NSR: CHICAGO Political Thread ***HIGHLY TOXIC - ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK***

I’m really curious about the situation but haven’t ready enough to understand. I know Lori dumped some debt on CPS and they’re not happy but that’s about all I’ve got so far.

 

Even with Brandon's hand picked stooges on the board replacing the previous hand picked stooges on the board, CTU will have a hard time getting their deal approved by the city council If that fails they will try to hold the city hostage, and ultimately the State Of Illinois. If the $1.5 billion bond issue gets approved just to give the CTU a blank check it will be an even worse deal for the city than the parking meters and Skyway.

 

About a billion dollars of debt needs to be refinanced. That much can be done at more favorable rates. That would be a win. Most of the extra $500 million will go to the CTU and "other" uses. Going that far would be a loss. Bond rating agencies aren't stupid and City Of Chicago are rated junk, or nearly so.

 

I say if the city doesn’t give CTU the money then pull virtually all non-discretionary money out of the rich, white, northside and fund the black and brown schools for the next 50 years. Something like only 2% of all primarily black schools in Chicago have a librarian. Take every single extracurricular dedicated dollar away from whitey to fund librarians for the next 50 years.

 

In a perfect world the city wouldn't have to pay hundreds of millions in police misconduct settlements either. And if you pull all the non-discretionary money from the rich northside it won't be rich for anyone of any color to pull money out of any more. Figure out how to boost the city's tax base then you can fund everything the way it should be funded. Borrowing money to pay operating expenses will bankrupt the city sooner than later.

 

That’s not an excuse to continue to squeeze the poor parts of the city.

 

Absolutely!

It's not an excuse, just a likely outcome if you make a desirable area less desirable.

 

The funding of public schools districts being based on local property taxes, across the entire state and nation, is the cornerstone of what is wrong with public school funding.

 

Of course. And like any tax, property taxes should be progressive.

 

Our entire way of life is dependent on exploiting people in other countries leaving them penniless. Watching this video interviewing the Polish president or whatever and it just breaks my heart how desperate some people are to get into the West. I kinda like having shawarma on the corner. Can't we just figure something out? Like send me to Nebraska?

 

A year ago tomorrow things escalated in a bad way.



I found this passage fascinating:

Followed by:

It appears the major players outside of Iran want Israel to defeat Iran for them even at the expense of Palestinians and Lebanese.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/05/israel-gaza-hamas-oct-7-terrorist-attacks-war/

 

disgusting and cruel

 

Welcome to war.

 

who has declared war on whom?

and that doesn't absolve anyone of committing war crimes

and we should stop financing war criminals immediately

 

I don’t think war needs to be declared. Some people use euphemisms like “Special military operation” and the like.

If we stop funding “war criminals” are you saying we should end humanitarian aid to Palestinians because of what happened one year ago tomorrow?

 

yes, we should stop providing direct aid to Hamas

i'd be pretty upset if my tax dollars were being used for military aid to Hamas

 

"Declaration" of war is almost always a function of the legislature, but has little bearing on the activities of the militaries involved in the conflict.

Except for suspension of certain rights and almost unlimited funding of the military activities, the Declaration is not relevant.

What "direct aid to Hamas" is the US providing?

 

none

which is why bunge's gotcha -- conflating humanitarian aid to Palestine with military weapons to Israel (using US tax dollars to buy US weapons to give to IDF) -- is dumb

 

I didn't see that as a gotcha, especially as that has been specifically proposed by members of Congress and other officials.

 

proposing what?

withholding aid from Palestinians and Israel both because they're both war criminals?

it’s a false equivalence between military aid and humanitarian aid

im fine with my tax dollars going toward humanitarian aid for Israelis in spite of their leaders and military endeavors — I don’t have any sense that humanitarian aid is greatly needed in Israel though

 

Because Hamas uses residential areas and the people within as human shields it’s virtually impossible to distinguish between aid to civilians and aid to Hamas.

 

okay but we’re sending weapons to one group and food to another

if Hamas is feeding themselves with US aid then so be it

again, conflation of types of aid here

 

The proposal as far as I recall was just to end all funding to Palestine*, not end funding of the Israeli military.


* Because some of the funding 'might' go to Hamas and Islamophobia.

 

I have tried desperately to avoid conversations about that conflict as 1) I have no answers and 2) both sides are very, very wrong, but both have every right to live peacefully.

Unfortunately, idiotic religious animosity and historic hatred clouds both sides.

If we stop funding Palestine, they will largely be wiped out in a matter of weeks/months (or it will become an even bigger proxy "war" with Iran).

If we stop funding Israel, it will be wiped out within a few years...and/or there will be a nuclear war first (I know, Israel "doesn't" have nukes... officially).