Am I the only Chicagoan who becomes more dismayed about our choices in the mayoral runoff with every passing day? And why the silence about when/whether we'll have the options of voting by mail and voting early? If we don't get either, what effect will that have on who can participate as voters? What effect would that have on the accuracy of polling about the outcome?
I can’t believe that Dumb Dog tweet is winning its round. I feel like the kid in the Emperors New Clothes. The other dog is LOOKING AT THE YOGURT, people, the yogurt ! Also I’m disappointed that you didn’t use the much cleverer version of the Priest, Minister and Rabbi joke I’ve seen:
A Priest, a Minister and a Rabbit walk into a blood bank, “I’m not sure” says the Rabbit when questioned , “but I think I might be a Type O “
ralph martire is a poor source for criticizing vallas on his decisions as CPS CEO for pension funding. martire is a 'sophomore' - ie, a 'wise fool'. also a propagandist - smart guy who cherry picks numbers to make his liberal/progressive talking points [check out the funders of his NPO]. vallas may have proposed the pension funding 'holiday' at the time - but it proved to be the consensus opinion, incl'g that of CTU. easy, facile of martire to criticize the decision with 20/20 hindsight. the error that led to the current abysmal state of the CTU pension fund was not the funding holiday during the vallas era - it was the failure of subsequent, post-vallas administrators and politicians to timely reinitiate pension funding as the stock markets trended downward.
I love Stephanie Skora’s voting guides. I have been using them to help me decide about judges on Cook County’s lengthy judicial ballot. Skora is a trans woman, by the way, for those who don’t know.
I think that newspapers offered a variety of things to get folks to buy their paper. Sports, comics, puzzles, local and national news, editorials and weather.
As other outlets provided better services - you can get up to date sports on the internet (no late games going unreported). There are apps and other access to all kinds of games, puzzles and challenges versus a one dimensional game or two in the paper. Comics are becoming passe’ with memes, you tube and other outlets providing humor. One comic I liked (I am a geezer) is Dilbert…well not anymore.
Weather tends to be very time sensitive and newspapers give an overview that quickly becomes dated.
Classic journalists are disappearing ( no Royko, Kass, Zorn,) and there is no desire to read new journalists since they unknown. Also it seems anybody can call themselves a journalist so there is no quality control. I can get some interesting journalistic viewpoints from your online news - you, Mary S, and even Laura Washington. So why buy a paper for some unknown wannabe?
The business model for papers was to offer a variety of services (see above) to keep circulation. Local news alone was never thought to be a main driver..and local news is becoming the only item left.
Finally a killer, lots of folks especially younger ones get all their news, fun, weather online - they do not read paper period.
As a geezer, I still like reading “paper” - so I subscribe to magazines like the New Yorker which has in depth news stories as well as fun short stories. The writing quality is excellent.
I agree that the newspaper chains are reducing content especially local items-but I think that this is going to happen eventually anyway. Just as people changed their shopping habits (goodbye malls);so too how people get their information and what information they are interested in has changed drastically.
All content Newspapers, like glaciers, will slowly disappear due to a changed environment.
Thanks again to you and Laura Washington for a really good job at the mayoral forum. It was one of the best I've seen for good questions and being well managed.
I thought that Brandon Johnson was entirely evasive in the forum and failed to answer a single question that was put to him. There seems to be little substance to his plans and he did not demonstrate a grasp of any of the statistics. I thought Vallas directly responded to every question and was pretty clear.
The youth jobs question is a good example. He called you a racist, dodged the question, referred to a progressive income tax that is not part of his plans and offered a lot of fluffy rhetoric. Vallas was direct, practical, and pragmatic in his response, particularly in combination with his response to the previous question.
It also struck me that Johnson's demeanor is similar to Lightfoot. He seems thin skinned, short tempered, confrontational and prone to perceiving enemies.
Mincing Rascals was good as usual. All good topics. Berg and Pope were spot on with respect to 'Defund the Police'. The people that originated the slogan and were/are most vocal are entirely serious about the complete elimination of police departments and prisons. It was a mistake for politicians and liberals to embrace the slogan and try to redefine it as meaning necessary reform, some reallocation of spending, and some new spending.
If Chicago wants to grow with the Cerebral Valley leaders, civic leaders would try to collaborate with me. Could it be the fact our politics are so corrupt that they realize I’d figure out their schemes?
I think a fair number of Lightfoot and Garcia voters will come to the same conclusion as Ja'Mal Green. Vallas has more concrete plans, is not doctrinaire, and is someone that will work with others.
EZ - "Johnson is certainly the better extemporaneous speaker and the more charismatic of the two finalists in the runoff. "
I disagree. Vallas does not light up a room, but he has the facts, groups, and ideas at his fingertips. So, he delivers a consistent message and is prepared to exchange. He is on the colder end of calm and personable.
Johnson is good at spouting the slogans and rhetoric that play well to a CTU and progressive audience. But he presumes that what he says is obvious and that disagreements or questions are evidence of ignorance, racism, and reactionism. I don't think his charisma extends beyond his base. In several of his responses at the forum you could see him pause to dial back his rhetoric. He is on the fiery and angry end of energized.
I'm really surprised that nobody picked up when Johnson said that "the police should know every resident and have to live in the neighborhoods where they work" (words to that effect). To me, that would piss off every officer in the city. I find that remark extremely irritating too. I was set to vote for Johnson but after the debate (not just for that remark), I found him to be extremely untrustworthy. He kept talking about 300 detectives as if that would solve all our problems. Vallas seemed well prepared and capable of discussing the issues in detail and seemed approachable. I was wondering, though, if I suffer from "unconscious bias" - I am a data geek so Vallas appealed to me. Changing my vote to him
I know it’s a huge pain to organize something like your 64 tweet bracket, but it has 3 double-entries that I noticed. This is grounds for a protest from all the other entries. And it opens the possibility of a violation of the transitive property in which a>b, b>c and yet c >a. If that happens the entire tournament is invalid.
Am I the only Chicagoan who becomes more dismayed about our choices in the mayoral runoff with every passing day? And why the silence about when/whether we'll have the options of voting by mail and voting early? If we don't get either, what effect will that have on who can participate as voters? What effect would that have on the accuracy of polling about the outcome?
Always tune in for the "Tweets Madness". Just an FYI, Batman, Crypto and Bagpipes are all in the brackets twice...
I can’t believe that Dumb Dog tweet is winning its round. I feel like the kid in the Emperors New Clothes. The other dog is LOOKING AT THE YOGURT, people, the yogurt ! Also I’m disappointed that you didn’t use the much cleverer version of the Priest, Minister and Rabbi joke I’ve seen:
A Priest, a Minister and a Rabbit walk into a blood bank, “I’m not sure” says the Rabbit when questioned , “but I think I might be a Type O “
ralph martire is a poor source for criticizing vallas on his decisions as CPS CEO for pension funding. martire is a 'sophomore' - ie, a 'wise fool'. also a propagandist - smart guy who cherry picks numbers to make his liberal/progressive talking points [check out the funders of his NPO]. vallas may have proposed the pension funding 'holiday' at the time - but it proved to be the consensus opinion, incl'g that of CTU. easy, facile of martire to criticize the decision with 20/20 hindsight. the error that led to the current abysmal state of the CTU pension fund was not the funding holiday during the vallas era - it was the failure of subsequent, post-vallas administrators and politicians to timely reinitiate pension funding as the stock markets trended downward.
I love Stephanie Skora’s voting guides. I have been using them to help me decide about judges on Cook County’s lengthy judicial ballot. Skora is a trans woman, by the way, for those who don’t know.
It would be interesting to find out what the Seattle Times is doing to suffer an only 2.9% decline over the period reported.
I think that newspapers offered a variety of things to get folks to buy their paper. Sports, comics, puzzles, local and national news, editorials and weather.
As other outlets provided better services - you can get up to date sports on the internet (no late games going unreported). There are apps and other access to all kinds of games, puzzles and challenges versus a one dimensional game or two in the paper. Comics are becoming passe’ with memes, you tube and other outlets providing humor. One comic I liked (I am a geezer) is Dilbert…well not anymore.
Weather tends to be very time sensitive and newspapers give an overview that quickly becomes dated.
Classic journalists are disappearing ( no Royko, Kass, Zorn,) and there is no desire to read new journalists since they unknown. Also it seems anybody can call themselves a journalist so there is no quality control. I can get some interesting journalistic viewpoints from your online news - you, Mary S, and even Laura Washington. So why buy a paper for some unknown wannabe?
The business model for papers was to offer a variety of services (see above) to keep circulation. Local news alone was never thought to be a main driver..and local news is becoming the only item left.
Finally a killer, lots of folks especially younger ones get all their news, fun, weather online - they do not read paper period.
As a geezer, I still like reading “paper” - so I subscribe to magazines like the New Yorker which has in depth news stories as well as fun short stories. The writing quality is excellent.
I agree that the newspaper chains are reducing content especially local items-but I think that this is going to happen eventually anyway. Just as people changed their shopping habits (goodbye malls);so too how people get their information and what information they are interested in has changed drastically.
All content Newspapers, like glaciers, will slowly disappear due to a changed environment.
Thanks again to you and Laura Washington for a really good job at the mayoral forum. It was one of the best I've seen for good questions and being well managed.
I thought that Brandon Johnson was entirely evasive in the forum and failed to answer a single question that was put to him. There seems to be little substance to his plans and he did not demonstrate a grasp of any of the statistics. I thought Vallas directly responded to every question and was pretty clear.
The youth jobs question is a good example. He called you a racist, dodged the question, referred to a progressive income tax that is not part of his plans and offered a lot of fluffy rhetoric. Vallas was direct, practical, and pragmatic in his response, particularly in combination with his response to the previous question.
It also struck me that Johnson's demeanor is similar to Lightfoot. He seems thin skinned, short tempered, confrontational and prone to perceiving enemies.
Mincing Rascals was good as usual. All good topics. Berg and Pope were spot on with respect to 'Defund the Police'. The people that originated the slogan and were/are most vocal are entirely serious about the complete elimination of police departments and prisons. It was a mistake for politicians and liberals to embrace the slogan and try to redefine it as meaning necessary reform, some reallocation of spending, and some new spending.
I've read a lot of information and statements (past and present) from both candidates for Chicago mayor.
Right now, I think the choice is between which candidate sucks less.
If Chicago wants to grow with the Cerebral Valley leaders, civic leaders would try to collaborate with me. Could it be the fact our politics are so corrupt that they realize I’d figure out their schemes?
I think a fair number of Lightfoot and Garcia voters will come to the same conclusion as Ja'Mal Green. Vallas has more concrete plans, is not doctrinaire, and is someone that will work with others.
EZ - "Johnson is certainly the better extemporaneous speaker and the more charismatic of the two finalists in the runoff. "
I disagree. Vallas does not light up a room, but he has the facts, groups, and ideas at his fingertips. So, he delivers a consistent message and is prepared to exchange. He is on the colder end of calm and personable.
Johnson is good at spouting the slogans and rhetoric that play well to a CTU and progressive audience. But he presumes that what he says is obvious and that disagreements or questions are evidence of ignorance, racism, and reactionism. I don't think his charisma extends beyond his base. In several of his responses at the forum you could see him pause to dial back his rhetoric. He is on the fiery and angry end of energized.
I'm really surprised that nobody picked up when Johnson said that "the police should know every resident and have to live in the neighborhoods where they work" (words to that effect). To me, that would piss off every officer in the city. I find that remark extremely irritating too. I was set to vote for Johnson but after the debate (not just for that remark), I found him to be extremely untrustworthy. He kept talking about 300 detectives as if that would solve all our problems. Vallas seemed well prepared and capable of discussing the issues in detail and seemed approachable. I was wondering, though, if I suffer from "unconscious bias" - I am a data geek so Vallas appealed to me. Changing my vote to him
I know it’s a huge pain to organize something like your 64 tweet bracket, but it has 3 double-entries that I noticed. This is grounds for a protest from all the other entries. And it opens the possibility of a violation of the transitive property in which a>b, b>c and yet c >a. If that happens the entire tournament is invalid.