Life is Change: Putting Regular Posts on Hiatus

Because of time management, personal matters, and the Lextopia proving the least lucrative of all my after-hours activities, I'm putting regular postings on hiatus for an indefinite amount of time. Consider all multi-part essays ended with no expectation to continue. If it's any consolation, my sources have provided notification that at least the Progressive Bar situation has a pretty good chance of improving for all, if all work in good faith. I would have loved to gone deeper into that issue, but life has just gotten in the way.

Considering lucrativeness enters the equation of this decision, I won't discourage anyone from contributing toward my Patreon or "sending me a coffee". If I get enough contributions coming in, I can make the time for the Lextopia. See the top of this entry for links to make such contributions.

I'll continue activities on social media. Posts may end up too long for social media, so I'll post them here instead. Maybe I'll even have a flash of inspiration to post. Who knows? Just because I don't post on a regular basis doesn't mean I won't post irregularly.

Now to work on some other projects that will hopefully lead to bigger and better things, maybe even more regular postings in the future. Thank you visiting and reading my ruminations on a regular basis. Until the next entry, enjoy other parts of the Internet.

If you like what you see here and in the past and want to free me up for more, support my endeavors by Buying Me a Coffee or patronizing me via Patreon.

You can also check me out on Twitter at @screwjaw and Mastadon at @screwjaw@mastodon.social for articles, short form stuff, and a higher frequency/volume of opinions and truth!

Redlining Political Communities in Chicago and the United States: Part 4 - Hypothetical Searching for Leverage Through Justice and Identity with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Discounting Past Missteps of Inexperience

This is part 4 of I don't how long series of essays that I've titled Redlining Political Communities in Chicago and the United States. The series takes up the topic of two separate racist "encounters" that erupted around one weekend at the end of May 2019 between two business owners in Chicago's boystown and the black LGBTQ+ community of Chicago as a way to analyze how geography and segmenting of populations can influence politics in Chicago and allegorically to the United States.

If you want to catch up and not start in the middle, you can read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Then again, Lightfoot might go against the grain of her history. A viable profile of Lightfoot's public professional history comes from a combination of

• Lacking experience
• All of Lightfoot's public experience and power has come from political appointments and hired positions, not elected positions
• Being a person with minority/marginalized characteristics in a world of White Straight Male Supremacy

Lightfoot's lack of experience doesn't need much attention. Her time on organizations focused on overseeing the Chicago police force come off as more strategic, tactical, and "by the book" for an appointed position rather than lack of experience. The time as part of these organizations need more attention.

Nonetheless, Lightfoot has two glaring illustrations from further back that show lack of experience need a little attention. They are:

• Lightfoot disclosing an incorrect interpretation of facts based on directions/information from her superiors during an extradition hearing of a Norwegian national, which expedited a faster and possibly incorrect resolution. Parts of this article provide a little more context into the inexperience aspect of this matter.
  
• While working as head of the Chicago Office of of Emergency Management and Communication (911), multiple calls about a fire that led to the death of children were ignored or hung up on by staff. Lightfoot's department came under investigation for the staff's gross negligence. Records went missing and went into shredders. Apparently too much delegation, not enough communication, and not enough direct involvement by Lightfoot caused record keeping issues that made an investigation difficult.

Both of these missteps occurred early in Lightfoot's career. The extradition case proves more understandable. Lightfoot hadn't worked these types of cases much before, and she had worked off the direction and information of her superiors.

The Emergency Management and Communication matter is less forgivable since Lightfoot was the superiod. Also, after coming from a prosecutory career track, Lightfoot should have familiarity with the importance of keeping records for risk management in regard to liability and negligence. Considering all that, however, this appointment comes early during her public service management career track. This department, in particular, comes off as being in shambles even before Lightfoot took lead. Despite the egregiousness of this situation, it creates an impression of a disorganized department led by an inexperienced manager who should have known better but still made mistakes.

Neither of these cases of inexperience have much bearing on the current tensions if any of the sides appeal to Lightfoot. Mayor Lightfoot has reached one of the few top positions in Chicago, so she has only her cognizance to fall back on. The situation in Boystown has more to do with diplomacy but possibly a little coercion or influence peddling, though some amount of investigation, information gathering, and/or ad hoc legislation might be required.

The cases of past inexperience didn't rely so much on Lightfoot's personal execution of values focused on fairness and respect (though having a better grip on such values during those two moments of inexperience could have aided her in doing better jobs) but rather on

• Meeting job descriptions
• Following the judgment of superiors
• Using experience accumulated up to those points

Mayor Lightfoot has a lot more slack to use personal judgment, personal value, and personal discretion while also trying to stay on the good side of voters. In many ways, being mayor provides Lightfoot with more freedom to truly exert some muscle to actualize a positive end result rather than, as in the past, to mitigate harm reduction in a situation.

On the flipside, Lightfoot did a horrible job covering up her screw ups. These instances would have proven impossible to discover at the time if Lightfoot had good cover up skills. If someone in public office wants to cover up misdeeds, I want them bad at doing it.

Inexperienced now covered, onto how being in an appointed position could have given Lightfoot difficulty for showing her convictions.

If you like what you see here and in the past and want to free me up for more, support my endeavors by Buying Me a Coffee or patronizing me via Patreon.

You can also check me out on Twitter at @screwjaw and Mastadon at @screwjaw@mastodon.social for articles, short form stuff, and a higher frequency/volume of opinions and truth!

Redlining Political Communities in Chicago and the United States: Part 3 - Projections of Mayor Lightfoot's Response to Intersectional Identity Appeals Based on Her Campaign Image and Priorities

This is part 3 of how don't how long series of essays that I've titled Redlining Political Communities in Chicago and the United States. The series takes up the topic of two separate racist "encounters" that erupted around one weekend at the end of May 2019 between two business owners in Chicago's boystown and the black LGBTQ+ community of Chicago as a way to analyze how geography and segmenting of populations can influence politics in Chicago and allegorically to the United States.

If you want to catch up and not start in the middle, you can read Part 1 first and also Part 2.

In addition to taking into account the influence of the Black LGBTQ+ voting bloc on Mayor Lightfoot, an appeal to the Mayor in this case might have an additional factor that could benefit the Black LGBTQ+ community. Mayor Lightfoot is the first openly gay and first female black mayor of Chicago. Mayor Lightfoot has something of a personal stake in this conflict and getting it resolved in a manner that benefits both her intersectional identity and advancing society seeing, hearing, and respecting marginalized identities could attract her. Lightfoot's identification with the cause and embodiment with the cause on a macro level could push her to take action.

However, two factors work against having faith that Mayor Lightfoot would take up this cause: her public history and she is the mayor to the whole city, not just one voting bloc or community. Lightfoot ran for mayor on a platform of police reform. A fair amount of the public instantly had thoughts about police murdering black people with minimal, if any, cause, after which the perpetrators often received minimal, if any, repercussions. While serving as something of a watchdog over the police in her pre-Mayoral career, though, Lightfoot hadn't shown the most empathy or urgency to families and victims, giving preference to order and prudence:

• ”Behind Lori Lightfoot’s image as police reformer, her past reveals complicated picture” - Chicago Tribune
  
  
• ”Chicago Police Board Fails Rekia Boyd’s Family Again” - Black Youth Project 100
  
  
• ”Notes from Chicago Police Accountability Task Force Community Forum #4” - Smart Chicago @ Medium
  
  
• ”After saying #ByeAnita, Chicago's young black organizers continue calls for justice” - Chicago Reader
  
  
• ”Don’t Get Too Excited About Chicago’s New Black Lesbian Mayor” - Outr
  
  
• ”Rekia Boyd's Bloody Hair Shown to Police as Activists Take Over Meeting” - DNA Info Chicago
  
  
• ”Lori Lightfoot Is a Pragmatist. Chicago Needs a Revolution.” - Intelligencer
  
  
• ”Rekia Boyd Case Sparks Shouting, Pushing at Police Board Meeting” - DNA Info Chicago

Even now after Lightfoot vowed during her campaign to release information regarding the Laquan McDonald "cover up", Lightfoot refuses to release them even in the face of Freedom of Information Act requests. Apparently a gag order prevents the release, the strongest among three legal reasons to prevent the release of information. As with past actions before becoming mayor, Lightfoot puts a lot of focus on order and prudence, not showing her hand in a litigious risk management manner. Opposite to Lightfoot's tact, this route could be simultaneously followed while showing heart, empathy, and a balance of psychological face, but Lightfoot doesn't.

Mayor Lightfoot answers to a different calling than emphasizing her own identifications and emphasizing her own personal/social justice. She comes from a marginalized background in which she learned to “not to use her race, gender, or economic status as an excuse for anything short of excellence.” This approach becomes a double-edged sword. It values truth and equal treatment while being a leader to everyone.

At the same time, however, this perspective can cause a blindness to identifying when discretion in unique situations can

• Increase equitable justice
• Smooth relations
• Build trust and good will
• Use/take advantage of learning moments

Maintaining order and emphasizing equal reward for equal effort, however, can often maintain the status quo and intensify tensions and bad faith between parties.

Mayor Lightfoot has also demonstrated in these kinds of issues an approach that Barack Obama used regarding these kinds of situations, as encapsulated by his quote: “I’m not the president of black people, I’m the president of everyone.” Lightfoot’s refrains to saying that she has to look at all the facts before making a comment without any words of support or consolation shows how careful she tries to not say anything she’ll regret or face attacks from any angle.

In regards to these two particular issues, the rap ban and a prejudiced store owner in Boystown, Mayor Lightfoot would likely not consider them high ranking on her list of priorities. Lightfoot has mentioned many times how she wants to prioritize developing run down parts of the city with little commercial or community activity. Taking into consideration the increased violence in the city since Memorial Day, Lightfoot likely sees crime as a problem to fix, too. Add to that Lightfoot’s trips to California, Washington DC, and New York City to try brainstorming ideas to fight crime and violence (and be on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), these problems might not impress Lightfoot as important issues that will help bolster her approval among the voters.

Part 4 has been completed and posted! Please feel free to move onto the next parts.

If you like what you see here and in the past and want to free me up for more, support my endeavors by Buying Me a Coffee or patronizing me via Patreon.

You can also check me out on Twitter at @screwjaw and Mastadon at @screwjaw@mastodon.social for articles, short form stuff, and a higher frequency/volume of opinions and truth!

FLASHPOST: Abuse in Immigrant Detention Centers and What Department(s) and Agency(ies) Have Oversight Authority Over Them

[I've been having some issues with Executive Control lately, so I've procrastinated a bit on the "Redlining Political Communities" series. I've procrastinated on a lot of things. Don't know why. No matter. In lieu of another part in that series, today I release (a day early, I might add) a quick flashpost that wrote in a fit of emotion after hearing a good podcast about a disturbing situation.]

RIGGER WARNING ABOUT THE LINKED PODCAST EPISODE: podcast episode does contain explicit retellings of abusive situations, if not physical, then emotional.

Want to get angry? Here's an Embedded podcast episode about sexual abuse in immigration detention centers (the main interviewee is kinda problematic, but even then, the power differential definitely puts the guard in the fault). What's super disturbing:

• Temporary immigration centers are under purview of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
  
  
• "Permanent" detention centers for at least kids are under Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which makes some sense but always surprises me
  
  
• Prisons for actual criminals have Department of Justice (DOJ) oversight

Regular prisons receive much more stringent oversight by DOJ than immigrant detention centers.

I'm generally a progressive that appreciates executive departments and agencies run by professionals. In this case, though, might we have too many departments or not enough departments providing oversight? I know DHS is something of an attempt to consolidate departments, which has had mixed results. Nonetheless, in regards to immigration, immigrants, and asylum seekers, no matter one's political alignment, some re-organization and mission statement reviews could prove beneficial to the United States immigration morass of a system.

Frankly, it has come time for a comprehensive review of Executive Departments and Agencies and their remits. Considering how much these departments and agencies have become abused over the last two and a half years, they need it. After looking into how Executive Departments and Agencies work, though, such a process looks difficult and requires, per usual and as it should be, political consensus among the branches of the government.

I guess that just leaves it in the hands of us, the voters, to vote for candidates in the offices of President, the House of Representative, the Senate, State Attorney Generals, State Governors, and State Congresspeople who will fight for a more just border and immigration system. Then we have to keep doing it, every two years. Are you up for it?

If you like what you see here and in the past and want to free me up for more, support my endeavors by Buying Me a Coffee or patronizing me via Patreon.

You can also check me out on Twitter at @screwjaw and Mastadon at @screwjaw@mastodon.social for articles, short form stuff, and a higher frequency/volume of opinions and truth!