The Chicago Way and the Kim Foxx Way
One of the most interesting things about the dropping of the Smollett prosecution as well as the absurd reasons the prosecutors have given for doing so is that their explanations probably aren’t good enough to convince any child past the age of 10. In other words, the prosecutors not even trying to make us think they’re telling the truth. They either are too lazy to come up with a better story to explain themselves, too stupid, too non-creative—or they want us to know they don’t care what we think, they want us to see that they can do whatever they want to do and don’t really have to explain to the public in a way that’s believable, because power is power and power does what power wants.
Any tyrannical one-party regime tends to get that way, because nothing stops them from doing so. Democrats have been in power in Chicago for practically forever, and the city’s been corrupt for as long as I can remember, too, and even earlier.
Chicago corruption doesn’t usually get such national attention, but the Smollett case was and still is a big national story, and so all of America is listening and watching. And most of America doesn’t like what it hears and sees, and that includes quite a few people who usually support whatever Democrats do.
The spectacle of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson calling out the prosecutors in scathing terms was initially a surprising one for people who don’t follow the ups and downs of Chicago politics (and that would include me), but it is just part of a more longstanding feud in that city between prosecutors on the one side and police and the mayor on the other.
Here’s a glowing background interview with Kim Foxx, the State’s Attorney for Cook County, from a group called the Center for Court Innovation. Foxx’s policies as head prosecutor for Chicago seem to have played a big role in the Smollett debacle, and this will give you some idea of what went on prior to that [emphasis added]. Everything that is in quotes except the lead paragraph are statements made by Foxx in response to the interviewer’s questions:
Foxx’s surprise victory in 2016 [she defeated the incumbent Democrat in the primary, which just about guaranteed her victory in the general] helped to ignite the movement to elect prosecutors promising something other than more “tough on crime” policies—a movement that has now racked up some notable victories…
As you talk about reform, it is the ability for me to do some things that, probably the law says I have to do one thing, I get to exercise my discretion to do another. My choice and what charges to bring, or conversely not to bring…
It’s a loaded concept that could be either used for good or evil. I don’t know what the balance looks like other than to start with: I think people should show what they’re doing so that we can start asking the question of should you or should you not be doing that? Should you or should you not be allowed to do that?
…I think it’s important to start with my biography of where I come from, even more so like the racial demographic of being the first African American woman in this position, and we know that people of color, women of color are vastly underrepresented in elected prosecutor’s offices, so it’s really significant. But I do think of equal important significance is the fact that I come from a community that is very similar to me and the folks in Chicago who experienced high incidents of crime and violence in their neighborhoods…
I see so many people who go into law enforcement and prosecution with this hero complex, this, “I want to save the day.” The designation of who wears the white hats versus who wears the black hats. That often makes my stomach churn because it is this belief that you are coming to save someone. Even in the worst of times in the projects, when I lived there, it was a community rich in love and support. Everything that was happening there, there was still this fabric. We didn’t need people to save us, we needed people to support us and that, I think, is a big distinction for people who have a healthy distance from communities like that…
That’s what we’re trying to do: engage our attorneys with narratives, not just of mine, but of people who’ve been impacted by the system. Getting our people out of courtrooms into the community to sit, to listen, and really do some self-reflection on: what do we really factor when we talk about this work? Are you really factoring what’s in the best interest of the community or what you think is a punishment fit for a crime?
Let me pause for a moment here and add that the only “community” for which the disposition of the Smollet case seems to have been in its best interests would be a rather small one: the community of “Empire,” actors, and Jussie Smollett and family. And I’m not even sure about the latter; I think it might have been better for him to have paid his dues in some way and moved on.
This certainly didn’t help the black community as a whole, whose valid reports of hate crimes against them are not going to be given more credence now. It doesn’t help the left, some of whom seem almost embarrassed by it as this point, although embarrassment is not too common for them. It doesn’t help to heal any racial divides. And I doubt it will dissuade people from making false accusations in the future. It seems to be about patronage and corruption, and probably is, and that can’t possibly be good for any community, including that community of one named Kim Foxx.
More from the interview:
…My election was really about talking about the criminal justice system in a way that we hadn’t talked about it before. Largely prosecutors’ races, and races in Cook County, the messaging was largely for people who lived in neighborhoods not impacted by violence. The target audience were some of our suburban communities who had deep fears about violence in the city of Chicago and wanted to make sure that violence was contained, that their communities were safe, that’s who the targeting was for.
This was a race that I wanted to make sure that we were targeting people who were actually impacted by violence, actually who lived in those neighborhoods, who had people who were both perpetrators and victims in their families, in their same bodies, and saying to them, “This system should be fair to you.”
We have 86 percent of the people who were in our jail in 2016 when I ran, were black and brown. Most of them had a sense that the justice system only viewed them as an instrument and not as a person. So I ran the race talking to those communities, talking about the fact that I had more in common with the people who come through our justice system than the people who work in the office, and saying that you should expect more. I think for me turning the page was that this was an office that had to be inclusive of the entire county; that we had to recognize that the disparities that existed were unacceptable and that we had to be intentional about doing something about it.
…I think you have to be honest. The relationship between our office and the community was broken because we weren’t honest with the people that we worked with. The justice system in Chicago long before Laquan McDonald, had been broken, and the relationship had been broken. I think that the conversation in the last four years since his death has certainly been elevated, but this is a city that has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars related to cases of police misconduct. This is a city that actually teaches a curriculum in Chicago public schools about police torture as a result of litigation that had been ongoing related to the torture of black men on the south side by Chicago police.
…I have a really good working relationship with the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, Eddie Johnson…I’ve never been anti-law enforcement, I am law enforcement. I am anti-bad law enforcement. That is dangerous to our communities.
…People are saying, “Well, you’re soft on crime.” Let me show you what we’re doing. I think when you do that, it dispels what people want to say about you, because I think people wanted to have a narrative about what it meant for a black woman to have this job, a black woman from the projects to have this job—”I heard she’s going to let everybody black out of jail.”
Again, I’ll pause to reflect that the fact that Smollett was let off certainly does nothing to disabuse people of that notion in the last sentence of that quote. It’s interesting, though, that is this case, criticism of the decision seems to focus less on the color angle and more on the idea that Smollett was released because of connections, money, and the privileges associated with all those things.
There’s much much more in the article; it’s a really long interview. The bulk of it is about violent crime in Chicago and how to treat perpetrators accused of violence (mostly poor and black perpetrators), and of course the Smollett case most definitely does not fall into that particular box. The general message is of a kinder, gentler prosecutor attitude, and that somehow this will help everyone.
It’s hardly worked out that way. What has happened with the Smollett case is that now just about everyone holds the Chicago prosecutor’s office in contempt. And as for transparency, this case is the opposite of transparency as far as the actions of the prosecution are concerned.
Here’s the way most people probably react:
After Foxx had to recuse herself from the case for playing Obama Celebrity Friends, Joseph Magats, the first assistant state’s attorney, took over.
“The fact that (Smollett) feels we have exonerated him, we have not,” Magats told the Tribune. “I can’t make it any clearer.”
You can’t make it any clearer? Well, I can’t make this any clearer.
Smollett is a star. Your boss jammed herself up some way we don’t know about. But she jammed herself. And so, you cut him a deal.
You made the deal to expunge him. You let him work off “community service” with a couple of days doing odd jobs at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. I hoped he sold a few Jesse Jackson action figures. But then Rainbow/PUSH said it had no idea his volunteer work had anything to do with the criminal case.
Foxx hasn’t helped herself any with statements such as this:
“I think that there is a lot of confusion,” Foxx said at WBEZ, adding that there was a “slim” chance Smollett would have received jail time in the case. “There’s some people who were never going to be satisfied unless Mr. Smollett spent many nights in prison.”
Nope, Ms. Foxx. Oh, probably there are “some people” who felt that way. But most people whose comments I’ve read or heard never really expected that to happen, although they would have liked it. They expected a deal of some sort that kept him out of prison. But that deal was expected to contain some rather conventional elements such as admission of wrongdoing, probation, that sort of thing. Maybe even a substantial fine instead of a wrist slap that amounts to almost nothing to a person with an income such as Smollett’s.
Leaving Foxx behind there’s plenty more, and you’ve probably read some of it. But since this post is already getting interminable, I’ll just give you two links:
The FBI may be investigating another aspect of the Smollett case, the hoax letter.
Who’s Tina Tchen and why did she intervene on behalf of Smollett?
As Michelle Malkin has written today in an excellent column, all crooked roads in Chicago lead back to the Obamas. Tchen, who formerly worked for Michelle, is now representing the odious and thoroughly corrupt SPLC. Jussie, who grew up in a family of hard-left activists, is friendly not only with Barack and Michelle, but also with Kamala, and sees himself as a noble crusader for “social justice” and a Hero of the Resistance. He has been aided and abetted by some of the most powerful leftists in the country.
Well, somebody in the CPD is really angry, and released the documents
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-jussie-smollett-chicago-police-case-file-20190327-htmlstory.html
and the Cook County clerk is shocked that no written motions were filed in the dismissal of the Smollett case.
There will be backlash from a diverse group that would ordinarily support Smollett.
helped to ignite the movement to elect prosecutors promising something other than more “tough on crime” policies—a movement that has now racked up some notable victories…
This is racial politics in the crudest way. Jesse Jackson must be so proud. The most crime ridden neighborhood in Chicago (It can be hard to choose) is the one I grew up in.
This is what it was like in the 40s and 50s.
About ten years ago,. I was visiting and stopped in front of my parents’ old house to take a picture. The owner came out to ask who I was and then insisted on giving me a tour. He asked if I could send him some photos of what it looked like when we lived there. I felt so sorry for him trying to live a Bourgeois life in that hellhole.
He is the one suffering from these crooks pandering to racial hate,
Narrative, messaging, factoring, and targeting. She’s very woke.
I seem to remember INdependents and Leftists lecturing me about how the SPLC were the good guys and how the militia bikers at Waco 2 needed terminating…
You Americans are…
This is NOT going to go down well, and it will NOT be forgotten.
If this were done for some nobody, it would be forgotten. But Smollett is too known for it to disappear down the memory hole.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2019/03/27/cook-county-clerks-office-stunned-as-smollett-case-file-vanishes-from-records-system-n2543809
And the rebound will be far beyond what Foxx ever thought.
Chicago = Baltimore. They just haven’t realized it yet.
Foxx = Mosby.
One last thought:
The fact that Tina Tchen was involved in attempting to move the case to the FBI indicates to me that they thought that there are still Obamatoid Deep State moles resident there.
The investigation of threatening letter that Smollett sent to himself through the USPS is currently being carried out by the FBI. I think this is a good test case. If it is mishandled or disappears down the memory hole, the DOJ should follow the bread crumbs to find who deep sixed the case, and thus find another Deep State mole.
It’s rather odd that the voters in Cook County have put the public prosecutor’s position in the hands of a woman unfit to hold it and are due to put the mayor’s chair in the hands of women who are similarly unfit. Racial chauvinism plays a part in that, but since blacks make up perhaps 1/3 of the population of Chicago and perhaps 1/4 of the population of Cook County as a whole, that’s only one vector and perhaps not the most salient one in explaining how they came to this pretty pass.
Good point, Art Deco.
But maybe there is hope. When a scientist performs an experiment to test a theory, he/she/it ( >;-> ) will hold all variables constant save the one being tested.
Perhaps the voters in Cook County are trying to do the same.
White Male Democrats have not been very good at helping the black voters improve their lives.
So the experiments being run over the years:
Try Black Male Democrats —- same result
Try Black Female Democrats — same result
Oh dear, what to do next?
Reportedly, George Soros was a major contributor to Foxx’s campaign. To the tune of $400k+. Soros is reportedly funding 22 State Attorney contests in America.
“The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.” George Soros
This provides an excellent insight into the man:
“Those are the words of George Soros. And he feels the United States must be destroyed.
George Soros was born György Schwartz in Hungary in 1930. Soros, born a Jew but now an atheist, was the son of a Nazi collaborator and accompanied his father while the father assisted in the confiscation of private property from Jews. Through it all, he feels no guilt. In fact;
“In 2004 Joshua Muravchik wrote that in 1944:
“70% of Mr. Soros’s fellow Jews in Hungary, nearly a half-million human beings, were annihilated in that year. They were dying and disappearing all around him, and their numbers no doubt included many whom he knew personally. Yet he gives no sign that this put any damper on his elation, either at the time or indeed in retrospect.”
Soros has called 1944 “the best year of my life.”
In the introduction to his father’s book, Soros said
“It is a sacrilegious thing to say, but these ten months [of the Nazi occupation] were the happiest times of my life… We led an adventurous life and we had fun together.”
I find the above chilling. I suspect the man’s a sociopath. And I reached that suspicion apart from the author.
http://www.floppingaces.net/2010/10/23/%E2%80%9Cthe-main-obstacle-to-a-stable-and-just-world-order-is-the-united-states-%E2%80%9D-reader-post/
Geoffrey Britain:
You may find the excerpted quotes chilling, but if you actually pay attention to the whole story you might see that the situation was not as it seems. I have many reasons for disliking Soros and to condemn what he has done in his adult life, but I do not condemn him for what he did during the war because the story is nowhere near as dreadful as what those quotes might indicate if you don’t know the full picture.
Please read this. As you can see, I’ve hashed this out on this blog before.
Two expressions come to mind:
“It’s Chinatown, Jake.”
and
“The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.”
Oops … now it gets interesting:
https://www.weaselzippers.us/415556-breaking-fbi-is-reviewing-circumstances-surrounding-dismissal-of-criminal-charges-against-smollett-report-says/
Mike K, I was born in Chicago a few years later. My parents lived on the South Side, a little farther south from you, and they said it was a nice place to live at the time. Sad to say that Baltimore is the model, except it will be worse.
Chicago/Cook County was corrupt long before barack the messiah showed up. It was the perfect place for him to enter politics and quickly ascend to the Oval Office. When Illinois goes belly up it will be intersting to hear all the excuses for the state’s inevitable bankruptcy. My daughter and her family has lived on the northside of Chicago since the early 1990s.
They were amazed at the level of corruption, but their jobs with the Cook County forest preserve (an amazing urban land trust) and the BNSF are well paid and they live in a quiet, safe neighborhood near the lake. They do have bugout bags and an escape route through Wisconsin to reach Iowa.
My parents lived on the South Side, a little farther south from you, and they said it was a nice place to live at the time.
My high school girlfriend lived farther south. Polish neighborhood. Her grandmother didn’t like me because I was Irish. We went to different colleges and she got her BS in ChemE at Purdue in 1960. She married a classmate who I knew from high school and we socialized in California later, after they moved out.
My sister lives in Beverly, which is south west. When I was a kid there were mansions. Now mixed and tolerable but she hears gunshots sometimes walking the dog.
Geoffrey, I’m the last person to get aboard the “YAY Soros!” fan train. But you write that
Do you have a reliable source for this statement? If so, I’d be glad to consult it. The best info I have was posted by our hostess herself, not only the part she links to above, but even more so at
https://www.thenewneo.com/2018/10/31/you-are-free-to-criticize-george-soros-without-being-anti-semitic-part-i/#comment-2409982 .
It is true that it’s taken from Snopes, which has a dubious reputation in terms of defending lefties; but it seems thorough and honest, at least, and in this case I’ll give Snopes the benefit of the doubt.
If you dispute the Snopes account, I’d be very interested to see your evidence. I mean that honestly and sincerely. :>)
Within the last year I had discussions with people who live in or are from Chicago. They just rationalize by saying that they stay away from the “bad” parts of town. I replied that the bad guys have cars. I also remarked that it was horrible that they just tolerated the wholesale murder of their fellow citizens but apparently it was okay because they are black and brown.
I also note that Michelle’s fixer wanted to get the case over to the FBI. Jussie wanted Hillary’s treatment.
They just rationalize by saying that they stay away from the “bad” parts of town.
The “bad parts” keep moving. Sutton ‘s Law. North Michigan Ave is now a hunting ground for “youth” gangs,
”I heard she’s going to let everybody black out of jail.”
I’m sure such an action will benefit the black community in exactly the way I think it will. Let her and them get what they want. It’s simply justice.
Because our daughter and family lives in Chicago, we visit the city at least twice a year. Chicago like every other metropolis is a collection of neighborhoods, some very dangerous and others relatively safe for the most part. I carry concealed when we visit just in case. A 38spl snub nose with +P frangible rounds. No balistic signature, no ejected cases to retrieve. Just walk away and wash hands throughly afterwards. Think ahead. Be prepared. Never talk to the authorities without a lawyer present. Rules to live by.
Let her and them get what they want. It’s simply justice.
“Good and hard” as HL Mencken would say.
>North Michigan Ave is now a hunting ground for “youth” gangs,
And where did you hear this?
@ Cornhead:
>Within the last year I had discussions with people who live in or are from Chicago. They just rationalize by saying that they stay away from the “bad” parts of town.
True, you don’t enter places like Englewood or Back of the Yards at night if you aren’t the police or reside in those neighborhoods. As a Chicago native I’ll say the city is livable, probably the most livable major city in the country.
>I replied that the bad guys have cars. I also remarked that it was horrible that they just tolerated the wholesale murder of their fellow citizens but apparently it was okay because they are black and brown.
Not sure what you mean by this.
Smollett got off because he was gay, black and an actor. Three protected classes, the last not formally, but nevertheless so. He got off because of Foxx, whose last name I profiled correctly as black, and proven correct on checking.
The fix is in. Parts of this country are upside down; black is the new white, a color of privilege.
It is amusing to see Rahm, brother of the “medical ethicist” Ezekiel, whom I despise, speak firmly against a black perp. I remind you Ezekiel is the guardian angel of death panels and other mechanisms of limiting/terminating life. Ethics, see?
Cicero,
Yes. You are absolutely right.
I think this is another case of ol’ Choom himself being completely unable to leave black identity politics alone. Black guy in trouble? 0’s gang rides to the rescue… Even if they have to take a steaming dump in Rahm’s kitchen. But Rahm’s a Clintonite…so they don’t care. Clintons don’t call the shots anymore.
We’ll see where this one ends up…Rahm does not want to leave office with the streets on fire, nor does he like getting made to look like a fool in his own house. Payback could be interesting.
“Choom himself being completely unable to leave black identity politics alone”
While I have no doubt of BO’s eagerness to play identity politics the motivation here may be even simpler – Smollett is a buddy of the family. Of course being able to blow off a faked hate crime is a bonus.
Well, I am glad that at least one burning inequity is now settled: “privilege” is no longer solely an attribute of white cismale poor people. It’s nice to see something important redistributed to those in need.
Edward on March 27, 2019 at 5:26 pm at 5:26 pm said:
One last thought:
The fact that Tina Tchen was involved in attempting to move the case to the FBI indicates to me that they thought that there are still Obamatoid Deep State moles resident there.
The investigation of threatening letter that Smollett sent to himself through the USPS is currently being carried out by the FBI. I think this is a good test case. If it is mishandled or disappears down the memory hole, the DOJ should follow the bread crumbs to find who deep sixed the case, and thus find another Deep State mole.
* * *
Indeed. However, unless the current known moles suffer some sort of negative consequences for their illegal, unethical, and despicable behavior, I doubt any of Jussie’s Friends will either.
And I’m sure that the MSM will follow the investigation with all the objectivity and professionalism that they expended on the Russian Collusion case.
Somebody at CNN told me they all do that kind of thing.
The Left Nexus = MSM/Dems/Academia/Hollywood
MSM has major egg-on-face after RussiaGate, Covington, Avenatti.
How aggressive will they be in pursuing the scandal of SmollettGate ?
Will it turn out to be The Story of O ?
Julie Near Chicago–See about four or five minutes into this interview with Hungarian Jew Soros, in which he is asked about his experience of going out with his Christian fake grandfather to confiscate Jew’s possession for the Nazis, and how he feels absolutely no guilt for having participated in this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PUDmLCkgNc
The investigation of threatening letter that Smollett sent to himself through the USPS is currently being carried out by the FBI.
Are you sure it is the FBI?
Postal Inspectors do their own investigations and have no sense of humor about using the mail this way.
North Michigan Ave is now a hunting ground for “youth” gangs,
And where did you hear this?
I have family there but I could find you a list of articles. Want some?
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/03/30/breaking-chicago-police-swarm-mag-mile-wilding-scene/
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110607/NEWS07/110609856/flash-mobs-quelled-along-michigan-ave-retailers-say
https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/inc-well/The-Effect-of-Crime-on-Michigan-Avenue-Businesses-123488594.html
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/05/18/juvenile-shoplifting-on-michigan-avenue-is-on-the-rise/
There’s a few,.
Chicago/Cook County was corrupt long before barack the messiah showed up. It was the perfect place for him to enter politics and quickly ascend to the Oval Office.
Huh? A Catholic blogger I follow, who is currently a state employee in Springfield and was once a newspaper reporter, says that what’s striking about Obama is how little he resembles a Chicago politician. Local politics in Chicago is highly labor-intensive retail activity, wherein you’re engaged on a day to day basis with human beings with ordinary problems. Obama simply lacks the people skills to do that sort of work and, in fact, has never engaged in that sort of politics.
Not only does he not have what it takes to be an alderman, he wasn’t notable in either the state legislature or Congress for leadership or for cultivating a deep understanding of any area of policy. In the Presidency, he avoided business meetings with members of Congress and did not make use of past-times to build relationships either. He played a lot of golf, but hardly played with members of Congress. He may be the least personable man to occupy the office since 1933, with only Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter anywhere near him on that score. Carter and Nixon were bibliophiles and ready autodidacts; Obama isn’t that either.
Thomas Sowell’s assessment of BO was thus: Big Phony. Whatever else you say about machine hacks in Chicago, they’re not that.
We lived in Chicago when it was under the Daleys. Corrupt as hell — a Jackson wrapped around your license when stopped by a cop got you off a ticket — but, by gosh, if you called your alderman to complain about a pothole on your street, it would be filled within a day or two.
I love Foxx’s new anti-crime policy: “Break the Windows!” Let people off for “minor” crimes and they will be less likely to commit serious crimes. How’s that working out for you, Chicagoland?
Question for Chicago commenters:
What’s the deal with Toni Preckwinkle ?
What is her relationship with Kim Foxx ?
What’s the deal with Toni Preckwinkle ? What is her relationship with Kim Foxx ?
Foxx was Preckwinkle’s executive secretary. One thing this controversy might do is ding Preckwinkle and cause her to lose the election on 9 April. That would be a good thing if the other candidate weren’t a grisly creature as well.
AD I think your take on Obama having neither the background nor personality for classic Chicago machine politics is exactly right. However it begs the question as to how he seems to have benefited from it. Just two examples – the snuffing of Alice Palmer in his first race for the legislature and the mysterious “unmasking” of his opponent’s divorce records that greased his election to the US Senate. And by now in the Smollett case with the prestige of having been POTUS it is easy for him to throw his weight around.
Lots of stuff Foxx says makes sense in terms of demonstrating she’s close to the problems of crime, and she knows the area.
But her general comments still seem to be contradicted by this very clear case of NOT punishing the guilty, which hurts all the innocents.
Will be a case to follow. I can even imagine Trump talking about how law enforcement seems to follow one set of rules for “normal folk and Republicans”, but another set for “rich & famous folk and Democrats”.
This will be a good case for Reps to not let go of.
Snow,
I see that your video is from the 60 Minutes interview of Soros by Steve Kroft.
.
The issue is not whether Soros is a Good Person. As I say, I’m not exactly a member of the fan club.
The issue is whether the things that go around in the “right-wing” or “conservative” hothouse/echo-chamber are correct. It’s that bugbear Truth again. To help spread an untruth is to undermine the factual basis from which we hope to develop good working skills in negotiating life, and wisdom itself.
So, the issue isn’t about defending Soros. It’s about trying to see the man as he is (or was at the time of the interview, anyway).
Here’s an excerpt from Neo’s comment to which I linked above, at
https://www.thenewneo.com/2018/10/31/you-are-free-to-criticize-george-soros-without-being-anti-semitic-part-i/#comment-2409982 .
I imagine most of us, by now, have heard snippets at least from that interview. I do find the claims in the excerpt (originally from Snopes, and I wish I could confirm their conclusions from a different source with a better reputation; but that’s all I’ve found so far) consonant with the pieces of the interview that I’ve heard.
.
Michael Kaufman’s book is Soros’s authorized biography, per the Internet. The question then is, how reliable or credible is it? I can’t say of my own knowledge, of course, but at least one point of evidence is from the site LeftExposed.com, which is the Heartland Institute’s research website. See Heartland’s page on Ron Arnold, which states:
Checking their main page, http://leftexposed.org/ , I cannot avoid the conclusion that they are not exactly a left-wing site. *g*
At http://leftexposed.org/2017/01/george-soros/
there is a lengthy writeup on Soros, which begins with extensive reliance on Mr. Kaufman’s biography. Farther down there’s a good deal on the man’s financial doings, but that’s not the issue here.
. . .
Altogether off the topic presently of interest, folks might want to see what DTN has to say.
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/george-soros/
This one also leads with stuff from the Kaufman book, but then it gets into the nitty-gritty of Soros’s position in the left-wing networks.
Art Deco:
I don’t think that pointing out that Chicago was a good place for Obama to begin his political career because of its corruption means that the person is saying that Obama was necessarily a typical Chicago politician. I agree that he was atypical. However, he took advantage of the corruption of Chicago (and Illinois) politics when he got his start. He impressed even the old pros with his ruthlessness. I wrote a long post about it, and I suggest you read it to understand the details of what I’m talking about.
the snuffing of Alice Palmer in his first race for the legislature and the mysterious “unmasking” of his opponent’s divorce records that greased his election to the US Senate.
IIRC, Palmer elected to retire and anointed him as her successor. Then she changed her mind. He got her petitions knocked off the ballot. I’ve done that sort of work and it’s a reasonable wager her circulators cut corners in ways which invalidated a critical mass of signatures. Likely nothing mysterious there.
The business of his opponents’ divorce records (two different opponents suffered this fate) is just plain weird. If I’m not mistaken, one set of records wasn’t housed in Chicago, but in the county in California in which that divorce had been recorded. A crucial component of that was that the media outlets who received the paperwork were – quite unethically – willing to public the contents.
Snow on Pine:
That stuff about Soros has been discussed many times before on this blog. It’s misleading. I’ve posted a comment already in this thread about it. I’m going to assume you didn’t read what I wrote there and linked there. The gist of it is to read this, where I lay it out in more detail.
George Soros has enough in his record to criticize without criticizing him with misleading over-the-top truncated quotes that don’t explain the actual situation he was in. And by the way, this business of his being Jewish is another red herring. He was raised in a completely secular and in fact (according to him) actually anti-Semitic household. But he was not a collaborator and he did NOT help to round up Jews.
I don’t think that pointing out that Chicago was a good place for Obama to begin his political career because of its corruption means that the person is saying that Obama was necessarily a typical Chicago politician.
I’m not seeing how Chicago is a peculiarly good place to start unless he has a Chicago politician’s signature skills. Getting your opponent bounced off the ballot in an election lawsuit can happen just about anywhere and it was done in my hometown. As for the publication of his divorce records, precisely the same thing happened to a congressional candidate in New York’s Southern Tier in 2004.
Art Deco:
It wasn’t just one opponent; it was all his Democratic opponents. I think there were five or six of them, if I recall correctly. That’s why he ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, which made his victory inevitable.
Doing that to a large group of opponents is not particularly common even in Chicago. In fact, I doubt it had ever happened to that degree prior to Obama. But throwing people off the ballot because of court challenges was indeed especially common there, I have read. Also, he used old hands at it to help him. One of the people he did this to was his old mentor in Chicago politics, the person who had gotten him his start (Alice Palmer). And then the Emil Jones thing was important as well. Jones was very impressed with Obama’s ruthless ambition. Did you read the post of mine I linked to, that provides the details?
I also think that Michelle’s connections in Chicago were part of it. She was from Chicago originally and her father had once been a Democratic precinct captain,.
Chicago was absolutely the perfect place for him.
AD and neo: we have gone around on this about Obama before, “fool or knave”. I think he is both. But what is frustrating is that we may never really know the full story because of the refusal by the MFM to investigate his Chicago political background. They knew that anything they turned up from cunning mastermind to shallow tool or anything in between would reflect badly on him. And they were determined to help elect him, journalism be damned.
“The business of his opponent’s divorce records … is just plain weird”
I would be willing to make a small wager it was not just an unlucky coincidence.
“The same thing happened to a congressional candidate in New York’s southern tier”
Doesn’t exactly prove no skulduggery was involved.
FOAF:
Not weird. Part of the approach.
Please see this.
neo that was my point
It wasn’t just one opponent; it was all his Democratic opponents. I think there were five or six of them, if I recall correctly. That’s why he ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, which made his victory inevitable.
A shizzy source says Alice Palmer and three others. It’s unsporting but not particularly ruthless to do this. I’ve been there. The smart money says their petitions were a mess. If this were New York, I’d guess one of the following: the petition templates were improperly formatted, invalidating whole pages of signatures; statements of witness were not filled out properly or not filled out at all, invalidating whole pages; outside circulators signed statements of witness as lay witnesses rather than as notaries or commissioners, invalidating whole pages; and circulators allowed people to sign for family members, thus invalidating statements of witness and invalidating whole pages. And there may have been some bald forgery. My guru in these matters told me in his prime (ca. 1962), it was quite normal for party establishments in my home town to file junk petitions because there was a gentlemen’s agreement between the party chairs not to look under the rock. Sporting, if skeevy.
Also, he used old hands at it to help him. One of the people he did this to was his old mentor in Chicago politics, the person who had gotten him his start (Alice Palmer).
Your assumption here is that a girl has the right to change her mind. He was already circulating when she did an about-face and decided to run again. It was either a deferential withdrawal or let-her-have-it.
I also think that Michelle’s connections in Chicago were part of it. She was from Chicago originally and her father had once been a Democratic precinct captain,.
He’d died a number of years earlier and likely hadn’t done precinct work for some time before that because of infirmities (MS). Not sure how much pull a precinct captain would have with a superior court judge (who I think are appointed in Illinois).
Doesn’t exactly prove no skulduggery was involved.
I don’t doubt skullduggery. The question is is it a specifically Chicagoesque sort of skullduggery?
They knew that anything they turned up from cunning mastermind to shallow tool or anything in between would reflect badly on him. And they were determined to help elect him, journalism be damned.
My suspicion about Obama is that he’s Spam-in-a-Can marketed by David Plouffe and a happily suborned media, and that’s troubling. If at some future time handwritten diary entries and intraoffice correspondence appear (as it did in re Reagan) we may have some better information about how much there is actually there. His history from 1992 to 2007 says ‘ticket-puncher’.
Not weird. Part of the approach.
Not seeing that. His signature is secretiveness. I cannot think of a consequential presidential candidate who has successfully concealed as much. Much of that, however, is an understaffed lapdog media who do as they’re told.
Art Deco:
I wrote a whole bunch of posts about what he did to Palmer. I don’t fault him for running against her, however–there was no need for him to step down. But he knew he’d lose against her, so he used typical Chicago politics techniques.
Here’s just a little bit of it [emphasis added]:
There’s much more, including the Emil Brown stuff. He definitely used the political climate and practices of Chicago combined with his connections there.
And if you think that some of those connections weren’t through Michelle and her family too, I think you’re being naive. The fact that her father wasn’t still in that position doesn’t mean he didn’t have friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends of friends, with strong connections. It helps when you’re starting out.
I repeat: Chicago was the perfect place for him. Maybe not the only place—I never said that. But the perfect place.
What may have helped the most of all—and would have been true in many places—was the Obama persona: well-educated, articulate, calm, “likeable” (and although I never perceived that aspect, it clearly exists), and black.
“is it a specifically Chicagoesque sort of skullduggery?”
Of course Chicago is hardly the only place afflicted by political corruption. But when people make jokes about dead people voting they often take place in Chicago. It may be misleading or unfair but I suspect there is some historical basis for it. The disposition of the Smollett case doesn’t contradict the thesis.
After the Cubs won the World Series I read that the victory parade had five million people while the population of Chicago is only three million. I thought, “Kinda like their elections”, ba-dump.
neo, does the man you are married to know what a treasure you are? i can imagine nothing more difficult to know.
I slightly disagree on the question of Smollet’s “community.” He DOES belong to the larger but still tight community of woke leftists with connections. Some other members of that community include his mother, Tina Tchen and other friends of Michelle Obama and even Angela Davis. It is a basic precept of this kind of leftism that you are guilty or innocent based on who or what you are rather than what you do. On that measure Smollet is “objectively innocent” as the communists would say, just like Angela Davis.
Also, Neo, moving closer to home: What Massachusetts politician has the exact same profile as Kim Foxx? Rachel Rollins, the newly elected Suffolk County (for outsiders, basically Boston) District Attorney; elected with the help of the same Soros money. And, like Foxx, she is also determined to reverse all that as been learned to work in community policing for the last forty years.