Why These Endorsements?

The FOP released its endorsements for the upcoming election: (click for larger view)

 

But then someone said that there were a couple of these names that had been seen before - as in "seen voting for the SAFE-T Act" ....that disastrous piece of crap legislation that releases repeat violent felons back onto the street every single day where they can commit more crimes, including lighting people on fire on the CTA and killing police officers.

So we went hunting around the internet and found the voting records for the SAFE-T Act:

 

Yellow voted FOR the SAFE-T Act, Red voted AGAINST it. Someone of the names have moved on to other jobs since that vote.

Anyone know why the FOP is endorsing these incompetent criminal supporting assholes?

Who NOT to Vote For

Someone posted this link in the comments. It lists all the candidates currently running for the elected Chicago Board of Education.

But most importantly, it lists all of the candidates currently endorsed by the CTU, meaning that they are bought and paid for stooges of the teachers who will vote to raise your taxes, give CTU people massive undeserved pay raises and continuously fail to actually educate the children of Chicago.

If you want to see a better list of candidates, use this one:

 

It was provided by a group that actually did the research and believes that these candidates provide the best opportunities to wrest control of CPS away from Davis-Gates and the CTU and place it back into the hands of responsible adults. 

Is every candidates perfect? Of course not. But these provide an opportunity that hasn't ever existed before. 

CWB Judge Article Part 2

CWB has their second article up about judicial retention. This one covers six judges including a few of our most disliked, untrusted and incompetent DEI types:

• Every four years, Cook County voters cast ballots, deciding whether circuit court judges should be retained or not. It is rare for a sitting judge not to achieve the 60% retention threshold.

  Below are brief biographies, background information, and links to relevant cases involving Cook County judges up for retention during the current cycle who handle criminal matters in CWB Chicago’s coverage area. The first half of our list is available here.

They cover:

• Robert Kuzas, a former CPD member who seems to have a number of fans in our comment section, but who is also politically connected as he was the one who cleared Prickwrinkle's son and has a disturbing habit of drastically reducing bail amounts so violent criminals get out to commit more crimes;
• Teresa Molina-Gonzalez, a former prosecutor who said, "I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to" before releasing the repeat felon who lit a woman on fire on the Blue line; 
• and everyone's favorite incompetent DEI hire, Tyria Walton who released the woman who attempted to murder a CPD Officer with his own squad car, then accused CPD Officers of calling in threats to her without (A) filing a police report, (B) making a CR complaint with COPA, (C) notifying the Chief Judge or (D) notifying the Sheriff Protective Detail. In fact, the only notification she made regarding all of these "threats" was her campaign website.

Obviously, we're going to recommend against voting for a single judge, but go read the two linked articles up top and make your own decisions. 

Take the five minutes to read everything and then spend the sixty seconds it takes to vote NO on at least a few of these incompetent assholes.

CWB Judge List - Part One

The crew over at CWB has a list of judges that you ought to do your due diligence on:

• CWB Chicago does not endorse or recommend judges or candidates for political office. In the past, we have provided subscribers with information about Cook County judges who handle criminal matters during biannual judicial retention election cycles. This year, we are publishing that information for all readers.

  Below are brief biographies, background information, and links to relevant cases involving Cook County judges up for retention during the current cycle who handle criminal matters in CWB Chicago’s coverage area.

They list five judges and (being actual media) try to show good and bad sides of them all. The good sides are some of the sterner sentences we've been amazed at, but those are rarities. The bad sides include kowtowing to the SAFE-T Act inanities that endanger citizens far too often.

Regular readers know that we recommend against ever voting "yes" on a single judge, if only to send a message to the Machine that we're getting damn sick and tired of their catering to the criminal element. Especially DEI judges Walton and Lyke - if you can't be bothered to vote "no" a few dozen times, at least vote against these two assholes.

But if there aren't changes at some point, what's currently happening in France, Germany, England, Ireland and other parts of Europe might make appearances here - and this side of the Atlantic might be a bit more....demonstrative of their displeasure

One Month

We're about a month out from Election Day, and while we don't think much is going to change locally, there is one place that a concerted effort can send a message to the political class that there better be some changes.

• judicial retention

 And believe it or not, in 2024 more judges than ever ended up on the verge of losing their seats:

• Tuesday was the last day provisional ballots can be counted and it appears one Cook County Circuit Court judge will be losing their seat. Shannon O’Malley gained only 58% Yes for Retention votes. All members of the Alliance of Bar Associations rated Judge O’Malley not recommended for retention. In addition to questions about his meeting residency requirements, the Council had concerns about his courtroom management, where avoidable delays can mean that a child remains in a group home, psychiatric hospital, or other out-of-home placement longer than necessary.

  Most judges hovered around 73% yes votes on their retention and no judge gained more than 78%. Five additional judges did not break 65% approval ratings: Kathy M. Flanagan, E. Kenneth Wright, Jr., Maura Slattery Boyle, Lisa Ann Marino,  and Ieshia Gray. An additional seven judges did not break 70%. In 2020, eight judges achieved less than 70% approval, with five below 65% and two not retaining their seats. 

Cook county voters are literally on the cusp of sending a message, maybe a few hundred votes in many races. For every four "No" votes, a judge needs to get six more "Yes" votes than previously counted. A couple hundred "No" votes would sink more judges in a single election than have been removed in decades past. 

It literally takes thirty seconds to vote "No" and convey your disgust with the system. Justice isn't going to grind to a halt without these idiots - has anyone seen a judge put in a full day at any point in the past century? There are plenty of them to pick up the slack and plenty of opportunity for judge bitch Beach to make temporary appointments if needed. 

Take the thirty seconds and vote "No."

Heavy Lifting - DONE

Many commentators have said they'd like us to compile a list of judges who should be denied retention. The trouble with that is we have advocated for the wholesale removal of ALL judges up for retention for the entire lifetime of this blog, and in fact, our entire adult voting life. That makes it simple. All judges are crooked and/or incompetent, so all deserve a "NO" vote.

But there are other elections that might benefit from someone doing actual research and weighing the pros v cons of electing certain people to certain positions. One of these elections is the upcoming School Board elections, and our friends over at the Contrarian have come up with a list of qualified candidates who are NOT beholden to the CTU, but rather (in most cases) the taxpayer and responsible spending on education.

These candidates would hamstring Prickwrinkle, Conehead and Davis-Gates from further spending increases and wasteful spending of scarce taxpayer dollars.

First, get yourself registered to vote. Second, go vote. Third, vote for these candidates listed and start getting involved. 

Another Useless Judge

Election Day fast approaching and the courts need to be cleared out:

• A woman told police a man touched her on a CTA bus, and police say they have now caught the man they were looking for. But a Cook County judge has refused to keep him in jail or place him on an ankle monitor, according to court records.

  Last month, Chicago police released a community alert including a CTA surveillance image, asking the public to help identify a man wanted in connection with an incident aboard a bus in the 1200 block of West Harrison Street around 4:40 p.m. on June 3. Police said the man pretended to sleep before touching a 31-year-old woman’s leg and then performing a lewd act.

  A CPD report went into more detail, saying the man exited the bus after touching the woman, looked back at her, placed his hand inside his pants and made a lewd motion.

  Prosecutors allege the man in the CTA image is Cesar Hernandez-Aleman, 29. His CPD arrest report says the victim identified him in a photo lineup, and police say they also used “electronic” identification techniques. He is charged with aggravated battery of a transit passenger and public indecency.

  Prosecutors filed a petition seeking to detain Hernandez-Aleman ahead of trial. But records show Judge Robert Kuzas declined to keep him in custody and did not place him on electronic monitoring either.

Gee, it's a good thing he wasn't lighting the woman on fire.

Or stabbing her in the neck. 

Though he might still find a chance. 

Vote "NO" on all judges. 

Too Stupid to Vote

Anyone else find it amusing that the party that spent the last couple of decades telling everyone that requiring ID to vote was racist because black and brown people were too dumb to....

• use the internet,
• locate government offices and
• get an ID, social security card, birth certificate or passport

....have started telling women that THEY'RE too stupid to get a copy of birth certificate, a marriage certificate  and/or a divorce certificate so they're going to be unable to vote?

Democrats think their voters are morons. 

Sometimes, they're correct, but many are waking up to this degrading behavior that is meant to maintain the left's control over fraud.

Political Losses

From the Contrarian X/Twitter feed:

• Kat Abughazaleh loses the Illinois 9th.
  
  
  Junaid Ahmed loses the Illinois 8th.
  
  
  Kina Collins loses the Illinois 7th.
  
  
  Joey Ruzevich loses the Illinois 6th. 
  
  
  Robert Peters loses the Illinois 2nd.
  
  
  Progressivism loses in every race in Illinois. 

On one hand, this is good that they got knocked out in the primary

On the other, this is pointless because these are "safe" seats and the democrat that won the primary will likely still be elected.....and that is bad because they'll still vote the "progressive" agenda because they're too far gone to do anything else.

And speaking of too far gone, what was this?

• Brendan Reilly ran against Prickwrinkle for Cook County Board president and at the last polls before election day, was trailing by 20+ points the entire race - but that didn't stop Lodge 7 from making a $100,000 donation to what was obviously a losing effort;
• Stephanie Kofowit ran for Comptroller and was pooling poorly - and the Lodge threw $25,000 to someone who ended up finishing dead last .

Is the Political Action Committee going to be fired for these wasted dollars?

How much will they give Conehead and Fata$$ next? 

Election Day

Machine politicians across the city were relieved to finally see some snow and chilly temps - it keeps the un-interested voters home (nothing will stop the dedicated Machine people) and makes anything shady easier to pull off.

A couple suggestions for those going to vote in Cook county:

• if you pull a republican primary ballot, you'll note that it's pretty much empty except for the statewide offices. That's because the republican party in Illinois has given up on Cook County to the extent they spend almost no money (because they have so little) and send out maybe two mailers.
• if you pull a democrat ballot, that's where the action is. Tens of dozens of races with hundreds of names for everything under the sun. When we go that direction, it's usually to vote against certain names. A mostly pointless exercise, but fun none the less.

Remember to always vote "NO" on each and every judge. Yeah, they'll be appointed later if they don't get retained by vote, but it's the thought that counts.

And as we've reminded coppers for years who think that by voting they're more likely to be called for jury duty - the state hasn't used the voter rolls for jury summonses for years now - they use the Drivers Licenses (motor voter ring a bell?)

We'll still bet turnout is under 50% again. 

Mayor Foreclosure? (UPDATE from Ja'Mal)

Jamal Green keeps making noises about running for mayor.

Someone says Jamal is in the midst of foreclosure proceedings on a home in Beverly:

We suppose if Conehead can get elected while not paying a water bill, why couldn't Jamal get elected for not paying a mortgage? 

Seems almost like a requirement at this point. Plus, the experience of being involved in a bankruptcy might come in handy.

UPDATE: Ja'Mal Green (allegedly) appeared in our comment section:

• I do appreciate the kindness in you guys words on here. But fortunately, I’m not in “foreclosure” for not making payments. A company who purchased the bank who owns the note who I received my mortgage through has legal issues and closed. They did not forward my payments to who purchased them and somehow they thought it was my fault. Fortunately, they are dismissing and it’s resolved. As I own many properties, trust me, I’m fine. Love you all!

We're popular.

What Changed?

Does no one remember history? 

This was April of 2019:

• A state lawmaker who represents the city’s West Side introduced legislation Monday that would require all police officers in Illinois to be schooled on the intersection of law, race and racism in the hopes of teaching officers “the culture and the lifestyles of different communities and people.”

  “If we want to change the behavior of police, we have to educate them,” state Rep. La Shawn Ford said.

  The West Side Democrat said requiring officers to be taught critical race theory is about “tackling racism” and “becoming aware of our very own shortcomings and ignorance about our peers.”

And who was FOP president back then?

• But the head of the Chicago union for rank-and-file police officers said the bill is “redundant and ridiculous.”

  “They’re going to get officers killed with this constant nonsense of ‘race, race, race,’’’ said John Catanzara Jr., the president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police. “You’re gonna have people so paranoid to do their job they’re going to be worried about race more than they’re worried about reacting to a threat.”

And six years later, FOP endorses him?

Why?

Odd Endorsements

The FOP came out with endorsements for the upcoming primary (click for larger view):

Wasn't LaShawn Ford indicted for 17 felony counts of bank fraud a few years ago? And didn't he plead to one of the counts to avoid an embarrassing trial?

And this Kwame fool - wasn't he instrumental in pushing the SAFE-T on Illinois, endangering citizens and cops alike?

Next thing you know, they'll be endorsing Conehead because he took great care of ILLEGAL ALIENS with money that could have funded the pension and services to actual citizens. 

Must be Election Season

And the Machine has begun a low-intensity campaign to thin out the field:

• The chief executive of a major Cook County contractor alleged longtime county Treasurer Maria Pappas repeatedly subjected company executives to bullying, threats and “obscenity-filled tirades,” according to a copy of a letter obtained by WBEZ.

  For months, Pappas has blamed Texas-based Tyler Technologies for technological problems that delayed property tax revenue payments to school districts, local governments and other taxing bodies across the county.

  But in a letter Monday to Pappas, Tyler CEO H. Lynn Moore Jr. bemoaned what he called the “scapegoating” of the company, which has been working for years to upgrade the county’s property tax system. Moore alleged that the treasurer has shown a “lack of accountability” for mistakes by her own office in her efforts to “deflect blame and divert attention to us.”

This is in regard to the property tax bills being months and month late, along with almost $200 million in refunds being delayed because of computer issues with the switchover to a new program. 

Pappas has already replied, saying she's fighting for taxpayers. 

Prickwrinkle says she's referring the complaint to the county Ethics Board.

Allegations like these go nowhere, but do provide juicy gossip for the campaign flyers that will be going out over the summer. 

Pappas is obviously not the choice of the Prickwrinkle Machine. 

Anyone Want This Job?

This might explain part of the reason we have so many crooked, incompetent and unqualified judges on the bench here:

• On paper, Cook County circuit judge is a great job. They make $258,000 a year, hold extraordinary power, and almost never get fired or even disciplined.

  But fewer and fewer attorneys are seeking the post.

  For the second straight judicial primary election, less than half of the seats up for grabs March 17 drew more than one candidate, continuing a decadeslong slide in competition. Observers have cited factors including the cost of campaigning, increased public scrutiny on judicial elections, and a Democratic Party that dominates local politics and discourages competition against its chosen candidates.

So few people want a job that pays over a quarter-million a year?

That's how you end up with candidates like this:

• All four vacancies in the 13th subcircuit — which covers the far Northwest suburbs — are uncontested. The candidate for one of those seats is Brittany Michelle Pedersen, who has been charged with driving under the influence three times, though one case was dismissed and two were reduced to reckless driving. Pedersen ran unsuccessfully for judge in Kane County in 2020 and 2022, receiving negative ratings from the Illinois State Bar Association, before moving in with her mother in Cook County and running again.

  She told Injustice Watch, “I believe that people deserve second chances, and third chances, and maybe sometimes a fourth.”

If that's what she thinks for after racking up three DUI arrests for herself, imagine what she'd be releasing back onto the streets.

Or like the incompetent Tyria Walton leveling accusations that she was threatened by CPD Officers, but never filed a complaint, nor registered the threat with Cook County Sheriffs Protective Detail and somehow coerced the FOP president to remain silent after this egregious slander. 

Vote "NO" on all judges all the time. 

Now They're Concerned?

Is there an election coming up or something?

• Gov. JB Pritzker set off a chain reaction last November when he told reporters he’d be open to changes in the SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail and replaced it with a new pre-trial release/retention system, among other things.

  Pritzker was asked about the case of a woman, Bethany MaGee, who was horrifically set ablaze while riding on a Chicago commuter train.

  No direct link between the crime and the SAFE-T Act actually existed, but the news media pounced on Pritzker’s statement that he’d be open to changes, and several downstate county sheriffs and others jumped up with their own suggestions (although it seemed like at least some were mostly upset about the loss of revenues from cash bail).

Granted, this is part of a subcontracted opinion column, but obviously, crime is among the concerns of voters so democrats have to pretend to address it prior to the election season.

Voter Fraud Footage?

Cameras are so ubiquitous nowadays that people forget that they're there.

Like this vote counter in California. Seems she forgot and ran the same pile of ballots through the counting machine THREE times, all on video:

• Link Here
  

One has to wonder how much closer elections might be if all the fraud was eliminated, even though democrats tell us it never happens.

It's Working

Small steps:

• One Cook County judge was losing his bid to keep his job and two more were in peril as vote counting continued after Tuesday’s election.

  Shannon O’Malley — one of two judges facing questions about whether they live in Cook County — was just shy of the 60% of the vote required to keep his seat as of Wednesday, with votes left to count in a few dozen precincts and mail-in ballots not yet tabulated.

  In addition to O’Malley, E. Kenneth Wright Jr. had 62.8 % and Ieshia Gray had 62.1%, per unofficial totals released by elections officials.

  All three judges in peril were the subject of Injustice Watch investigations before the election.

Make them earn it. Make them pay a price for their bullshit.

Make them the Kackler.

Pension Board Election

From the comments:

• Pension Trustee election results

  ....representing Investigator, Patrolman, or rank equivalent members:

  Detective Brock Merck: 933 votes

  Officer Nora Walker: 438 votes

  ....representing Annuitant members:

  Thomas Lonergan: 2,964 votes

  Rosemarie Giambalvo: 1,745 votes

1,300 votes for the Patrolman rep? What's that participation rate....under 20%?

Not that the retiree turnout was that much better - under 40%?

Ballot "Security"

This is what passes for ballot security in Cook County elections:

Those are early voting ballot boxes from Skokie being loaded into what appears to be a taxicab, for transport to 69 W. Washington. No police around and (we're told) no Cook County election official on hand to verify chain-of-custody.

But don't worry, they probably only made one or two stops along the way.