Here Come the Mayoral Candidates

Circus clown/ Arby's pitchman/ mayoral hopeful Bo Dietl is on Twitter making statements about what things will be like when he's mayor. There's some teacher at John Adams accused of allowing a student to sit on his lap, and Bo is outraged.

Teacher's union has hijacked our classrooms. When I'm mayor, teachers will pass drug tests and performance evaluations. I'm not for sale.

— Bo Dietl (@BoDietl) July 12, 2017

Kind of ironic that a guy who does Arby's commercials claims not to be for sale. Bo also says teachers caught having sex with students shouldn't be paid. The only problem is that this teacher has not been caught having sex with a student, and no one is saying otherwise. Inconvenient for Bo, though, is that allegations have to be proven here. You know, there's that whole innocent until proven guilty thing in the United States. Bo has had it with all that mollycoddling, evidently, and just wants to declare people guilty of whatever. As for drug tests for teachers, I don't support them, but Bo has got another thing wrong here:

Performance evaluations? Teachers already have performance evaluations https://t.co/StMOVdMwiE https://t.co/KqHQtQDbgt

— rbe (@perdidostschool) July 13, 2017

But hey, why should a celebrity do fundamental research? That would take time, and politics in the United States are about who can tweet the most nonsensical claims and get Sean Hannity to support them. Here's my initial response:

Let's also have mayors pass IQ tests.

— Arthur Goldstein (@TeacherArthurG) July 13, 2017

What's interesting, in the times of Trump, is that a whole lot of people look at him and freak out, what with Donald Trump having conclusively won the presidency by every conceivable measure (save that of votes cast).  Of course, there's one thing Bo neglected to do:

Ok but Trump was on the GOP ticket. Dietl couldn't figure out how to register so he's not on GOP or Dem.

— Patrick J. Sullivan (@PSulliv) July 13, 2017

Now I wouldn't say total ineptitude ruled out political success, but running on the Arby's Sliced Meat ticket is likely not the key to electoral victory either. I'd also argue that New York City is one of the bluest areas in the USA, and that Bill de Blasio has picked a winning strategy--running against Donald Trump.

I was an ardent supporter of de Blasio the last time he ran, but my enthusiasm for him has cooled considerably, as he failed to get rid of the Bloomberg education folk who inhabit Tweed like a cancer. However, I do not see a better candidate for working teachers. It's certainly not Bo Dietl, or progressive politician turned GOP Lite Tony Avella. Both of them look to be in the Snowball's Chance in Hell category, and I have no idea who else is even vying for the gig.

I understand why teachers might be upset with de Blasio. If you're looking for a reason to reconsider, consider all the deferred pay we're due over the next three or four years. Next October we get a 12.5% payment, and three Octobers after that are 25% each. If someone like Bo, or Tony, or Eva were mayor I wouldn't want to depend on getting those payments.

As things are, with the city owing us a heap of money, I have no idea how we'll be able to successfully negotiate a contract. I always wondered how the hell we were supposed to do that, but I'm just a lowly teacher and as such can't be trusted to consider Big Things.

One thing I have considered is this--we're in deep trouble when voters who actually know how to read trust people like Bo Dietl or Donald Trump.