-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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This is the longest death rattle ever
Tried to cancel my digital edition of the Tribune but there’s nowhere to do it that I can see. Looks like I’ll have to actually call them. If you can’t cancel a subscription as easily as it is to sign up, don’t sign up.
Been there. If you subscribe with a credit card, they will automatically renew it, at the going rate. You do have to call to cancel or threaten to cancel. I’ve gotten it for $.99 for a year in the past, but I’ve been gone since the Guild tried to cancel Kass over Soros. As far as I can tell, all those Guild members are still there.
There is a vacuum in IL for a conservative local paper, but I know nobody will have the gumption at the Tribune to pursue that obvious, competition-free, money-making opportunity right under their noses.
Crypto/blockchain offer tools for truly merit-based entrepreneurial enterprises which reward success and punish failure…without the current corrupt practices of Illinois Political Class: heads-we-win-tails-you-lose (PC get the profits, taxpayer bailouts/secured public debt eats the losses).
Crypto utility tokens are the mechanism to reward participation in what ever use-case has been created.
In case of news media, utility token would be required medium of exchange by advertisers. Content creators would be paid in this token. Proof-of-stake would be the underlying infrastructure mechanism of reward.
Kass could easily rally a team of willing investors should he wish to go this route.
The sad fact remains. that there is no longer a conservative voice left in Chicago newspapers. The liberals have won and they will continue their brainwashing of the sheep.
None indeed – journalists not in the back pocket of the corrupt. No integrity or standards left.
Many know I am not a fan of Mr Kass.
The great people of Illinois have been failed by the media, including writers such as Mr Kass.
Always remember “he who pays the piper plays the tune”.
How can you imply that Kass is in the back pocket of the corrupt? He’s gone after Daley, Rahm, Lightfoot, Burke, etc., etc. He picked on Republicans like Thompson, Edgar, and Ryan (when Republicans were relevant). He called them the Combine, a totally inspired term. He admitted about being fooled by Bush and WMDs and also admits how Lightfoot used him and his disappointment in her. He’s the one person who tells you what’s really going on behind the headlines and facades, who hates who and who is backstabbing who.
The guy was a Tribune columnist for goodness’ sake. It’s a requirement for the job. At the end of the day, he’s still a journalist and none of them can be trusted.
I think she did a fantastic job. Many times she answered my email questions over the years. Now, (other than am 560), 100% of conservative media voices in Chicago area are at non-profits wp, ipi, tia. Scary
Kass and mcQueary are hypocritical RINO scum who let the machine run wild. Good riddance to the death of the Tribune.
That’s insane.
I completely agree with the previous 3 Comments, I haven’t lived in ILL since Dec ’72, and in the past 35 yrs have lived in the Peoples’ Republic of Maryland, with extreme, uber-Leftist, lying newspapers Baltimore Sun, WaPo and recently Annapolis Capital Gazette (mostly AWFUL AP articles) which I paid for one month and then I fired that rag. All 3 AWFUL. With respect to the Trib, these 2 writers Kass & McQueary seem quite the vanilla flavor of Republican, with not NEARLY enough harsh treatment of these Democrat scum who run/ran the city and state for decades. Harsh, accurate… Read more »
Apart from ever-present financial situation, not easily dismissed except by a mere observer, there’s the also ever-present situation: do what you can with a huge audience, satisfying and encouraging readers, or sock it to the owners/perpetrators by embracing a sort of martyrdom. FYI.
Kass and Mcqueary are no martyrs. They took all that Trib money for all those years. They should have seen the writing on the wall decades ago when Trib took a hard turn to the far left, yet, they chose to stay to the very end, and now, they got kicked to the curb. This is how it always ends when you’re a conservative taking money from your political enemies.
You’re ignoring the fact that McQuery left on her own. They refused to buy her out. So it’s to her credit that she left on her own terms.
That’s one way of looking at it; but I suspect that Alden fully expected and intended for her to quit after buying everyone else out except her. Neither party had any intention for McQuery to remain employed and Alden saved six figures in the process too. Kind of like in Office Space when they moved that stapler guy to the basement and gave him no work but he was too dumb to realize they wanted him to quit.
Kass says, in summary: support the Trib’s former editor, really, she’s a conservative behind enemy lines, and a nice person too!
This is nonsense, and the same for Kass. You chose to work for the enemy, a long time liberal rag with no moral compunction about destroying conservatives and democracy, and most of the time, actively contributed to it. Now you’re sad.
Too bad.
In many respects, it’s refreshing to see reality hit the Tribune smack in the face.
The Tribune left me 10 years ago, thank you.
Can’t quite see Alden’s plan. With the buyouts, whether it’s Kass or Zorn, they’re going to lose subscribers. Where or how do they think they’re getting new subscribers? There is the appearance of a sinking ship that may discourage advertisers.