"A federal judge scolds Illinois Democrats for trying to silence abortion foes.... Mr. Pritzker is gaining a reputation as a hard-left culture warrior who is happy to silence political opponents." Chicago Teachers Union contract demands are totally divorced from reality – Wirepoints
May 8, 2024
36 Comments
Details emerging about Chicago Teachers Union’s upcoming contract show just how divorced its demands, both extreme and expensive, are from the reality at Chicago schools. It’s not just about massive salary increases, but also about money for migrant students, climate initiatives, abortions and gender-affirming care. About blocking parental notification. Count on CTU’s demands to veer further from reality until the public finally says no.
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 5/4/2024.
Gov. JB Pritzker calls it “ethics” reform.
It’s rare to see city leaders in Chicago take an open, unabashed stance on the collapse of literacy. To complain is deemed as too political, too racist or too anti-public schools. So it’s refreshing to see Willie Wilson, a successful businessman and leader of the black community, call for a literacy initiative “with the goal of getting 100% of Black students reading at grade level.”
Any wording softer than a Communist is not fit for Pritzger and democrat legislators.
The saddest aspect of this is how few in the national press have written about it, which is to say nobody except WSJ and Fox. Even in Illinois, only the News-Gazette has written about it. The First Amendment used to be sacrosanct on both the left and the right and the media were its champions. “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein,”… Read more »
YEs and Pritzker has made his headlines that feed his Presidential aspirations. We can thank the media for the misinformation by ignoring it including the Trib, Sun Times and Cranes et al.
Anti-free speech and attacking the 1rst Amendment is part of the ‘litmus test’ for the DNC presidential nomination now – Obama effect.
This event should reinvigorate the appeal of an alternative method of delivery of medical care (direct pay). When doctors and nurses can have licenses revoked for even mentioning concerns about the abrogation of patient ‘informed-consent’ rights, when doctors are legally enabled to deny care to those who are not ((vaxxed), non-evidence-based) party-line adherents, when patients are forced to buy financial option contracts (“health care ‘insurance'”) without being informed of the underlying specifics nor the final actual purchase price and providers have licenses held hostage unless acquiescing to non-evidence-based arbitrary rules of provision… …that’s when patients and providers need to wrest… Read more »
There’s so much to take apart in your post. “The saddest aspect of this is how few in the national press have written about it, which is to say nobody except WSJ and Fox.” I can guarantee you that the Murdochs don’t care about free speech. They employ the symbolism and myths surrounding it as a vehicle to achieve a competitive advantage for the status quo. “The First Amendment used to be sacrosanct on both the left and the right and the media were its champions.” Although I wholeheartedly agree with the concept of free speech, I’m well aware that… Read more »
I can personally assure you that the WSJ editorial board cares about free speech, regardless of what you think about the Murdochs. As for the rest of your comment, I have no idea what you are talking about.
Free speech is simply a baseline that addresses government restrictions and government intervention. It doesn’t directly address the symbiotic censorship agreement between government and large corporations. Who cares if you have the right to post when some social media company can easily prevent others from seeing it? Any decent movement should address this and, in general, “free speech” activism does not.
We’re going to get clobbered if we can’t get beyond remedial communication theory or even address some of the more sophisticated techniques employed by communication technology companies.
Pritzker is salivating over the new European Union Digital Services Act.
The free speech movement is not addressing suppression of speech by social media? What planet are you on? Free speech supporters are screaming about that all the time, as we have here, and historic litigation on that is underway right now that has been widely reported. Most of corporate media does, however, suppress that news and debate.
Guv Pigchop wears a man girdle to keep his massive gut under control!!
Pugsley knows as much about the First Amendment as he does about portion control
I actually picture JB as more of a Spaulding sort of character.
“I want a hamburger… no, cheeseburger. I want a hot dog. I want a milkshake. I want potato chips. I want..”
“Fifty dollars says……”
You’ll get nothing and like it!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuNJq_wI1ns
I wonder how this all actually ‘works’ moving forward. Seems as if Raoul must be given an opportunity to appeal the temporary injunction. I wonder how long that process will take. An actual trial on the merits of the law’s constitutionality isn’t even going to be scheduled until after all of the temporary injunction rigamarole plays out. Seems like Kwame is reconciled to getting spanked every time he walks into this judge’s courtroom, so long as JB can continue whooping up his pro-abortion rhetoric-for-votes-n-influence in the media. I’m not sure that the law is so stupid that Raoul and JB… Read more »
The implication from the WP and WSJ articles, both excellent, is that Gov Pritzker and AG Raoul will continue to throw illegal censorship and anti-free speech crap laws against the wall looking for something that sticks. This is the Marxist M.O.
Goodgulf, Raoul can either appeal the injunction now or he could ask for a rehearing. Otherwise, the injunction will stay in place until a full trial. This is part of a bigger trend of progressives here and nationally putting up unconstitutional laws as a means of showboating their “values,” which include an effort to deligitimize the US Supreme Court. So, you may be right that Kwame would be happy to lose again. If he does not choose that route, another option would be to amend the law, which they could probably do this fall in the veto session, but they… Read more »
It’ll turn into another “Migrants can be cops” moment. An Illinois law that’s against the law, and therefore pointless, but which looks good in The Washington Post and Mother Earth News, and the Protesturnical Gay Galuthmpian Daily Bugle.
This goes beyond virtue signaling. They’re passing these laws hoping one sticks, like someone said above. They find friendly judges and continue on from there, and redraw judicial boundaries to elect progressive judges. The constitution is merely a piece of paper for the progressive. It means nothing to them.
Along the same lines, Pritzker has signed the anti-doxing bill that, as we wrote here, should be invalidated under the First Amendment. https://wirepoints.org/anti-doxing-bill-passed-by-illinois-general-assembly-will-punish-legitimate-advocacy-and-stifle-constitutionally-protected-speech-wirepoints/
Here is an article from Mercola on mis-disinformation and censorship of free speech.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/08/14/censorship-controversy-ccdh-lawsuit.aspx
PDF the article which is in the center if you are interested. His articles are gone in 48 hours.
Excellent piece by the WSJ – this anti-1rst Amendment focus of Democrats is a very big deal. The Founders intended free speech to be the corner stone of our Republic.
The Far Left and the Far Right are more alike than not. Their statist policies are so unworkable that they both resort to force to compel other citizens to say and do as they want. Fortunately, unlike tyrants elsewhere, Pritzker and Raoul cannot imprison Illinoisians who are free to leave the state and their misrule.
JB absolutely believes in free speech, but only if he’s doing the talking.
Its hard to understand what Guv Pigchop is saying when his mouth is full of a XL Genos stuffed pizza pie!!