Tales from the DarkSide(Bruce Ruiner's way of politics)

During my travels throughout the lovely Illinois landscape, I pick up some very interesting reports about our illustrious, hard-working, by the bootstraps gov. Or so he'd like us to believe.
So....for those of us who have been involved with working for the state, we know about Governor Quinn denying some contractual pay increases in the last couple of years. This was found not to be very nice and state employees won(yes, through AFSCME) the back pay for those increases. BUT...it's been dragging on and on and on.
So fast forward to 2015. There are 2 bills being considered to address the back pay as a supplemental budget item, one from a Democrat(Sue Sherer-Decatur), one Republican(central/downstate who has constituents that have been harmed), and just pay those that are still owed. Much of the back pay has already been paid, let's get it over with and done, right? So, the republican bill goes to committee faster, the roll call is great, everyone wants this to get done, the bill will pass out of committee easily, but....the rep is no where to be found...see, the representative who sponsored the bill has to call the bill before committee--not a co-sponsor, not a committee member, but the republican representative who authored the bill refuses to come to committee. Why? Because the Governor's staff have "reached out" to this representative and told him that he will NOT bring this to committee because the governor doesn't want him to(and we all know about that $20 Million PAC to primary those that don't listen to Lord Ruiner). Let that set in for a minute...even tho the courts have ruled that state employees are due the back pay because our contracts are just as sacrosanct as banksters, even tho this is a bipartisan endeavor that all support, Ruiner intimidates a representative to NOT do what is right by his constituents..so, Sue Scherer's bill had to be approved quickly before the deadline ran out for this session.
Now, this Republican legislator has always worked for his constituency, his constituency was directly affected by the back pay issue. Yes, a back pay bill was approved to go to the floor, but all of a sudden, this became an us vs. them rather than a bill that was right and fair, all approved. Per capita, there are probably more people that will be effected by this bill in downstate areas(that are more republican) but Ruiner didn't want the Republican party, HIS party, attached to it.

Another report of Bullying(assholeness):
Bruce the Ruiner. although he hasn't filed a single piece of legislation during this session, he's posted his Turnaround Illinois bullet list on the gov's website. OK, he won, he can post whatever he wants, but, unlike running a company, you don't just get to make policy and it's Law. is inviting our elected representatives to have breakfast/lunch with him. During this time he's pressing what he feels is the right way for his ideology for Illinois. He doesn't have any real bills, he doesn't want his fingerprints on the wreckage of the middle class. So he just plays the game of, "I feel this is what is good" and good to him is to make the rich much richer and the rest of us? Have we read a Christmas Carol before Scrooge had a heart?
So the governor calls in 3-4 legislators in, dems and repubs. He gives them his speech about how great right to work zones would be and if prevailing wage is something of the past, we don't need no steenkin union wages, the reps ask the gov, where's your legislation, "well here's my proposal and you'll know what to do" and gives them his "Turnaround Illinois" manifesto that's on the governor's website. In one meeting, Ruiner met with 4 democratic  reps and a majority of them were also union members. His agenda was the right to work for less, getting rid of the pension protection, etc. Rauner tells the reps, we're not that far apart, I need 7 bills..so the lawmakers ask, where's your legislation? Rauner says to them, well, you'll know what I need, here's my plan, when you read this you'll be on board, you'll see; we're very close to being on the same page. When more questions are asked, he starts talking about how corrupt unions are, how unions are one of the reasons that businesses are leaving(which is another lie),etc. So, one of the reps states, "Governor, I'm a union member. What your plan has is damaging to my constituents and my fellow union members, I won't vote against them."
At this time, Ruiner gets very frustrated, the smile is gone and he looks at the rep and asks, "Do you know how many union members are in Illinois?" The rep answers, "About 11%" Ruiner hits the table with his hand and yells, "NO! (pound) 11(pound) point(pound) 4 percent!" Do you know how many union members will be in Illinois in 4 years?!! Zero(pound) point (pound) Zero!"
Sorry, I wasn't sure how to show his emphatic pounding on table to while trying to make his point. Now, actually, both Ruiner and the representative were wrong, About 15% of Illinois' working population are union workers, but the point is clear. All Rauner wants to do is to bring back a feudal system where the rich keep everything and we work until we die(or starve, guess that'd be OK in his world also).
Just like your normal, everyday sociopath......

Bruce Ruiner: Crazier than a 3 Act Monty Python Play

OK, I'm having a bit of fun coming up with silly titles, bear with me, but they are apropos.

On February 9th, Rauner signed an executive order declaring that fair share is dead for public employees in Illinois because he doesn't believe that forcing non-union employees to pay union dues requires them to fund political activity they don't agree with, which they don't cuz it's illegal.

Really? Didn't he go to the King Ronnie Reagan bible school? Doesn't he know that King Ronnie signed into law that public employees union dues cannot be used in political campaigns?!?!?

We do have a voluntary PAC that we can donate to if we feel it's a good thing(yes, I do donate...in fact I just doubled my monthly donation a couple of months ago).

Or, maybe it's just that he doesn't really care about facts or truth, he just cares about getting his way because that's what he's done through out his business career, umm, Bruce? You're not in Kansas(Wall Street) any longer. This, my dear boy, is the real world where even lowly clericals get to have a say in their workplaces.

So, then he "hires" Dan Webb, from Winston and Strawn law firm(the law firm that Jim Thompson is also a partner) to fight the evil union thugs in court. Mr. Webb is so sure of this white knight of uber rich that he will do this "pro bono", yep folks, that's right for free. Free. Now, I know that some big, expensive law firms take on one or two pro bono jobs per year, but those are usually for people who can't afford to hire them. Let's remember that this is a governor that signs what is supposed to be a legal state document which is usually enforced by the attorney general. But this yahoo knight hires a private attorney?

ButButBut, there's MORE!
All of a sudden there is more movement--Lisa Madigan, the state Attorney General says this is a contractual matter and cannot be undone by an executive order. Leslie Munger, Illinois Comptroller, states that she will not break the law and will ignore the governor's executive order(and she's a republican that was appointed by said yahoo white knight) and lo and behold! Dan Webb backs out because his firm has some conflicts of interest...it wouldn't look very good that the firm already has private clients that are suing the state and now have a governor of the state suing the state?

Well, that's OK, cuz the White Knight Bruce accosted another buddy/attorney to take the case...Phil Beck, who's claim to fame is the Bush v Gore supreme court fight, which, even tho Gore won the popular vote(and the presidency), Beck was instrumental in the staged protests and BS to ensure a Bush presidency(and the demise of the middle class in America). They will shove this crap into the federal courts...but, wait a minute...if it's dealing with state law(which Bruce idiot is), doesn't that belong in state courts because of that 10th amendment? Oh, but I am talking about Bruce Almighty who thinks he's above the law...and playing the bi-polar governor....

Walker's Lies to the governor's mansion

So, the aftermath of Scott Walker's win is what? That Wisconsin citizens are just fine with no collective bargaining? That Wisconsin citizens think that its just fine to cut public education? To sell public lands/utilities? No, I don't think so....
First why did Walker win? Obviously, he doesn't care about the Wisconsin people, How did Walker win? Well, that's a bit more interesting....
First, Walker outspent Tom Barrett 8:1...and that don't count a bunch of other money that was in the shadows...like the money that had people wearing signs( signs saying that Barrett was a baby killer/immoral/approved of gay marriage, you know, those so-called values that the right scares people with), Walker minions would pay $100 per sign to have home owners put them in their yard(Barrett signs didn't come with that dividend), and then there were the commercials....NRA sponsored an ad stating that Barrett wanted to take away hunters' rifles(specially deer rifles--BIG FAT LIE), other ads about Barrett hating babies and loving gays...
Yes, money made a difference, but there were some other issues as well:

• Walker lied about his "gain" of thousands of jobs since he took over when the truth is that Wisconsin is 51st in job recovery in the nation(and has lost over 10,000 jobs). Although Tom Barrett and his staff came out and said it was a lie(well, he prolly used the old, "misspoke" quote), Walker was not challenged by the main stream media. 
• Many people thought that Walker didn't deserve to be recalled because, as far as they knew, he hadn't done anything wrong, of a criminal nature and were somewhat worried that recall elections could become...umm...trendy. If someone didn't like what happened at the real election, they'd just come up with millions of $$ and fight it. OK, that's a bit of sarcasm, but I just couldn't help myself. Of course, the average Wisconsin voter hadn't been following the "John Doe" state and federal investigation. They might just end up with dingbat Kleefish as governor.
• Because of the "new" voter laws(that Walker and the republicons rammed thru), students did not vote in the same amount as is usual(and you know those kiddies...they vote liberal more than not). The new law states that you must live in your residence for 28 days, rather than the 10 previously. Five of the largest universities dismissed classes 10-21 days before the recall which left many of them disenfranchised(couldn't vote). Marquette University did make arrangements that students could come back and vote and they had a very good turnout, but in reality, if that's a 2-3 hour drive for someone just to vote and then turn around and go home? How many people are going to be able to do that? Another interesting fact: the Walker campaign stalled the recall process by three weeks back in January when they said they were trying to decide if or when they would challenge the signatures--just enough time to screw those students....hmm......

Also, many voters, when asked, said they made their mind up in May...and at that time, the Dems were still in the primary stage.  I'm conflicted about this. Part of me feels that its important to allow the voters to choose their candidate...OTOH, we also knew that there were dirty tricks on the other side--the right had "fake" dems running in primaries(for state general assembly), we knew that time was short...couldn't we just have the state dem association...just this once(or for this type of craziness) get all the candidates together and choose one?!?!?!? Republicons do it often enough, sometimes we need to just act together, instead of acting like cats chasing some shiny feathery thing. 
So, how much effect will the recall election have on November, probably not much. This election did show us how votes can be bought...thank you SCOUTUS and Citizens United--but considering how much money was spent, Barrett wasn't beat by that much(considering he only had about 13-15% of the money in the race, he should have only received 13-15% of the vote) Racine flipped red to blue(yes, I know there is a recount going on) and Obama won the "exit polls" over Romney 5:1 and, in California, Orly Taints only received 3% of votes in her bid for U. S. Senator. What does that mean? That there are only 113,000 crazy bigots in California! 

Quinn's so called budget...or how to make retirees homeless!

I just can't figure out why politicians keep attacking seniors...first its the tea party and republicans trying to  privatize(read banksters steal the $3.2 Trillion in trust fund) Social Security, then Paul Ryan and his carnival shell game of "vouchers", and now Governor Quinn(who's supposed to be a DEM), wants to cut senior programs and attacking state retirees pensions and health care. I know, I know, all of you have been told how good we have it and we're breaking the state...and the public believes the lie. SB1313 tore apart the security of health care for seniors, now the general assembly and the so-called "liberal" governor want to cut cost of living increases. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the last 4 years that I've been retired, gas has gotten ridiculous, which has affected what I spend for gas, what I spend for food, you know, those luxuries of living....
Now, this is because of the rich wanting to be richer and have many of their bills subsidized by what's left of the middle class/working poor. As I've stated in past posts, Illinois is not broke, but the tax system is--we need to get rid of the retailer's discount on sales tax(for large retailers) and single sales factor, again for large corporations(mom and pop operations are exempt from this handout). But, no...the state of Illinois lawmakers are quivering and licking the feet of the Chamber of Commerce(read...stick it to the little guy) and the Chicago Commercial Club, both of which that have board members who receive 7-8 figure golden parachutes. These Monopoly men don't want any tax reform, that would mean they would have to pay their fair share, nope, let's take it out on the 80 year old secretary who's making under $25000 a year after working for 30+ years!
A couple of weeks ago, Senate Bill 1313 passed both the houses with bi-partisan votes...nice to see our so-called representatives working together to screw us! And quickly! It took all of 2 weeks to pass 1313(ok, the number is ironic...but maybe it shoulda been SB 666), no hearings, no committees, no public comments. Just screw the senior citizen. What this does is change the way retiree insurance is handled and could end up costing retirees whole bunches of money..now, the lie that's told to all is that retirees got "free" insurance...hmm....I have out of pocket expenses that total about $500-600 a month(that includes premiums I pay for my family) and I actually thought I knew the meaning of "free"...obviously, the Chamber, Commercial Club and legislature own a different dictionary than I do.
So now the latest and greatest way to screw employees is either eliminate the cost of living raise, or to cut it to less than 1.5% or to give retirees a so called choice--we can either choose between having some type of health insurance or a cost of living increase...isn't that FUCKING NICE...why do I feel that I'm Oliver saying to Sikes, "please sir, could I have a bit more gruel?" Only problem is no one is going to come and proclaim me an heir! And how does the corporate media report on this? The far right leaning Chicago Tribune had an article about how the general assembly members and governors...have made out like wall street bandits while the average state worker's pension is less than $25,000...and many get only that-no Social Security. But the Trib has been trumpeting "many" trumped up pension scandals...there was the one on 2 men that upped their pension by working for one day at a school, then the ex-representative who doubled his pension by working for Alderman Burke for a month, but not one article on the 27,000 retirees who would be severely effected by cuts to their only form of retirement income.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure that if we(union) were able to actually bargain, we could come up with some solutions-we have in the past, but that's not gonna happen. We are an easy target so why would our corporate legislatures allow a few facts about our pensions get in the way????  Yes, these changes would effect the general assembly members who vote on them, but not to the degree that it will state retirees...I mean, I only had one job--in a prison--for 30 years, unlike many of our part time politicians who collect $67,000 a year in salary...and another $69K(representatives) or $80K+(senators) for office "allowances", not to mention mileage and per diem...now, as I said, I worked for the Department of Corrections. I began as clerical, then went to officer and retired as a correctional counselor--I made, after 28 years about $65,000 for a full time job! They start out as $67,000 the first year for their part time job. I did not receive mileage to go to and from work and was expected to take a state vehicle if I had to travel to Springfield...so, again, why is the general assembly working to screw us out of our pensions??????
All I have to say is remember, WE VOTE and we will not be afraid to vote you out of office.

Occupy NATO...or Living in a Police State

I'm sure that most people know that NATO is meeting in Chicago and if you've turned on to either the local broadcast news or the corporate media, you've been told that only a couple of thousand have shown up to protest, and most of the photos and media stream seem to show a bunch of white "punk" type kids--long hair, dreadlocks, tattoos, you know the type, the white version of "other--be afraid". My husband just loves listening to WGN(I put them just under Fox Noise for right wing propaganda) and watching that was almost comical to see the news people falling all over the dogma of "cops are wonderful, protesters are lying little whiny brats." At one point, the camera spied two black protesters, smiling, gesturing  and talking to the police line and the commentator was talking about how the men were antagonizing the police...of course he said they were doing that BEFORE the camera was turned on them, but it wasn't like the camera was close to them...the shot was taken off of a building or stand so I doubt if the men even knew they were on TV(plus...didn't they know they were at the wrong place? I mean they were black! There weren't supposed to be anyone but white over privileged brats!)
BUT, listen to Democracy Now on Free Speech TV(channel 9415 on Dish) and you receive a much different picture of the protesters: the nurses rally actually included nurses? The Anti war protest had people of all ages(and not all of them had tattoos or piercings), all colors, from poor to well off.
One of the most interesting pieces was the over 40 impassioned speeches from vets who "returned' their medals. Now, the local news(this time CBS) had shown a couple of vets throwing their medals in a direction and then did about 4 minutes on how many of these young men and women probably didn't understand how they would feel later in life about this...just like the Viet Nam Vets who did this and then wished they hadn't(only problem? Not many of them felt bad either). From this news piece, it certainly wasn't reporting, you would assume there were maybe 5 or 10 20-somethings that did something rash. That was not even close. The truth about these men and women was more powerful. They were not only in for 1 tour, but many...most of them were not 20, but 30/40, some with over 10 years of service and all upset over how our government has been neglectful in their duties with PTSD, traumatic brain injury and other injuries; the lies they were told while serving(Iraqi liberation, WMD's); the sexually assaulted women of the Military Forces. Maggie Martin, I was a sergeant in the Army. I did two tours in Iraq. No amount of medals, ribbons or flags can cover the amount of human suffering caused by these wars. We don't want this garbage(the medals). We want our human rights! We want our right to heal."  A Marine corp veteran, Vince Emanuele, stated he was giving his medals back: "First and foremost, ...for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Second, ... four our real forefathers. I'm talking about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee...Black Panthers, civil rights unions, unions, our socialist brothers and sisters and our ecology brothers and sisters. And lastly and most importantly, our enemies are not 7,000 miles from home. They sit in boardrooms. They are CEO's. They are bankers. They are hedge fund managers. They do not live 7,000 miles from home. Our enemies are right here and we look at them every day! They are not the men and women who are standing on this police line. They are the millionaires and billionaires who control this planet and we've had enough of it! So they can take their medals back!"  Lance Corporal Scott Olson(enlisted 2005, 2006-Iraq and 2008) also threw his medals(4-global war on terror, operation Iraqi Freedom, National Defence, Good Conduct) toward the fence of the NATO Summit--he's the gentleman that was severely injured in Occupy Oakland when he was struck with a beanbag round from police and Amy Goodman also
interviewed him.

Then there was the van that hit a young woman and had a protester that was stuck on the front of the hood of the van. Now the police stated that the officer that was driving had been hit by a protester and had a concussion, but its not like this can be proven...and, when was he struck? When he was running over the young woman(who did end up in the hospital)? Then there was the man who had been hit with a billy club in the teeth when he tried to help a woman who had fallen & couldn't get up quick enough for the police, who were hitting her in the legs, back and abdomen yelling at her to stand up. There wasn't anything like that spoken on corporate media.

Also, police detained by gunpoint 3 independent media who were live streaming from the march--one was from change.org -- when the cops attacked his van--there were 3 people
in the van, the cops ordered them out of the car, cuffed them, and began attacking
their equipment(banging the hard drives, cameras, lenses, etc. on each other, on the ground)...so much for the real 4th estate. Oh, then the cops left and told one of the men
 they had been looking for a similar car...when the reporter pointed out they were in a 99 Lexus with out of state plates, the cop just smiled. Sure, no harassment by police...and I'm the twin of Angelina Jolie!

Reiner Braun, German Peace Activist..protested at NATO because he states the bogeyman(Russia) is no longer...NATO spends over $1T annually for war that could be used to construct rather than destruct. Kay McVay, retired nurse, was there both for the Nurse's Rally(Friday) and the anti-war rally. There were also Chicago activists protesting against Emmanuel's mental health closures, home care providers who haven't been paid by state/county/cit, child care providers not paid by city, much of this because the politicians re-appropriated much of this money to pay for the extra security for NATO at the loss of the neighborhoods that need support most.

Alleged bomb makers that had undercover police officers who were the actual ones with the plans of "bombing"...can we say "entrapment"? Let's just stir up prejudice against the protesters by the very old infiltrate and denigrate.

Tom Morrell, performed at the Nurses rally and also at the antiwar rally. He's been very involved in social justice movements for the last couple of years, specially in Wisconsin. He had started with songs he wrote specifically for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Little known fact? He and President Obama were both staying at the Sheraton---among other things they share--both have Kenyan fathers and white American mothers, both attended Harvard at the same time.

Jesse Jackson Jr. went through the history of NATO, why it began(cold war), why it's really not needed any longer and why we can't afford to be the sheriff of the world, specially when we can't take care of our own people.
Now, I am willing to say that there are probably 10% of the police who take their cute scary "stormtroopers" costumes to heart and think they're robo-cop, much like the protesters have their 10% of anarchists and troublemakers, but way too often, we are not informed of both sides having their time of "behaving badly"...its only the ones that tow the corporate master's rule that are allowed explanations and that, also is just wrong and we should not stand for it.

Teachers, The Right's new version of Welfare Queens

For the last decade, but specially the last couple of years, I've heard from the media rabble and the right about the horrible problems with our educational system. Well, not all of the system, just the part that all Americans have a stake in--public schools. I've heard how its failing, failing, failing and its all because of those union thug teachers!!! Making all those millions of $$ and just sitting around eating bon bons...funny, the teachers I know seem to be working pretty hard, they start about 7 in the morning and usually don't finish until evening. Sure they aren't "in the office" for some of that time, but they bring work home all the time.
So the right keeps telling us how much greater our education system would be if we got rid of the antiquated public education form..Private Schools!...Charter Schools! They work so well and everyone that goes to them do so much better! Sure...too bad the stats don't really bear that out.
First: Both private schools and charter schools get to pick and choose the "cream of the crop", you know those kids that aren't a problem and don't have those stupid learning, behavioral or physical disabilities. OK that means that they already have at least "C" students to start with. In May of 2010, there was a story in the NYT magazine explaining how much better charter schools were by comparing a charter and public school that were not only in the same neighborhood, but shared the same building! Same kids, same community and you know that charter school soared much higher on standardized tests than the public school so that just goes to show how much better the charter is, right? Umm, not really.
A deeper look at the data showed some illuminating facts about those kids...yes the came for the same neighborhoods but again the Charter School gets to choose their students.
At the public school, 20% of the students were in some form of special ed and about 2/5 of those students were considered "severely disabled"...the charter school? They did have about 17% of special ed students, but none were considered severely disabled.
The public school had 13% of their students which English was their second language, only 2% of the charter school were ESL students.
The public school had 20% more of their students that were eligible for free lunches(68% of the students qualified for free lunch, 49% in the charter) and a 10% homeless rate for the public school kids, the charter only had about 1% of homeless students. Now, are these two populations the same??? And since the public school(which teaches to all, not just the easy ones) did improve on the tests after the charter school raided their best and brightest away, shouldn't those public school teachers get an award for doing as good, if not better than in the past? OF COURSE NOT! Their job is to teach and we know there are bad teachers because the UNION protects the bad ones...
So, the teachers at charters allegedly get paid better, better benefits so that means the best come there, right? Again, not necessarily. Charter schools have a much higher turnover of staff than public schools which does hurt the continuity of service...having to train the teachers over and over. Why the higher turnover? Because charter school teachers have more responsibilities and longer hours. Also, without collective bargaining and union membership, teachers aren't treated fairly across the board...its a brown noser's paradise. Most professional teachers prefer the traditional public school, not because they're lazy, but because they are treated on a fair basis.
Another issue of charter and public schools is segregation. Historically, private schools(most being religion-based) have been notoriously segregated. Charter schools also have the same inclination, in fact there are white supremacist sites that extol this as the best reason to send your kids to charter schools, not better schools. Oh, and the scandals that surface with charter schools? Shoved under the rug of ignorance.
And all in all, after all of the high marks of the media, corporations, "civic" leaders, charter schools, in general, do not do better than public schools on the same level as Stanford University has studied, time and time again. It seems all charter schools really do is break the union(although some charter schools are now organizing), segregate school children and take more money out of public funds into private bank accounts.