by Ben Joravsky on November 15th 2007 - 7:45 p.m.
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A few weeks ago I was talking with some of my fellow TIF geeks about our favorite municipal subject, and we decided to make a friendly wager.
How large was last year's TIF tax? Or to put it in measurable terms, how much did the city take in property taxes to feed its 150-some tax increment financing districts?
You'd think this would be an easy question to answer. After all, the Daley administration posts the city budget on its Web page, and the mayor provides a figure during his budget address every year. But that doesn't give the whole picture. Last year the mayor said he was levying about $720 million in property taxes. In fact, it was much more if you add in the TIFs.
How much more? Up to now Cook County clerk David Orr, whose office collects the data, has released them only in a form that's less than easy to parse. This year, for the first time ever, Orr promised to publish totals.
So while Orr's bean counters went over the numbers, my friends and I guessed. The county budget analyst put the total at $425 million. The planning professor predicted $420 million. Ever the pessimist, I guessed $445 million.
Boy, were we off.
Today Orr released his figures. In 2006 TIFs gobbled up more than $500 million dollars in property taxes. $500,369,348.17, to be exact (click on "Chicago TIF revenue totals by year"). Instead of a $720 million tax levy, the city extracted more than $1.2 billion in property taxes.
Orr's report is filled with eye-opening numbers. After averaging $60 million in annual growth between 2001 and 2005, TIF revenues exploded by $114 million between 2005 and 2006, 57 times the roughly $2 million the entire program took in 20 years ago. The city's total take since the first TIF was created in 1984? $2,534,701,105.72.
Orr even broke it down by district. So now we know that a program designed to eradicate blight in low-income neighborhoods has raised more than $1.356 billion for 11 districts in the Loop, the Gold Coast, and the near south and west sides.
After I called the geeks to gloat about winning the bet we got around to wondering what the 2007 TIF tax will be. I say we'll easily top $600 million.
But don't take my word for it. Go to the Orr's Web site and see for yourself. Read it and weep.
The truth is that the budget recently passed by the council is a step back for this city, and yet another missed opportunity to address the abuse of the TIF program, pension reforms, or addressing many of the pressing issues the citizens of this city face. The heavy lifting will be done not by a few misguided Aldermen, but on the backs of beleaguered tax-payers who are facing an uncertain economic future as Chicago continues loose the traditional underpinnings of our economic base, a threatening rise in crime that is spreading across the nation, and a shrinking value of their homes.
Retiring even a 1/3rd of these TIF districts would have demonstrated a shared sacrifice and begun to put this cities financial house in order. Mr. Joravsky's exposure of this enormous hidden tax only improves the chances for anyone who has the courage and will to truly address the abuse of TIF’s in the city of Chicago to get elected.
Yes, weep tears of joy that our city fathers have come up with a mechanism that will fund improvements that keep our great city from becoming Cleveland, Detroit, Gary, Pittsburg,etc.
I do not see Ben, Kass, Brown, Speilman, et. al. in a hurry to leave a town they have such distate for.
They should just recognized the obvious fact that,
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL,
NEXT !
And that, I think, explains a great deal about Chicago politics--people here are grateful for the fact that Chicago is not a bombed-out Rust Belt city. And they should be, to an extent (much of the city is just as bad or worse than Gary, Detroit, or Cleveland, but the good parts are more extensive).
The question is why Chicago is better off than the aforementioned cities. Perhaps the machine is responsible? I think it has more to do with the fact that Chicago transitioned successfully out of an industrial economy to become a midwestern financial/trading center well before the American industrial economy really went bad.
A corrupt and marginally functional city government is, okay, better than a corrupt and completely dysfunctional city government. I fail to see why we should be happy about it, though.
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL,
NEXT !
You people elect and continue to relelect thr likes of Daley, Stoeger {I and II} and Blogojevich and then complain about high taxes.
NEWS FLASH TO ILLINOIS VOTERS:
Votes have consequences!!!!
But if a half-billion dollars in tax revenue diverted into a slush fund controlled by the mayor was an important story, wouldn't the Sun-Times have displaced the page-3 story about barista sex-discrimination with the TIF story that they buried on page 27?
-- SCAM
Apparently, the bitter truth is too bitter for some to taste.
I posted this comment in the wee hours of the morning, right after reading Ben's proof of victory in his efforts to compel the truth about TIF's to be revealed to the public.
What happens next?
Poof!!
My comment mysteriously vanishes.
I wonder why.......
"Oh Shit
November 16th - 12:17 a.m.
Un-Fucking-Believable.
UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE.
And yet, it is so.
BELIEVE IT.
How sore do the anuses of the eligible-to-vote taxpayers have to be, to motivate said eligible-to-vote taxpayers to:
REGISTER TO VOTE
and
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
??????????
It boggles the mind, to think about the reasons why there has been a pathetic 50%, more or less, election day turnout of those citizens who've bothered to register to vote, and a shameful 50%, more or less, failure of all those citizens who are eligible to vote, yet are too fucking lazy, or too fucking stupid, or too fucking pussy-whipped, to bother to register.
The result of the above failures of the electorate to participate is that a meager 13% of all citizens who could vote are deciding who gets elected and, thus deciding who gets to pick our fucking pockets with such greedy abandon.
UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE.
What an authentic bunch of wimps the majority of citizens of this city and county are.
And we all have the gall to consider ourselves Americans.
Fucking Pathetic."
My original post contained approximately 175 words, of which 8 to 10 could be considered, by some, to be overly emphatic.
That's about 7% of the total, so, one might say that I topped out at the 7% cap on this post.
After all, since the powers-that-be have seen fit to cap the increase in a senior-citizen property owner's assessment at 7%, I find it only fair and equitable that I receive the same consideration concerning my use of words that so authentically express my opinions.
Call me old-fashioned, but I have yet to find a word more versatile, more useful, more descriptive, more appropriate, more accurate and, yes, more emphatic, than 'fuck', in all of it's many forms.
If any doubt the value of the word 'fuck', I refer them to the classic audio bit by George Carlin, proven master of the Authentic English language.
I even vaguely remember a university offering a course in the many uses and appearances of the word 'fuck', in all it's varied forms and contexts, throughout the history of our literatures.
In fact, one of the strongest proofs of our society's basic hypocritical nature is the consistently futile attempts to suppress the word 'fuck', as if a word so popular, so often used, and useful, so vibrant, so full of a myriad of meanings, so effective and so fucking fun to use, could ever be suppressed.
I won't bore you with the long list of examples of the many uses of the word 'fuck', should you be of a curious nature, try Googling the word and prepare yourself to be amazed.
Because the word 'fuck' is truly, fucking amazing.
Politicians and the press were not concerned about TIFs when they made their endorsements and they avoided questioning the incumbents and challengers to force us to make a stand on this issue. In the numerous questionnaires by the press and various organizations, I don't recall any questions that would pin a candidate to the wall about where they stood on TIFs and possible abuse. In the debate I had with Shiller where 1-minute responses were expected to give full in depth answers, nothing was asked about TIFs in regards to accountability and transparency.
I am delighted that Ben has been dedicated to highlight the many ignored problems with TIFs. I would hope he continues to do so around the next aldermanic election..
But we count that as progress.
Say what?
Before you post a comment, '11th man', you should find someone who has a brain that works, (someone not to be found amongst you usual associates), and ask them, nicely, to translate your meager 'thoughts' into words more intelligible to all those 'intelligent citizens' who you believe voted for Dictator Daley.
Before you do this, however, you should first, at the very least, HAVE some meager thoughts.
The word is 'bravado', not 'bravo', if I understand the intended meaning of your first sentence.
And, it's HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT.
There are no limitations to the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT strategy.
When the vast number of 'intelligent citizens', ie., those citizens who are realizing that their vote DOES COUNT and DOES MATTER, implement the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT voting strategy, the arrogant, dishonest, corrupted and greedy fucks, like yourself, will experience just how unlimited the power of the vote is.
Dictator Daley knows this all too well, as do those few 'intelligent', but thoroughly dishonest, members of his clan.
Why else would there be such an insidious number of activities practiced by the mayor's minions, activities such as: bribery, fixed contracts, fraudulent misuse of public funds, malicious manipulations of our Democratic processes, rigged ballot order, specious independent-candidate challenges, hiring favoritism, ghost-payrolling, kick-backs, criminal frauds, etc., etc., ad nauseum.?
When the voting power, of the approximately 50% of citizens who have not yet registered to vote, is combined with the voting power of the approximately 50% of those who are registered, but haven't bothered to vote, (for the mathematically impaired, that's approximately 75% of the total number of citizens who are eligible to vote), and is applied, using even the most basic form of the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT voting strategy, hits these 'professional' politicians, like a fucking tidal wave, maybe then the 11th man's of this town will understand the true mean of 'disrespecting' and 'insulting' and being flushed down the toilet.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
I am surprised that Helen Schiller voted for the property tax increase and the budget.
Your ward has a lot of angry property owners and high taxes.
I think Schiller just voted her last term.
Nothing will matter if enough citizens apply the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT strategy.
Well, next to nothing, that is.
With the majority of incumbents being suddenly unemployed, and rendered politically clout-less, how long do you think it will take for the dominoes to start their relentless fall?
Said dominoes being all the usual suspects, and than some.
So, you see how important it is, to first strip the political power from these usual suspects?
And strip it by the only means actually available, namely, the unstoppable power of the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT voting strategy?
You figure it out, then pass the word to any and all who will listen.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
I've read Shiller's campaign material that stated I was a member of the Klan, that I wanted to round up all the kids in the neighborhood and have them arrested on sight, that I wanted to close down the local high school, that I was against all job training, that I was against all affordable housing, and that I was really a Republican. This from an alderman who has stated in her IVI-IPO questionnaire that the Inspector General should never investigate aldermen. Never mind that I have always been a Democrat, I'm a social worker, former Franciscan friar, recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award from U of C Medical Center, and founded a homeless shelter. This new comment that I'm a tool of Jan Schakowsky is a new one for me.
But let's get to the subject at hand. Many residents in the 46th Ward have complained that they cannot get her to provide any current updates about the Wilson Yard TIF. She has said repeatedly that she won't have any public meetings and blames that on "the bad apples" in the neighborhood. Yes, there's a "Wilson Yard Task Force" that periodically meets, but the meetings are often canceled with less than 24-hour notice and the meetings are held during the work day, making it hard for residents to attend. Shiller won't provide names of the people on this committee and no minutes are provided. No votes are taken, and the task force members were told that their purpose was to disseminate information only. But, she told the press that the public was involved, so it must be so.
What makes the lack of accountability even worse is that aldermen don't have to abide by known acceptable standards used by certified urban planners. That's because you can bet that the Dept. of Planning will go with whatever the aldermen want when it comes to TIFs. It's why the entrance to Aldi at the Wilson Yard is located at the back of the store and there are no windows facing the front sidewalk. Zoning requirements be damned... This is a TIF!
For any alderman who believes its acceptable to withhold information about TIF decisions in their ward, they need to know that their days in office are numbered. Word is getting out. Keep it up, Ben.
No new aldermen have called him out on anything and most of the new ones who the unions supported went right with the mayor anyway so whats he difference.
Your questions about what aldermen should already be doing are ones that should really be asked of Helen Shiller who is your current alderman, and during her 20+ years in office, she has not accomplished them. Do you use the same set of criteria to judge who is/would be a competent aldermen? It's not sounding like it.
But that's not the subject of this thread. We're talking about TIFs. We have 3 TIFs in the 46th Ward and very little is said to the residents about them... certainly no public meeting where residents are allowed to ask questions. When Helen Shiller was asked to provide Target's letter of intent, we were told that this information was confidential. If you don't believe me, ask for this information yourself.
Are you aware that Wilson Yard developer Peter Holsten has contributed around $10,000 to Helen Shiller's past campaigns? Do you see any conflict of interest here? If you don't, you're not alone. Most of the press has no problem with it either.
My question is this: Do you want TIF reform, or not? I would encourage you to stay on the topic of TIFs when you supply your answer.
I volunteered for Helen Shiller's first successful run for alderman, many years ago.
At the time, I, being young and randy, was attracted to her because, as hard as it may be to believe, she once was quite a 'hottie'.
She also seemed to possess the sense of integrity and honesty I found desirable in an elected official.
Sadly, it didn't take her long to find herself flipped onto her back and putting out for the boys who wear the pinkie rings. Figuratively speaking, of course.
The arc of her political career is a good example of why it's so important to clean out every single machine incumbent, as efficiently, as thoroughly and as quickly as possible. (The 'Flush the toilet and start with a fresh bowl' philosophy)
Anything less and those honest folks who manage to get elected are inevitably soiled by the corruption that permeates our city, county and state governing bodies.
All efforts to build an honest house on the present decayed foundation are doomed to failure.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
If someone needs to sacrifice their integrity in order to stay in office, then it's time to leave. Perhaps TIFs are a symptom of the real problem, which is the public's willingness to excuse inappropriate behavior on the part of our elected leaders.
During the aldermanic campaign, I spoke with many disillusioned and apathetic residents who won't vote any more because of their perception of Chicago politics. I have a better understanding of voter apathy, but I refuse to have it take me over.
In essence, when Ben writes these stories about TIFs, he's asking politicians to embrace the notion of being a public servant; something that probably got them into politics in the first place. As constituents, we need to keep reminding public servants that they are just that.... public servants.
We, the citizens, don't need to "...keep reminding public servants that they are just that.... public servants.", not the present bunch of 'psuedo-public servants' infesting our governments.
Rather, we, the citizens, need to reclaim our birthright, that being the Right to Vote, get off our lazy or apathetic or disillusioned asses, REGISTER TO VOTE and VOTE ON ELECTION DAY.
And vote with the sole purpose of replacing every last 'psuedo-public servant' with AUTHENTIC PUBLIC SERVANTS.
FIRST, remove the majority of INCUMBENTS.
THEN concentrate on determining which candidates are AUTHENTICALLY interested in SERVING THE PUBLIC GOOD.
We can continue to do nothing, thus permitting the MINORITY of our fellow citizens to exploit our Democracy, whether city, county or state, OR we can get off our apathetic, disillusioned, lazy asses and use our votes to COMPEL CHANGE.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
after all, "follow the money" has always been an investigative journalist's Hippocratic oath- TIFs are likely no different than anything else.
The abuse of TIFs only underscores the real abuse of the lack of accountability on the part of our elected leaders. When the public has had enough, it will change. When the press is committed to do more in depth reporting, it will change faster.
City's TIF take passes $500-million mark
Nov. 15, 2007
http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=2714...
By Greg Hinz
'Startling': Chicago TIFs collect $500 mil
BUDGET DRAIN?
Tax districts too secret, critic says
November 16, 2007
BY STEVE PATTERSON
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/653874,CST-NWS-...
Now the press needs to start uncovering the campaign contributions from the developers, landowners, corporations, consultants, and lobbyists who are connected with the TIFs to the benefiting aldermen and post this information so that it's available to anyone. To my knowledge, that has never happened. It's only then that some stink will really start to surface and you'll start creating some incentives to change the process. Follow the money.
For some added points, do an anonymous survey of businesses and check how intimidated they were to give money to challengers in aldermanic races. The paranoia is there for a reason.
You would think that those responsible for investigating and prosecuting the crimes of bribery and fraud would have 'followed the money' long ago, but, no, no one seems to be interested in doing so.
Not those in law enforcement, both city, county, state or federal, nor those in the 'fourth estate', ie., the news media, nor even the many so-called 'governmental watch-dog groups'.
Now, why would that be?
Now I understand.
Here I was worrying that this recent working relationship with Mary Anne Smith was going to corrupt Helen Shiller. Turns out that Shiller is teaching Smith about how to run phoney TIF oversight committees Smith has a secret committee too. Smith is also on Peter Holsten's big donation list. He gives $5K every year to the Edgewater Community Council. It would be interesting to see who Holsten donates to every year.
1. City Council blocked the Inspector General from ever investigating them.
2. Campaign laws in Chicago are so antiquated that it's easy to hide who's donating what to whom and there are no limits to developers giving money to aldermen.
3. The Ethics Committee is not doing its job.
4. Many aldermen punish special interests groups that donate to their challengers, which allows the aldermen to be much further ahead in campaign funds. It really is a brave act to give money to a challenger. Around 90% of my money came from residents inside the ward. There's a reason it came from residents and not from business owners who told me privately that they can't stand their alderman, yet continued to donate to her campaign.
5. No term limits allow aldermen to get entrenched.
"How can you work for a crook and not be one yourself?"
Easy.
Defy the laws of nature.
Also, mumble a lot, whenever anyone asks disturbing questions.
Finally, surround yourself with like-minded 'I am NOT a crook' individuals.
Why is it that every crooked politician wants to be a judge?
if cops, teachers, firefighters, etc aren't allowed to go on strike for public safety reasons, why should someone who is entrusted to represent a 100,000 or so citizens be allowed to make a mockery of the electoral process, something the nation's citizens have spilt a lot of blood defending?
These guys/gals take an oath of office - if they want to resign, let them return every penny they've been paid and to immediately forfeit all money in their campaign coffers.
then let's see if some of their "other priorities" don't suddenly become a lot less important.
Carter, you are a person who I'd vote for, just because you're willing to think honestly.
And, in thinking honestly, do you have any doubt that those currently monopolizing our political, and, thus, governmental, arenas are substantially dishonest?
And, being substantially dishonest, do you understand that we citizens cannot ever expect them to do ANYTHING honestly, reasonably and with any semblance of personal or professional integrity?
Their definition of 'public service' is for the public to serve THEIR INTERESTS, and nothing but their interests.
All efforts to induce them to do what we, the citizens, see as honest public service are futile.
THEY ARE THE PROBLEM.
THEY will NEVER be the solution.
They are incapable of being honest.
They are incapable of being fair or just.
They are incapable of doing the right things, as doing the right things NEVER serves their purposes.
There is no other possible solution to our problems than HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT.
While ridding ourselves of THEM will not automatically solve all of our problems, it will open the door for those who are truly interested in doing so.
And, while there may well be some who walk through this open door who are aren't any better than those who are forced to leave office, I'd much prefer to deal with those possible devils I don't yet know, than those entrenched devils I know all too well.
Trust in the God or Gods of your choice and HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT.
Just Do It.
When Bernie Hanson, former 44th Ward Alderman, stepped down because of his "serious" illness that magically went away after the election in 2003, a deal was made to get Tunney appointed. Once in, Tunney does whatever the Mayor wants. The 44th Ward Democratic Committeeman stepped down this last summer (must have had a "serious" illness), and Tom Tunney was appointed. Carol Ronen, not wanting to be obvious, decides to retire as State Rep 2 weeks before the petitions are due and quickly endorses her good friend. Don't get me started with the Cook County Board
Chicagoans have an extremely high tolerance for corruption and that's why City Council gets away with murder when it comes to TIFs.
The voters need to be educated and the press needs to do better reporting to help wake us up.
Before spouting off your pie-hole check your facts. Can you name a ward that has 100,000 people in it ? According to your stupid ass, there are 5,000,000 in chicago (100,000 x 50 wards).
Geez....
Only a simpleton such as Orion would ass-ume that a statement approximately the number of residents residing in a single, specified ward could be construed as accurately applying that number to every other ward in the city and, then, apply the dumb mathematics above, to reach an erroneous conclusion.
Only a dumb as like Malicious-mocker Orion would be so dumb as to do this.
And, of course, he did.
Dumb ass.
So let's use an average, it comes out to 60,000 per ward.
Thus I am revising my post as follows, as it doesn't make a damned bit of difference to the larger point:
*******************************
I don't see why anyone should be allowed to appoint a vacant seat, and would even go so far as to say that, health issues aside, it should be illegal to resign an elected position before the end of a term.
if cops, teachers, firefighters, etc aren't allowed to go on strike for public safety reasons, why should someone who is entrusted to represent 60,000 or so citizens be allowed to make a mockery of the electoral process, something the nation's citizens have spilt a lot of blood defending?
These guys/gals take an oath of office - if they want to resign, let them return every penny they've been paid and to immediately forfeit all money in their campaign coffers.
then let's see if some of their "other priorities" don't suddenly become a lot less important.
Once an alderman, the system is set up so that you have to be really lousy to get voted out. In all total (expenditures & debt), Shiller outspent me about 4 to 1 and she got 53% of the vote with my 47%. Our current campaign laws are tailored to keep the status quo by making it much easier for aldermen to raise money, i.e. businesses know they cannot openly support the challenger and developers learned a long time ago that zoning variances and zoning changes don't just happen because it's a novel idea. It's rather brilliant (though not really ethical) to allow local aldermen full control over zoning matters in their perspective wards.
I think change will come in time as the public gets more frustrated with not having a real voice. However, right now voters do have a rather high tolerance for corruption as long as their city looks pretty.
My hope is that Ben is reading these comments and will get some ideas for future stories that involve more "following the money" when it comes to TIFs, zoning, and campaigns. When those stories come out, it will lower the public's threshhold for corruption.
"...a rather high tolerance for corruption..." is putting it mildly,
If our tolerance for corruption were any higher, we'd all exit our homes backwards, pants down around our ankles, or skirts hiked high above our heads, as the case may be, begging to take it the only way our corrupted officials like to give it.
Even without the certainty of some-to-much of the TIF dollars being misspent or outright stolen, the fact that the Daley administration, working with the Strogers, Madigans, Ryans et al, of our county and state, have exerted so much effort to conceal the specifics concerning the spending of said TIF dollars, is more than enough to reach my threshold for corruption.
Hell, you don't even have to have a zero-tolerance for corruption to know that we've been choking on corruption in this town and county and state for fucking over a century.
And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there cannot, mathematically, be an equal or greater number of citizens feeding at the trough, than there are citizens supplying the offal for same.
It's a fucking minority of our fellow citizens who are doing all the thieving and the majority of our fellow citizens who are footing the bill.
It must be one incredibly efficacious lubricant that Daley, Stroger, Madigan, Jones, et al., have been using, to be so effective at preventing the majority of citizens from feeling the pain and react to same by throwing out every last one of these rascals, thieves, bullshitters and liars.
Every election presents the voters, registered or not, with the opportunity to do the only thing that will have any effect on these rascals.
The electorate knows what they need to do.
They just don't have the guts to do it.
The people vote for these morons over and over again, knowing full well what they are voting for....corruption, waste, lazy workers, over paid useless supervisers. But the interesting thing about all this TIF argument is that it is the STATE that needs to cut out the loopholes. So if you want change in the TIF, don't ask MAyor Daley, he's just using what is laid out in front of him, whether its a free slush fund or whatever we call it, its the state legislators who suck up to him that are at fault. They could easily close any loopholes, but all these state reps are in it together and they get the development deals, the gravy, and the pat on the back from the Mayor for letting him use it the way he does. So, if you want change go talk to all the so called reformers and progressives who just sit there and enjoy the TIF show at the taxpayers expense. It's the state legislators that have no guts.
I don't believe that the majority of people are choosing to 'know full well' anything concerning politics. Most people use the excuse of believing that there isn't anything they can do about corruption in politics and governments, and use this as their strongest excuse for doing nothing.
People will, more often than not, gravitate to believe whatever enables them to do nothing, and usually don't find anything short of a major physical or financial disaster to be enough motivation to begin the thinking process. And even then, what do most people think about, and how do they organize their thoughts? The sad fact is, most people are not, nor are ever likely to be, critical thinkers. Most people find it challenging just to figure out how to balance their checkbooks, so what can we expect of them, other than to reliably be the easily fooled simpletons that they are? All the while telling themselves that they're intelligent people with a decent amount of common sense.
The worst lie you can ever tell is the lie you tell yourself. That's exactly what we, as a society, are encouraging and teaching them to be, people who lie to themselves.
Our continued support of a school system that suppresses individuality, and an individual's most passionate interests, forcing students of all ages to conform to a set-in-stone, generalized curriculum, rather than encouraging each student's natural propensities, talents and interests, results in cookie-cutter produced 'minds', trained primarily to conform to mediocre standards and to submit to authority. The perfect training program for producing sheeple.
Our continued acceptance of restricting our kids' natural curiosities, just when children are most capable of learning to actually think, is one major cause of so many of our 'adult' citizens being so willingly compliant to submitting to the will of whatever those 'in authority' seek to impose upon them.
We teach our kids to 'obey their elders', without considering the nature of those same 'elders', or the natures of the agendas being imposed upon us.
We have allowed ourselves to become a nation of the easily fooled.
Like eager puppies, we're easy prey to the predators amongst us, said predators seeking to prey on our pocketbooks, (the fruits of our hard work), and on our apparent willingness to accept being told what we must or must not do, in every area of our lives.
All the outrageous shit, being pulled by those holding the powers of governments and wealth, and any reactions stimulated in the public at large in response to same, still can't overcome the generational conditioning that has turned most everyone into easily manipulated pawns.
We've been programed to be prey, all our self-delusions to the contrary, so we're unlikely to act as anything but prey, running and hiding at the slightest sound of impending danger.
We're exactly what the predators like us to be.
Easy pickings.
I believe the vast majority of the public know little and care little about TIFs, which is unfortunate because it has a direct bearing on their taxes. However, the public may want to understand more about campaign contributions, required "charitable" donations to get something done, and menu money. It might be nice to publicly know where all the current aldermen stand in these areas and perhaps have it listed on a website. A sense of ethics that call for more transparency and accountability in these areas may spur an interest in TIFs later on.
Remember the movie, Soylent Green, with Charlton Heston?
Remember the last words he spoke, at the end?
"Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!!!"
TIF dollars are like that.
TIF dollars are TAX dollars, skimmed off of our total tax burden and funneled wherever the Mayor, his pals and buddies and select aldermen want it to go.
Unless one embraces the fallacy that the Mayor and each individual alderman actually represent the wills of all, or even most, citizens residing in our 'fair' city, this means that there is substantially NO accountability concerning what TIF/TAX dollars are spent on.
Not inly that, but, there is also NO requirement for the purposes of said TAX dollars to be revealed to the taxpayers, nor to be justified to same.
Further, the stated purpose for which the TIF legislation and TIF districts were written and created, respectively, in the first place, are being blatantly ignored.
$500,000,000 this year alone.
That's HALF A BILLION tax dollars being NOT spent on authentic, specified and essential city services.
HALF-A-FUCKIN'-BILLION.
From the pockets of this county's taxpayers.
NOT being spent for the providing of city services.
If this ain't enough to get the tax-paying public, voting and non-voting alike, to pay attention, what the hell will?
Maybe if Mayor Mumbles holds a picnic, serving roasted human babies?
I didn't focus on TIFs in my aldermanic campaign because I ran into so many people who didn't know what a TIF was. The Trib didn't touch on the subject of TIFs during an hour debate Shiller and I had with one another. The debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters was void of any such questions... almost all of them instead were focused on having us give 1-minute answers about affordable housing and job training.
I mentioned the Wilson Yard Task Force, which has never been allowed to make decisions, which has no minutes, no information about who is on the task force, and which often would have its morning weekday meeting canceled the evening before, making it especially hard for resident participation. However, because Shiller said there was lots of resident input, it was taken as gospel truth by the press.
More education about TIFs will not get the public's attention and I think it's magical thinking to expect otherwise. Providing details about how much developers, attorneys, landscapers, construction companies, etc involved with these TIFs have given to the specific campaigns of various aldermen might work. It's worth a try, but to my knowledge, hasn't been done.
The 'League of Women Voters'.
What a catchy name for such an insidiously subversive organization, designed specifically to promote the exact opposite of Democracy.
Witness the all-too-common subversion of debating.
A true debate may have an agreed upon limitation of subject matters, but these manipulative schemers pervert this into defining and controlling the questions posed, limiting the time for responses, thus controlling the content of same, and hamstringing the nature of a debate, for the obvious purpose of stifling the expression of contrary opinions to those of the established ruling class.
'Classic' techniques employed continuously in a quasi-dictatorship, such as we have here, in the 'City that Works' and throughout the 'County of Crooks'.
Funny thing is, the powers-that-be MUST believe that many citizens aren't as dim-witted as the 'store owner' you mentioned, else why make the efforts to suppress, distract, deny, avoid, and, in general, propagandize so consistently?
Why fear the publics' awareness of the facts and figures, if not because of the belief that a sufficient number of citizens would, indeed, care MORE, were they to KNOW MORE?
It's the promotion of meek acceptance of knowing LESS that succeeds in producing citizens who CARE-LESS.
And this promotion is accomplished by a clever and constant collusion between many parties to bombard the citizen-voters with propagandas, subtle to gross, designed to achieve the desired end.
There is no discernible difference between their techniques and those used throughout history by the likes of Stalin, Hitler, et al, only the extremes of dictatorship have not been, to date, required to maintain control of the general populace and, thus, ensure a constant flow of wealth into the hands of the greedy few.
Said wealth garnered, through the misuse and abuse of dollars taken in unnecessary taxations.
It's 'care-less' citizens, resigned to being used and abused, who are the root cause of our currently un-democratic environment.
It will be the 'care-more' citizens who will be the solution.
And all the citizens have to do, to begin the process of restoring authentic democracy to this city, county and state, is to HAVE NO DOUBT and VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT.
They have the power to do so.
They just have to use it.
I learned my lesson there. I will also have a contract that requires both parties to put down a large financial deposit to be held in escrow held by an independent organization that both candidates agree on, and if any party does not abide by the agreement, all the money goes to the other candidate. If both go against the agreement, the money goes to charity. The agreement will be clearly defined and no deals made without all sides being present and in agreement. There will also be requirements that certain subjects be covered, including the subject of TIFs.
I also thought it was crazy that I was asked a question where a "yes" and "no" response was required.... Would I support the "Jump Up Program"; a job training program? If I said yes, I would be openly supporting a program that Shiller started. If I said no, I would be against job training for the poor. I refused to give a yes or no and stated my problem with the Jump Up Program was that of the many people who went through the job training, there were less than a dozen graduates and none of them ever received full-time employment in the construction trade afterwards. Instead, I would support programs, including ones at Truman College, that demonstrated success. But that didn't seem to be important. Shiller used my response to tell the voters that I was against all job training programs.
This control is, theoretically, supposed to be realized through the citizens' applying their Right to Vote, by electing their chosen representatives to serve the public interest, to the three branches of our Democratic governments, the Legislative, Judicial and Executive.
The Honesty, Integrity, Humility, Intelligence, Fairness, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Rationality and Morality of the actions taken by those individual human beings controlling our governments, presumably with the consent and approval of the citizens as a whole, are dependent on the quality of individuals elected.
The quality of the individual human beings elected depends upon both the quality of those allowed to run for elected offices and the quality of those citizens who participate in the election process, namely, the citizen-voters.
The fact that our city and county governments are controlled by individual human beings sorely lacking in the qualities enumerated above is the result of the fact that the citizen-voters who actually and actively participate in the election process are also sorely lacking in same.
And that those citizen-voters who do not participate in the election process are permitting, by their lack of participation, those lacking in the above enumerated qualities to continue to control our city and county governments.
The reason we, as a people, are so poorly served by our elected officials, and so egregiously misused and abused by same, is clearly the predictable result of our own failure to utilize the power of our individual Right-to-Vote.
Those citizens who do use their Right-to-Vote are doing so in a way that is designed to effectively keep the control of our city and county governments in the hands of those least fit to honestly serve the best interests of the people as a whole.
We citizens are playing the game by the rules of the house.
Anyone who has ever frequented a casino knows that the rules of the house always favor the house.
The difference between a casino and our Democratic form of government is that the citizen-voter does not have to play by the rules of the house.
The citizen-voter can choose to play by the rules of Democracy, said rules being limited only by the choices presented to the citizen-voters on election day.
Like the lottery, you can't win if you don't play.
REGISTER TO VOTE
VOTE ON ELECTION DAY
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
Exercise your voting muscles and see how it feels to be an active participant in Democracy.
This is your city, county and state, decide to be a participating citizen-voter, not an irrelevant pawn.
Just Do It.
"Fcuk Off Socialist Asshole"?
What, exactly, is 'socialist' about encouraging all citizens to participate in their Democracy, by REGISTERING TO VOTE and VOTING on Election Days?
Could it be that you find the concept of the voters voting out most all to all incumbents not to your liking?
Could it be that the reason you would find this concept to be not to your liking is that it embodies the true principles of Democracy, said principles being far beyond your capacity to comprehend or appreciate?
Could it be that you prefer the effective Dictatorships which currently are our city, county, state and federal governments?
And when was it that you "Been There, Done That"?
And where?
And, where did you come up with the crap about JJ jr.?
Or were you just in your usual mood of fixation on JJ jr. when you posted?
What happened, did he forget to leave a tip on your pillow, after giving you the workout of your life one tawdry night?
Sorry if you've got horrible memories, but what's that got to do with citizens regaining control of their governments?
By eliminating every last professional liar, I mean politician, from elected office?
By applying the immense power of their individual Rights-to-Vote, concentrated on achieving the first step goal of cleaning house, akin to flushing a turd-filled toilet that's been stinking up the entire public house for generations?
Or do you dare to claim that shit doesn't stink, when it's your shit or the shit of your pals, buddies and associates?
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT is not a 'panacea', but IS a means to BEGIN the process of returning Democracy to the people for whom it was created for in the first place.
Those people being EVERY CITIZEN, not merely the dishonest, deceptive, manipulative, lying shitheads who believe they've got the right to crap all over everybody and gloat about it.
REGISTER TO VOTE
VOTE ON ELECTION DAY
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
Exercise your voting muscles and see how it feels to be an active participant in Democracy.
This is your city, county and state, decide to be a participating citizen-voter, not an irrelevant pawn.
Just Do It.
Yep, it's getting to be fun, watching the clout monkeys get their panties in a bunch, all because they're starting to think that it's actually possible for the many heretofore silent, non-voting citizens just might find the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT voting strategy to be something they'll try in the upcoming Primary Election.
First, these habitual liars post comments claiming that 'life is beautiful' and 'everything is wonderful' and 'Daley is the best mayor this city has ever had' and 'Stroger is the champion of his people' and 'There is no organized and systematic corruption', etc., etc., etc.......
As the Primary approaches, and, as the few honest journalists expose the dirty, filthy laundry being worn by our city and county 'public servants', the clout monkeys will, predictably, change their tunes to 'It's the OTHER guys who are crooks, NOT OUR GUYS!!!' and '(Us Whites), OR (Us Blacks) OR (Us Latinos) OR (Us - fill in the blank) need to STICK TOGETHER' and 'WE may be CROOKS, but, we're LESS crooked than the OTHER GUYS will be' and 'It will be worse WITHOUT US than it has been WITH US', etc., etc., etc...
Their deception tools are limited and only as effective as the citizen-voter allows them to be.
Deny these lying manipulators the results they desire.
REGISTER TO VOTE
VOTE ON ELECTION DAY
DO NOT VOTE FOR ANY INCUMBENTS
When your choice is between only 2 candidates, the incumbent and a single challenger, VOTE FOR THE CHALLENGER, regardless of party affiliation.
When you have the choice between only 3 candidates, a Democrat, a Republican and a candidate of neither party, vote for the candidate of NEITHER PARTY.
VOTE to NOT RETAIN whenever you have the choice to do so.
Reject each and every Democrat and Republican at every opportunity.
When faced with more than 3 candidates running for a given office, concentrate your votes by voting per Ballot Position, as in:
If the INCUMBENT's name is listed FIRST, then vote for the candidate whose name is LISTED LAST
or
If the INCUMBENT's name is NOT listed first, then vote for the candidate whose name IS LISTED FIRST.
Focus on ousting EVERY incumbent currently in office, making exceptions sparingly, and ONLY if you are CERTAIN that an individual incumbent has proven, to your satisfaction, to be WORTHY of being reelected.
Force the changes, (through the committed use of the power of your votes), that those in control of our governments, (and, thus, our pocketbooks, through their power to tax), have refused to implement.
Reclaim the Rights on which our great nation was founded.
Restore our city, county and state governments to what they are supposed to be, HONEST REPRESENTATIVES of the BEST INTERESTS of ALL THE CITIZENS.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
Suck
Enoromous
Egotistical Cocks
And go FUCK Jessay Juniah in DA ASSHOLE!!!!!!!.
I do know some politicians who have been in office for many years who have my respect. The late Paul Simon has always struck me as a man of the people who couldn't be seduced by power or money.
We all have to admit, however, that machine politics does exist and it leads to voter apathy. I think a good start for Chicago would be to stop this process of aldermen stepping down before the end of their term and making a deal to have their relative or chum put in office. Ditto with the Cook County Commissioners.
A good start for Chicago, and Crook County, must be the voters tossing every last incumbent out on their asses.
Anything less and those infected with greed will pass their disease to the newly elected.
There is no good reason to retain anyone currently holding elected office.
If you want to make exceptions and reelect an incumbent, that's your decision, as it's your vote and you can cast it for whomever you choose.
If you really want to reform our city and county governments, let alone our state and federal governments, you will have to face the fact, sooner, rather than later, that the cesspools that are our governments consist of professional politicians, said professional politicians being the waste that makes our governments cesspools.
We're all too old to restrict ourselves to taking baby steps concerning political reform.
And baby steps have, and will continue to, get us nowhere.
Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Assured that there is no better way than to HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT.
There will be plenty of opportunity to sift through the many citizens who will be presenting themselves as candidates for elected office, once those currently monopolizing said offices are booted, with extreme prejudice, out onto the street, where they belong.
Now is not the time for timidity, nor the time for placid surrender.
Now is the time for the citizen-voter to reclaim their Right-to-Vote and use this right to VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS.
Reelect whoever you choose, but don't kid yourselves, the incumbents are not the people who give a shit about you, not one bit.
No matter how many soothing words come out of their mealy mouths.
Think about just how thoroughly we have all come to accept as normal the feeling that we must all submit to whatever bullshit those in power deem to pile onto our heads.
Think about just how completely we have all been conditioned to pretend that we're not being robbed blind with unnecessary taxations, burdened with asinine rules and regulations, manipulated with a range of lies and propagandas that Stalin, Hitler, et al, would envy.
Throw the bums out and see what happens.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
Bingo.
THROW THE BUMS OUT.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
JUST DO IT.
Not to be rude or anything, but you don't come across as convincing when you keep repeating your mantra, especially when it's done in caps. I certainly think term limits are worth exploring.
I'm hesitant to label anyone all good or all bad, even the person I ran against. Somehow, your proclamation about what everyone should be doing does not come across as convincing. I think you mean well, but you need to develop a better argument if you're going to convince people.
I don't need to develop an argument concerning the dire need for citizens to change the way they vote, to accomplish the long overdue cleansing of our city and county governments, those in office are making the arguments for me.
By their actions and their attitudes, they all, as a whole and as individuals, exude the common aura of rulers, with the voter/citizens being those who are ruled over.
Governments, whether local, as in city, town, village, etc., area-wide, as in county, township, etc., regional, as in state, and national, as in federal, are supposed to exist and function for the sole purpose of benefiting the public, and only the public, that they serve.
Our elected public servants are not genuinely serving us, we are expected to serve them.
And what part of "Reelect whoever you choose..." do you not understand?
You may well be satisfied with the system as it exists, but many of your fellow citizens are not.
You may even like the system as it exists, you may like how our elected officials conduct their business, in the name (only) of the people, you may even be one of those ruler wannabee's who, from time to time, cut deals with those controlling our electoral processes.
You may also be a person of intelligence, who understands the need for the efficient replacement of the crooks, currently holding our publicly elected offices' hostage, with anyone other than those firmly entrenched in power.
You don't come across as convincing, when the most critical thing you can say is that my 'mantra' shouldn't be posted all in capitol letters.
You may be hesitant to 'label' anyone all good or all bad, as am I.
I don't 'label' all incumbents as all good, like the clout hacks do, nor do I 'label' all incumbents all bad, I merely encourage the firing, as in the denying of reelection, to all incumbents, with the qualifier of "Reelect whoever you choose...", for the obvious purpose of breaking the stranglehold both the Republican and Democratic Parties have had on the free, open and fair elections which are an essential part of our Constitutional Rights.
Somehow, your objections concerning my suggested voter action do not come across as convincing.
Somehow, I'm not convinced that you mean well.
Somehow, I think you need to develop a better argument as to why anyone currently holding elected office, whether Legislative, Executive or Judicial, should be reelected.
Those elected to public office should know that they will have to prove their worthiness to be reelected, in the same manner as those seeking to replace them know they have to prove they are worthy of being elected.
Without those in office being held to the same or higher standards as those seeking public office, the voice of the people becomes a mere whisper, easily ignored.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT is the method most effective in raising the voices of the people to a level that cannot be ignored.
You do want the people's voices to be heard, don't you?
Well, don't you?
"You may even like the system as it exists, you may like how our elected officials conduct their business, in the name (only) of the people, you may even be one of those ruler wannabee's who, from time to time, cut deals with those controlling our electoral processes."
I'm not at all satisfied with how the system exists. The current system is set up to favor incumbents in power. My experience has been that business owners are intimidated to give to their current alderman's campaign. Developers are required to give money to the alderman's favorite charity and each deal is done without other developers knowing what has been required of other developers. If some real in depth reporting was done about campaign contributions, the public would be shocked, but that's almost never done. An alderman can make slanderous falsehoods about the challenger on written campaign material and simply put a statement of a constituent on the same piece of propaganda so that there's no need to record that the material was really paid for by the alderman's campaign. They escape accountability. As far as endorsements go.... the public thinks a politician gives an endorsement because of a belief that one candidate is better than the other. That's not the case at all.... endorsements are almost always a pay back for some other favor that's been done. They are practically meaningless. For all practical purposes, when an incumbent loses an election in Chicago, that incumbent is especially lousy. It's almost never a vote for the challenger but almost always a vote against the incumbent.
Here's where I have trouble with your reasoning. So you throw all the incumbents out (and given Stroger's re-election last year, don't hold your breath that the general public will wake up and suddenly hear your message), the system would still be flawed, campaign laws will still be unethical, favors will still be bought, and the next group would also be corrupt.
I'm much more in favor of a system that promotes transparency and high ethical standards. I don't believe there will be a rush for high ethical standards, but I do believe that as the press creates the transparency in campaign financing, it will force politicians to move toward higher ethical standards.
Ben pushes the public to understand the corrupt nature of the TIF system, but I don't think that will get the public to move. It went over the heads of most of the voters in my ward and the press didn't pressure any of us to say where we stood with TIFs and their effects on increased taxes.... including the Reader I might add.
When you follow the money of a lot of different aldermen and their campaigns and see how they are connected to all kinds of "special" favors or fear of retribution, then you might start embarrassing them to do the right thing. Until then, they can rightly hope that the public will ignore the problem with TIFs.
So, is it your opinion that it's better to remain being exploited by those 'devils you know', than to be brave enough to risk being potentially exploited by the 'devils you don't know'?
How about addressing the concept I expressed in the following:
"....I merely encourage the firing, as in the denying of reelection, to all incumbents, with the qualifier of "Reelect whoever you choose...", for the obvious purpose of breaking the stranglehold both the Republican and Democratic Parties have had on the free, open and fair elections which are an essential part of our Constitutional Rights."
How about expressing your thoughts on exactly how we, the citizen/voters, can ever hope that those who've gained the powers of:
Making Law, ie., Legislative Branch, as in Aldermen, County Board members, Legislators
Interpreting/Adjudicating Law, ie., Judicial Branch, as in Judges
Making Policy and Administrating same, ie., Executive Branch, as in Mayor, Governor, President
will EVER do ANYTHING that diminishes their powers to tax and spend, IF we permit, by our actions and our inactions, the SAME people to remain in said elected offices?
Please share with us your opinions on exactly WHY you find it NOT a contradiction for you to state that "I'm much more in favor of a system that promotes transparency and high ethical standards." and yet discourage the citizen/voters from doing what will be the most efficient and effective thing to accomplish same, ie., HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT?
When you play the propaganda game by the rules written by those who created propaganda, for the sole purpose of bullshitting the many, for the benefit of the few, you are no different then the bullshitters.
Don't play the game of the bullshitters.
Don't play games at all.
Democracy is not a game, it's the only hope citizens have of being truly free.
Review the wisdom contained within Our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Understand just how far astray we've gone from the ideas and ideals contained therein.
Promote those ideas and ideals.
Encourage all citizen/voters to understand and apply those ideas and ideals.
If you truly want to live in an Authentic Democracy, not the pathetic sham, bill-of-goods we've been left with today, here in the wonderful County of Crooks and the City That Works for crooks.
I think you would stand a much better chance of winning the lottery two weeks in a row than convincing everyone to think your way. I would have thought the election of Todd Stroger would have been a wake up call for you about how you can expect most voters to respond, but don't let me stop you from trying.
In the meantime, I want to join with others and take steps to get us on the path of major reform. I don't think it will be overnight, but I do think it could work more quickly if the press would help voters with following the money when it comes to campaigns.
"I would have thought the election of Todd Stroger would have been a wake up call for you about how you can expect most voters to respond...."
Actually, the events that inspired me, to imagine a means of solving the problem of crooks ruining our city and county governments, and, thus, burdening most city and county residents with egregiously high taxes and shamefully meager services, were the impending likely reelection of Daley and the fraud committed on the public by Stroger and his father's long time associates.
It's amazing how one can be motivated to think, when faced with what seems to be an insoluble and urgent problem.
The problem being how to form a voting strategy that would be effective at by-passing the many obstacles created by the entrenched, incumbent party loyalists, whether Democrat or Republican.
Thinking about this leads to determining what those obstacles are and what method can be employed to circumvent them.
Circumvent them meaning to neutralize and render impotent the many means by which our supposedly authentic Democracy has been subverted into the sham and mockery that it is.
So I asked myself some questions and discovered the answers to same.
A few of these questions were:
1) Why have so many citizen/voters abandoned being participants in our city and county electoral processes?
2) Why have so many citizen/voters decided not to even bother registering to vote, let alone vote on election days?
3) Why do my fellow citizen/voters seem to believe that, though they know our city and county governments are infested with incompetents, liars, thieves and cynical, self-serving manipulators, there's not a damn thing that they, the citizen/voters, can do about it?
4) How have these same, incumbent machine hacks been so successful in discouraging so many citizen.voters to give up on the Democratic process, to give up on their Constitutionally guaranteed Right to Vote?
5) What past experiences have resulted in this decision, by so many citizen/voters, to resign themselves to mediocre, and worse, governance?
6) What un-American and anti-Democratic activities have those infesting our city, county and state governments been engaged in, to produce such an un-American spirit in the many citizen/voters living their lives within this city, county and state?
7) What might be done to restore, in my fellow citizen/voters, that spirit so uniquely American, that spirit of appreciating their natural Rights, as enumerated in our Constitution and Bill of Rights?
The similarities between the rule of royal dictatorship, some 230+ years ago, from which our forefathers rebelled and rejected, and our current sham excuse for Democracy, here in Crook County and the City That Works (for crooks), is uncanny.
Professional politicians are the source of this sham, this fraud, this travesty.
The founders of our country anticipated the rise of professional politicians attempting to dominate, and, thus, control, our Democracy.
Their anticipation resulted in the creation of the three branches of government, Legislative, Executive and Judicial, with the intent and belief that the elected members of these three branches would function in a natural state of constant competition, thus, preventing any possibility of a minority of citizens wielding concentrated power over all citizens, as was the case in England at that time.
What they did not anticipate was that there would likely ever be so complete an incestuous collusion between the persons elected to all three branches at any one time.
Not on the Federal level, nor on the State, County or City levels.
They apparently could not see far enough into the future to know the one weakness in their newly created form of government, namely, that any form of government can be corrupted when enough of those elected are corrupted individuals.
They also could not have imagined how docile and compliant most citizens would become.
My humble attempt to encourage the application of the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT voting strategy is meant to inspire, in those docile and compliant citizen/voters, a revived sense of what being an American is.
Because resigning oneself to being ruled is not what being an American is.
It's what being a servant of rulers is.
Hardly what most Americans think they are, but, indeed, what most residents of this city and county have become.
Indeed.
But don't allow uncertainty about challengers to paralyze those voting muscles I'm encouraging all citizens to flex.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT is, as has been stated numerous times, a voting strategy designed to empower the citizens with a means to use their inherent Right to Vote to remove the cancerous individuals currently making our city and county governments diseased to the point of near death.
Those citizens who are willing to make the efforts necessary to discern the difference between a professional politician, aka political hack, and an honest human being seeking to be elected to public office, are absolutely free to vote for whomever they choose, preferably the honest human being.
Those citizens who find it difficult to figure out which candidates running for elected office are honest human beings and which candidates are 'professional political hacks' can apply the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT voting strategy with the understanding that their votes will, at the very least, accomplish one thing, that thing being the removal of the present crop of political hacks currently infecting our city and county governments.
The first step in curing our governments of the disease infecting them, said disease being the thorough infestation of our governments by said professional political hacks, is the removal of same.
This removal, like the removal of cancerous tumors, is unlikely to be totally achieved in a single, election.
But the alternative, to do nothing, will never accomplish anything, other than to resign ourselves to 'live' with these cancerous tumors.
These cancerous tumors are mostly malignant, rarely benign.
They drain the economic life out of every 'common' citizen.
They are like vampires, feeding off the living, sucking the economic life out of every hard working, honest citizen.
Will the application of the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT voting strategy allow some political hacks to be elected?
Probably, though, if enough honest human beings manage to get on the upcoming Primary ballot, the odds concerning the 'vote according to ballot position' part of the HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT strategy, will favor those honest human beings.
The process by which our city and county governments have become so thoroughly corrupted has taken generations, thus, the cure for this diseased condition will take more than a single election.
Every journey has a beginning.
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT can be that beginning.
If the 'masses' wish it to be.