skyway or the city's parking meter business for pennies on the dollar like Mayor Daley. No, it's worse. So much worse.

You see, Lightfoot WENT TO NEW YORK, home of the hated Mets and Yankees, raised big money for city projects, Democrats and LGBTQ causes and then, wait for it... she went on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. 

She told the donors the Democratic 2020 presidential contenders have to put more on the table than just being anti-President Donald Trump. 

She got that right.

The mayor said in her DNC speech, “I’m proposing that we pledge to work together to defend our democracy, promote equality for all, and refashion the values that our movement forged so many years ago after Stonewall.

“Let’s stand together, stick together, and work together for justice of every description. Racial justice. Gender justice. Immigrant justice. Economic justice. Environmental justice.”

The Horror...

According to Lynn Sweet who sat in Colbert's audience,

 The audience of about 420 in the Ed Sullivan Theater, where Colbert is taped, gave Lightfoot a standing ovation after Colbert introduced her. They laughed at his jokes — and hers.

But McQueary, who once famously editorialized for a Mussolini-type dictator to run Chicago schools and prayed for a Hurricane Katrina to ravage the city, wasn't impressed:

Most Chicagoans didn’t expect Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor and non-fashionista, to be popping up in their Instagram feeds. But there she is draped in Oprah’s embrace in the foyer of the media mogul’s estimated $90 million mansion.

 But it is surprising to see Lightfoot, four weeks on the job, already hopping on and off airplanes...We’ve got plenty of problems in Chicago. They don’t require commercial airline travel. 

Actually, hopping on and off an airplane is not easy. Try it some time, Kristen.

Spielman, a born-again Lightfoot hater, then echoes McQuery,

Four weeks after taking office, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has already stumbled in a way that might make it a bit more difficult for her to govern. From going to war with a police union that didn’t trust her to begin with, to hobnobbing with Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Colbert during fundraising trips to both coasts, Lightfoot appears to be repeating some of her predecessor’s early mistakes.

Then she sings a Daley praise...

 What former Mayor Richard M. Daley knew in his soul, but Emanuel never took to heart, is that Chicagoans believe the sun rises and sets in Chicago. 

She does have a point there. The sun does rise each morning and set each evening in our fair city. Doesn't mean we have to spend each day of our lives here, however.

Then for a topper, Spielman charges LL with spanking Eddie Burke publicly and having a nasty exchange with leaders of the Fascist Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). You know, the ones that supported Jon Burge and his torturing Midnight Crew.

It's about time someone took 'em on.

Nice work, Fran and Kristen. Could be story of the year. I see Pulitzers in your future.

Lightfoot's empowering shutdown of Eddie Burke

But I'm Eddie Burke...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot's shutdown of indicted machine boss, Ald. Eddie Burke at yesterday's council meeting was a joy to behold. As a veteran WGN cameraman put it, “Somewhere In heaven, Harold Washington is laughing his a** off.”

I don't know about Harold, but my biggest laugh came from watching Burke play the feminist as he and his toadie Ald. Ray Lopez tried to block the mayor's rule changes by bringing up the issue of gender-neutral wording in the new rules. Lightfoot saw right through Burke's play as we all did.

Burke raises a "serious flaw". Says several of the rules are not "gender neutral" and presiding officer, Lightfoot, is clearly a woman. When was he concerned about this stuff before?

— Fran Spielman (@fspielman) May 29, 2019

In the end, the mayor's proposed rule changes, her first big test of strength in the Council, were adopted with only 3 anti-climatic NO votes. They came from Burke, Lopez and 9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale,  the group I will lovingly call, "The New Vrdolyak 3".

Lightfoot's smackdown of Burke was certainly empowering for those of us who've been at war with the vile machine for more than 50 years. I imagine it was even more empowering for women -- especially women of color -- watching the city's first black, gay woman mayor boldly deliver the blow to last remaining dregs of the old Vrdolyak 29.

Lightfoot deftly handles early skirmish with Burke. She swats him down like a pesky fly and the rules she drafted are adopted by voice vote.

— Fran Spielman (@fspielman) May 29, 2019

Electing Lightfoot was just the start. Real reform comes from below.

"For years, they’ve said Chicago ain’t ready for reform. Well, get ready …because reform is here. I campaigned on change, you voted for change, and I plan to deliver change to our government." -- Inaugural speech

Yesterday's inauguration ceremony made my heart sing. Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Inaugural Address was over the top. It was at once a resounding call for change and a personal commitment on her part to carry it through. She also put the dregs of the old machine on blast, turning to the council members, newly elected and old, and promising that the old ways of doing business were a thing of the past.

This from IL Playbook:

And with that, she turned to look directly at the council members — including Ald. Ed Burke, who is facing federal charges of corruption. The crowd erupted with extended cheers and applause. Lightfoot said “the worst abuses” were a result of aldermanic privilege. Let's just say the Aldermen were slow to stand with the crowd. As her first official act as mayor, Lightfoot fulfilled her campaign promise to sign an executive order reeling in certain aldermanic powers.

But let's not fool ourselves. No executive order from the mayor is going to put an end to the culture of corruption with the Chicago City Council. There is still what's left of the old Cook County Democratic Party machinery. There's too much money and power at stake for them to fold up tent and go away just because we elect a Harold Washington, a Barack Obama, or a Lori Lightfoot. You can bet that on this very day, the Bs (Burke, Beale, and Berrios) and others are gathering in their favorite watering holes, planning their resistance and resurrection. They will lay low for a while until their opportunity presents itself.

Then there's the possibility of divisions and splits with the ranks of the progressives themselves.

The old guard still controls official party money and machinery as we head into the 2020 presidential campaign. Machine quarterback Rahm Emanuel has already feathered his nest at The Atlantic where he hopes to be a driver and fundraiser for the Biden Campaign. The irony of Mayor 1%'s first Atlantic column, calling on Dems to "become a party of justice and hold elites accountable" will not be lost on Chicagoans.

The old guard's problem is that times have changed since the days of Council Wars when the racist Vrdolyak/Burke cabal held the city hostage after Harold, our first black mayor was elected.

More from IL Playbook:

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd ), who Lightfoot wants as Finance chairman, says any aldermen "pushing back hard" now will be more "congenial once we get to work." With so many indictments or charges hanging over the council in recent years, there's little room for aldermen to fight back against changes to the ethics rules. Once new standards are set "and we begin to work with her, it will be a good legislative body working with a good executive to move forward on her mandate."

Let's hope my alderman is right. Either way, real reform, as always, comes from below. It's up to us to be organized and standing reading to protect the Lightfoot reforms, once they are in place. Having the 5th floor of City Hall and growing power in the city council helps. But unless the communities and organizations that elected Lightfoot and the new council progressives remain strong and active a machine comeback is possible.

After the inauguration we saw this...

FROM ABOVE, FROM BELOW...Walking out onto downtown streets after the inaugural celebration, folks got a real taste of what "from below" means. Only minutes after the new mayor had exhorted the audience to, "stand with women all across our country who fear for their basic rights and feel powerless..." many joined with marchers who had taken to the streets to protest the outrageous anti-women laws passed in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and other Republican states.

More empty advice for Lightfoot. This time from Mayor 1%.

Lightfoot talks with south-side residents at Kennedy-King College.

Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot has so far been good at soliciting input from community members. But along with that has also come lots of empty, self-serving advice from the old guard. I guess it goes with the territory.

Last week it was Bill Daley's flack Peter Cunningham counseling the incoming mayor to think small, forget the "black, gay, female agenda" and city corruption, and focus instead on garbage collection and pothole repair. 

The latest bits of wisdom come from Rahm Emanuel, Mayor 1% himself, urging Lightfoot to copy his autocratic style of leadership in handling the city council. I call it the S & M model or what Freud called the pleasure principle (Lustprinzip). 

Rahm advises Lightfoot...

“You have to not so much walk in somebody else’s shoes [as] you have to think about what’s the benefit [for them]. … What’s the pain to pleasure?”

For Rahm and old-line machine pols like Eddie Burke, this has meant buying loyalty from obedient  aldermen with TIF money and re-distributing funds from the big downtown developers. Crumbs from the super-profit table to dole out to some and not others. The pain/pleasure principle.

On point, S-T's Fran Spielman writes this morning:

But being mayor isn’t only about making tough decisions and giving people what you deem to be in their best interests. It’s about listening to disparate views with sensitivity, building consensus and giving people at least some say in their own destiny. On that test of leadership, Emanuel failed.

Hopefully, the mayor-elect, who ran and won handily on a promise to make a clean break from Rahm's pain/pleasure style of politics, will follow her own course and Rahm will save his advice for his patrons at his new job.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Noble Charter Network connected to Ed Burke real estate deal. 

Noble Charters spokesman Cody Rodgers

“We did not know that Alderman Burke was the tax lawyer for the property until reading about it in this email. We have not been contacted by the FBI, U.S. attorney’s office or any other law enforcement agency regarding Ald. Burke.” -- Sun-Times

Rahm has no regrets about Ed Burke

 “If I got rid of Ed Burke as Finance Committee chairman, I would be creating an organizing force against me and I have other problems,” he added. While he saw that as a “threat” early in his tenure, he also saw an 'opportunity.' “He has tremendous knowledge about things,” Emanuel said. ” -- Sun-Times

Democracy for America Chairman Charles Chamberlain

“[Biden's] been a corporate Democrat for years, and I think the Democratic Party is recognizing that our nominee and our party moving forward really has to be prepared to challenge the D.C. power structure,” said Chamberlain, whose group has supported Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders in the past. For Biden, he said, “The wheels are going to come off the cart.” -- Politico

The Madman

 “The baby is born. The mother meets with the doctor. They take care of the baby. They wrap the baby beautifully. And then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby.” -- New York Times

Prisoners send handwritten letters to NYT

Alabama prison inmates

No one feels safe here. Not the inmates, nor the officers. No one feels safe here when supervisors up to the warden level stand behind the fence of the barricaded, secure area and tell inmates who have fled there looking for protection that they need to go get a knife. -- New York Times

Morgan Carroll, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party

GOP cries of socialism are “Cold War stuff” that’s irrelevant to most voters. -- Sun-Times

Naming names...The Vrdolyak 29

Aldermen Edward Burke (left) and Edward R. Vrdolyak confer during a Council debate in 1985.  

"Mayor Washington was a friend, an ally and a mentor." -- Ald. Patrick O'Connor, former member of the Vrdolyak 29 

On Tuesday, we will elect the first black woman, either Lori Lightfoot or Toni Preckwinkle, as Chicago's mayor and already there is media chatter about a new round of Council Wars. If history is any clue, we can expect a bloc within the new city council, led by the remnants of the Rahm regime and the old Democratic Party machine, to conspire against the new mayor and the rest of the council's progressives.

For those too young to remember, council wars was the term used to describe the racist resistance to the city's first black mayor, Harold Washington.

It was organized by the two Eddies, Burke and Vrdolyak, who formed what came to be known as the Vrdolyak 29. Think, the racist Republican's opposition in congress as soon as Barack Obama was elected.

The 29 flexed their muscles in the council from 1983-1986. Now, there are only two survivors left. One of them, Ald. Ed Burke (14th Ward) is currently under indictment for attempted extortion for allegedly using his position as alderman to try to steer business to his private law firm from a company seeking to renovate a fast-food restaurant in his ward. The charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison where he's likely to join his old pal Vrdolyak.

The other is Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th) who I have blogged about often, since he's served as Mayor Emanuel's floor leader and has spent much of his post-Vrdolyak years serving as the education committee chair for mayors Daley and Emanuel. He's been the ramrod pushing school closings, charters and vouchers and opposition to an elected school board. Rahm just made him chairman of the powerful finance committee, the post previously held by Burke.

Now O'Connor is locked in a fight for political survival in a runoff election against community activist Andre Vasquez. So what does O'Connor do to cover his left flank? He pitches himself as a mentee and close ally of Harold Washington. Unbelievable!

For more on O'Connor's attempt to rewrite history, here's brother Fred's blog response. 

Let's hope voters see through this charade on Tuesday and elect Vasquez.

Here's the names of the Vrdolyak 29:

Fred Roti
Edward Vrdolyak
Patrick Huels
Aloysius Majerczyk
John Madrzyk
Edward Burke
Frank Brady
Robert Kellam
Michael Sheahan
Frank Stemberk
William Krystyniak
Vito Marzullo
Michael Nardulli
George Hagopian
Miguel Santiago
Terry Gabinski
Richard Mell
Joseph Kotlarz
Wiilliam Banks
Frank Damato
Thomas Cullerton
Anthony Laurino
Patrick O'Connor
Roman Pucinski
Bernard Hansen
Gerald McLaughlin
Jerome Orbach
Eugene Schulter
Bernard Stone

Will Chicago elect a mayor who's back in bed with Bezos on HQ2?

 

Toni Preckwinkle and Bill Daley on board with Bezos. 

...bringing Amazon to town will probably cost untold millions in tax credits—money diverted straight from the state's coffers. That spells a tax hike for everyone else as the state jacks up taxes to compensate for the money it's giving to Amazon. -- Ben Joravsky

Like Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm St., Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and his HQ2 plan for Chicago just keeps coming back from the dead. It looks like, now that New York has said no, Rahm/Rauner's $2.5B tax and land giveaway to Bezos is back on the table in Chicago.

How can that be with Rauner gone, Ed Burke on his way to jail, and Rahm on his way out the door? It can only happen if Gov. Pritzker and a new Chicago mayor are ready, willing and able to meet all of Bezos demands and accept his unsubstantiated estimates of tens of thousands of "high-paying city jobs".

And which of the current mayoral candidates is ready to bend over for Bezos? According to Crain's there's only two (maybe three) -- Bill Daley, Toni Preckwinkle and possibly, Paul Vallas who hasn't said yet.

While I would expect no less from Daley and Vallas, I'm still amazed that Preckwinkle, who's only in the race because of backing from CTU and SEIU, is willing to play ball with union-buster supreme, Bezos. The jobs Bezos promises are unsustainable and without long-term security. Amazon has the highest employee turnover this side of Walmart and their working conditions are reported to be the worst of any major corporation.

Burke may be under indictment and Ald. Danny Solis may have gone underground, wire and all. But the spirit of pay-to-play and quid pro quo, obviously still lives on among these three.

ONE MORE POINT, if I might... Bezos is also a big backer of charter schools and other school privatization schemes in the state of Washington. According to a report in the Nation, the Bezos Foundation has donated to Education Reform Now, a nonprofit organization that funds attack advertisements against teachers’ unions and other advocacy efforts to promote test-based evaluations of teachers. Education Reform Now also sponsors Democrats for Education Reform (DFER).

Other education philanthropy supported by the Bezos Foundation include KIPP, Teach for America and many individual charter schools, including privately funded math and science programs across the country.

Problem: How to talk about Chicago politics on community radio?

Amisha Patel of the Grassroots Collaborative, will be our guest Friday on Hitting Left

Friday's Hitting Left show should be a good one. Brother Fred will be back from vacation and Amisha Patel from Grassroots Collaborative will be our in-studio guest. As you might expect, we'll be talking about the current list of Chicago's pay-for-play politics and machine scandals in the roll-up towards election day.

These will include, of course, the mayor's Lincoln Yards/Sterling Bay land giveaway which was being greased up until recently by prison-bound real estate attorney, Ald. Ed Burke. Sterling Bay had to dump him after the the feds arrested him. And then there's the little problem of having possibly the dirtiest alderman of 'em all, wire-wearing Danny Solis, sitting atop the zoning committee.

Amisha and her group have been in the forefront of the struggle to put the Lincoln Yards project on hold, at least until the new administration comes in and the city council has time to vet it. Problem is, it's looking now like the top-monied mayoral candidates all have strong Burke/Solis machine ties and unless the polls are way off (entirely possible) City Hall will likely remain in hands that are just a corrupt as Rahm's, or even worse.

Let's hope there's at least some progressive change coming in the aldermanic races, where some insurgents, women, teachers, and candidates of color have a chance to unseat the incumbents.

As listeners know, Hitting left is aired on a community radio station WLPN 105.5 FM in Chicago. It is live-streamed on lumpenradio.com every Friday from 11-noon CT. According to latest numbers I have received Friday, 30-50 thousand listeners are regularly tuned in to Lumpen Radio, with many more listening to our show each week on Mixcloud or downloading it on podcast.

I love being a part of community radio and that's exactly what our show is all about-- community building. But having a political show on a community radio station also has its drawbacks. One of which is language censorship. We cannot uses language that is considered obscenity based on "community standards" without facing serious fines.

As far as Fred and I are concerned, that's not a problem. Mom raised us right and we've managed to get most of our guests to clean up their act for our show. Our producer also keeps a hand on the red bleep button and he's had a pretty strict interpretation of allowable words.

Here's the problem. We're talking about politics and politicians from the likes of our "pussy grabbing" president to Alds. Burke and Solis here in Chicago. We often find ourselves unable to quote them directly or even report the news accurately without resorting to metaphors and code language.

For example, the Sun-Times reports:

The affidavit, sworn out by FBI special agent Steven Noldin, portrays Solis as deeply in debt and routinely on the prowl for sex, Viagra, campaign contributions and other favors.

...In July 2015, Solis called Caldero with another request.
“I want to get a good massage, with a nice ending. Do you know any good places?” the alderman said.

 When Caldero promised to arrange the liaison, Solis asked, “What kind of women do they got there?” “Asian,” Caldero said. Oh good. Good, good, good. I like Asian,” Solis said.

See what I mean? Chicago politics is so vulgar, is so racist, it's unfit for community radio standards. So we have to constantly find alternative ways to talk about it while still keeping our political edge. Actually, it's not such a problem that we can't and don't have fun with it.

Thanks for sticking with us.

Launching our tour from Lincoln Yards to uplift Mayor’s latest proposal to give away $1.5 bill in tax $ to mega developers like Sterling Bay. We must outline what a new Mayor can do differently. #ReimagineChicago pic.twitter.com/SSZ9uDLQBd

— Grassroots Collab (@GrassrootsChi) November 13, 2018

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Harold Washington and David Orr circa 1983

David Orr's letter to Harold Washington

You always said that Burke played the race card, while Fast Eddie was more about power. I know you’ll never forget the dirty deeds Burke did to you during Council Wars. It ticks me off that they held the city back during Council Wars, but you’re smiling and we’re finally going to get some justice. -- Sun-Times

John Bolton: "Bomb, bomb Iran".

Former U.S. Admin. Official

“It definitely rattled people. People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran.” -Wall St. Journal

Guardian Opinion

 Above all, the teacher revolt expresses a rejection of the austerity and privatization agenda pushed by both Democrats and Republicans, particularly since the Great Recession. -- LA's teachers can teach the working class about the power of labor strikes

#SAGAFTRA - We’re wearing #Red4Ed to stand in strong #solidarity w/ our sisters & brothers @UTLAnow. Dignity & respect for educators is fundamental to student success! When we stand together, we win! #UTLAstrong join a picket line here: https://t.co/6R5D13SEgW @UTLAnow #SagAftra pic.twitter.com/MLaCMHmw6v

— Nancy Sinatra (@NancySinatra) January 11, 2019

After the lights came on at the Burke affair

Best quote on the Burke(s) affair comes from S-T columnist Neil Steinberg:

Corruption is like rust. It spreads, both coming and going. When the party’s on and the lights are low, lots of people wander into the dim tent to help themselves at the long tables of pie. When the lights are snapped on, those same people are caught standing there with pie on their faces.

He adds,

It’s almost comical to see the casting call of mayoral candidates lunging for napkins to smear away Ed Burke’s money, or try to. It’ll be interesting to see how long that stain lingers around their mouths.

Yes, it would be comical if the cost of corruption at the highest political levels didn't weigh so heavily on the city's poor and working people facing severe cuts at their schools and city services. Dick Simpson and Tom Gradel, authors of Corrupt Illinois, put the "corruption tax" at $500M. Many experts believe it is much higher.

Examples include the costs of the Jon Burge police-brutality scandal, which has already reached one hundred million dollars and counting. The cost of Chicago police corruption averages more than $50 million per year. Since 2004, "Chicago has paid a staggering sum -- about $662 million -- on police misconduct, including judgments, settlements, and outside legal fees," according to the Associated Press' examination of city records. In 2015, the payment for the fatal police shooting of LaQuan McDonald cost the city $5 million in a settlement, while the cost to investigate and prosecute Police Officer Van Dyke is ongoing. Also, following that shooting, Chicago's legal and consulting bill for the subsequent Department of Justice investigation of city police practices totaled $760,000 through the middle of March, 2016. 

It's especially not funny when the lights come on and you see pie on the faces of the top three or four (at least) candidates for mayor, including the one being supported by many progressives, unions and community orgs.

I put an (s) in parenthesis above after Burke's name because Eddie's wife Anne Burke, the liberal IL state supreme court justice, who Steinberg once referred to as the “the platinum bar of probity” (look it up), was the one (not Eddie) who threw the fundraising party for Toni Preckwinkle, that netted $116K for her campaign war chest. She had already run and won her campaign for Cook County Board President, jumping into the mayor's race only after Rahm dropped out.

Burke (r) endorsed Gery Chico

I suppose Burke's fundraiser was legal and hopefully legally reported. Although you would think a supreme court justice would keep a money arm's length from Chicago politicians, especially when she's already married to the platinum bar of profiteering in the city council. It's not a good look. But Chicago reporters haven't even broached the subject. It seems, she's untouchable.

It was only after that backyard party at the Burke's house was revealed than Preckwinkle announced she would return ALL the money. Previously she copped to receiving only $5.8K.

Preckwinkle also removed Burke from the Cook County Democratic Party's judicial slating panel, a post he held for decades. Good for her. Although without demands for accountability coming from below, who knows if she and others like Bill Daley, Gery Chico and Susana Mendoza would have even bothered bailing on the Burkes for appearance sake alone.

Preckwinkle's progressive backers seem unfazed by the latest scandal. Some are just cynical, claiming "they all do it, so why pick on Toni?" Others blame it all on the "culture of corruption". 
S-T columnist Phil Kadner writes:

Let us remember Burke has not been convicted of anything, although he has been a symbol of Chicago political corruption for decades. He has had the best people into his home. He has done favors for scores of politicians who were happy to accept his support and his money. Maybe they are all victims of the culture of corruption. As someone once said, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

SEIU Illinois State Council, unfazed by Burke affair, just dropped another $500,000 into Preckwinkle’s mayoral campaign, more that making up for the Burke money she was forced to return. The new money brings the union’s contribution to Preckwinkle to $1.5 million with more money on the way.

Progressives like Rep. Will Guzzardi and socialist Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa (35th) were among the first to endorse Preckwinkle and at least Rosa is now lashing out against his fellow left-wing critics of TP in the press and on social media.

 “There’s nothing here,” Rosa said of the campaign contribution investigators say Burke illegally solicited on Preckwinkle’s behalf. “Do people think she called Ed Burke and said, ‘You’ve got to shake down these guys for $10,000?’ Come on. Let’s talk about what’s important to the people of Chicago, which is who can bring change to City Hall. That’s Toni Preckwinkle.”

Burke scandal aside, it's hard for me to fathom this city's progressives and socialists pinning their hopes for change on the head of the Cook County Democratic Party. It just seems to run counter to national trend of victories by young, insurgent candidates, many of them women of color or immigrants,  over party regulars across the country.

My brother Fred traces the history of the problem in the inability of the Chicago left to unify early on around insurgent candidates in opposition to the old-guard machine.

 In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, there was no single candidate that truly represented the politics of the Bernie movement and you could find Bernie supporters dispersed among all of the candidates, painfully diluted and with little apparent influence. The same can be said about the current race for Chicago’s mayor.

Who knows what more fallout will come from the Burke trial itself or who will be implicated or left with pie on their faces if he decides to roll over for the feds. But by that time we will have elected a new mayor and most likely, one still tied to the old machine by a thousand threads.

You can bet we'll be talking about the Burke(s) affair tomorrow on Hitting Left with a group of insurgent Chicago teachers who are now running for political office. And then again next Friday, January 18th with in-studio guest, author, political consultant and expert on Chicago corruption, Tom Gradel.

Tune in to Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers, Friday on WLPN 105.5 FM Chicago, streaming live at www.lumpenradio.com 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Robert Kraig, Wisc. Citizens Action

“We have a political party in the United States that has decided it’s completely OK to hold on to power by reducing the number of people who are voting. It’s fundamentally undemocratic.” -- Guardian

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) 

...summed it up another way: “It’s been a bad week for Individual Number One.” -- WaPo

Gery Chico, Chicago mayoral candidate

Ald. Eddie Burke “has been a friend for years,” Chico wrote, praising the alderman for “cooperating with the current federal investigation.” -- Sun-Times

Carol Burris, veteran educator and public ed advocate

It is time to acknowledge that what may have begun as a sincere attempt to promote innovation has given rise to fraud, discrimination and the depletion of public school funding. Thirty years of charters have resulted in an increase in profiteering far more than it has resulted in innovation. Democratic governance is disappearing. -- Answer Sheet

Nora Murphy, librarian and parent of L.A. school children

I will tell you this, my family will be picketing with my child's teachers because what they are asking for is the bare minimum any school district should provide for its schools, its families, its students. -- Answer Sheet

Solis to Burke: 'Get out now, while you still can'.

In Chicago, it's often a hare's breath for machine politicians between re-election and prison.

During an appearance on "Chicago Tonight", retiring Ald. Danny Solis (25th) sent a message to Ald. Eddie Burke (14th) encouraging the last of the racist, old-guard cabal that fought Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor, to join him in retirement.

“I think he should reconsider” his bid for re-election, Solis told reporter Carol Marin. “You got money, you’ve got a great family, you’ve got grandkids, why do you want to run?”

Feds raid Burke's office

Burke does have money, lots of it. He's made a fortune parlaying his powerful position as head of the city council's finance committee with an enterprising real estate tax avoidance business that has helped the rich and powerful legally cheat the city out of taxes. His biggest client of course, is Donald Trump himself. As for family, his wife is none other than Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke.

No sooner had Solis' message been sent, than the FBI was at Burke's office door, clearing out his staff, and papering over his windows while they searched the place for evidence. Evidence about what? Maybe it's tied to the Mueller investigation. Who knows?

By 1:30 p.m., federal agents had left Burke’s ward office with boxes, at least three monitors and what appeared to be a computer. (Tribune)

The point is that maybe after 50 years as a machine kingpin, the law may finally be catching up to Burke as it did with his old co-leader of the anti-Harold cabal, "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak who did time for tax evasion and is now, once again under federal indictment.

Change is definitely in the air in Burke's heavily-Latino 14th Ward. U.S. Rep.-Elect Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and his allies successfully defeated Burke’s brother, Dan Burke, in a state legislative primary earlier this year. Dan Burke was defeated by high school counselor Aaron Ortiz.

On Thursday, Garcia issued a statement slamming Burke for representing an “impediment to political progress and community empowerment.”

“Make no mistake,” Garcia said. “Ald. Burke is the last bastion of Chicago machine politics.”

Seeing the writing on the wall, Solis has thrown in with Chuy's new Latino political action committee. Burke's days are definitely numbered.

I have a feeling that somewhere, Harold is laughing and resting a little easier today.