Posted on 05/22/2019 4:09:43 AM PDT by simpson96
There was that moment in her inauguration speech when Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot reduced politics to its base elements, the leveraging of public service for personal treasure.
You can call it the Chicago Way and pretend it’s unique to the city by the lake. But it’s also the Swamp in Washington, or whatever they call it in New Orleans, Baltimore or Los Angeles. It’s the same everywhere for the people who pay the costs of corruption.
“The family with the bungalow,” said Lightfoot, the former federal prosecutor. “The lady who runs the hair salon. The guy who owns the store on the corner …”
And I thought of my father and uncle, immigrant shopkeepers, and how hard they worked at our family store on the South Side, and how worried they were about Chicago’s City Hall and the city inspectors who just loved steak.
How do I know they loved steak? I was the little boy who filled up their shopping bags, with pound after pound of rib-eye steaks, red and juicy and flat and thick, while we at home ate the brown, older steaks that we couldn’t, wouldn’t sell.
“Thanks, Greek,” they’d say to my dad, with a smile, brushing past, smelling of cigarettes and aftershave.
I hated it then. And now, I hope Lightfoot succeeds.
Up on the stage the other day, she turned, faced the aldermen seated behind her and told them that their days of leveraging public service for cash were over.
“No official in the city of Chicago, elected or appointed, should ever profit from his or her office. Never. Ever.”
There were no dragons up on stage with her, breathing fire. But if you looked closely, you might have seen the dragons dancing in her eyes.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
“Anti-Corruption” in Chicago is sort of like what DeBlasio said, the money just needs to be in different hands.
That The Atlantic even gives him a place to peddle that stuff, without Rahm ever acknowledging that he was the elite mayor who sat on the Laquan McDonald police shooting video until his 2015 re-election was safe, speaks volumes about American journalism."
DiBlasio should know, his wife has been stealing the most money in New York City since Dinkins.
As usual Kass misses what really happened. The last election was simply the passing of the baton from one group of greedy hands to another. Things aren’t going to get better. In fact they’re going to get worse.
The baton has gone from the mostly center-left to the hard-left here. Oh, they aren’t a majority, not yet anyway. But there’s enough of them to make a huge difference.
And that does not bode well for the relatively normal folks who live and work in Chicago.
God help me I’m one of them.
L
Whatever they call it in L.A. It should be the La Brea Tarpit.
That's right: two convicted felons (corruption) one under federal investigation for corruption, and the rest some of the most known corrupt aldermen in the city of Chicago.
Nothing is going to change. Lightfoot is just bringing a new class of corruption with her.
Guess who's getting all the payoff's going forward? C'mon, it's so easy to see. Shocking that John Kass who's otherwise one of Chicago's most cynical reporters doesn't see it. He's way smarter than this most of the time.
Add congressman cummings and his wife (rockeymoore?) to that group.
“And that does not bode well for the relatively normal folks who live and work in Chicago...”
This “normal” person left Chicago in 1954.
This normal person works in River North.
I go armed every single day.
L
I HAD to work in the loop for 17 years. Took the CNW/Union Pacific metra northwest line everyday. That happy horse shit ended in 1996 long before illannoy CCL. But the filthy Chicago politicians made public trans (among many others) a no carry zone...as I’m sure you are aware. Can’t suck too much.
“I hated it then. And now, I hope Lightfoot succeeds.”
John Kass is a very proud Greek and about as decent and straight arrow as they come. He knows every wrinkle and wart of the filthy city and state. I think he is expressing cautious optimism while retaining profound cynicism.
Democrats are going to use the anti-corruption theme now. Nothing has changed, they’re still accusing others of what they’re guilty of doing.
Just means a new group wants to get in on the corruption.
“But the filthy Chicago politicians made public trans (among many others) a no carry zone...as I’m sure you are aware.“
Concealed means just that. If things go sideways I’ll gladly take my chances in front of a jury. That being said I rarely take public transportation anyway.
L
Based on all I have heard, since I’ve never lived in Illinois, most people living in that state would be tickled pink if Chicago caved off into Lake Michigan.
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