Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:
Fred All Week Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher
The Stream is showing the Nekritz/Klonsky episode again on Sunday, December 22nd.
The Stream, Al Jazeera’s social media based show, which featured a hot debate between me and Illinois State Senator Elaine Nekritz, will be shown again this Sunday. Also appearing will be the Better Government Association’s Robert Reed and Tony Martin of the Firemen’s Annuity and Benefit fun. Jay Rehak, President of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund board also makes a video appearance. Al Jazee
The pension fight international. Portugal.
Common Dreams. The pattern of seizing workers’ retirements by slashing pension benefits or raiding the funds in order to reduce budget deficits has been seen across Europe and in the U.S. In states like Illinois and large cities like Detroit in the U.S., as well as in countries like Greece, Spain, Portugal, the U.K., and elsewhere, pension agreements have been treated as dispensible contracts i
Returning for the rehearsal.
It’s the second year I have gone back to my old school for the holiday sing. It’s not the official holiday sing for the parents and grandparents. That was on Thursday when Mrs. Seputis, the music teacher, splits up the grades for performances. Odd numbered grades in the morning. Even numbered grades in the afternoon. Or the other way around. I forget. But on Wednesday afternoon she does a rehears
DEC 19
The fight for pension justice is worldwide.
Dear friends and colleagues, As you are aware, 500 elderly people from across the country have been on dharna at Jantar Mantar since 26th November. Their main demand is that pensions be universalized and revised to enable the elderly to live with dignity. Today is the 25th day of the dharna. Delegations have met Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Shri Rahul Gandhi, Shri Jairam Ramesh and K
Teachers Laugh (Ken Previti) is knocked of of Facebook.
From Ken Previti. ALL, I have been clobbered by Facebook – my account has been disabled due to the high number of shares and clicks. (One of my memes – attached – was shared 10,250 times. One of my blogs was shared over 1,000 times.) FB determined that Teachers Laugh was not my actual name, probably because the “about” section listed my actual name, blog, etc. My 2,600 Facebook friends (mostly t
Season’s Greetings from Naperville and the Representative from ALEC.
Illinois’ Darlene Senger represents Naperville and ALEC. Since I was first elected to the Illinois House, I have made it my priority to stabilize our pension system in order to guarantee retired teachers, state employees and their survivors that they will continue to receive a pension check each and every month. This summer was my third consecutive year of intense pension co
Pension thieves.
Keith Farnhum is a Democratic State Representative from the 43rd District representing Elgin. He targets older people, retired police, fire fighters, public service workers, public school teachers and state university employees. Approach with care. He should be considered a Republican and dangerous.
Working people have no candidate for governor.
Republican Kirk Dillard. I’ve heard rumors that the IEA will not endorse Squeezy in the Democratic primary. I’ve also heard rumors that they will endorse somebody in the Republican primary. But who could that be. Working folks and teachers have candidate in the governor’s race. Take long-ago Republican moderate Kirk Dillard. He was all over the map on pensions. One day for SB1. The next day agai
Gary Elmen. Pension are not gifts. They are earned.
Out-going IRTA President Gary Elmen (left) and TRS trustee Bob Lyons. - Gary Elmen. IRTA President It’s true that education is the key to our future, but those who served the needs of our students in the past are also part of our future. For that reason, the Illinois Retired Teachers Association will join other public employee organizations in suing to stop enactment of illegal and radical chan
DEC 18
Nicole Walker and pension thief Ron Sandack.
Gee Ron, What a disappointment this smoke screen was of asking our opinions. You didn’t have time to read the volume of responses before you voted to back this bill. You intended to support it all along, so why lie to the people? The Naperville Sun quoted you as saying “Sandack said he voted in favor of the pension reform bill because he thought something needed to be done.” Did you rea
Me and Nekritz on Al Jazeera America.
I would like to think my media reach is constantly expanding. I have my blog, of course. It just got its 1.5 millionth site visit the other day. And my appearances on Chicago public access cable’s Ken Davis. His audience isn’t huge. But it’s always fun. Katy Hogan and Mike Jame have had me on their Saturday morning Live from the Heartland show. Again, not a huge audience. But I like to think it is
“We’re all in this together,” says pension thief Senator Dan Kotowski.
Illinois state representatives and senators have been furiously sending letters home to their constituents justifying their #pension theft. I’ll be posting all or parts of them. This from Park Ridge Senator Dan Kotowski: My job as a public servant is to do what is right and necessary, but not necessarily what is popular. I know that you are frustrated and upset and you have every right to
DEC 17
Join the discussion with Elaine Nekritz and me today at 6PM CST.
Just a reminder that you can join the discussion of Chicago and Illinois pensions on The Stream at 6PM CST. The Stream is broadcast over Al Jazeera America. Viewers can Tweet in comments or questions. It is not available online. Only on your local cable channel. Often it will appear as Current TV on your cable guide. Joining me on the panel will be Representative Elaine Nekritz, Better Governme
Love it or list it.
Anne and I have this guilty pleasure. It’s called Love It or List It. It’s one of those stupid shows on HGTV. A couple (the show is made in Canada) lives in a house that is too small or poorly laid out for the family. Anne and I usually think that their problems could be solved by spending a couple hours cleaning up some of the mess and getting better organized. But a show about house cleaning
Running for governor in Bizarro World.
For several years I have been writing about Illinois party politics as Bizarro World. As a kid Bizarro World was one of my favorite comic books. It portrayed a world in which all assumptions were turned inside out and upside down. It has prepared me for life as an adult in Illinois, a land where Democrats are Republicans and Republicans are crazy. In Illinois our Democratic Governor is the most a
DEC 16
I’ll be talking Chicago and Illinois’ #pensiontheft on social media. Join the conversation.
Al Jazeera produces a really interesting show using social media to discuss important issues. Tonight I received a Tweet from Frank Matt, an Associate Producer of Al Jazeera’s The Stream. Tomorrow night they will go live to discuss the Chicago #pensiontheft. Frank asked me to video tape a series of 30 second clips that they will use on the show. 30 seconds doesn’t sound like much. But I can say a
John Dillon. Disrationalia.
- John Dillon blogs at Pension Vocabulary. The email excuses for “my positive vote on SB1” continue to arrive in my mailbox, and I suppose yours as well. This brings us to today’s pension vocabulary word, dysrationalia, or an attempt to explain how at least 30 Senators and 62 Representatives voted on Madigan’s SB1 on Black Tuesday, December 3, 2013. Dysrationalia: noun. the failure to act ra
My endorsements.
Jay Travis is Executive Director of KOCO. One thing is for certain. I won’t be voting for Squeezy in the Democratic Primary come March. But I sill be pulling an Democratic ballot. That is what I need to do to vote for Will Guzzardi in the 39th House District race. Guzzardi is backed by progressives city-wide in this rematch between him and incumbent Toni Berrios. Berrios was given the House sea
Illinois’ richest man has Chicago teacher pensions in his crosshairs.
Now that the General Assembly members have committed the #pension theft of state employees and teachers, Chicago teachers are next. Rahm Emanuel is the current head of the Chicago crime family. Just as the state has failed to meet its pension payment obligations, so it is with the city. Captiolfax’s Rich Miller posted the following on Friday: Rich, I hope you’re doing well, and have enjoyed the
DEC 15
Votes.
Fred, I believe the original quote came from Stalin. His sense of humor ran in that direction, too. Monitoring election integrity has to be done everywhere, but in the Chicago Teachers Union’s major elections, the votes are counted by the American Arbitration Association, and in the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund the votes are counted by a bonded outside group as well. Having observed vote count
DEC 14
Ken Previti. Priorities?
Fred, There is a nagging thought at the back of my mind that any group of people who elected Ken Swanson deserve Ken Swanson. Then I come to my senses and realize how after several years of retirement I had never encountered anything in writing telling me about membership in IEA Retired. Every decent organization has an annual membership drive. This year I intentionally set out to become a member
Karen Lewis. Pensions in the era of robber barons.
Chicago Sun-Times - Karen Lewis Legislators make laws to benefit all of us, but I was surprised and repulsed by the sight of Illinois legislative leaders congratulating themselves after voting for deep cuts in public worker pensions earlier this month. Imagine watching hunters, guns still smoking, as they congratulate each other over their kill. Imagine you’re the endangered creature they just
Fight the power.
Fred, Some of these “representatives” may be OK in your book. I don’t know many of them personally. Those I have had interaction with don’t seem to act much like representatives of the worker. They have been on occasion belligerent, self serving, not interested in representing worker interests, and demanding of unquestioning subservience to the I.E.A. party line. Just like you, when we questioned
“It’s not who gets the most votes. It’s who counts them that matters.” – Richard J. Daley
Actually I made that quote up. But I’ve worked enough Chicago elections to know it is true. So, when the IEA reported that I received just over 600 votes in a state-wide IEA Retired delegate election some of my readers wrote to me skeptically. Was there fraud? At first I laughed. But the fact is that unlike every IEA local in the state, IEA Retired doesn’t run our own election. It is run entirely
Keeping retirement weird.
Former IEA President Ken Swanson. He owns Senate Bill 7. The truth is that I don’t like losing. For years my brother and I and other family members would play an annual Scrabble game after Thanksgiving dinner. It was as cut-throat and trash-talking a game as any game played in the NFL or NBA. One year I played the word clafouti. It’s a French fruit and custard dessert. I had used all seven of my