The Chris Moeller Archives

The 2020 presidential election was Daley versus Daley. Trump Steaks and Trump University vs. Burisma Holdings. The winner this time was Daley. And the oligarchy. Always the oligarchy.

There’s a fantastic, five-part documentary series on Hulu right now called “A City So Real,” directed by Steve James ("Hoop Dreams," "Life Itself"), named for an Alex Kotlowitz book ("Never a City So Real"), and closely examining the 2019 Chicago mayoral election. The study helps crystallize, in a more local form than our most recent presidential shitshow, the complete corruption of the American system. 

The political machine in Chicago didn’t come to an end with the death of Daley I in 1976. (If it had, it wouldn’t have been much of a machine.) In 2008, the city of Chicago and King Daley the Second entered a business partnership with a private venture group-- Chicago Parking Meters LLC-- that would handle street parking for the municipality. It was a 75 year agreement in return for $1.15 billion in taxpayer money. As city residents-- and visitors-- can attest, rates and fines have gone through the roof since the signatures were notarized. The expansion of meters moved into new neighborhoods. Eleven years on, the resulting investment outfit had already recouped all of its $1.15 billion and the LLC is looking at 100% profit on all parking payments and fines until the year 2083. 

One of the principle investors in the group was the Wall Street firm, Morgan Stanley, which, at that time, employed one William Daley, son of Richard the First, younger brother of Richard the Second. Morgan Stanley then sold Chicago Parking Meters LLC to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority of Racine, Wisconsin. No wait, that’s the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority of the United Arab Emirates. ADIA owns 49.5% of the group, actually, and the other 51.5% was captured by a shadow group of who knows who with a postal address in Luxembourg. 

This is the political party now back in power in the United States. Act accordingly.