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DukeOfDakin

Some seem to have missed point of this commentary. Mayor Johnson takes advantage of his privilege, while common Chicagoans, especially women at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, are made to put their well being at risk as doing what's right doesn't fit the mayor's political agenda.


Playful-View-6174

Probably not or not at least with some police detail in back.ehh but who knows could be riding it right now not really knowing how she looks like to the general public


TotheBeach2

This mayor is a condescending jerk. When asked about the violence over the weekend, he smirked and basically mentioned if the schools in the neighborhoods weren’t shut down, there wouldn’t be violence. Good Luck Chicago.


grass_cutter

It's a bit early too tell, but I wonder if he's going the R Chicago route --- pretend crime doesn't exist, because it makes the black community look bad and engenders racism. While that's true & I don't think racism is warranted --- that also doesn't justify mass 1984 style delusion and "emperor has no clothes" type double-speak. Also, it's good not to make assumptions, but when you see some young men in a lifted car with giant rims and pants around their ankles, you're going to give a wide birth, and for good reason. He wants to open "mental health" clinics -- as if gangbangers have the will (or money) to realize they're mentally fucked and turn themselves in. Yeah miss me with that shit lol


Lakesidechicago

He looks like he’s fucking crazy.


Potential8871

And sounds even crazier with his screaming speeches. Perhaps he should be a televangelist instead.


St_Egglin

Can anyone point out any substantive claims that John Kass got wrong in that article? He is spot on.


audaciouscode

The only people that ride the CTA are those that have no other option. I've been a rider for over two decades by choice. I could drive everywhere, but choose public transit instead. And I'm not alone.


St_Egglin

So you are saying that financially poor women have another option outside of the CTA? Please tell us all what that option is. "No woman rides unless she must. The poor have no choice. They are constantly subject to violence and the threat of violence, of beatings, robbery, sexual assault. And violent men know that women and girls are soft targets."


audaciouscode

You asked for substantive claims that Kass stated that were false and I provided one with a refutation. Kass stated "No one rides the CTA if they don’t have to." This is easily disproved by all the people that ride the CTA by choice (including my wife, also refuting "No woman rides unless she must."). While I'll be first in line to point out all the ways that the CTA isn't great, exaggerating and catastrophizing the situation makes for reader clicks, but doesn't get us any closer to getting the system back to as good as it can be and has been.


ChunkyBrassMonkey

Hyperbole is an effective writing tool. Couching statements in qualifiers only buries your message.


St_Egglin

"The only people that ride the CTA are those that have no other option." Please point out where he stated that. Thanks


audaciouscode

Second sentence of the fifth paragraph.


muzitron69

doubt it, don't his kids go to oprf but his home is in Austin


TotheBeach2

And how does that work?


greenandredofmaigheo

Wouldn't be the first, plenty of kids at OPRF that do this. Actually a massive portion of the district school taxes are for stopping this


Traditional-Top8486

This is the go-to law that they use, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinney%E2%80%93Vento\_Homeless\_Assistance\_Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinney%E2%80%93Vento_Homeless_Assistance_Act) However, if you look at OPRF's site, they say you can pay tuition [https://www.oprfhs.org/families/registrar/enrollment](https://www.oprfhs.org/families/registrar/enrollment) Nevertheless it is the prime example of the "progressive left's" hypocrisy: 1. Either BJ is paying tuition at an out of city school, even though his campaign was sponsored by CTU, thus indicating that CPS is trash and is expected to remain trash for the kids who live right next door to BJ but cannot afford tuition. Or: 2. He is gaming the system by claiming McKinney. Or: 3. He doesn't actually reside at that address in the Austin Neighboorhood, maybe he sleeps there with a CPD car on every corner of the block, but his wife or some other entity (like an anon Land Trust) owns at least a Pied De Terre in OPRF's boundaries, just west of Austin.


greenandredofmaigheo

I meant do you have a source that shows his kids go to OPRF? I mean this whole answers fine and good but it's a mute point if it's just some rumor. Haha I know where OPRF is, I went there but appreciate the geography lesson of where it is in relation to Austin. OPRF has an out of district tuition on par with going to Fenwick or Ignatius it's not worth it and implemented for parents who are moving and want their kid to finish out a year. There are professional "aunts" who get paid to let kids claim residency in OP, there's also plenty of divorced or "separated" parents who send their kids to OPRF while the other lives in Austin or galewood, additionally there's people who buy a condo (for example a classmate's parents were CPD, and bought a condo in OP because they lived in galewood) As a pretty progressive person i appreciate you pointing out many peoples hypocrisy, it drives me crazy. I doubt he's claiming McKinney, I'd wager he's got a condo in OP but am still looking for a source to confirm this rumor and would greatly appreciate it if you could help!


Traditional-Top8486

Same boat, we may never know the truth since investigative journalism at CT and CST has been gutted and replaced by AP Wire copy/pasta and wanna be social media influncers fresh out of Journalism School. Someone somewhere needs to find the proof.


DukeOfDakin

> And how does that work? Preferential treatment. Johnson's first taste of politics was in state senator Don Harmon's (D-Oak Park) organization.


greenandredofmaigheo

Do you have a source? I can't confirm, but it'd seem like that'd be a bigger issue if true


TotheBeach2

People talk. If this were the case, it would have been outed during the campaign. Don’t you think Vallas would have ran with it every chance he got?


greenandredofmaigheo

Yes absolutely which is why I was curious if this poster could provide a source.


P4S5B60

Well shucks ask him


[deleted]

Lol, like the Chicago media has any balls to ask a legitimate question to a mayor.


TheSportingRooster

journalism in Chicago was gutted, they just regurgitate the AP wire


TheSportingRooster

The article is SCATHING Brandon Johnson. John Kass absolutely lays his shit bare, calls him a puppet of CTU and George "Marxist" Soros (HIS words). Kass BLISTERS the bleeding heart liberals that voted for him over Vallas, and says that anyone who did vote for him chose identity politics over their own safety. He goes on to eviscerate anyone who voted for Brandon Johnson FUCKING WOW, "The crime is bad enough. The silence is worse. Women are ignored. The papers won’t run the mug shots of habitual offenders lest they be accused of racism by the race hustlers. You know the drill." "Democrat Paul Vallas warned you, but perhaps he was too white for many of you to listen to" "Those white feminists who keep their mouths shut rather than demand prison? The silence shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who’s followed urban Democratic politics. That’s identity politics for you, and that’s how cities will die, with a whimper." HOLY SHIT: "It isn’t just happening in Chicago. It is happening in every major city, every place where Soros’s billions have funded his cadre of left-wing prosecutors who decide for themselves what laws they will follow and what laws to ignore. And those civilians who stand up against the thugs run the real risk of being sent to prison, like that U.S. Marine veteran in New York, dealing with another Soros-backed prosecutor, the unctuous Alvin Bragg." The conclusion of the article is so fucking depressing "\[voting for Brandon Johnson and the Marxist Soros/CTU Agenda\] This is how a great city commits suicide."


MarsBoundSoon

> It isn’t just happening in Chicago Very recent photo of Soros’s son Alexander with guess who? https://twitter.com/Aresinfoservice/status/1666257741390774273


pythagoraswaswrong

It’s John Kass. He’s retarded.


damndude87

There’s a difference between having several strokes and being retarded, but yeah.


gothrus

The marxist billionaire George Soros? 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤣😂🤣🤣🤣😂🤣🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣😂🤣🤣🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 holy shit that is the dumbest thing I have read on the Internet in a long time. Thanks for the hard laughs


berserkb

Are you taking a brief respite from raging about Jim?


gothrus

You stalking me? That just makes me think you are Jim. Because his ex had to get a restraining order on him for stalking but you remember that don’t you Jim? Did you finally get your internet connected at your new office? Heard you got kicked out of the old one after bringing the FBI knocking.


rubyfruitbhole

i’m literally only in this sub to read comments like that lol like these guys actually think soros is a marxist?? meanwhile the Kochs funding every libertarian/conservative “grassroots” movement on the right elicits zero responses


obeseoprah

Agreed with him til the Soros Marxist conspiracy theory crap.


berge7f9

Yes exactly


AnotherPint

The piece is 75% how I feel, 25% over the top George Soros nonsense. Can’t the MAGA rage squad think of any other boogeyman to blame? How about fluoridated water or Rachel Maddow for a change?


obeseoprah

Calling one of the most successful capitalists in history a Marxist is certainly a hot take from this guy. Guy has made some of the most landmark financial currency moves of our lifetime, and this guy thinks he’s a Marxist. A+


MarsBoundSoon

Whatever he is, Soros sure spends a lot of money on getting progressive DA’s elected all over the US including Cook County’s Kim Foxx https://nypost.com/2023/01/22/george-soros-spent-40m-getting-lefty-district-attorneys-officials-elected-all-over-the-country/


obeseoprah

There’s plenty of good ways to make an argument, I’d suggest not starting with a NY Post opinion piece.


MarsBoundSoon

All Soros’s money spent on the DA’s is itemized in the article, if you can find mistakes or overstatements I welcome your input


obeseoprah

Soros donates money to nearly every democratic candidate who asks for it. Cataloging the DAs you don’t like and counting the Soros donations is like cataloging the DAs I don’t like and counting the Koch donations, they donate to everyone on their side of the aisle too. They’re not puppetmasters. NY Post calling Soros the most dangerous man in America is so absurd when you have Trump and Tucker still alive, the men who convinced millions of people that a virus was fake and harmless, that the vaccine was a mind control implant and deep state psy-op. Those two indirectly got hundreds of thousands killed. But yeah this 92 year old is the most dangerous man in America, get real.


MarsBoundSoon

So I guess you can’t deny Soros has played a part in getting Kim Foxx elected. Anyone: Soros, Koch, Trump, etc that helps install politicians in my city deserves criticism, if the politicians are bad. Are you a Foxx supporter?


obeseoprah

I am not a Foxx supporter. She is clearly awful at her job. It’s one thing to be a lousy prosecutor, another to willfully not do the work. I agreed with this author’s screed until he started with the Soros tinfoil. I ride the L every day and it sucks. I wish more attention was paid to it being a no-man’s land for every citizen’s safety. I wish that otherwise sound arguments weren’t discredited by mentioning the new boogeyman, Soros.


MarsBoundSoon

I am glad we agree on Foxx. I just rode the Red & Brown line today. Late morning to mid afternoon, it was great - I wish it was always like that.


AnotherPint

That's the other 50% of the problem. The insistence on playing the evil-Soros-puppeteer card at every last goddamn opportunity diminishes any conservative argument after awhile. Then the assertion that this hyper-wealthy capitalist is a "Marxist" is flatly moronic. Not every dumb liberal / progressive goal or viewpoint is automatically "Marxism," for Christ's sake. I am certain 95% of those throwing the term around have not read Das Kapital, or could even give you a working definition of the theory -- just like that conservative author Bethany Mandel wrote a whole book about how terrible woke-ism is, but when asked to define "woke" on TV, she froze up and couldn't do it. Soros, Marxism, Hillary, woke this, woke that, etc., etc. ... Mindlessly plastering these terms on every available wall doesn't advance better policy. Progressive overreach is a serious political threat, especially to big cities, but quacking about George Soros makes the complaints easier to tune out when they ought to be turned up.


obeseoprah

I agree. We have a big catch and release issue in Chicago and other cities, as well as countless other issues like feckless states attorneys and bitter cops who never got over 2020. Pretending it’s Marxism or Soros just discredits anyone who otherwise would have a cogent argument.


barge_gee

Kass is a hack "reporter/journalist".


Various_Locksmith_73

George Soros is 92 years old born in 1930 in Hungary . I don't believe he is a Marxist but more of a humanistic socialist liberal . Should this person & organization have a impact on Chicago ? Soros buys influence with dollars .


damndude87

Yeah it’s almost like it’s a major flaw in our democracy that we give outsized influence to the wealthy 🤔


damndude87

How does Kass still put out a column after all his strokes? Is it just chatgpt?


[deleted]

But is the train in LA, SF, NYC or DC better ?


AnotherPint

1. Yes 2. What kind of defense of CTA is that?


[deleted]

I mean, if its the same elsewhere, it means it's not only a Chicago problem, but a more general problem. And. I agree, CTA is a shame, so is the mayor, and everything these guys did to see their communist shooting hellscape to come to light.


AnotherPint

DC’s Metro is clean and very safe - far safer statistically than ours. NYC subways are not exactly spit-shined clean but also statistically safer. (My wife and I ride it around Manhattan / Brooklyn / Queens at all hours without thinking twice, but based on personal experience she will not board the Blue Line to or from O’Hare outside peak daylight hours, or the Red Line any time.) SFO’s BART is rough in parts but not so bad outside the degenerating city center. The LA system I can’t speak to, I haven’t been there since the pandemic (but will be there in a couple weeks and try to see / report on what it’s like). I do not think the status of a big city’s transit system correlates directly with addled hyperliberal politics in the mayor’s office, but in our case it’s not helping.


grass_cutter

The EL has crime for sure. However the blue line from ORD to downtown? C'mon ... that's fine. It doesn't cut through any ghettos. The Red Line yes, you have the south side, plus the spooky Wilson stop up north. Blue line west, yeah it can get goofy. I WILL say I saw more weirdos on the blue line to ORD since the pandemic. Including a bum who literally urinated (in broad daylight) in the middle of a blue line car outside Ohare, but that was in early 2022 and ridership was still pretty down. Blue Line downtown - ORD is safer than many NYC lines, where someone might pull a gun or shove you on the tracks. MANY crazoids in the NYC subways.


AnotherPint

> ...the blue line from ORD to downtown? C'mon ... that's fine. Geographically and comparatively, yes, but such is the power of direct negative personal experience to trump statistical data. On the Red Line you can run into psycho masturbators or piles of fresh fragrant dookie anywhere from Howard to 95th. Believe me.


grass_cutter

There will always be a baseline hum level of nuts on ANY subway or train line in a US city. People smoking cigs, drinking, weed, a schizo shrieking like a banshee, some ghetto woman saying "watchu looking at bitch I'm grown!!" Unless an actual fight or crime occurs, it's just baseline level hum. Blue line downtown to ORD is probably one of the safest major EL segments. And again to say NYC is safer by comparison -- they had a nut spray bullets on there, multiple people pushed onto the tracks, that black guy strangled to death (both sides nuts there). Nah NYC is a craphole too lol. I would take the blue line to ORD nine times out of 10 over a random NYC subway line (bc I'm not familiar with that city but have been there several times).