CTU Influence Waning?

Perhaps their stranglehold on Chicago politics is loosening?

• By advancing unsustainable financial demands, taking an ever larger share of tax revenues at the expense of city workers and systematically denying residents quality school choices, CTU support is plummeting

  The Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) defamation lawsuit against the Illinois Policy Institute and the Liberty Justice Center is evidence of a union in full panic mode as it attempts to silence its political opponents. The lawsuit follows a significant court ruling compelling discovery, which may finally force the union to open its books and account for years of delayed financial disclosures. It also comes as the CTU experiences a series of political defeats driven by its current leadership as its public support erodes and key labor relationships fray.

  The CTU has evolved into a hyper-political force with a broad agenda extending far beyond educating Chicago’s students. It deploys millions in member dues to back far-left political candidates and seek control over the Chicago Board of Education. As the Chicago Tribune editorial board correctly observed, the CTU attempts to have it both ways: Acting as the city's dominant political power broker while claiming immunity from public criticism under the guise of merely representing teachers.

Maybe it exposes financial improprieties? Like that luxury mansion in the Southwest that no one seems to know how or why it got purchased with union money? Maybe Davis Gates goes to prison soon and Conehead drops out of the election?

Go read it all. 

Contrarian Weighs In

They point out the Alexi "cringe" commercials aren't winning him fans:

• There’s one lesson Chicago’s insurgent left has taught the old political establishment extraordinarily well: Money can buy you an enormous amount of political advertising, but it cannot buy authenticity. Sometimes the more money you spend trying to manufacture authenticity, the more ridiculous you look.

  Which brings us to “Sexy Alexi” Giannoulias, our new poster child for the art of making yourself look like a fool at great expense. I have occasionally wondered whether his opposition is secretly funding his current ad campaign. Giannoulias enters the Chicago mayoral sweepstakes with the enormous advantages of money, name recognition, and the apparently unshakable conviction that the electorate has been waiting all these years for the second coming of Alexi Giannoulias.

  So what is he doing with all that? Making goofy TV commercials and social-media videos. It has gotten sufficiently embarrassing that even the Chicago Tribune editorial board — hardly a muckraker these days — called him out. Its August 23 editorial pleaded: “Enough with ‘Sexy Alexi.’” When the Tribune starts wondering whether a Chicago politician is making himself look ridiculous, the politician might want to listen.

Go read it all. 

What would be truly interesting would be if the FOP endorsed Giannouolias - that could tank his support with numerous groups.

Unfortunately, we have a feeling they're going to ambush Mendoza and give her an endorsement she isn't (yet) seeking to drive her out of the race. 

Conehead Out?

Conehead was talking about a big upcoming presser this month - is this it?

• Johnson told his chiefs of departments Monday that he is NOT running again. Announcing his intention next week and throwing his vote behind Alexi. Alexi will be with him at the press conference.

He polling as low as he ever has so this isn't a real surprise. Porkulous himself has refused to appear at public events with Conehead, he's that toxic.

But....

If Giannoulias is actually appearing with him for this announcement, does Conehead become an anchor around his campaign? Why would he appear with, let alone accept the endorsement of  the lowest polling mayor in history? Someone who is (A) a failure, (B) has zero accomplishments to his career and (C) is known as the tool of the CTU which has lost nearly as much support as mayor dumbass. 

Yeah, About that Casino Money

Looking less and less likely to ever appear:

• Bally’s has acknowledged its massive debt creates “substantial doubt about its ability to continue” over the next year, when the company is supposed to open its long-delayed Chicago casino complex in River West.

  The statement of “going concern” was included in Friday’s quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission from Bally’s, which says it “is pursuing a number of financing alternatives intended to enhance its liquidity, including asset monetization, an equity sale and debt financing.”

  The disclosure comes as Bally’s butts heads with City Council members who authorized video gambling terminals that the company says will eat away its revenue — providing fodder for Council members who argue that’s just an excuse to slow down a project Bally’s can’t afford to complete.

  Companies are required to issue going-concern warnings if there’s “substantial doubt” about their ability to avoid defaulting on debt over the next 12 months.

Every bad decision that could be made over this boondoggle wasn't simply made - it was embraced and sold to taxpayers as something it never was and almost never could possibly be.

Simply amazing. 

CTU Burning Bridges

The CTU is getting bad publicity nationwide lately:

• The Chicago Teachers Union’s cupidity in enriching itself, and the dismal results of Chicago’s public schools, have drained the public’s reservoir of goodwill. Among the reasons for the CTU’s downfall is a school named for someone who, as a slave, taught himself to read — a skill poorly imparted by Chicago teachers, when they teach.

  
  The indispensable Illinois Policy Institute says the Frederick Douglass Academy, whose 47 classrooms were built to accommodate 1,008 students, has 27. But the CTU has seen to it that it has 28 full-time staff. So, in the 2023-2024 school year, Douglass spent $93,000 per pupil.

  But Douglass is not entirely an outlier. At more than 50 Chicago schools, the percent of students who achieve math proficiency is 0. The 20 lowest-enrollment schools, spending $33,500 per student, have an 11 percent average reading proficiency. Students graduate unprepared for flourishing; the CTU thrives. The adjective “wicked” should be used sparingly in political discourse, but it fits the CTU’s ongoing child abuse.

This leaves aside the actual child sexual abuse running rampant in the CPS system.

The column also cites the Davis Gates hypocrisy of not educating her own child at CPS and the chronic absenteeism of almost half of the teachers.

We're still of the opinion that things haven't yet gotten bad enough for voters to make this a top issue though.

Hey Look....Journalism!

You can tell the Machine doesn't want Conehead running again because stories like this keep popping up as the bought-and-paid-for "media" is told to undermine him:

• When thousands of migrants started flooding Chicago from the Southern U.S. border four years ago, a new report shows a company was paid more than $78 million to do virtually nothing.

  As the migrants arrived, the city scrambled for shelter space and contractors to handle the humanitarian crisis.

  In 2023, NBC Chicago investigations uncovered out-of-control spending by City Hall. That was the first shoe to drop, when we found millions in taxpayer dollars going to contract relief workers in questionable paychecks.

  Now the other shoe has dropped, with a new state of Illinois Auditor General report finding contract employees paid millions of dollars to do no actual work.

This $78 million is on top of the $250 million spent on other ILLEGAL ALIEN expenses after Groot lost her re-election bid.....a quarter of a billion dollars that would be pretty helpful right about now.

There He Goes Again

Get ready to fill up your gas tanks!

• Chicago businessman Willie Wilson on Monday joined the race for mayor of Chicago — for the fourth time.

  Wilson announced this candidacy Monday evening at a gathering of several dozen supporters in East Garfield Park.

  “Everywhere I go, citizens ask me to represent the city of Chicago,” Wilson said. “I believe in Chicago and I believe you deserve a leader who wakes up every morning ready to serve.”

  He joins a crowded field that already includes several public officeholders — but does not officially include the man occupying the mayor’s office now.

So how much of this is the Machine trying to split up the voting blocks and engineering a runoff between two chose candidates?

Good Idea Maybe

From an aldercreature no less:

• Twelve Chicago aldermen are calling for changes to the city’s legal settlement policy after a CWBChicago report revealed that a man who received an $8 million wrongful-conviction settlement from the city has pleaded guilty to traveling to meet a 13-year-old.

  The aldermen made the request Thursday in a letter to Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry, explicitly citing CWBChicago’s report about Francisco Nanez, a 61-year-old who served decades in prison for a murder conviction that prosecutors moved to vacate.

  In their letter, the aldermen asked the Department of Law to change how approved settlements are distributed, requiring payments to be made in quarterly installments rather than lump sums. The proposal would also suspend payments to anyone arrested for a felony and void the settlement if the person is ultimately convicted.

Of course, this is another one of those "project innocence" cases where guilty people got Crooked Crimesha to refuse to re-try cases that were reversed over nonsense, made-up bullshit, lies and waiting for witnesses to die (or get paid off to recant.)

This murderer turned out to have a second career as a child molester that the City Council gave $8 million to over Crimesha's refusal to do her job.

Rats Abandoning Ship?

You can tell a failed administration by the number of people leaving high positions.

For example, Conehead's people:

• City Budget Director Annette Guzman resigned;
  Larritorious Snelling retired;
  CFO Jill Jaworski left;
  CFO Steven Mahr left;
  Deputy CFO Noor Shaikh left;
  Human Resources Dir. Sandra Blakemore left;
  Fleet and Facility Management’s Julia Hernandez-Tomlin left;
  Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Dorian Gatewood fired;
  Manny Whitfield-Director of Violence Prevention and Community Safety also fired.

A whole bunch of financial and money people in the mix. What do they know that isn't being said....or reported....by those "watchdogs" in the media?

Giannoulias Interview

We're told this is from an interview given by Giannoulias recently to Fran Spielman of all people (we don't have a link at the moment):

• “I would say it was dangerously irresponsible…this is on top of assuming another huge TIF surplus of nearly $600 million in the city, half of which would go to CPS. And instead of adopting the CPS CEO’s proposed budget, which included some staffing cuts, the CTU-linked members of the board jammed through this alternative budget, which avoids any hard choices about structural changes. That’s not leadership.”
  
  
  “And I believe that Springfield must be part of the solution to addressing CPS’s budget issues. And as mayor I will work with the board president to advocate for more funding. But we have to start with a more responsible budget.”
  
  
  “I think what was passed yesterday on potentially, glittery, possible revenues [was] not responsible. I want to tell you a fact as I’ve been talking to families. Since 2019 CPS enrollment has dropped by more than 40,000 students (361,000 to 316,000) even as staffing has increased by 10,000 (38,500 to 48,500). And the CPS budget deficit is as high, maybe even higher, than the city’s overall budget deficit. So you have to make tough decisions.”

The fact that someone is pointing this out is amazing in and of itself.

That the someone is running for office says this out loud shows that the CTU polling numbers must be in the gutter as people get more and more fed up with illiterate morons teaching (and graduating) illiterate morons in the midst of declining enrollment and staffing / tax increases

More money for a failing product.

But given Giannoulias's own series of failures and ability to "fail upward" don't make him the solution by any stretch. 

Machine Tool Enters the Race

He's declared for mayor:

• Taking aim at Mayor Brandon Johnson’s revolving door of senior leadership, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias joined the race for mayor Sunday, portraying himself as the coalition builder needed to solve Chicago’s enormous problems.

  Giannoulias enters the race as a presumed frontrunner with a political target on his back after raising $22 million from business leaders and building trade unions.

  At the risk of biting the hand that fed his campaign, Giannoulias vowed to support the millionaires tax that Johnson has also championed. 

He's also turned against the CTU (so you know they're going all in on Conehead), echoing many of the complaints we've had for decades....but that doesn't excuse his own sordid past. 

Remember, this is the Machine politician who:

• lost $150 million for Illinois Bright Start college funds via Oppenheimer investments;
• lent $20 million to convicted felons Michael Giorango and Demitri Stavropoulos;  
• help cost taxpayers $394 million when his family's Broadway Bank went under;
• has been granting Drivers Licenses to ILLEGAL ALIENS for years now....and registering them to vote;
• has based his early campaign commercials on defending ILLEGAL ALIENS from deportation

This ain't the guy. 

Aldercreature Neighbor?

The Contrarian had this on their social media feed the other day:

The reason this is concerning to 19th Ward people is surprising:

• the aldercreature lives almost directly across the street from this problem residence - literally the width of the street.

So the "ward leadership" is undoubtedly 100% aware of this problem building, the problem residents, and the issues that lead to 022 police resources being expended there on a weekly basis.

Are they political donors or something? 

No One Likes Conehead

And the polling numbers are reflecting it:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson has yet to announce if he'll seek re-election next year, but a new poll reveals he faces a tough road ahead if he does run for another term.

  The gold standard poll commissioned by the University of Chicago's Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation delivers an education on how poorly Chicagoans view Johnson, and the uphill climb he faces if he runs for re-election.

  The city that delivered him a victory in 2023 is delivering a starkly different message in the final year of his first term.

  The poll found just 13.6% of Chicagoans want Johnson to run again, and 58% of Chicagoans say they're not excited by another Johnson campaign.

  Johnson's job approval rating dropped to 23%, down from 25% in December.

And that 23% is a combination of "great job" and "okay job" numbers. His "great job" numbers have never climbed much higher than 6%.

The anointed one is burying Conehead in campaign dollar totals:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson spent nearly three times as much money as he raised in the second quarter of this year, and has just over $631,309 in the bank just two weeks before mayoral candidates start circulating their nominating petitions.

  Johnson already faced a huge fundraising disadvantage, having closed the first quarter of 2026 with $813,125 in campaign cash on hand — compared to $18.3 million for Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.

  Giannoulias, a prolific fundraiser, has continued to widen that gap. In the three-month period ending June 30, he took in about $3.65 million and spent about $106,000, leaving him with about $21.85 million in cash on hand, according to the quarterly fundraising report filed Wednesday.

  That gives him a roughly $21 million lead over Johnson.

No word on how many of those millions are from the taxpayer bailout of Broadway Bank, but hey, putting someone who used to run a failed bank in charge of a city that can't balance the books or keep taxpaying citizens and businesses in town....what could go wrong?

Seriously? $3.3 Billion?

Where did Conehead think he was going to get the money for this?

• Alderpeople learned Thursday that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration secretly offered about $3.3 billion last fall to reclaim control of the city’s parking meters — a whopping $800 million more than the next-highest bidder. 

  But the City Council members didn’t get those key details from the mayor, his aides or any other city officials. Instead, one of the investors set to buy the rights to the meters blurted out those figures after a city lawyer refused.

  During a hearing of the council’s finance committee, Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) asked the city attorney, Jim McDonald, how much the Johnson administration bid to buy back city control of the meter system. McDonald paused a moment and then said flatly that the bid information was subject to a confidentiality agreement the city had signed. So he wouldn’t answer.

  That’s when James Wyper jumped in and said he would. 

Conehead's people just pulled that number out of thin air, then agreed to some sort of "confidentiality agreement" that appears to have no legal basis or justification and also ended up being $800 million MORE than the eventual winning bid.

What with Conehead stealing a previously allocated $100 million the other day via a shady "executive order," one has to wonder how much more is being stolen and why there doesn't seem to be any meaningful oversight by the aldercreatures. 

This is Legal?

An "executive order" to redirect $100 million from some place that has already been allocated by the City Council?

• Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Thursday establishing the city's first Office of Gun Violence Reduction.

  He said it will strengthen efforts to prevent violence by coordinating resources across departments and focusing on communities most in need.

  Johnson, joined by community and religious leaders at City Hall, announced the new office as part of a broader push to address gun violence in a city that has recently seen a decline in murders. The initiative is intended to build on that progress by expanding prevention strategies and improving the delivery of services.

Where's the input from elected representatives? Hearings? An accounting of money?

• Johnson said the office will have 17 members, including representatives from CVI organizations, grassroots organizations, faith leaders, mental health professionals and philanthropic partners.

  The office is expected to publish monthly reports on possible progress of violence reduction investments and activities.

  "The establishment of OGVR represents a long-term commitment to building safer communities and addressing root causes of violence," said Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Andre, with the Mayor's Office of Community Safety.

Sounds like bullshit. And it sounds like a bunch of people - seventeen to be exact - might be drawing six-digit salaries without any input from aldercreatures.

More Bodies Expected

Porkulous and Conehead still using dead minorities for votes:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson is weighing in on the back-and-forth between Gov. JB Pritzker and President Donald Trump over how to handle crime in Chicago.

  The president posted to Truth Social overnight, saying: "Governor Pritzker, I, as President, can fix this, FAST and Permanently. D.C., Memphis, New Orleans, all down to record lows, and quickly! CALL ME!"

  This comes after a violent weekend in Chicago, where 39 people were shot, six of whom died.

  Trump asked why Pritzker isn't calling him for help. The governor responded to the president's comments, saying he doesn't think Trump has any idea how to protect the state of Illinois.

Except for those pesky statistics coming out of Washington DC where crime has hit 30-year-lows and the mayor (along with the chief of police) are actively praising the federal intervention.

And since it's Federal assistance, guess who isn't on the hook for all the associated costs?

• Chicago and Illinois tax payers

Fata$$ can't have Trump getting good headlines ahead of the mid-terms, so he's willing (and complicit) in the bodies stacking up all summer. 

Conehead is just waiting on his next break from reality in the rubber room at Northwestern.

Nice Weekend Conehead

According to HeyJackass.com:

• Final Demonized Tally: 7 killed, 36 wounded

CWB also covered it:

• The Father’s Day weekend in Chicago saw 43 people shot or killed citywide, a 105% increase from the same weekend last year, according to preliminary reports. The victim total likely remained below 50 because of rainy weather that moved into the area, as no shootings were reported after 6:15 a.m. Sunday.

  In another troubling benchmark, 27 people were shot across Chicago on Friday alone, the highest one-day shooting victim count since July 5, 2024, according to HeyJackass.com, an independent website that compiles and tracks Chicago crime statistics.

Even the Slum Times was obligated to mention it:

• A 14-year-old boy was among eight people killed over the long holiday weekend that saw nearly 40 others wounded, including 14 people shot during a Juneteenth celebration on the Far South Side.

So guess what Conehead was talking about?

 

Something that happens maybe two or three times a year, to people (or folks) who engage in certain unlawful and overly dangerous criminal activities that bring them into contact with (wait for it....) criminals.

Because if you ignore a problem, then you don't have to explain your failures to the media and therefore, the voters. 

Interesting Voting

So Aldercreature Lopez again tried to hold parents responsible for crimes committed by their kids:

• Three months ago, Southwest Side Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) tried to hold Chicago parents accountable for curfew violations, street racing, and drug, alcohol and firearms offenses committed by their children.

  His attempt to use parental responsibility to, as he put it, “create better parents” was shot down by a City Council committee — even after Lopez offered to entertain amendments that would have softened the potential legal blow to parents and legal guardians.

  The debate showcased the Council’s political divide. Conservative alderpersons, who are among the police union’s staunchest supporters, want to get tougher on crime. Democratic socialists and other progressives seem more, or at least equally, concerned about preserving individual rights.

Um, there is no "right" to commit crimes, take over streets, disobey traffic laws, etc. 

Here's a picture showing how each aldercreature voted (click for larger view):

 

 

A couple interesting votes there, especially in Wards where a large number of police, fire fighters and city workers live. Everyone knows why the commies and race-baiters voted no, but why did the others vote no? 

(we're looking at you O'Shea)

Vallas Roasts Rahm

The Contrarian article is quite the read:

• There he was. It was Rahm Emmanuel on national television attending a New York Knicks–San Antonio Spurs championship series game. The former Chicago mayor was sitting in floor seats of which the price ranges between $75,000–$135,000. Who knew he was a Knicks fan? It's convenient to have a super-agent brother who also happens to be securing you an interview on practically every mainstream cable show and podcast, lecturing us about how the Democratic Party has lost its way while presenting himself as its moderate voice of reason.

  I had been reluctant to write about Rahm, who in presidential preference polling is barely registering. Illinois’ other presidential hopeful — Governor JB Pritzker — is polling at just two percent. One gets the feeling the country is tiring from Illinois expatriates running the country. Not our best export. However, Emanuel took time out of his Don Quixote-like quest for the White House to stop in Chicago to meet with my biggest supporter to urge them not to support me making another run for mayor or a run for Chicago School Board president.

And after that, it's off to the races as Vallas pretty much roasts 9.5 for almost twenty paragraphs.

Fun times and a good reminder of what a tool Rahm always was.

Go read it all. 

Political Season Underway

The first big name announces her intent to run for Conehead's job:

• Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza officially launched her campaign to become the next mayor of Chicago on Wednesday.

  In her announcement, she said Chicago deserves more competence.

  She's the latest to join a crowded field of politicians looking to become the next leader to occupy City Hall's fifth floor.

  But she was the first to have an official launch party.

She's got a tough road ahead of her, and middle-of-the-road isn't quite going to cut it. She's going to have to go scorched earth against a few of the entrenched Machine candidates and appeal to the stay-at-home voters to come out in droves. Thirty-three percent turnout isn't her friend - that's the commies / progressives / CTU friends.