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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / #BLM #M4BL / Rahm-Boned: First Blood Part II

Rahm-Boned: First Blood Part II

by Zandar|  January 7, 20168:16 am| 86 Comments

This post is in: #BLM #M4BL, Shitty Cops, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Democratic Stupidity, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

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I usually reserve the phrase “cartoonishly evil” for tinpot dictators, certain former Bush administration officials, and hedge fund executives, but Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel may actually need to grow a mustache to twirl after this.

City of Chicago lawyers, after meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, demanded the Laquan McDonald family bury the video showing the killing of their son by a police officer.

Emanuel said last month that Stephen Patton, Chicago’s corporation counsel, briefed him “towards the end of March” about what the dashcam video showed and about the proposed $5 million settlement with McDonald’s estate. After that briefing, Patton’s second-in-command, Thomas Platt, drafted settlement language to keep the dashcam video hidden for at least several years, according to emails reviewed by The Daily Beast (PDF).

Michael Robbins, an attorney for the McDonald estate, balked at the demand.

“The provision as drafted, that we maintain the confidentiality, of the materials—principally the dash-cam-video—until the criminal charges are concluded, which could be in effect for years, is entirely unreasonable,” he wrote to Platt on April 6. “Nor was any such broad sweeping confidentiality provision discussed during our meetings.”

“I’ll call you,” Platt wrote Robbins on April 7.

That was the same day that Emanuel was fighting for his political life in a runoff election after he failed to win 50 percent of the primary vote in the February. (Emanuel won with 56 percent against Chuy Garcia.)

Emanuel has maintained since McDonald’s death that he has never seen the dashcam video, but the emails prove the mayor knew exactly what the footage showed when city lawyers negotiated a deal that would at least delay the video’s release. Emanuel’s lawyers were offering $5 million in hush money to keep the video hidden just weeks before the runoff election.

And the biggest part of the deal—that McDonald family attorneys agreed to keep the video to themselves until criminal proceedings were concluded—just so happened to be inked the day after Emanuel was re-elected.

I mean it was rather obvious that the $5 million was offered to get McDonald’s family to stop talking, but wanting to bury the video for years under legal mumbo-jumbo on top of all that just makes Rahm a colossal asshole.

Not that he wasn’t one before.

The first draft was sent to the McDonald estate’s attorneys by Platt on March 31. The draft said that the estate would only be free to release the video after potential charges were dismissed by a prosecutor or after a criminal trial was over. Emanuel and his underlings at the Law Department would have preferred this, because it meant the video would have been buried under lengthy legal proceedings that could have taken years.

On April 8, one day after Platt’s phone call, the McDonald estate’s attorneys suddenly agreed to keep the dashcam video hidden. The only thing that changed in the settlement agreement regarding the video was the deletion of a line that said the estate agreed with the city releasing video would harm ongoing criminal investigations.

One week later, the City Council voted unanimously to approve the $5 million settlement in just 36 seconds. Emanuel banged a gavel to mark the approval and the end—or so he thought—of the greatest threat to his mayoralty.

Emanuel wrote in a December op-ed in the Chicago Tribune that the settlement couldn’t be part of a cover-up because it was the McDonald family’s attorneys who approached the city wanting to settle.

Nice guy, that Rahm.

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86Comments

  1. 1.

    low-tech cyclist

    January 7, 2016 at 8:25 am

    There really ought to be a way of kicking that bastard out of the Democratic Party.

  2. 2.

    Patricia Kayden

    January 7, 2016 at 8:26 am

    “just makes Rahm a colossal asshole.”

    What a way to end one’s career. He’s done.

  3. 3.

    Marmot

    January 7, 2016 at 8:33 am

    Wow. I always thought he seemed like a dick, but I had no idea how much of one he was. Er, “is.”

    By the way, can someone remind me how the video surfaced after all that wheeling and dealing?

  4. 4.

    cmorenc

    January 7, 2016 at 8:37 am

    Obama’s two biggest personnel mistakes by far in staffing his new administration back in 2008 were Tim Geithner and Rahm Emmanuel. Not that the GOP would have behaved any differently in doing everything they could from the outset to undermine Obama’s presidency, nor would Joe Lieberman have been any less of a vain traitorous prick – but many of the early blunders (the way bank bailouts were done etc) helped mightily in facilitating making the ground more fertile for the GOP to ignite the tea party while deflating Obama’s support from his own base.

  5. 5.

    Thoughtful Today

    January 7, 2016 at 8:52 am

    There really ought to be a way of kicking that bastard [Rahm] out of the Democratic Party.

    Clinton & Obama empowered Rahm.

    Rahm represents a core of the Democratic establishment.

  6. 6.

    joes527

    January 7, 2016 at 8:56 am

    @Thoughtful Today:

    Rahm represents a core of the Democratic establishment.

    Sadly, all too true.

    But SHUT UP BECAUSE REPUBLICANS WILL EAT YOUR CHILDREN IF YOU CRITICIZE DEMOCRATS!!!

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    January 7, 2016 at 8:59 am

    Good Morning, Everyone :)

  8. 8.

    BGinCHI

    January 7, 2016 at 9:05 am

    That Rahm is friends, in any capacity whatsoever, with Bruce Rauner is as bad as this.

    He should stand as the living symbol of what is wrong with the Democratic party: power & privilege over ideas & ideals.

    Let’s make his name into an adjective.

  9. 9.

    sharl

    January 7, 2016 at 9:11 am

    Political historian (and Chicago resident) Rick Perlstein does a thorough job summing up the scummy arc of Rahm’s career in this New Yorker piece.

    @Marmot: The video was released because a freelance reporter filed a FOIA request, and after being denied by city officials he went to court, where a judge sided with the reporter and ordered the release of the video. That sequence of events is mentioned in this NYT story.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    January 7, 2016 at 9:18 am

    Shady doings by or under a Chicago administration?

    Cue Tevye. “Tradition, tra-di-tion.”

  11. 11.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 7, 2016 at 9:26 am

    He seems nice.

  12. 12.

    Emma

    January 7, 2016 at 9:28 am

    @joes527: Already with the bs? In a blog that routinely hazes Democrats?

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 7, 2016 at 9:28 am

    @Marmot:

    By the way, can someone remind me how the video surfaced after all that wheeling and dealing?

    By court order, from a FOIA suit.

  14. 14.

    Oatler.

    January 7, 2016 at 9:30 am

    Daley’s gone, one more round, Daley’s gone

    Steve Goodman would have enjoyed Rahm.

  15. 15.

    dr. bloor

    January 7, 2016 at 9:31 am

    So, does this mark the official retirement of the “Show me on the doll where Rahm touched you” tag?

    Sociopathic prick. Always has been, always will be.

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    January 7, 2016 at 9:32 am

    I went to a Ted Cruz rally — and saw James Dobson, Steve King, white evangelical fervor and the scariest family band of all time
    Now I understand why Cruz is winning Iowa. You would too if you saw this band sing “I Wish Kids Prayed in School”
    QUINT FORGEY
    WEDNESDAY, JAN 6, 2016 03:15 PM CST
    WINTERSET, Iowa — Those in the overwhelmingly white, senior audience at Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s rally here left with little doubt as to why the Texas senator is dominating the state’s much-sought-after evangelical constituency.

    Standing alongside conservative-values author and commentator James Dobson, Cruz swapped out his usual stump for an exchange that blended scripted sermonizing with red-meat fighting words against Democrats he said are fixated on abolishing religious liberty.

    “If we allow non-believers to elect our leaders, we shouldn’t be surprised when our government doesn’t reflect our values,” Cruz said to widespread applause.

    Cruz called for increased voter turnout among evangelical caucus-goers, using the type of overtly religious rhetoric that has galvanized support from social conservatives and propelled family-values candidates such as Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum to first-place Iowa finishes in 2008 and 2012.

    Cruz asked that attendees pray for him by asking for peace for his campaign, for the wisdom granted to the Biblical Solomon and for the well-being of his daughters, Caroline and Catherine.

    “That they know at every moment that they’re loved by their mom and dad and they are loved by their father in heaven, and that they maintain a spirit of joy and peace, as well,” Cruz said.

    Cruz currently leads all other Republicans in Iowa and has cracked the 30 point level in most poll averages – more than three points ahead than second-place finisher Donald Trump.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    January 7, 2016 at 9:36 am

    I will continue to say this.

    THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRUMP AND THE REST OF THE GOP FIELD..

    with the exception that he doesn’t speak in dogwhistles.

    ………………………………………..

    Now you can worry: Trump’s in it to win it, so it’s time to drop fantasy that his campaign is all for show

    With two bold new moves, Trump’s campaign shows once and for all that it is no joke. The Donald wants to win.

    ELIAS ISQUITH

    For most of the second-half of 2015, whether Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is “serious” (definition: unclear) was arguably the question of American politics.

    It was asked after his launch speech, which was rambling, incoherent, demagogic, and way too long; it was asked after he criticized Sen. John McCain for being captured by the Vietcong; it was asked after he proposed “rounding up” and deporting some 11 million undocumented immigrants; it was asked after he attacked Fox News darling Megyn Kelly; it was asked after he proposed banning Muslims from entering the U.S.; it was asked again, and again, and again.

    Slowly but surely, more and more commentators began to realize that the answer was yes. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was “serious” — at least in so far as “serious” was equivalent to “capable of winning.” The national polls showed it, the state-level polls showed it, the issue-based polling showed it. By the holiday season, elite endorsements, pricey ad buys, and an expensive big data/GOTV apparatus were the only usual components of a “serious” campaign that Trump 2016 lacked.

    ……………………

    You probably have heard about the first one, which is the release of Trump’s first bona fide campaign commercial. It wasn’t the first video the Trump campaign put out — they spent much of 2015 getting attention with cheeky Instagram clips — but it was the campaign’s first television ad. Even more importantly, Trump announced he was going to actually spend millions of dollars to ensure voters in Iowa and New Hampshire saw it. ($2 million per week, if Trump is to be believed, which he isn’t.)

    The second and far more important development, meanwhile, was made public by a recent Politico report, which claimed that Trump was not only spending money on a big data/GOTV apparatus — but that he’d been doing so for months already. The details about the program were admittedly fuzzy; none of the major operators involved agreed to speak on-the-record. But as Politico rightly noted in its report, the implications of Trump’s investment were clear:

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 7, 2016 at 9:38 am

    And I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that a politician would act just as nearly every other politician has since the 2nd election.

    Rahms an asshole, and there are plenty of other reasons to despise him, but I can not think of a city in America where the powers that be, whether Dem or GOP, would not have attempted to bury this video. I am only surprised they didn’t pull a Rodriguez and destroy it.

  19. 19.

    dr. bloor

    January 7, 2016 at 9:43 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I can not think of a city in America where the powers that be, whether Dem or GOP, would not have attempted to bury this video.

    BOTH SIDEZ!!

    You don’t travel much, do you?

  20. 20.

    low-tech cyclist

    January 7, 2016 at 9:48 am

    “I wish kids prayed in school.” I wish I would quit hearing this bullshit.

    And I say that as a born-again Christian, one who has known the Lord for 45 years. Since the beginning of my junior year in a public high school, actually.

    And you know what? We prayed in school. We didn’t pray in class, and nobody stood up front and led us in a school-sanctioned moment of prayer. But there were plenty of unsupervised moments before and between classes, during lunch and study halls, and during a lot of those moments, we prayed and fellowshipped because we wanted to.

    Nobody stopped us from praying, nobody really gave a shit whether we were praying or not, as long as we didn’t bother other people during a study hall.

    The point being that there’s as much prayer in school as kids want. There’s plenty of opportunities for kids to pray in school if they want to do so. It’s just that neither they, nor the teachers nor the school itself, have any business imposing it on those who don’t want to participate or listen to it.

    My God doesn’t need government assistance. If their god does, then their god must be weaker than the government – in which case they should worship the government, shouldn’t they?

  21. 21.

    Punchy

    January 7, 2016 at 9:48 am

    OT, but how in the hell in 2016 is this still happening without contempt of court issuances and lawsuits every other day?

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    January 7, 2016 at 9:52 am

    We have been saying this for forever. Not President Obama’s Problem….it’s those who cling to the Whiteness….

    …………………………

    How White America’s fear of Barack Obama has made us all worse off

    A shockingly large segment of the population only hates a policy once our president’s name is on it

    MATTHEW PULVER

    WEDNESDAY, JAN 6, 2016 12:47 PM CST

    Once again, President Obama is resorting to executive action to effect some small degree of change he and his counsel feel to be within his presidential purview, this time on gun control. Fourth-quarter Obama has been impatient and bold, circumventing congressional roadblocks with executive orders to use what federal latitude he has to lead the way on immigration, the environment and economic inequality. The executive actions have elicited calls of “tyranny” from the right, but a unilateral move on guns, however marginal and constricted by executive elbow room, is the sort of thing to convince some conservatives that the trap they’ve imagined is finally snapping shut: Obama is coming for our guns. America is over. It was nice while it lasted.

    Plus, it’s election year and just weeks ahead of the first caucus, so the rhetoric will no doubt be ratcheted further and further toward alarmism and offense. And it’s not just any election cycle, but one in which Donald Trump’s success forces ambitious Republican candidates to appeal to primary voters with far-right-wing rhetoric that might have disqualified contenders in a different political season. And it’s not just any sort of right-wing demagoguery that Trump’s political pace car has determined for the race but one of extraordinary otherization: A lexicon of fear and hatred of Mexican immigrants, Arab immigrants, the Chinese, black Americans and even women is what has established Trump’s shocking success. Before he was the surprise Republican front-runner, Trump was the nation’s most prominent birther, claiming that the nation’s first black president was a foreign interloper, the dark central character in the greatest conspiracy in American history: the theft of the presidency by a foreigner.

    ……………………

    The furor surrounding gun control might become the most pronounced instance of this phenomenon. During the Obama era, the right has increasingly celebrated the armed (usually white) defender of “American values,” whether it be George Zimmerman-type vigilantes or Bundy Ranch-style insurrectionists. Fox News exhaustively covered both the Bundy ranch and Oregon standoffs, offering seemingly countless friendly interviews to the armed lawbreakers. Guns are, for many white conservatives, the last defense against the specter of the black criminal, the oppressive government, the immigrant, the Muslim, or the combination of all four: Barack Hussein Obama. And now Obama–who is not really an American, according to the presumptive GOP presidential nominee; who is a Muslim, according to perhaps half of Republican voters; who doesn’t love, and thus seeks to harm, America, according to a staggering number of Republicans–is now committing his most dangerous, lawless act yet: taking away the good (read: white) Americans’ guns, leaving them defenseless against him.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 7, 2016 at 9:54 am

    @dr. bloor: Obviously more than you have ever dreamed of. And yes, while individuals may well be, neither side is above sin and corruption. And if you were actually paying attention you would have noticed this little tidbit:

    One week later, the City Council voted unanimously to approve the $5 million settlement in just 36 seconds.

    Or was that just too complicated for you? Idiot.

  24. 24.

    Zinsky

    January 7, 2016 at 9:54 am

    Emmanuel’s first loyalty is to Israel. Anyone who was an Israeli soldier, should not be given access to the levers of American political power. This bastard is a big reason that Obama’s first term was as lackluster as it was!

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    January 7, 2016 at 9:56 am

    THIS is who Rahm is.
    THIS IS WHO HE IS.
    And, I want an apology from every muthaphucka that pulled the lever for him in the voting booth.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 7, 2016 at 9:57 am

    @low-tech cyclist: As the old saying goes, “As long as there are tests and exams in school, there will be prayer.”

  27. 27.

    joes527

    January 7, 2016 at 10:08 am

    @dr. bloor: Evidently retired right down the memory hole.

  28. 28.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 7, 2016 at 10:08 am

    @sharl: @OzarkHillbilly: who tipped the reporter, though?

  29. 29.

    C.V. Danes

    January 7, 2016 at 10:09 am

    @Thoughtful Today:

    Rahm represents a core of the Democratic establishment.

    Well, he certainly represents the neo-liberal wing, which might as well be the core.

  30. 30.

    kc

    January 7, 2016 at 10:11 am

    Of course Rahm’s not “nice.” What do you think Obama hired him for?

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 7, 2016 at 10:14 am

    @Bobby Thomson: I don’t know, it may have been because of CPD policy on car cameras (“all police vehicles will have a dash cam”)

  32. 32.

    Redshift

    January 7, 2016 at 10:17 am

    @rikyrah: And to complement that, a short list from Sam Wang on how the delegate rules designed to prevent a splintered field could show Trump to win even if his ceiling is 30%: Does Trump’s Ceiling Matter?

  33. 33.

    kindness

    January 7, 2016 at 10:18 am

    How many of us are so thankful that Rahm left the Obama Administration?

  34. 34.

    benw

    January 7, 2016 at 10:21 am

    @Redshift: whether or not Trump’s ceiling matters, it’s definitely YOOGE and CLASSY, with lots of mirrors and gold-plated Ts.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 7, 2016 at 10:24 am

    Jim Wright has another righteous rant up at the Stonekettle Station, Bang Bang Crazy, Part Five (Update) I had to laugh at this:

    I wonder what Jesus would have to say about that? How in the hell do you get to guns and religion in the same sentence? Guns and religion, throw in a pickup truck, a keg of shitty beer, and an underage pregnant governor’s daughter and you’ve pretty much described modern conservatives haven’t you?

  36. 36.

    rmthunter

    January 7, 2016 at 10:38 am

    I’m still convinced that Obama sent Rahm home to Chicago to localize the damage.

    I really wish this marked the end of Rahm’s political career, but this is Chicago. ‘Nuff said?

  37. 37.

    Germy

    January 7, 2016 at 10:40 am

    Lenny Bruce said “Chicago is so corrupt it’s thrilling“

  38. 38.

    sharl

    January 7, 2016 at 10:40 am

    @Bobby Thomson:

    who tipped the reporter, though?

    Ozark’s response at #31 makes sense to me (I’m taking O.H.’s word for it on CPD policy).

    Beyond that, any ethical reporter won’t burn a good confidential source. If the reporter did in fact get a leak from an individual within CPD, he’ll likely take that person’s name with him to his grave without sharing it publicly, or only release it upon the source’s death, whichever comes first.

  39. 39.

    Germy

    January 7, 2016 at 10:43 am

    @sharl:

    Political historian (and Chicago resident) Rick Perlstein does a thorough job summing up the scummy arc of Rahm’s career in this New Yorker piece.

    Thanks for linking to that.

    I remember a few years ago reading a longer Rahm New Yorker “profile” where they got into his background and upbringing and early career.

    He’s the type of pugnacious shit that attaches itself to every movement or artform and runs it into the ground. It’s unfortunate that Obama felt he had to dance with that particular devil, but politics is politics, I suppose.

  40. 40.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 7, 2016 at 10:59 am

    OT:

    Gerald F SeibVerified account
    ‏@ GeraldFSeib
    AIG’s Hank Greenberg drops $10 million into Jeb’s Super PAC, which already has spent $47 mill. on ads

    Yup, that AIG, that Hank Greenberg

  41. 41.

    Bobby Thomson

    January 7, 2016 at 11:00 am

    @Redshift: sidenote: he currently predicts 48 Democratic senators after the next election. That’s a shameful commentary on candidate recruitment. There are lots of Republicans up for reelection this cycle and Dems are not taking advantage.

  42. 42.

    Punchy

    January 7, 2016 at 11:09 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s –almost literally– money completely wasted. To imagine how much food that’d buy for a food bank or 6, how much medicine that could buy for a health clinic, how much mental health (that they’re all screaming about) that could support.

    Instead, straight to the local and national TV networks and into some exec’s pocket. Fucking ridiculous.

  43. 43.

    PurpleGirl

    January 7, 2016 at 11:11 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: IIRC, Hank Greenberg was forced out of AIG around 2005. But he was the CEO for many years and became quite wealthy during that time.

  44. 44.

    Batgirl

    January 7, 2016 at 11:12 am

    @Bobby Thomson: it was someone with intimate knowledge of the case who was disgusted by it–maybe someone in CPD or at city or connected to the family. Source wants to remain anonymous obviously. If city or police source would be a pariah. If connected to family assume they broke the settlement agreement by informing reporter

  45. 45.

    Batgirl

    January 7, 2016 at 11:17 am

    @Batgirl: impression I got from listening to the reporter who fought for the FOIA is that it was someone at police or city.

  46. 46.

    blueskies

    January 7, 2016 at 11:17 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Atlanta, for one. That place has its problems, but I really believe that Reed would not do half the shit that Rahm has done (and the Daleys before him did).

    NYC for another. That place has its problems, but I really believe that de Blasio would not do half the shit that Rahm has done (and the Daleys before him did).

  47. 47.

    burnspbesq

    January 7, 2016 at 11:18 am

    @Punchy:

    There is a Federal preliminary injunction already in place. Every probate judge in ol’ Alabammy that follows Chief Judge Moore’s order is in violation of the Federal injunction.

    Marty Lederman ‘splains.

    I think the district judge was understandably reluctant to start the shitstorm that will inevitably ensue if she issues an OSC re contempt against a county probate judge. Until now. It’s on now.

    Fcuking instant-gratification junkies make me crabby.

  48. 48.

    Thoughtful Today

    January 7, 2016 at 11:20 am

    re: Trump

    Fortunately, Nate Silver has _promised_ that Trump winning the Republican Primary is completely unpossible!

    /…

  49. 49.

    Amir Khalid

    January 7, 2016 at 11:30 am

    @Thoughtful Today:
    I don’t care how expert the expert is, nothing in this election cycle is unpossible until it doesn’t happen.

  50. 50.

    WarMunchkin

    January 7, 2016 at 11:32 am

    Green balloons.

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 7, 2016 at 11:32 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    “I don’t think that Donald Trump is very likely to win the nomination in part because he’s not really a Republican”

    Silver’s actual words from the link. No promises, no statement of impossibility.

  52. 52.

    Paul in KY

    January 7, 2016 at 11:45 am

    @low-tech cyclist: I prayed I wouldn’t get my ass whupped by some big dickwad jerk.

    Think that should count.

  53. 53.

    Ridnik Chrome

    January 7, 2016 at 11:58 am

    My poor home town, why do you keep electing such lousy people? Chicago hasn’t had a decent human being as mayor since Harold Washington died. Rahm Emmanuel might be even more of a shit than Daley was, and that’s saying something…

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    January 7, 2016 at 12:21 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    So it’s just Gedankenloses Heute demonstrating his usual level of reading comprehension? I shoulda known.

  55. 55.

    Amir Khalid

    January 7, 2016 at 12:23 pm

    @Ridnik Chrome:
    I know Richard Daley père had a horrible rep, but how bad was Richard Daley fils?

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    January 7, 2016 at 12:33 pm

    Question for Chicagoans, since I’ve been away too long to know this — is there any kind of recall mechanism for the mayor?

    If Rahm’s not careful, he could manage to get a Republican elected in his place next time around.

  57. 57.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    January 7, 2016 at 12:35 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Lots of pilots hate him.

    Smithsonian Air and Space:

    On March 31, 2003, one of the best known general aviation airports in the world suddenly closed. Meigs Field, the downtown Chicago landmark and default airport of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator video game series, shut down without warning and, according to airport supporters, illegally. Pilots of aircraft there awoke that Monday morning to find large Xs gouged into the runway, with heavy construction equipment placed atop for good measure. After several days’ negotiations, aircraft were allowed to depart from the parallel taxiway one by one, never to return.

    The decision to shut down Meigs Field was made by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, ostensibly to prevent terrorists from using the field as cover to mount an attack. While that was a legitimate concern, many contend the true motive was Daley’s long-held wish to turn Meigs into a large park.

    He didn’t mind throwing his weight around to do what he wanted…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  58. 58.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    January 7, 2016 at 12:41 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Driftglass had a post yesterday saying that the Gov will (“reluctantly”) sign a bill to allow Chicago to recall him (if it reaches his desk).

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  59. 59.

    Germy

    January 7, 2016 at 12:46 pm

    Lenny Bruce talks about Chicago

    the only city where the autopsies say “cause of death: he wouldn’t listen”

  60. 60.

    p.a.

    January 7, 2016 at 12:47 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    What a way to end one’s career. He’s done.

    Ha! I see a future as a Fux news liberal concern troll.

  61. 61.

    Thoughtful Today

    January 7, 2016 at 12:47 pm

    erm,

    Nate Silver has been consistently wrong predicting Trump’s strength in the Republican Primary.

    At this point it’s a pattern. His models are clearly missing something hyoooge.

    BJ’s Huckabee is correct: “nothing in this election cycle is unpossible until it doesn’t happen.”

  62. 62.

    Amir Khalid

    January 7, 2016 at 12:50 pm

    @Thoughtful Today:
    Per the story at your link, Nate Silver isn’t saying what you claim he said, you illiterate pillock.

  63. 63.

    Paul in KY

    January 7, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Thanks for the new word, Amir. Had never heard of pillock!

  64. 64.

    Ridnik Chrome

    January 7, 2016 at 12:56 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Daley fils was bad for pretty much all the same reasons his dad was. He had absolute power, and wielded it arrogantly, he let his subordinates steal as much as they wanted, he let real estate developers overbuild downtown while the neighborhoods (especially black and Latino neighborhoods) went to hell. And on top of it he was stupider and less competent than the old man. Daley pere never would have let himself be suckered like his kid was in that stupid parking meter deal…

  65. 65.

    NobodySpecial

    January 7, 2016 at 1:01 pm

    Of course, Rahm is getting at least one golden lesson – his buddy buddy Gov’nor Bruuuuce has decided that Rahm can only get a CPS bailout if he plays ball and helps break the union. Kinda surprised Rahm hasn’t already signed on for that one, to be honest, given his personal animus towards unions.

  66. 66.

    Eolirin

    January 7, 2016 at 1:06 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: No, he does not. That is from 2014 and not updated yet.

  67. 67.

    Thoughtful Today

    January 7, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    Now, now, Amir, I know you’re a nasty troll, but you’re efforts to hide that are fraying.

    BTW, could you link me to an English version of Malaysian law explaining how slavery in your nation is investigated and prosecuted?

    The only articles I’ve skimmed from human-rights websites think it’s laughable that Malaysia’s cripplingly corrupt government could even _dent_ the slavery that riddles your nation.

  68. 68.

    Amir Khalid

    January 7, 2016 at 1:25 pm

    @Thoughtful Today:
    You could try this link.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    January 7, 2016 at 1:30 pm

    @Thoughtful Today:

    A troll is someone who only posts things to stir up trouble. The fact that your rudeness to Amir caused him to be rude in return means that you made him into your enemy, not a troll.

  70. 70.

    Thoughtful Today

    January 7, 2016 at 1:41 pm

    lol, Amir

    Mnemosyne, Amir got two nice jabs in before I said a word to him,-) and had he not addressed me I wouldn’t have said even that.

    But he obliquely reminds me that the right-wing/neo-liberal infection of the Democratic Party includes Trade Pacts with slavers and dictatorships.

    It’s a sharp divide between the Obama/Clinton and Sanders/Warren wings of the Democratic Party.

  71. 71.

    Brachiator

    January 7, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    @Thoughtful Today:

    Nate Silver has been consistently wrong predicting Trump’s strength in the Republican Primary.

    At this point it’s a pattern. His models are clearly missing something hyoooge.

    We have been through this before. Silver has not made much in the way of any absolute statements about Trump. And the larger issue is that both professionals and amateurs insist on misusing and mis-applying statistics to the earliest stages of the election contests.

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    January 7, 2016 at 1:54 pm

    @Thoughtful Today:

    It’s a sharp divide between the Obama/Clinton and Sanders/Warren wings of the Democratic Party.

    There is no Sanders/Warren “wing” of the Democratic Party. It’s not even a significant part of a wing. It’s more a barbicel of a feather.

  73. 73.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 7, 2016 at 1:55 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Rahm’s horrifically bad policies are what have made CPD what they are today and he owns them. He knows he owns this, this is why he worked so hard to bury the truth.

    So once again, it’s not the criminally bad management, it’s the coverup. (And you ought to read that New Yorker piece on Rahm. It’s pretty damning. He seems to be pretty much politically Always Wrong.)

  74. 74.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 7, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: The truck is lifted, and shitty, whiny, self-righteous music is blaring from the speakers.

  75. 75.

    Ridnik Chrome

    January 7, 2016 at 2:02 pm

    @Mnemosyne: In my experience Amir is one of the most polite and thoughtful posters on this board.

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    January 7, 2016 at 2:03 pm

    @Brachiator:
    I’m not even sure how there is a Sanders anything of the Democratic party. He officially joined only very recently, didn’t he? And that was so he could get on their primary ballot.

  77. 77.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 7, 2016 at 2:04 pm

    @Germy:

    He’s the type of pugnacious shit that attaches itself to every movement or artform and runs it into the ground. It’s unfortunate that Obama felt he had to dance with that particular devil, but politics is politics, I suppose.

    Yeah. This is my take on it. Rahm was unavoidable. He also sounds so confident. It’s only in retrospect that the wreckage caused by his shitty decisions becomes apparent.

    I like the New Yorker profile Zander linked because without mentioning DKos it did explain how it happened that a bunch of progressives started fundraising for their own primary candidates on the internet. I wonder if the national Dem party has ever caught on to the utter distrust that rank and file Dems have for DSCC and DCCC. What happens when their geriatric donors die off?

  78. 78.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 7, 2016 at 2:11 pm

    @Thoughtful Today:

    Now, now, Amir, I know you’re a nasty troll, but you’re efforts to hide that are fraying.

    Checks.

    Yup.

    You’re the only troll on this thread, trying to stir up shit because that’s how you get your jollies. Gedankenlos.

  79. 79.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 7, 2016 at 2:13 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Sanders certainly appeals to a certain whiter shade of pale tranche of the electorate* who are always going on about how they would vote for Democrats, if only they were more pure.

    To steal a phrase from Dave Barry, Bernie Sanders makes such people pee their pants with glee.

    *being generous, many of them are unlikely voters

  80. 80.

    John Revolta

    January 7, 2016 at 2:15 pm

    @Mnemosyne: The troll of my troll is my friend.@

    Another Holocene Human: Bah. Rahm’s an asshole, but the CPD has been the way it is longer than any of us has been alive.

  81. 81.

    Brachiator

    January 7, 2016 at 2:19 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    I’m not even sure how there is a Sanders anything of the Democratic party. He officially joined only very recently, didn’t he? And that was so he could get on their primary ballot.

    True enough, although there is nothing wrong with this and I have no problem with it.

    But his lack of past formal connection of the Democratic Party gives him an extra splash of purity, which makes him even more appealing to some of his supporters.

  82. 82.

    Thoughtful Today

    January 7, 2016 at 2:42 pm

    …

    There’s easily 1/5th to 1/3rd of the base of the Democratic Party who support Bernie.

    I understand Hillary’s supporters expectations that that minority should know it’s place, some Hillary supporters are still mad Obama didn’t know his place in 2008.

    After all, she had all those anti-democratic Superdelegates, the _presumptuousness_ of waiting until _regular_ voters got a chance to vote, amirite?

  83. 83.

    Thoughtful Today

    January 7, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    Hillary’s Republican leadership aside, it’s her slew of right-wing policies that really offend me: Death penalty support, horrific trade pact support, a contempt for College educations for the poors … it’s a very long list.

    I understand that she’s nominally a “D”, and that Club Membership is seen by many Dems as being more important than supporting the progressive principles strongly supported by large majorities in the Democratic Party.

    But speaking as someone who’s a more loyal Democratic Party voter than Hillary, her supporters expectation of _servility_ to another right-wing Corporate Dem is sickening.

    I’ve only myself to blame, because, unlike Hillary, I’ve always voted for the Democratic candidate.

    Corporate Dems take me for granted.

  84. 84.

    Amir Khalid

    January 7, 2016 at 3:47 pm

    @Thoughtful Today:
    You’re just talking to yourself now.

  85. 85.

    Thoughtful Today

    January 7, 2016 at 3:53 pm

    lol, you’re ability to self-refute is perfectly Clintonian, Amir ;)

  86. 86.

    Steve Crickmore

    January 8, 2016 at 11:39 am

    Nice guy, that Obama.

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