RockRaines

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 03:43 PM) You liberal hack The process was a s*** show. There have been proposed numerous better options including a tournament sized boys (or girls) pool and a nonstandard girls pool. Cheaper, and does not require tearing down parking garage that town is still paying for. And, I hate parking garages. So it pains me. At one point in a pool meeting, one of the school board members said how much she wished the same amount of people would show up for reducing the achievement gap meetings, and how she was voting yes because students who have never achieved before learned how to swim. How that follows, I don't know. I do remember from high school that OPRF had easily the worst pool in conference that I can recall. For a town that touts its schools and facilities it does seem like a disconnect. I love that the school has 100 Mil in the bank yet continue to ask for more and more. Alas, I did move here for the schools and whatnot, but it's not lost on me that I pay more than 4x the taxes I did on a 400k place in the west loop.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 03:12 PM) Whaat, I loved my alderman. BTW I'm in OP now too. (what you voting on the pool man?) Walter Burnett is a f***ing crook and I still cant believe he's in office (my west loop alderman). I asked the students what to vote and they somewhat convinced me to vote yes. I appealed my taxes and they went down almost 4k so I consider this an overall win.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 03:09 PM) I swear the way political parties are talked about here it's like they are a group of conquistadors that come to an area and set up shop, rather than a group of elected officials within the community. One overwhelming feeling I've had about almost every elected official in an area I've lived in is that there should be someone better than this.

QUOTE (Tony @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 02:05 PM) @SBondyNYDN Rose said the city of Chicago took him for granted: " All I can do is just work on my game and hope that they continue to look." So happy he is gone. So happy. He better focus on staying out of jail as well.

I've never looked it up before, out of the top 100 cities in the US there are only 27 Republican Mayors.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Sep 19, 2016 -> 10:06 PM) I've lived in the same place for what will be two years on Black Wednesday. It's in the Loop. I have never had an issue with cellphone service here or really anywhere other than deep in the forrest preserve. I have Verizon. These past two weeks I have not been able to hold a call without going out on the balcony. I can't even connect to call someone from my bed. Very annoying. Has anyone else dealt with anything like this? Yes, my phone has been doing this a lot lately. I did a factory reset and restore and it helped a bit but it still sucks. I am going to go in and replace it when I have a minute

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 02:27 PM) First off, gmab. You're the one telling me that things could be worse. Yeah, they could be, but they're also really bad for a lot of low income people in this city/county. Perhaps i'm wrong, but I doubt your typical black Chicagoan is happy with the status quo. They want to see improvement. They want better schools, lower crime, more job opportunities, etc. These are things promised by their elected officials time and time again and it has not been provided. I've only lived in the area for 12 years, but I haven't seen much improvement in any of those areas. I continue to read/see the same types of news stories and the same demands by the voters around election time. Second, I'm not telling them what to do. I'm simply asking why the same people are voting for the same types of candidates. I don't buy, like you guys do, that as a basic premise that Republican policy is automatically a failure. Yes, the national party has left a lot to be desired when it comes to minorities, but that doesn't mean that the ideas promulgated by Republicans generally aren't good for low income communities. As NSS pointed out, it's the Republicans who want to fix the financial crisis this state is in, caused mostly by Democrats in Springfield and Chicago. If we could stop wasting money, we could maybe put that money to good use. In Chicago many of the problems like infrastructure and education can be fixed with funding and better budgeting. I dont give a s*** who is in office, you have to be able to get the people and business to pay more money into these systems to get any improvements, and time has proven that its not only political suicide to push that, but its almost impossible to push through. People (who have the means) are more than happy to pay more taxes outside of Chicago to have higher quality of both. I dont know if its the Chicken or the egg argument but its pretty darn close. Its going to take a full scale revolution in Chicago to unseat the old bulls*** that controls the city's interests.

QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 02:21 PM) It was the post right above his. Promoting non-scientific internet polls as proof that Trump won isn't merely a different viewpoint; it's idiocy. And after SS respectfully explained why that was the case, Brett got salty and snarky. Any popular website or twitter poll shouldnt be taken seriously, but it is, and sometimes by one of the candidates. The electoral college kills a lot of what those sites try to put out.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 01:03 PM) Yep, you're right guys. Why try anything different. Dem policies are totally working. At least they aren't slaves! Could be worse! It would be great if there were other policies in Chicago that would work to fix really the same things that have been broken for decades. Real estate is up, construction is up, business are moving back into the city, all good changes. However the schools still suck, crime is still bad, shootings are up, bureaucracy and unions still bleed the coffers dry and many social and financial issues are still the same. Fixing the school system and its funding is very simple, but nobody in their right mind in any party is willing to entertain that notion because they wont be in office for long. Everyone wants better infrastructure, schools and policing but nobody wants to pay for it. Its been that way in Chicago as long as I've been alive. Meanwhile outside of the city.....

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 12:02 PM) That's bulls***. Those are literal campaign promises made by Democrats they vote for. We're going to give you more money for schools, more money for housing, we're going to stop crime, blah blah. They promise "stuff" and they don't deliver the "stuff." Running on a platform to solve the city's issues doesnt seem like a problem to me. What's exactly stopping those things from coming to fruition? Or were they just flat out lying in your opinion?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 12:00 PM) Rand Paul is opposed to the public accomodations provision of the Civil Rights Act. His outreach to the black community hasn't exactly gone well in the past either. Going on about black people voting for Democrats because of "free stuff" is insulting. Not recognizing that is exactly what's meant by conservatives not listening. Decriminalization in this state was in the works before Rauner was elected, and he forced it to be weaker than it otherwise would have been. The Obama administration has recently made multiple moves at the federal level regarding imprisonment policies and has deprioritized federal enforcement of low-level drug crimes. Its incredibly racist. 50 million people get government assistance. You'd think they were all democrats and black the way its portrayed.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 11:43 AM) See, the first part is the "free stuff" narrative is inherently deeply insulting to the black community, and white conservatives who preach it are completely tone-deaf to anything that various minority communities actually say and think about race and racial politics/policies in this country. The free stuff narrative is racist, tone deaf and ignorant as f***. It's the wool pulled over the eyes of voters by the wealthy who want to keep more of their money for themselves.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 11:39 AM) Trump took over $100k in money for 9/11 recovery funds even though none of his property was damaged. He takes a property tax credit meant for low income people in New York City. The list of ways Trump runs nickle-and-dime grifts is pretty long. His family made their money being complete slum lords exploiting the poor.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 11:38 AM) I don't really know what you mean you say conservatives aren't really listening. As you said, big cities and Democratic. On a nationwide level, Republicans don't have a lot of policy concerned with the black vote. I think the new wing of the Republican party will change that. The problem is Democrats offer free stuff and Republicans are nonexistent. I'd take the free stuff too. You really believe that?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 11:36 AM) I'm sure Trump is not easy to work for...but people work for him because he has capital. Look at Apple, for instance. They throw their weight around to force vendors to sell them components at virtually no margin - because they can. They take advantage of existing tax law because that is what results in them keeping more of their revenues. This is called business, people. I am sorry, but I simply cannot fault the guy for being a shrewd businessman. It depends if you value the dollar over whats right. There are plenty of businessmen that I fault for being total pieces of s*** regardless of their financial stature. Being good at screwing people over isnt exactly a quality that HAS to be valued just because it brings you money.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 11:34 AM) Or a large percentage of white voters are willing to overlook all of his flaws because they're all-in on his white grievance nationalism, and the Democrats absolutely should not be chasing those votes. There is also a ridiculous amount of lower income whites who believe things will be "given back to them" when America is Made great again.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 11:15 AM) This is obviously a problem Repubs have, and for good reason give a segment of the Repub constituency, but it's also the nature of the two positions. Dems want to directly provide things, Repubs want to fix the system so that government doesn't have to. Which sounds more appealing if you're in the poorer areas of Chicago? Eh, you mean give less to the people at the bottom and give more to the people at the top? Not sure that fixes anything for the "system"

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 10:39 AM) If you ask some Trump supporters...whenever minorities didn't have rights. I'd like to hear from his campaign when it exactly was "great" so I can ask my parents or someone's grandparents how it really was. Is he talking about the 80's?

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 10:47 AM) Lotta farm subsidies, for one. Those rural people also generally align with the Repubs social policies versus Dems. I'm not saying they don't have agency. They obviously do. But as Trump correctly pointed out, every election cycle the Democrat for X race comes out and says they're going to fix schools, stop crime, create jobs - all directly for the benefit of black communities. And then once the election is over a lot of that talk goes away and none of those promises are delivered. I think it's a fair question to ask, why can't the black community try another way? In Illinois and Chicago for example, it's basically been democratic policies controlling the county/city for the last however many decades. An alternative republican policy isn't even considered. Why not? To be fair, many of those policies are run on as a platform and then blocked or voted down by checks and balances in the government. For example: fixing CPS here. You have to raise taxes, reduce pay at the top levels and probably do something about the union. Who could EVER get those things done? Nobody regardless of party.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 10:21 AM) Didn't want to dig into it too deep but yeah that "democratic plantation" nonsense isn't exactly well-received by black people. Nationwide stop and frisk in a time where tension is very high between these communities and police is hilariously bad strategy. It's an incredibly racist policy.

Dammit, PS4 prices have fallen, need.to.pull.the.trigger

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 10:06 AM) I also give him credit for finally saying on a national stage that blacks have been given promises after promises from democrats and they have nothing to show for it. I feel like that's a drum that Repubs don't hit often enough. He could have walked down that path but instead he placed his chips on an entirely racist policy (stop and frisk) and admitted he only had "relations' with the black community recently and briefly. He cant harp on Dem's failure within the black community (and failure is debatable) while still championing racist policies and accepting support of racist organizations. Thats why the Republicans want him to stay away from that topic.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 09:54 AM) Trumps personality isn't that outlandish for real estate developers. It is a personality, grease-rubbing business. He's perfect for that. Doesn't mean it's great for a president, quite the opposite. Pretty much. Over promise, under deliver, blame someone else, run.

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 09:32 AM) Thought I was on Facebook, tried to "like" this Followed by 60 people arguing over emails and birthing and murders and guns

QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Sep 27, 2016 -> 09:28 AM) Whenever I watch those panels I'm like "I hate these f***ing people. The election really is coming down to dumb people exactly like this." Look at Facebook comments, every one of those idiots have the right to vote.