Chicago's migrant buses and the Governments inability to respond to a crisis Part 7: Privatization

What is he wanted for, Sheriff?
That would be of a private nature...
A private nature? That's a public office you hold, isn't it, Sheriff? - Legends of the Fall (1994)

Housing built decades ago by the US Government
Monterey, California still occupied (2017)

So, after decades of Republicans slicing the Government sausage, Chicago, Cook and the collar counties, the State of Illinois, and the federal government don't have a reservoir of construction workers or a civilian corps of engineers to send to areas which require a quick building program of housing and infrastructure.  So, the City of Chicago has to hand out contracts to private industry.

After the debacle of the Brighton Park migrant base camp last December, I wondered how much money the City of Chicago has handed out to private construction firms to do things FDR and the Works Progress Administration determined 90 years should be done by Government directly paying people to work,

Turns out it's at least $138,000,000.  And the cost to the State of Illinois is probably Half-a-Billion.

City officials paid at least $138 million in 2023 to house, feed and care for the men, women and children sent to Chicago from the southern border, according to data published by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration.

Of the $138 million spent by city officials to care for the migrants in 2023, more than $59 million came directly from Chicago taxpayers, according to city data.

The rest came from the state and federal governments via grants that totaled $78.8 million, according to city data.

The city paid three private firms $127 million to care for the migrants, essentially outsourcing the day-to-day responsibility for managing the humanitarian crisis that defined Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first six months in office.

By mid-November, the state spent $478 million to care for the migrants, state officials said. The bulk of those funds are not tracked by city officials, or included in the city’s database.

Since August 2022, 636 buses have arrived in Chicago, carrying nearly 29,500 people, on buses sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to damage President Joe Biden’s chances for reelection and divide Democratic voters.

There are more than 14,700 migrants in 27 city shelters, with approximately 400 people waiting at police stations, O’Hare International Airport and on warming buses at the city’s designated bus “landing zone,” according to city data. The crisis has exposed deep divisions between Chicago’s Black and Latino communities and shredded the city’s social safety net.

Now, White Boomers are screaming their bigoted lead-tainted heads off about "The Migrant Crisis" and the associated costs.  But, there is no way the City of Chicago or residents or the migrants so callously sent here have received $200 Million dollars worth goods and services and it once again highlights how the Myth of Business can do it better and Government can't do anything right is grounded in the non-stop lies and propaganda of the Ronnie Raygun administration through the modern MAGA version.

And of course, white people are violently angry about the thought of the United States Government or local governments helping people.  It's the height of Entitlement because Boomers grew up in an America which was built up by government in response to the rapacious 19th century Robber Barons claiming Private Property superseded all other rights and in the face of the 1929 Republican Great Depression and refusal of Corporations to help ameliorate the crushing poverty caused by Capitalism.

The fact that FDR and the Government succeeded with Socialist programs in the 1930's has incensed Republicans for decades, the same way that LBJ's Great Society programs successes have infuriated Republicans since the 1960s.

Republicans hate America and hate you.  They have no interest in running a functional responsive government, Republicans want a Government which oppresses hundreds of millions and is owned and operated as an arm of the Rich and Powerful.

These migrant buses and planes sent to Illinois are not a cheap political stunt although they are a tawdry scheme to undermine President Biden.  What they are is a cold-blooded exploitation of poor and oppressed people, and that exactly is what the Republican Party offers their base of bigoted boomers and the world, the evil guarantee that Republicans will treat human beings as chattel and dispose of them by transportation.   The Death Camps Republicans have planned for 2025 are going to be churning though millions of people.

Addendum:

Of course, another glaring reason the City of Chicago doesn't have the money to pay people directly to help house, clothe, or fed migrants treated like garbage by Republicans is the non-stop expenditure the City incurs due to Police misconduct, brutality, abuse, and crimes.  Chicago paid out $198,000,000 in 2019, 2020, and 2021 for Chicago Police misconduct.

Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 15: DCFS, Pepper Spray, the Social Safety Net

The Illinois Department of Child and Family Services is overworked and underfunded.  DCFS case workers are also put into dangerous situations.  In January an Illinois DCFS case worker was stabbed to death while conducting a welfare check in Sangamon County.  A bill to provide them with the ability to carry OC spray or Mace passed the Illinois Senate unanimously.

In the current world of guns everywhere and the NRA forcing the passage of laws to allowing wanton and reckless concealed and open carry I'm surprised more case workers haven't been murdered.  Of course, guns are most often used by domestic abusers to murder their families before turning the guns on themselves. 

As a mandated reporter, by law, I must report suspected child abuse or neglect.  I've accompanied DCFS case workers to calls but, unfortunately where I work mission creep has settled in and I've been required to call the DCFS hotline in almost every incident involving a juvenile.  This is not what the system was designed for, nor a good allocation of limited state resources, even if the DCFS call taker puts the incident into a no response category.

One of the problems with the modern 911 system is Police respond to every type of call; be it a village ordinance violation, medical emergency, child custody exchange, or a customer upset over a bill and poor service.  Many times these are not police issues, sometimes they require a mediator to keep things civil but, don't more often than not it's not a Police matter and I have to refer the matter to the proper authority or department.  Even worse some police officers don't want to or are terrible at handling these issues; because of a variety of factors like training and education but also annoyance and boredom.  And when they show up they make matters worse, ratchet up the tension, and sometimes this can be fatal.

So, what's a solution?  Well, multiple services from a fully functioning municipal, county and state bureaucracy staffed with dedicated workers.  But, that type of functioning apparatus has been demonized and attacked by Republicans and conservatives as SOCIALISM! Nanny State!!! for decades, and most importantly a functioning Social Safety Net costs money (i.e Taxes).

Everybody in America wants services and Nobody in America wants to pay taxes.  Now many think taxes suck because you don't have kids but, taxes are the price of civilization.  Of course, when you are struggling with low wages and hellish working conditions at the Amazon Fulfillment Center, seeing money come out of your slender paycheck does hit hard but, of course it is the very rich who have caused this problem by shirking their responsibility.

The Capitalist Class and Very Rich don't see much use in a viable, working Social Safety Net because they don't need it.  The 1% can hire security so they don't need a police force for themselves (the rich do want a violent racist police force keeping the poor and the Other in check), they don't need state funded child support, they sometimes don't need public water, they don't need public defenders, they don't need snow plows.  The Rich see little ROI (return on investment) on a fully funded, comprehensive, liberal democracy.  They never signed the Social Contract.  The Rich have only need of a domestic police force to quell dissent at home and a war machine to open up foreign markets for exploration.  Everything else the government spends money on is superfluous and wasteful.

Guns and Pot are for White People only

Guns are a Natural Right which belongs only to White People. The only Gun Control which will be instituted in this Country will be for persons of color and muslims.

The latest Senational Shooting (Note: I did not watch any video I will not watch any associated video) was perpetrated by a Black Man, as he murdered two former white colleagues On Air, while wounding another woman. The Killer also separately recorded the killings and posted them to Social Media before taking his own life. Immediately the Right-Wing Internet Wurlitzer went into Outrage Mode over the Race Murder as Breitbart called it. Gun Maniacs immediately took to their platforms to call for the arming of Reporters.

Of course, Gun Nuts are always primed for the next shooting, so that they can get ahead of the calls for Gun Control and shut down debate. But, they needn't bother.

The Gun Control Debate is finished in this country. The observation that Gun Control effectively ended after We, as a People decided killing 20 Children at Sandy Hook in Connecticut was acceptable is absolutely correct. But, there is the possibility rabid reactionary right-wingers might be able to disarm Minorities.

As such Conservatives have taken it upon themselves to restrict access to Muslims. Mainly these incidents (A, B, C, D) appear to be political theater. But, they serve as a reminder of what Take Back America and Make America Great Again actually mean.

It's a demand by White People to be placed into Positions of Social Power again. To be assured of authority based on racial lines, with a egalitarian helpful government towards whites, ensuring a solid 30 year job and educational advances for their children, while actively suppressing progressive gains for The Other.

This is sometimes called Natural Rights, by on-line Conservatives who want to appear intelligent and educated as they try to claim to be more than just pawns of the Rich and Powerful doing the bidding of their Plutocratic Masters. However, just as with the use of the label Classical Liberal, it's a cover term for White Supremacy (not all White Supremacists are Conservative but all Conservatives are White Supremacists). And the whine of white conservatives who are upset the Government and the 1% have broken the White Power Social Contract with them.

When a Gun Nut marches around brandishing a weapon next to a school, or little league baseball field, or in an airport, the white male (cause it's always a middle-aged white guy) is relying on the tacit White Power Social Contract. He isn't a criminal (that's the blacks), he isn't a terrorist (that's the muslims).

Additionally, while Pot has being decriminalized completely in Washington and Colorado and partially in many other States, don't be an unarmed black person killed by a murderous white gun maniac because then the fact you have cannabis in your "system" will be used by the Racist Right-Wing Media to smear you after your death. Because after the Police or self-appointed Watch Captains, gun down an Unarmed Black Person, the first thing to be released is a toxicology report for the dead.

Right-Wing Reactionary Assholes have been demonizing Black and Brown people for a hundred years over the demon weed.

A century ago, William Randolph Hearst used his media empire to publish article after article that Cannabis made Blacks and Mexicans violent, while also emboldening them to look askew at White Women.

Today, Rupert Murdoch and the Right-Wing Media uncritically publish every Police Department's report which declares the unarmed black person killed by Police Officers had Cannabis in their system, giving the black Super-Powers to Shrug off bullets, thus exonerating the Police.

For a group who declares Real Americans can't trust the Government conservatives greedily swallow every Report and every Acquittal of Criminal Cops. However, this becomes easy to understand when one realizes that Conservatives love when Police Officers murder black people.

Because, the underlayment of every Conservative argument, every conservative internet website, every on-line right-wing story is an ardent longing for America of Yesteryear, in which Whites were in Charge and the Nation, Government, City and County were aligned to support White People from the Cradle to the Grave.

Vicious Conservatives have broken the Social Contract in order to shred the Social Safety Net

The Guard Dogs of the Plutocracy, the Republican Party in the 114th Congress are tasked with destroying the Holy Grail of the Social Safety Net, Social Security. Thus, they immediately took up the task of swindling the 99% out of their earned benefits by setting disabled Americans against elderly Americans.

By the end of 2016, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, which benefit 11 million disabled Americans, will be facing a budget hole, so of course, the Republicans are using this opportunity and their Congressional control to change the way funds are transferred between Social Security to SSDI. The Republican changes demand any transfers to Disability funds must be accompanied by benefit cuts or tax increases.

Republicans have no problem using Legerdermain and chicanery to accomplish the goals of their Rich Masters. Vicious Conservatives are out to swindle Social Security in order to remove any hope of help for poor retired Americans or those unable to work due to injury and illness.

"Our preference has always been that the depletion of the DI trust fund become the impetus for comprehensive Social Security reform," Ed Lorenzen, senior advisor to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Vicious Conservatives, their Libertarian "intellectuals" and Republican Masters seek nothing less than the return of the Feudal System in which Corporate Monsters like Duke Energy, AmWay and Koch Industries are in charge of huge swaths of the Nation-State beholden to no government, constrained by no regulations and free to crush the working class under the iron heel of wage slavery and corporate bondage.

Right-Wingers readily go along with this because they no longer see a compact with their fellow Americans. They've been conditioned to view 47% of their countrymen as moochers. They've been lead to believe Republicans will stop "those people" from stealing Social Security. They'd rather Let'em Die.

But, Republicans can not tell their duped right-wing drones that they are actually out to destroy Social Security entirely, including for them, so they lie about saving it and return to the tried and true method of warning them of "fraud".

Congressman P90X Ryan who benefited from Social Security as a teenager, when his father died, wants to pull the Ladder Up and make sure it isn't there for poor Americans but, doesn't want to be known as the Granny-Starving Congressman, so the Ways and Means Chairman sent his sub-chairman Republican Representative Sam Johnson to proclaim SSDI is "fraud-plagued",

"This program cannot afford more fraud. It is only a matter of time when Congress may be asked to bailout this program with the retirement side having to come to the rescue. If that is the case then all taxpayers and beneficiaries will shoulder the crime wave."

The crime wave? Ridiculous. What Republicans think is a crime is that Poor and Working Class people have protections from Vandal Capitalists. So, they are fervently working to remove that protection.

Without any Government protection, you and your fellow working class members will have No Shield from rapacious capitalists who see no country and no countrymen. To them there are only assets and liabilities.

So what are you going to do when Koch Industries dumps 4000 tons of Petcoke on your doorstep? Whom will you turn to for assistance when a pipeline bursts and floods your drinking water with sweet, sweet crude oil? How will you eat when Social Security is declared insolvent after the next Wall Street implosion? What hopes for redress will you get when Obamacare is repealed and you're denied medical care for your pre-existing condition?

You will have none; just as the Republican Lap Dogs of the 1% intend. Getting rid of Social Security and having their duped vicious Conservative drones aid them will help the Republican Party shackle Americans with the chains of Wage Slavery.

Makers and Takers. Republicans have a jobs plan for 100% Employment. It's called Slavery.

How did the Rich get their Wealth? By stealing the Labor and Wealth of the Poor. You can call it whatever new name the Rich have dreamed up; Austerity, Fix-the-Debt, Sequestration, Trickle Down Economics but it's all the Rich using the Power of Government to steal from the Middle Class and the Poor.

Now, for the past 30 years Republicans have gotten bolder and more outspoken in their plans to help the Rich institute a Neo-Feudalist Wage Slave State under Corporate Dominance.

"I've been dealing with the minimum wage issue for the last 28 years that I've been in elected office," House Speaker John A. Boehner said to reporters on Wednesday. "And when you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it."

John Boehner is a Republican; Republicans work for the Rich. Anything which hampers the ability of the Rich to steal more and more of the labor produced by the American Middle and Working Class is anathema to them. The Rich have ordered the Republicans to Destroy the Middle Class, President Obama had better not help them.

Under President Obama Income Inequality has continued to grow and even accelerated. In the third quarter of 2012, Corporate Profits were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago, after-tax profits are at their greatest percentage of GDP in history. But the record profits come at the same time Workers Wages have fallen to their lowest-ever share of GDP. Pretty Shitty Marxism...

While Corporate Profits are at an all time High, CEOs use the Carried Interest Tax Loophole and Off-Shore Tax Havens to hide Hundreds of Billions of Dollars.

1. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.

• Number of Offshore Tax Havens in 2010? 371. 
• Amount of federal income taxes Bank of America would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.5 billion.
• Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $1.9 billion tax refund.
• Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS in 2010, even though it made $4.4 billion in profits.
• Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? Over $1.3 trillion.

 2. JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon

• Number of Offshore Tax Havens in 2010? 83.
• Amount of federal income taxes JP Morgan Chase would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.9 billion. 
• JP Morgan Chase has stashed $21.8 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $4.9 billion in federal income taxes. 
• Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $416 billion. 

3. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein

• Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $278 million tax refund.
• Number of offshore tax havens in 2010? 39.
• In 2010, Goldman Sachs operated 39 subsidiaries in offshore tax haven countries.
• Amount of federal income taxes Goldman Sachs would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $3.32 billion.
• Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $824 billion.
• During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs received a total of $814 billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $10 billion bailout from the Treasury Department.

 4. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt

• Number of offshore tax havens? At least 14.
• Amount of federal income taxes General Electric would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $35.7 billion.
• GE has stashed $102 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $35.7 billion more in federal income taxes.Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $3.3 billion tax refund. In 2010, not only did General Electric pay no federal income taxes, it received a $3.3 billion tax refund from the IRS, even though it earned over $5 billion in U.S. profits.
• Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve? $16 billion.During the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve provided GE with $16 billion in
• financial assistance, at a time when Jeffrey Immelt was a director of the New York Federal Reserve.
• Jobs Shipped Overseas? At least 25,000 since 2001. 

 5. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam

• Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $705 million tax refund.
• In 2010, Verizon received a $705 million refund from the IRS despite earning $11.9 billion in pre-tax U.S. profits.
• Amount of federal income taxes Verizon would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $525 million.
• Verizon has stashed $1.5 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Verizon would owe an estimated $525 million in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.
• American Jobs Cut in 2010? In 2010, Verizon announced 13,000 job cuts, the third highest corporate layoff total that year.

Beyond Welfare Queens these Moocher Corporations, who use legerdemain and duplicitous book keeping to "make" profits, are Welfare Emperors and Pharaohs.

Thus the Nation's Wealth continues to consolidate in the hands of the Very Rich with the 1% controlling over 40% of Country's Wealth.

The Rich hate America. The "American Dream" isn't their Dream. Their interests never line up with that which concerns the 99%. The Rich don't recognize a need for a Clean Water Act, it's just an impediment to their pursuit of Profits. The Rich don't see a need for Obamacare or Medicaid or Medicare. Those Government Regulations and Officials undercut their attempts to extract as much profit from the sick, dying and old. They don't see Social Security as an asset to aid in retirement but as a pool of unrealized Capital.

Unionized and Pensioned Municipal Workers are a threat as the stability and relative job security take away the Rich's Most Powerful weapon, the layoff and firings.

All Governmental Functions, outside of a Robust Interventionist Military are wasteful or as the Plutocrats Astroturf Organizations deem them, Un-Constitutional (As when the Koch Brothers tried to start a Tea Party Movement in 2002).

But, all of the maneuvers by the Rich are designed to crush the Middle Class. A thriving Middle Class is always a Danger to the 1%. And how do you crush a wide disparate group of people? Why Divide & Conquer.

So, in 2009 the Plutocrats gave explicit instructions that every outlet they control would blame President Obama for everything wrong. And the Rich knew the work they had done with Conservative Think Tanks and Toxic Right-Wing Radio had cultivated a Ready Audience eager to blame the Other, Barack Hussein Obama, for all the Nations' Woes. Or as Bill Maher succinctly summed up the Conservative Message, 'America was just swell until President Blackenstein and his group of Thugs ruined everything.'

Of course, the Plutocracy's Economic Hit Job and their Republican Hit Men have been working for decades using Piss Down Your Back and Tell you It's Raining Trickle Down Theory to undercut the Middle Class and increase Income Inequality.

Sequestration is just another technique to hamper the Government. But, the Government functions which will be hampered aren't those that affect Rich. The Sequester provides the Plutocracy with yet another opportunity to grind the Middle Class into dust. After which the Rich will swoop in like Vultures and pick at the remnants.

But, all of this is just new names and a new twist to the Very Old Dance the Rich and Powerful have engaged in throughout Recorded History. Fix-the-Debt and Austerity are just new names for the techniques the Rich have always used to steal from the People. And that is Slavery.

The Emerald Ash Borer & Socialism Strike Suburban Chicago

"Is it bad that I'm ordering a Flight of White Wines when going to see Race by David Mamet?" - Grung_e_Gene

You were warned! Right-Wing Radio, Faux News, but it's too late. You've let the Chicago-Style Obama Gangster Socialism infest the Suburbs! White Flight No Longer can protect you.

Of course, I'm talking about the unacceptable plans of Arlington Heights, Illinois and Schaumburg, Illinois to battle the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle.

From the Daily Herald reporting:

Schaumburg is embarking on a 10-year, $9 million program to replace thousands of its ash trees with a variety of species immune to the ravages of the emerald ash borer.

During this first year of the 10-year plan, the village expects to spend $1.5 million, which includes $470,000 to remove 1,863 damaged trees. The village also will begin treating with a powerful insecticide 524 “high value” ash trees that are 20 inches or more in diameter. This needs to be done only every other year, but this year's cost alone is $128,000.

Additionally:

Arlington Heights would need to borrow roughly $11.5 million to combat the emerald ash borer infestation — expected to peak in 2015 killing roughly 5,000 trees, village officials said Monday.

The village board's committee of the whole Monday night gave its blessing to a funding plan that would involve issuing roughly $11.5 million in general obligation bonds in 2013 for the removal and replacement of the village's 13,000 ash trees.

So... It has come to this. I didn't import the Emerald Ash Borer into America! It's not attacking my trees! Why on earth should I pay for the removal and upkeep of my neighbor's infested trees?

We are living in an era when a solid block of conservatives have so deeply conditioned themselves they view any amount of government spending as evil and routinely speak of being "raped" by taxes. But, the Emerald Ash Borer beetle infestation is a prime instance of Government being needed. As in to ensure Domestic Tranquility and Promote the General Welfare.

It would do little good if you treated and protected your Ash trees if your neighbor decided not to and his infestation spread to your trees.

Could you sue him? Sure, but how would you prove the beetles migrated from your neighbors house and not from some other close by infested area? Capture a bunch of bugs and do a DNA mapping trace to prove they came from his strain?

Republicans have been constructing a very odd narrative wherein the Government can do nothing correctly. Now, often when Republicans take office they sabotage and undermine government but, this isn't due to incompetence but to a specific agenda of targeted destruction aimed at dissolving the effectiveness of Government.

Now, really what's going on here is the 1% are setting up Green Zones in America. The 1% who wholly owns and operates the Republican Party on a Federal, State, and Municipal level doesn't have the same worries as hundreds of millions of Americans or those residents of Schaumburg and Arlington Heights.

The only thing that concerns them is getting the Republicans to eliminate as many taxes, regulations, worker rights, the social safety net, and curbs on pollution as possible so they can steal and off-shore as much money as quickly as possible.