Sunday, February 10, 2019

On Playing Political Football In Cincinnati

If you ever wanted a lesson on the ills and faults of political and social discourse, expression, and action in America, then look no further than the latest episode surrounding building a Soccer Specific Stadium here in Cincinnati.

The details of the latest confrontation to fire up the local media, social media, and varied activists & advocates are immaterial.  Yep, you read that correctly, I am saying the details don't matter. I am sure you are shocked, but what matters is just a simple fact: in 2021 FC Cincinnati is going to begin play in a new stadium in the West End.

What is happening now with the latest episode is just noise for most of us.  Yes, if you want to know about the details of how things will happen, that is certainly understandable.  It is also understandable for people to want to influence the details of how the stadium will be built.  What is not reasonable is for people trying to change the one basic fact, the Stadium will be built.

What is ironic is that the sides to this issue have reversed from another contentious project, the Streetcar.  When that was built and continuing right up to today, its opponents, including the Mayor and his cabal, are taking actions (often through inaction) to hinder or hurt the project.  Based on my observations, many (not all) of those who support the Streetcar were opposed to building the Stadium in the West End or even at all.  So, what should be happening is that both sides should be examining how the other side's shoes feel.

We didn't get much of that this week.  We instead got knee jerk reactions online and in real life.  Local media capitalized on the controversy, but they were mostly reacting to the actions of local politicians, local arts organizations, and FC Cincinnati leaders.

My interactions saw multiple attitudes that made little sense to me.  Some local politicos (office holders and activists) sought to either wage a last ditch Quixotic effort to derail the project or at least try to damage it and the Soccer Club.  Another different, but allied, segment were some of the arts supporters, who let loose on social media with virulent viewpoints that varied from being anti-sports to anti-conservative, which sports far too often is attached (unfairly). This was just unproductive on so many levels.  For the politicos, it is just wasting powder on future struggles they could wage effectively to hold the team and the Mayor accountable to deliver on their promises.  For the arts supporters it is shooting themselves in the foot.  Alienating potential arts goers is just foolish.  Even if they think that sports fans are not arts fans (which is also foolish,) you have to want any exposure to the neighborhood that you can get.  A few thousand people hanging out in Washington Park are a marketer's ideal group to be exposed to a pre-match concert or event.

The Cincinnati Ballet gets its own separate call out.  They are in direct conflict with FC Cincinnati and are using this as a ploy to pressure the club, with their latest press release to delay a zoning vote.  The problem is that they are hurting themselves.  Along with the CAA releasing the sound report without listing the possible solutions to whatever sound issue exists at Music Hall, this attitude is not going to win over any NEW patrons and may hurt some of their existing patrons.  Sure, it appeals to their base, but unlike politics, the arts really do need a wide group of people to support them.  This makes them look elitist and to be very frank, like prima donnas.  I respect the musicianship that goes into every performance at Music Hall and this may have a noticeable effect on some performances and rehearsals, but to the average person it is not going to make sense.  The average person likely wasn't the intended audience, the donors and city officials were, but doing it such a public way doesn't help in the end.

The other side of the coin were conservative FCC supporters unleashing simplistic and divisive attacks on the arts organizations themselves and local politicians.  I say conservative FCC supporters not because they are all conservative, I am a four year season ticket holder myself, but because there is what I see as a divide amongst the political stance of the supporters. It is my observation that those who hit hardest on this were suburban and critical of city government.  That logically stems from conservative viewpoints.  This must stop. Mixing politics with anything makes it suck, and sports, especially soccer (football) are greatly damaged when politics is layered on. A noticeable section of sports fans in general act like pricks. Soccer has them, but for the first three years of the club’s existence that mentality has not dominated the discourse, like it has surrounded other big sports like baseball, basketball, and American football. I hope it remains a small group and they learn to scream at the TV and radio and not spout crap online. I won’t be holding my breath.

What I believe needs to happen now is for all city leaders (Mayor and Council) to make thoughtful decisions and then either support the project or get out of the way, like the Mayor SHOULD have done for the Streetcar. The arts supporters should focus on finding solutions, not making enemies. FCC fans should be more understanding of the effects the stadium will have on the surrounding neighborhoods, not act like entitled jerks.

I don’t expect this to happen and that really disappoints me. If people continue to take the same aggressive attitudes they invoke on national issues and apply it locally,  they are going to regret the repercussions. We need to live together and make things work. Part of that is accepting when you lose. The Mayor failed at that, opponents of the stadium are failing at that now. We need the Mayor to stop blocking the traffic study and give the Streetcar better signal flow and enforcement of blocking the tracks. The arts supporters should work on solutions to issues that might arise, like scheduling.  FCC Fans should be open minded and respectful of the people who will be living, working, and playing near the stadium. Let’s be neighbors and not enemies, at least more often than we are.

What is most awkward is that FC Cincinnati is holding an event on Monday at Music Hall. I hope everyone is on their best behavior.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

CovCath H.S. in Northern Kentucky Linked to Incident at DC Anti-Abortion Rally

Multiple news outlets are reporting (here, here, and here) evidence and accounts that a group of local students from Covington Catholic High School were involved in an incident Friday  January 18th at the March 4 Life event, an anti-abortion event in Washington, D.C.

Video exists that shows students taunting a Native American Elder who was attending an Indigenous Peoples protest against Genocide, that also was taking place in Washington, D.C.  on Friday.

Saturday morning, multiple videos went viral on Social Media.

The simple truth of it, the kids doing the taunting, while some wore "MAGA" hats, were despicable.  There is not been a full confirmation that all of those involved were from CovCath, but in the videos multiple individuals are wearing Covington Catholic clothing.

Few are defending this group of kids at this point, but more will come once parents start trying to spin things.  This should be an incident that the parents use to teach their kids and hope they can learn from it.  I think some parents will do that.  Unfortunately, some will not, and will either condone or make excuses.

Learning from one's mistakes is how we grow as people.  Parents letting their shitty kids get away with this crap and face no consequences, that is the entitlement that drives people apart.  I fear that too many of these kids learned this type of behavior from their parents and those parents think it's appropriate to be horrid and mocking to people who look different.  I hope they can learn.

Sunday, December 30, 2018

The Worst in Cincinnati Journalism for 2018

In non-election years, local journalists don't always get the attention they desire.  In today's media atmosphere of gaining readers/viewers at any cost, the desire turns into a need and brings out the worst in journalists.  This year there have been many examples of bad journalism in the Cincinnati area.  Here's my list of the worst:

Jason Williams of the Enquirer - Many years ago CityBeat gave me a special mention in their annual "Best of" awards: The best Anti-Peter Bronson Blog.  I can state without question that Jason Williams is no Peter Bronson, no matter how hard Williams tries to be.  The reason why is that for all of his negative hits against his political foes, Peter Bronson remained a gentleman about it. Bronson didn't make it personal.  The Enquirer's Jason Williams makes it personal.  He takes pot shots at people and is a prick about it.  He indirectly singles people out and attacks them, not for their political stances, but for their personal ones.  Williams doesn't like OTR and the Streetcar.  I don't know if it is because he is against urbanism or can't take criticism from the people who don't agree with the lifestyle he lives.  He keeps that lifestyle mostly hidden.  He's a suburbanite, but tries to deflect what comes across as a dislike of cities.  He is most likely a moderate Republican of some stripe.  He viciously attacks progressives and has a disdain for their politics that usually only comes from the most vile far right wing conservatives.  He steers clear from criticising most Republicans and moderates like John Cranley.  He'll rip on the low hanging fruit, like Trump, when he's committing the worst sin of a columnist: attempting to appear balanced.  Williams opinions are not balanced and he will never be a good columnist until he admits that.  He won't be close to Peter Bronson, who never denied being a very conservative Republican.  A good columnist has to commit to something and Williams has only committed to being mean and embracing the anti-city characters lurking about.

"Self Proclaimed" - Many journalists were guilty of laziness or bias this year when they referred to five Cincinnati members of council as the "gang of five," but those who claimed the term was "self proclaimed" were inaccurate, and committed an act of bad journalism. While not the only journalist to do so, Jennifer Baker, of FOX19 and carried by the Enquirer, doubled down on the term even after it was pointed out to her, by me, that use of "self proclaimed" was not accurate. For those wondering how this is inaccurate, I ask where the public proclamation is of the five members making claim of this term.  A couple of joke texts is not the group proclaiming anything.  The term was adopted by Republican lawyer who filed a politically motivated lawsuit against the city and the five council members. Running with the Republican a taking point makes for bad journalism. Even the grossly biased, but within his lane as a columnist, Jason Williams used the term "gang of five" with the quotation marks included.

WLWT's Twitter Account - Local news has a simple goal: report LOCAL news.  WLWT's twitter account dumps in tons of crap that is not local.  Crime stories have been the most relevant examples that have been Tweeted by the station with no indication in the Tweet that the story's byline is no where near Cincinnati or even the wider region.  Stories that take place in any of the three states that make up the Tri-State area I think are semi-reasonable to report for a Cincinnati media outlet, but local crime in Florida or New York or Alabama are not local stories and have no place being reported WITHOUT reference in the headline of the location.  That's the problem.  The Tweets I am talking about are really just the headlines from online articles that hit the WLWT website and then are pushed to Twitter.  If the Local outlet wants to gain followers, find, but they have journalistic responsibility to accurately convey information.  Assuming people read the article is not being responsible, and creates misinformed readers.  Far too many people think crime is rampant when they see these types of stories on their local news social media pages.  Responsible journalists look to inform the public with fact, not to provide sensational stories that gain clicks, but misinform people on their communities.  WLWT is not alone in doing this, but I've seen far more from them than other outlets.

I don't expect any of those mentioned above to change in 2019, but I can hope others won't follow their example.  For all of terrible journalism we get exposed to, local journalism has the most responsibility to be accurate.  They touch stories of people and organizations and governments that we see and are affected by every time we walk out our front doors.  We are suffering through the creeping destruction of journalism at the hands of a combination of commercial and political interests.  Every step the consumer can take to push those interests back is the only remedy, so make sure others call out bad journalism when they see it.

Saturday, November 17, 2018

What Do You Make of the CincyTrollFarm? Porn, Soccer, and Politics, Oh My!

If you use Twitter and post something that criticizes Cincinnati City Council Member Chris Smitherman, a Republican, then a "pack" of Twitter accounts comes out from under their respective rocks and starts liking and retweeting Twitter posts from a small cabal of Smitherman supporter's Twitter accounts or other aligned Conservative Twitter accounts.  Some of this pack of accounts have profiles that appear to be some type of porn advertisement that also likes local soccer. 

It is disappointing that some FC Cincinnati fan is also a right wing conservative troll that has some type of online porn business. I know there are conservatives into Soccer, but here in the US the fandom is younger and has a much more progressive fanbase.  American based sports have fans that are traditionally more conservative on the whole, so having Soccer fans without the Bud Light walking commercials is refreshing. It is more disappointing that he/she either forgets what Twitter account they are on or they are knowingly mixing their politics, porn business, and soccer fandom.  An odd mix.

That being said, recent articles about the NYCFC "Proud Boy" fans makes me concerned that there are facist idiots hanging out in the Bailey.  I am NOT talking about Republicans or Conservatives, I am talking about Fascists and misogynistic White Nationalists.  They don't belong in any supporter group.  I know of one FC Cincinnati supporter group who has been the most confrontational and quite frankly acted like juvenile assholes on many occasions over the last three years.  I hope they DO NOT let fascists into their midst.  I hope the same for all other supporters groups, but this one group has the reputation for being the closest  on the spectrum of being like European hooligans.  Soccer hooligans in Europe have in many instances been affiliated with far right wing political groups that push fascist stances. So, with no evidence, I am looking with both eyes at the group who are most likely to hold those views.  Call it unfair or not, but those in the FCC fandom community know the group in question, who sit to the far front left side of the Bailey (when facing the pitch), and keeping watch on our fellow supporters groups is part of what must be done to make Soccer in Cincinnati grow and prosper.


Friday, November 09, 2018

Making the Correct Choice When Dealing With the Enquirer's Jason Williams

If you wonder how a politician should treat the Enquirer's conservative columnist Jason Williams, just refer to this sentence from his latest column:
Pureval declined Politics Extra's interview request on Thursday.
You are not going to get a fair shake with Williams unless he likes you or you fit his bias. He is biased against nearly every Democrat, namely John Cranley, so the best action is to refuse to be interviewed by him.

I would suggest coming up with colorful ways to say no.  Think of a greeting card type response, a "Sorry for you biased column" card or something similar.  Sending him a bouquet of straw might be applicable.  Avoid sending dead fish in newspaper.

Thursday, November 08, 2018

Biased Journalism from FOX19's Jennifer Baker

While not the only member of the local media to create bias in referring to a group of Cincinnati Council members as the "Gang of Five", Jennifer Baker of FOX19 has gone multiple steps further. In an article today she refers to the group as a "Gang" directly:
In the meantime, however, the Gang and their lawyer can’t just ignore the judge’s order or try to seek exemption, Shrive wrote in court records earlier this week.
I added the bold section for emphasis. This is not a direct quote, as no quotation marks were used. At best she was trying to paraphrase. That's a failure. It is language a reporter would use when talking about a street gang. Something I think she and COAST and the Republicans know. It wasn't just one instance. She repeats it multiple times.
The Gang is “in contempt of this Court’s lawful order and should be required to show cause why they should not be held in contempt for their failure to comply with the Discovery Order," his motion reads.

On Wednesday, Shrive went to higher court and filed a motion to dismiss the Gang’s appeal.

The Gang, he wrote in court records, can’t use attorney-client privilege now on appeal to escape a judge’s order to release their secret text messages and emails.
What is just as bas is that she claims in the article the term "Gang of Five" is "self named" which is a lie. She's using a single text message that was never intended as anything more than a joke. The group didn't issue a statement declaring this reference. It was dug up by the Republicans and lawyers for them who are suing these council members as means hurt them.

To add insult to injury, she didn't even have a quote from anyone representing the members of council being sued.  She had all of one side's arguments and nothing else to refute it.

Baker's article extremely is biased. This is terrible journalism. She is using this to either push her political opinions or to manufacture catchy controversy to gain Conservative readers.

For Cincinnati Council The Terms They Are A Changin', Again

As cliche' as this post's headline is, it blends along an un-Dylanesque harmony with the Fourth Street backed Cincinnati Charter Amendment re-establishing two year terms for Cincinnati City Council. This ballot issue handily won Tuesday night. Due to a quirky 1930's established rule, since this amendment got more votes than a separate conflicting Charter Amendment issue proposing four year staggered terms, the two year term Amendment will be adopted. It will go in effect after the current four year terms end in 2021.

I am sure that everyone is certainly thinking about the impacts and future ramifications of this change compared with the current four year terms, so I'll reverently excite you with my list. It's based on a combination of my experience, logic, and a second cup of coffee:

Impacts and Ramifications of Change Back to Two Year Terms
  1. Not as much its supporters wanted you to believe.
  2. The current term limited council members will have half as long to wait to run again.
  3. Funding increases will be required s to run more frequent elections.
  4. Candidates have more flexibility in planning to run for office if they only have to wait two years.
  5. Elected candidates have to begin running for office immediately after taking office.
  6. There will be every other year election year antics, filled with grandstanding.
  7. Likely would decrease the advantage of incumbency for those up for re-election after their first term.  After the second term it would be close to the same level of advantage.
  8. The Mayoral office loses more relevance and would motivate the office holder to create conflict as a means of influence.
  9. Voters would have the opportunity to vote out members of council more frequently.
  10. It will impact the 2023 race more than the 2021 race.
What was missed on this entire process is that it was not discussed openly. For all of the talk about transparency by the local media and partisan Republicans looking to attack the city, no one cared to spend significant time to discuss who funded this process and why. Local professional media are just not doing a good job or are being prevented from doing it. Some are knowingly letting this issue go by because they just want the conflict to cover. Others are just ignorant. Some are siding with one group. Our local media collectively has taken a massive step back the last few years. Whether it is the negative influence of John Cranley and Republicans or is something else, I don't know, but it is happening.

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Cranley and Smitherman Both Want a Blue Pony, with Jason Williams as Stable Boy

With the John Cranley's self made drama at City Hall this month, one might be fooled into thinking that the City Manager is a threat.  Harry Black is a not a threat, he is a roadblock.  He is blocking the lustfully power hungry Mayor and 'Vice-Mayor', John Cranley and Chris Smitherman respectively, from illegally seizing control of Cincinnati City government.  Other than the City Manager and City Council, the real hurdle getting in their way, and making their efforts illegal, is the the law, specifically the City Charter and how it defines the role and power of Mayor.

Both Cranley and Smitherman want power.  They want to be a strong mayor.  I really hope this isn't some type of fetish role-playing for either man, trying to be a modern day Boss Cox.  I get they might like gilded age costumes, but that's just taking it too far.  Steampunk Smitherman does sound like a good nickname, however.

The problem for them is that the Mayor has limited power.  The mayor is not the boss of the city.  The mayor has  some power, but not total control of all City employees.  Cranley wishes he had that, but knows unless he can somehow remove term limits (unlikely as the GOP likes them), he's only working for his legacy.  Cranley's legacy rests solely on Republican Chris Smitherman.  Yes, I called him a Republican.  I am probably going to be called a racist for daring to call a duck a duck, but Smitherman's Twitter StormTroopers can bloviate all they want.  I just hope they can figure out I am a real person.  They've claimed I'm an pen name for elected officials or maybe they think I'm a Russian Bot, but here's hoping the kids can study up.  Maybe even read the over 15 years worth of blog posts I've written, on my archive.  I may not be a good writer, but I sure as Hell have been doing this long enough to know who the players are in Cincinnati politics.  I've been around long enough to know that when you vote in the Republican primary, endorse Republican candidates, adopt Republican polices, campaign with Republicans, attack Republican enemies, and take Republican money, then I am going to call you a Republican.  If Smitherman thinks he can't get elected mayor as a Republican, he should understand that lying about you policies and allegiances isn't going to work either.  You can't compartmentalize like Yasir Arafat in Cincinnati.  Don't mix messages with different audiences.

The funny twist in recent Enquirer coverage of the Mayor's Chaos comes from the resident hack political columnist Jason Williams. He is almost criticizing John Cranley.  I say almost, as Williams still tried his best to blame Cranley's drama on what he's calling the 'urban progressives' and 'Progressive 5.'  Not sure what he means by urban, as this is a city, but we do have a suburban mayor, so I'll presume Williams isn't a fan of people who like cities. He's certainly championing those against the City of Cincinnati. That would include Republican member of council Chris Smitherman.  Williams, I guess, finally figured out he's not going to get a job in Cranley's administration, so now he's pushing the anti-city Manager form of government that Smitherman painfully desires.  His lust for power borders on the psychotic and makes Cranley's penchant for sticking it to his political foes look like pin pricks in comparison.  A character like Smitherman without a professional city manager to run the day operation would look like a small version of a Trump White House.  Same kind of ego, but with more outward signs of psychosis.

Strong mayors are not a good idea in Cincinnati and not with those wanting it now.  Former Ohio State Senator Eric Kearney stated well what I believe is the underlying problem with the position Cranley and Smitherman (with Williams) are putting forth:
The problem is with the way they are trying to govern.  They want the government and the populace to bend to their will.  That's not leadership, that is bullying.  Leaders don't create controversy as a means to push forward as a political pretext to change the form of government. If there is a problem with the form of government, make the claim as to why, present facts, and be honest.  If you just want to gain more power, then I say fuck off, we don't need mini-Trumps in Cincinnati.

Friday, February 16, 2018

More Continued Bias Against the Streetcar at the Enquirer


Screenshot from Cincinnati.com/news/ on 02/16/2018
Yep, you may think this is a broken record. Surprisingly, however, the bias at the Enquirer I am pointing out is not directly sourced from the usual anti-Streetcar and anti-OTR Resident and Enquirer Columnist Jason Williams. No, this time it falls on the editors.

Shown on the left is the graphic that was the news page of the Enqurier's website and a similar version on the Front page this morning.  The column is about SORTA.  The column is about SORTA's finances.  The column does include in the last paragraph one reference to promotions of people with Streetcar.  The headline of the column actually reads the following:
Screenshot from Enquirer column: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics-extra/2018/02/15/px-what-hell-going/340915002/
Yep, that is the headline of actual column, which doesn't include the Streetcar.  That headline might have been changed if you read the link name in the graphic caption, but without internal info from the Enquirer, I can only see what I can observe.  Blaming the writer for the headline has traditionally been wrong.  So, how does a column that is mostly about SORTA and it's Buses and it's Finances and a Sales Tax wind up leading with the Streetcar in the headline?  It's a classic bait and switch advertisement.  The Enquirer (along with the Republicans) has help create a controversy over the Streetcar.  A bird can't shit on a Streetcar window and not make headline news for days. Meanwhile SORTA has serious issues with its's Bus Service.  The Bus Service is the vast majority of SORT is responsible to provide the City and Southwest Ohio region.

This isn't about the Streetcar, but the Enquirer wants readers and has created a damned controversy so it does not give a shit about truth, it wants eyeballs of suburbanites who love to hate on the city and Conservatives in the city who love to hate on anything Downtown.

Bias in journalism sucks when reporters and columnist do it, but when editors tilt things like TRUTH, one must question everything that is published.  This also plays into a FOX News type of infotainment, pretending opinion journalists, like Jason Williams, is hard news with this type of biased headline and link to the column.  For all of the chest pumping by the media for being self declared seekers of TRUTH, there is the cold reality that far too often they take dump on the TRUTH for sake of increasing readership and advertising revenue.  Journalists around the city must be so proud.....

Sunday, December 31, 2017

In Case You Live in a Cave: 2017 Sucked in Politics

Anyone paying attention knows that 2017 sucked, bigly.  Here are the worst things politically that happened nationally and locally:

Nationally:
  1. Trump took office as President.
  2. Trump obstructed office.
  3. The Republicans obfuscated the Congressional investigations of Trump.
  4. Trump stayed in office.
  5. Tie: Trump spoke/Trump lied
  6. Trump continued to push hate, racism, and sexism.
  7. Trump Tweeted.
  8. Trump acted like a petulant child.
  9. FOX News solidified is standing as propaganda for Trump.
  10. An increased number of Americans (Right-Wing and Left-Wing) believe they are informed on politics.

Locally:

  1. John Cranley was elected to a second term as Mayor.
  2. Republican Chris Smitherman was elected to another term on City Council.
  3. Democrat John Cranley appointed Republican Chris Smitherman as Vice-Mayor
  4. Cincinnati Republicans overwhelming supported Cranley.
  5. The Ohio Democratic Party Supported John Cranley for Mayor, despite his reliance on the Republicans to get elected.
  6. Voter turnout sucked once again.
  7. People are still incredibly ignorant on how government and elections work.
  8. Republican Amy Murray joined the Governor's race ticket as a Lt. Governor candidate for a Trump supporting candidate for Governor.

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Jason Williams' Playbook is Thin and Trite and Based on People in Power

With his year end kiss ass and trash column, the Enquirer's columnist Jason Williams lays out his jounalisticpolitical philosophy: kiss the ass of the people in power and Trash those who stand up to those in power (access is all that matters.)

If one reads his list of "cheers and jeers" for the year you will find it filled with ass kissing of those in power and trashing of their political foes.  The worst "cheer" was this bullshit about Mayor John Cranley:
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley for staying out of the mud as his political enemies hurled ugly and unfounded racially charged comments at him in fliers, mailers and on social media during the campaign.
I know Jason is in the bag for Cranley and he prints the vast majority of stories Cranley wanted, but this just takes the cake. Jason knows Cranley's opponent in the Mayor's race Yvette Simpson was horribly attacked by people on social media, making up lies. Jason appeared to ignore that and instead pushed the Cranley propaganda making him the victim.  Sure, I guess he could be ignoring social media, but when he uses his column to lash back to his critics on social media, you know he's at least reading the Enquirer's local politics Facebook group.

What adds to Williams' journalistic malpractice is in his attack on FC Cincinnati's efforts to obtain public funding for infrastructure in support of a new soccer specific stadium he refused to say a word against John Cranley's major part in approving the funding. It is quite clear that Cranley was the primary public official who was organizing the effort to create a deal for the infrastructure and he finessed the deal when it hit a road block at the last minute.

Cranley was a key player of the secret cabal that Williams ripped earlier in the year when he  criticized the secrecy of FCC for keeping the government's plan to fund the infrastructure secret before the election.  He said nothing about the obvious: Cranley kept the story in secert, with Jeff Berding's help, to avoid a MASSIVE CONTROVERSY, before the election.  Right after the election, BOOM, we have an instant plan ready to go and the Conservative portion of council was ready to help out Republican Carl Linder.  This basic concept is ignored by columnist Jason Williams. 

Yes, I'm no longer calling Williams a sometimes reporter, sometimes columnist.  He just a columnist.  Any article that touches anything about politics or government that he writes has to be taken a a column.  There is no other was to approach it as a news consumer.  You can' trust him, you have to assume his bias.  His real problem as a columnist goes even further, he actually has no ideology.  He appears to be one of those who try to claim to not be either a Democrat or Republican.  That is a psychological dodge, everyone has political opinions.  Those who appear to pick and chose issues are more likely opportunists who would rather just be on the perceived winning side.

Bottom line, he's no Peter Bronson, no matter how he tries.  I couldn't stand Bronson's columns or political views, but they were identifiable and honestly what Bronson believed.  I don't think Williams believes anything, he's just trying to build up a persona.  His new found stints as a guest on 700WLW alone demonstrate he's not serious, just a wanna-be talking head, looking to move up.

Monday, November 06, 2017

Election Night Parties!

Campaigns like to celebrate or commiserate their efforts on election night.  Here's a list where candidates and their campaign staff and supports plan on meeting up:

Chris Smitherman - Jim and Jacks on the River (3456 River Road)
Henry Frondorf - West Side Brewing
Yvette Simpson  - Queen City Radio
Tamaya Dennard - The Vestry
Michelle Dillingham - Pendleton Arts Center
Mike Moroski - Arnold's
Hamilton County Republican Party - The Capital Grille
David Mann - The Woodburn Brewery
Brian Garry - Tillie’s Lounge
P.G. Sittenfeld- Eighth & English (O’Bryonville)
Chris Seelbach - Milton's
Derek Bauman - Milton's
Charter Committee - Arnold's
John Cranley - Americano

If there are more, I'll update as I find out about them.

Sunday, November 05, 2017

Solid Analysis on the Mayor's Race from Chris Wetterich

There have been no polls made public, but the Business Courier's Chris Wetterich has an a very solid analysis of the mayor's race.

Who wins will depend on turnout.  There is no magic to know the victors.  The only signs that point to Cranley having fear are:

  1. No internal polls have been reported, if they were good for Cranley we would have been hearing about them.
  2. Cranley has gone full born negative.  His media blitz and campaign supporters are all about tearing down Simpson and not delivering a positive message about Cranley.  Not a good sign.
This could mean it is a dead heat and the negative attacks make a marginal difference.  These negative attacks I believe have had a marginal effect, but only keeping some voters at home on election day.

Cranley will get the vast majority of the Republican votes.  His key question is will they turn out.  His other concerns are if he keeps enough of the Winburn/Tillery votes and if he's got enough old school loyal Democrats who value the State Party on his side.

Simpson's game rests on two fronts, turn out the vote and attract those spurned by Cranley and his allies.  She should get the majority of the African-American vote, but how big of a percentage will that be?  Will she also get the progressive vote to turn out?

Thursday, November 02, 2017

Council Race Heats Up

Only just over a week to go before the election and my mailbox is starting to fill up. I am disappointed seeing the State Democratic party dumping money into the Mayor's race with multiple mailers for Cranley. Even under new leadership they continue to make mistakes. Instead of trying to build a party to win in the upcoming elections, they handpicked candidates they think could have won prior elections they hope repeat in the future.

We are closer to start making some more predictions about the race. Haha! What I really mean is that I am getting closer to making some wild guesses based on conventional wisdom.  Council races are a mix of predictable and surprising.  It should be easy to predict 4 to 6 candidates.  The 4 Democratic incumbents are heavy CW favorites and the 2 Republicans (including Smitherman) have clear advantages.  What holds the 2 Republicans back is the most unpredictable element, voter turnout.  One of the most common CW tropes about Cincinnati elections is that the GOP votes more consistently in off year elections than the Dems.  Therefore the higher the turnout, the better Democratic candidates do.

I have updated my list below creating some new groups and shifting a few candidates around.  Those whom I am giving advantage is based on the campaign and a repeat turnout from 2013.  If turnout rises, look for candidates like Smitherman and Murray to fall and potentially be out of the top 9.

Lock
P.G. Sittenfeld* (D, FOP, PWR endorsed)

Likely
David Mann* (D,C, FOP, PWR endorsed)
Chris Seelbach* (D endorsed)

Some advantage:
Wendell Young* (D endorsed)
Amy Murray* (R,C, FOP, PWR endorsed)
Christopher Smitherman* (R but pretending to be I, FOP, PWR and for some reason G endorsed)
Derek Bauman (C endorsed) (D)
Tamaya Dennard (D,C, PWR endorsed)
Greg Landsman (D, FOP, PWR endorsed)

In the Mix:
Ozie Davis III (D, FOP, PWRendorsed)
Michelle Dillingham (D endorsed)
Leslie Jones (D endorsed)
Jeff Pastor (R, FOP endorsed)
Laure Quinlivan (D)

Outside Chance
Henry Frondorf (C, PWR endorsed) (D)
Seth Maney (R, FOP, PWR endorsed)
Tamie Sullivan (G, FOP endorsed) (R)

Chances Dropping
Tonya Dumas (D)
Manuel Foggie

Also Ran
Erica Black-Johnson (I)
Cristina Burcica (I)
Brian Garry (G endorsed) (D)
Kelli Prather (D)
Dadrien Washington (Write-In)


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

Key
* = Incumbent
D= Democratic Party
R= Republican Party
C= Charter Committee (aka Charter Party)
G= Green Party
I= Independent
FOP= Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police (Union) Endorsement
PWR = Partnership of Westside Residence PAC Endorsement

Monday, October 16, 2017

Illegally Placed or Legally Placed Political Signs?

Saw this on twitter this morning from Republican City Council candidate Seth Maney.
The problem I have are the political signs along the side of the road.

Picture from Seth Maney Twitter post 10-16-2017
If that land is private land, I hope they got permission to do that. If that is public land that is not right and should be illegal and subject to a fine. Hamilton County Republicans won't let it come to a fine. They won't do anything because they protect their own.

If this was a Democratic candidate making a clear rookie mistake of publishing a picture of campaign violations, you can be sure it would be fodder for 'PX' in the Enquirer the next issue, including a veiled threat to charge a crime from the GOP county prosecutor. Instead, we'll get silence of this minor issue that goes on (both sides place signs all over the place) every year. It is just galling that a candidate has someone operating the campgin twitter account that green, but other than this tired old blogger, no one will point out that incompetence. Instead, the small band of Republicans will vote for the unknown candidate because he has a Republican Party Endorsement. Hell, the local FOP endorsed the guy with no track record on anything police or public safety related, but ignored a candidate who recently was forced to retire as a police officer because of an injury he received on the job and who has worked very hard for police officers, especially for the family of slain Cincinnati Police Officer Sonny Kim.

To make sure people are clear, the real issue is not about the signs.  This stuff happens.  Campaign volunteers don't know what they are doing and do this all the time.  The same person likely placed all three.  If it was the land owner, all is well, but likely, since they are placed well so all are seen, it was done by a campaign volunteer with a little bit of knowledge.  Some campaigns may even do this intentionally, with full knowledge it is wrong, but everyone on the campaigns turn a blind eye to it, as long as their party is Republican.

Instead the issue is that someone tweeted a picture of this.  I replied with a question on twitter on this.  I probably won't get a response.  No seasoned candidate would give two fucks about the signs, unless they could get some good PR about it.  It is an indication of a candidate or campaign not prepared.  Maney got into this late and I don't know how much organization backing he has, but this incident indicates that they make big mistakes like this.  Twitter mistakes run in the party.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Cranley Administration Cancels Riverfront Bike Trail and Fails to Notify Anyone

In the Cincinnati Enquirer's article: Ohio River bike trail hits dead end as money woes force Cincinnati out you don't see Mayor John Cranley's name, but you should. Former Mayor Mallory agreed to the project and if was still the Mayor the article would have at least included a phrase saying the Mayor's office had no comment.  That would be enough to connect the Mayor to the issue.  Instead the transportation and planning director was thrown under the bus (sorry) for this in-action.

The Anderson Township trustee who is prominently quoted in the article, was not given a quote calling anyone out, just one calling out the city in general for failing to notify anyone they are pulling out of the project and losing the Federal funds that were to be included with it.  The reporter should have gotten a comment from Cranley's office, even if they refereed them to the City Manager or the Transportation Department.  This failure rests at Cranley's feet and in case anyone forgot, WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A MAYORAL CAMPAIGN.  This should be another scandal for Cranley.  He and his administration failed and the Enquirer should have reported that, not let their political team deal with it and likely let it pass, unoticed

The whole Wasson way project is funded and was a pet project of CRANLEY and the article mentioned this, but didn't include Cranley's name with it.  He was it's champion.  It ran through the heart of his East side political support.  Cranley supports bike trails but let this one fail, but funded another.  The story damn near writes itself. Cranley favors pet Eastside project over regional project that could attract more revenue.  If Cranley ever runs for Congress in the 2nd district, the riverfront trail he 'Crancelled' runs through suburban areas of the 2nd district and I am sure those voters in Anderson Township will blame a Conservative Democratic Mayor for doing what a Republican would do.

Local politics and its media coverage are both like a bike trip along the riverfront, at a certain point it hits a dirt path and stops.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

No Westside Increases to Parking Meter Rates, Only Up in Central and Eastern Neighborhoods

This has Cranley's finger prints on it. The City is raising parking meter rates this month on selective neighborhoods:

Clifton
Corryville
The Heights
CUF
East Walnut Hills
Hyde Park
Mount Lookout
Northside
Oakley
College Hill
O'Bryonville
Pleasant Ridge
Walnut Hills
Downtown
Over-the-Rhine

There is already excessive enforcement of parking in Downtown and mos especially in OTR, now only certain neighborhoods get the parking rate increase. This does not appear to be an equitable distribution of the tax burden. The GOP should be pissed, unless you are a GOP living in Mt. Washington, Price Hill, Westwood, Columbia-Tusculum, or Saylor Park, to name a few GOP strongholds.

Monday, September 04, 2017

Sept 4th Update to the 2017 City of Cincinnati Council Candidates

Today is Labor Day, the traditional start of the full campaign season.  Today I am also posting what should be the finalized candidate list.  Four candidates that turned in signatures did not have them verified and failed to make the ballot.  One new write in candidate was added on.  Write in candidates have a much lower threshold to meet, but they don't have their name on the ballot.  If a voter writes them in, they will be counted.  If a voter writes in anyone else not on the ballot, that vote will not count.

Now we get into who might win.  Based on my analysis this year, there are currently four candidates likely to win. That leaves fives seats really up for grabs.  This analysis is based on a key element: enthusiasm is higher with the  Democratic base.  Getting out your base is a requirement for Council wins.  With a wide field of Dems (endorsed and not) that puts a second requirement of being a known credible candidate.  Incumbents generally get that automatically.  Endorsements, money, media attention, and name recognition make up the other common ways of being credible.  I have never seen a non-credible candidate win.

I've added referenced to a couple of conservative leaning endorsement groups, the FOP and PWR PAC, that announced their endorsements recently.

Lock
P.G. Sittenfeld* (D, FOP, PWR endorsed)

Likely
David Mann* (D,C, FOP, PWR endorsed)
Chris Seelbach* (D endorsed)
Wendell Young* (D endorsed)

In the Mix:
Derek Bauman (C endorsed) (D)
Ozie Davis III (D, FOP, PWRendorsed)
Tamaya Dennard (D,C, PWR endorsed)
Michelle Dillingham (D endorsed)
Leslie Jones (D endorsed)
Greg Landsman (D, FOP, PWR endorsed)
Amy Murray* (R,C, FOP, PWR endorsed)
Jeff Pastor (R, FOP endorsed)
Laure Quinlivan (D)
Christopher Smitherman* (R but pretending to be I, FOP, PWR and for some reason G endorsed)


Outside Chance
Tonya Dumas (D)
Manuel Foggie
Henry Frondorf (C, PWR endorsed) (D)
Seth Maney (R, FOP, PWR endorsed)
Tamie Sullivan (G, FOP endorsed) (R)

Also Ran
Erica Black-Johnson (I)
Cristina Burcica (I)
Brian Garry (G endorsed) (D)
Kelli Prather (D)
Dadrien Washington (Write-In)


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

Key
* = Incumbent
D= Democratic Party
R= Republican Party
C= Charter Committee (aka Charter Party)
G= Green Party
I= Independent
FOP= Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police (Union) Endorsement
PWR = Partnership of Westside Residence PAC Endorsement

Friday, August 25, 2017

Post Deadline Update to the 2017 City of Cincinnati Council Candidates

27 candidates are on the list, with 8 of those pending on verification of signatures.  A big list, but not as big as it was expected.  8 other candidates had indications they were running.  1 of those 8 was endorsed by the Green Party and another 1 of the 8 had a full website up and running, but couldn't get enough signatures.

1 new candidate, Peterson Mingo, a fairly well known local Minister, surprisingly submitted signatures and is pending to get on the ballot.  His name recognition is his only asset at this point, but even that is clouded by legal trouble he was in regarding city building code violations.  He might get new voters out to polls, which could drive more votes to other candidates, especially in the mayor's race.  No word on who he is supporting in that contest, but he did get help from John Cranley for the legal trouble his was in.

Now the fun begins.  Money is a key element to know who stands the biggest chance, but face to face connections matter.  Endorsements of various groups matter.  The FOP endorsements are out and they skipped two retired police officers and picked all of the Republicans.  Shocked I am not.

I will continue providing updates to this list as the campaign rolls on, but only to shift candidates to new categories as things change.  Predicting candidates in anything other than general categories is pointless, so their may not be much fluctuation.  News coverage, new endorsements, new money are the drives for much of the fluctuation.  Those who are seen to be pressing the flesh, show they are serious.  Those who look like they are professional serious candidates are more likely than those who appear to be fly-by-night candidates to win, so they move closer to be considered in the mix. The big ride begins now.

Lock
P.G. Sittenfeld* (D endorsed) ‡

Likely
David Mann* (D,C endorsed) ‡
Chris Seelbach* (D endorsed) ‡
Wendell Young* (D endorsed) ‡

In the Mix:
Derek Bauman (C endorsed) (D) ‡
Ozie Davis III (D endorsed) ‡
Tamaya Dennard (D,C endorsed) ‡
Michelle Dillingham (D endorsed) ‡
Leslie Jones (D endorsed) ‡
Greg Landsman (D endorsed) ‡
Amy Murray* (R,C endorsed) ‡
Jeff Pastor (R endorsed) ‡
Laure Quinlivan (D) ‡
Christopher Smitherman* (R but pretending to be I and for some reason G endorsed) ‡


Outside Chance
Tonya Dumas (D) ‡
Manuel Foggie
Henry Frondorf (C endorsed) (D) ‡
Seth Maney (R endorsed) ‡
Beverly Odoms (D) ‡
Tamie Sullivan (R) ‡
Peterson Mingo ‡

Also Ran
Erica Black-Johnson (I) ‡
Cristina Burcica (I) ‡
Herschel Chalk II
Brian Garry (D) ‡
Kelli Prather (D) ‡
Theo Barnes ‡

Not on the Ballot
Dawud Mustafa
Kit Earls (G endorsed)
Mary Hall
Damon Lynch IV
Michael Rachford
Edith Thrower
Orlando Welborn (D)
Matt Teaford (I)

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

Key
* = Incumbent
‡ = On Ballot (signatures turned in)
D= Democratic Party
R= Republican Party
C= Charter Committee (aka Charter Party)
G= Green Party
I= Independent

Sunday, August 20, 2017

August Update to the 2017 City of Cincinnati Council Candidates

This coming week is it for candidates trying to get on the ballot for the 2017 Cincinnati Council race. August 24th is the deadline and there are many who announced they are running, but have not turned in their signatures yet, including several endorsed candidates.  I don't know what would be taking so long for the endorsed candidates, they should have plenty of party members to sign, unless it's the Green Party.

Making the ballot will not be finalized on the 24th, it will require review of the signatures before the candidate is officially on the ballot.  I think the maximum number on the ballot will be 28, which leaves out the "Are They Actually Running?" group below.  With only 16 listed on the BOE unofficial listing, that is quite a bit of activity for the remaining 12.  I'll post an update to the listing once the ballot is finalized, hopefully in 7 to 10 days.  After that I'll start reviewing the financials of candidates and see who else any sense of a campaign.


Lock
P.G. Sittenfeld* (D endorsed) ‡

Likely
David Mann* (D,C endorsed) ‡
Chris Seelbach* (D endorsed) ‡
Wendell Young* (D endorsed)

In the Mix:
Derek Bauman (C endorsed) (D) ‡
Ozie Davis III (D endorsed)
Tamaya Dennard (D,C endorsed)
Michelle Dillingham (D endorsed) ‡
Leslie Jones (D endorsed) ‡
Greg Landsman (D endorsed) ‡
Amy Murray* (R,C endorsed) ‡
Jeff Pastor (R endorsed) ‡
Laure Quinlivan (D) ‡
Christopher Smitherman* (R but pretending to be I and for some reason G endorsed) ‡


Outside Chance
Tonya Dumas (D)
Manuel Foggie
Henry Frondorf (C endorsed) (D) ‡
Seth Maney (R endorsed)
Beverly Odoms (D)
Tamie Sullivan (R) ‡
Matt Teaford (I)

Also Ran
Erica Black-Johnson (I)
Cristina Burcica (I) ‡
Herschel Chalk II
Dawud Mustafa
Kit Earls (G endorsed)
Brian Garry (D) ‡
Kelli Prather (D)

Are the Actually Running?
Theo Barnes
Mary Hall
Damon Lynch IV
Michael Rachford
Edith Thrower
Orlando Welborn (D)

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


As always:  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. If there are other social media or full websites I don't list, send them along as well.

Key
* = Incumbent
‡ = On Ballot (signatures turned in)
D= Democratic Party
R= Republican Party
C= Charter Committee (aka Charter Party)
G= Green Party
I= Independent