After reading about intellectually and ethically challenged Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson for any length of time, especially if you’ve done it here, two things should have become dazzlingly clear: he is completely and utterly the tool of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and its sketchy president, Stacy Davis Gates. He is owned lock, stock, and barrel by them and has taken the city into war for the CTU’s benefit, with everyone from the school board itself to Chicago taxpayers, all of whom are getting tired of getting taken to the cleaners.
The other obvious Johnson flaw is that he’s prone to letting his mouth run away at the most inopportune times with whatever race-baiting or professional victim-hood grievance garbage happens to float into his empty head and run down his nasal passages to his maxillary orifice. He opens, and it blurts out.
He’s also big on blowing his own horn. Understandably, no one else will.
The Johnson-Gates act is wearing thin even with teachers in her own union. The CTU’s recent spending on local Chicago school board elections only illustrates how far from teaching and teachers the union’s support mission has drifted.
WATCH: I joined @paschutz to discuss our new report on how the Chicago Teachers Union’s political machine is becoming toxic. https://t.co/jjJAtjjVlw pic.twitter.com/OakdQTLfMf
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) May 16, 2025
Millions spent supporting losing candidates, and four years without an audit of union finances. A lawsuit brought by CTU members is bedeviling Gates’ efforts to have it thrown out of court.
NEW: A Cook County judge has rejected the Chicago Teachers Union’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit from members demanding to see four years of missing union audits.
This is a win for rank-and-file members and a loss for President Stacy Davis Gates and Vice President Jackson Potter,… https://t.co/x1plftpX2y
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) May 16, 2025
The CTU has a plan to pay for everything, though.
NEW
The Chicago Teachers Union’s plan to solve the budget disaster they helped create:
Hike taxes on everyone else.https://t.co/78eFG3ClsZ
— Illinois Policy (@illinoispolicy) May 19, 2025
It’s not ‘taxpayers,’ you see. It’s ‘big tech’ they want to tax for an additional $ 7.3 billion with a ‘B,’ along with lots of other targets like a state capital gains hike to 7% for folks making over $250K.
Yeah. Okay. Y’all gonna be real popular.
…The plan to impose a 10% tax on digital advertising may sound like it targets “Big Tech,” but in practice the costs would be passed to small businesses who rely on these platforms to reach customers. Small businesses that rely on large advertising platforms such as Google, Meta or Amazon would face increased costs from a digital advertising tax: hitting small businesses with a tax hike, not the tech giants vilified by the CTU.
…One proposal would require multinational companies to report and pay tax on their global income, including profits made entirely overseas. This complex reporting mandate would be nearly impossible to enforce and could discourage firms from locating or expanding in Illinois.
…Perhaps the most egregious idea is a so-called “billionaire wealth tax” that applies state income tax to unrealized capital gains – essentially taxing people for money they haven’t actually received. Aside from being unconstitutional under Illinois’ flat tax requirement, it would likely trigger a mass exodus of wealthy residents and investors, shrinking the very tax base lawmakers want to expand.
I don’t think ‘toxic’ begins to cover what this union is.
And their favorite tool has been busy keeping Chicago in the bullseye with his whining parade of grievance governance. Mayor Johnson can’t think of a single thing that he’s caused to get worse in the city during his term so far.
Not one. And he challenged the folks at a church service to name it if they could think of anything.
WATCH: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson calls out critics at a church appearance on the South Side earlier today.
“If there’s something in this city that I’ve caused to get worse, name it. Because I can’t think of anything.”
Chicago’s credit rating has gotten worse under Johnson.… https://t.co/8EzleMZNNR pic.twitter.com/dkeZDNYNY9
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) May 19, 2025
The problem was that Johnson also took to bragging about why he hires so many blacks, but in a way that heavily suggests he specifically hires blacks at the expense of other people of other races.
Mayor Brandon Johnson: “The reason I hire so many blacks to run Chicago is because we’re planet earth’s most generous race” pic.twitter.com/b2qEzWOR5x
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 18, 2025
Maybe he was just playing to his audience – he does that routinely – but it struck a wrong note with listeners. Particularly when he expanded into contractors receiving city work because they were…the right color?
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson admits he gives special treatment and contracts to black owened businesses
It’s illegal to discriminate on the basis of race @AAGDhillon pic.twitter.com/wtZMIMGRiI
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 18, 2025
Once people started looking back into Johnson’s braggadocio about his ‘black and brown’ handouts, it turned out there were more things to be found.
Brandon Johnson says he hires 92% black and brown pic.twitter.com/ffukvFF2M1
— Shoreidan (@shoreidan) May 19, 2025
Darned if the Department of Justice didn’t hear the Mayor’s little interview and bragging session.
OOPS
The Mayor’s troubling statements have led the @TheJusticeDept @CivilRights and our colleagues at the EEOC to open an investigation …. Stay tuned. https://t.co/6UUzQklHwC
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@HarmeetKDhillon) May 19, 2025
Harmeet Dhillon’s letter to the mayor laid out the specifics reported in that speech at the Apostolic Church, which she found problematic and that triggered the investigation.
…Our investigation is based on information suggesting that you have made hiring decisions solely on the basis of race. In your remarks made yesterday at the Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn, you “highlight[ ed] the number of Black officials in [your] administration.” 1 You then went on to list each of these individuals, emphasizing their race:
•”Business and economic neighborhood development, the deputy mayor 1s a Black woman.”
•”Department of planning and development is a Black woman.”
•”Infrastructure, deputy mayor is a Black woman.”
•”Chief operations officer is a Black man.”
•”Budget director is a Black woman.”
•”Senior advisor is a Black man.”
You then said that you were “laying” these positions “out” to “ensure that our people get a chance to grow their business[.]”
Considering these remarks, I have authorized an investigation to determine whether the City of Chicago is engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination as set forth above. If these kind of hiring decisions are being made for top-level positions in your administration, then it begs the question whether such decisions are also being made for lower-level positions.2
It is important to note that we have not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigation. We intend to consider all relevant information, and we welcome your assistance in helping to identify what that might be. We would appreciate your cooperation in our investigation.
All I can say is I’m awfully glad Trump has the people appointed to these positions that he has – they are on the ball. An investigation into their business as usual has to be a shock to progressives like Johnson. They have been allowed to run riot for so long with no sense of limits or common decency, thanks to the Biden administration’s indulgence of every tantrum and whining grudge. I’m not sure they’d know how to act, but they’d better learn, stat, huh?
The thing to watch next is if there’s a meltdown and what form it takes, if so, when Johnson acknowledges the letter.
