Or maybe it’s just their repudiation of Rahm, who really ought to be forcibly ejected from the Democratic Party.
And why is that? Minimum wage support, same sex marriage support, reasonable immigration positions.
Because:
I’m usually pro Union but I despise Karen Lewis and her reign of terror over the Chicago Teachers Union. Judging from the comments I read on local blogs, the Tribune, and the Sun Times, I’m not the only one.
I agree with this. Public sector unions are a recipe for disaster.
In the private sector, union power is held in check by the force of the market; if they get too greedy, and extract too many promises from management, their company becomes non-competitive and goes out of business. And the union suffers along with the owners. Prime example: the UAW.
But in the public sector, “management” is the politicians, and they can always stick it to the taxpayers, who have barely any say in the process. Karen Lewis and her goons are a prime example of this type of fiasco.
Rahm’s still winning in those polls.
I don’t know how much to trust polls for a Mayoral run off election. There hasn’t been one and I assume you’re dealing with a very low turnout. I’ll assume that favors Rahm and his more affluent base.
The normal meaning of ‘goons’ in the “Xxxxx and his/her goons” construction is “persons who intimidate others on behalf of Xxxxx.”
Is this your meaning here, and if so, details please. If this wasn’t your meaning, could you explain what you did mean? Thanks muchly.
The point of a poll is to estimate what’s happening with the population being sampled. That’s why polls have margins of error; they’re estimates. And in this case, the estimates of Rahm’s and Garcia’s support aren’t different enough relative to their MOEs to say that Rahm’s leading among the population as a whole.
It’s much more likely than not that Rahm’s leading, but hardly a certainty.
And can’t forget Rahm’s plan to use public money and eminent domain authority to help build a sports arena for a private university (DePaul). Didn’t have the money for those schools, but did have the money for a private university’s sports complex.
And lately, the Chicago PD’s ‘black site’ has been in the news. Rahm’s office evidently knew about the existence of the place.
Chicagoans: what’s Rahm’s attitude been towards this breaking story? Is he demanding that heads roll if they get in the way of his getting to the bottom of this? Or is he making meaningless statements of the sort you do when you’d be just as glad if the whole thing blew over?
The black site is getting dime coverage in blogs, but isn’t a major story in the mainstream media. The professional activists are up in arms but the topic never came up among my peer group who are all political junkies
In a city with regular stories about physical assaults, evidence tampering and other abuses by the CPD, no one really cares about some NATO protester who says that, three years ago, she waited too long to talk to her lawyer. The “Black Site” schtick is a joke when accompanied by photos of a building with a parking lot full of CPD vehicles and signs directing visitors towards evidence recovery.
That’s not to say that literally no one cares or that they can’t get some dudes with Guy Fawkes masks to wave signs but it’s not a big deal or topic of conversation among anyone I know. I doubt it’ll impact the mayoral race much.
Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. Isn’t that what public sector union thugs always do? Intimidate elected officials into coughing up public funds for their union members?
OK, then: anyone using their influence in politics is a thug. Gotcha. Democracy is thuggery, and the term, as you use it, is meaningless. If you write a letter to your Congresscritter, you’re a thug, just on a smaller scale. Ditto if you have a bumper sticker that says, “I’m pro____, and I vote.” Etcetera. ‘Thugs’ is your synonym for ‘citizens.’
Glad we could deal with that.
Same here. Not a big topic. I saw maybe one or two Facebook posts on it, and that’s about it. If it’s a big news story, I’ve certainly missed all the talk about it.
Anyhow, the new poll numbers are quite surprising to me. Looks like this will end up being a real race.
I don’t like Rahm and I voted for Chuy. I’m not really that impressed by Chuy (although I am more so now that he forced Rahm into a runoff) but I find that he’s a far better choice.
Rahm is closing schools in order to open charter schools. Charter schools do not need to meet the same criteria that public schools are subject to and have the ability to get rid of trouble or failing students, something that CPS schools can’t do. In addition, he’s closing schools in the poorer neighborhoods (of course, they’re the schools that would underperform) and making it more dangerous for kids to get to their new schools (want to cross several gang territories to get to school?). On top of that, his charter schools are run by his friends who stand to make money off closing CPS schools, including Chicago school board members. How did these people get on the school board? Well they weren’t elected there.
He forced the teachers union into striking a few years ago and made the strike about teachers pay when that was not what the teachers were striking about. Of course teachers would want more pay (wouldn’t we all?) but they were striking for better working conditions and because he increased the school hours without increasing actual instruction time or compensation as well as proposed a merit-based system so teachers would be paid based on student scores. He even said that “Teachers got the goldmine and the students got the shaft.” Really? How could anyone not see through that?
He took the same strong arm approach to the Chicago firefighters and police but they aren’t allowed to strike. Ask anyone who works for the city and you will very likely get a response that they support the teachers.
Rahm fails at fixing Chicago’s food deserts.
He screwed up the parking meters.
Rahm raised nearly 30 million for this election, most of it from out of state contributions. Out of state funds aren’t from people investing in the city, they’re from Rahm’s buddy’s giving him cash.
Plus he was kicked off Obama’s cabinet. I think Michelle was right.
Hey, it’s an opinion. You don’t have to agree with it. No need to get snarky.
Who’s being snarky? Like I said, the way you’re using ‘goons,’ anyone attempting to use their political influence is a goon. That would presumably extend to trying to influence politicians by your vote, or by writing constituent letters to them. Hence, citizenry = thuggery.
That’s not an opinion, and it’s not snark. It’s an argument. You don’t have to agree, but disagreeing without dealing with the particulars of the argument is meaningless.
The strike was Karen Lewis and her massive ego picking a fight with Rahm to score political points. Lewis was obviously planting the seeds for a mayoral run before her recent illness.
I will just note the failure to actually respond to, let alone attempt a rebuttal of, the points that IG raises.