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| Just like the Illinois Policy Institute says: Illinois grows more pumpkins than any other state. |
Is criticism a crime?
As fond as I am of teachers, generally, and despite being a good union man myself, I couldn’t help but shake my head in wonder at the Chicago Teachers Union, which I consider a fairly savvy organization, suing a pair of conservative watchdogs, the Illinois Policy Institute and the Liberty Justice Center, for sinking their teeth into CTU finances and accusing the union of using “cooked” books.
First, way to turn a spotlight on their accusations. Believe it or not, I’m not checking the Illinois Policy Institute website every morning to see what’s in its crosshairs. Doing that, right now, I see their top story is on ... pumpkins.
“The state produces enough pumpkins to make nearly 8 billion pumpkin spice lattes, the most pumpkins in the U.S.” At first I thought it must be a mistake — the colorful, pumpkin-centric page labeled “Illinois Policy” must be different from “Illinois Policy Institute.”
Nope. Same folks.
But is it true? According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the top producer of pumpkins in the country is ... Illinois, head and shoulders above the rest, responsible for 40% of all the big orange squashes grown nationwide.
Did you know that? I did not. Score one for the Illinois Policy Institute.
The second story “Chicago Teachers Union Undermines Yet Another Charter School” begins: “The Chicago Teachers Union’s relentless attacks on charter schools has claimed another victim. The Chicago High School for the Arts announced it will not renew its contract with Chicago Public Schools, citing financial struggles. It will stop operations at the end of the current 2025-2026 school year.”
Is that true? The selective enrollment, privately managed school will stop operations. But the school itself will transition into a public school. You could also say ... as a Sun-Times story suggested last month ... that CPS stepped in and saved the school after its operators decided to abandon it, one of the many downsides of privatizing public education. As a rule, the Chicago Public Schools are not shutting down schools willy-nilly, at least not since Rahm Emanuel left office.
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That's one union that I don't trust. Usually I'm pro-union.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree that CTU is the one union I do not trust. Davis Gates is a disaster, and rather than work cooperatively with the school board to solve problems--yes, some schools need to be closed and use those resources for other schools--she just asks for more money. Really turned me off when during the last negotiations she told reporters that the union’s contract demands would cost “$50 billion and 3 cents”, calling it “audacity” and “Chicago”. She is a power hungry blowhard who doesnt even send her own kids to Chicago public schools.
DeleteThis is the one union in a pro-union town that even the union people hate.
ReplyDeleteThe CTU is run by total whackjobs, they are the union that sent a delegation to Venezuela several years ago & they came back & said the country was a paradise, which it wasn't then & isn't now.
The union doesn't want to improve things for the teachers or especially the students, it actually want to run the entire Chicago school system & also run the city.
They have managed to get enough of their loony toon supporters on the elected school board to while not run the schools, but make it very hard for sane people to run the schools, plus they will now basically being negotiating with themselves when contract renewal time comes up.
Then even worse, they got their hand picked stooge, the ever incompetent Brandon Johnson elected as mayor & he has been 100% incompetent, as most of us knew he would be!
The majority of the city council & the overwhelming majority of citizens wanted ShotSpotter to continue, but because Brandon figured out he could get a small number of votes from criminals, he had it shut down.
ShotSpotter isn't perfect, it doesn't actually stop crimes for the most part, but it did allow the police to find people who had been shot on the street or in alleys to be found quickly & then the paramedics could get them to the hospitals & maybe save their lives!
The CWB Chicago website has a section called Brandon's Bodies, where they catalog all the dead bodies found hours later & not reported to the police because even if people hear a gunshot, they have no way of locating it correctly.
As of this morning, 91 people in Chicago have died due to the lack of ShotSpotter!
His wretched term ends next may & hopefully one of the candidates that has also announced will defeat him & send him back to his lunatic union buddies & fools to be forgotten about!
Well said, Clark St.
DeleteYou aren't wrong on a lot of aspects here, Clark... however I don't buy your Shot Spotter claim.
DeleteThere's a legitimate debate to be had about Shot Spotter, but "Brandon figured out he could get a small number of votes from criminals, he had it shut down" isn't part of it, IMHO.
DeleteIt's not my ShotSpotter claim, it's facts on the CWB Chicago website!
DeleteCPD Officers Responded Faster to 911 Calls on South, West Sides After ShotSpotter Was Removed: UChicago Analysis | Chicago News | WTTW https://share.google/YUWDsAW7cdJldukfA
DeleteThe problem -- I think -- lies more within our societies inability to really understand anything complex. The CTU is fighting the right wing media here. A group of people who can say what ever they want, when ever they want, where ever they want while at the same time never being held accountable for their actions. Like all republican organizations, the IPI is happy to say they supported something that wins (even if they didn't) and happy to blame others when their actions produce nothing of value to society as a whole.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm biased. I don't trust anything that is center or right of center. I don't really trust the CTU either.
When leadership is run by people who have never done what they are leading things tend to fall apart. not fast, but over time. When capitalism gets its greedy little claws on an organization that supports something (especially when that organization does something solely for the better good) the end is coming for that org.
One of the things that I both envy and hate about the ACLU is their fight for all things civil liberties. Full on free speech, full on second amendment. they don't just pick and choose the "right" things to fight for.
Band wagon fans are the worst... except for the fact that they spend money for your favorite team.
Streisand effect.
ReplyDeleteAh, the Streisand Effect ("an attempt to hide, remove, or censor information results in the unintended consequence of the effort instead increasing public awareness of the information) is thriving this week. In this instance, the CTU. Among rabid Republicans nationwide, via their way-over-the-top reaction to Jon Ossoff simply mentioning the name "Natalie" in a speech.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
But I'd much rather talk about pumpkins than the Teacher's Union. I like the photos!
"...the top producer of pumpkins in the country is ... Illinois, head and shoulders above the rest, responsible for 40% of all the big orange squashes grown nationwide. Did you know that?" Yes, I feel like that factoid has been bandied about in various places for several years, at least.
That being said, I'd be almost as likely to sample a "cooked book" as a pumpkin spice latte.
But of course there is no pumpkin in a pumpkin spice latte
DeleteIPI characterizes itself, mostly correctly, as Libertarian (I.e., small government) rather than Republican. We would regard many of their positions on social issues as fairly liberal (e.g., reproductive issues are not the government’s business). IPI’s Austin Berg, a frequent member of the Mincing Rascal panel comes across as pretty reasonable including his criticism of the CTU as an organization that is much less interested in advancing the cause of students and teachers than in wielding civic power and lining its own pockets.
ReplyDeleteLibertarian's are a joke. They are republicans who are too afraid to call themselves republicans and not smart enough to defend their positions. Look at their leader, Rand Paul. He's a republican through and through except on a few issues where he seems pragmatic. However when you actually look at his voting record its just him being a republican.
ReplyDeleteHe's also a "doctor" which is a job that requires you to be fiercely regulated to ensure you are acting proper, legally, and with your patients best interest at heart. He unironically has none of those in mind.
IPI is the same. You can't be Libertarian and call for laws that are openly restraining others from acting just as you would. The Nazi's were essentially libertarian.
Just a side comment about Rand Paul, Double D..... he was once a fully credentialed ophthalmologist who maintained his certification with the American Board of Ophthalmology ( 'fiercely regulated' because it requires ongoing continuing education and credentialing) .Paul let his certification lapse in 2005, then created his OWN credentialing board (The National Board of Ophthalmology, which means and stands for nothing- it is invented ), put his wife and father-in-law on the board, then ran around claiming he was "certified" for another 10 years or so. He has a physician's license to practice in KY. But the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Medical Assoc. and the state of KY all refuse to recognize his "certification", which is usually required for insurance reimbursement. So Paul is Libertarian when it suits him, and has shown he will devise a "work-around" when it doesn't.
Delete"Libertarian" is politesse-speak for sociopath.
DeleteThanks, Jill. I appreciate that.
DeleteAlways nice to get a better understand of people. Even if that means they have successfully entered a plane of existence even lower then the latter goes.
You're quite right that if you're a Libertarian, you don't call for government control of other people. Some people of all stated persuasions are nutjobs, certainly including Rand Paul a lot of the time. Austin Berg is trying to get smaller, cheaper government. That may be fantasy, but it's not nuts.
DeleteIllinois is the top pumpkin-producing state in the country, followed by California, Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Illinois produces more pumpkins than the next four states combined.
ReplyDeleteOther notable producers include Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin, though their outputs are smaller. Illinois produces over 90% of the U.S. processing pumpkins used for canned puree and pie fillings.
Staying out of the CTU discussions to say that yes, I did know that Illinois was the top pumpkin producing state and that all that pumpkin pie filling is really a variety of squash, not the pumpkins you think of for jack-o-lanterns.
ReplyDelete