-- 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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I find Chase’s insistence on referring to Irvin as a ‘boy’ and ‘Griffin’s house boy’ extremely offensive.
Chase … if you have valid points to make, make them without the pejorative references to Mayor Irvin.
I thought that too but realized it’s 100% true. So I downvoted you. Irvin is a tool and has 0% chance of winning.
Who, in your opinion, has more than a 0% chance of winning against Pritzker in November?
Mike Ditka. Maybe some sort of famous conservative athlete that could be a good cross over the way Hershel Walker is doing it in ATL. That’s about it. There are no home grown GOP candidates worth a dam in IL.
There are no home grown GOP candidates worth a dam in IL.
Agreed 100%.
BUT I still want to take advantage of the red wave in Nov. and Irvin, a red-pilled Democrat, might be our guy.
He doesn’t generate any excitement. The fact that he’s black won’t get any minority votes, in fact it could be looked at as a pandering, cheap stunt and repel minority votes. Regardless, we redomiciled to FL so we really font give dam anymore. Each day that goes by here we just laugh at IL. a little more. We are actually dreading going back, never thought that would happen but having to see our dipsh*t liberal neighbors, the potholes, the traffic and disfunction is depressing to think about.
Not sure what else you call someone as bought and paid for as this tool is.
The state of IL is ripe for political revolution and the best the R party can do is put a BLM pandering leftist in as canidate? Il is beyond fu*ked. It’s basically a leftist walled garden at this point. I wouldnt doubt if Kenny G is really a closet leftist / globalist just playing his role to keep that sweet Fed paper printer going BRRRRRRR.
If stupid, retarded Republicans nominate Ken Griffin’s house boy I’ll make sure not to vote for any of their down ballot candidates. Screw them.
It’s sad that people are making the argument that Republicans must nominate a Democrat. Why not just join the communists and influence them from the inside at that point?
The three most popular Republican governors in the country are in Blue States. All three are RINOs but they’re popular with both parties, they win elections, and they’ve stopped a lot of the progressive nonsense.
You can either live in fantasy world where we are a red state, or, you can live in reality, and hope that we can elected a Republican that is popular with independents and republicans, and wins an election.
I live in reality, where do you live?
You’re logic is again flawed. Below you admitted the boy is a Democrat. You’re not even living in your own reality.
So the only thing stopping you from supporting Jabba is party affiliation. If he changed party affiliation tomorrow you’d declare victory.
Hey – how did electing Democrat Bruce Rauner work out for the GOP? How did his popularity end up?
And you want to try it all over again, but this guy doesn’t even have his own money and has a record supporting the Khmer Noir.
Great.
Irvin’s not out there calling himself a progressive. Jabba is a progressive. That’s the difference. Rauner was an amazing success compared to Jb. Rauner didn’t get rid of cash bail, Rauner didn’t sign abortion legislation making us the most abortion friendly place in the midwest (yes, yes, i know what youre going to say) and Rauner vetoed all the worst progressive bills. Right now, we as a state are so desparate for someone, anyone to just make it stop, just make the progressive nonsense stop, we’re willing to vote for a Democrat running as a Republican. Yes, it’s a sad… Read more »
Wait – Rauner didn’t make abortion more liberal in Illinois? Rauner didn’t make it a sanctuary state?
Not only do you not live in reality you are rewriting real history.
Rauner did not make it a sanctuary state:
https://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2018/10/rauner-i-will-never-let-illinois-be-a-sanctuary-state-period.html
Rauner did make abortion more liberal, and that was a mistake. But on a scale of 1 to 10, his medicaid bill was a 3 or 4. The bill that passed by Rep. Kelly “Moloch” Cassidy was like a 10/10 plus some.
But tell me, would you rather have had Rauner or Quinn in 2014?
This is about managed decline for IL. Nothing else.
Understand your position. But just know when BLM came to Aurora, Irvin told his police department to stand down. A relative on the police has was pelted with debris. The downtown rampaged.
This is the “tough on crime, law and order candidate”.
The pro-mask, pro-BLM republican. That’s what you’re getting.
I know, I know. But he’s got a billionaire committed to spending nine figures for his campaign. I really wish Griffin would have picked somebody else.
I’m sure all they have in common is complexion and being mayors of cities in IL.
Yes, he’s probably a Democrat. But he’s the horse that could win the R primary and he’ll need to court independent moderate voters. We live in IL for goodness sakes. There aren’t many but they’re persuadable and they will swing the election one way or another. None of the other R candidates have the smoothness or gravitas as this guy does. Yes, I would love a Rabine or a Bailey. But they won’t get independents’ vote. Like I said below, liberal states like MA, VT and MD have REPUBLICAN governors and they’re very popular. In fact, they are the 3… Read more »
If you are getting behind a Democrat who is the only horse that can win the Republican primary you no longer have a party. It’s like when Mike Madigan would put his own “Republicans” on the ballot as his opponents. Only now supposed Republicans are actually excited about the Democrats stealing their nomination.
If Griffin’s house Boy steals the Republican nomination it will be 1000% because of Griffin’s generous gift to his boy.
Why would Griffin continue to fund his boy once he’s accomplished his goal of dispatching Jabba? Especially for federal office when he can only donate the federal maximum?
This is terribly flawed logic, bordering on a religious faith in Ken Griffin and his Boy.
No serious person believes that Bailey, Rabine, Sullivan can win in a general election against billion JB fatsters $300,000,000 campaign budget. They’re all good candidates but we need someone who has the $$$. the logic here is the three most popular governors in the country are RINOs in Blue deep states. Vermont!!!! has a Republican governor and he’s one of the top three most popular governors in the country primarily because of support from independents. I’m not political genius, but this seems to be a winning formula that Griffin is trying to follow. Griffin doesn’t need to support him in… Read more »
But since the boy Griffin is backing was a Democrat until a couple of weeks ago the only thing stopping you from supporting Jabba is party affiliation. Jabba should just declare himself a Republican and you would declare victory.
It would be one thing if the Boy from Aurora had spent years as a RINO but he was an actual Democrat until early 2022 and you’re declaring victory.
Again, terrible, terrible logic. If you just want to win back Jabba and be done with it.
I’m not going to immediately discount Griffin’s promised nine-figure investment. I too wish it hasn’t come to this. I really wish it hadn’t. But it has. And Griffin is throwing nine figures at a Democrat to win the Republican election. But every other option inevitably results with JB Pritzker as a second term and doubling down on progressive policies. It’s a miserable place we are in. It sucks. But to discount the position our state election is in is to admit defeat to JB. And I’m not willing to do that quite yet, at least while our neighboring states real… Read more »
Prediction. Irvin will not stop the bleeding. Not even a little.
The time for half measures is over.
Anybody but Pritzker.
Yes. 100%. Irvin won’t be our savior but he’ll stop the bleeding, maybe move the pendulum a little bit back to the right. In a few years, after a successful Irvin run for Senator, we can hopefully elect a conservative with more bonafides. But it’s taken us a generation of Democrats to degrade to this point and it’s going to take a generation to bring us back, if that’s possible. There’s a couple of RINO Govenors in blue states – Youngkin being the most well know, but Hogan in Maryland, and even Vermont!! has a Republican Gov. and they’re all… Read more »
Why would a Democrat move the pendulum right?
Why should Republicans then degrade themselves even more by attempting to elect Ken Griffin’s house boy to the senate in a few years?
Also, if Ken Griffin’s goal is to get rid of Jabba, why would he continue to give his boy tens of millions of dollars after he has accomplished his goal?
The logic here is extremely flawed, bordering on pseudo religious faith.
You keep calling him a Democrat but Irvin’s running on the Republican ticket with the backing of one of the biggest Republican donors in the country, a donor who is in a juvenile peeing match with his old money nemesis and willing to spend nine figures to win. This is far cry from Madigan putting his stooge on the Republican ticket. As for a Democrat moving the pendulum right, have you seen how far left the Progressives have taken the Democrat party? As a life long conservative in IL, I’ll take ANY generic Democrat over today’s progressive! Generic Democrats are… Read more »
Below you yourself said he was a Democrat. He voted Democrat in every primary.
What would make one a Democrat if your own definition, plus his history doesn’t make him a Democrat?
What standard prevents Jabba or the Madigan of the world from declaring themselves to be Republican?
What has the Democrat from Aurora said that would indicate any daylight between himself and the most liberal abortion laws in America? Does his support for BLM indicate he would disagree with no bail? Since another Democrat turned fake Republican gave us sanctuary state, do you really think this Democrat turned fake Republican would turn it around? What in his record would indicate he would oppose sexualizing Kindergarteners?
Why would you want to put your fingerprints all over black, thinner Pritzker?
Because I know what Pritzker has done. He’s a social justice warrior hell bent on destroying what’s left of a once great state. Why do I like some Democrats more than others? Well let’s see, do I feel Joe Manchin is worlds better than AOC? Hell yes. You feel Irvin is the same as Pritzker, then vote for the disaster that is well on his way to destroying Illinois. I’ll take a chance on the only guy in the race who can beat him. Because whoever you are backing in the Republican primary can’t beat Pritzker.
I’m not going to vote for either one. They both support the Khmer Noir, abortion, gun grabbing.
Hey Lisa Madigan could beat him. Maybe you should recruit her to change her party affiliation. We obviously don’t care about standards or policies anymore.
The three most popular governors in the entire country are Republicans in deep blue states because have more moderate views and great policies that win over independents. While I completely understand your point, I do really, and I don’t blame you for your beliefs (assuming you aren’t one of the other candidates or a social media campaign manager sowing discontent here!) but IL needs one of those moderate Republican candidates. All of the candidates met with Griffin, they all had the chance to plead their case why they should get the nine-figure backing, and Griffin’s guy was Irvin. The rest… Read more »
We aren’t even talking about a RINO. This is the Madigan strategy at the statewide level. Take an actual Democrat, call him a Republican, and put him on the ticket opposing you.
I hope the down ballot races end up in a blood bath with this suicidal strategy.
Out of morbid curiosity what position has the Boy from Aurora taken that would indicate a slight move to the right? BLM support? Abortion? Anything else? Which one?
Please you are D throwing out questionable language. It does not matter who the gov is if the whole legislature is D.
The gov has veto power and executive orders. It’s not much but it’s a start. JB has been a rubber stamp for nearly every progressive dream bill.
All of them. There’s hardly a governor in the nation further to the left than Pritzker. But here’s the thing: In November, no one is courting your vote. They know you’ll vote for anyone other than JB. That’s me too. That’s the conservative 40-45% of the state. Irvin needs to win independents who think JB went too far with his progressive agenda. There aren’t many of them but they live in places like Lake, Dupage and Kane counties. They like Irvin and maybe they like him just a little more than JB. Their polling I’m sure says there are enough… Read more »