29 Comments - Carm Calderon - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 8:01 am: This is good news for St. Louis. Refugees have a higher rate of entrepreneurship than other immigrants. Refugees, a subgroup of the foreign-born population, have a particularly high rate of entrepreneurship. Thirteen percent of refugees are business owners, compared to 11.5 percent of non-refugee immigrants. Refugee-owned businesses generated $4.6 billion in income in 2015. https://immigrationforum.org/article/immigrants-as-economic-contributors-immigrant-entrepreneurs/ - Gravitas - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 8:29 am: The new Scorcese film features a plot that was previously covered in “The F.B.I Story” with Jimmy Stewart. This 1959 film featured a segment on the murders of Native Americans by those seeking oil and mineral rights. I am looking forward to seeing the new movie because Scorcese always delivers the goods in his films. - Suburban Mom - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 8:40 am: Awww, scabby the rat (costumed version) was my first introduction to the labor movement. My grade school hired non-union labor for a building expansion and got struck. All the school kids wanted to go see the giant rat during recess, and the teachers would let us, and he would explain unions and labor actions to us, it was great fun. - Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 9:19 am: I think the Gov would have had some other options besides going the 501(c)4 route, but that really depends on his private and personal agenda which he hasn’t disclosed to the public and even if he had the 501(c)4 would still mask the activities from the public. Most candidates use a PAC. However, a PAC requires building support from other contributors which also means developing a process where theres a reason those people and organizations would buy into the PAC. Why isn’t the Governor able or willing to traditionally fund raise for whatever this organization is doing? The 501(c)4 I think comes with some potential risk from both legal complications and from a messaging perspective. He is spoon feeding potential opponents an easy talking point that left wing voters already agree with and means that Pritzker can’t really run on election financing reform. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 9:23 am: When looking at the upcoming Veto, what will be interesting, for me, will be how far the chambers will go in the issues where the governor hasn’t indicated his support or want. That doesn’t mean that there will be things not in concert or deals made to move policy, it’s the “public passive” of the governor to let the legislature figure out what they will do. So much of what Chicago won’t be doing in these days is interesting to watch what is learned and brought back to the Hall, and if Johnson will use his learning going forward… while eventually getting to full staffing strength. There’s no blueprint to any Veto, the similarities are the unique that each Veto… is. Policy wants and fights to them, skirmishes really, as election season is all but in full swing. - Jerry - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 9:26 am: Wow, St. Louis welcoming the new citizens! Who’d a thunk! That’s Pro-Life! - Rich Miller - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 9:47 am: ===can’t really run on election financing reform=== People run against their own positions all the time. Not saying it’s right, but just look around. - Lurker - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 9:49 am: I like what Snelling is saying about repeat offenders, and I hope the safe-t act benefits his goals, but I think I’d avoid the usage of aggressive. I don’t think, and I’d assume most would agree, that more aggressive cops sounds like a positive. - Pundent - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 9:58 am: Kudos to St. Louis. As we continue to see an extremely tight labor market lacking skilled workers, un-filled jobs in the service industry, and a transportation infrastructure without nearly enough drivers, this is a win-win. - Stuck in Celliniland - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 10:05 am: Kudos to St. Louis too. Can any of the migrants play baseball and play it well, as in Cardinal Way well? Maybe while they are in St. Louis the Cardinals could sign several of them to help return them to the top of the standings after this year’s shocking last-place finish. - Sue - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 10:32 am: I don’t mind anyone spending their own money the way they want. What is troubling are the hypocrites who scream about the political system being taken over by millionaires and billionaires(Bernie’s usual refrain). Why is it ghe people who complain the most only focus on Griffin- the Koch family or other conservatives when the truth of the matter is guys like Soros-Zuckerberg -the Hollywood clan and now JB dwarf the monies contributed by R’s - Grandson of Man - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 10:34 am: Good on St. Louis. Immigrants fleeing hardship and oppression helped build this country. “For I was poor and desperate, and you hated me for political gain and bussed me to strange places to punish your opponents.” - Gravitas - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 10:48 am: The population of the City of St. Louis has been steadily declining since 1950. There is plenty of room for migrants in a vacant city that has lost more than a half million residents. - CapnCrunch - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 10:48 am: These big dark money groups are a pernicious factor in politics only when they fund policies with which you disagree. - Demoralized - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 10:51 am: @Sue Another victim heard from and whataboutism at it’s finest. Don’t you Republicans ever get tired of constantly playing the victim? - Demoralized - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 10:52 am: It would not surprise me if the Attorney General of Missouri tries to file some sort of suite or issue some sort of order attempting to prevent that plans St. Louis has. - Demoralized - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 10:52 am: *suit not suite - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 10:56 am: ===Why is it ghe people who complain the most only focus on Griffin- the Koch family or other conservatives=== When have any of them put their names on a ballot. It’s always precious when - Sue - defends Griffin without any self awareness how Griffin played her, while he was already leaving Illinois and - Sue - arguing how the Fair Tax failing was going to keep the likes of Griffin around. I can’t imagine being so blinded by the worship of whatabouting rich folks that really don’t care… while one like Pritzker here has stood for election, twice… and - Sue - and others, lest we forget, saw no problem with Bruce and Diana Rauner hijacking a party, and where was the angst about that Ohio dark money, seemingly like 100 years ago… It’s a PAC, Pritzker is publicly telling, “I’m funding it, we’ll add others who want to donate”… - Flapdoodle - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 11:08 am: Has anyone ever considered printing posters of Chicago winter weather scenes and supplying them to immigrant processing facilities/organizations along the border? Or of immigrants sleeping on sidewalks outside Chicago police stations? Don’t know if such would be effective, but of people are looking to deter immigrants from heading to Chicago, might be worth a try. - Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 11:36 am: ===People run against their own positions all the time. Not saying it’s right, but just look around=== They do but usually when the candidates run on election reform and still take money from sources that are part of the target for reforms when they site that they’re doing that to take advantage of the system that exists so that they can win to change it — they’re also not a billionaire. The “millionaires and the billionaires” rhetoric already exists as something familiar in the minds of voters. JB Pritzker can’t hide from his wealth when he runs for office and the same goes for if he ever decides to pursue higher office, but that doesn’t mean he should take actions that turn his wealth into more of a hurdle than it needs to be. The national Democratic base is different than appealing to Democrats in one state. There are plenty of ways he could have just contributed money through conventional means and a lot of it if he felt inclined due to the relatively weak rules surrounding state races and state parties. But I’m not in the room, maybe they’re not hearing from someone who is playing the red team when he makes decisions like this, maybe he’s already ruled out seeking higher office, and maybe he’s just getting bad advice from people who would see their own income increase by him making moves like this. Things like the languishing crisises at DCFS and DHS make me concerned that the Governor is in a bubble. I suppose that bubble wouldn’t just go away when it comes to making political decisions. - Pundent - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 11:46 am: =Has anyone ever considered printing posters of Chicago winter weather scenes and supplying them to immigrant processing facilities/organizations along the border?= With all respect, have you seen a poster of the place they’re fleeing with nothing more than the shirts on their back? If you’re wiling to cross vast deserts; watching people die along the way, to get to a country where you know no one, don’t speak the language, and carry nothing but hope, you’re willing to endure almost anything including a Chicago winter. And sadly I’ve seen our own homeless population do it. And they don’t need a poster to tell them it’s bad. - Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 11:51 am: ===What is troubling are the hypocrites === I think it is great the Governor wants to support progressive causes with his personal fortune. I also personally believe that the left wing shouldn’t necessarily refuse to use all tools available to them to win elections, especially when considering what the right wing is doing to win elections right now — which includes assaults on the Capitol and calls to declare war against Democrats coming from the State Rep spouses of members of Congress as they presumably are moving towards the Capitol. My concern over this specific issue is that not all voters in Democratic primaries agree with my sense of practicality. I remember the pledges made by Barack Obama when he faced off in a primary against Hillary Clinton and John Edwards — the pledges that helped him win support among Democrats in the early states. I also remember the grief he got when he decided not to take the federal public funding for his campaign because it would have impacted how much he could spend and raise, but that happened after he had secured the nomination. I don’t understand the decision to create something that has been labeled as a “dark money group” as common parlance by someone that is quiet literally one of the best Democratic prospects for the Presidential nomination. Getting ahead of it in this instance would literally mean publishing everything they do — which might actually make it a benefit to his election prospects depending on what the organization does, but even that could have unexpected back lash because 1.) left leaning voters can be real fickle and 2.) primary opponents will seek to exploit anything they think will help them. I would love to read the opposition research a white shoe law firm would produce on JB Pritzker for a Democratic candidate. Presidential primary politics is on a different level. - Flapdoodle - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 12:29 pm: @Pundent 11:46 Yes, I have seen the conditions and they are horrendous, as they are for our own homeless. I didn’t mean in any way to trivialize any of it but the idea popped into my head — perhaps with insufficient caffeine consumption — and I shared it at least as a suggestion. Because when something isn’t working and is in fact going desperately wrong, to me it seems suggestions are needed. Even if they’re caffeine-deficient. BTW, I take your comment in the spirit is was intended. It’s what the blog is meant for. - Pundent - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 12:31 pm: =What is troubling are the hypocrites who scream about the political system being taken over by millionaires and billionaires(Bernie’s usual refrain). = Is is difference between millionaires and billionaires advocating for something that is important to me vs. themselves. The two individuals you cited have always placed their own interests first. And BTW Bernie is also a millionaire. Not saying he’s a hypocrite but acknowledging there’s more to his message than you’re willing to admit. - sue - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 12:49 pm: OW- for what it’s worth- KG didn’t play me or anyone else. In fact- he served a significant purpose for all Illinois taxpayers campaigning for the flat tax. The biggest advantage of our current structure is that it imposes fiscal constrain on Springfield as any tax increase the GA would pass would hit all taxpayers making them hesitant to raise rates. Given the Gov’s spending appetite necessary for him to prove his progressive chops as he looks for higher office along with progressive takeover of the D party- how long do you think rates would have stayed as proposed once the flat tax was removed. In a few years our rates on upper income taxpayers would mirror CA and NY both of which are seeing upper income taxpayers flee - Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 12:58 pm: What would case a problem during a primary race is voters that would prefer not living in a political system where we put “our” billionaire up to “their” billionaire. There are also voters that would think that was just fine if it one the election and that’s where the campaigning comes in. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 12:59 pm: ===voters that would prefer not living in a political system where we put “our” billionaire up to “their” billionaire=== Did you miss 2018? - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 1:11 pm: - sue - I’m embarrassed for you. It’s not me gaslighting you, it’s me more “I told ya so” from real time before, during, and after. I mean, laughing at your expense is sad for me, but it’s real. Let’s begin. ===In fact- he served a significant purpose for all Illinois taxpayers campaigning for the flat tax. The biggest advantage of our current structure is that it imposes fiscal constrain on Springfield as any tax increase the GA would pass would hit all taxpayers making them hesitant to raise rates.=== In the past decade, how many times have taxes been raised, and in fact didn’t taxes get lowered with a “sun setting”? You regurgitate things that you think are winning policies, but you neglect to remember that the winners in a flat tax are the wealthy which is why Griffin, who was moving anyway, did a huge disservice to Illinois, a state he was leaving because a regressive tax isn’t helping meet any needs. Take your time on how many times taxes were raised. ===how long do you think=== Likely the same amount of political want it would take to pass *ANY* tax increase… See, you can’t claim that it would be bad to raise taxes in a flat tax, but it’s ok to raise rates without any backlash politically. Your lemming take to an unrealistic look at the politics us also this, lol… ===Given the Gov’s spending appetite necessary for him to prove his progressive chops as he looks for higher office along with progressive takeover of the D party=== - sue -, I thought this was a fiscal choice, not a political “stopping”. Your ignorance is only matched by your dishonesty that you got played, as you lobbied against the Fair Tax, stating people like Griffin will leave if it passes… and Griffin was already leaving, lol… your take, politics here and there, you don’t even realize it. ===In a few years our rates on upper income taxpayers would mirror CA and NY both of which are seeing upper income taxpayers flee=== Griffin left… LOL It’s like you can’t grasp you are a mark, but still think the threat was the thing that makes you smart to the politics. I’m saving you the embarrassment of more “real time” … “we need to Griffin types from leaving”… it’s adorable you still trot it out on your own. - Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 19, 23 @ 4:56 pm: ===Did you miss 2018?=== That’s not a relevant comparison to the presidential primary and the candidates at the national level are going to be a bit more impressive than Dan Biss or Chris Kennedy. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.