All in this together? Not in IL

Right-wing, anti-stay-at-home protest in Chicago as COVID-19 cases top 96K with over 4K deaths in IL.

ALL IN THIS TOGETHER? -- IL Republican leaders are using the pandemic as an excuse to try and knock Gov. Pritzker's proposed graduated income tax amendment off the November ballot. Instead of a tax increase that would affect only those making over $250,000/year, Repugs are pushing their own amendment to allow cuts in public-sector pensions.

Their efforts to shift the tax burden for the state's impending budget crisis away from the wealthiest and onto the backs of retirees have little chance of succeeding in Springfield. And they know that another try at diminishing public workers' pensions would once again fail to meet the constitutional test in the courts.

Their only hope is to use the issues to rally downstate anti-taxers and jump on the backs of the current right-wing, anti-Pritzker early-opening protests in order to keep down-ticket Republican pols from going down with Trump's ship in November.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Chris Christie and Rahm Emanuel share a laugh during a segment attacking Medicare for All on ABC's "This Week." 

MapLight reporter Andrew Perez

"Rahm says no one at a bunch of Michigan and Wisconsin diners told him to take their health care away which is probably somewhat true since who in a diner would start talking to him at all." -- Common Dreams

Lori Lightfoot to Ted Cruz

But don’t you dare lecture us with half-truths, cherry-picked statistics and debunked rhetoric designed to score political points with your base and your donors while you, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the other Republicans in charge of the Senate sit in dereliction of your duty day after day, shooting after shooting. -- Washington Post

Amanda Kass

 “I think highlighting that there are lots of police and fire pension systems that are underfunded is accurate,” said Amanda Kass, associate director of the Government Finance Research Center at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “I don’t think it’s accurate to indicate that the majority are on the brink of insolvency.” -- Sun-Times

Rich Miller

But President Donald Trump, who had problems everywhere in suburbia, only won McSweeney’s district by a mere 1.6 percentage points in 2016. And then Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza won it last year by 2 points. Trump isn’t doing much to improve his popularity in the suburbs, so 2020 could be even worse for Republicans in that part of the world. -- Capitol Fax

Tom McNamee, Sun-Times Editorial Page Editor

The last sentence of the editorial made the point. The words were mine, but the clarity of thought was all Marca’s: “When we fully understand, as a society, that school nurses are not ‘extras’ — because kids with disabilities are not ‘extras’ — we predict this chronic shortage of nurses will magically disappear.” -- Marca Bristo made us all listen...

As Democrats increasingly unite around solutions as big as the problems we face, the media still puts up panels featuring politicians with little relevance like Rahm Emanuel and Chris Christie solely to attack the progressive energy in our party. pic.twitter.com/oJmLQI4N7j

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) September 8, 2019

Trump: “Who will pay for the Wall?”
Audience: “Mexico will pay for the Wall!!” “Mexico!!”#BrokenPromise

— Diane Ravitch (@DianeRavitch) September 6, 2019

Rahm's parting shots at public ed -- Goolsbee & pension theft

Austan Goolsbee

Before he leaves us, our lame duck Mayor Rahm Emanuel is taking a few parting shots at the unions and progressives who helped make a third run for him a lost cause.

THE FIRST SHOT…was aimed at city workers pensions. Rahm wants to amend the State Constitution to cap cost-of-living increases for retirees and make pension theft legal. Right now the Constitution prohibits any diminishment or impairment of pension fund benefits (Article Xlll, Section 5). Previous attempts by the legislature to balance the budget on the backs of retirees have been ruled unconstitutional. Former gov, Pat Quinn lost his reelection bid to Bruce Rauner in large part because he supported failed pension theft initiatives.

THE NEXT SHOT...Rahm's appointment of former Obama economic advisor and political insider Austan Goolsbee to the school board appears to be nothing but a big "F**k you" to Chicago school activists and the CTU.

Economist Goolsbee, unlike his new boss Rahm, had a pretty good line when he was working for Obama. But he caved in after advising against extending tax breaks for the rich and for stimulating the economy as a way out of the recession rather than focusing on shrinking the budget deficit.

But no matter what you thought of Goolsbee's economic theories, we're not making macro economic decisions on the CPS board. This is all about educating our children, an area where Goolsbee has no background and has demonstrated little in the way of knowledge. I think it was Alexander Pope who wrote, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

His lackings haven't prevented him from carrying on when it comes to school issues like testing, teacher evaluation or school vouchers.

This from Chalkbeat Chicago:

In a 2015 survey of economists’ positions on public issues,  [Goolsbee] favored value-added” measures that try to isolate the impact of individual teachers on student test scores — though he qualified the approach as having “lots of noise and unobservables.”

In the same survey, Goolsbee claimed "uncertainty" about school vouchers. But Rahm and Rauner have already brought a form of vouchers into Chicago. Does anyone think that an "uncertain" Goolsbee will oppose them now as a Rahm appointee?

Rahm made Goolsbee appointment only three months before his term as mayor is up. He did it without consulting some of the most important stakeholders, including the CTU.

This from CTU Pres. Jesse Sharkey:

The Chicago Teachers Union, which backs an elected school board, described Goolsbee’s new role as a “unilateral appointment by a lame duck mayor. 

"Mr. Goolsbee comes into a board responsible for students and their schools being starved of resources for the last eight years by the man who appointed him,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a statement. “Those same neighborhoods continue to struggle from the consequences of a foreclosure crisis that the administration he served in Washington failed to address. We can — and we must — do better.” 

Why then, not leave the seat open for three months, knowing that most of the current mayoral candidates oppose Rahm's his school policies will likely replace all or most of his current board picks?

The answer seems obvious. Rahm is using his remaining power to smack his political opponents and reward his friends. That's if you can call a three-month appointment to the discredited CPS board a reward.

Finally, if you needed any more reasons to take control of the public schools out of the mayor's hands and into the hands of an elected, representative school board, Goolsbee and pension theft are pretty good ones.

Great news! @ChicagosMayor appoints @Austan_Goolsbee to the Chicago Board of Trade! ...wait, what??? #ERSBnow https://t.co/1QevDs111V

— Cassie Creswell (@cassiecreswell) December 15, 2018

Rahm, the master of clichés

“So I’ve asked everybody to explore all available options and think creatively out of the box. One of the things I won’t do is kick the can down the road.” -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel

Another thing the mayor won't do is shift the tax burden onto his wealthy campaign patrons.

It seems that Rahm will try every gimmick he can think of to make up for the city and state's history of pension theft. Everything, that is, except for that which is most necessary and the only way out of the crisis -- raise revenue by making the wealthiest pay their fair share of taxes.

The latest from his bag of tricks involves selling more than $10 billion in pension obligation bonds, supposedly to head off another massive property tax increase on voters, right before election time. But sooner or later that debt will come due and have to be paid on the back end of the deal by -- guess who? Not to mention, what happens if the market tanks, which it's bound to do. It reminds me of his predecessor, Mayor Daley's selling off the city's parking meters in exchange for a quick cash infusion. We may never recover from that one. 

It's a stupid plan as Rahm's campaign rivals are quick to point out. But fast-talking Rahm has his usual responses. He is after all, the master of the cliché. Check it out. He wants us to "think outside the box" and not "kick the can down the road". 

Why not, "We're taking it one game at a time"? Or, "It's a win-win". OK, now I'm blanking. But you get the picture. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Kentucky Wildcats

A wildcat strike action, often referred to as a wildcat strike, is a strike action undertaken by unionized workers without union leadership's authorization, support, or approval; this is sometimes termed, an unofficial industrial action. Wildcat strikes were the key pressure tactic utilized during the May 1968 protests in France. -- Wikipedia

Attica Scott, first African-American woman to serve in the Ky Legislature in over 20 years

She explained how the Republican-controlled Statehouse gutted the state pension program last week, surreptitiously changing a sewage treatment bill: “On the Thursday before Good Friday, that morning, it was a sewage bill. And by that afternoon, it was the so-called pension reform bill.” -- Democracy Now

Rev. James Lawson.

“We cannot make our democracy succeed, be effective, if you do not have working people in organized units who can care for their economic benefits … who can care for the issues of justice.” --Democracy Now

Thomas Frank

“Amazon is the shining representative of a new golden age of monopoly,” is how the Atlantic journalist Franklin Foer put it in 2014, and what he said then is even truer today. -- Guardian 

Maria Villegas, who cleans Sayre Language Academy Elementary in Galewood

Says she has been told ahead of time by her supervisor when an inspector was coming. As a result, Villegas says, “When there is an inspection coming, we leave some things that we [normally] do daily. We leave them to clean the stairwells really well, they’re [inspectors] going to enter through there. Clean the first couple of bathrooms because they’re going to check those. The person who inspects enters the first floor checks the bathrooms, checks the stairwells — but doesn’t go to the upper floors.” -- Sun-Times 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Attempts to silence players who refuse to accept their assigned roles fits right in with owners’ smarmy manipulation of the women cheerleaders through discriminatory Jane Crow “laws”.  -- The NFL's Plan to protect America From Witches

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Dick & Betsy DeVos are used to buying politicians, despite promises. 

Lonnie Scott, executive director of the Progress Michigan 

Said he was not surprised by the PAC contributions from Dick DeVos, which he called a “violation” of Betsy’s stated intentions. 

“Did we expect her to keep her word in the first place? I think that’s the real question. When you have spent literally millions of your own money to purchase legislators and specific policies, you’re not going to stop that once you can finally get in a position where you can influence it directly.” -- Detroit News

Ben Joravsky

...CPS gets to spend less money on special education teachers and more money on high-priced consultants. It's like they're taking money from the poorest, most vulnerable kids in the system to devise new schemes to take even more money from them. Man, if CPS is a national leader, as Rahm says, I feel bad for kids around the country. -- The Reader 

Phil Kadner

There isn’t a single candidate likely to tell anyone the truth about school funding in Illinois. Just as the state has failed to fund the pension systems, it has failed to adequately fund the schools. -- Sun-Times OpEd 

Sylvia Puente, of the Latino Policy Forum

“We don’t need dominant society to divide and conquer, when we do divide and conquer among ourselves.” -- Tensions simmer between African-Americans and Latinos (Sun-Times)

David Perry, Univ. of Minnesota 

I’m the father of a 10-year-old boy with Down syndrome. It’s easy to imagine Rosa Maria as my son’s classmate, disappeared into a detention facility. -- Washington Post 

Chris Ladd, former GOP Precinct Committeeman

Pretending that the Republican Party has not become an engine for white nationalist ambitions is like refusing to carry an umbrella in the rain. -- Forbes

Somewhere at the White House right now Ty Cobb is running around screaming "Get his phone! Get his phone!"

— Rebecca Parks (@BeckyRParks) October 30, 2017

No Nekritz, No Burke, please

Fred Klonsky

It seems nobody is quite sure why Lisa Madigan has suddenly decided to step down from her attorney general post. It's especially bewildering since Madigan just sued the city of Chicago, asking a federal court to stop the city's police department from engaging in what the suit calls a "pattern of using excessive force" and other discriminatory misconduct against Chicago's African-American and Latino residents.

Did she find a horse head in her bed?

State Rep. Elaine Nekritz wants to replace Madigan as IL Attorney General. She tells POLITICO that the AG post is an even better fit for her and that she is seriously considering a run. "I think there is a path for someone like me. I want to keep this option open," she said.

But I say, no no no. No path.

We still remember that Nekritz was one of the architects of the pension-theft bill that was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. Anyone with such disregard for the state's Constitution and disdain for the state's pensioners, shouldn't be trusted with it's top prosecutor's job.

The question is, what's wrong with POLITICO's Natasha Korecki? She calls Nekritz's pension theft debacle, the "crowning period" in her legislative career.

The AG candidate swamp gets even swampier...Next in a line of opportunists stepping forward for a chance at Madigan's job is Jennifer Burke (who?). Oh, that Burke. Yes, she's the daughter of the city's most powerful and most premier machine alderman (going back to the Harold Washington days), Eddie Burke, whose wife Anne already sits on the State Supreme Court. A win for little Burke would mean a hat trick for Eddie. I guess he figures, if Mike Madigan's kid can hold the job, why not his?

Burke and Trump

Jennifer's qualifications? A job at daddy's law firm and then an appointment by then-Gov. Pat Quinn to a post at the Illinois Pollution Control Board. You mean you didn't know, she was a "pollution expert"?

It's worth mentioning that prior to Jennifer's appointment, Eddie Burke lent $200,000 and gave an additional $52,000 to Quinn’s campaign.

The topper... According to Clout Street, daddy gave Cook Democratic Party Chairman, Joe Berrios, a "heads-up" over the weekend that his daughter was circulating petitions to run for attorney general.

Berrios is the county's tax assessor and a close ally of Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle. Burke's law firm, Klafter and Burke, specializes in representing clients in property tax appeals before the Cook County Assessor's Office. Get it?

Burke's firm helped Donald Trump cut property taxes on his downtown Chicago hotel by nearly 40% over seven years, saving Trump and his investors $11.7 million at the expense of city tax payers. Yes, let's put Jennifer Burke in the AG post. You bet.

As you may recall, Berrios is also the state's master of nepotism. He's notorious for loading the bureaucracy with his family members. His daughter Toni was a state rep who lost her seat to progressive, Will Guzzardi.

Now we need a Guzzardi-type progressive (Kim Foxx?) to step up and defeat the likes of Burke and Nekritz and drain the swamp.

Rahm plants kiss firmly on cheeks of his Chicago bankster pals

As he was laying off nearly 1,000 more CPS teachers and staff, Rahm Emanuel, speaking at Wednesday's Chicago Investors Conference,  promised the city's hedge funders and investment bankers -- his biggest campaign contributors -- that he will continue to be their faithful servant.

Emanuel claimed the biggest challenge facing the city is the need to renegotiate labor agreements with 90 percent of the city's 30,000-member workforce, which expired June 30. Those up for new contracts include laborers, firefighters, police and other municipal employees.

From DNAInfo...

The unions must partner with the city to ensure those labor agreements "benefit the entire city," Emanuel said. "As we negotiate the new contracts, I expect … to see savings in wages and benefits, health care and other places that are key to the City of Chicago’s future."

 Emanuel used the speech to tout the greatest hits of his nearly two terms in office, including Chicago's status as the No. 1 city for corporate relocations and its bragging rights as the restaurant city of the year, as determined by Bon Appetit magazine. 

State Sen. Dan Biss on Hitting Left tomorrow

Our in-studio guest tomorrow on Hitting Left will be IL State Senator Daniel Biss. He's the second Democrat in the upcoming race for governor, after Ald. Ameya Pawar, to appear on the show. Between us and John Daley's show on Lumpen Radio, we should be able to cover the waterfront.

Brother Fred and I are still searching to find any real distinctions among the candidates in the Democratic primary besides the size of their war chests. That's a big issue for some (not me) and probably the reason for so much early labor support swinging billionaire candidate J.B. Pritzker's way. He will have no problem matching billionaire Rauner dollar-for-dollar in what will be the most expensive governor's race in history.

Biss should have no trouble raising money, mainly from his liberal north-shore base and political PACs and, at least in my humble opinion, could defeat Rauner in a head-to-head election if he can expand his support base beyond liberal white suburban voters.

Mini-Trump Rauner's got all the money in the world but his numbers are miserable, as well they should be. His approval rating now stands at 34% and sinking like a stone. Polling this week shows him trailing 37% to 49% against a "generic Democrat" in the 2018 gubernatorial election. His support among Republicans is tepid, at 68% with only a handful who think he's doing a great job. His veto this week, of the education funding bill, should knock him down even further.

“Chicago’s is the only public school district in Illinois that does not have an elected school board. It’s time that we bring basic democracy to the state’s largest school district. I look forward to supporting this measure when it comes over to the Senate from the House.” -- State Sen. Daniel Biss

And "generic" Democrats seem to be all we've got to choose from in 2018. That in itself is pretty sad given how strong Bernie Sanders ran in the state's presidential primary against Hillary Clinton. He got a million votes and lost to Hillary by only 2 percentage points.

You therefore would think that independent party politics would be a major factor in the gov's race. You would be wrong. Dem leaders fear a divisive challenge from the left more than they do Rauner himself and the Sanders forces seem to have all but disappeared in this race.

Biss appears to be gaining strength as the progressive's choice against Rauner. He's taken on a toned-down version of many of Sander's positions, ie. free college tuition (community college only?) on minimum wage, education funding, elected school board for Chicago, tax reform (without specifics) and more. But so has nearly all of the Democratic pack.

Sticking points for us include his votes (sponsorship) for the unconstitutional pension-theft legislation. Is he self-critical? Why didn't he and other progressives speak out against the Level III pension privatization option in the recently-passed SB1 budget bill? I'm sure Brother Fred will have plenty to say on that one.

All this and more tomorrow at 11 a.m. CDT on Lumpen Radio. Tune in.

If 'bailouts' are good for Wall St., why not neediest schools? Retiree pensions?

(BGA grafic)

Gov. Rauner has vetoed the school funding bill, thereby continuing to deprive the state's neediest districts of millions of dollars and threatening the opening of schools in the fall.

Rauner claims that the bill takes money away from wealthier white districts in order to "bailout" needier, mainly black and Latino districts like Chicago. He also claims, the bill,  "includes a bailout of Chicago’s broken teacher pension system.”

Both claims are false, says the BGA. 

In fact, under the new funding formula no school district gets less state money, but many low-income districts get more. With low-income students accounting for 80.2% of its enrollment, CPS is among the latter group.

The biggest problem with the bill as I see it, is that it fails to identify new sources of revenue, ie. a graduated income tax, making the wealthiest pay their fair share. But nevertheless, the bill, which passed both houses in Springfield needs to be signed, and fast.

Rauner's been using the big-lie technique to play off white students against students of color, urban schools against downstate and suburban schools and everyone against teachers, their unions, and retirees.

But let's say, for the sake of argument, that his "bailout" claims are correct. What's wrong with bailing out public schools or other public institutions in distress? If IL paid its fair share of education dollars, a bailout wouldn't be necessary. IL continues to rank near the bottom when it comes to school funding.

The state, by constitutional mandate, has the primary responsibility for funding its public schools but has never come close to covering even 50% of the cost. In recent years, the state's contribution has dipped below 30%, forcing local school districts to raise their property tax levy or cut programs.

According to the group, Raise Your Hand, IL is 50th out of 50 in percentage of funding that comes from the state. So, public schools rely on local taxing bodies to make up the difference, which causes great inequity between poor and rich districts.

Illinois spent 9% less in real terms on general state aid per student this year than it did five years ago.

IL also has the most unfair school funding system in the nation. The state's school districts with the greatest number of students living in poverty receive substantially fewer state and local dollars than their more affluent counterparts — nearly 20 percent less.

Furthermore, the state hasn't been paying into the State Retirement Fund, as required by law, for decades. As it stands, the state pension fund is underfunded by about $130 billion. If IL had been contributing it's mandated share, no bail out would be needed and the TRS would be is good health. The same is true for Chicago's pension fund.

If a bail out was fine for Wall Street banksters and energy companies, many of whom didn't need it or even want it, why not bail out the schools? The Wall Street bailout does nothing to create jobs, create social equality, or eliminate poverty. A bail out of struggling (through no fault of their own) public school districts, would help do all of the above.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

They really cast the deciding vote on healthcare bill. 

Tim Hogan, spokesman for Our Lives on the Line

“The resistance showed up – we called, we came to meetings, we rallied in the rain, and last night we won a critical victory in the fight to protect our care. But we know that President Trump and [Senate majority] Leader [Mitch] McConnell’s reckless determination to imperil the wellbeing of millions of Americans has not gone away... We’re not waiting for their next attack.”  --Guardian

 NAACP

The conclusion of this set of hearings may have been best summed up by Chris Ungar, Past President, of the California School Boards Association:

Can charter schools be part of the solution? Absolutely. But that solution must be intentional, well-planned growth that takes into account the health and sustainability of the entire public education system, including the so-called traditional public schools that educate 90% of our country’s students. -- Task Force Report

Troy LaRaviere give report to CPS Board

CPAA Pres. Troy LaRaviere to CPS Board of Ed

“When has this district ever attempted to shut down three majority white schools in one year?” he asked before turning to [CPS second-in-Command, Janice] Jackson. 

Our principals love you, they’re very disappointed because you were one of us. When are you going to leave this cesspool and come back home? Come back home, sister.” -- Sun-Times

Fred Klonsky

"The morality is...all working people ought to have a pension, live a life of comfort, without worrying about health care or where they're going to live. That's what a humane system looks like. To treat old folks with dignity and with honor." -- Live From the Heartland Radio

Phil Kadner

All Americans deserve the same health care as Sen. John McCain. -- Sun-Times

Tony Sanders, CEO of IL's second largest school district

 “If prior bills failed because they took away from the rich to give to the poor, why would I support a bill that takes money from the poor to give to the rich?” -- Mark Brown's column in Sun-Times

Andy Borowitz

 Harland Dorrinson, who voted for Trump “because he promised that he would take my health care away from me on Day 1,” said that he was “very upset” that he will still receive that benefit. “I woke up this morning, and my family and I could still see a doctor,” he said. “This is a betrayal.” -- New Yorker 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

“I’m here because I oppose how education in Germany is structured, that they’re training us to be workers and not thinkers.” -- Hendro Myrow, 18, a student in Hamburg.

Sydney Chaffee, 2017 National Teacher of the Year

Let’s work to ensure that education represents liberation. Let’s keep our ears and hearts open to our students’ brilliance, even when it makes us uncomfortable. Let’s envision education as a time machine that helps our students travel to worlds we have only imagined — ones that are built on ideals of justice and equity and collaboration. -- National Education Association 

47th Ward Ald. Ameya Pawar, candidate for governor in IL

Ald. Ameya Pawar

"You have to have a progressive income tax. We owe what we owe [to state pensioners] and if I'm elected, we will make good on that promise...We can't allow the pension system to go belly-up and by extension, to allow the city to go belly-up. I have always voted to protect pensions. I don't know that everyone in the race can say that." -- Interview on Hitting Left with the Klonsky Bros. 

Rahm Emanuel's big lie

“What’s very, very important for the people in Chicago, all of the taxpayers and all of the employees and employers, all four of our pensions — police pensions, fire pensions, laborers pension and municipal employees pension — you have a secure retirement now.” -- Chicago Tribune 

French President Emmanuel Macron as G20 ends

“Our world has never been so divided.” -- Washington Post 

Pope Francis warns G20 about 'dangerous alliances'

 "The G20 worries me, it hits migrants in countries in half of the world and it hits them even more as time goes by." He said the greatest danger concerned immigration, with "the poor, the weak, the excluded and the marginalised" juxtaposed with "those who... fear the invasion of migrants". -- Reuters

Sen. Rob Portman's code word for Jews?

 “We aren’t going to allow a handful of Socialists, many of whom are from New York, to disrupt our ability to serve the needs of the Ohio constituents who contact us in need of vital services every day,” -- Washington Post  

Questions that don't answer

Munger

Questions -- What the hell is a "deputy governor" and how many does IL really need? Don't we elect a Lt. Gov.?  How did Leslie Munger get the job when we are already cursed with Rauner-appointed Deputy Gov. Olin "Trey" Childress III? And how does Munger, who was thrashed in her last election bid by Rauner-critic Susana Mendoza, get off writing letters to the S-T calling for more unconstitutional pension theft as the "key to solving CPS funding problems"?

What is DT's one and only favorite public employees union? Why it's the FOP of course, whose boss, Dean Angelo Sr. is  attending an alt-right summit meeting today in D.C. with the Trumpies. I doubt they will concern themselves much with the blockbuster report on classified FBI documents that reveal the feds have quietly investigated U.S. law enforcement links to white supremacy and racism in America.

Question #3 is for CNN. How do you reconcile this story, Trump correctly cites rising crime rates in cities with Steinberg's column in today's S-T, "Trump twists crime numbers to demonize immigrants"? Better question might be -- how do you sleep at night?

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Dept. Supt. John Escalante after 54 holiday weekend shootings: "It's a big city and it's a safe city. It's about 1,500 people driving this violence. I'm confident we'll be able to turn this around." --  DNAinfo

Arthur Goldstein

“Teachers now have a real voice in the United Federation of Teachers, and that voice will not be silenced.” -- NYC Educator

GOP Strategy

Shortly before he died, Reagan’s strategist Lee Atwater explained the game plan of the Southern Strategy in a matter-of-fact clinical policy. “By 1968 you can’t say ‘n***r’ — that hurts you, backfires,” Atwater emphasized. “So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. And you’re getting so abstract now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.” But Donald Trump doesn’t do abstract and that is what has sent the GOP into a tizzy. -- Carol Anderson at Salon

Breaking up is hard to do.

Kurt Summers

 Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s hand-picked city treasurer, Kurt Summers, is breaking away and joining the call of unions, asking Emanuel to sue big banks over controversial interest rate swap deals. 

“This has been a different question that no one around the country has asked until now. The city of Philadelphia just today joined this lawsuit and they’re in the same position we are as a city. Every municipal government or state has to look at this and pursue it fervently. Our fiscal situation is such that we don’t have a choice.” -- Chicago Tonight

 Ben Joravsky

[Rahm's] lectures go like this: a contract between a city and a bank is etched in stone and can never be renegotiated. While a contract with pensioner is written in sand and can be washed away with the tides. In short, don't mess with my banking boys! -- The Reader

Claypool blinks on pension pick-up. Militant "showdown" action still planned for April 1st.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. Frederick Douglass
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/frederick_douglass_2.html

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. Frederick Douglass
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/frederick_douglass_2.ht

CTU Pres. Karen Lewis calls for a "showdown" on April 1st.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. -- Frederick Douglas

Another way to say it is, if you don't hit it, it won't fall. Well, Karen Lewis and the CTU hit hard at Forrest Claypool's threatened dropping of the 7% pension pick-up, and it fell, at least for now.

 Unilaterally dropping the pension pick-up, especially in the middle of contract negotiations, was a serious enough contract violation that the union was prepared to strike on April 1st. On top of that, Claypool announced more lay-offs at CPS and then ordered a 3-day unpaid furlough across the entire system.

But faced with an imminent strike, which would have certainly been another, maybe the last, nail in the mayor's political coffin, Rahm pulled back the leash on his attack dogs yesterday and Claypool announced he was withdrawing his threat.

But CPS is still going ahead with the staff lay-offs as well as 3-day furlough. So while a strike may not be called, the union is still planning for militant action of some kind on April 1.

Regarding the strike, Lewis said, “It’s still on the table, just like the 7 percent pension pay cut is still on the table.”

“April 1 would be an unfair labor day of action,” Lewis said. “It’s a showdown.”

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. Frederick Douglass
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/frederick_douglass_2.html

Speaking truth to power

Chicago School Principal Challenges City Hall
Chicago Public School Principal Challenges City Hall "Since Mayor Emanuel began his political career, financial institutions and investment banks have contributed the most money – by far – to his campaigns. LaRaviere says they are the ones profiting, while the schools are suffering."
Posted by Aapple on Tuesday, February 16, 2016

As teachers and parents prepare for tomorrow's Walk-Ins for the public schools all of our children deserve, local media is focusing in on some of the key players in the city's progressive movement.

Don't Miss...WGN is running a two-part feature on Chicago's rebel principal, Troy LaRaviere. Troy has been reprimanded by the mayor's hand-picked board for being outspoken about the real causes of the city's and CPS' financial mess. The problem for them is that he leads Blaine, one of the city's highest-performing schools and he enjoys strong community and parent support. Some (including CTU Pres. Karen Lewis) have even mentioned him as a possible mayoral candidate.
Last night, he focused on the pension crisis.

Zeroing in on the Emanuel administration – he is drawing attention to the mayor’s strategy of borrowing, which he says is only making the problems much worse.
Indeed according to a financial analysis prepared for the Board of Education, the district’s pension costs are projected to increase 32% over seven years, but the debt service on borrowed money is projected to increase 350%.

 Since Mayor Emanuel began his political career, financial institutions and investment banks have contributed the most money – by far – to his campaigns. Laraviere says they are the ones profiting, while the teachers are suffering.

He adds,

“Would I ever want to run against this mayor?  I want a better city.  I want the city that I talked about for my son, and I’m willing to do anything I have to do to make sure he gets that city.”

ALSO...Watch CBS News tonight for Mike Parker's feature story on Harish I Patel's campaign. Harish is the independent anti-machine Democrat running for State Rep in the 40th. Should be good. Look for it.

Rahm/Rauner behind the scenes

In public, Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Rauner are squabbling. In private, that's another matter. The two Napa Valley Winery buddies share a common dream. Use the current manufactured budget crisis to vanquish the CTU. 

While Rahm continues to posture, the governor, who can't seem to get anything done Springfield  and who is more politically isolated than ever, wants everyone to know that he and the mayor have a thing goin' on. 

Just listen:

Gov. Rauner: “At this point Mayor Emanuel has made a number of requests of our administration and of the state government to assist the city of Chicago, and there’s not a single request that he’s made so far that we haven’t said that we are willing to pursue.” 

Unfortunately, in private, it’s a pretty constructive conversation. In public it’s not. We’ve got to take things to the next level. We are willing to do everything so far the mayor has asked us to do, but we have got to get reforms for the state as part of it.”

By "reforms", Rauner means limit CTU's right and ability to bargain effectively on behalf of its membership.

Rahm and his new schools chief Forrest Claypool, agree. Instead of bargaining in good faith on a new contract with the CTU -- even on a 1-year agreement -- and then going to Springfield together to fight for adequate state funding for CPS, they are playing games with Rauner and pressuring the union to pick up the entire tab on pension payments. That won't happen and they not it. Just more posturing.

I'm waiting to hear Jesse Sharkey's response today. 

Claypool's Plan B is same as Plan A -- Pension theft. Time for Plan C.

Rahm's latest (3rd in 2 years) hand-picked school boss Forrest Claypool, claims he has no "Plan B" for balancing the city's un-balanceable budget, should "pension reform" fail. Forrest can't see the forest for the trees -- pension reform theft has already failed.

When mayoral candidate Chuy Garcia said he had no budget cure-all, the press ran wild with it --called his plan, "squishy" -- and it helped cost him the election. 

But when the fixer-in-chief admits he has no fix beyond unconstitutional pension theft there's barely a Tweet. 

Truth be told, Claypool does have a Plan B. It's Plan A -- more pension concessions from teachers. No concessions from the super-rich, LaSalle St., or the corporations.  

According to the Tribune: 

Claypool, put in charge of CPS last month by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, also said teachers have to do their part by picking up the full cost of their pension contributions if lawmakers don't use Emanuel's preferred option of combining city and state teacher pension funds.

 Jackson Potter, a CTU officer, said eliminating the pension pickup practice would amount to a pay cut and violate a long-standing agreement with teachers.

Potter is right. The pension pickup was offered to teachers in lieu of a pay increase as part of the district's contract negotiations. A contract is a contract and pensions are a promise, written into the State Constitution. So ruled the courts.

With no Plan B, look for class sizes to rise dramatically during the second semester and as hundreds of more teachers are pink-slipped. Look also for Claypool to import dozens more 5-week-wonder TFAers to replace the hundreds of special ed teachers and staff now threatened with firing.

Actually, when you see the mayor rapidly expanding his TIF districts, which take million of dollars directly out of the schools, you begin to wonder if there's really a crisis after all.

Time for Claypool to go to Plan C.

Chicago Principal LaRaviere: Whose 'Sacrifice'?

Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere is my early choice for a mayoral run in the next election go-round. He's got the right stuff.

Troy has another hard-hitting commentary ("Why does Rahm Emanuel put business ahead of our children?") in yesterday's Tribune.

He writes:

Politicians frame this as pension payment vs. classroom investment — as if those were the only two expenses our tax dollars are used for and one of them has to be sacrificed. This is patently false. City Hall has had many opportunities for sacrifice in other areas, but it has refused to make those sacrifices. 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel had a chance to sacrifice the diversion of $55 million in taxes to a hotel near McCormick Place. He could have invested some of that tax increment financing money in the pension system instead. 

Emanuel had a chance to sacrifice his relationship with the banking community by suing the banks that are siphoning $100 million from CPS as a result of toxic financial deals brokered by his hand-picked CPS board president, David Vitale. Emanuel has refused to try to recoup these dollars, which he could invest in the pension system. 

Aramark Corp. and SodexoMAGIC Corp. failed to keep CPS schools clean, but Emanuel and CPS would not sacrifice their relationship with those companies by voiding their $340 million in contracts. Some of that money could have been invested in the pension system. 

Emanuel's appointed school board gave SUPES Academy $20 million to provide "training" that I believe was poor in quality and completely unresponsive to the district's professional development needs. That money could have been invested in the pension system. 

City Hall, with such a blatant history of being unwilling to make well-connected and powerful bankers and businessmen sacrifice, has the audacity to announce that it has no choice but to make children sacrifice their education.

Read the entire commentary here.

Bringing the City and State to Its Knees

Harvard Square

Posting from Cambridge, MA this morning and feeling a little guilty for ducking out on my city in its time of crisis. Between them, Gov. Rauner and Mayor Emanuel have actually succeeded in bringing the state and city to its knees today.

Mayor 1% finally made his long overdue payment to the teachers pension fund,  but not without extracting his pound of flesh -- 1,400 teachers being laid off and another $1B in borrowing, another windfall for his bankster patrons and another attack on the teachers union and teachers' collective bargaining rights.

Aside from the hardship the layoffs will bring to the teachers and their children and families, think about what the loss of so many union jobs means to the community and the continuing destruction of the city's middle class. Think also about spiraling class sizes and program cuts in city schools and what that will mean, especially for the neediest of students who need personalization more than ever. It also makes another teachers strike that much more likely.

By my figuring, 1,400 teacher jobs lost means minimally, about $84 million in yearly taxable income that won't be spent in neighborhood groceries, auto dealers, hair salons and shoe stores. That translates to hundreds more lay-offs from local businesses, millions more in lost revenue for the city and state and the further pauperization of the community's working class and small businesses owners.

This is the heart of the brilliant austerity plan that Rahm touted during the last election and that the mostly acquiescent press accepted as superior to Chuy Garcia's call for transparency, with hardly a peep.

Likewise for our sociopathic billionaire governor who will shut down the state government, with an even greater civic toll, rather than taxing his corporate and LaSalle St. cronies even one penny more on their speculative windfall profits.

Fr. Pfleger

I'll leave the rest to Father Michael Pfleger -- one of the few remaining public voices of sanity in this city of ours.

Today at Midnight The State Government will shut down, because a Multimillionaire Governor can't have his way and shut down Unions and programs that are literally life support to thousands of Illinois residents.....the problem is when you have 9 homes and you have millions of dollars in your bank account you will not be affected by a shut down.....but the millions of residents who are dependent on government to work for them and are living day to day. Will be.....Call the Governor 217-782-0244 or 312-814-2121 remind him he works for us and it's our money.....STOP THE CUTS

CPS will not enter into 32 consecutive $20 million no-bid contracts with SUPES, choosing instead to make its required CTPF pension payment.

— Matt Farmer (@mifarmer) July 1, 2015