Happy holidays

[VIDEO] I can't believe the holidays are upon us already so here is Jingle Bells with barking dogs. 2015 has proven to be interesting in a variety of ways in my personal life and in the news. I couldn't cover everything, but next year we have a presidential election to go through. Hopefully I can put some time into exploring that next year.

Who will succeed America's first Black American President? We shall see none of the candidates on either side seem very promising so far.

Either way Merry Christmas everyone!

Back to the Future and the Cubs

Jake Arrieta spins shutout, Schwarber and @dexfowler homer as #Cubs advance to #NLDS. #FlyTheW

A photo posted by cubs (@cubs) on Oct 7, 2015 at 9:20pm PDT

I had the great fortune of seeing the Cubs in the 9th inning clinch the NL Wild Card in 2015. Since it is 2015 we're also talking about the "prediction" that this Cubs will win the World Series in 2015. Wow!

Even the screenwriter for Back to the Future 2 is starting to realize how a joke may be taken seriously. But even he owns up to how he thought it was unlikely yet if the Cubs win it all this year he becomes a visionary.

Happy New Year

It's four days into 2015 - which is in fact the 10th year this blog has been publishing - and I've yet to acknowledge this fact. And typicially in the days before or perhaps even after the new year everyone starts discussing resolutions.

The thing about resolutions is that I and probably most of us never really follow through on them. Resolutions are good to have although throughout the course of a given year we may resolve to do different things and those prove to be easier to accomplish than what we set out at the start of a new year.

I have a different set of resolutions and I'll just call them goals. Perhaps that's what a resolution is anyway a set of goals we hope to accomplish. Surely it depends on the tenacity that we set out to achieve them.

For the new year I have set out some goals employment wise as at the end of the year resulted in me going back to the drawing board in my job search. We will always have setbacks but one goal I have for this year is to finally procure something full-time.

Beyond that I'm sure there are others I would like to find although one thing could be said about 2014...the job hunting streak ended and I found a new job for sure. Perhaps this year greater things will happen for me in the future.

So could Mayor Rahm Emanuel lose in 2015???

Lately it seems the press in Chicago seems ready to defeat Mayor Rahm Emanuel. I recognize that when Rahm came into office in 2011 he was hitting the ground running on the many problems that his predecessor Mayor Richard M. Daley left him.

The current Mayor has to tackle violence in Chicago's neighborhoods, the Chicago Public Schools, financing city government, and even this so-called food desert. There were a lot of issues to tackle with more on the plate for sure!

Now people want to run against this mayor. No known names just yet a community activist from Chicago's west side and a former Chicago alderman who has long been a political player in Chicago. So far being floated in Chicago is a current Chicago alderman who was mapped out of his ward and a teacher's union head whom Rahm famously feud before, after, and during a recent teacher's strike. And who knows there may well be more seeking election to the Mayor's office.

You know what the more the merrier. Because I keep hearing stories about how unpopular the mayor is right now and at that wishes that New York style progressive politics could show up in Chicago I've had to take some notice. Besides it's almost funny that as a Democrat Rahm Emanuel is seen as a mayor for the 1% as the typical propaganda of Democrats being for the common man.

To start do I think Rahm Emanuel could get re-elected next year, yes. In my mind he's still a heavy favorite although I've been forced to amend my prediction. Now it's possible that the mayor could be the first to have to face a run-off election. Now could he still win, yes but his path to re-election is likely more difficult next year.


In 2011 Rahm won the election with 55% of the vote is it possible he won't get anywhere near that this time, YES. The more who runs against this mayor the better, however, I do hope they have a plan markedly different than the own currently implemented.

BTW, over at the Ward Room - via NBC Chicago - now they want illustrate how the mayor despite his fundraising advantage could still lose in 2015. As a matter of fact to illustrate this point they used the campaign of the current mayor of Newark, New Jersey who was able to beat the establishment candidate in spite of a financial disadvantage.

Could any candidate for mayor be able to overcome that with Mayor Rahm Emanuel?