- Nuclear War With Russia "Winnable" Said Trump's Incoming National Security Advisor
Nuclear War With Russia "Winnable" Said Trump's Incoming National Security Advisor
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,
Questioning “mutual assured destruction,” Charles Kupperman called nuclear conflict “in large part a physics problem.”
Incoming National Security Advisor, Charles Kupperman, made the claim Nuclear War With USSR Was Winnable.
He made those statements in the 1980s. I do not know his views today, but let’s review what he said then.
President Donald Trump’s acting national security adviser, former Reagan administration official Charles Kupperman, made an extraordinary and controversial claim in the early 1980s: nuclear conflict with the USSR was winnable and that “nuclear war is a destructive thing but still in large part a physics problem.”
Kupperman, appointed to his new post on Tuesday after Trump fired his John Bolton from the job, argued it was possible to win a nuclear war “in the classical sense,” and that the notion of total destruction stemming from such a superpower conflict was inaccurate. He said that in a scenario in which 20 million people died in the U.S. as opposed to 150 million, the nation could then emerge as the stronger side and prevail in its objectives.
His argument was that with enough planning and civil defense measures, such as “a certain layer of dirt and some reinforced construction materials,” the effects of a nuclear war could be limited and that U.S. would be able to fairly quickly rebuild itself after an all-out conflict with the then-Soviet Union.
At the time, Kupperman was executive director of President Ronald Reagan’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament. He made the comments during an interview with Robert Scheer for the journalist’s 1982 book, “With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush, and Nuclear War.”
The National Security Council did not immediately respond to questions on whether Kupperman, 68, still holds the same views of nuclear conflict as he did in the early 1980s. Kupperman’s seemingly cavalier attitude toward the potential death of millions of people was criticized at the time both by Democratic politicians and arms control experts.
The article posts excerpts so let’s look at a couple of precise statements.
Kupperman Statements
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If the objective in a war is to try to destroy as many Soviet civilians and as many American civilians as is feasible, and the casualty levels approached 150 million on each side, then it’s going to be tough to say you have a surviving nation after that. But depending on how the nuclear war is fought, it could mean the difference between 150 casualties and 20 million casualties. I think that is a significant difference, and if the country loses 20 million people, you may have a chance of surviving after that.
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I think it is possible to win, in the classical sense. It means that it is clear after the war that one side is stronger than the other side, the weaker side is going to accede to the demands of the stronger side.
Winning in the Classical Sense
We lost 20 million, they lost 150 million.
Let’s call that “winning in the “classical sense”.
It’s precisely how one “wins” trade wars, but on a much larger scale.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 09/15/2019 – 00:00 -
- Why Is The US Army Buying Mock Kalashnikov Assault Rifles?
Why Is The US Army Buying Mock Kalashnikov Assault Rifles?
America’s military budget is set to increase for a fifth consecutive year. President Trump is now asking for +$700 billion for the 2020 military spending bill, a record-setting number, to fund the national-security state. The money has been used for rapid modernization efforts ahead of a potential war with Russia and or China. This year, we’ve reported several instances where the US military has been buying mock weapons, and or taking existing weapons and transforming them into Russian look-alikes.
The latest war preparation comes from the US Army, where they want to buy five models of the Kalashnikov assault rifle that are considered mock weapons, used mostly in war training exercises.
The application for the weapons was first reviewed by RT and also reported by Fort Russ News. The document states that the request was made as part of the supply of training equipment.
“Five sets of simulations of AK-47 shooting assault rifles with small oxygen and propane cylinders to simulate small arms,” the document said.
Each weapon will include an external cylinder that will be secured by a backpack. Every time the weapon’s operator pulls the trigger, a blast of propane is ignited in the Kalashnikov’s barrel and shot out, simulating the noise of a 7.62×39 round.
The document states the need for cartridges for the Soviet-era PK machine gun, DShK heavy machine gun, and Yak-B 12.7mm machine gun.
It also says devices that simulate explosions are needed, along with the need for smoke bombs.
While US defense firms don’t generally produce mock Russian weapons – the document said the Army would likely have to review the international market for sourcing.
The Army’s intention of using mock Russian weapons will likely be for field training exercises to familiarize American troops with enemy Russian soldiers.
The extent of conditioning American soldiers to identify and kill Russian troops is also occurring in another domain of warfare, that is in the air and space.
In March, we reported how the Nellis Air Force Base’s Facebook page published a video of a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon belonging to the 64th Aggressor Squadron in a new paint scheme that resembles Russia’s fifth-generation stealth fighter.
The Aggressors Squadrons F-16 copied paint schemes, markings, and insignias of the Sukhoi Su-57, a single-seat, twin-engine multirole fifth-generation stealth jet, flown by the Russian Air Force.
Photos also emerged on a Turkish website earlier this year of a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet belonging to Fighter Squadron Composite Twelve (VFC-12), a US Navy Reserve fighter squadron based in Virginia Beach, sporting the same Russian Su-57 color scheme.
From fake Russian weapons to US fighter jets painted in Russian color schemes, the Pentagon has been conditioning combat troops and fighter pilots through simulation for the next war.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/14/2019 – 23:30 - Will McCabe Bring The FBI Down With Him?
Will McCabe Bring The FBI Down With Him?
Authored by Daniel John Sobieski via The American Thinker blog,
The DoJ’s rejection of a last-ditch appeal by the legal team representing fired FBI Director Andrew McCabe and the recommendation by federal prosecutors that charges actually be filed against the documented liar, leaker, and co-conspirator in the attempted coup against duly elected President Donald Trump puts the deep state in a face-to-face confrontation with a potential legal Armageddon. An indictment will leave McCabe with no excuse for not carrying out his threat to bring them all down with him.
Before his firing, McCabe sent a shot across the bow of his co-conspirators in the plots to keep Hillary Clinton out of prison and Donald Trump out of the White House, according to Fox News correspondent Adam Housely in a series of tweets reported by Gateway Pundit at the time of the firing:
Fox News reporter Adam Housley reported on Twitter tonight about the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, stating his sources were telling him that in the past few days McCabe threatened to “take people down with him” if he was fired…
8:31 p.m. PDT: “I am told yesterday McCabe felt the heat and went to try and save his last two days and even told some he would take people down with him if he was fired. So…let’s see what comes of this. I know this…a ton of agents…a ton…were watching this very closely.”
Investigative journalist Sara Carter confirmed McCabe’s threat on the March 16, 2018 episode of “The Ingraham Angle”:
CARTER: He lied. Plain and simple he lied. A lot of former FBI agents that I spoke to say I hope he’s fired. Is he going to get fired today? That’s all I kept hearing all day because they realize if they had done this, they would have been fired too.
And there’s a lot of ongoing investigations right now. This is not just about Michael Horowitz at the DOJ right now. Remember, there’s a prosecutor looking into the unmasking, the FISA abuse that has been taking place with Carter Page in particular. So, we have a number of investigations and McCabe is worried. He’s said over and over again, if I go down, I’m taking everybody else with me.
McCabe was at the heart of all the criminal activity and knows where the bodies are buried. His silence until now may be traced to the fact that to date no one has actually been held accountable. An easy indictment of his boss, book tour veteran James Comey, was bypassed and newly minted CNN analyst McCabe, filling the chair vacated by creepy porn lawyer Michael Avenatti, got to join his fellow liar and leaker, John Brennan, at the poster child for fake news.
“Lack of candor” about leaking to the press is the least of McCabe’s worries. McCabe is a signatory to at least one of the FISA applications requesting surveillance of American citizens, namely Team Trump. His signature was his affirmation that the information in it, based largely on the Steele dossier paid for by Team Hillary and the DNC and compiled from Russian sources by a British agent, was accurate and verified. The FISA warrant he signed was a fraud committed on the court.
The Steele dossier, despite McCabe’s prior obfuscations, was acquired illegally. Money was laundered through a law firm to a dirt-gathering opposition research firm, Fusion GPS, to a foreign agent, Christopher Steele, to Russian sources making most of the stuff up. The fact that the transaction went through multiple hands does not make it any more legal. It just makes the coming indictment longer.
McCabe, the man he worked for, James Comey, and the people who worked under McCabe, such as Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, then took this fruit of foreign interference in our election and used it to commit a fraud upon the FISA court to trigger the illegal surveillance of one political campaign by another with the aid of co-conspirators at the DoJ and FBI.
That McCabe himself was a key architect of this coup is found in the texts of FBI Agent Peter Strozk, who speaks of the plan hatched in “Andy’s office” to stop Trump at all costs, with this end justifying any and all means:
Out of all the damning, politically charged anti-Trump text messages released, one text from Strzok to (Lisa) Page on August 15, 2016, raised the most suspicion. It referred to a conversation and a meeting that had just taken place in “Andy’s” (widely believed to be Deputy FBI Dir. Andrew McCabe’s) office. According to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Strzok had texted this: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office [break]… that there’s no way he gets elected. I want to believe that… But I’m afraid we can’t take that risk… We have to do something about it.”
In another text, Page said: “maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace.” Strzok replied: “I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps.”
“This goes to intent,” Jordan said. “We can’t take the risk that the people of this great country might elect Donald Trump. We can’t take this risk. This is Peter Strzok, head of counterintelligence at the FBI. This is Peter Strzok, who I think had a hand in that dossier that was all dressed up and taken to the FISA court. He’s saying, ‘we can’t take the risk, we have to do something about it.'”
McCabe himself said under oath he could not verify the accuracy of virtually anything in the dossier and has acknowledged that without the “salacious and unverified” document, as James Comey once described it, no investigation of Team Trump would have occurred.
Then there’s the case of Michael Flynn. The unmasking of Flynn in the Russia probe may indeed be retaliation against Flynn for perceived political sins, but not for what and by whom you might think if reports from investigative watchdog site Circa News are correct.
As I noted here on June 30, 2017, Michael Flynn and Andrew McCabe have a past that predates the Trump presidency, one that provides ample motivation for the perjury trap that McCabe and Comey set up after Flynn’s illegal unmasking. McCabe had a personal grudge against Flynn and the perjury trap was his revenge.
It explains why McCabe would entrap Flynn in a seemingly harmless interview about contacts with Flynn’s Russian counterparts, advising Flynn he didn’t need to bring a lawyer along to complicate things.
As Sara A. Carter and John Solomon of Circa News reported:
The FBI launched a criminal probe against former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn two years after the retired Army general roiled the bureau’s leadership by intervening on behalf of a decorated counterterrorism agent who accused now-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and other top officials of sexual discrimination, according to documents and interviews.
Flynn’s intervention on behalf of Supervisory Special Agent Robyn Gritz was highly unusual, and included a letter in 2014 on his official Pentagon stationary, a public interview in 2015 supporting Gritz’s case and an offer to testify on her behalf. His offer put him as a hostile witness in a case against McCabe, who was soaring through the bureau’s leadership ranks.
The FBI sought to block Flynn’s support for the agent, asking a federal administrative law judge in May 2014 to keep Flynn and others from becoming a witness in her Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) case, memos obtained by Circa show. Two years later, the FBI opened its inquiry of Flynn…
McCabe eventually became the bureau’s No. 2 executive and emerged as a central player in the FBI’s Russia election tampering investigation, putting him in a position to impact the criminal inquiry against Flynn.
Three FBI employees told Circa they personally witnessed McCabe make disparaging remarks about Flynn before and during the time the retired Army general emerged as a figure in the Russia case.
Andrew McCabe should not be a national pundit on CNN calling for Trump’s impeachment. He should be preparing his legal defense against indictments that can’t come a moment too soon. And we should be prepared for McCabe carrying out his threat to bring them all down. We may yet find out what really happened in “Andy’s office”.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/14/2019 – 23:00 - These Are The Safest Cities In The World
These Are The Safest Cities In The World
During a time when crime rates in the US – particularly violent crime – are steadily creeping higher once again after declining for roughly a quarter-century, readers may wonder: What are the safest cities in the world?
Well, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that few of them are in the US. In fact, when it comes to urban security the Asia-Pacific region is the world leader. In the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest ranking of the world’s safest cities, Tokyo has once again taken the top spot. Singapore and Osaka (Japan’s second-largest city), came in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
Amsterdam came in at No. 4, making it the safest city in Europe. Notably, the Dutch capital confines most non-violent crime to its infamous red-light districts, havens for prostitution and drugs.
Sydney, Australia’s second-largest city, took the No. 5 spot, followed by Toronto, Canada’s largest city and the safest city in North America.
Making a “surprise” appearance in the top 10 for the first time, US capital Washington DC took the No. 7 spot, making it by and away the safest US city. This marks a massive stride for Washington DC, which was once riddled with AIDS and other signs of urban decay.
Copenhagen, Seoul and Melbourne round out the top 10.
Source: Bloomberg
Ranking 60 cities on five continents, the index takes into account factors including digital, health, infrastructure and personal security as components of overall urban safety.
The cities that led the index offer easy access to high-quality health-care, strong cybersecurity and community-based policing, according to Bloomberg.
As one analyst noted, wealth is an important factor in determining safety, though it’s not the only factor.
“Overall, while wealth is among the most important determinants of safety, the levels of transparency – and governance – correlate as closely as income with index scores,” said Naka Kondo, the editor of the latest Safe Cities report. “The research also highlights how different types of safety are thoroughly intertwined – that it is rare to find a city with very good results in one safety pillar and lagging in others.”
While AsiaPac is home to many of the world’s safest cities and countries, there are also many low-scoring cities. These include Myanmar’s Yangon, Pakistan’s Karachi, Bangladesh’s Dhaka and India’s New Delhi. All four of these cities ranked in the bottom ten.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/14/2019 – 22:30 - Mind-Reading AI Could Mean The End Of Humanity
Mind-Reading AI Could Mean The End Of Humanity
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
Artificial intelligence that can read the human mind may spell out disaster for humanity as we know it. Technologies linking human consciousness to any sort of a cloud computing service could not just open the way for totalitarian mind control, but destroy the very essence of human relations, philosopher Slavoj Zizek says.
Totalitarian mind control sounds daunting and horrific. And a computer that can read the thoughts of several people at the same time would make normal human life impossible, the Slovenian cultural philosopher told RT in the wake of the World Artificial Intelligence (AI) Conference in Shanghai. The same conference also saw Alibaba’s chairman Jack Ma and Tesla CEO Elon Musk clashing over the future of AI.
‘Computers are already smarter than people’#ElonMusk & #JackMa face off over future of #AI https://t.co/rlfhjw4cJd pic.twitter.com/9f3LsTCNC4
— RT (@RT_com) August 30, 2019
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While Ma and Musk, the technopreneurs, engaged in a heated discussion over the possibility of humans being controlled by machines in the future, the senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljanashared his thoughts on the issue with RT.
“What I am studying now is the so-called phenomenon of wired brains, a possibility of our brains being connected with strong digital machines. And that is not a utopia. In the media lab at MIT, Massachusetts, they already have simple machines like that. It is like a helmet, nothing intrusive, they put it on your head.
And then something horrible happens – I saw the video – you think certain thoughts, you do not say anything, and the machine reproduces them either in writing or with artificial voice.” –Slavoj Zizek, via RT
The video Zizek referenced is by 60 Minutes:
Arnav Kapur, a student in MIT’s Media Lab, has developed a system to surf the internet with his mind. He silently Googled our questions and heard the answers through vibrations transmitted through his skull and into his inner ear. pic.twitter.com/aN76Jn4AHv
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 22, 2018
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What happens when AI begins to read minds without your permission?
That’s when complete enslavement can take hold.
“Now, there is a serious option to read our thoughts, not just our emotional attitudes like being angry or sad but even the line of our thoughts in our mind. The next step in this “utopia” will be a computer that can read my thoughts and your thoughts that can connect us so that we can share our thoughts. If you and I are connected through the same computer, I can literally participate in your thinking directly without any external communication like word typing,” said Zizek.
“We as human beings are precisely what we are, free individuals as far as we can be sure that you do not know what I am thinking. I think what I think, I am free in my mind. What happens if I cannot be sure even of this?” Slavoj Zizek, via RT
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/14/2019 – 22:00 - U.S. Poverty Levels Fall To Pre-Recession Low
U.S. Poverty Levels Fall To Pre-Recession Low
The U.S. Census Bureau has published a report into income and poverty levels across the United States, finding that median household income in 2018 was $63,179 while median earnings for all workers was $40,247.
Additionally, as Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes, poverty has now fallen for the fourth consecutive year, thanks to the healthy state of the economy and it has hit pre-recession lows.
You will find more infographics at Statista
In 2018, the official U.S. poverty rate was 11.8 percent, a reduction of 0.5 percentage points from the 12.3 percent recorded a year previously. Poverty levels are now significantly lower than in 2007, just before the financial crisis and the most recent U.S. recession.
The 2018 data shows that poverty rates for children fell 1.2 percentage points to 16.2 percent while it remained at a steady 9.7 percent among over 65s. Back in 1959, the national poverty rate was 22.4 percent and it has decreased significantly in the years, although there was some notable fluctuation in the mid-1980s and 1990s. Even though the return to the pre-recession low is positive, 11.8 percent means that some 38.1 million Americans are still living in poverty.
Amid warnings of a fresh U.S. recession lying just around the corner, the current downward tend might only be temporary.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/14/2019 – 21:30 - American Privilege
American Privilege
Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,
American liberals and progressives talk a bit about white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege etc, but one thing I never hear them talk about is American privilege: the ability their nationality gives them to have a relationship with this world that the rest of us do not have.
American privilege is reassuring yourself that there are problems enough at home without worrying about the trillions your government’s war machine is spending terrorizing the world and encircling the planet with military bases.
American privilege is reluctantly allowing the potential Commanders-in-Chief have an eight-minute conversation about foreign policy in your presidential primary debates, when your country’s military policy functionally dictates the affairs of rest of the world.
American privilege is arguing against the legality of assault weapons on the basis that they are “weapons of war”, implying that they’re fine as long as they’re used to kill some foreigner’s kids.
American privilege is being able to masturbate your outrage addiction over a racist joke while ignoring the way your military murders black and brown people by the tens of thousands every year.
American privilege is being able to lose your mind over someone using the wrong pronouns while paying no attention to the fact that your government pours your tax money and resources into governments and groups who hang gay people in the town square.
American privilege is believing your propaganda is the truth, and everyone else’s understanding of the world is fake news.
There are 800 U.S. military bases in 80 countries. https://t.co/yUrf7T5U1B pic.twitter.com/AAqqJ25ZFd
— CounterPunch (@NatCounterPunch) March 5, 2016
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American privilege is assuming your prudish Puritanical brand of sexuality is healthy and normal so it’s no big deal that you insist that all English-speaking social media adheres to your creepy nipple-hating norms.
American privilege is telling foreigners to butt out of your politics when your politics are literally killing them.
American privilege is having a shit fit over election meddling in one social media post, while cheerleading regime change in the next.
American privilege is starting a war on a lie without being charged with a war crime.
American privilege is committing war crimes with impunity while jailing the whistleblowers and journalists who reveal them and still getting to call yourselves the good guys.
American privilege is being able to spend all day arguing online about domestic policy while the rest of the world, completely incapable of influencing your government’s behavior, prays you don’t get us all killed.
American privilege is only having a robust antiwar movement when your own citizens are at risk of being drafted, then completely forgetting about peace for decades while an increasingly robotic military force gives you even more peace of mind.
American privilege is being able to relax about war because your soldiers are being replaced with drones and proxy militias in US-driven conflicts, even though those kill people just as dead as manually operated killing machines.
American privilege is being hush-hush about the egregious imperialist stances of progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders because they have some decent domestic policies.
American privilege is black bloc protests against public appearances by figures like Milo Yiannopoulos and the Proud Boys while murderous war pigs like Bill Kristol, Henry Kissinger, John Bolton, David Frum and arms industry executives go from appearance to appearance completely unbothered.
Just sending out a morning shout to the men and woman of the intelligence community that keep us safe and protect our country. #gratitude #ty pic.twitter.com/Avi220aBh7
— ashton kutcher (@aplusk) July 23, 2018
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American privilege is benefiting from cheap goods and oil and a strong dollar and never wondering how many innocent foreigners lost their lives and homes in the wars your government starts to make that so.
American privilege is living in a nation whose government can murder an entire family one day with explosives dropped from the sky, and yet you never hearing about it because that isn’t considered a newsworthy occurrence.
American privilege is being one of the worst-travelled populations in the world while having military bases in countries that most Americans wouldn’t recognize the name of, let alone have been to.
American privilege is having your insane culture normalized around the world via Hollywood and other media so that nobody stops and wonders why we’re letting this bat shit crazy nation rule our planet, and so no one makes you feel bad about your American privilege.
American privilege is living in a nation that uses its military and economic might to terrorize, murder, imprison, starve and impoverish anyone who doesn’t go along with its interests, and feeling no urgent need to bring a stop to this.
American privilege is being fine with being the world leader, but not being too bothered about what exactly that means.
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/14/2019 – 21:00 - Man Brings "Emotional Support Clown" To Meeting Where He Was Laid Off
Man Brings "Emotional Support Clown" To Meeting Where He Was Laid Off
In one of the strangest stories we’ve seen recently, a New Zealand advertising executive hired a “support clown” to accompany him to a meeting where he was laid off by their company, the Auckland-based advertising firm FCB.
An image sent to the New Zealand Herald showed the clown sitting in on the meeting, where he reportedly made balloon animals and engaged in other clown-like hijinx while the HR staff went through the details of the employee’s severance package.
When the redundancy paperwork was handed over to the staffer, the clown reportedly mimed crying.
Over the past few years, the media has been rife with stories about strange ‘support animals’ accompanying people in public places and on flights. Some of the stranger ‘support’ animals have included squirrels, peacocks and goats.
A spokesperson for the firm told the Herald that the agency has a policy of not commenting on employment matters. However, in an email titled “Coulrophobia” – a term for the pathological fear of clowns – the spokesperson admitted that it was one of the weirdest stories she had ever been asked to comment on.
Fortunately for the staffer, who was laid off after the agency lost a major Vodafone ad account, he has reportedly landed on his feet: he got a new job at DDB alongside his creative partner. They will reportedly start their new roles next week.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/14/2019 – 20:30 - Only In Illinois: Wife Of Indicted Political Boss Will Hold Highest Judicial Post In State
Only In Illinois: Wife Of Indicted Political Boss Will Hold Highest Judicial Post In State
Authored by Austin Berg via IllinoisPolicy.org,
Illinois Supreme Court Justices chose Anne Burke as their chief on Sept. 10. One could almost hear the gears turning on the Chicago machine, a hobbled but still functioning apparatus now in the sights of federal investigators.
Burke’s appointment to the highest judicial post in the state is a shameless act in a state sorely lacking trust in its government.
Anne Burke is an accomplished lawyer. She helped start the Special Olympics. These facts should not prevent criticism arising from her 50-plus year marriage to a 50-year Chicago political boss: Ed Burke.
Anne’s husband is among the last of a dying breed. As a young Irish upstart in the Daley Democratic machine, Ed Burke married Anne in 1968. The next year, he was elected to his late father’s aldermanic seat on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
He would go on to become the Mike Madigan of City Council, amassing near-total power over what legislation passed and failed. And like Madigan, he cashed in on his political clout as a property tax attorney on the side. Burke controlled slating for Cook County judges as a Democratic Party don and wielded a patronage army out of City Hall.
Until this year, Burke’s 14th Ward organization was one of the only pure political machines in the country. The other is Madigan’s 13th Ward.
But the king of the 14th now faces 14 federal counts of corruption. Federal prosecutors earlier this year accused Burke of extorting the owners of a Burger King, allegedly withholding a remodeling permit in order to pressure them to hire his private law firm to handle their property tax appeals.
With Ed Burke facing prison time, Anne will be chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.
No one deserves blame for the actions of their spouse. But in this case, it’s impossible to separate them. Chicago politics, City Council and the state’s judicial branch often intersect.
One example helped put Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in office.
Ed Burke’s extortion charges included an allegation that he illegally solicited campaign donations to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s mayoral campaign. So when news broke that Ed Burke held a fundraiser at his home for Preckwinkle, she quickly pivoted and said it was Anne, not Ed, who hosted. She returned the $116,000 she raised at the event.
That was a bad excuse. The Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct bans judges from raising funds for political candidates. Political consultant Jeffrey Orr filed a complaint and the Illinois Judiciary Board opened an investigation. The board cleared Anne Burke of all wrongdoing, but refused to offer any explanation. Nothing to see here.
Notably, Preckwinkle hired Burke’s son to a nearly $100,000 county position in 2014.
In April, Anne Burke wrote the majority opinion in a decision awarding a former union employee eligibility to receive a decade’s worth of teacher pension benefits despite having worked only a single day in the classroom as a substitute teacher. That union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and its affiliate the Chicago Teachers Union, are major players in Chicago politics – long giving money and political muscle to Cook County Democrats.
In another problematic example, Anne Burke wrote the unanimous opinion defending Chicago’s burdensome food truck regulations, which Ald. Ed Burke supported as a member of City Council.
What would appear to many Illinoisans as glaring conflicts of interest over the years have not appeared to raise red flags for the new chief justice.
They deserve better.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/14/2019 – 20:05
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