Walter Jacobson's Perspective

The heat on Mayor Brandon Johnson is more heat than any heat on any Chicago mayor in the past nearly 80 years. Two Mayor Daleys, one Mayor Bilandic, one Mayor Byrne, one Sawyer, one Emanuel, one Lightfoot. Those mayors were, as Mayor Johnson now is, off and on, in some kind of trouble. For some number of months. But not one of those past mayors was repeatedly blistered like Johnson’s being blistered by the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times. Both those newspapers seem to be saying they have had enough of Mayor Johnson being too slow to solve Chicago’s migrant or crime or gun problems. They clearly are saying Mayor Johnson doesn’t know what he’s doing, especially doesn’t know Chicago media. Brandon Johnson is a rookie mayor searching for ways to deal with Chicago style roughneck reporting. The Tribune and Sun-Times are powerfully influential newspapers telling Mayor Johnson to find himself some politically savvy Chicago advisors who understand Chicago government versus Chicago journalism. Advisors who are especially necessary now during an approaching Democratic Party convention that can erupt into another 1968 kind of convention firestorm. May I suggest, Mr. Mayor, that you ask a few of your most knowledgeable Chicago personal friends to help you make a list of politically savvy advisors. Then find a way to hire them. And take their advice.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

Last week, one day after the Super Bowl, during a public celebration in Kansas City, MO, a mother of two was shot dead, 22 other people wounded, in yet another mass shooting. While on that same day, the Illinois Rifle Association asked the US Supreme Court to abolish our gun control law that prohibits advertising and selling military style rifles. Now on the Internet, you and your children and anyone else anywhere can learn how to buy and then conceal all kinds of rifles and handguns, shotguns, machine guns, described by the gun sellers as exciting to hold, accurate to shoot, and oh so easy to trigger. And about ammunition? Bullets are advertised on the Internet at bargain prices. Our country is gun violent. Read the statistics on murder by guns and accidents and suicides. We need laws to stop the killing. So come on, Your Honors, you supreme justices of the Supreme Court. Help us. Don’t trash that Illinois gun control law. Make it tougher.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

Did I see the Sunday Super Bowl. Of course I did. I was glued to it, all of it, before, during and after the game. Did I look for Taylor Swift? Of course I did that too, because Taylor Swift is being described by mass media as the most famous person in the world. Taylor Swift, a 34-year-old pop culture phenomenon whose sensational concert tour has been made into a movie that scored more than a billion dollars its first day in theaters. Taylor Swift is a worldwide celebrity of influence. So much influence that President Biden is reported to be hoping she’ll help him campaign for reelection due to all the talk about him being 81 years old. Joe Biden needs help and there’s evidence that millions of Swifties are willing and ready to help. Though highly unlikely, it’s possible that Uncle Joe will sign her on as his vice presidential running mate. And it will be possible for them to win. Which begs the question, exactly how can she help this campaign? How tough of a Nikki Haley kind of fighter can Taylor Swift be? If she’s world famous now just imagine how famous she’ll be answering that question. In politics, there’s nothing much that matters as much as fame.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

There is a new headache bugging Chicago’s headstrong Mayor Brandon Johnson, caused by newspaper headlines about a public opinion poll on how Mayor Johnson’s doing in his new job. According to the poll, not very well. Only 21% of 500 registered voters in Chicago approve of how Johnson’s doing. Nearly 70% disapprove and are rating his performance as just fair to poor. Those headlines about Mayor Johnson are in the news during these hard times of tough issues. The migrants, the gun violence in Chicago neighborhoods, the police in Chicago Public Schools. Mayor Johnson wants the cops out of public school and has told the Chicago Board of Education to get them out, which it seems to me, would be a wrong thing to do. In the news of killer shootings in public schools, the facts are 14 students dead in Parkland, Florida, 19 dead in Uvalde, Texas, 20 students dead in Newtown, Connecticut. In Chicago, just a few days ago, a student was shot dead, two students wounded, on their way home from school. If there’s a possibility, even a remote possibility, the Chicago police officer can prevent the shooting of yet another student, don’t take him or her out of any public school. Safer yet, Mr. Mayor, put more police in.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

I am lonesome, so lonesome. I miss my corner grocery store, and my neighbors miss it too. Our store. It’s been gone now for three months, wiped off the corner by one of those real estate money wars being waged on the Near North Side of Chicago. Many of my neighbors and I are senior citizens who need our corner store. We used to walk to it, often four or five times a week, for our all-of-a-sudden last-minute shopping. Well, not anymore. We are now collateral damage of the money war that destroyed our wonderful little store that was where it was for 45 years. Destroyed it because the landlord of the building it was in figured it could make more money rehabbing and renting or rehabbing and selling for condos. But hey, Mr. Landlord. If for whatever reason you cannot make more money rehabbing and renting or rehabbing and selling, maybe you might consider returning to us our little grocery store. Thank you.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

The migrant problem in Chicago is bad, bad, bad. And the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is making it worse, worse. Day-by-day, by bus and airplane, Governor Abbott has been sending migrants from the Mexico-Texas border to Chicago, and he’s promising to continue sending them until, he says, President Biden secures that border. Chicago is a sanctuary city, now preparing for migrants in addition to the more than 30,000 migrants Governor Abbott already has sent our way. Never minding that Texas is the nation’s wealthiest state that easily can afford to care for migrants. There are more billionaires living in Texas than in any other state of the United States. Elon Musk of Texas is worth $240 billion, and members of the Texas Walton family, who own Walmart, worth $260 billion. They are able, comfortably, to help. But the governor of Texas would rather send us migrants than money. If you’d like to e-mail or write to the governor, he’s Greg Abbott, in my opinion, a bad, bad guy.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

It’s not easy for me to think of something positive to say about Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, because he’s been indicted by a federal grand jury on criminal charges involving tax evasion. It’s also not easy because Hunter Biden is defying a Congressional subpoena to testify during an impeachment proceeding against his father, the President, being conducted by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Those Republicans are saying Hunter and his father, the President, are conspiring to obstruct the impeachment proceedings. They want to question him about that, and they’ve subpoenaed him to answer questions, in private, which means, in secret. Hunter says he will answer questions, but they must be asked and answered in public. He emphatically denies any such conspiracy and says that he fears that in private Republican inquisitors will leak to the media carefully selected political questions along with a barrage of negative opinions about Hunter Biden. Which of course the Republicans will do, just like if the tables were turned the Congressional Democrats would do. The question for me, dear listeners, is do you doubt that? To which my answer is, if you doubt it, don’t.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

The Great Wardrobe Debate in the United States Senate has ended, or at least for now it’s ended. But it will be back because it is an endless debate what a Senator should wear while on the floor of the Senate. If you missed the most recent wardrobe debate, you may not know that it exploded last September when the dress code was wiped out by order of the Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer. Most members of both political parties favor a dress code and the debate got hot and stayed hot for about a month until a majority of the Senate voted the dress code back in. Now there are hints the debate is soon to begin again and get hot again and if we the people do have a vote, say in a public opinion poll, I for one will vote yes, please, keep the dress code because it’s important that the Senate demonstrates dignity.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

Have you been reading the news about Dorothy Jean Tillman? If not, you’re missing a story not to be missed. A really wonderful story. Dorothy Jean Tillman is a granddaughter of a former Chicago alderwoman. Dorothy Jean is 17-years-old, of the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. I’ve been reading about her graduating from Arizona State University with a PhD in behavioral health and her studies and degrees in psychology and behavior. Dorothy Jean is the founder of the STEAM Institute, for science, technology, engineering, arts and math programs for children, including summer camps that she personally is funding. When she was 12-years-old, Dorothy Jean was earning a college degree. When 14, a master’s degree in environmental science. What a treat it is to read all that good news at the end of a year of so much bad news. We’ve been needing good news. So thank you Miss… about to be Dr. Tillman for sharing your very good news.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

He’s getting what he deserves, that once-upon-a-time good guy who is now a bad guy. Rudy Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and mayor of New York ordered by a federal court to pay $148 million to two women, a mother and daughter, election workers in the 2020 Trump vs. Biden race in Georgia. Rudy was found by the court to have fabricated a story about the women stealing votes for Donald Trump. A lie, said the court, that Rudy spread through the media. The court ruled there was no evidence of the women stealing anything and that Rudy caused them to suffer death threats and has defamed them. Rudy is appealing the court order that he pay the women and he’s filed for bankruptcy. In politics, the whispering is that Rudy is a smart guy who should have thought about the consequences of defamation, not only $148 million but the possibility of prison. Thoughts about consequences he no doubt should have had.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective: