Chabot Pushing Racist Memes

A UC professor has an article on Medium that discusses a February 1, 2017 post that Steve Chabot, Representative to the House for the Ohio 1st District, wrote to his blog. It contained what I (and anyone with an fraction of Latino heritage) would call a racist graphic, one common to many grandparents' social media pages. This photoshopped meme makes a racist point similar to Trump's infamous attack on Mexicans.  Chabot should take down that image and apologize. He won't, since anti-Latino racism appears be the norm in his social circle. Just ask known anti-Mexican activist Sheriff Richard Jones of Butler County. Chabot is playing to the Jones clan out there, even though Jones does not live in his district. The GOP needs an enemy and this day it was the Mexicans. The next day it was likely the Muslims. It is starting to look like soon it will be you and me or anyone who dares question what Trump or the GOP does.

February Update to the 2017 City of Cincinnati Council Candidates

This month's list has several new names on it as reports of those actually getting petitions to run was on Twitter as the deadline for the Mayor's race passed.  Candidates still have until August to gather signatures for council so this list will surely change.  I have started to add political affiliations next to the names.  This is a subjective exercise as many of these candidates are unknown. I will attempt to assign these based on public information.  In some cases I am passing judgement if that candidate is not being honest about their affiliations.

Incumbents:
P.G. Sittenfeld (D)
David Mann (D)
Chris Seelbach (D)
Christopher Smitherman (R but pretending to be I)
Wendell Young (D)
Amy Murray (R)

Returning Candidates:
Laure Quinlivan (D)
Greg Landsman (D)
Michelle Dillingham (D)
Brian Garry (D)
Theo Barnes

New Candidates
Ozie Davis III (D)
Kelli Prather (D)
Tamaya Dennard (D)
Cristina Burcica
Jeff Pastor (R)
Derek Bauman(D)
Tonya Dumas (D)
Henry Frondorf (D)
Manuel Foggie
Leslie Jones
Beverly Odoms (D)
Orlando Welborn
Dawud Mustafa
Mary Hall
Damon Lynch IV
Edith Thrower
Matt Teaford (I)
Michael Rachford
Tamie Sullivan (R)
Cedrick Denson


Candidate Twitter List: I have created a list of candidates on Twitter. Here is the actual list Twitter handles for the candidates.


If anyone has any other names please send them my way (cincyblog@aol.com) or if anyone named above wants to confirm they are not running, I'll remove them future postings of this list. Also, since I have added a party affiliation, if there are changes, let me know.

Next month I'll try and start including websites.  It appears some candidates may be limiting themselves to Facebook and Twitter.  Without your own website getting campaign contributions online is more challenging and no matter how much some of the new candidates may thing they can win without any money, they will learn hard way that you need money to do things like mailers and handouts and bumper stickers and lawn signs etc. Please invest in a website and a fundraising application.  Even with specialized application, a candidate needs a personalized website that they can control and use a entrance to any other service they might use to run their campaign.

When Will Jason Willimans Get Paid For 'PXing' John Cranley?

Jason Williams, sometime columnist and sometime reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, has unleashed a 'PX' on his latest political extra column. I really can't tell, if other than adding in the 'PX' bit, if this column was written by Williams or a member of Cranley campaign staff. (Maybe it's both.)

When a reporter doesn't get an email response and then extrapolates that into an hatchet job on a political opponent, that is hack journalism. Williams set up John Cranley's opponents by playing Cranely's campaign game and he did it with a gleeful tone.  It's like he enjoyed digging at Yvette Simpson while espousing the most trite political talking point know to modern man: "Where is your Plan?"

As the educated and experience political observers know, this is a red herring like few others.  "A Plan" in politics is as subjective as it comes, where the difference between having one and not having one is as meaningless as arguing if a glass is half full or half empty.  Yes, Williams see's John's glass as half full and Simpson's as half empty, but there is no substance for him to draw upon, except the hollow words from newly found Cranley sycophant Vice Mayor David Mann.  I guess the nearly meaningless title of Vice Mayor matters a lot to Mann, nearly as much as the bullshit Cranley 'Plan' does to Williams.

I really hope this blatantly biased journalism is not what the Editors are going to allow from a sometime columnist and sometime reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer. If they get clicks, then I surmise that's all that will matter.  If I see these editors or Williams championing truth in light of the anti-press fascist behavior from Trump and his blackshirts, then I'll be sure to point out the hypocrisy.

Campaigning 101 - An Unforced Error From the Cranley Camp

When your voting base consists of Westside Democrats and city Republicans, don't put the cellphone number of a non-local born millennial campaign staffer on a mailer for your campaign's launch event.  Why, you ask?  Well, Westside Democrats and City Republicans are less likely to be millennials and understand that cell phone numbers travel with people when they move to town.  That West Price Hill Boomer who has donated to every Cranley campaign is going to be skeptical about calling a Detroit phone number to RSVP for an event.

Also, if anyone is going to this event please take note of the location, the Incline Theater.  That theater is owned by a charitable non-profit and by rule can't be political, so they need to have a separation.  Therefore a few issues come up:

1. This better be a rental of the space by the Cranley campaign that better have an expense entry on their campaign finance reports.
2. The Theater better be open to all candidates for event space rental, not just Cranley or his allies.
3. If the Cranley campaign does more than promotion of the candidate and directly solicit campaign contributions that makes this a fundraiser.  The ethical stance of having a Cranley fundraiser at a charity owned building is not good. It is even worse when you understand that Cranley personally profited from the development of the entire Incline District through a project that included public funds.

If anyone does attended the event and wants to reach out, let me know via email cincyblog@aol.com.

What's Next After the Dennison Fight?

The anti-urbanist forces won a victory with a recent ruling on a last minute court cases, removing the last remotely hopeful effort to block the demolition of the historic Dennison Building.  Some futile efforts are still hanging on to stage protests that will not change minds and may instead turn some people against efforts to preserve the history of the urban core of Cincinnati.  I applaud those who fought a long and passionate fight to save the building, but there comes a time when you must save your strength and channel it towards a new cause or effort that has a real hope of success.

What are those new causes?  This is an election year, so most candidates for Mayor or Council will have issues or causes they are championing.  Most of those causes will best be addressed by supporting that candidate, who then when elected would have power to work toward that cause.

Outside of the candidates, are there other grassroots efforts that can bring out the same passionate people to support?

At this point I don't know of any going on locally, so that leads to the real question: Do you use your time and resources to work with candidates or wait and work independently?  I believe that if you don't have a specific cause with a detailed achievable goal, the only way to affect change is by working with candidates for office.  Waiting for the next cause to come along is not going to help the community. Finding a candidate or candidates to give your time and money to the best way to spend that passion now. I think most of those who were working to save the Dennison understand this and will channel their effort accordingly.  I hope everyone else can see the wisdom in this thinking and find a new way to move the ball down the field.

Hey Chabot, What Federal Funding?

Steve Chabot is in a tizzy about the City of Cincinnati declaring itself a 'Sanctuary City.' He's not sure the City will escape penalty. That's of course just political bullshit.

Immigration was made into a massive political football by Trump and the Republicans. It is a minor issue that has been artificially inflated into an important issue because it creates fear and hate which were effective motivators to get people to vote for Trump and Republicans.

Another surprise here, all of the sudden Chabot wants local officials to do his job and that of Federal officials. He and Trump and their brownshirts (See Richard Jones in Butler County) are foaming at the mouth to round people up they fear and hate, instead of actually effectively fighting crime and providing national security.

Trump and his minions are now so concerned about how local governments enforce laws on immigration, but don't care about any other Federal law. There is an entire constitution that is far more important for the Cincinnati Police to worry about. The next time the Treasury Secretary is in town, Cincinnati Police should inforce federal law and arrest him for his actions while working for Goldman Sachs. Also I am sure Chabot would support the CPD enforcing all Federal Law. I'd also like to have the 14th and 15th Amendment enforced in Cincinnati with the fair redrawing of the 1st Congressional District to be entirely in Hamilton County and included all of the City of Cincinnati, instead of Racial motivated Gerrymandered district Chabot "represents." I'll be looking for that fancy email blast covering the establishment of fair and equal congressional redistricting in Ohio.

Finally, why is Chabot worried about federal funding Trump may use to punish Cincinnati for not being loyal fascists?  Does Chabot just assume Cincinnati gets funding?  I ask that because he has done nothing over the last 20 plus years he has been in office to bring federal dollars to Cincinnati, so we don't have much to loose.  If Trump tries using the Brent Spence Bridge, that will be funny because Kentucky owns that and the current governor there is a Trump supporter. Chabot needs to get Cincinnati some federal funding before he can worry about Cincinnati losing it.

No More Fun From City’s Commissioner of Fun

For an unknown reason back in 2014, Mayor John Cranley created a "Commissioner of Fun" role for the City of Cincinnati and he picked former radio station owner Frank Wood Jr, a man in his 70's, to be that "Commissioner of Fun."

WCPO is reporting that the City is stating there are no more fun events coming from the Commissioner.  Frank Wood has stepped down and admits that this special position was a failure.  He believe it lacked staff to help him.   To me that seems like a cop-out.  Instead the failure should land squarely at Cranley's feet.  Cranley created this thing and allowed a tiny factional amount of money to be spent on it.  He incorrectly looked back to his youth and WEBN radio and thought Frank Wood did stuff magically.  No, it took money.  Having a drunk fest every Labor Day weekend along the river didn't just happen with access to the City Hall copy machine.  It took money. Also Cranley doesn't get is that the craziness of Riverfest Cranley knew ended 25 years ago.

This idea was pointless.  It was Cranley's vain attempt to appear cool, while not actually doing anything and having something he can point to when it fails. I am pointing at Cranley, so he can forget about letting this slide without notice.  Also, I am not sorry to tell John that there is nothing he can do, ever, to be cool.  I know uncool things very well and John Cranley is the modern day prototype.