Politapocalypse (U.S. Politics Megathread)

Year To Date
Shot & Killed: 405
Shot & Wounded: 2321
Total Shot: 2726
Total Homicides: 457

Race of Victim/Assailant

Race Victim Assailant
Black 357 83
Hispanic 72 19
White/Other 17 10
Police - 7
Unknown 10 -

And your observations are correct. Your answer: fear and bigotry.

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. -- Benjamin Franklin

Men often mistake killing and revenge for justice. They seldom have the stomach for justice. -- Robert Jordan

Another attempt at a US politics megathread. The goal is civil (if contentious) political discussion.

philo

climber

Nov 28, 2015 - 07:52am PT
It would be good for the site to corral the political rancor to a mega thread like it used to be before the wingnutz cried so much about politics crowding climbing content out. Oddly they then proceeded to start an appalling number of inane political threads about everything.

If police shooting video had been released sooner, would Emanuel be mayor?

Kass: If Laquan were out, even a hug from the president wouldn't have saved Rahm

Would Mayor Rahm Emanuel have been re-elected if voters had seen the video of Laquan McDonald's execution?

No.

Rahm would have lost the election. Why? Because he would have lost Chicago's black vote.

Without the black vote, Rahm Emanuel would not be the 9.5-fingered boss of Bartertown.

Black political figures would have been uneasy standing with Rahm. They would have run away. They couldn't stand with him.

Not if that video came out during the election campaign, the video showing white cop Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald, hitting him with two rounds, and then, with McDonald on the ground, hitting him with 14 more shots.

Emanuel could have even sat in President Barack Obama's lap for a photo — both of them wearing matching Dr. Denton pajamas (the kind with the feet) and sipping identical cups of cocoa.
Warning, graphic content: Laquan McDonald shooting dash-cam video

Warning graphic content: Chicago officials released the police dash-cam video of the October 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17, by a Chicago police officer. Warning: This video contains graphic images. The Chicago Tribune edited this version only for length.

And that still wouldn't have saved him.

So Emanuel buried the video. And black politicians and clergy got busy getting out the vote for Rahm. He won the April 7 runoff election, and only then did he have the aldermen vote to pay a $5 million settlement to the McDonald family.

If the video had been out, if Chicago had watched it before going to the polls, Emanuel would have lost the black vote. You'd have to be a meat puppet to think otherwise. And you're not a meat puppet, are you?

But just to make sure of my theory, I called the one guy who'd know: Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, the mayor's opponent in the 2015 election.

"Yes," Garcia told me over the phone. "That video would definitely have changed the political environment.

"The rug would have been pulled out from under many political leaders' feet. Things would have been different," he said.
Emanuel holds others accountable on police shooting video, not himself
Emanuel holds others accountable on police shooting video, not himself

"And now, with the video out and people seeing it, everywhere I go people ask me about it. Everywhere I go people tell me it would have been a game changer. If people had seen it, they would have said, this city is so corrupt, it's time for a change."

But they didn't see it, until it was too late.

"There's just some basic Chicago arithmetic in there. He wouldn't have received as much votes from the African-American community," Garcia said. "It isn't rocket science. It's arithmetic. And so yes, this tragic video would have had a profound impact."

Which is why Rahm didn't want it to be seen, why he had to do everything to keep it under wraps. And he did do everything to keep it under wraps, until the other day.

"And that's the Chicago Way," Garcia said.

Yes it is.

You can see the truth of it by watching the other politicians scrambling for cover in the wake of the Laquan McDonald video release.

They don't like questions about how they helped Rahm win. That puts the jacket on them. And they don't want to wear the jacket.

So they're stitching one up for Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, who charged Van Dyke with murder the other day.

They want Alvarez to wear the jacket for it all.

Rahm seems to be throwing her under his bus, but he doesn't want his fingerprints on her. So his ally, David Axelrod, threw her under.

Axelrod is a Rahm pal, but for years he was also the mouthpiece for former Mayor Richard Daley, and was the top political and media strategist for Obama. It's a Chicago thing.

"Why did it take a year to indict a CPD officer who shot a kid 16 times?" Axelrod tweeted Tuesday night. "Would it have happened today if judge hadn't ordered video release?"

That puts it on Alvarez. Does she deserve it?

I don't think so. To me, she's not the issue.

The video threatened Rahm Emanuel and his pursuit of power. Alvarez told reporters she'd been waiting for the feds to issue a joint announcement with her office. That didn't happen.

Funny how things work out.

Axelrod's tweet legitimizes a self-preservation tactic Chicago politicians have been pursuing for the last day or so: They know people are angry over what happened to 17-year-old McDonald. They want to be safe from that anger. So they're directing the mob to go against Alvarez.

On Wednesday, I headed over to my old haunts at City Hall to see the circus in action. The City Council's Black Caucus had called a news conference, and there, in one rambling, cloudy speech after another, they made it clear they weren't responsible for a thing and that there needed to be changes.

Not their jobs. And not Rahm's. Instead, they saved their outrage for police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and Alvarez. Then they rambled some more.

But even in cloudy waters you might still see a slippery bullhead, if you can spot the fins or the chin whiskers. And so I reached down, got my hand wet and asked:

Would Emanuel have won the African-American vote if that video had been seen before the election?

Most just looked at me as if I were a space alien saying "I come in peace" in some frightening alien tongue of clicks and whistles that they couldn't understand.

Later, I cornered one of the aldermen and asked again.

"No," said the alderman, meaning no, Rahm would not have won the election. "But you already knew that. Why are you asking us?"

jskass@tribpub.com

Twitter @John_Kass

Several GOP presidential contenders have advocated treating the nation’s growing heroin epidemic as a health crisis, not a criminal one. But most stop short of advocating the same approach to other drug laws, notably those involving marijuana and crack cocaine, which disproportionately affect African Americans.

Such views highlight the resonance and reach of the opiate epidemic — but also a persistent racial and geographic divide in American politics. The heroin epidemic has overwhelmingly hit whites. It has also skyrocketed to the top of voters’ lists of political priorities in the same bands of America — rural states, the suburbs and notably the early voting state of New Hampshire — that track directly with where Republicans must perform well to win back the White House next year.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap. -- Napoleon Bonaparte

Please specify any "hate' that Philo posted.

On cue with the childish sidewall busting pic.
Childish behavior from a frightened child.

Try being an adult and ignoring what you don't like.

TradHog


Trad climber

Yellow Rose of Texas

Nov 28, 2015 - 06:11pm PT
Pretty well known that Pillos real hate is reserved for the Jews. Sad. I recently read he would drive the tractor that pushes them all into a ditch. Now that is hate ya'll.

On cue with the childish sidewall busting pic.
Childish behavior from a frightened child.

namecalling personal attacks

these people just cannot maintain a civil discussion

Right wingers have to out do each other in being what they are best at

smear and lie
who can be the biggest a-hole, who can say the most inflammatory remarks possible,

it's a game, whoever say's the worst possible BS about the other side wins!!

You call this hate??
are you serious???

that's just an reaction to the OP commentary, no lame photos
it was completely provoked by a poster that blatantly disregards all requests for civil behavior
like a 4th grade child

unbelievably pathetic as an example

now he is trying to word bomb the thread
wow? so loving and respectful
such a great way to show how right you are
thanks

The other side uses lies, misinformation and propaganda to demonize the other side because they don't have anything to offer.

namecalling personal attacks

perfectly decent conversation

Gas prices fall below $1.87: Nov 26, 2008

Unemployment Rate at 6.8 for Men and 5.5 for Women in Nov of 2008

The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment
by Jim Clifton

Here's something that many Americans -- including some of the smartest and most educated among us -- don't know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading.

Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.

None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment.

There's another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.

Nice try with the thread idea, but this will fail, as most others have, when the PHILLO sucks all of the air out of the room.

and by the way Phillo is a pice of dung... hates all Jews
guyman

You've got the tea party fringe all worked up.

Fixed that for you........

and by the way Phillo is a piece of dung... hates all Jews. No need to go back over all his worthless post history... it is very clear, like a alpine blue sky.

Selective outrage is
so convenient.