We have been discussing the worsening economic conditions in Chicago as Mayor Brandon Johnson and the far-left city council spend wildly while virtually chasing businesses out of the city. The city just floated a massive bond to delay the growing economic meltdown. Despite carrying a roughly $150 million deficit and committing two-fifths of the budget just to debt service and pension costs, Johnson announced that the city has approved $500,000 in funding for the implementation of a reparations program.
Johnson announced a program of town halls and meetings under the “Repair Chicago” effort to “gather lived experiences of harm of Black Chicagoans” to implement reparations for Black residents.
Johnson declared, “Your experience is evidence and we’ve placed it at the center of our work.” He said that the city will fund “bus tours, panel discussions, town halls, and hearings” to “better understand Black Chicagoans’ experiences across generations and how systemic racism has shaped their lives, opportunities, and well-being.”
The city has a 40-member task force headed by Chief Equity Officer Carla Kupe to make good on the reparations pledge announced in 2024. This money is merely to lay the foundation for the reparations to come in the Chicago.
The fact that the city is facing a corporate fund budget gap of more than $1 billion while losing major companies tired of the high taxes and poor services, Johnson wants to make reparations a priority.
Illinois was a free state that sent over 250,000 men to fight for the Union and lost roughly 35,000 in the Civil War.
The reparations, however, will cover years of racism in the city.
The sooner ‘other people’s money; begins to flee these jurisdictions the better. The Governor of NYS invited those who do not ‘share the state’s values’ to leave for Florida. They have and are. She should have had Margaret Thatcher at top of mind. She’s now begging for ‘patriotic’ billionaires to return to save her sorry ass. So let it be with Illinois!
Ditto Trapper John,
I’ll just add that Chicago’s ill decline began in the 70s, when the Steel Mills of the Southside began the gradual process of shutting down.
All the ‘Rust Belt’ was effected as the “Uses of Steel” for manufacturing were beginning to move off-shore (Mexico-Canada Japan, Korea,..)
“Uses” by that I mean Rolled ‘coiled steel’, the type of steel that is ‘slit’ (by Slitter) and Stamped (Press Operators) into all things Sheet Metal manufactured>
Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Clothes Dryers, Hood for Cars, Fenders, Uni-Body Car Parts, Chassis frames, … The Rolled Steel coils that came out of the Chicago South side and Gary Indiana which was Trucked over the; Illinois, Indiana, Ohio Toll Way to Detroit and else where, to Stamping Manufacture of Parts and the related Machine Shop industries (Cottage Industrial Shops) all began to fold and disappear. Economic collapse of the Rust Belt was due to factors of Corporate Management, Unions, Trade Agreements, and short sighted (profits) and narrow minded thinking.
Were any of those lessons learned??? *NO* and that’s why we have what we have. It a weird greed that has destroyed our cities and blinds us from see true methods of prosperity. To many with their fingers in the American Pie (yes Americans), with no Skin in the Game. A major mentality ‘reset’ (Catharsis) needs to occur, then a new focus of ‘True American’ ingenuity formulated to align the new vision and bring the work to be done into focus.
We can do it. I just don’t think we have the right People to lead it. Chicago holds it’s own destiny, but the parasitic corruption of Those that have “No-Skin-In-The-Game” (Politicians, Governmental Bureaucrats, Lawyers, Bankers, Brokers, Foreign interest, Side-Liners,…) must be locked out to give a chance (opportunity) of restoration of True American Ingenuity to establish itself and root into our communities.
It’s not an impossible Dream, it’s for the moments an impossible problem that will need to be reckoned with.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse….
My ancestors were mostly from Ireland. When do we get something for the years of indentured servitude, discrimination, and violence?
These people are insane children.
Discrimination, that’s their fault, act like an animal, get treated like one. So, the Irish never used violence against non-Irish?
Servitude was paid work.
@Anonymous
My, my your racism. Never said ALL my ancestors were Irish, or even white.
😂😂 No, servitude (hence, ‘servitude’, ye of the big brain. It is a synonym for slavery: ‘Synonyms for servitude include slavery, bondage, enslavement, and subjugation’) not paid work.
I know you are intentionally obtuse because you’re paid to be, but come on. In some instances servitude was arguably worse than slavery. But keep on trollin’, er, truckin’.
Racism? In any case we now know they were just as obtuse as you.
Synonym for slavery. But slaves never got their freedom after 7 years. Indentured servitude was paid work. Doubt it? So what.
Ignorance.
Failed states like CA, IL, and NY and now you can add MA to that list, and failed cities like Chicago should be used as examples of economic failures in Home Economics for students to learn what NOT to do.
Did you come up with that headline or did you plagiarize it?
He stole it from townhall.com
https://townhall.com/columnists/bradslager/2026/03/28/blue-states-and-red-ink-massachusetts-is-the-latest-losing-billions-in-taxes-after-soaking-the-rich-n2673590
What is the likely percentage for fraud, in both the recollections of suffering and applications for reparations in this program?
The idea of reparations to atone for “original sin” is not just popular here. It is now popular with some nations in Africa, and being discussed in Europe ala EU and UN. Here’s the rub. We know that individual rights, like speech, are best exercised by placing on government limiting principles to protect speech against censorship. It’s called limited government. Limited government also means requiring government to live by the limiting principles of the income statement and balance sheet. We do not enjoy enough success at the national government level and some States and cities on that limiting principle. In the case of Chicago, and perhaps Illinois itself, there is no observable daylight between them and Enron offloading its debt to subsidiaries to put lipstick on its financials. We also know what happened to Enron.
If you want to get out of a hole, you got to put the shovel down first.
Speak for yourself. If you’re that dumb to dig yourself into a hole, then you belong there.
How much should the descendants of the 360,000 UNION soldiers who died ending slavery get from descendants of slaves?
Asking for a friend
Think first… families of Union soldiers who died in the Civil War were entitled to financial benefits. They received arrears of pay and allowances owed to the soldier, plus a $100 death payment. Some widows also received small monthly pensions; for example, one widow was granted $8 per month and a postmistress job, though this was often insufficient to support a family. Source: military.com
The NEA is the cultural and political center of communist policy development in the USA.
Stop supporting teachers teaching your child to be a stinkin commie.
A citizen-led tax revolution is the only way to stop the flow of cash and corruption.
Sure. No Problem. Since available education is no longer a problem, simple math should help Mr. Johnson:
(1) Take the cost of his “reparations” programs and funding; (2) then subtract from that the cost of the “over $66 million in damages to the City of Chicago from the George Floyd riots, with more than 2,100 buildings damaged or looted. Additionally, the riots in 1968 caused the City of Chicago approximately $50 million in damage at that time..” (Wikipedia and Axios);
(3) and you end up with a net -$116.5M at least. If there ever were a group of persons who seldom and mostly never pay for anything, it is the rioters and protesters. (4) Now, add to that the “corporate fund budget gap of more than $1 billion” the city is facing. (5) I believe that comes out to a negative balance of -$1,116,500,000.00.
The math doesn’t jibe. Your point?
Sure enough does add up. Did you graduate from a Chi-town high school?
It does? So sez the special ed student.
Then lay it out.
AI Overview
One billion 116 million 500 thousand is written in numbers as:
1,116,500,000
One billion: 1,000,000,000
116 million: 116,000,000
500 thousand: 500,000
Total: 1,116,500,000
Another clown joins the ranks of JT’s blog
Ha! I meant to say, (in (2) above), to add to that, -not subtract, -the “cost” of (1). Sorry for the confusion,
Any state or municipality that enacts any such “reparations program” should be immediately and completely cut off from any Federal payments of any kind. Let them fund their own h0r$3%h1t.
Nice thought. You sound like a democrat.
Mrs. O’Leary’s cow did less damage to the city of Chicago than the last two mayors have. “Let’s Go Brandon” should be the rallying cry of Chicago’s recall petition. But it seems the citizens of Chitown are as dense as the voters in NYC. The suicidal impulse is strong in the Left.
Stupid analogy.
Actually pretty spot on. In the not too distant future Chicago will be calling for state a d federal governments to bail them out.
In no way, shape manner or form should that ever happen . The people of Chicago are entirely responsible for this financial mess and they can fix it for themselves.
Bail outs? That’s the plan. As soon as the democrats take the presidency, its over.
They will then take all your assets and put you on a welfare program. You will own nothing and you will be happy.
waltrthompson,
It is not just Chicago or NYC. O’Reilly Exposes San Francisco As A Violent Third-World Drug Dystopia Infested By Illegals
https://modernity.news/2026/03/27/oreilly-exposes-san-francisco-as-a-violent-third-world-drug-dystopia-infested-by-illegals/
Law and order are not traits of the leftists. Nor is common sense or basic economics.
O’Reilly is your source? Come on man. He’s a crank. Has as much credibility as Trump.
And what exactly is Mr. Mayor doing to staunch the epidemic of black-on-black crime in Chicago and the city’s obscene murder rate? Then again, victims of murder have no “lived experience” to share with the mayor, do they? Move along now.
Staunch? Reputations of course. Kill a black get gov. money?
One thing is certain: not a dime of “reparations” would go directly to anyone. They are always funneled through special interest groups, funding obscene salaries and rife with fraud. It’s all done to buy votes, in the way massive spending for teachers’ unions is done to ensure fealty to the Democrat party.
So what do you think political donations are for?
Ah yes, the old reparations mantra. If I moved to Chicago, could I get reparations and get one of those “delightful apartments in the sky” as George Jefferson said?
Trump needs to stop all federal funds destined for Chicago, but the Illinois legislature is the one that needs to take action.
ok boomer
Red meat for the MAGAots. Chow down you MAGAots.
Go protest something ANON THE MORON!! Have you stopped burning Teslas yet?
Might I suggest a psychiatrist to see you on your insidious MAGAots term? After you scratch a sore on your arm to the point of bleeding, are you also going to continue and cut off your arm?
Say what boomer?
Since my ancestors fought for the North, my parents supported the Civil Rights movement and I taught school for 30 plus years in a majority black school district, do I have to pay the extra tax to support reparations? Just asking….
More good news for Indiana. One day it will be the richest state in the union.
Edward Maul-only if we can keep the democrats from crossing the state line.
Look at Caterpillar who was based in Peoria for nearly an century and was going to move out of state several years ago until Illinois made a big pitch to keep them. They moved their World Headquarters to Deerfield , Ill. Years ago they had warned the state about the uninviting attitude in Illinois and spent only a short time in Deerfield before moving to Irving ,Texas in 2022. It’s no secret that most of Caterpillars is in the South now or Indiana. The state of Illinois and Chicago just can’t seem to help themselves.
Caterpillar relocation = reparations? Good to know.
Bah haha. Any reason by the moron leftist filth to take money from NET taxpayers and redistribute – but first you must setup a commission of allies so they can get their payoffs as leeches on the system; then you setup a bureaucracy to employee local idiots with jobs they cannot perform adequately (i.e. any City or State agency is full of these cockroaches); and, finally you use corrupt local contractors as NGO’s to take a slice and ensure a pittance ends up with fraudulent claimers who cannot prove any connection to the “enslaved” or those “wronged by the pale faced devil.” Haha what a joke all this idiocy is – and we keep entertaining it! America The Doomed!
Anybody understand this guy?
WHO? Johnson? You probably do!!
I’ve thought for years that any reparations program would just create a massive bureaucracy to administer it and leave very little for the alleged victims
If you want to get a glimpse of what such a bureaucracy might look and act like, you only need to look as far as the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The record of mismanagement, waste, fraud and abuse is staggering.
-g
Brandon Johnson and Joe Biden are the Democratic candidates of the future. So… What do Joe Biden and Brandon Johnson have in common?
1. Neither is very bright.
2. Both are easily manipulated or otherwise take orders.
3. Both defend outrageous programs without a shred of fiscal restraint.
4. Both allow their jobs to be dominated by “staff.”
5. Both believe everything they are told to say.
6. Both are mostly sequestered from the public.
7. Both think tough talk is being tough.
This is exactly the model the Democratic power brokers are seeking for their next presidential candidate. Of course, Kamala, Pete, AOC, and Chris Murphy are automatically in. Some of the other seem to have traces of independent thought. They are being watched.
What does that have to do with Black Chicago reparations?
Everything and nothing.
The issue is, in fact, only the first one on your list. Officials like this mayor are elected without regard to merit. It is the DEI facade. Poorly educated and economically illiterate men and women, such as the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois and the congresswoman from Brooklyn cannot have the economic issues of governance even explained to them because they have no reference points in their own “intellect” to comprehend these. American domestic politics has become the theater of the absurd. The increasingly large mass of the uneducated, poorly educated, economically illiterate, and just dumb individuals are unaware of the fact that they cannot have what our society cannot give. Just as is the case with many officials elected from among them in Washington and state capitals, they seem to believe that money is printed, that it has no basis in any value system or exchange system. The Business Roundtable, also known as the Washington Establishment, today is firmly committed to the idea of what’s good for my wallet is good for everyone. This self-serving conceit is the genuine problem. The trope known as “everyone should have a fair share.” Is the mantra of current China and the fading model of the United States. But in fact the distribution is simply more and more falling off from the swag table for the proles. The attempt at denationalization has failed. It’s being replaced by a haphazard economic nationalism evoked by many nations that are not prepared for economic nationalism. Our best hope is that our nuclear weapons will age out of usefulness and that the chaos will be limited to the occasional political and, unfortunately, probably more common food riots in the rest of this century.
I thought manifestos died with Marx.
RE:”… Poorly educated and economically illiterate men and women, such as the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois”……are raised to high office by an equally gifted electorate, victimized by the manifestations of the soft bigotry of low expectations for the intelligence of the low information voter. Therein lies the rub.
I just setup a gofundme page for Black Chicagoans: stealyourmoney/blackpeople/gofundme.com