I'm for recall for any reason, but make the numbers needed on petitions higher than what's currently used in California. That's due to the insane & useless attempt to recall Governor Gavin Newsom there a few years ago & believe it or not, there's now another budding attempt to recall him!
As for Brandon Johnson, this Jewish atheist believes he's an anti-Semite & also flat out knows he's utterly incompetent as mayor & will never grow into the job, mainly because he doesn't make any decisions, but just takes his marching orders from the lunatics that run the vile out of control Chicago Teachers Union. His unwillingness to go along with just about everyone's demands that the also incompetent CTA boss Dorval Carter be fired are absurd, as it's obvious he just doesn't want to fire a black man, as for some reason he thinks it will hurt him politically with black voters. But all CTA riders, of which I am one, are fed up with the rottenness of the service & the fact that riding the L is simply dangerous, due to out of control crime on the trains & stations. Carter has no idea of what he's doing, he's lost at sea, without any way to fix the mess the CTA is in. The CTA's financial problems are not his fault, other than the fact that the other problems are & that contributes to the loss of passengers, which cuts the CTA's revenue, which is low as it is without help form the state & feds.
Whether it is Johnson pushing for the city council resolution, protesters blocking O'Hare, or the mess at Columbia University (and soon to be the Democratic Convention) is that no one in the United States has the power to enact a cease fire in Gaza, which is their demand. Even Biden only has tangental influence with Netanyahu. The signs and protests should at least demand what can actually be accomplished by US leaders, such as limiting arms shipments. This infatuation by the far left with these barbaric and terrorist regimes is another mystery, since they are anti-democratic and treat women and LGBT people horribly. Besides increasing antisemitism here in the US, this unrest will only serve to help get Trump elected, which will bring more far right policies to the US.
I agree with the no recall. Johnson should get his 4 years. For those who are dissatisfied with the the results and voted for him, too bad. Use your brain next time. I don't believe he was hiding anything. For those who voted for him you're pretty much getting what was advertised. Plus, he could have a great next three years, you never know.
If incompetence were a reason to recall any elected official, I'd vote to recall the entire US Congress Republican caucus, but then we have a means to do that. I believe it's called an election in which every adult citizen has a right to vote. It seems ironic in a country with such low voting rates, people get their underwear in a knot about a recall. As Zorn says with scorn, it puts more power into the hands of special interest and single issue voters.
With all due respect to David L., with whom I have had several informative discussions, he ruins his argument by calling it a "leftist" march. What does leftist have to do with it? The right also marches when protesting abortion, the election of Joe Biden, or the March on the Capitol. There is no "left" in antisemitism. I have been a Jew all my life. I can't remember a time when we weren't scorned as the killers of Jesus. The sudden outpouring of support from the right for Israel is not a declaration of love for Jews. It is support for Israel, which is a different matter. It is about politics and as much about anti- Muslim bias as it is support for Israel. When you get right down to it, when have most Americans supported Israel since 1948? When did they care one way or another? The politicians have played their games on the world stage because of Israel's strategic position on the world map and they support us. But don't confuse that with love for Jews. I don't see any movements in the near future toward establishing any special holidays honoring Jews or an entire month of worship as done for other segments of society. So there is no leftist antisemitic march. Marches are performed by both sides we must distinguish between antisemitic and anti- Israel.
Liked all of the VTotWs this week - except for the stale visual Dad Joke.
I am not as certain as certain as you that recalling elective officials is off-base - if the bar to recall someone is sufficiently high. I remember the Sandra Bland case - and being outraged at the conduct of the arresting officer when the arrest footage came out.
I think that human compassion should know no skin color. The Palestinians in Gaza do not deserve to die, be crippled for life, or to starve because their murderous and fanatical government (elected 17 years ago, when many of the dead, crippled, and starving were either not yet born or had no vote) committed a vile atrocity. What is happenening to the Gazans and to the innocent dead and crippled in Ukraine deserves our compassion and help, just as do the innocent murdered Israelis and the Palestinians in the West Bank murdered by "settlers."
I don't think that Johnson will grow into the job. He was totally unprepared for the job and in my opinion thought that it was like his county board job; an endeavor where he would get marching orders from the top which could be the role that CTU now fills. Many of the competent people he had around him are gone and (as stated here) won't fire the head of the CTA so he doesn't offend his base. He is dismissive of the media, is uncollaborative and frankly he is just a horrible leader. Given all that I don't like the re-call idea either, though yes for criminal conduct. Anyone who voted for him did NO research and for those people, quit beefing. You have the mayor you wanted.
re Mayor Johnson & recall - EZ and i agree he's had a mediocre 1st yr on the job ['doesn’t seem ready for the job and isn’t inspiring confidence'; 'platitudinous and opaque'], and that neverhteless he shouldn't be subject to a recall vote, we disagree on his prospects for the future.
not only am i unhopeful that he'll grow into the job - i think it's more likely his performance will deteriorate. let's see how he handles the CTU negotiations, and to what extent his policies have an impact [if any] on reducing crime, especially violent crime. nothing he's done or said on the job so far bodes well for favorable outcomes/progress on these 2 of his most significant responsibilities.
Sorry, but I must continue to disagree with you about Mayor Johnson’s pro-Ceasefire vote. Maybe he thought a pause in hostilities would allow aid to get in? Weak argument. That’s not what he voted on. He voted on a resolution explicitly calling for a ceasefire that implies Israel should unilaterally stand down. It did not acknowledge that Hamas, in fact, violated a long-standing ceasefire on Oct 7 and has publicly stated its intention to do so again and again. It did not acknowledge that Hamas has refused every single ceasefire offer since the short “pause” months ago. No, the mayor voted in favor of a measure that is a long-coordinated effort to discredit Israel, and is now an implicit indictment against Jews everywhere. If he did not fully understand that, he is not excused.
Sandra Bland's traffic stop was not "totally bogus". She blatantly ran a stop sign right in front of the DPS officer who subsequently arrested her. If you look at the entirety of the dash-cam video of the incident, which I have seen more than once on the internet, you will see that it starts at the end of a traffic stop in which the officer (Brian Encinia) gives the driver a warning, admonishes the driver to drive safely, and walks back to his vehicle. The dashboard camera is running because of the previous traffic stop. Before the officer turns it off, you see a grayish car on the far left of the screen make a right turn onto University Boulevard without stopping or slowing down. You don't see a stop sign, although you would expect a stop sign to be present at that type of intersection. The policeman immediately makes a U-turn, and when the camera swings around, you see the stop sign. The policeman begins to speed up and gets closer and closer to the grayish car. Both cars go through a traffic signal (green light) and then the gray car pulls over. The driver is, of course, Sandra Bland.
For reasons that have never been explained, the policeman immediately tells the driver that she has been pulled over because the changed lanes without giving a signal. If the agenda of some journalist is to foment hatred of police, he has everything he needs right out of the policeman's mouth. The nice black woman was pulled over by the mean racist white policeman (probably Hispanic, but that's a detail that needn't be dwelled upon) for a nothing offense that nobody else is pulled over for. However, if you bother to look at the video, it is obvious that what brought her to his attention and caused him to pull her over was the fact that she ran a stop sign, a relatively serious offense. I got a ticket once for running a stop sign in a technical way.
The policeman did not handle the interaction well. Neither did Sandra Bland. Since he could have given her a citation for a relatively serious offense but, in fact, gave her a warning for a relatively minor offense, she didn't have too much basis to complain. As a taxpayer in Texas, I have a basis to complain. In an ideal world, drivers obey traffic laws because that's what good citizens do. But we don't live in an ideal world. To induce drivers to obey the traffic laws, you have to have some system of punishments for violators, and that's why we pay traffic police to issue citations. If you stop someone for running a stop sign but tell them that they were stopped for some other reason, I don't think you are doing your job very well.
As for the media, it is reported ubiquitously and uniformly that Sandra Bland was pulled over for the trivial offense of not signaling a lane change as she pulled over to the side of the road to stop. Is that dishonesty or incompetence? I don't know. Did reporters never bother to look at the video, or did they choose to ignore it? I don't know.
A letter to the editor of the Houston Chronicle a week or so after Sandra Bland killed herself was a dramatic example of the use of the incident to promote the idea of ubiquitous racism in policing. A middle-aged white woman writes about a conversation with her elderly mother. The mother asks, "Why was that Bland woman in Prairie View pulled over?" The daughter says that she changed lanes without giving a signal. The mother says, "I didn't know you were supposed to give a signal. I never do. Why haven't I been pulled over?" The stage is now set. The daughter replies, "You weren't pulled over because you are white."
Prairie View is a historically black town. If a policeman has an interaction with a civilian in Prairie View, there is a high probability that the civilian will be black. Would it be better not to enforce traffic laws in Prairie View?
As for why Sandra Bland committed suicide, there is a fascinating article in probably the Atlantic (probably 18 Dec 2018 by Jordayne Blaise) about her life, which starts out saying something like, "If you want to understand what happened to Sandra Bland, you need to understand Sandra Bland." The article is no longer available without a subscription. She was badly in need of a job. She had had a job with a small company in or near Chicago which was a niche manufacturer of special plates, spoons, etc. used in prisons. The Black Lives Matter movement convinced her that she could not in good conscience work for such a company. She quit the job and was not successful in finding another one. A friend suggested that she look in Prairie View, where she had gone to college. She drove all night from Chicago, went to the friend's house, took a shower, and went for the job interview. She got the job (temporary, but a job). Within a few hours, instead of preparing for the new job, she is in the Waller Co. jail, and her relatives in Chicago don't seem particularly keen to come with bail money. Once again, she has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Did Sandra Bland commit suicide? I have my doubts...
I'm for recall for any reason, but make the numbers needed on petitions higher than what's currently used in California. That's due to the insane & useless attempt to recall Governor Gavin Newsom there a few years ago & believe it or not, there's now another budding attempt to recall him!
As for Brandon Johnson, this Jewish atheist believes he's an anti-Semite & also flat out knows he's utterly incompetent as mayor & will never grow into the job, mainly because he doesn't make any decisions, but just takes his marching orders from the lunatics that run the vile out of control Chicago Teachers Union. His unwillingness to go along with just about everyone's demands that the also incompetent CTA boss Dorval Carter be fired are absurd, as it's obvious he just doesn't want to fire a black man, as for some reason he thinks it will hurt him politically with black voters. But all CTA riders, of which I am one, are fed up with the rottenness of the service & the fact that riding the L is simply dangerous, due to out of control crime on the trains & stations. Carter has no idea of what he's doing, he's lost at sea, without any way to fix the mess the CTA is in. The CTA's financial problems are not his fault, other than the fact that the other problems are & that contributes to the loss of passengers, which cuts the CTA's revenue, which is low as it is without help form the state & feds.
Eric, your wit and analysis make my day. Do persevere!
Whether it is Johnson pushing for the city council resolution, protesters blocking O'Hare, or the mess at Columbia University (and soon to be the Democratic Convention) is that no one in the United States has the power to enact a cease fire in Gaza, which is their demand. Even Biden only has tangental influence with Netanyahu. The signs and protests should at least demand what can actually be accomplished by US leaders, such as limiting arms shipments. This infatuation by the far left with these barbaric and terrorist regimes is another mystery, since they are anti-democratic and treat women and LGBT people horribly. Besides increasing antisemitism here in the US, this unrest will only serve to help get Trump elected, which will bring more far right policies to the US.
I agree with the no recall. Johnson should get his 4 years. For those who are dissatisfied with the the results and voted for him, too bad. Use your brain next time. I don't believe he was hiding anything. For those who voted for him you're pretty much getting what was advertised. Plus, he could have a great next three years, you never know.
Aside from criminal activity, I say as voters that we made our bed, we have to lie in it. No recalls except for criminal activity.
If incompetence were a reason to recall any elected official, I'd vote to recall the entire US Congress Republican caucus, but then we have a means to do that. I believe it's called an election in which every adult citizen has a right to vote. It seems ironic in a country with such low voting rates, people get their underwear in a knot about a recall. As Zorn says with scorn, it puts more power into the hands of special interest and single issue voters.
With all due respect to David L., with whom I have had several informative discussions, he ruins his argument by calling it a "leftist" march. What does leftist have to do with it? The right also marches when protesting abortion, the election of Joe Biden, or the March on the Capitol. There is no "left" in antisemitism. I have been a Jew all my life. I can't remember a time when we weren't scorned as the killers of Jesus. The sudden outpouring of support from the right for Israel is not a declaration of love for Jews. It is support for Israel, which is a different matter. It is about politics and as much about anti- Muslim bias as it is support for Israel. When you get right down to it, when have most Americans supported Israel since 1948? When did they care one way or another? The politicians have played their games on the world stage because of Israel's strategic position on the world map and they support us. But don't confuse that with love for Jews. I don't see any movements in the near future toward establishing any special holidays honoring Jews or an entire month of worship as done for other segments of society. So there is no leftist antisemitic march. Marches are performed by both sides we must distinguish between antisemitic and anti- Israel.
EZ -
Liked all of the VTotWs this week - except for the stale visual Dad Joke.
I am not as certain as certain as you that recalling elective officials is off-base - if the bar to recall someone is sufficiently high. I remember the Sandra Bland case - and being outraged at the conduct of the arresting officer when the arrest footage came out.
I think that human compassion should know no skin color. The Palestinians in Gaza do not deserve to die, be crippled for life, or to starve because their murderous and fanatical government (elected 17 years ago, when many of the dead, crippled, and starving were either not yet born or had no vote) committed a vile atrocity. What is happenening to the Gazans and to the innocent dead and crippled in Ukraine deserves our compassion and help, just as do the innocent murdered Israelis and the Palestinians in the West Bank murdered by "settlers."
I don't think that Johnson will grow into the job. He was totally unprepared for the job and in my opinion thought that it was like his county board job; an endeavor where he would get marching orders from the top which could be the role that CTU now fills. Many of the competent people he had around him are gone and (as stated here) won't fire the head of the CTA so he doesn't offend his base. He is dismissive of the media, is uncollaborative and frankly he is just a horrible leader. Given all that I don't like the re-call idea either, though yes for criminal conduct. Anyone who voted for him did NO research and for those people, quit beefing. You have the mayor you wanted.
re Mayor Johnson & recall - EZ and i agree he's had a mediocre 1st yr on the job ['doesn’t seem ready for the job and isn’t inspiring confidence'; 'platitudinous and opaque'], and that neverhteless he shouldn't be subject to a recall vote, we disagree on his prospects for the future.
not only am i unhopeful that he'll grow into the job - i think it's more likely his performance will deteriorate. let's see how he handles the CTU negotiations, and to what extent his policies have an impact [if any] on reducing crime, especially violent crime. nothing he's done or said on the job so far bodes well for favorable outcomes/progress on these 2 of his most significant responsibilities.
while I agree with the majority that renaming/branding it "X" was stupid, can we finally drop the obligatory "formally known as Twitter"?
At this point, IFYKYK, as the Kiddos say.
Sorry, but I must continue to disagree with you about Mayor Johnson’s pro-Ceasefire vote. Maybe he thought a pause in hostilities would allow aid to get in? Weak argument. That’s not what he voted on. He voted on a resolution explicitly calling for a ceasefire that implies Israel should unilaterally stand down. It did not acknowledge that Hamas, in fact, violated a long-standing ceasefire on Oct 7 and has publicly stated its intention to do so again and again. It did not acknowledge that Hamas has refused every single ceasefire offer since the short “pause” months ago. No, the mayor voted in favor of a measure that is a long-coordinated effort to discredit Israel, and is now an implicit indictment against Jews everywhere. If he did not fully understand that, he is not excused.
Sandra Bland's traffic stop was not "totally bogus". She blatantly ran a stop sign right in front of the DPS officer who subsequently arrested her. If you look at the entirety of the dash-cam video of the incident, which I have seen more than once on the internet, you will see that it starts at the end of a traffic stop in which the officer (Brian Encinia) gives the driver a warning, admonishes the driver to drive safely, and walks back to his vehicle. The dashboard camera is running because of the previous traffic stop. Before the officer turns it off, you see a grayish car on the far left of the screen make a right turn onto University Boulevard without stopping or slowing down. You don't see a stop sign, although you would expect a stop sign to be present at that type of intersection. The policeman immediately makes a U-turn, and when the camera swings around, you see the stop sign. The policeman begins to speed up and gets closer and closer to the grayish car. Both cars go through a traffic signal (green light) and then the gray car pulls over. The driver is, of course, Sandra Bland.
For reasons that have never been explained, the policeman immediately tells the driver that she has been pulled over because the changed lanes without giving a signal. If the agenda of some journalist is to foment hatred of police, he has everything he needs right out of the policeman's mouth. The nice black woman was pulled over by the mean racist white policeman (probably Hispanic, but that's a detail that needn't be dwelled upon) for a nothing offense that nobody else is pulled over for. However, if you bother to look at the video, it is obvious that what brought her to his attention and caused him to pull her over was the fact that she ran a stop sign, a relatively serious offense. I got a ticket once for running a stop sign in a technical way.
The policeman did not handle the interaction well. Neither did Sandra Bland. Since he could have given her a citation for a relatively serious offense but, in fact, gave her a warning for a relatively minor offense, she didn't have too much basis to complain. As a taxpayer in Texas, I have a basis to complain. In an ideal world, drivers obey traffic laws because that's what good citizens do. But we don't live in an ideal world. To induce drivers to obey the traffic laws, you have to have some system of punishments for violators, and that's why we pay traffic police to issue citations. If you stop someone for running a stop sign but tell them that they were stopped for some other reason, I don't think you are doing your job very well.
As for the media, it is reported ubiquitously and uniformly that Sandra Bland was pulled over for the trivial offense of not signaling a lane change as she pulled over to the side of the road to stop. Is that dishonesty or incompetence? I don't know. Did reporters never bother to look at the video, or did they choose to ignore it? I don't know.
A letter to the editor of the Houston Chronicle a week or so after Sandra Bland killed herself was a dramatic example of the use of the incident to promote the idea of ubiquitous racism in policing. A middle-aged white woman writes about a conversation with her elderly mother. The mother asks, "Why was that Bland woman in Prairie View pulled over?" The daughter says that she changed lanes without giving a signal. The mother says, "I didn't know you were supposed to give a signal. I never do. Why haven't I been pulled over?" The stage is now set. The daughter replies, "You weren't pulled over because you are white."
Prairie View is a historically black town. If a policeman has an interaction with a civilian in Prairie View, there is a high probability that the civilian will be black. Would it be better not to enforce traffic laws in Prairie View?
As for why Sandra Bland committed suicide, there is a fascinating article in probably the Atlantic (probably 18 Dec 2018 by Jordayne Blaise) about her life, which starts out saying something like, "If you want to understand what happened to Sandra Bland, you need to understand Sandra Bland." The article is no longer available without a subscription. She was badly in need of a job. She had had a job with a small company in or near Chicago which was a niche manufacturer of special plates, spoons, etc. used in prisons. The Black Lives Matter movement convinced her that she could not in good conscience work for such a company. She quit the job and was not successful in finding another one. A friend suggested that she look in Prairie View, where she had gone to college. She drove all night from Chicago, went to the friend's house, took a shower, and went for the job interview. She got the job (temporary, but a job). Within a few hours, instead of preparing for the new job, she is in the Waller Co. jail, and her relatives in Chicago don't seem particularly keen to come with bail money. Once again, she has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
I personally think the Musk deadnaming tweet is hilarious - but I’m the type who appreciates a good trolling of gender studies academics 😎