Rahm fighting for his political life in Chicago. Progressive candidate may win runoff

This would be a positive if another one of these neoliberal "faux-centrist" Democrats goes down. Progressives maybe are starting to make inroads? Think DeBlasio in NYC.

Rahm sold the city of Chicago to the highest bidder, cutting education spending, social supports, going after unions--nothing different than what Scott Walker did in Wisconsin at the state level.

And if you don't think so, look who's defending him now: Republicans. Check out the comments from Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL). Typical mindless fear mongering.

Chicago could follow Detroit into bankruptcy if Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not re-elected, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) warned Monday.

“Rahm’s re-election is essential to maintaining the value of Chicago’s debt market. We need a strong capable leader… I would worry about the value of the Chicago debt if Rahm was not re-elected…. It’s a concern if we have some of the less responsible people running against him,” Kirk said. 

Idiot, crushing the Chicago economy with austerity is good for the city's ability to service its debt? What is he talking about? Moron. And he'll vote with Senate Republicans to not increase the debt ceiling I'm sure. That's obviously his idea of "capable" leadership.

Rahm's in trouble. Let's hope he's done.

Juan Thompson — Report: Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Police Operating Domestic Black Site

Chicago will be Chicago. Al Capone is looking like one of the good guys. Add Rahm's name to the list that should be in a dock at The Hague along with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Barack Obama. So far, Joe Biden seems to be just a war-profiteer.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Police Department is operating a CIA-style black site on the city’s West Side, according to an explosive new report fromThe Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman. The facility, an otherwise plain warehouse known as Homan Square, also houses military-style vehicles, according to Ackerman. 

The Guardian reports that the CPD detains mostly poor, black and brown people at Homan. Once at the site, detainees are allegedly beaten by police, shackled for hours and denied access to counsel. There is no booking at Homan Square, so details about who has been detained at the facility are scarce. “Witnesses, suspects or other Chicagoans who end up inside do not appear to have a public, searchable record entered into a database indicating where they are,” Ackerman wrote. “Lawyers and relatives insist there is no way of finding their whereabouts.”

The Intercept
Report: Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Police Operating Domestic Black Site

Juan Thompson

Paul Buchheit — Democrat Rahm Emanuel Puts Chicago Up for Sale

Chicago is being privatized. Assets are being sold off, Wall Street debt is mounting, and the mayor conducts business with multi-millionaire donors who often reap benefits from their connections to City Hall. The people of Chicago, who will be electing their next mayor on February 24, need to know the facts about their city's financial problems. Some of these facts won't be found in the mainstream media.

Like Detroit in 2013, Chicago is becoming a symbol of a divided nation, of a society crippled by a 35-year-old notion that the "public good" is somehow un-American. Other U.S. cities have learned that their people and their public services are not products to be bought and sold. Chicago, under Rahm Emanuel and Richie Daley and an assortment of Illinois Governors, has been headed in the other direction.…

And Rahm is an up-and-coming Democratic insider with ambitions for higher office. TINA takes on new meaning. There is no alternative to two faction-one party rule in American oligarchic "democracy".

Buzz flash
​Democrat Rahm Emanuel Puts Chicago Up for Sale

Paul Buchheit For Buzzflash At Truthout

Dan Froomkin — Panetta Says Rahm Emanuel Cussed Him Out for Cooperating With Senate Torture Inquiry

Ouch.

The Intercept
Panetta Says Rahm Emanuel Cussed Him Out for Cooperating With Senate Torture Inquiry
Dan Froomkin

Rick Perlstein — Chicago School: Bill de Blasio’s Shock Doctrine Consultants

De Blasio another snake in the grass?

Bill de Blasio was swept to the New York mayoralty on the promise of getting Gracie Mansion out from under the thumb of corporate elites. So how worried should you be that he listened to Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel and is now getting advice on his transition from Emanuel’s corporate consultants.

The story first broke three weeks ago in the web publication Capital New York. “De Blasio’s Shadow Transition” cited an unnamed source (I know who the source is, and can vouch for his trustworthiness) who said that following a November meeting between de Blasio and Emanuel, the nonprofit group Civic Consulting USA “has ‘embedded’ into the process a team drawn up from the ‘creme de la creme of big New York consultants.’ This group has shaped the process by organizing the original transition team into a number of topic-specific committees and then bringing in an even greater number of other people onto those committees to participate in the search for future administration members.” Civic Consulting USA is an offshoot of a Chicago group, the Civic Consulting Alliance, which provides opportunities for corporate executives to do pro bono work on municipal affairs. And in Chicago, where CCA was also instrumental in staffing Emanuel’s transition, their record has been creepy....

The Nation
Chicago School: Bill de Blasio’s Shock Doctrine Consultants
Rick Perlstein