As almost everyone reports, Chicago is on fire with outrage. The question, says Mike Klonsky, is whether Rahm will resign or will tough it out.
His poll ratings are down below 20%. He said in the past that he couldn’t release the video of Laquan McDonald’s killing because of an ongoing investigation, but local reporters have found emails that contradict that story.
It just keeps getting worse, and there may be a teachers’ strike. The national media may say a teachers’ strike is all about greed, but parents in Chicago know that CTU will strike, if it does, to get libraries, the arts, smaller class sizes, and other things that their children are denied. It truly is about the students, and the parents know it. Teaching conditions are learning conditions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If Rahm does resign, it is a safe bet that the oligarchs will replace him with another puppet. All that will probably change is the name and face.
Lloyd, I tend to disagree here. If Rahm resigns, which I consider to be highly unlikely, there is no entity with the authority to name a replacement, there would have to be an election. There are several strong candidates waiting in the wings, and I don’t think the African American community will let themselves be fooled twice. The only way Rahm can avoid being forced out by popular discontent is by actually doing his job and working for the community instead of just the donor class. It will have to be a sustained effort, and the real threat to his rule is if the donor class decides that his focus on the people comes at the expense of his favoritism toward them which Rahm is too smart to drop the ball on, so unfortunately I think we’re stuck with his crocodile tears and scheming for the remainder of his time in office. Depends on where the investigation leads and what strings are pulled too.
Personally, I don’t think Rahm will resign. He is the personification of hubris. My bet is that he will hope all this blows over. Soon he will call the whole thing “yesterday’s news.”
You mean like tomorrow, Diane?
One of the main sticking points in the negotiations is that he technocrat serving as CEO want the teachers to pay the entirety of their pension costs, effectively offering them a pay cut as part of the deal. The CTU has already said this one point is strike worthy.
He has too much hubris to step down, and too many people behind him to allow him to fall (unless they are jumping ship). Types like him don’t go away quietly. The media will downplay all of this as well, just like in New Jersey where the NJ.com (Star Ledger) insists that Chris Christie is at the top of the polls, just behind Trump. What a tragedy all of this is.
The media will throw teachers under the bus, while heralding turds like Rahm, et al.
“Oh, go, oh, go, Emanuel”
Oh, go, oh go, Emanuel,
And ransom captive Chi-i-ca-a-go ,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God* appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emanuel
Shall go from you, Chica-a-a-a-go!
*Jesus (Garcia)
‘The new meme is to attend an event where Rahm will be, then yell & chant — mic-check-style —
“Six-teen shots! Six-teen shots! Six-teen shots! Six-teen shots! … ”
This just happened at what was supposed to be a feel good charter school event for the the Urban Prep Charters. Low-income African-American charter students ruined Rahm’s night by interrupting him with this chant:
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/1185202/protesters-chanting-sixteen-shots-disrupt-emanuels-even-urban-prep
This charter chain’s reportedly militaristic discipline style could not prevent or inhibit these students from voicing some political speech and directing it at the mayor.
I hope Urban Prep Charter CEO Tim King doesn’t put those kids up on a “Got-to-Go List.”
From the linked piece—
[start]
It’s a charter school that boasts of sending 100 percent of its African-American male graduates to college.
[end]
How fitting that a rheeal rheephorm Centre of Educational Excellence couldn’t eliminate every vestige of dignity and pride from some of its students when a genuine rheephormster like Rahm showed up at their doorstep.
Guess that charter secret sauce isn’t working so good…
😎
The attrition rate at that school is much like Success Academy. Still, awesome to see the school Rahm props up as a model school turn on him.
We should all join in on the chant and, move it over to the University of Chicago, a breeding ground for the neoliberal assault on democracy and for the defense of concentrated wealth, which has impoverished the 99% and has been particularly, egregious in its impact on people of color.
Linda, the University of Chicago is also guilty of breeding another terminal cancer that goes by the name of neo-conservatism.
Lloyd, Agreed.
Steven Levitt and David Axelrod, two sides of the same coin. One advocates for social Darwinism. And, the other, accomplishes it, while wearing a mask of humanitarianism.
I wish Rahm would get indicted (which might hasten his resignation). Sadly, the FBI is limiting their investigation to the Chicago Police Department. President Obama is protecting his good buddy, and Hillary Clinton continues to support Rahm, as her own risk:
“Hillary Clinton—who goes a long way back with Emanuel— has gotten away with saying very little about the crisis unfolding in Chicago. She backed the Justice Department investigation into the Chicago Police Department and said that she continued to have confidence in Emanuel. And that’s about it.”
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/rahm-emanuels-catastrophic-downfall-why-it-should-be-much-bigger-deal-hillary
“I wish…”
“Hope and Chains”
Regimes change
But core remains
To rearrange
The Hope and Chains
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
“Teaching conditions are learning conditions.”
That should be the mantra. I’m going to make bumper stickers.
I don’t understand why someone doesn’t ask him about this:
“We have allowed our police department to get fetal and it is having a direct consequence,” Emanuel told U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “They have pulled back from the ability to interdict . . . they don’t want to be a news story themselves, they don’t want their career ended early, and it’s having an impact.”
He said that after he was well aware of the shooting. So which is it? Does he believe the police are acting too aggressively, poorly trained, etc. OR does he believe they have lost the ability to interdict so aren’t aggressive enough?
One of these positions is or was insincere or dishonest. I suspect the dishonest position is the one he adopted after the shooting was revealed, but he should be asked to explain.
The public is becoming aware of the mask that covers ideological kinship with Supreme Court Justice Scalia. The kinship exists at the highest levels- political appointees, backers of the education “reform” movement, etc. Rev. Jesse Jackson, this month wrote about the adverse effect of “reform” on his community.
The FBI has also been investigatng the Concept charter schhols in Chicago and other midwestern states. Dan Mihalopoulous and John Seidel are doing excellent reporting in the Chicago Sun Times about the corruption in these charters.
If the parents are with the teachers, they can’t lose even if they lose. Rahm needs to resign and the whole command structure systematically replaced. Now, while there’s still time.