August, 2020, Part 9,Political Class Insanity: Chicago Mayor Trying To Become Worst Mayor In The Country, Wisconsin Trying To Have The Worst Virus Mask Idea In The Country, and Minneapolis Politicians Trying Hard Not To Rebuild Their City

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

1) In our last post we discussed the sad reality that many American cities are reaching “their expiration” date. The defunding and disrespecting of the police by city politicians, the resultant upswing in crime and violence, the high taxes,, etc. have led many clear thinking Americans to get out of their city to protect their lives, their families, their income, and their future.

In that post we raised the question of who was the worst big city mayor in the country today. There are plenty of candidates from NYC to Portland to Seattle to LA, etc. We also included Chicago and their mayor. Unfortunately, we saw her position as worst mayor candidate recently strengthened as the crime, violence and killing continues to surge in the Windy City:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot had at least 35 of her citizens shot over a recent weekend and four of them died.
• Which should not be too much of a surprise since this type of carnage, although maybe to a slightly lesser extent, has been going on for years, during and before her tenure as mayor.
• Some of those wounded were between the ages of 14 and 17.
• The weekend before, 34 Chicago residents were shot and 9 died and the weekend before that a whopping 59 were shot and 3 died.
• Murders in July, 2020 were 139% higher in 2020 vs. July 2019.

And Lightfoot and other city and state politicians have no clue how to fix the situation. Sad and disgusting that they cannot fulfill the very most basic function of any government, protecting the lives and property of its citizens.

2) Unfortunately, the coronavirus problem still lingers across the country. To help combat the virus, many local and state government entities have required people to wear masks in different situations in different states. Depending on where you fall on the whole mask issue, anybody can find any study that supports their position, e.g. masks are good for preventing the virus, masks do nothing to prevent the virus, certain masks are good while other masks are useless, masks cause tooth decay (yes, that study does exist).

But it is generally agreed that being alone at home by yourself does not require that a mask be worn, you're not going to catch the virus from yourself and since no one is with you, you are not going to catch the virus from someone that is not with you.

This logic seems pretty strong unless you are the state government of Wisconsin:

• A new rule for Wisconsin government employees requires state employees to wear masks when in their own homes.
• This is not a state law or executive order from the governor, apparently this is some bureaucrats in the state government literally acting insane.
• The state’s Department of Natural Resources is requiring its employees to wear face masks while taking part in video conferences “even if [they] are home.”
• While this edict will have no possible health benefit to anyone, it will “set a safety example” and somehow the assertion is made that it shows regard for the “safety and health” of other people.

As we often say, you cannot make this nonsense up. I am assuming that any video conferences will be with fellow employees, there likely will not be any citizens sitting in on the video conferences that will be inspired by state government employees wearing their masks in their own home, protecting no one from the virus whatsoever. Again, some bureaucrat that had nothing worthwhile to do in their job comes up with this nonsense. Tough to take government seriously when they are this stupid.

3) The following story again shows how idiotic and out of touch American politicians can be. Now, to be honest, shortly after the Minneapolis political class and the government they operate came out with this insane idea, they revoked it when some level of sanity returned. The question that arises is why did they think the original idea was a great concept to begin with?

Here is the story of insanity that was in effect until common sense prevailed:

• Minneapolis was the epicenter for protests and unfortunately riots, regarding the George Floyd murder.
• The city riots led to massive arson and destruction which resulted in untold numbers of businesses and their businesses being destroyed:

• In total, a whopping 1,500 buildings are estimated to have been damaged because of the city riots.
• As we've discussed often, the political class and the city government failed in providing a very basic function of government, the protection of lives and property.
• If the city is to ever recover from the riots, it needs to rebuild and rejuvenate the city’s business sector so that jobs and goods can again flow easily and quickly to city residents.
• But that concept must be foreign to the local politicians since they idiotically came up with a rule that said businesses owners who had their physical buildings turned into rubbish cannot rebuild their buildings until they get a city permit to clear their lot of the rubble, a process that obviously will slow down the city’s economic recovery.
• And here’s the kicker: the original rubble clearing rule said you could not get a clean up permit until you prepaid the remaining part of your 2020 business property tax.
• Given that many of these businesses cannot prepay anything given that the rioters burned their businesses to the ground, which destroyed their revenue stream, this silly rule would have postponed the city’s recovery for a very long time.
• According to Reason magazine: “And you can't get the permit without paying off your 2020 property tax bill in full. As a result, only around 20 wrecked buildings have been demolished, according to the city. The city, enforcing a state law at its discretion, is holding this demand for a full tax payment over the head of property owners trying to get themselves and the city back to something approximating normal. Owners of destroyed stores are finding they can't even get an estimate as to what the cleanup will cost from contractors without the permit, though the paper reports costs ranging from $35,000 to as much as $400,000 for a strip mall just to get debris cleared.”

So let me get this right: until the city politicians came to their senses, they allowed rioters to burn down and destroy 1,500 buildings and related businesses, failing in their basic responsibility to protect lives and property, and then wanted to make it harder and/or impossible for those businesses to rebuild their physical buildings and restart the local economy? 

In the sister city of St. Paul there was no such requirement to prepay property taxes and the rebuilding of that city is well underway. Business people from St. Paul quoted in the Reason article said they would have not been able to or would have decided not to rebuild if they had been required to prepay their 2020 property tax balances. 

The same thing would have happened in Minneapolis, the migration and permanent destruction of businesses if this stupid rule had not been rescinded. It does make you wonder what was the inane thought process that led to the rule in the first place?

That will do it for today’s insanity: stupidity and lack of common sense in Minneapolis, an inane mask idea in Wisconsin, and the Chicago mayor coming on strong to be named the worst city mayor in the country.


Note: we have done a lot reporting on the dire and ever worsening situation in Chicago. The crime, the violence, and the shootings have resulted in more wounded citizens, more fatalities and a more dangerous place to be. In those discussions we have always pointed out that the mayor and those in public office in Chicago have no idea how to fix this deteriorating situation. While the vast majority of people cannot help fix what the local political class has broken, may I suggest that a donation be made to the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago to at least give the kids of the city a chance, a safe place to go and just be kids. The address for donating to this fine organization is:

Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago Club Support Center
2102 W. Monroe Street
Chicago, IL 60612

Thank you, be part of the solution.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Bruno-Korschek/e/B002KYU08Q/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w