New Instagram Reel

877-DUES-NOW

•  Instagram link here

And as usual, you DO NOT need a social media account to view and sign along with the reel. Just "x" out the log in box and the video plays. 

Was there a meeting this past Wednesday? Any drama? 

Vote Damnit.

Election season is underway and The Contrarian has another article up with what we think is the only election that really has a chance of upsetting the usual Machine BS - the School Board:

• Of the many races in the November 3rd election in Chicago, none is more important or the most contentious than the one at the very bottom of the ballot: The election for Chicago’s first fully elected school board and an end to mayoral control of the public schools. This pivotal moment will determine not only the academic and financial direction of the Chicago Public Schools and their 304,687 children, it will also set the course for who will ultimately wield power in the City of Chicago.

  Depending on the outcome, the impact will extend beyond the interests of children and schools. Chicago’s politics and power structure will go through a radical shift that may persist for generations. Make no mistake, this election is the precursor to the February mayoral election. Yet most voters aren’t even aware these races are taking place, let alone understand the ramifications of their results.

  Chicago’s schools have historically been at the center of power. The power brokers of the old machine utilized schools as an access point to voters and, in some instances, served as patronage hubs. PTAs, fathers’ clubs and local school councils were often connected to local aldermen as a means to reach parents and influence voter turnout. Seems quaint by today’s standards of school politics.

  The political interests that govern the Chicago Public Schools today have a different agenda. They seek not only to maintain control over the schools as a power base, but also intend to indoctrinate students with an extreme leftist political dogma. Their ideology aligns with their socialist agenda, which they aim to promote directly from the schoolhouse to the fifth floor of City Hall, is foisted onto our communities, and is financed by you, the taxpayers of Chicago. Just check your upcoming property tax bill.

  This is not hyperbole. It is the reality of Chicago’s political landscape.

This election will have a direct impact on future property tax hikes, so it's actually a big deal. It's so important that the powers-that-be have hidden it at the bottom of everything when they figure voters will be too tired or bored to pay attention to what they're actually voting for.

The Contrarian article is extensive and closes with the poster we've had up a couple times already (click for larger version):

 

After you vote for these candidates, make sure you voted "NO" on a bunch of judges, too.

E.M. Success!!! (not)

That judge Bitch Beech and his EM program are working about as well as the SAFE-T Act and ShotSpotter:

• A man charged with robbing a Lurie Children’s Hospital employee on a Blue Line train spent months on the streets and on the CTA despite facing charges in three counties, being wanted on multiple arrest warrants, and wearing an electronic ankle monitor — until concerned passengers tipped off police the old-fashioned way: they told officers he was smoking a crack pipe on the train.

  Gregory Blount, 34, was ordered detained pending trial on an armed robbery charge this week by Judge Luciano Panici Jr. But his path to that courtroom took a circuitous, months-long route, leaving him wanted in Cook, DuPage, and Kane counties.

Just to review:

• out on a felony charge
• wanted in three counties 
• wearing a "judge Bitch" brand ankle monitor 
• enjoying a felonious crack fix on the CTA in violation of all sorts of "No Smoking" signs 

And it was the sign violation that did him in after law enforcement officials in three counties couldn't find him.

He was also arrested SEVEN times since last September, while warrants were in effect and while additional warrants were lodged for missing subsequent court dates. 

Great system. 

ShotSpotter Coming Back?

Over two years and almost one-hundred dead and wounded without police or fire responses:

• More than two years after Mayor Brandon Johnson deactivated ShotSpotter, the city’s gunshot detection network, despite opposition from his handpicked police superintendent, two-thirds of the City Council, and 70% of city residents, his chief procurement officer on Tuesday announced that the administration is “preparing to launch a pilot program to evaluate a range of violence interruption and public safety technologies, including gunshot detection systems.”

  Sharla Roberts sent her letter to Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), head of the City Council’s Committee on Contracting and Oversight Equity, shortly before the committee held a hearing to question why Johnson’s administration has yet to deploy a replacement for ShotSpotter, even though the city completed a request for proposals more than a year ago.

  Nobody from the administration appeared at the hearing to answer those questions. Aldermen expressed frustration with the lack of progress and skepticism about Tuesday’s announcement.

The aldercreatures are expressing doubt:

• “Breaking news,” Ald. Matthew O’Shea (19th) tweeted. “The Johnson Administration notified WTTW they would begin testing a new gunshot detection system. Unfortunately, they didn’t notify or consult with the [Chicago Police Department] or [Office of Public Safety Administration].”

  Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) questioned the timing and sincerity of the announcement.

  “The fact that he announced this today when City Council was poised to demand action is just a smokescreen,” Lopez said. “[Johnson] has no intention of acquiring any technology that catches criminals.”

Conehead isn't looking to capture criminals.

Conehead needs to capture a large part of that 70% of city residents (i.e. voters) that WANT ShotSpotter back in some way, shape or form.

This is a purely mercenary decision. 

Time for "No Weed" Signs?

Time for another useless Ordinance that would provide the City's union print shop with more work:

• Maybe next time he’ll wait until he gets off the train to light up. A Red Line passenger’s complaint about a fellow rider smoking led to the discovery of a loaded gun and four hefty bags of marijuana, Chicago police said.

  Aurelio De Jesus, 19, was riding a Red Line train on the North Side around 5:30 p.m. Thursday, October 15, when another passenger became irritated that he was smoking, according to Chicago police. As the train approached Belmont station, the passenger alerted Chicago cops riding in another train car, prompting them to investigate, CPD said.

  When the train stopped at Belmont, officers stepped off and allegedly spotted De Jesus smoking inside another car. They ordered him onto the platform, where he “began behaving erratically and attempted to prevent officers from searching him,” according to CPD.

  That’s when officers noticed a bulge in his waistband, which allegedly turned out to be a loaded gun. After taking De Jesus into custody, officers searched his backpack and found four generously sized bags of what police described as “suspected cannabis,” CPD said Tuesday.

We've all seen the "No Smoking" signs. We've made fun of the "No Guns" signs for years seeing as how everyone on the CTA seems to have one. We've wondered if there should be "No Knife" signs and maybe a few "No Lighting Passengers on Fire" signs. 

Had anyone suggested "No Weed" signs? 

This Guy Had a Gun?

Seriously?

• A suburban man who was charged with murdering his infant daughter in 2018 but ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in that case is now accused of firing a handgun inside the Kluczynski Federal Building parking garage downtown.

  Edmund Horvath, 36, of Lynwood, is charged with possessing a firearm after being convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday.

Those charges should have kept him from getting a gun, right? That's why dumbocrats pass all those laws, right? And want everything registered, serialized and locked up empty, right? 

Of course, the gun was stolen, negating all of the above.

 

Another Payroll Screw-Up?

Everyone's OT is missing?

• ...was anyone’s OT missing from their Oct 22 greenslip?
• Everyone’s is missing. There’s AMC message regarding this fuck up on the part of the city.

Nice to see the incompetency over at Payroll hasn't been fixed since we left. But don't worry - they'll have a new check cut by the 22nd....maybe.

Anyone know why is it always the Police checks that get f#$%ed up and not some other Department with the ability to take job actions against the City?

Conehead Toast?

How does that movie quote go?

•  We just don't recognize life's most significant moments while they're happening. Back then I thought, "Well, there'll be other days." I didn't realize that that was the only day.

We might have just witnessed Conehead's "only day."

• The long-simmering feud between Mayor Brandon Johnson and half of the coalition of progressive unions that helped put him in office boiled over Tuesday, triggering a pivotal endorsement for Illlinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias in the race for mayor.

  Service Employees International Union Locals 1 and 73 threw their formidable support behind Giannoulias, the presumed frontrunner with a campaign war chest of $19.2 million. SEIU affiliates together contributed over $4.5 million to Johnson’s 2023 mayoral campaign. The union also provided scores of campaign workers and materials

This is huge for a couple reasons. 

First up is the amount of campaign contributions now headed Giannoulias' way - millions of dollars.

Second is the campaign "volunteers" from door bell ringers to poll watchers to telephone operators calling to remind you to go vote and such.

Lastly, this is a rather large fracture between the SEIU and the CTU which has been going on for years. It finally boiled over and the CTU will either have to make up the money and volunteer shortfalls for Conehead or scale back expectations. 

The current betting is they're not going to throw money at a losing proposition.

Accuracy Down to 10%

And here we thought the extermination rate among the musical community was indicative of better accuracy among shooters:

• Chicago rapper Bloodhound Q50 was struck five times as armed gunmen fired 50 times during an ambush last month at a Fuller Park gas station, according to a newly released autopsy report.

  The report shows the 22-year-old rapper, born Mikquale T. Cooper, was shot in his head, neck, back and left shoulder. No arrests have been reported.

  About 50 casings — some from rifles, some from 9mm handguns — were recovered around the BP gas station at 4248 S. Wentworth Ave., according to the report from the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

We're going to attribute part of this reduction in accuracy to the widespread use of "switches." Sure, you can get a lot of rounds off in a short amount of time, but accuracy is what gets the job done....and with a lot less collateral damage. Sollozzo and McCluskey some to mind, and that was in a relatively busy restaurant.

Nice Hospital

This is a health facility and a Level One Trauma Center - you know, someplace that ought to be clean at the very least:

• Patients at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center won’t be eating food prepared in the on-site cafeteria for awhile after it failed a health inspection that found more than 200 live cockroaches in multiple food preparation areas.

  The inspection, on Friday, found cockroaches near the grill, fryer, steamer and storage areas of the cafeteria at the medical center at 836 W. Wellington Ave. in Lake View, according to Chicago Department of Public Health records.

  “Black slime” also built up on an ice machine and dripped onto ice cubes being served to patients and other customers, records show.

That doesn't really instill a sense of confidence in their ability to maintain a sterile environment. Bugs are mobile....they don't stay in one place.

It Ain't Just the Birds

Conehead's administration has seen the highest death rate among whales in recorded history!

• On a recent morning, Shedd Aquarium President and CEO Bridget Coughlin stood in front of a pool filled with six frolicking beluga whales, insisting that the institution, where five other whales have died in recent weeks, is not in crisis.

  Coughlin, who has a doctorate in biochemistry, also pushed back against a growing public perception that the aquarium might have bitten off more than it could chew in adding 10 more belugas to a population of eight resident whales.

The doctor doth protest too much - a 50% death rate among new arrivals is even worse than the death rate among established people (and folks) on the west side. There hasn't been a blood-letting like this since Ahab was sailing the Pequod with his 140 body guards crew

And the sad part is, with a little effort, there would be more lib-tards protesting the imported whale deaths than the the deaths over a summer weekend. 

Let the Games Begin

Nominating petitions have begun to be filed:

• Chicago voters are starting to get a glimpse at how the many candidates vying to be their next mayor are measuring up — literally — against one another.

  Mayoral contenders wheeled in tall stacks of thousands of nominating petitions, submitting them to election workers ready to size them up with wooden rulers at a Downtown office building Monday. It’s the start to the weeklong filing period for the February election that will help whittle down the crowded race for mayor by filtering out those who fail to collect the 12,500 valid signatures needed on those petitions to make the ballot.

So far, the following have filed for the mayoral election in February:

• Alexi Giannoulias
• Mike Quigley
• Willie Wilson
• John Kelly
• Matt Brewer

Conehead did not file petitions. Neither did Pappas or Mendoza.

And there are some polling numbers out (no link for these):

• Giannoulias was the choice of 25% of likely voters, according to the new poll, ahead of Johnson at 13.6%. Mendoza (9.5%) and Wilson (6%) were the only others to top 5% in the polling, while 34% of likely voters said they’re still unsure of who they would vote for.

55% of those surveyed weren't at all enthusiastic about Conehead, so his numbers will probably stay exactly where they are. 

That 34% undecided isn't likely to put anyone over the 50%-plus-1 threshold to avert a runoff.

Bodies Piling Up

Bad weekend, hundreds dead:

• As millions of migratory birds passed through Chicago over the weekend, at least 1,000 of them ended up dead and injured after colliding into buildings.

  The fall bird migration hits its peak in October, and Chicago sits along one of North America’s biggest migratory paths. And thanks to favorable weather over the weekend, over 5 million migratory birds passed through Cook County Friday night alone.

  About 25 volunteers with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors were out Saturday collecting dead and injured birds, said Annette Prince, the organization’s director.

Wait.....birds? We thought it said....nevermind.

Damn....back to regularly scheduled programing. 

Changes Continue

Someone made a call to Fred to land some spots for the old Eddie "look at my Johnson" Johnson crew:

• Captain T. Edwards (002) to Commander 007
• Lt. G. Hamilton BCT/Narcotics (EJ’s main squeeze) to Commander Academy/TSG.  

There are also six captains-in-training.

Anyone else amused that a squeeze Lt who pretty much hasn't served a day in Patrol, keeps getting moved around, this time to a do-nothing command spot?

And speaking of lieutenants, here's the assignments of the most recent promotees:

Don't expect a few of these to spend any actual time in Patrol. 

Double Standard....Again

Another SAFE-T Act success story:

• “I stoned his ass!” Terry Strother told Chicago police as they handcuffed him after he allegedly struck a 77-year-old New Hampshire tourist in the head with a brick downtown last month. The 50-year-old repeat offender was on pretrial release in two cases at the time, just days after a judge refused prosecutors’ request to revoke his release, court records show.

  Strother, 50, was arrested nine times in 2025 and eight times so far in 2026, raising questions about how Cook County’s criminal justice system repeatedly allowed him back onto the streets despite a pattern of arrests, missed court dates and brief jail stays.

Seventeen arrests in less than two years, and still out attacking people, including a tourist who will tell all his friends and relatives what a $hithole Chicago is.

And then, the CWB drags Crimesha back into the spotlight:

• His final arrest of 2025 came in the 700 block of North State Street, where police said he threw “warm coffee” into the face of a 31-year-old woman. He was charged with misdemeanor battery, unlike a man who threw root beer on a woman who happened to be then-Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and was charged with and convicted of felony aggravated battery in a public place.

Funny how that happens.

Illinois Still Shrinking

Kind of like Porkulous, but without the GLP-1 assistance:

• Illinois is on pace to lose its second congressional seat because of population loss under Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

  Since Pritzker was elected in 2018, Illinois has lost more than 168,000 residents. In a recent poll of Illinois voters, more than half said they would leave the state if given the opportunity.

  Of those who would leave, almost 69% cited taxes as a top one or two issue facing Illinois. In 2024, 95% of those leaving Illinois fled to states with lower tax burdens.

  Pritzker entered office as Illinois was already struggling with outmigration. He identified reversing it as a goal in his 2019 economic plan. Nearly eight years later, that has not happened.

It might have something to do with the 61 or 63 separate tax increases signed by Fata$$ over the past couple of years.

Every single state that borders Illinois (Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky and Indiana), not to mention Michigan has experienced population growth. 

The ONLY state in the entire Midwest that is shrinking is Illinois. It ain't the weather. It certainly isn't the sports teams. And it isn't just democrats - Minnesota gained as much population as Illinois lost. It's taxes and business-unfriendly environs.

Contrarian School Board Endorsements

The Contrarian believes that there is an opportunity - a rare thing in Chicago politics - for voters to effect change to the out-of-control schools....and they might be correct:

• On November 3^rd, voters in Chicago will head to the polls to elect members of the Board of Education. A seminal moment for Chicago, for the first time in history residents will enter the voting booth and cast ballots for a Board elected entirely by the citizenry.

  The ultimate legislative body of Chicago’s public schools, members of this panel oversee the strategic direction of Chicago’s schools and the administration of district finances and assets. The Board’s principles of governance are: Defining policies and setting objectives for securing resources, the appointment of CPS officials sufficient to meet the objectives and monitoring of progress towards those objectives. The Board has stewardship, under law, of CPS’ affairs and ensures suitable processes are in place for the management of the public schooling system.

  While it may be tempting to dismiss the importance of these elections, voters must take heed to Board races. Chicago Public Schools remain in a dire state. A schooling system deeply mired in complex problems, CPS continues to suffer miserable student outcomes, financial dislocation, administrative bloat, and declining enrollment. While CPS’ problems are profoundly depressing, the situation is not hopeless. The predicament in which CPS finds itself is curable through steady work carried out by probing minds determined to advance a set of constructive, long-term solutions.

  The urgency of the present crisis at CPS requires sober, independent-minded candidates to be seated on the Board. Therefore, Contrarian is urging voters to elect our endorsed candidates for the Board of Education on November 3^rd.

Go read it all....AND go vote.

As they said, this is the first time in history for a fully elected School Board. If voters don't set the tone early for responsible spending and actual fiscal management, then the chances for an entrenched bureaucracy taking over increase greatly.

Easy Sunday

Traveling at the moment.

Posting and comment moderation will be sporadic.

Stay safe. 

What are the Polling Numbers?

Conehead can't raise money:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson spent more than three times the amount of money than he brought into his campaign coffers from July to September this year, according to new campaign filings.

  That leaves the freshman incumbent with just $379,471 in the bank — yet another indication of Johnson’s serious struggle to raise money for the uphill reelection battle he announced last month.

  In July, Johnson’s political checking account dropped to $631,309, down from $813,125 in the first quarter of this year.

  Johnson brought in $122,980 from July to September. The majority of his contributions are donations of $500 or less from individuals. The largest single donation he received was $10,000. The second was $5,000 from Mary Gardner, a prominent West Side organizer who Johnson recently nominated for appointment to the Chicago Housing Authority board.

  Johnson’s cash continues to pale in comparison to the $19 million of his top opponent, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. However, the mayor said he remains confident in his reelection campaign at an unrelated news conference Friday.

What he's really counting on is a push by the CTU to get him to the runoff.

Giannoulias has FIFTY TIMES the amount of money Conehead does. Even Mendoza only has about $2 million in her campaign coffers. 

We're about eight days from the Nominating Petition deadline (26 Oct). We'll see if the field thins out a little then. 

Still Don't Hate the Media Enough

SeeBS yesterday:

"Scuffles"?

They're throwing hand grenades at police:

• Violence broke out across France on Saturday during the latest day of demonstrations against hardship in schools and the cost of living.

  At least 1,200 people were arrested during what the French government described as an "escalation in violence" alongside an estimated 550,000 taking to the streets.

  In Paris, there were significant clashes into the evening with riot police, who used tear gas and water cannon on crowds.

Funny how all of the rioters aren't students.

Oh, and the grenade attack was a near-Darwin Award Winner:

• A young man "had his hand blown off by a grenade" in Saint-Étienne, the south-eastern city's Mayor Régis Juanico said on social media, adding: "Such a tragedy should never have happened."

Well, when you import hundreds of thousands of unvetted third world $hithole dwellers, you run that risk.

Anyone know what the plan is here when Bridgeview gets "scuffle-y"?

UPDATE: SeeBS took down the screen capped posting after readers started posting pictures and video clips of government buildings being trashed, stores being looted and historic structures collapsing in flames.