tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5869143220657303712024-03-18T22:55:40.851-05:00CHICAGO ARGUSWorld's Greatest WeblogGregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.comBlogger4368125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-48417164697631984602019-08-03T00:01:00.000-05:002019-08-03T00:01:01.922-05:00St. Louis Cardinals are like the Fighting Irish in their local fans amongst us<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
Illinois secretary of state’s office has come up with what is, in some ways,
just another money-making scheme – license plates allowing baseball fans to
show their love of the St. Louis Cardinals.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOY4DIf4LT6H7NfB7QAeU8L4JR7UP08JEGU4_-UY7YFnnCVobzwzTH8dVWui_XueG25GoVrvwkFaEFeKoNMAYNEumBEQnwiAWSXQnLHShqKeLWF2jk1rna3UMhRx3u5oCDSkOTDJ9RG-TD/s1600/cardinals+st.louis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="920" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOY4DIf4LT6H7NfB7QAeU8L4JR7UP08JEGU4_-UY7YFnnCVobzwzTH8dVWui_XueG25GoVrvwkFaEFeKoNMAYNEumBEQnwiAWSXQnLHShqKeLWF2jk1rna3UMhRx3u5oCDSkOTDJ9RG-TD/s400/cardinals+st.louis.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>For the set surviving around Effingham</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><i></i>Meaning
one can get an official plate for their automobile that includes the famed
“birds on bat” logo that the Cardinals have used for nearly a century. I can
envision many residents of Southern Illinois choosing to identify their automobiles
with such a plate.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">PARTIALLY,
IT MAY be a further way of identifying one as not being a part of Chicago.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
considering that the secretary of state’s office has offered specialized
license plates identifying with colleges and sports teams for decades, it’s
kind of shocking that they didn’t sign up with the Cardinals a long time ago.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
the Gateway Arch that is the prominent symbol of downtown St. Louis is visible
for miles around into Illinois. Heck, Illinois includes a piece of the St. Louis
metropolitan area amongst its residents – even though I don’t doubt that many
Missourians wish they could somehow distance themselves from East St. Louis.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
some do think it bizarre that Illinois government would be willing to recognize
a Missouri-based sports team.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT
IF THE Secretary of State’s office has acknowledged both the Chicago White Sox
and Chicago Cubs with official license plates and there is a significant chunk
of Illinois where the locals don’t pay much attention to either team, then I
suppose it’s only common-sensical to include the Cardinals in the sporting mix.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1AX6Lc6vXrMJ03b0PpAG4mPwCp2_rQ80332Aqlb7nbIosc0-yayRSK1LFc42SIB45DJubqHpZOX-XflQtFuMYre7G1VBzWMT6RYvrPbjRWkonY_NmV0Fy5OI6m8HKo-HaIpbrFK9uZvIv/s1600/white+sox.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="505" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1AX6Lc6vXrMJ03b0PpAG4mPwCp2_rQ80332Aqlb7nbIosc0-yayRSK1LFc42SIB45DJubqHpZOX-XflQtFuMYre7G1VBzWMT6RYvrPbjRWkonY_NmV0Fy5OI6m8HKo-HaIpbrFK9uZvIv/s320/white+sox.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>For sensible baseball fans</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
what it’s worth, the state uses the money from the $69 fee charged of motorists
who can’t just have a generic number identifying their automobile to support a
state fund meant to benefit public schools.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
almost sounds a bit like the rhetoric we’ve heard for so many years about
Illinois Lottery money supporting education. We’ll see someday if there are
merits to the rhetoric.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Or
is this just an ego-boost to sports fans who want to say “shove it” to the fans
of other teams.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">NOW
I KNOW the state is claiming this is the first sports team from out-of-state
they’re acknowledging with their own license plate. Although I’d question the
accuracy of such an over-statement.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimvFGvjlXumXVlhJHJLdbGhyphenhyphenMMEOs4-sPB8RDaSmz1Vln_vZsxmPYmqiJdFJfcFj-w2BVrLJQ9QOyP7bBYv-4RkFjBg9SRsSTl7En0Fx54k0Q1yR_ltiVaaImeRFIp4fmyW7hBjDrOGuwe/s1600/c-notredame.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="505" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimvFGvjlXumXVlhJHJLdbGhyphenhyphenMMEOs4-sPB8RDaSmz1Vln_vZsxmPYmqiJdFJfcFj-w2BVrLJQ9QOyP7bBYv-4RkFjBg9SRsSTl7En0Fx54k0Q1yR_ltiVaaImeRFIp4fmyW7hBjDrOGuwe/s320/c-notredame.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>For Fighting Irish faithful</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Because
the state also has a series of license plates acknowledging assorted public and
private colleges. One of the schools included is none-other-than Hoosier-based
University of Notre Dame. Where Fighting Irish football rules, regardless of
which side of State Line Road one happens to live upon.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Is
it really any more unusual for someone in Illinois to root, root, root for the
Cardinals any more than the Irish football?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Besides,
I personally will get a bit of a kick out of watching Chicago Cubs baseball
fans be forced to acknowledge the fallacy of their biggest myth – that the
entirety of the world roots for the Cubbies.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">JUST
THINK OF when Southern Illinois residents feel compelled to make the drive to
Wrigley Field to catch a ballgame, and Cubs fans will see just now many people
are present to root against them.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">There
is, however, one gripe I still have about such license plates – mainly that
even though it has been a couple of decades since the collegiate plates were
created, they still haven’t gotten around to offering up one in the
green-and-white colors of my Illinois Wesleyan University alma mater.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZtkfJxYdYzGfS4ErAoxYTo9xOItgmNCRwbsc8izem4r74HayszNqZJyMZO_LIr-Rygt-eplv-l7z6efLeXG7eGkfm4-f3ewr71ZmrMa0gl-mU8ty9uErAPImwx8eKCQdkYpEgSpYaadpC/s1600/mxc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="166" data-original-width="330" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZtkfJxYdYzGfS4ErAoxYTo9xOItgmNCRwbsc8izem4r74HayszNqZJyMZO_LIr-Rygt-eplv-l7z6efLeXG7eGkfm4-f3ewr71ZmrMa0gl-mU8ty9uErAPImwx8eKCQdkYpEgSpYaadpC/s400/mxc.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>For those who are just determined to be different</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><i></i>One
can literally show their support for Milliken University in Decatur or the West
Side’s Malcolm X College, And now even for the Cardinals.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Yet
I’m still waiting for the day I can proclaim Fighting Titan loyalties while
driving my car. Even though, to be truthful, I might well turn out to be too
cheap to shell out the $69 fee (charged on top of the regular cost of
registering a car) to actually buy the plate!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-86089620434812334762019-08-02T13:34:00.000-05:002019-08-02T13:34:23.165-05:00EXTRA: A Cullerton, but not THE Cullerton, gets indicted by the feds<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
have no doubt that some people are wetting their pants with glee at the word
that a Cullerton, one of the most prominent of political families in Chicago
history, got busted by the feds.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH4xAZORakIk6mOHNyOTNxyalNiQQXk-JDnPDFYWtiz9wYgktsWKzIJQxfpI_lSL_T67VZcZxll-NBTe_m2Ni_K-NsWg6bynXZrxhEZTGIK1YzdO7hDaR1Sw1mD3o0_3Xd-rz4p_XTO46u/s1600/tom+cullerton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="474" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH4xAZORakIk6mOHNyOTNxyalNiQQXk-JDnPDFYWtiz9wYgktsWKzIJQxfpI_lSL_T67VZcZxll-NBTe_m2Ni_K-NsWg6bynXZrxhEZTGIK1YzdO7hDaR1Sw1mD3o0_3Xd-rz4p_XTO46u/s320/tom+cullerton.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>CULLERTON -- The federally-indicted one</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Sure
enough, officials announced that state Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, faces
a criminal indictment on some 41 criminal counts. The kind of people who are
eager to see a Chicago politico get busted because it fits into their own ideological
hang-ups are the ones all excited.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THERE’S
JUST ONE problem. The Cullerton who’s the big name these days is John, who
serves as president of the Illinois Senate. He’s also the one who’s a direct
descendant of the many Cullertons who have been prominent on the Chicago
political scene – both within City Hall and Cook County government.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Tom
is actually a distant cousin to John, and from a different branch of the
Cullerton family tree.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Anybody
who thinks they FINALLY nailed a Cullerton ought to relax This isn’t the major
deal you might want to fantasize it is.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Just
to give you a clue, Tom is actually a DuPage County resident, and once served
as mayor of suburban Villa Park. Not exactly a City Hall denizen!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">HE’S
NOW A part of the DuPage legislative delegation – which is a fact I’m sure
infuriates the long-time DuPage residents. The ones who remember back when
DuPage County was the base of the Illinois Republican Party and when DuPage was
one of the most Republican of counties that could be found anywhere in the
United States.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Now,
a Cullerton (which in Chicago political circles is a name almost as prominent
as “Daley” itself) has a seat in DuPage. Which, I’m sure, is a prominent
motivation for locals to want to tag Tom with some wrongdoing.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Mess
him up, and maybe dump him do they can replace him with a good ol’ fashioned
GOPer (the kind of Republican who reveres the memory of Abraham Lincoln and the
days before the Party of Lincoln sold its soul out to the ego of Donald Trump).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I<span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">’m
not saying that’s the only reason Tom Cullerton got himself indicted. But you can’t
underestimate the significance of that element.</span></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3YV76yl0sGkffvGGGr9OMD0AYStXDdFZPohIuoZn83UFZp6L44Sf7O696rHUdFc12uklG9cRrcromRV_qVEQet0qXmOoVV8PtHulXdTchOKgLsrmh76n2aY81Uy2XCATvZgLAVLuSGic/s1600/john+cullerton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3YV76yl0sGkffvGGGr9OMD0AYStXDdFZPohIuoZn83UFZp6L44Sf7O696rHUdFc12uklG9cRrcromRV_qVEQet0qXmOoVV8PtHulXdTchOKgLsrmh76n2aY81Uy2XCATvZgLAVLuSGic/s320/john+cullerton.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>CULLERTON -- The prominent one</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"></span><i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">NOW
WHAT ACTUALLY is Cullerton (Tom, not John, although I don’t doubt there are
those who will openly encourage any confusion about who’s who within the
Cullerton clan) to have done wrong.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
seems from March 2013 to February 2016, Cullerton received a salary as a Teamsters
union official, along with bonuses, and allowances to cover the cost of his
cellphones and automobiles. He also received health insurance and pension benefits
for his “work” with the labor union.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
prosecutors contend was minimal. He didn’t really do work for the union –
although he took their money (more than $252,000). Which has prosecutors insisting
it’s criminal, and worthy of embezzlement charges.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
seems the fact that Cullerton took a pass on health insurance benefits he was
entitled to as a state legislator (accepting the union’s health plan instead)
was not enough to keep him in the clear legally.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">HE’S
NOW GOING to have to face criminal charges, and likely will be added to the “hit”
parade of politicos who got themselves busted. The political prominence of his
moniker will add to the impact.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9SwTapF_mDEbcV3kLkViTsEa9qdU5puy59lZKMJ21pX0xTkZsXa4NWhntfXv_OatddNRjIuMNUcPThgC06LR_YGz85oFsfy-uEa7V5dkF_Reim6kDztXEWXBSRi9HLYUAr6qGqH2V5XBs/s1600/richard+j.+daley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9SwTapF_mDEbcV3kLkViTsEa9qdU5puy59lZKMJ21pX0xTkZsXa4NWhntfXv_OatddNRjIuMNUcPThgC06LR_YGz85oFsfy-uEa7V5dkF_Reim6kDztXEWXBSRi9HLYUAr6qGqH2V5XBs/s400/richard+j.+daley.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>What would feds do for Daley descendant?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Although
it should be noted that Cullerton’s indictment came just days after the guilty
plea of Teamsters boss John Coli, who supposedly demanded payoffs from a film
studio. In exchange for legal considerations, it seems Coli is now talking about
union business – including his ties to Tom Cullerton, whom he allegedly set up
with the no-work job to begin with.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Could
Cullerton be the fish Coli tosses up to prosecutors who figure they get a
bigger case if they can bust a “Cullerton,” even if it’s not one of the really
big-name Cullertons whose own activities may be even worse?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
makes me wonder how much the federal prosecutorial types would give if they
could build up a case against someone with the “Daley” name – no matter how small-fry
the actual individual is?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-32422607254378796952019-08-02T00:01:00.000-05:002019-08-02T00:01:00.586-05:00Sears Tower no longer has name, nor any height designations of significance<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
one-time Sears Tower, which clings to that name in the mindset of many
Chicagoans, is truly a piece of the Second City’s past.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqV-SoWWhm1D9P5Gb9c_4Ftsswdk3IBu4VVN66njAgcqG0gyDB0Qdba2nObE82zp_W9vocJXNSW6ExuNZl0fQPUV2qHRq-0908Wpry_DapGj2M2eXELX2l6w64vKlZvgNWfBi1zWRfS-XT/s1600/NEIGHBORHOODS+%2528South+Loop%2529+--+Willis+Tower+lingers+overhead%252C+Sept.+7%252C+2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqV-SoWWhm1D9P5Gb9c_4Ftsswdk3IBu4VVN66njAgcqG0gyDB0Qdba2nObE82zp_W9vocJXNSW6ExuNZl0fQPUV2qHRq-0908Wpry_DapGj2M2eXELX2l6w64vKlZvgNWfBi1zWRfS-XT/s400/NEIGHBORHOODS+%2528South+Loop%2529+--+Willis+Tower+lingers+overhead%252C+Sept.+7%252C+2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>One-time Sears Tower still towers over rest of Chicago</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
has been some 23 years since the building was the “world’s tallest” structure,
and five years since it could claim to be the tallest towering hulk of
architecture on the North American continent.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">NOW,
IT CAN’T even claim to have the highest ceiling.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
it seems that New York, which had its One World Trade Center knock the former
Sears from the continent’s tallest building now has another new skyscraper that
will knock former Sears down another peg.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
it seems the new Central Park Tower will have a ceiling at 1,550 feet –
compared to the 1,451-foot ceiling of the building officially known as the
Willis Tower.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
which many of us still cling to the old name, and also like to pretend that
somehow, on some sort of level, it’s still really the tallest something or
other in the world.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">FOR
THAT WAS the designation it held from its opening in 1973 until 23 years later,
the Middle Eastern countries in desperate need of something of significance elected
to build taller structures for office space.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiim-_SPHAK0YT3DO3NULnJeJUFM7sPUVNweegjOzibZf47j2OfdKqqOqSbVy044TKbgmBlG1XVKKGkCzybikbbQj4PfuJw_mplf-m-WJvyDfL2FLU3yN_4wjuyehm6cYA876uob7Ljsqoi/s1600/DOWNTOWN+--+Trump+Tower%252C+Feb.+6%252C+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1553" data-original-width="609" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiim-_SPHAK0YT3DO3NULnJeJUFM7sPUVNweegjOzibZf47j2OfdKqqOqSbVy044TKbgmBlG1XVKKGkCzybikbbQj4PfuJw_mplf-m-WJvyDfL2FLU3yN_4wjuyehm6cYA876uob7Ljsqoi/s640/DOWNTOWN+--+Trump+Tower%252C+Feb.+6%252C+2016.jpg" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Trump Tower looms over da Loop</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
then the World Trade Center got replaced with a towering structure in 2014 that
technically is only bigger than former Sears because of the spiraling tower
that puts its peak at 1,776 feet high. As in a political statement – even though
the top 400 or so feet don’t actually add any space of use to people.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Of
course, there is one plus – former Sears is still the tallest in Chicago. It
didn’t get topped by the Trump Tower with its roof at 1,171 feet high and a spiral
peaking at 1,388 feet.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Don’t
forget that Trump originally envisioned his tower in Chicago to be a new “world’s
tallest” structure – only to have activity that destroyed the original World Trade
Center cause him to scale back his vision.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH
ALWAYS MADE me thankful that Trump himself didn’t try to erect a statue of
himself atop the spiral’s point. It would be just like The Donald himself to want
his image sky-high and looking down upon the rest of us.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Making
it susceptible to the next tornado that inevitably touches down within the
downtown city limits – something that hasn’t happened in some 200-plus years.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Just
envision Trump’s image being ripped from the roof and sent flying through the
skies – perhaps out into Lake Michigan where it gradually sinks to the lake’s
deepest point of 922 feet.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">However
apropos that would be.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-54792104777765265092019-08-01T00:01:00.000-05:002019-08-01T00:01:00.257-05:00Is anyone shocked by ‘the Gipper’s’ quip? It explains so much trash talk<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The latest bit of historical trivia to
make it into the “news” – former President Ronald Reagan said something
racially offensive.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHAsglxyM5Uo8P5cCYox6L1mTl3Iva1AyPFO1ivfiiiOJSYs_moP9xUo1NpiHJGnQ9OYd-6yqeTd2BJTRK7KEruHvM5IoO92C91Nc3KiJ-ci8I_6Ps34UL2eD19ltpMud1M4dOqtnY7mUu/s1600/ronald+reagan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHAsglxyM5Uo8P5cCYox6L1mTl3Iva1AyPFO1ivfiiiOJSYs_moP9xUo1NpiHJGnQ9OYd-6yqeTd2BJTRK7KEruHvM5IoO92C91Nc3KiJ-ci8I_6Ps34UL2eD19ltpMud1M4dOqtnY7mUu/s320/ronald+reagan.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>REAGAN: Would he be proud of old quip?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It was back in the days when Reagan was
governor of California, and when he made a telephone call to then-President Richard
M. Nixon – which means it was one of many that got captured on audiotape.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">SO WE KNOW that Reagan was calling to tell
the president the United States ought to drop out of the United Nations.
Specifically, he was upset with a U.N. vote that sided with mainland (as in
Communist) China over the island of Taiwan.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which it seems members of the Tanzania delegation
began dancing about when the vote was taken in 1971 (a year before Nixon made
his own visit to mainland China to try to restore relations).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And resulted in the Reagan-esque line, “to
see those … monkeys from those African countries – damn them, they’re still
uncomfortable wearing shoes.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">To which Nixon chuckled, according to the
tapes that are the source of reports in The Atlantic, which told of how the quip
originally was withheld due to privacy concerns – which Reagan’s death in 2004
made a moot point.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THERE ARE THOSE acting as though this
disclosure is some sort of revelation of great significance. As though we ought
to be shocked and appalled that a public official could say or think anything
quite so vulgar.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_e7rmpjBSR8/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_e7rmpjBSR8?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But let’s be honest; this was Ronald Reagan
– the one-time actor who probably wishes we’d all remember him solely for
playing the part of one-time Notre Dame football player George Gipp.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Remember that line about “Win one for the
Gipper” that supposedly was a motivational speech to get future Fighting Irish gridiron
guys to march to victory? And was one that Reagan fanatics used to like to play off of to describe their own attachment to the man?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But Reagan also is the guy who used to use
the line on the California campaign trail, “A hippie is someone who looks like
Tarzan, walks like Jane and smells like Cheetah.” Which was always good for a
laugh amongst ideologically-inclined supporters who might then write out a
campaign contribution check.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg84dx38MdBR9apbwreTnPECVJfpUzNvec4D09n9EWBYfja9kztqgtiEmi3sJax2kF9iU90CedkNMSI6llTuAWCqPIQFs9WovALT-l6VCQtsMGyvCf3kiUEcu5Se6IkjYy5qs7tQenx21pN/s1600/cheetah+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="354" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg84dx38MdBR9apbwreTnPECVJfpUzNvec4D09n9EWBYfja9kztqgtiEmi3sJax2kF9iU90CedkNMSI6llTuAWCqPIQFs9WovALT-l6VCQtsMGyvCf3kiUEcu5Se6IkjYy5qs7tQenx21pN/s320/cheetah+%25282%2529.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The 'trio' that made Reagan politically</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH
CERTAINLY SOUNDS like it’s in the same spirit as claiming Africans were barefoot
AND monkeys.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Heck,
I suspect that if the line had become as publicly known as his “Tarzan” quip,
the same people who thought that funny would have found the “Africans” line hilarious!
And quick to dismiss people who are offended as being overly touchy.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Something
to keep in mind whenever we’re forced to contemplate the legacy of the Reagan
presidency – and the 1980s, in general.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
the real Reagan wasn’t anywhere near as polished as the cinematic image.
Perhaps he should have had Robert Buckner, the writer of “Knute Rockne, All
American” to script out his political life, as thoroughly as he did that film, which is recognized by the Library of Congress as a classic of American cinema.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7qelTDqOBakVPXPymjK71lbLK8W8C1W1ikXNnQSBTb2ajRNjWN2l2ZfE-Tfx7Ow7Obz-W6dORe8gS7q0Lp8_12YhbS91Q0yodaVyOed8pcVQz59ymAJnVwC6jXZX17p7bOuhtrspOkrQ/s1600/bedtime+for+bonzo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="189" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7qelTDqOBakVPXPymjK71lbLK8W8C1W1ikXNnQSBTb2ajRNjWN2l2ZfE-Tfx7Ow7Obz-W6dORe8gS7q0Lp8_12YhbS91Q0yodaVyOed8pcVQz59ymAJnVwC6jXZX17p7bOuhtrspOkrQ/s400/bedtime+for+bonzo.jpg" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Reagan's highlight? Or lowlight?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">ALTHOUGH
I MUST admit to always finding it a bit ironic that Reagan would mock “hippies”
with Cheetah the chimpanzee.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Since
the future president’s most prominent role as an actor was in the 1951 comedy
film, “Bedtime for Bonzo,” where he was a college professor who helped to try
to raise the namesake chimp with human morals.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Did
Bonzo grow up to be a Republican ideologue spouting off much of the rhetorical
nonsense we hear passing for political theory these days?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">That
would certainly explain a lot of 21<sup>st</sup> Century trash talk!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-30898949442831222512019-07-31T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-31T00:01:01.560-05:00Is college getting too costly to expect anybody to afford the tuition bills?<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
seems there’s a new “scam” involving ways that parents make their children out
to be indigent so that they can qualify for extensive financial aid to help pay
for a college education.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWFOnOu4HJZ3NrdUuFkb8igh97mxr02Ez88j2Rnk150KdAR0L1FKuftGUOYFA3bD-EKujO5or649b9Abt9HnaxmCdxuMRQc4raDes_DoVCrpzQCC8bdUxG6DR-lpVDfLsUwwMzyMlv7hxi/s1600/ProPublica+Illinois.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="65" data-original-width="292" height="71" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWFOnOu4HJZ3NrdUuFkb8igh97mxr02Ez88j2Rnk150KdAR0L1FKuftGUOYFA3bD-EKujO5or649b9Abt9HnaxmCdxuMRQc4raDes_DoVCrpzQCC8bdUxG6DR-lpVDfLsUwwMzyMlv7hxi/s320/ProPublica+Illinois.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Their reporting may motivate the feds to act</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
some view as a problem in that there is only a limited amount of money
available with which to help lower-income families in need, and these students
of wealthier families theoretically are taking funds away from others who might
also need the money in order to pay for college.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">ALTHOUGH
THE REALITY may well be that college has become so costly that just about
everybody thinks they’re amongst the financially needy who need help in
covering the cost of tuition bills.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
suspect many of the families whose activity has been uncovered by the
ProPublica Illinois non-profit news organization think they’ve done nothing
illegal, and probably think they’re the ones who are being harassed for trying
to ensure that their children will have the opportunity to obtain a higher
education – thereby giving them a chance to succeed in life.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">They
may also think that it’s not their fault they figured out a way to qualify for
more financial assistance.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">What
the news organization, whose reports are being picked up by newspapers everywhere,
has found is that there are instances where parents deliberately turning their
teenaged children over to legal guardians.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHO
THEN ACKNOWLEDGE they’re doing nothing to provide for the 16- to 17-year-olds
financial well-being. Which means that when the students fill out forms seeking
financial aid, they can claim to be indigent and in need of help in terms of
covering the entire cost of tuition.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Putting them in a much higher-priority
financial aid status than they’d be able to claim if they had to admit their
parents were still supporting their living expenses. Which isn’t technically
illegal – although University of Illinois admissions officials called a “scam”
because it alters the perception of who is indigent and who is not.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But I have to admit to sympathizing with
anyone who’s trying to deal with the cost of a college education in today’s day
and age. Personally, I don’t know how I’d be able to afford the cost if I were
having to deal with it now.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJIq17LVFn7CcEY3J68TNmMJLQnHCjN3VdIvfRUyJbEa4j4RPPauUkfnvbffjG29k8TohG27LWG0um5BlfH_nDAk815rzM_bhq8GZ9rTMJncUiBL0eRa9ZDw-I8nRBhSyy5vrOvP5wW7ym/s1600/goldsmith_college-tuition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1600" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJIq17LVFn7CcEY3J68TNmMJLQnHCjN3VdIvfRUyJbEa4j4RPPauUkfnvbffjG29k8TohG27LWG0um5BlfH_nDAk815rzM_bhq8GZ9rTMJncUiBL0eRa9ZDw-I8nRBhSyy5vrOvP5wW7ym/s400/goldsmith_college-tuition.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Is this the real problem?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Heck, it seemed excessive some three decades
ago when I actually was in college.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">SO IT WILL be intriguing to see just how
this issue plays out in the arena of public perception. Will these parents
become some sort of equivalent to the actress Lori Loughlin – who now faces
criminal charges for allegedly paying bribes to college admissions officials in
order to get her children into the University of Southern California?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">With several wealthier parents facing such
charges, but prosecutors seeming to focus their attention on Loughlin because
of her so-called celebrity status.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Or will this become a case of college
costs having grown far out of control – to the point where perhaps we need a
serious review of just what an education ought to cost and what it is worth.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Because maybe people wouldn’t be eager to “give
up” their children (theoretically, that is) if tuition hadn’t skyrocketed so
high that it’s a wonder anybody seriously thinks anyone is capable of paying a
tuition bill without some financial help.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH, OF COURSE, then gets us into a conversation
into just what kind of help ought to be available. With some people touting the
ideologue argument that college isn’t for everybody – and that some ought to
set lower goals in life.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgONMHu927iVUKzLXIjjT-3OszbqIXvW6zGOGLcL3M1LCvxZyYm9CyKYwgjfIIvY_lv9fdSRdt1rFACSAbEFoVZtJTr8l00_0Ct6Sj9W9oWPwdTLRWnLDYXKK8U1tKIgxgmztEYCp2_ZNgA/s1600/loughlin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1063" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgONMHu927iVUKzLXIjjT-3OszbqIXvW6zGOGLcL3M1LCvxZyYm9CyKYwgjfIIvY_lv9fdSRdt1rFACSAbEFoVZtJTr8l00_0Ct6Sj9W9oWPwdTLRWnLDYXKK8U1tKIgxgmztEYCp2_ZNgA/s320/loughlin.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>LOUGHLIN: No longer into noble causes</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">That wouldn’t be such a cheesy argument to
make EXCEPT that it reeks too much of certain people arguing that the purpose
of colleges ought to be to weed out certain elements of our society from trying
to advance their lots in life through higher education.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">An attitude that we need to advance beyond
for the good of our society.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Unless you’re of the sort who thinks there’s
some truth to the old gag about people who can’t get their way through college
by saying, “Somebody’s got to deliver pizzas.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-69348309216790548892019-07-30T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-30T00:01:00.700-05:00Oh, be quiet, J.B. You're confusing us!<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">All
the more reason we ought to hear less chatter from officials about presidential
impeachment who aren’t directly involved in the process. Because it all too
often seems like they don’t have any comprehension what it is they’re talking
about.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFb00G9nIrUO9UMTBEBdiykPcUnfi7UNPQ6qIm3zaf_Al8JwBJFyWf8b1hyphenhyphenO9EmI4tHAAAI7eT400qhXNTGlCrA0yiqC4xmeX2hRXgquLYw0uxNyD7B8l154ArUG2vcY8W7ECUEi_S942f/s1600/Donald+Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFb00G9nIrUO9UMTBEBdiykPcUnfi7UNPQ6qIm3zaf_Al8JwBJFyWf8b1hyphenhyphenO9EmI4tHAAAI7eT400qhXNTGlCrA0yiqC4xmeX2hRXgquLYw0uxNyD7B8l154ArUG2vcY8W7ECUEi_S942f/s320/Donald+Trump.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Everybody has opinion on Trump outcome, … </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Take
the case of Illinois’ governor, J.B. Pritzker, who back in April engaged in
rhetoric that tried to make it seem as though he has long been a supporter of
those people who want Donald Trump removed from office by force of Congress.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT
THEN LAST week, the Politico newspaper published a Pritzker interview in which
it seemed our governor was not quiet as hard-line on the impeachment issue.
Perhaps he’d rather see Trump lose the 2020 general election and be removed
from office that way.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
now, the Capitol Fax newsletter points out that J.B. may be backing away from
that stance. Or as the Springfield-based newsletter phrased it, he’s “backing
away from backing away.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">As
the newsletter quotes the governor, “I think he should be out of office as soon
as humanly possible. The only question to me is, is that gonna happen with an
impeachment process or is that gonna happen with an election?”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Huh?!?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">IT
SEEMS TO me that Pritzker wants to be in the camp of people who don’t think
much of Donald Trump (which according to the most-recent Gallup Organization
poll includes 51 percent of the country). But the ranks of people who think it
a national embarrassment that The Donald was ever permitted to occupy the Oval
Office are split on this issue.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Pritzker
not being able to take a definitive stance on presidential impeachment does
nothing more than clutter the public discourse with more vague pronouncements
that don’t do a thing to make the issue more clear to the public.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Personally,
I’m amongst the ranks of people who’d see the impeachment process as a complete
waste of time – largely because even if the House of Representatives with its
Democratic Party majority votes to impeach the man, he’d still have to go on
trial before the Senate.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjli0wULQYxIxZ2G3hyphenhyphenV0CcLpJHb9hgIDrFcllppjtaGfm-74EoKJCndu7s-oUFKnmNyYDn0GjEGRQh3ensn_c7DOXQnDSG01dnhykOLsXD1oNyrU2SGFahrcIYh3pvVuMsTwZDUA1GtSek/s1600/J.B.+Pritzker+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjli0wULQYxIxZ2G3hyphenhyphenV0CcLpJHb9hgIDrFcllppjtaGfm-74EoKJCndu7s-oUFKnmNyYDn0GjEGRQh3ensn_c7DOXQnDSG01dnhykOLsXD1oNyrU2SGFahrcIYh3pvVuMsTwZDUA1GtSek/s400/J.B.+Pritzker+3.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>… but does Pritzker know enough for it to matter?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
has a Republican Party majority loaded with officials who are determined to
protect the presidential reputation no matter how stupid he gets.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
REALIZE THAT the pro-impeachment types argue they’re making a political
statement and that they want to be on the record as wanting to Dump Trump from
the White House. They talk of putting the Senate on the record as being for The
Donald, because they want to believe it will hold the GOP up to shame and
ridicule.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which,
if you want to be honest, is nonsense. Largely because I’m convinced the Trump political
backers have no shame. They’re also more than willing to spin the process into
a claim that Trump has been vindicated – a word they’d prefer to use over “acquitted.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
they’ll hate to use because it would imply there was legitimacy to the charges
against Trump to begin with.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Pushing
for impeachment could do little more than create a lengthy process that ends
with Trump remaining in office – and further motivating the ideologues into
thinking they’re morally superior for backing Trump to begin with.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">IF
ANYTHING, IT’S going to take an outright electoral defeat to actually get Trump
out of office (although it wouldn’t shock me if Trump backers were to think in
terms of a coup ‘d etat to remain in office beyond January 2021, regardless of what the people say).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Yes,
these are irrational political times, and we have to think in such terms, which
are appalling but honest and truthful.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">So
Pritzker might have been right when he told Politico that there might not be enough
time to work our way through the impeachment process and actually remove Trump from
office. It doesn’t help matters if his stance keeps switching on the issue.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_ujjeaVPpFkAaTHte_rmuWc9o5U2TBkfeS0id_tphsKJ6cY7gBFNvGqyHt9BhrmYeHk9_NRjHD9VaWwb2Pt2DdE0dOYJtbbrY1Jke5tr5lwUZzPvxURjCxi16_F8BXzuQkeFcsZo-fxX/s1600/derrick+smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP_ujjeaVPpFkAaTHte_rmuWc9o5U2TBkfeS0id_tphsKJ6cY7gBFNvGqyHt9BhrmYeHk9_NRjHD9VaWwb2Pt2DdE0dOYJtbbrY1Jke5tr5lwUZzPvxURjCxi16_F8BXzuQkeFcsZo-fxX/s320/derrick+smith.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Could Trump return just like Smith did?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
if we look at Illinois political history, there’s an even more-embarrassing
scenario – take the case of former state Rep. Derrick Smith, D-Chicago, who was
expelled from the Illinois House in August 2012 following a criminal indictment.
Only to get re-elected in the November election that year. Don’t put it past
the Trump-ites to vote for the man out of spite to any impeachment attempt!</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-28076293720173503572019-07-29T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-29T00:01:01.792-05:00So is this now the Denny Hastert law?<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">J.
Dennis Hastert of Yorkville used to be thought of as one of the few Illinoisans
to ever rise all the way to the rank of Speaker of the House of
Representatives, and is actually the longest-serving Republican to ever hold
that all-powerful political position.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1gOgqZaZPzzWY8kYtg4ooGkrohWLhyR3M9bwe7vUJ_wb27EKCUExTfy0JSf0FpIk0ysyekcSxuwsbCaWe5f3lTcVjpPVnvQXZM_viVhq66tTH-EIcBJXADktSDP-Q3Z4foReZuDGC8L3o/s1600/j.+dennis+hastert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="230" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1gOgqZaZPzzWY8kYtg4ooGkrohWLhyR3M9bwe7vUJ_wb27EKCUExTfy0JSf0FpIk0ysyekcSxuwsbCaWe5f3lTcVjpPVnvQXZM_viVhq66tTH-EIcBJXADktSDP-Q3Z4foReZuDGC8L3o/s320/j.+dennis+hastert.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>HASTERT: Is this now lis legacy?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">One
that actually puts its occupant in line for the U.S. presidency in the event of
an emergency that takes down both the president and vice-president.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT
JUST AS Dan Rostenkowski fell from grace and the notion he was the all-powerful
chairman of House ways and means, Hastert also took a plunge in reputation.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">To
the point where he probably has experienced an even bigger fall. Which is illustrated
by the new law in Illinois approved by Gov. J.B. Pritzker that relates to
statute of limitations for people to be charged with sex crimes.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
now seems that aggravated criminal sexual assault and abuse are now the equivalent
of murder – as in there’s no amount of time that can pass without someone
running the risk of criminal prosecution.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Come
Jan. 1, anybody facing criminal suspicion can face prosecution if state’s
attorney officials somewhere are capable of putting together a criminal case.
Whereas it used to be that prosecutors had 10 years to put together a criminal
case – AND the case had to be reported to police within three years of the
alleged incident’s occurrence.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THIS
LAW WAS enacted because of political people who wanted to appear to be doing
something significant in response to the predicament caused by Hastert – who once
was a high school teacher and wrestling coach who later in life had some of his
former students claim he took liberties with them of a sexual nature.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
incidents supposedly occurred back when Hastert was their teacher and coach in
the late 1960s and early 1970s, but it wasn’t until the mid-2010s that the
allegations became public.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
meant that even if sufficient evidence could be procured, so much time had
passed that Hastert was never in danger of criminal prosecution.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtB0TDHNL9iIA2V_cVd9oarVJKJ_2C-uB4_Fg88gouhjcUn1iMq__IdClWo_OGeHt5S_u-ipURpi1fOJwkw5BYjcjE8vukc40GLzQpjRjeyU692apj0ZupQdnjeRT_nKfcyvl576P1ohk7/s1600/J.B.+Pritzker+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="330" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtB0TDHNL9iIA2V_cVd9oarVJKJ_2C-uB4_Fg88gouhjcUn1iMq__IdClWo_OGeHt5S_u-ipURpi1fOJwkw5BYjcjE8vukc40GLzQpjRjeyU692apj0ZupQdnjeRT_nKfcyvl576P1ohk7/s320/J.B.+Pritzker+4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>PRITZKER: Signed the measure into law</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
it was because of actions that Hastert took to try to keep people from talking
about things that eventually resulted in J. Dennis being found guilty of
something criminal – which resulted in him getting a prison term (he’s been
free for a couple of years now) and becoming the highest-ranking government
official to ever have to serve time for a crime. While also proving the notion that it's the cover-up, and not the crime itself, that gets you in the most trouble!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH
HAVE SOME people convinced that something wasn’t fair. Which also is what
motivated legislators of both Republican and Democratic partisan leanings to
sponsor the bill that passed overwhelmingly this spring before getting Pritzker’s
approval last week.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">So
now, theoretically, we could have prosecuted Hastert for the crime, instead of
the technicality. Although I have to admit to being a bit wary of such
incidents.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Usually
because the passage of so much time means the actual evidence becomes weaker, more
heresay, to be honest.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">To
be honest, the strongest criminal cases are the ones whose defendants literally
are caught in the act right at the time of their alleged criminal occurrence.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH
IS THE point of statute of limitations laws – acknowledging that there are some
instances where it is not practical to punish someone for something that
happened many years ago and where people might have been too ashamed to talk
about it at the time of occurrence.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Although
some see that as a good thing (it means sexual predators cannot escape their
actions ever) and a bad (people may wind up getting prosecuted and convicted based
on testimony from people whose memories may not be quite as accurate as they
once were due to the passage of time).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Not
that I don’t doubt some people aren’t going to let that possibility concern
them – they may want more prosecution, regardless of how solid the charges may
be.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
Hastert’s contribution to our public discourse may well be something he did
long before his 8 years as House Speaker (and 20 years in Congress overall) back in the days when he was a nobody
to the masses – and “coach” to a select few individuals living out in what some
of us would have dismissed as “the boonies” of the Chicago area.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-55602927803658275562019-07-27T00:05:00.000-05:002019-07-27T00:05:00.249-05:00EXTRA: Just a thought<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTEjvLpYvA32WA0zuYU_-ILzb_sUvsVQWujeZmNW8wzHfGTNMNXVGgVsmf7cBO5V_JsB_PgZwxyD_F2Z-hkWcu-DGpegfg3ROdpdoD3hbEac3hIoMupJ_x_jpEcopXZ17JuEjuc-U2aUUa/s1600/WP_20190725_12_59_21_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1398" data-original-width="1047" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTEjvLpYvA32WA0zuYU_-ILzb_sUvsVQWujeZmNW8wzHfGTNMNXVGgVsmf7cBO5V_JsB_PgZwxyD_F2Z-hkWcu-DGpegfg3ROdpdoD3hbEac3hIoMupJ_x_jpEcopXZ17JuEjuc-U2aUUa/s640/WP_20190725_12_59_21_Pro.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>As seen in suburban Homewood. Photo by Gregory Tejeda</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><br />Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-32770313907762602812019-07-27T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-27T00:01:11.974-05:00Dawson to find himself in middle of Hall of Fame '20 fiasco over Jeter?<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
world of professional baseball just had its Hall of Fame induction ceremonies
for this year, yet it seems that a prominent Chicago ballplayer will find
himself in the middle of a stink over next year’s rituals.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiy_IVY-ADZHDSN6MV8rfxEWdddCu_hpwy6Sgb00Vmtp4n3RK3pIIztmFCqAQ0rN_zbD4A65bpbjKtzXioweZ3Sjou5MzsZn2H6LXxGDPT40gmUT_uJAzmXaolIHUlF1_udxIwBVxFvGP5/s1600/andre+dawson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="693" data-original-width="498" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiy_IVY-ADZHDSN6MV8rfxEWdddCu_hpwy6Sgb00Vmtp4n3RK3pIIztmFCqAQ0rN_zbD4A65bpbjKtzXioweZ3Sjou5MzsZn2H6LXxGDPT40gmUT_uJAzmXaolIHUlF1_udxIwBVxFvGP5/s320/andre+dawson.jpg" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Forner MVP in middle of Jeter affair</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">At
stake is that the Hall of Fame usually invites all of its living members to
attend the ceremonies each year. That would include Andre Dawson, who was
inducted back in 2010 for his seasons of excellence with the Montreal Expos,
but whom some fans prefer to remember for his stint with the Chicago Cubs.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WINNING
A MOST Valuable Player award while wearing Cubbie blue can have that effect.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
now it seems that Dawson, along with one-time Cincinnati Reds star Tony Perez,
are saying they may not bother to show up for the 2020 induction ceremonies.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Although
we won’t know until year’s end, there are those who are convinced that next
year’s Hall of Fame ritual will wind up being a celebration of New York Yankees
star Derek Jeter.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Who
as it turns out went from being the toast of Manhattan to being an owner of the
Miami Marlins. He’s now baseball management. His own team, and in a city of
tropical glory.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">IT’S
JUST A shame, in a sense, that the Marlins haven’t played worth squat during the
years he has been in charge.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJhdhtqW1ascDUwwD_vXCcy9LmtPJS5FarSa7BNIGxkuSSZfQ8yIpf61DZiO5YY9SuK9cQKB-eLSsHTR2IkFcEqMI2C0BdTIpgOcSmENxOu3t9ix4GHUbwZmFbOD0cBzEKCj3dpM8Sv_g/s1600/tony+perez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="775" data-original-width="562" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJhdhtqW1ascDUwwD_vXCcy9LmtPJS5FarSa7BNIGxkuSSZfQ8yIpf61DZiO5YY9SuK9cQKB-eLSsHTR2IkFcEqMI2C0BdTIpgOcSmENxOu3t9ix4GHUbwZmFbOD0cBzEKCj3dpM8Sv_g/s320/tony+perez.jpg" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Still bitter about losing his job?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
as it turns out, back when Jeter became a part of Marlins’ management, both
Dawson and Perez had been working for the Marlins as coaches. Both were amongst
the people who lost their jobs because Jeter wanted to dump the ‘old’ way of
doing things – and perhaps add an overtone of New York Yankee-style glamour.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
what it’s worth, both were later re-offered their jobs, but at significant pay cuts.
Along with demands that the two stay out of the team clubhouses and not show up
in uniform during spring training camp.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
must seem a significant blow to the athletic egos of the two, both of whom seem
to still hold a grudge. Dawson says he probably won’t attend because he, “doesn’t
have a sense or feeling like I want to sit on that stage to hear what (Jeter)
has to say.”</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">PEREZ
IS MORE blunt, saying he doesn’t want to be a part of any day that celebrates
the big star of the New York Yankees’ dominance over baseball in the 1990s and
early 2000s.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV6tKlA5ySw1Zvbuotq2wHjXVqEl1S-4M0ZfslHcKydhWdP7ASldAyrEX6pQBRnH7TVtYB4zekNBKnDQD4L7B4Qhxxm5NZklVFDqlOXniCf7JU1M4OuXeGisdSRDGUuepm_h0IaU4-4l7v/s1600/derek+jeter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="317" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV6tKlA5ySw1Zvbuotq2wHjXVqEl1S-4M0ZfslHcKydhWdP7ASldAyrEX6pQBRnH7TVtYB4zekNBKnDQD4L7B4Qhxxm5NZklVFDqlOXniCf7JU1M4OuXeGisdSRDGUuepm_h0IaU4-4l7v/s320/derek+jeter.jpg" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Yankees glamour diminishing</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">“It
wasn’t nice, what happened at the end,” he said.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">So
will Dawson or Perez be missed if they turn out to be no-shows? Maybe not!
Chances are good that the baseball fan-types who will make the trek to
Cooperstown, N.Y., because of Jeter aren’t going to notice who doesn’t show!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
will be a celebration of their guy, and nothing else. And as for the
out-of-town (as in non-New York) fans, they’ll probably just think of it as
another moment of dissing the Yankees – which is something they’re used to
doing every moment they get.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">IT
MEANS WE won’t have to hear again the stories of that 1987 MVP award that
Dawson won even though he was playing for a Cubs’ ballclub that won only 76 games
and finished dead last in their division.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNptGG7BDmf7hsLikUkIfyc7uiZzizj_G5tKDe3qdSk699FqL-YhunGraMOf812cRgEYb1qqKKAAwjmX_cv6Fv9n3z8QgCnaGOUacxs-oQZXkHhMfqVyiAUryRlUvM-tqmmB_lZ95EaK0e/s1600/michael+jordan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="427" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNptGG7BDmf7hsLikUkIfyc7uiZzizj_G5tKDe3qdSk699FqL-YhunGraMOf812cRgEYb1qqKKAAwjmX_cv6Fv9n3z8QgCnaGOUacxs-oQZXkHhMfqVyiAUryRlUvM-tqmmB_lZ95EaK0e/s320/michael+jordan.jpg" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Will Jeter top Jordan as management failure</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
also shows just how much of a blow that the Jeter image has taken with the fact
that his Marlins’ teams, which in 2018 finished with a 63-98 won/loss record –
which is actually even more pathetic than that Cubs team that had Dawson’s big
bat to make things interesting.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
seems that some guys are not going to be interested in leeching off the Jeter
persona on his big day. Because Jeter’s persona may have dived down even deeper
than that of Michael Jordan.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association have had way too
many pathetic seasons since 2006, when Jordan transitioned from being the Hall
of Famer of the Chicago Bulls into management. Almost as though Jordan is determined
to take over the athletic losing ways of the Chicago Cubs – unless Jeter can
top him in Miami.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-68946063417084055642019-07-26T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-26T00:01:02.297-05:00When Confederates become Yankees instead, nothing makes much sense<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">When
it comes to the use of imagery of the old Confederacy, it’s next to impossible
to tone down the images so as to downplay just what that attempt at secession
from the United States was all about.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwMQOCosneN-g5BFTcPDoVkuuw570LW8V1fLAA69O822K_c23wjweFsj5RdKHo5Mpil191mFODg7jnibYD9_eYjvUMk05FXOVZjZpjUYLs1QUaV8tngMi_W6pVtztnGxbQDyW2x_UpME0/s1600/confederate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="395" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwMQOCosneN-g5BFTcPDoVkuuw570LW8V1fLAA69O822K_c23wjweFsj5RdKHo5Mpil191mFODg7jnibYD9_eYjvUMk05FXOVZjZpjUYLs1QUaV8tngMi_W6pVtztnGxbQDyW2x_UpME0/s320/confederate.jpg" width="319" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The altered, and actual, logo images</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">You
usually wind up coming up with some effort that manages to offend everybody
with its lameness. It’s almost like, “Why bother?!?”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT
THAT DIDN’T stop a Southern Illinois business from trying to find a way to make
acceptable the logo of Confederate Railroad – a band that was supposed to be a
headlining act at the DuQuoin State Fair next month.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Many
of the locals are upset that Illinois officials, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker,
cancelled the band’s contract to perform, citing the fact that their band logo
includes depictions of the old Confederate battle flag and expresses sympathies
for those who favor the memories of an old segregationist society.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">While
others say that reading such a view into the band’s logo and music goes way too
far! It’s just about the music – which is sort of country-fied but also has enough
of a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to it.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
seems that a local business – Black Diamond Harley Davidson – has taken it upon
themselves to sponsor the concert, instead of the state of Illinois. Which
might sound like a brilliant business move on the part of the company. They’ll
get all the good will from the band’s fans who are now more than willing to
blame Illinois for cancelling the concert.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT
IT SEEMS that Black Diamond also wanted to have the good will of those who find
offense at Confederacy imagery.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Hence,
their advertising materials for the Sept. 5 concert depict an altered version
of the band’s logo. The freight train locomotive that usually has Confederate
battle flags flying from it now have U.S. flags.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">A
concept that has the band’s flags even moreso offended than the initial denial
of the band’s performance at the state fair.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tftVCngIDWQ/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tftVCngIDWQ?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
same people who were calling for a boycott of the DuQuoin Fair are now saying
they may not want to attend this concert either – because they’ll see it as a censored
version of the event they really want. They may wind up going to an alternate
concert Aug. 27 in Effingham.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH,
TO BE honest, is something that the vast majority of Illinoisans wouldn’t pay
any attention to if not for all the political hooey that has arisen as a
result.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">What
actually amazes me is that the Harley Davidson dealership may well have opened
itself up to litigation, since it would involve an altering of the band’s logo
most likely without their consent.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Their
attempt at creating a compromise may well wind up biting themselves in the behind.
They’re most likely to wind up wishing they’d never bothered – even if they
somehow do escape having to pay out some financial settlement.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
negative publicity is likely to stick.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">ALTHOUGH
I HAVE to admit this wouldn’t be the most stupid maneuver meant to evade the
negative overtones of the Confederacy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMKvttZd0Epv0v4D2TqZrMfXETxfxjSTykQYSlpE9zX8ScLc0LPiMfHzl9vRTsbCpWNMXBMR72WemfXWnO3n_Ij_1uAQia8gBjomCg4fWoi2YZ7GVGafaBhq8_vnAgtrjsGhhRejR03GO/s1600/roy+white.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="283" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMKvttZd0Epv0v4D2TqZrMfXETxfxjSTykQYSlpE9zX8ScLc0LPiMfHzl9vRTsbCpWNMXBMR72WemfXWnO3n_Ij_1uAQia8gBjomCg4fWoi2YZ7GVGafaBhq8_vnAgtrjsGhhRejR03GO/s640/roy+white.jpg" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Roy White later became a Yankee instead</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
that, we’d have to think back to the existence of the Columbus Confederate
Yankees. It was a real-live baseball team that existed in the mid-1960s that
was a minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Many
teams merely attached their own nicknames to those of their minor league ball
clubs. But back in that heated era, it was figured that the people of Columbus,
Ga., would refuse to support a team called the Yankees. Resulting in the Confederate
Yankees that wore a battle flag patch on the sleeves of their pinstriped uniforms
that were hand-me-downs of the Yankees themselves.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
result was a stupid image that left many fans confused. What exactly is a “Confederate
Yankee?” Probably somebody who rides around on a Confederate train bearing the Stars
and Stripes, and thinks everybody else is too confused to tell the difference!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-57362822000753321462019-07-25T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-25T00:01:03.237-05:00Who are you to be questioning us? Is anybody shocked the attitude exists?<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
have written about enough governmental entities throughout the years to know
that officials really don’t like being questioned.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIgmmCEh5z6Byj9gCOrOb8nqGXC6-0J1Oz3NKQvvbTgrX3D2zw4nIFYKerWTx08VETRz2vaVNwK9qHReHZt8ZCth33A5vtt5UXi56crZ5-BvU793AuPyqwtN4Kcds6J6EToHIwtrxpEFY_/s1600/ZZ+-+police.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="629" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIgmmCEh5z6Byj9gCOrOb8nqGXC6-0J1Oz3NKQvvbTgrX3D2zw4nIFYKerWTx08VETRz2vaVNwK9qHReHZt8ZCth33A5vtt5UXi56crZ5-BvU793AuPyqwtN4Kcds6J6EToHIwtrxpEFY_/s320/ZZ+-+police.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Questioning the coppers? None of ya bizness!</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">By
anybody! About anything!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">SO
I CAN’T say I’m shocked to learn of the Chicago Tribune report detailing how
the Chicago Police Board did a pseudo-investigation about everyone who, in the
mindset of the coppers, had the nerve to think they could speak out at their public
meetings.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Those
laws requiring that governmental entities do their business in public? That doesn’t
really mean people are enthused about the possibility of having their actions
scrutinized. Or as one-time Mayor Richard M. Daley once put it, “Go scrutinize
yourself. I get scrootined every day.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">In
fact, I don’t doubt that police in particular don’t want anybody else looking
all that closely to the ways and means by which they enforce the laws. Which,
sadly enough, are just like sausages – it would sicken you to know some of the
things that occur in the name of justice.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">So
according to the Tribune, it seems that some 60 people who filed the requests
to speak before the Police Board were actually investigated prior to being
permitted to speak.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THE
POLICE KNEW in advance if there was anything they could use against the
individuals who wanted to speak out against police practices. I suspect that in
their mindset, they were prepared to arrest anyone who tried to speak out – if they
could get “the goods” on them to back up a charge.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
then we wonder why some people are less-than-trusting of law enforcement personnel
in general, and uniformed police officers in particular.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
Tribune actually pointed out that the 60 people whom they found were investigated date back to 2018, but found
officials admitting that the background checks, which is how police prefer to
think of them, actually date back years further.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
reeks of intimidation, almost as though people are supposed to know better than
to want to question the police. Which actually reminds me of a Cook County
sheriff’s deputy I once knew who complained about how some officers took their
authority far too seriously.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">AS
I REMEMBER him asking theoretically, “Who really polices the police? It’s nobody.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Although
like I said, it seems public officials in general really don’t care for scrutiny.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
remember one board of education I used to write about on a regular basis that
always made a point of publicly disclosing every single person who sought information
through the Freedom of Information Act, which is supposed to be about making
the details of government operations easier to obtain.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
instead, this school board viewed it as a trouble-maker list; those people who
had the nerve to think they were entitled to find out what was really
happening. Just think how dangerous those people would have been if they had
police powers just like the coppers themselves?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-52261317791965768342019-07-24T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-24T00:01:02.765-05:00Centennial of ‘Red Summer’ will pass with few noting moment’s significance<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Come
Saturday, a raft will float out in Lake Michigan and will cross over the invisible
dividing line between 29<sup>th</sup> and 26th streets – a boundary
that back a century ago was the cause of bloodshed and the race riots of 1919
that have come to be known as “Red Summer.”</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi25cQIrHCoJcg4ZpiFYngDZqjiG_UBgSm1vzA5VYuGTdgEqXF6Uikr3HtgJdFhbDyX1GLTQFx4O_BQSfTObnrLYUfDcVGUIYBd5eC9Gl7zZYP9KZ-3xYwAqBrmLY45TkXkG1ZgFZ780Xa1/s1600/16382730-7276061-image-a-51_1563875493813+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="779" data-original-width="958" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi25cQIrHCoJcg4ZpiFYngDZqjiG_UBgSm1vzA5VYuGTdgEqXF6Uikr3HtgJdFhbDyX1GLTQFx4O_BQSfTObnrLYUfDcVGUIYBd5eC9Gl7zZYP9KZ-3xYwAqBrmLY45TkXkG1ZgFZ780Xa1/s400/16382730-7276061-image-a-51_1563875493813+%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>National Guard tries to restore order to South Side</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">That
is, for those of us who have any historic recollection at all. Many more will
likely let the moment pass by without any note of what happened some 100 years
ago that day.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">FOR
THOSE WHO need to be reminded, it was in the afternoon of July 27 that a young
black man named Eugene Williams went swimming in the lake off of 29<sup>th</sup>
street – the portion of the beach where black people were permitted to be.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
while swimming, he drifted north. When he tried to come ashore near 26th Street, he had ventured into the portion of the beach that locals intended to
be for white people.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">White
people, who’d probably have thought of themselves as proud Sout’ Siders,
reacted poorly. They began flinging rocks, boulders and anything else they
could grab ahold of at Williams – driving him back into the water.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Where
he eventually drowned.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsx0KmCPM27KOtrq4hH1WefBgH5iRXZz8WvxYFEgmeUOTaWtN10aZ4ytbIIxv-xfyf_QQgA7z_EQJNTsj6_HpbWYJ50544MVxw1it3jIXXkPzjb3ptaZu1dNOAimnGsKYdNYykeROq0hS/s1600/screen-shot-2019-05-27-at-12.25.23-pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="641" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsx0KmCPM27KOtrq4hH1WefBgH5iRXZz8WvxYFEgmeUOTaWtN10aZ4ytbIIxv-xfyf_QQgA7z_EQJNTsj6_HpbWYJ50544MVxw1it3jIXXkPzjb3ptaZu1dNOAimnGsKYdNYykeROq0hS/s400/screen-shot-2019-05-27-at-12.25.23-pm.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Amongst the more honest accounts of what happened a century ago</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BLACK
BEACH-GOERS AT 29<sup>th</sup> Street saw what happened, and reacted violently
too. Pretty soon, it was an all-out race riot on the beach with Chicago police making arrests amongst the black people. That eventually
spread to various parts of Chicago. With the Bridgeport neighborhood becoming
the center of some of the most violent activity against black people.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
wasn’t just in Chicago. The years after the First World War saw many movements
of hostility against black people, with many whites seemingly eager to let blacks
know they “didn’t belong.”</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTH-9V0DUp8Du3FVOcroUGIB2x3FA_ZeevcsNfeyW5ZKmOVt7BSwVZqe-nfYGf715EnYFeDNLcFC7iPLgnr9Np2NFDZHJIUgthl9MzldfNL-Av_nSD3Io_ESqcYfff4pgrTqVWmJz0MLKq/s1600/Chicago-Tribune-1919-Riot-Area.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="600" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTH-9V0DUp8Du3FVOcroUGIB2x3FA_ZeevcsNfeyW5ZKmOVt7BSwVZqe-nfYGf715EnYFeDNLcFC7iPLgnr9Np2NFDZHJIUgthl9MzldfNL-Av_nSD3Io_ESqcYfff4pgrTqVWmJz0MLKq/s400/Chicago-Tribune-1919-Riot-Area.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Tribune accounting of how large an area the riot covered</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
death tally in Chicago alone reached the hundreds, with the National Guard
eventually having to be sent in to restore order. In fact, those troops wound
up using Comiskey Park as their home base – primarily because the White Sox’
ballpark was in the middle of the area where the most intense violence occurred.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">In
his Mayor Daley biography “Boss,” writer Mike Royko got deep into these
happenings, trying to put together an argument that the future mayor must have
been aware of what was going on in his neighborhood, if not directly involved – even though Richard J.
himself always claimed to have no personal memories of that summer.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH
IS TYPICAL of how Chicago came to forget about the deaths. It was a thing of
the past; something ugly and not worth remembering any longer.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
anybody who’s bothering to recall what happened? They’re probably trouble-makers
themselves!</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtDBnFTBg4frJGQJ9lyoJAkjPPsWSibDFPgw4svDSBcLl1-Dvi2ALljzxztzw5gxUBCKrC_dM4R19pesqbhyGfpYaBe4s2PEU-4O9CvQ1gDc03g38kK_moAOxn4EXU5LMq9X8JGd2m_wm3/s1600/AP_19189700774013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1397" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtDBnFTBg4frJGQJ9lyoJAkjPPsWSibDFPgw4svDSBcLl1-Dvi2ALljzxztzw5gxUBCKrC_dM4R19pesqbhyGfpYaBe4s2PEU-4O9CvQ1gDc03g38kK_moAOxn4EXU5LMq9X8JGd2m_wm3/s400/AP_19189700774013.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bodies were found in all kinds of places in Chicago</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><i></i>So
I’m kind of glad to learn the Chicago History Museum is sponsoring a program
for Saturday meant to remind people of just what happened on the beach that summer
a century ago.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">They’re
even planning to have people on a raft float across the invisible barrier. Only
this time, no people on shore waiting to throw stones.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THERE
IS ONE aspect of all this I find amusing – the fact that the entirety of the
beach in that portion of the Lake Michigan shoreline is now named for Margaret
T. Burroughs.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9CumEkkVWJ5Qkfak52gsGs301e50uUokmU3Lt29FNRKBlD8hqyKGFuYR5mJZCrh_N2iN6JkJRCg7gsll8lm6uOGcSv9zbzj99BQw_bwFM45BFtUnreuHi-krOjc7NSoR3wdMsHDbUyBL/s1600/margaret+burroughs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="184" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9CumEkkVWJ5Qkfak52gsGs301e50uUokmU3Lt29FNRKBlD8hqyKGFuYR5mJZCrh_N2iN6JkJRCg7gsll8lm6uOGcSv9zbzj99BQw_bwFM45BFtUnreuHi-krOjc7NSoR3wdMsHDbUyBL/s320/margaret+burroughs.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>BURROUGHS: Beach now in her honor</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
same Margaret Burroughs who was the artist and poet and who later went on to
found the DuSable Museum of African-American History. I knew her late in life
when she served on the Chicago Park District board and was devoted to
preserving the memories of black culture in Chicago.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I’m
sure that all the individuals who threw rocks a century ago would be appalled
at the notion of “their” beach being “taken over” in such a manner.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Just
as I’m sure the descendants of those individuals are now appalled at anyone
trying to remind us now how bad the behavior was back then. For it seems that
the old cliché, “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it” think
the answers to our modern-day problems lie in their ignorance.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30- </span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-62868661417035504002019-07-23T11:49:00.002-05:002019-07-23T11:49:10.244-05:00EXTRA: Chicago a city of conventions, but also of sanctuary as well<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Chicago
likes to boast that we’re some sort of ultimate destination for places looking
to hold a convention.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6F6yg4JCi5k679LggrqZNevoy5GFcpiIiKsIuSuoTVFDsdBmGKdns4bp5uc9fl8NKQ-VSNvOIh16ZsAt4MmkPLv8OFS_5E4WcjuPSrErS2brbkPqwXnPPxQ3sf1oaVO4HmsVqlSDhumjj/s1600/marriott.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="750" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6F6yg4JCi5k679LggrqZNevoy5GFcpiIiKsIuSuoTVFDsdBmGKdns4bp5uc9fl8NKQ-VSNvOIh16ZsAt4MmkPLv8OFS_5E4WcjuPSrErS2brbkPqwXnPPxQ3sf1oaVO4HmsVqlSDhumjj/s400/marriott.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>'Ground Zero' of the immigration protest movement this week</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">We
have all these hotels, along with facilities capable of staging such events. When
combined with all the other attractions of the city that people can stop by and
visit while doing business here, we’d like to think there just isn’t any legitimate
reason for people to want to do a convention elsewhere.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">OF
COURSE, THERE are those who’d rather have their events in Las Vegas – figuring that
out-of-towners would feel more comfortable with gambling away their money
rather than taking the time to study our city.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
nonetheless, we like to think we’re a major convention center. To the point
that it becomes a big deal when Chicago actively tries to chase away a group
that wanted to hold its professional gathering here.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
that’s just the case with the convention that began Tuesday at the Marriott
Marquis Hotel – located just a block away from the McCormick Place convention
hall.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
it seems the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency put together a program
for all the businesses they work with in the course of their work. It would be
a gathering of a who’s who of the federal immigration enforcement world. A
chance for them to talk shop about their industry.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH
INCLUDES THE ways and means by which people are deported from the United States.
Which, since we’re a sanctuary city that officially does not cooperate with the
federal government in terms of enforcing immigration laws means we don’t even
want their business.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Mayor
Lori Lightfoot went so far as to try to get the hotel chain to kick the federals
out, get them to find some other city to hold their gathering. It didn’t work.
They’re still here in Chicago, and it means we’ll get to see people picketing
the hotel to express their disgust with what it is these people do for a
living.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
does seem that the hotel has agreed to prohibit immigration officials from
trying to detain any guest of the hotel whose citizenship status is not quite
clear. But that’s as far as they’re willing to go. They don’t want to lose any
business.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">So
the gathering took place, with acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan
being the key speaker Tuesday. And this will be one event that many Chicagoans will
be more than glad to see finish its business and move on by week’s end.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-65782126275906614062019-07-23T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-23T00:01:03.184-05:00Political apologies rarely work, still wind up taking ‘hit’ for trash-talk<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">There’s
something about any attempt by a political official to apologize for saying
something stupid that always manages to come off as insincere – it winds up
sounding like the only thing you’re “sorry” for is getting caught!</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxGJS6Gd2CrJnzv5C4WHw9TQdvWOdGqGx7DPxZh_1MCh4gy4qUwAk2ztZSpHMEgdjVFCtOLg-4Nh5zHqpdKXr28pwXnpkK5L9qWAmw_PIkZuMAofu3QuSWsBLTwWs_zWraFEFQ5sFmmKDK/s1600/jihad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="395" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxGJS6Gd2CrJnzv5C4WHw9TQdvWOdGqGx7DPxZh_1MCh4gy4qUwAk2ztZSpHMEgdjVFCtOLg-4Nh5zHqpdKXr28pwXnpkK5L9qWAmw_PIkZuMAofu3QuSWsBLTwWs_zWraFEFQ5sFmmKDK/s400/jihad.jpg" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Somewhere, a political operative thinks this is clever</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">That
certainly is the case for the Illinois Republican County Chairman’s Association
– which how has on its Facebook page a prominent post apologizing for the fact
that they let a lame gag get put on their site to begin with – one that
attempted to trash the four members of Congress whom President Donald Trump has
engaged in trash-talk against.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">IT
SEEMS THAT Republican-leaning political operatives created a graphic labelling
the four as “the Jihad Squad” and implying just how subversive we ought to
consider them to be.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">“If
you don’t agree with their socialist ideology, you’re racist,” is what we’re
told. Implying that Donald Trump is totally justified in all of his trash talk
against the women – whom the one thing they have in common is that they’re not
white.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
graphic, which actually is a parody of sorts of the advertising posters for the “Charlie’s
Angels” films (the more recent movies, not the ‘70’s era television show), is
labeled as being put together by the national Republican County Chairman’s
Association, which then had it put on the sites of their various affiliated
organizations.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP87UyNxIVZKn48uYnQ_S-aSHqeyOB-F_PUk-LVFk7SVjlzzFOBBxmTbU1FzMm9-CPK7eNcwSoM8u8ireSPGW3znFs3KXBqw-emHk8HgkoAr_aCixUjwFEtXtFLh8hU6R_jjmgULGdhzU2/s1600/charlies-angels-danish-dvd-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP87UyNxIVZKn48uYnQ_S-aSHqeyOB-F_PUk-LVFk7SVjlzzFOBBxmTbU1FzMm9-CPK7eNcwSoM8u8ireSPGW3znFs3KXBqw-emHk8HgkoAr_aCixUjwFEtXtFLh8hU6R_jjmgULGdhzU2/s400/charlies-angels-danish-dvd-cover.jpg" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The original motivating image?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
led to the Illinois chapter early Monday publicly removing the post, with
chapter President Mark Shaw saying the post was “unauthorized” and, “I am sorry
if anyone who saw the image was offended by the contents.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">NOW
FOR ALL I know, Shaw may well be sincere in his apology. He may well be shuddering
at the thought that he’s affiliated politically with the kind of people who’d
think this ad parody is somehow clever. Even Illinois Republican Chairman
Timothy Schneider was embarrassed, saying he thinks the graphic, “does not
reflect … the Republican Party’s values.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
I don’t doubt there are people who consider themselves good and loyal
Republicans who have absolutely no problem with this kind of image being spewed
and who will now think the “problem” is that the GOP has people who can’t get
on board with their initiative.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXLrrs4hKQzH0HDSv4tM-C6bYPnrC0kbLR7tt7jrZkke6RSGaOwoo8sWu5QgZw5cyP0llbRLD3xtz8fN5wYV5nM4HGv5n8_NYIaJCHweb4K9x64p46K81OvuQ5vwNFeMx4NVIJEfdVGSo/s1600/tumblr_pkh4ivXidm1rmz18mo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXLrrs4hKQzH0HDSv4tM-C6bYPnrC0kbLR7tt7jrZkke6RSGaOwoo8sWu5QgZw5cyP0llbRLD3xtz8fN5wYV5nM4HGv5n8_NYIaJCHweb4K9x64p46K81OvuQ5vwNFeMx4NVIJEfdVGSo/s400/tumblr_pkh4ivXidm1rmz18mo1_500.jpg" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Would Farrah, Jaclyn and Kate be offended?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">As
for the parody, I think it’s tacky depicting Rep, Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., wielding
a shotgun, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., packing a pistol, Rep. Rashida Tlaib,
D-Mich., looking like an angry be-yotch and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New
York, bursting into flames.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
even more so, I think it comes across as downright lame. It’s almost the kind
of image I’d expect that 12-year-olds would find amusing. But then again, there
are times I wonder if the mentality of our political people has delved down to
the level of pre-teens who think fart jokes are funny.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH
MEANS I can almost sympathize with the Republican operatives who now have to address
this image and try to explain away how anyone could seriously have thought it
would possibly attract anyone to the political cause.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
don’t doubt it will keep the hard-core ideologues aligned. But then again, that
may well be the political strategy for the 2020 election cycle.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Make
sure the ideologues turn out in force to back the re-election of Donald Trump and
anybody whose presence would not conflict with ‘the Donald,’ and scare off
anybody who’d be inclined to want to raise the elevation of political discourse
these days.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7hwnS78bAmt-iCEkBGEncUyVJcUhsWf1rltq2G-SxdVEFe1gd_lss6p359p8VdDwi_fbGnEGtCGmQBDR6nIDMCvTNgM0a3SKy5B-6gGBOfZoBHqr7cSCOtA2AAUGlpoBos8aDD7djagrw/s1600/89d84ced9b3622235004ff2e27f063f0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="236" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7hwnS78bAmt-iCEkBGEncUyVJcUhsWf1rltq2G-SxdVEFe1gd_lss6p359p8VdDwi_fbGnEGtCGmQBDR6nIDMCvTNgM0a3SKy5B-6gGBOfZoBHqr7cSCOtA2AAUGlpoBos8aDD7djagrw/s400/89d84ced9b3622235004ff2e27f063f0.jpg" width="262" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Political spots certainly have changed</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
then again, I also don’t doubt there are some who are ideologically-inclined to
want to sink the level of discourse to this level – it’s much easier to understand.
Four crazy broads! All of them with big mouths! And most importantly, none of them white!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">NOT
EXACTLY AN issues-based campaign theme. Not something that would bring out the
intellect in would-be voters.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">More
like something simple that would reduce the election cycle down to something we
can either laugh at – or lambast those who don’t think it’s funny as being mere
“snowflakes.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
in-and-of-itself is a political label that gets used far too often.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Although
I think one anonymous Internet commenter may have stated it best – this “Jihad
Squad” graphic is just too stupid for anyone thinking about voting to take
seriously. Although we’ll have to see if it’s too stupid that it winds up
costing anybody a vote come Election Day.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2CTrr4wPWbK4P10A_YmqNJkznKxq1WzcW0qFMy1XWF9aLhqpZOHjI39bMnpQAJ0b3PNcxbQEgxMjVxXzuISObBum552xfV-oImPdiOy98C0JEu44vnOfhP2l-rm2lQ4aia594cCEEX_M/s1600/klanhat+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2CTrr4wPWbK4P10A_YmqNJkznKxq1WzcW0qFMy1XWF9aLhqpZOHjI39bMnpQAJ0b3PNcxbQEgxMjVxXzuISObBum552xfV-oImPdiOy98C0JEu44vnOfhP2l-rm2lQ4aia594cCEEX_M/s1600/klanhat+%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">EDITOR'S NOTE: Some Republicans are tossing out their own response, trying to claim Democrats are no better. They're citing a blurb posted on the website of the Kankakee County Democratic Party that equates those "Make America Great Again: caps with the pointy hoods of the Ku Klux Klan -- if only those hoods were an obnoxious bright-red. Crain's Chicago Business is reporting that Democrats are in a similar circumstance for their Internet attempt at humor. Although I can't help but wonder who is really offended by the gag.</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-26073182223953951652019-07-22T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-22T00:01:01.211-05:00'80s-Style Chicago baseball celebrated by Hall of Fame this weekend<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I’m
sure there are some baseball fans who think I’m totally crocked – the induction
ceremonies for the Baseball Hall of Fame held Sunday were focused on New York
Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera and one-time Toronto Blue Jay turned
Philadelphia Phillie Roy Halladay.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsKfj5DQBKYP8TnXhb-6vsz1z1LNcBHz68caWvzP07uzu1es1Jyh_3ncl2zGUjqOLV9DFarHmRzr7k7V0h7ONF2KL30GUcjsMSOGeQ-PueIj5l0r_czkXzrs9o_zTeGIZNJ2h37V0OPPs/s1600/harold+baines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="218" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsKfj5DQBKYP8TnXhb-6vsz1z1LNcBHz68caWvzP07uzu1es1Jyh_3ncl2zGUjqOLV9DFarHmRzr7k7V0h7ONF2KL30GUcjsMSOGeQ-PueIj5l0r_czkXzrs9o_zTeGIZNJ2h37V0OPPs/s320/harold+baines.jpg" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>1977 No. 1 draft pick now a Hall of Famer</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
for those of us who remember back a few decades to the 1980s and were following
the Chicago baseball scene back then, the Hall of Fame induction moment was
more about recognizing the special moments we saw first-hand for ourselves.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">FOR
AMONGST THE ballplayers who were inducted (and now will forevermore have their visages
immortalized in bronze) are one-time White Sox outfielder Harold Baines AND
one-time Cubs relief pitcher Lee Smith.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Both
were amongst the players whose memories were celebrated this weekend, and both
gave induction speeches heavy on praising the memories of family who supported them.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">With
Baines literally saying his wife, Marla, deserved the praise more than he.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">“You
are the true Hall of Famer of our family,” said the man who used to be one of two
Chicagoans capable of getting thousands of people to chant “Harold, Harold” in
unison (the other was Harold Washington). “The game has given us a lot of shared
moments, memories like today. Your presence here today makes my journey
complete.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpa-YiEABdXMBYkTuiEFAQQQ-EmhFZKc9cVIJsc2V-15U7lrEreBah6S1CICZHHk28Dyioc3qBQ5g97LzzNnKvQgFKLgz1ChyphenhyphenFSA6jDiZmntfq2yVlkbXN1ZigQmluABNL2-htRUGzz-Y/s1600/Lee+Smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="316" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpa-YiEABdXMBYkTuiEFAQQQ-EmhFZKc9cVIJsc2V-15U7lrEreBah6S1CICZHHk28Dyioc3qBQ5g97LzzNnKvQgFKLgz1ChyphenhyphenFSA6jDiZmntfq2yVlkbXN1ZigQmluABNL2-htRUGzz-Y/s320/Lee+Smith.jpg" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Once the best relief pitcher ever</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><i></i>NOW
I KNOW there are many fans who are getting all bent out of shape over the
notion that Harold Baines is now regarded as one of the best ballplayers ever.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
perhaps it’s because I remember back to the ‘80s – before Baines suffered the
knee injuries that turned him from a star outfielder into a designated hitter.
In short, I remember what he was when he WAS a complete ballplayer.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
I regard the existence of the designated hitter in baseball as the reason why
Baines was able to keep playing for so many ball clubs (including three stints
each with the White Sox Baltimore Orioles) as the reason why he lasted in
baseball into the 21<sup>st</sup> Century – instead of being a washout back
around 1986.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Perhaps
it’s because that 1983 White Sox team (the first Chicago ballclub ever to make
it to baseball playoffs) now has three Hall of Famers amongst its ranks – along
with catcher Carlton Fisk and manager Tony LaRussa (who admittedly used his baseball
clout to get Baines the vote sufficient for Hall of Fame admission).</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsENEcBqsilfAUOr591AqBVPD4kyjoUs4yPiZZKJ2i0MtrG9ECMobKowP2_5WRteK3QmhNfy7f_jSaPlZiDw0wftXfaZhT89kkMgGK3dtxdgV4_9oodEo1ErFIIey1VmSqX8V8pYLqqYQ/s1600/mariano+rivera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="878" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsENEcBqsilfAUOr591AqBVPD4kyjoUs4yPiZZKJ2i0MtrG9ECMobKowP2_5WRteK3QmhNfy7f_jSaPlZiDw0wftXfaZhT89kkMgGK3dtxdgV4_9oodEo1ErFIIey1VmSqX8V8pYLqqYQ/s400/mariano+rivera.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Superceding his saves total doesn't diminish Lee Smith</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><i></i>OF
COURSE, THE ’83 White Sox were followed up in 1984 by the first Chicago Cubs
team to ever make it to baseball playoffs – and Lee Smith was a key part of
that team in that he provided the relief pitching that helped prevent many Cubs
teams that season from blowing late leads.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">In
fact, even for the many other ball clubs he pitched for through 1997, he racked
up 478 saves – which once was the most-ever for a relief pitcher. Rivera now
has that record – with 652. A factoid that some have said diminishes Smith’s
achievement.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Or
maybe it’s like those who don’t want to consider Baines’ 2,866 base hits – and the
fact that the labor disputes of that decade very likely cost him the chance to
play in a few more games that would have given him the 3,000-hit statistic AND
semi-automatic Hall of Fame induction.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Maybe
it’s the fact that Smith became the second-consecutive star relief pitcher whom
the Cubs gave up on (Bruce Sutter was the first) who has went on to a Hall of
Fame career.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB1HtIQAKnedNzxXFi25BDRe3vRQu6JaSVzfd4V7WgGzWf4wTL4v__g7bOs9CFHKGzclkcoQf-oi6jRihFFCUqjxHj8y3VwqMZzL9ve_PvxrnxjC-en9XoLiCeytGkzlLakEVYVXV4TqJx/s1600/archie+bunker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="678" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB1HtIQAKnedNzxXFi25BDRe3vRQu6JaSVzfd4V7WgGzWf4wTL4v__g7bOs9CFHKGzclkcoQf-oi6jRihFFCUqjxHj8y3VwqMZzL9ve_PvxrnxjC-en9XoLiCeytGkzlLakEVYVXV4TqJx/s400/archie+bunker.jpg" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Go stifle" to all of Baines', Smith's critics</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THEN
AGAIN, BAINES is the guy the White Sox traded away the first time back in 1989
to the Texas Rangers for Sammy Sosa. Meaning then-Rangers owner George W. Bush
is going to have to quit calling the trade his biggest screw-up. He’ll have to
regard certain acts of his U.S. presidency as superseding it.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Just
like I suspect too many people forget how talented a player Baines was for the
White Sox back in in the 1980s. Do too many people want to believe that ball
clubs that had one remarkable season each during the decade couldn’t possibly
be worthy of Hall of Fame status players?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
can’t help but think it’s a good thing that both Baines and Smith managed to
overcome their baseball detractors and gain the recognition they deserve for
their time in baseball.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
particularly with Baines, a part of me wants to tell every single person who’s
going around bad-mouthing Sunday’s induction the same thing that Archie Bunker
used to tell wife Edith. As in, “Go stifle yourself!”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></span></span>Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-67660174185029237182019-07-20T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-20T00:01:00.366-05:00Weather extremes; or Dog Days in Chi<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Remember
the polar vortex?</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">That
period of a few days back in January when the shift in weather traits actually
gave in Chicago a taste of what things normally are like around the Arctic Circle!</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJU6mMzZpVBBn1T5knRod7viTScLhn935vyKz5kPfv-RQm4FStsVWBuolSs8WCKT-CypdDIxCzWCZpWlEqiINzyxQDRJ7JAJxBdWk8x45ZgKDXPtbEzMV1fL2ZPLhrmzLU3vfOj7HovDck/s1600/Carmelo+and+Rocco+in+the+snow%252C+Feb.+9%252C+2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJU6mMzZpVBBn1T5knRod7viTScLhn935vyKz5kPfv-RQm4FStsVWBuolSs8WCKT-CypdDIxCzWCZpWlEqiINzyxQDRJ7JAJxBdWk8x45ZgKDXPtbEzMV1fL2ZPLhrmzLU3vfOj7HovDck/s400/Carmelo+and+Rocco+in+the+snow%252C+Feb.+9%252C+2018.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rocco (left) and Carmelo back in the winter months. Photos by Gregory Tejeda</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">IT
WAS COLD. Particularly that one day where I got an assignment that actually
required me to go outside and walk around the neighborhood in search of some
colorful tidbits for a newspaper story.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
I managed to accomplish in record time. No point in getting frost-bite for the
free-lance pay rate I take in these days.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
also remember having to take the dogs outside during those days so they could “do
their business,” so to speak. They’re not paper-trained, so their reaction to bathroom-type
functions is to want to go outside – no matter what the weather is like.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">While
Rocco and Carmelo usually manage to linger out in the back yard for a few
minutes before doing their “duty,” on those days they managed to run outside,
complete their business them come charging back to the house.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">LITERALLY
CLAWING AWAY at the back door in desperate need of somebody to let them inside.
Because it’s cold out here!!!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Anyway,
these are the memories popping into my head on Friday as we’re enduring a heat
spell that some are saying will be record-setting for the Chicago area.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
National Weather Service issued warnings for northern Illinois and Indiana,
along with southern Wisconsin, going from Friday at 10 a.m. and supposed to last
until about 7 p.m. Saturday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It’s
going to be hot and humid and people were advised to stay indoors as much as
possible during that time period.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGNnWdVJI7tEjb64-7o2ltgfA9OnraTrYmARjAeEAUQYEXD66KqpG9hHmkfXTKWjP66GMcbu_w76mT8UkbD4MuqOdfpy6uzZ9y6tyDlw-q4yw945Jq-jB42sbhUsNER82FjQWtQR8pxdGD/s1600/Rocco+staying+warm+and+dry+during+winter+weather%252C+Feb.+9%252C+2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="947" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGNnWdVJI7tEjb64-7o2ltgfA9OnraTrYmARjAeEAUQYEXD66KqpG9hHmkfXTKWjP66GMcbu_w76mT8UkbD4MuqOdfpy6uzZ9y6tyDlw-q4yw945Jq-jB42sbhUsNER82FjQWtQR8pxdGD/s400/Rocco+staying+warm+and+dry+during+winter+weather%252C+Feb.+9%252C+2018.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rocco prefers the snow from indoors</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">FOR
WHAT IT’S worth, I took the doggies out for a walk Friday morning and they
managed to complete their business. But the walk didn’t last that long – pretty
soon the dogs were panting heavily as they were hot.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">They
couldn’t wait to get back inside, and it was a good move that I refilled their
water dishes before the walk. For they immediately went for the water and began
gulping it down once we got back to shelter.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Now
there have been some reports these days reminiscing back into history and 1919,
when the heat of that summer was considered a cause of boosting tensions that
ultimately resulted in race riots that left many people dead.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Although
I suspect many more people had 1995 come to their minds. Much more recent –
although even that is a quarter-of-a-century in the past.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
WAS FORTUNATE enough to not actually be in Chicago that summer – I was living
in Springfield, Ill., at the time, although I got to hear the horror stories
from my mother and brother of just how ridiculously hot it became and the
extremes they had to go through to remain cool.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I
recall the reports ultimately said the intense heat was because of a shift
that, for a couple of weeks, caused Chicago to become something along the lines
of Saudi Arabia.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
while those who actually live in the desert perhaps are capable of coping with
such conditions, we managed to get caught off-guard. Causing the hundreds of
deaths from that summer due to intense heat.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbK5ijlkGnzaw7rAkAnIC8r9THVhSHFx3du_9v0sV6F9Fv4qIX-nC5tlU899dcHtT5hrdENfq2tZu-qOlyu9gkZtxD8T17u-pz_whyphenhyphenznq5i6Y_S7jYj3p44QveFLW1HMKl_bKoUxAhvccg/s1600/WP_20190719_14_02_11_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="901" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbK5ijlkGnzaw7rAkAnIC8r9THVhSHFx3du_9v0sV6F9Fv4qIX-nC5tlU899dcHtT5hrdENfq2tZu-qOlyu9gkZtxD8T17u-pz_whyphenhyphenznq5i6Y_S7jYj3p44QveFLW1HMKl_bKoUxAhvccg/s320/WP_20190719_14_02_11_Pro.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Carmelo wanted the water!</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">All
I know is that if this is what other parts of the world feel like, it makes me
all the more thankful to be a Chicagoan. The rest of the world can keep their
weather extremes.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT
I MUST admit to being uncertain about which extreme is more uanbearable. Polar
vortex or Arab desert?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">All
I know is that I take one look at Rocco and Carmelo in heavy pant and know they
were about as miserable as they were back in January when they virtually froze
their paws off.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-62302346631495439992019-07-19T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-19T00:01:01.455-05:00R.I.P. Broglio and Pumpsie Green<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">A
pair of former ballplayers saw their demise in this realm of existence yet the
significance of their stories within the baseball world continue to live on.
They’re not to be forgotten anytime soon.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj64wagIdeET3XFGYqX6PE_RpmIAzSEjv4nD12pObyZyOgXZYhIU1ERKHxLDrvnKSWvY7169braiq_oZCMNuDpB-_vO1Cv8sPVK4Cv3Vi4jJ7XDExGAhSoyxI3Iu8_RATmhQjbqa7QYZhVa/s1600/ernie+broglio+%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1032" data-original-width="732" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj64wagIdeET3XFGYqX6PE_RpmIAzSEjv4nD12pObyZyOgXZYhIU1ERKHxLDrvnKSWvY7169braiq_oZCMNuDpB-_vO1Cv8sPVK4Cv3Vi4jJ7XDExGAhSoyxI3Iu8_RATmhQjbqa7QYZhVa/s400/ernie+broglio+%25283%2529.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Cubbie blue never agreed w/ Broglio</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">One
of the players was pitcher Ernie Broglio – who during his time with the St.
Louis Cardinals won 70 games, including one 20-win season and another where he
came close.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THE
CHICAGO CUBS acquiring him in 1964 should have been the kind of move that added
a potential ace to their pitching staff. Looking particularly good since all
the Cubbies gave up for Broglio was an outfielder who barely hit .250 and
didn’t even come close to the home run power they always dreamed he had.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
outfielder, of course, was Lou Brock, who upon going to the Cardinals suddenly
discovered he could steal bases – some 33 in that partial season alone and more
than 900 over the course of his two decades as a major leaguer.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
reason why he’s a member of the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Immortalized in bronze – even though there are some who like to think Brock is
a perfect example of a ballplayer who wasn’t that special.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">All
he could do, after all, is steal bases – better than anybody else who had
played prior to his arrival in baseball. Personally, I always viewed Brock as
the perfect example of Cubs’ mismanagement – thinking your leadoff hitter and
star base thief was a slugger just because he was one of the few who ever hit a
home run into the center field bleachers at New York’s old Polo Grounds – a
shot of at least 460 feet.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvyKfnE58EdWaO2EZmiQOv-N79H2AXTeOCO6saTGu5Fu9gAA7-fXahR2Q2yZqgJonMFOk_4x1o7W2_mONryUA4KfPalFNEuo6Hlp5xhqZPAmZ_3bDZoaqEbncVad6O6xE9I_xcyff2B5U/s1600/lou+brock+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="528" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvyKfnE58EdWaO2EZmiQOv-N79H2AXTeOCO6saTGu5Fu9gAA7-fXahR2Q2yZqgJonMFOk_4x1o7W2_mONryUA4KfPalFNEuo6Hlp5xhqZPAmZ_3bDZoaqEbncVad6O6xE9I_xcyff2B5U/s400/lou+brock+%25282%2529.jpg" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Cubs misjudged Brock as a ballplayer</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">AS
FOR BROGLIO, the former ace pitcher suddenly “lost” it. In two-and-a-half
seasons pitching for the Cubs, he won a total of 7 ballgames.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
now, Broglio popped back into the news briefly – he died from complications due
to cancer Tuesday in San Jose, Calif., at age 83. I’m sure Cubs fans are hoping
this puts that long-ago trade (that some baseball fans consider the worst ever,
aside from maybe Frank Robinson to Baltimore for Milt Pappas to Cincinnati) to
bed, once and for all.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
Broglio isn’t the only late ballplayer of significance this week.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
Elijah Green, nicknamed “Pumpsie,” met his maker Wednesday at age 85 at a
hospital in San Leandro, Calif. His family said he had been ill for the past
five months.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXH-NmxXHyW_rHLE80fSukkjM4WIxqL6Z_LxzeQgoq8g9Sk7OwDKDRGsFMnqKOBU4Q06Q-FA9EQUC96-8Ls8nGWLA9MmqegR2f7g-ZOzTvEAEDYMTVEh_lxBAsLCqgG9CMYflvnHbmx6c2/s1600/milt+pappas+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="873" data-original-width="618" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXH-NmxXHyW_rHLE80fSukkjM4WIxqL6Z_LxzeQgoq8g9Sk7OwDKDRGsFMnqKOBU4Q06Q-FA9EQUC96-8Ls8nGWLA9MmqegR2f7g-ZOzTvEAEDYMTVEh_lxBAsLCqgG9CMYflvnHbmx6c2/s400/milt+pappas+%25282%2529.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pappas later redeemed rep after becoming a Cub</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">GREEN
WAS A ballplayer who made his Major League debut as a pinch runner for the
Boston Red Sox in a game July 21, 1959 at Comiskey Park. He finished out that
game playing shortstop.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
is significant because he was the first black ballplayer to play for the Red
Sox, which made them the final ball club to finally give in to the integration trend
started some 12 years earlier when Jackie Robinson took the field for the
Brooklyn Dodgers.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Considering
that Boston’s other ball club, the Braves, had integrated as far back as 1950
and that Chicago’s two ballclubs (the White Sox in 1951 and Cubs in 1953) also
had made the move toward integration, it could be said that it took the Red Sox
long enough to get with the program of trying to truly put together the best
ball clubs possible.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Or
we could celebrate the notion that the integration of the game that likes to
use “the National Pastime” label to describe itself finally wasn’t a joke.
Maybe it finally bore a bit of legitimacy.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">AND
AS FOR the memories baseball fans will have of both Broglio and Green, one
doesn’t have to be of Hall of Fame statistical ability to be an interesting
story.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm23w4KlNNXU40ujFo863tmr8WWqCJFinplP-9nrr7QdRflY3IdnhAVh23x0X2n9694dADpxULUnjizaII-RGTGeJzRpbizfHj6z1U0FBKtqHw6QYOv_7Qjhdr7tcRYS3_WYaykTgcwMLD/s1600/pumpsie+green.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="275" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm23w4KlNNXU40ujFo863tmr8WWqCJFinplP-9nrr7QdRflY3IdnhAVh23x0X2n9694dADpxULUnjizaII-RGTGeJzRpbizfHj6z1U0FBKtqHw6QYOv_7Qjhdr7tcRYS3_WYaykTgcwMLD/s400/pumpsie+green.jpg" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>His historic moment occurred at Comiskey</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
is why it is encouraging to learn that Green never viewed himself as some sort
of racial pioneer, while Broglio didn’t let his life sink into a quagmire of
sorts because the guy he was traded for went on to become a super star – and he
didn’t.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Both
are amongst the ranks of those who tried to play baseball professionally AND
wound up making it up to the game’s highest ranks. They got their lines of type
in the Baseball Encyclopedia to confirm it.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
I’m sure both of them went to their graves this week thinking of themselves as
Major Leaguers – a label no one could take away from them.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-32897032006517219502019-07-18T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-18T00:01:05.200-05:00One-time ‘South Works’ steel mill could remain a ridiculously-large lot<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
one-time site of the U.S. Steel plant on the South Side, known as South Works,
has sat vacant for decades, and there have been so many bits of speculation
that have been made about what could be done with the site.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyRMj806ZbJwwXfUMn74l4BU6ObbW3-o_7pmdiri0q-Hg5fEXkZXWJLzKql91A5Swb00d1VGv02XO8ODZf7fZdWhUlrPM0JjmR6-iIwBmJBLKQyobiyfjI9RZ-iucioCudIbDyfprQTFFF/s1600/south+works.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="171" data-original-width="278" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyRMj806ZbJwwXfUMn74l4BU6ObbW3-o_7pmdiri0q-Hg5fEXkZXWJLzKql91A5Swb00d1VGv02XO8ODZf7fZdWhUlrPM0JjmR6-iIwBmJBLKQyobiyfjI9RZ-iucioCudIbDyfprQTFFF/s400/south+works.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The old 'South Works' plant</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Because
as a spot right on Lake Michigan stretching from 79<sup>th</sup> to 91<sup>st</sup>
streets, some make note of the fact it is larger than downtown Chicago.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THERE’S
DEFINITELY ENOUGH room to build something of significance. Which may well be
why Mayor Lori Lightfoot included the site amongst the five spots in various
parts of Chicago that are under consideration for the casino officials want to
build so as to help jolt the city’s economy further.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
might make sense, except for the fact that throughout the years since U.S.
Steel gave up on the idea of making steel at the plant there have been so many
suggestions for what ought to be done.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">A
factory for Solo Cup. Development of an entirely new upscale neighborhood in
between South Chicago and South Shore. Building a housing development that
would incorporate unique building techniques so as to create more affordable
housing.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
now, slot machines and roulette wheels galore. People could literally come to
the shores of Lake Michigan and lose their shirts big time on the site where
the steel that was used to build this country was actually produced.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THEN
AGAIN, MAYBE this is just another idea destined to become a mere fantasy. It
could be that a decade from now, the land along the lakefront in the 8000s
could still sit vacant – with only that giant concrete barricade standing.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJSFSikJEgUpukPuSkMDxHg_kzxP2uDAkWDvvp5zn1xKXUe4FjtHDy03bi2md4FnxhDCW7D7LOwJPIOTRfjfhnbaUbQQedWMiFDsXy8nep9i7JInQMfPfh36ZdqoS5g5ZONJy1_xeawSQ/s1600/wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="1023" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJSFSikJEgUpukPuSkMDxHg_kzxP2uDAkWDvvp5zn1xKXUe4FjtHDy03bi2md4FnxhDCW7D7LOwJPIOTRfjfhnbaUbQQedWMiFDsXy8nep9i7JInQMfPfh36ZdqoS5g5ZONJy1_xeawSQ/s320/wall.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Tearing down that wall would be tough</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">A
remnant of the old steel mill that remains only because trying to tear it down
would be ridiculously costly. Not at all practical.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Better
to build whatever you want to do around it and leave the barricade in place as
some sort of historic remnant to the kind of people who think certain things
ought never to change.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Now
personally, I have always taken an interest in the site largely out of a sense
of family interest. My own parents were born and raised around the South
Chicago neighborhood and both my grandfathers were workers in the steel mills.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WITH
ONE GRANDFATHER literally working at South Works because his neighborhood home
was within walking distance of the old steel mill. My father can tell tales of
the past when the steel mill was thriving, and all the grime and pollution it
caused were tolerated because the filth was perceived as evidence that people
were working.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7M0CMps9yFIp-vBKavhpPQ6ezz-yHFAAi9-3sifUe9dlJzkxd-3Cl8kHXdCDJ1ZFbfdzjqgAylrH6zFtMcqD9beG9DxmESYyEK3awLec2bOKcZNBsn4WYhx50zluHnbaIBosgzOBBbQz/s1600/remains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="474" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC7M0CMps9yFIp-vBKavhpPQ6ezz-yHFAAi9-3sifUe9dlJzkxd-3Cl8kHXdCDJ1ZFbfdzjqgAylrH6zFtMcqD9beG9DxmESYyEK3awLec2bOKcZNBsn4WYhx50zluHnbaIBosgzOBBbQz/s320/remains.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>What will someday fill this space?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Jobs
were available. Times were good!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Now
as I understand it, much of the difficulty in actually turning this site into
something of future use is because of all the environmental contamination the
site endured from the steel mill presence.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Anybody
who tries to build something of use there is going to get stuck with the cost
of environmental cleanup. And it ain’t a gonna’ be cheap to do – to put it
mildly.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">WHICH
COULD BE why that site winds up not being taken too seriously by those people
who want to see the big bucks generated by gambling – which they’ll insist on
calling “gaming” because they think it has a less-sordid ring to it.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
they’ll go about lambasting anyone who insists on including the “b” even though
I’d argue it’s merely being honest about what exactly casinos bring to a
community.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TZCGXMcNKvg/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TZCGXMcNKvg?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">So
I don’t doubt Chicago city officials eventually will get around to locating a
casino somewhere. They’re not going to let other communities have their
gambling without getting their share – even though I’m inclined to think that
we’re reaching the point of having too many casinos and that they’ll all manage
to cannibalize each other.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
it could well be that the filth and grime that my grandfather would have viewed
as evidence of ‘progress’ is really the factor that keeps the site from ever
becoming a significant boost to the neighborhood, and to Chicago as a whole.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-64609218864200878222019-07-17T18:11:00.002-05:002019-07-17T18:30:34.741-05:00EXTRA: ¿La segunda guerra civil?<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
shouldn’t be a shock – our society’s demographics are changing, and some people
are determined to ensure that nothing changes.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyspIg37nwevLl_SWkmkdVTzGfFQM-1w4VbfgJ02_b2kYLr0I1ivlfACbdG9dk5sDTj_Jvu36N-Loj8mpI5GVTVgz4awp7-DFFuTwrHhfe68ZyitPdwbO3npv1HuFr5RaE3_b7rqoAyGPA/s1600/rally.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyspIg37nwevLl_SWkmkdVTzGfFQM-1w4VbfgJ02_b2kYLr0I1ivlfACbdG9dk5sDTj_Jvu36N-Loj8mpI5GVTVgz4awp7-DFFuTwrHhfe68ZyitPdwbO3npv1HuFr5RaE3_b7rqoAyGPA/s400/rally.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Let's hope that rallies such as these don't devolve … </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It’s
the most obvious explanation for why a certain segment of our society supports
Donald Trump, no matter how moronic his behavior as president is or becomes an
embarrassment to all of us.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">SO
THE RESULTS of a series of polls that came out this week shouldn’t be a
surprise.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Yes,
the growing Latino population of our nation is grossly offended by Trump, and
his behavior threatens to cause harm to the political backing they might
otherwise have been expected to provide to Republicans, at-large.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Yet
it also seems true there are those people who don’t give a rat’s <i>culo</i>
about that. They see their continued support for Trump as a way of fighting
back against what they would view as a “takeover” of our society.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Take
the Morning Consult poll for the Politico newspaper, which found that 51
percent of those surveyed actually approved of the notion of mass raids in large
cities across the country to get “those frickin’ foreigners” out of the
country.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">YES,
ONLY 11 percent of those who call themselves Democrats strongly supported the
idea, but some 46 percent of those people who refuse to pick a party label also
favored the action – which withered away into a nothingness that did little but
scare up a segment of our society.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvJLfRo_d8U0Vve2aF_WaFYjEUtwN23vwkx04hFacn0_9R7DZgDW7NVvKQRo5PAaLc6VMP7povYcUl0UsS6VWZi1kc2-skOUXHzn3-VWS_-k9_6vKbQcGhBaFSRtR3-ru0quaYAq7WNXuB/s1600/gore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="625" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvJLfRo_d8U0Vve2aF_WaFYjEUtwN23vwkx04hFacn0_9R7DZgDW7NVvKQRo5PAaLc6VMP7povYcUl0UsS6VWZi1kc2-skOUXHzn3-VWS_-k9_6vKbQcGhBaFSRtR3-ru0quaYAq7WNXuB/s400/gore.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>… to gruesome carnage such as this of a century-and-a-half ago?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
then there were the polls done by Miami-based Latino Decisions, which found 51
percent of Latinos think that racism against the Spanish-speaking enclave of
our society is a “major” problem, while another 35 percent think it’s “somewhat”
of a problem.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
as for the statement, “I am frustrated with how President Trump and his allies
treat immigrants and Latinos, and I worry that it will get worse if Trump is
re-elected,” only 11 percent of Latinos surveyed did NOT agree.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">We
definitely don’t see eye to eye – the segments of our society whose ethnic origins
lie in Latin America and those who are of Irish/Scottish mix but would insist
on use of the “real Americans” label to describe themselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">We
definitely don’t see eye to eye – the segments of our society whose ethnic origins
lie in Latin America and those who are of Irish/Scottish mix but would insist
on use of the “real Americans” label to describe themselves.</span></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwfXh4amf_sBpvKOI8oyFtIVnc8qjSthwpU_KFFspYE1r2QoYqesdDL3e3L1AuC7xze0xmLLXcwq4qrXyHhlkG4rsISxLUSiV6iGCSI-fkHWEqaQwvDuWKuuG0EsK_QkN3d_PFq1vD80t/s1600/pinataTrump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwfXh4amf_sBpvKOI8oyFtIVnc8qjSthwpU_KFFspYE1r2QoYqesdDL3e3L1AuC7xze0xmLLXcwq4qrXyHhlkG4rsISxLUSiV6iGCSI-fkHWEqaQwvDuWKuuG0EsK_QkN3d_PFq1vD80t/s320/pinataTrump.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The ultimate Trump legacy?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THE
FACT IS that the national outcome ultimately will be a “numbers” game – similar
to how the original U.S. Civil War outcome ultimately came down to a matter of the
Union North having some 20 million people and the Confederate South having only
half as many – with some 4 million of those being the slaves whom the South
didn’t want to regard as full-fledged human beings.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Considering
that many of the people now determined to revere the memory of that Confederacy
of old are the same ones eager to embrace Donald Trump, it would seem that some
of us haven’t learned. Or are determined to fight the same ol’ battles.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHC6YT04DfoPm_IkaYX0LhFkL1AloWFTSUuSD_T2DkVfUFtuSE1AubDRuCW1zIjdboBmgvlWi04-ggGEpKfsy6XuRNVvqwFcDS2RaHEgPczPtxzifOIP603gTIgakHfTi1gVkC1vA-f02z/s1600/pins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="500" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHC6YT04DfoPm_IkaYX0LhFkL1AloWFTSUuSD_T2DkVfUFtuSE1AubDRuCW1zIjdboBmgvlWi04-ggGEpKfsy6XuRNVvqwFcDS2RaHEgPczPtxzifOIP603gTIgakHfTi1gVkC1vA-f02z/s320/pins.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Still peaceful, for now</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
is the real shame befalling us as a society. I’m optimistic enough to think the
day will come when those of us who will be the descendants of Trump-ites will
wonder how they could ever have been deluded enough to believe such nonsense.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Or
how much of our lives were wasted away by our inability to see past our
differences?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-4393506627579887212019-07-17T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-17T00:01:00.388-05:00Will U.S. ballplayers resemble the peloteros of the Mexican League?<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It’s
always a bit of a jolt whenever I stumble across the baseball played in the Mexican
League or any of the other professional leagues of Latin America – the ballplayers
themselves are walking billboards.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghXS6Ra4hDHkEP6JI2A70mPwr4rHKIuUj85hK-i3m949caGCbmVaSQSxRayKXNfE8Ue4-DjOuwkrjEFewhZj-0_Jv0nn5p7smxRhB9EtJp5mgAbIBUPY4562vhbebTJFlFRFaGH8htSy9u/s1600/98325-004-E8AB9F1F.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="550" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghXS6Ra4hDHkEP6JI2A70mPwr4rHKIuUj85hK-i3m949caGCbmVaSQSxRayKXNfE8Ue4-DjOuwkrjEFewhZj-0_Jv0nn5p7smxRhB9EtJp5mgAbIBUPY4562vhbebTJFlFRFaGH8htSy9u/s400/98325-004-E8AB9F1F.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>No, they're NOT all named 'Coca-Cola'</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Heck,
in some cases the spot on a uniform jersey where we would expect to see a
ballplayer’s name winds up being the brand-name of some company instead.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">UNLESS
YOU HAPPENED to believe that everybody playing for the team representing the
Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Series was named “Orange.” Which, in
actuality, is a company that provides wireless services and also sells the SIM
cards that are often used by people in Latin American countries to make international
telephone calls.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">My
point being that there already is a portion of baseball that views the uniforms
their ballplayers wear as yet another place where advertising can be placed –
thereby generating even more revenue for the respective ball clubs.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">That
trend is coming to the United States.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
it seems that Major League Baseball officials are calling it “inevitable” that
the uniforms of the Cubs and White Sox – and all the teams they play against –
will have advertising patches placed upon them.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3HwXr39YDR46F6p3aITzqeHudgVJxIBmobU6_eSQTTxwIaypLiI1sq3OJB8Z7eHojYoE19cmJlrrmg2-gEHEb0V6jB4xI2owl1hhvwfsxojw4OyOuycUnaKaUSeKv9d8x0tn167QLB6K/s1600/th191RFHRD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="227" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3HwXr39YDR46F6p3aITzqeHudgVJxIBmobU6_eSQTTxwIaypLiI1sq3OJB8Z7eHojYoE19cmJlrrmg2-gEHEb0V6jB4xI2owl1hhvwfsxojw4OyOuycUnaKaUSeKv9d8x0tn167QLB6K/s400/th191RFHRD.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Diablos Rojos de Mexico? Or Banamex?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">IT’S
NOT KNOWN whether they’d be on the shoulder or across the chest, or if there’d
be an effort to make them subtle or incredibly garish so that they are the predominant
image. Reducing the Old English “Sox” logo or the interlocking “NY” of the
Yankees to an afterthought.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
seems like this can’t happen before 2022 because the players’ association would
have to give their approval to having their million-dollar ballplayers be
reduced to serving as walking, running and throwing billboards for whichever
corporate interest pays the teams the most money.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDZXSG-qLg-oawnDnWGvuZ0Zc4oe1lAyfGOHhSZOqgIDTKOCjvjYtzmocG2raPf-fucmRrWkgZPQ5Qd22k0P9kIbIfZxFCPfLXbF7fWCOgTR2xyJczzFBVfrYtBPszQLrRWW_by1yxSTB/s1600/comiskey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDZXSG-qLg-oawnDnWGvuZ0Zc4oe1lAyfGOHhSZOqgIDTKOCjvjYtzmocG2raPf-fucmRrWkgZPQ5Qd22k0P9kIbIfZxFCPfLXbF7fWCOgTR2xyJczzFBVfrYtBPszQLrRWW_by1yxSTB/s320/comiskey.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Elgin watch 'clock' atop Comiskey, … </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Now
I know some people are insisting the idea of advertising across the chest of
Mike Trout is somehow blasphemous. Would we have ever dreamed of Babe Ruth
becoming a pitch for a product?</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifhByOHeaxJrR6ar90wESkcxlwk3D81pAbPbS1fxuBjXrx6nfXpQ4mWh-iBgiM4PjzMV2VxOkHnln-nZB-HwZSps0Tf99hWpvYLwePsfQSUIxP5OE2Bk5O2Yvjhzz6qEaT6bdS-m5iTIhy/s1600/wrigley+budweiser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="400" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifhByOHeaxJrR6ar90wESkcxlwk3D81pAbPbS1fxuBjXrx6nfXpQ4mWh-iBgiM4PjzMV2VxOkHnln-nZB-HwZSps0Tf99hWpvYLwePsfQSUIxP5OE2Bk5O2Yvjhzz6qEaT6bdS-m5iTIhy/s320/wrigley+budweiser.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>… or the Budweiser 'rooftop'' outside of Wrigley?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
to me, I can’t help but wonder why this hasn’t occurred long ago.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BALLCLUBS
HAVE ALWAYS used their ballparks as a source of advertising income – allowing companies
to place tacky billboards all over their outfield walls and scoreboards.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">In
some cases, creating images that are regarded as a part of baseball’s history.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Who
can forget the old “Schafer” beer sign on the scoreboard of Ebbets Field in
Brooklyn (the “h” lit up for a hit and the “e” for an error)? Or the old right
field wall at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, where the ad told us in no uncertain terms
that “the Phillies use Lifebuoy” soap.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
any baseball fan worth their salt knows exactly what phrase was added on to the
ad by a graffiti-ist.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">HECK,
EVEN IN Chicago, the old Comiskey Park scoreboard clock was an ad for Elgin
watches. While one of my own memories of the first ballgame I went to as a kid
was seeing the ad for Carta Blanca beer (which made the first time I actually
tasted that <i>cerveza</i> brand a complete letdown).</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjK26tDEvhr7h5iOGnyQoT8Oaaogm8wqGkr2nHfQkYEu-sTOwldff7eI59umhijCrX59p-30HrxlljrbJDRnFhMQt82FqlzbyqO2V-D9BTllQ1jRfy3Q2OQ9UWEwCzZs43s9SXzcY1zlW/s1600/lifebuoy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="681" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjK26tDEvhr7h5iOGnyQoT8Oaaogm8wqGkr2nHfQkYEu-sTOwldff7eI59umhijCrX59p-30HrxlljrbJDRnFhMQt82FqlzbyqO2V-D9BTllQ1jRfy3Q2OQ9UWEwCzZs43s9SXzcY1zlW/s400/lifebuoy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>To this day, baseball fans know the Phillies 'still stink' despite Lifebuoy</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
while Wrigley Field denizens used to try to claim their ballpark maintained
some sort of purity with no ads on the outfield walls, one can’t ignore that
house across the street from left field that was turned into a giant Budweiser
ad that everybody in the ballpark could see.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
point being that advertising is part of the character of baseball. And seeing
how teams are eager to sell the naming rights to their stadiums themselves to
the highest bidder, it probably is inevitable that the uniforms themselves will
become space to be sold.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
means we’ll probably get the day when fans will debate which players bear the
most interesting advertising logos. And some smart-aleck will probably speculate
that Ernie Banks couldn’t have been that special – nobody ever used his jersey
for product placement!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-57795370689582353762019-07-16T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-16T00:01:07.287-05:00Send Trump back? Who’d want him!<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">President
Donald Trump is an ethnic mixture of Scottish and German – the latter of which cause
some people to deride him by reminding us at every chance they get that the family
name originally was ‘Drumpf.’</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh295ZT8jhGo0iuIf9lpU3zgnRcTm_8xOSDta3Ptl2MZhcoJRAB77R5xO28b57NBF-TWSgLT-n4vj9-ffP00zwp_CtF3evxgacGDoI-DKuEHcbVbtiVK7OO50IsuLh9Ao7P05EgfDB8a8RQ/s1600/Donald+Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh295ZT8jhGo0iuIf9lpU3zgnRcTm_8xOSDta3Ptl2MZhcoJRAB77R5xO28b57NBF-TWSgLT-n4vj9-ffP00zwp_CtF3evxgacGDoI-DKuEHcbVbtiVK7OO50IsuLh9Ao7P05EgfDB8a8RQ/s320/Donald+Trump.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>TRUMP: Deport Donald? Who'd want him!</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Back
in the days when they were the immigrants, and the name change was made to come
up with something they thought sounded more “American.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">SO
NOW THAT the president is on a rhetorical kick of wanting to deride members of
Congress whom he thinks aren’t American-enough to belong in this country –
literally saying they should “go back to the broken and crime-infested
countries they came from” – perhaps we ought to give it a thought.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Should
we take this sorry excuse of a U.S president, revoke his American citizenship,
and ship him off to either Scotland or Germany? Send him back “home,” so to
speak!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Actually,
that would be a ludicrous fantasy – and not because of the fact that Trump by
birth is a Noo Yawker from the borough of Queens (even though he’d like us to
think he’s the ultimate in Manhattan sophistication).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">More
it’s ludicrous because I suspect that neither Scotland nor Germany would want
anything to do with The Donald or anyone in his pompous, egotistical family.
They probably think they dodged a bullet of sorts by having his family emigrate
away from them all those generations ago.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtiVA0enScY8zk9oLOHYUidqAmD_aJ9uE6iRx93BC-lGEUjA9kC5xzGxHagV_0EyZrbKjcvOo-oCYOnBgBT2HQ9DaChn31itJcvpSiUYqx9ywDEcsjrvIRLpz_fp18MN1skF4DTm9aU2j/s1600/alexandria+ocasio+cortez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtiVA0enScY8zk9oLOHYUidqAmD_aJ9uE6iRx93BC-lGEUjA9kC5xzGxHagV_0EyZrbKjcvOo-oCYOnBgBT2HQ9DaChn31itJcvpSiUYqx9ywDEcsjrvIRLpz_fp18MN1skF4DTm9aU2j/s320/alexandria+ocasio+cortez.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>OCASIO-CORTEZ: Not easily silenced</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">EITHER
THAT, OR maybe they’d concoct some sort of scheme by which they could confiscate
his immense family wealth for themselves – thereby reducing the Trump family to
penniless status.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Not
that I expect this to happen either. I suspect our society is stuck with the
Trump ego – and is going to have to live with the shame of knowing it really
was possible for a vocal minority of voters to actually prevail in the 2016 election
cycle.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRa4jCkXV3AKkFlCLlnJk29MuSH8lDevyNGQTUAgWztJ3lBgUuw6c1oDhvOF11NqV0RyXvTf5rWyHBhaT7UHX6F4Bkl3mhUts8HTCAbHDHAvAY7fVp4iDA7DP6rrf4yM6QQFurnqbKZXQF/s1600/ayanna+pressley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="474" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRa4jCkXV3AKkFlCLlnJk29MuSH8lDevyNGQTUAgWztJ3lBgUuw6c1oDhvOF11NqV0RyXvTf5rWyHBhaT7UHX6F4Bkl3mhUts8HTCAbHDHAvAY7fVp4iDA7DP6rrf4yM6QQFurnqbKZXQF/s320/ayanna+pressley.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>PRESSLEY: Deport her to … Cincinnati?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">A
vocal minority that probably thinks it is entirely clever for Trump to go around
using his Twitter account to spew nonsense like he did this past weekend –
where he derided four outspoken members of the Democratic caucus of Congress
for, basically, not treating their own ethnic and racial origins as something
they ought to be greatly ashamed of.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq7T98dG5tZo6EPNw98C58aUj8kQ9qihnebSXQYDWooabueyMphd3Pe7asGVd2E8vHq8vNjLg83YFl_L3vZjEo42R6y2WgiprgXsen3zszMAsOTlpaxNX1rp1sN-RG31L8QzBbjffd_OiE/s1600/rashida+tlaib.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="473" data-original-width="474" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq7T98dG5tZo6EPNw98C58aUj8kQ9qihnebSXQYDWooabueyMphd3Pe7asGVd2E8vHq8vNjLg83YFl_L3vZjEo42R6y2WgiprgXsen3zszMAsOTlpaxNX1rp1sN-RG31L8QzBbjffd_OiE/s320/rashida+tlaib.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>TLAIB: Serving Michigan proudly</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
what it’s worth, he was talking about Rep. Ilan Omar, D-Minn., who was born in
Somalia and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to this country as a
12-year-old and ultimately settling in Minneapolis.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT
THEN HE lumped in three other members of Congress – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of
New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – as others
who don’t really belong here.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">All
are U.S.-born, and in the case of Ocasio-Cortez may be Puerto Rican-ethnic but
was raised in the suburbs of New York City. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Only
in the mini-mind of Donald Trump would they somehow not belong here, where I
suspect his real objection to them having a prominence in society is due to the
fact he regards many women as being decorative objects – and nothing else.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Think
about it seriously. What are we going to do – deport Pressley back to her birth
city of Cincinnati? It’s nonsense-talk like this that causes many to deride him
as the “twit who Tweets” and to regard his constant use of Twitter as a true
social embarrassment on our society – far worse than anything that any of the
Congressional women has had to say.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">ALTHOUGH
IF YOU really want the truth, I suspect his attack on the Congresswomen was a
deliberate tactic in its’ timing – as in Sunday, the day that was supposed to
see federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials conducting many raids
to deport all kinds of foreigners whom he also thinks don’t really belong “here.”</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixc7XhNCHQxvl-95aVmhrOdnK472idlrYExVyFBAnuSbMTJ884IdmJ6PhBG48XnDVjgIKjEj2s6hehQzYcysBzJ00LJ9PnPq_Rghf0S3OgXbObMqiXv1Y1dDt2xNoIour2edzMFXk3TNLg/s1600/ilan+omar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixc7XhNCHQxvl-95aVmhrOdnK472idlrYExVyFBAnuSbMTJ884IdmJ6PhBG48XnDVjgIKjEj2s6hehQzYcysBzJ00LJ9PnPq_Rghf0S3OgXbObMqiXv1Y1dDt2xNoIour2edzMFXk3TNLg/s320/ilan+omar.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>OMAR: Learned English off American TV</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It
seems the raids fizzled out, and really didn’t amount to much of anything.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Yet
instead of now wondering how full of hot air Trump is for all his immigration
raid trash talk, the focus is instead going toward Trump wanting to kick
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez out of the continental U.S.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Although
even that wouldn’t achieve much – because Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth.
Meaning even if she were sent back to the Caribbean island, she’d still be
within U.S. reach and more than capable of speaking out against Trump nonsense
on oh so many issues. Nobody silences AOC that easily!</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">EDITOR'S NOTE: It's worth pointing out that everybody here is standing before, and serving the interests of, the very same U.S. flag.</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-25990668388741304772019-07-15T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-15T00:01:00.128-05:0071 years later, and yet the Woody Guthrie tune remains ever-so relevant<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Good
bye to my Juan/Good bye Rosalita</span></i><br />
<i><span lang="ES-MX" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Adios mis amigos Jesus y Maria</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">You
won’t have a name/When you ride the big airplane</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">All
they will call you/Will be ‘deportees’</span></i><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">--Plane
Wreck at Los Gatos/Woody Guthrie (1948)<i></i></span></b><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-0-</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qu-duTWccyI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qu-duTWccyI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It’s
kind of scary to think that a song composed some 70-plus years ago remains so
dead-on accurate this far into the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. Yet that seems to
be the case with the famed protest tune “Deportee.”</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mmN2nodeHuk/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mmN2nodeHuk?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Composed
and originally performed by Woody Guthrie, the same man who gave us “This Land
is Your Land,” the tune has come to be associated with folk singer Pete Seeger
and has been covered by so many differing artists – including some such as Dolly
Parton and Johnny Cash whom I’m sure many would think fit the profile of the “real
America” the ideologues claim they support.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/d87jEZ1Agpo/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d87jEZ1Agpo?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THE
SONG WAS motivated by Guthrie being offended by the New York Times account of
the Jan. 28, 1948 plane crash near Los Gatos Canyon – not far from Fresno,
Calif. Guthrie was bothered by the fact that the report clearly identified the
members of the flight crew , while merely dismissed the 28 migrant farm workers
on their way back to Mexico as “deportees.”</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oDfqXkYWzZM/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oDfqXkYWzZM?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which,
I would suspect, is exactly the way that the proponents of the immigration
raids that President Donald Trump has been screeching and screaming about for
months would like to see happen yet again.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y_HHMd94a0s/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y_HHMd94a0s?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
raids were supposedly (or at least according to the rumor mill that Trump is
openly encouraging) set to occur Sunday – possibly in the early hours. Many
hundreds, if not thousands, of foreigners whom the ideologues are determined to
think of as criminal just for their very existence in this country will be
woken up from their sleep, hauled off by authorities, and eventually put onto
an airplane taking them to Brownsville, Texas – where a bus will then transport them
across the border to Mexico.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The
last thing we’re supposed to think about is the fact that these individuals are
human beings, with lives and individualities. Who probably are doing work in
this country that make a worthwhile contribution to our society.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CeCstLTB0EI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CeCstLTB0EI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">NOT
THAT THE ideologues want to hear any of this kind of talk. It was just a week
ago I encountered someone (who actually is a decent-enough human being) who
tried to justify his nativist thoughts by saying he’s really only against
Somalis – whom he claims are absolutely refusing to assimilate to the ways of life
of our nation.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VR_AC0E0rgA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VR_AC0E0rgA?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I don’t
doubt that any effort to do reporting on the actual deportation process to
bring humanity to these people will be regarded as somehow being un-American.
Although to me, the actual “un-American” conduct is having the authorities
bust down people’s doors and haul them off – possibly before anyone is truly
awake and aware of what is happening. Just like in the modern-day Russia or North Korea whom Trump claims aren't really all that bad!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FNmn7jdbQwA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FNmn7jdbQwA?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Now
it’s always possible that the anticipated deportations won’t be as extensive as
some fear – and are merely trash-talk meant to feed the mini-mentalities of
those people who want to think Donald Trump is a true patriot – rather than
just an egotistical buffoon with a bloated view of his self-importance. Maybe Monday
will feel like a relief.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rAun4kaEroY/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rAun4kaEroY?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But
the way in which the Trump-types keep insisting they’re targeting people with
arrest records in this country (and could accidentally pick up others in the
process) makes it seem like Guthrie was on to something all those years ago
when he wrote: <i>“They chase us like outlaws/Like rustlers, like thieves.”</i></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-31313929332468955842019-07-13T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-13T00:01:01.829-05:00Loyalty? Or selfishness?<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Watching
the Chicago White Sox these days, a part of me can’t help but wonder who’s
smoking what with regards to the ballclub’s best player these days – Jose Abreu.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHtprcLsLEqNIko8B_VbMsdt3FcubNjHDCQvdeDfhvx0RTQ71m418KBuwhWRZ9959-KFfZ3LdB-XIP7DMbSS2p3RZ3D9wCyaKAWWOXAOOSs0yxtXxz6HpppIC7mF20bxzlxeTI_7Z_lhR7/s1600/jose+abreu.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="361" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHtprcLsLEqNIko8B_VbMsdt3FcubNjHDCQvdeDfhvx0RTQ71m418KBuwhWRZ9959-KFfZ3LdB-XIP7DMbSS2p3RZ3D9wCyaKAWWOXAOOSs0yxtXxz6HpppIC7mF20bxzlxeTI_7Z_lhR7/s400/jose+abreu.png" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Potential Sox all-time star?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Yes,
I know the team has several youthful ballplayers who have the potential to be
stars that lead the White Sox to potential championships in coming seasons.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT
THE FACT is that Abreu, the Cuban exile who came to Chicago back in 2013, has
been THE significant part of the White Sox during this past decade. He’s also
achieved enough in recent seasons that his name has to come up in any discussion
of White Sox history.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Abreu,
at 167 home runs is already amongst the top home run hitters in Sout’ Side
baseball history. Wouldn’t it make sense that people would want Abreu to be the
BIG BAT at the lead of the potential White Sox championship teams of the 2020s?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Yet
the fact is that there is a significant share of White Sox fandom who would
just as soon see Abreu depart. It seems the contracts he has had to play in
Chicago come to an end after this season.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">If
the White Sox want to keep him, they’re going to have to come up with some sort
of financial bonanza to make it worth his while to want to stay in Chicago.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT
THERE’S THE fact that Abreu now is 32, which in traditional baseball thought,
is the point in time when a ballplayer crosses over from his physical athletic
peak and starts to become over-the-hill.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr_NK-R20dHHm2veCHvU5U6qc9YgE4DzxgWfw2XwMLAB8rc2GziT7mdXc_W_ZasB70BLFYtNc7f_pvQjgKYyez_E2PPezALAQXHpLIPoraf0zZuHrjoXuJ-PjaH7WCyPgm3OIsbVrMnf0L/s1600/minnie+minoso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="274" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr_NK-R20dHHm2veCHvU5U6qc9YgE4DzxgWfw2XwMLAB8rc2GziT7mdXc_W_ZasB70BLFYtNc7f_pvQjgKYyez_E2PPezALAQXHpLIPoraf0zZuHrjoXuJ-PjaH7WCyPgm3OIsbVrMnf0L/s400/minnie+minoso.jpg" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Also an Indian, Cardinal and Senator</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Do
the White Sox really want to pay big money to keep Abreu for a few more years
to see if he can be a part of the White Sox’ next World Series title-winning
team?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Would
the team be better off letting him go to some other ball club, while relying on
the big name <i>peloteros</i> such as Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez
to be the stars of the Sox?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For
his part, Abreu says he wants to stay with the White Sox – going so far as to
say he will sign himself to stay with the Sox even if the Sox themselves don’t
make him a contractual offer beyond this 2019 season.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">SO
IS ABREU truly loyal to the Sout’ Side baseball scene? Or is he just being selfish
in thinking about himself?</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDpqd6EiV8KBqm6ZFdCe4A9AtBm8Pg2qg25hG9PsZ5j5-lZNERDS6RHFU37YD-dmZQ7i_t4IDb06Qp5AITL3MbsLKbCtc2FQDFyMXQheAbhA7mUPaS_T2y1BsnyNJ5KJtqhchnrfCzRvdc/s1600/harold+baines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="290" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDpqd6EiV8KBqm6ZFdCe4A9AtBm8Pg2qg25hG9PsZ5j5-lZNERDS6RHFU37YD-dmZQ7i_t4IDb06Qp5AITL3MbsLKbCtc2FQDFyMXQheAbhA7mUPaS_T2y1BsnyNJ5KJtqhchnrfCzRvdc/s400/harold+baines.jpg" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>An Orioles team Hall of Famer</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Actually,
it’s the reason why I think old-timer fans who complain about modern
ballplayers having no loyalty are full of it. The so-called loyalty of the past
was usually one way – players were expected to give all to the teams, who would
think nothing of trading away or releasing a player when it was to the team’s
self-interest.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Heck,
I remember when Frank Thomas (the White Sox’ most recent Hall of Fame player)
expressed thoughts of wanting to play in Chicago his whole career. But the White
Sox let him go willingly – and he wound up finishing with stints in Oakland and
Toronto.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Even
such White Sox notables as “Minnie” Miñoso and Harold Baines played for other ball
clubs – with Miñoso also playing for Cleveland and Baines playing well-enough
for Baltimore that he’s also a member of that team’s personal Hall of Fame. Or even legendary Sox like Luis Aparicio or Nellie Fox, who also played for Baltimore and Boston, along with Philadelphia and Houston respectively.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnpaMlXUbpecY4pGqcuxRB1zY8qPplU1LB3f7Rcqdn9fSZLJ-o7nlRQ_RkqiLOdKcB5PcYBnbiAu0_s8nyJvK633TwiNqDctgEAQgAKiULpqxRvuqdVVL2L6sRiTDruF5FdhJsuBsxteN3/s1600/fox+aparicio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="311" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnpaMlXUbpecY4pGqcuxRB1zY8qPplU1LB3f7Rcqdn9fSZLJ-o7nlRQ_RkqiLOdKcB5PcYBnbiAu0_s8nyJvK633TwiNqDctgEAQgAKiULpqxRvuqdVVL2L6sRiTDruF5FdhJsuBsxteN3/s400/fox+aparicio.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sox combo also had their moments with Athletics and Orioles</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><i></i>SO
MAYBE IT wouldn’t be the most outrageous deal if Abreu became a Yankee or a Red
Sox for a few seasons. Who knows; that might be his best chance to actually be
on a championship team.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizRGQ9nhK3WmKCDQrdHY3guVF3rV5kG9ILCZpK6vhAakuwAlHvnbZS3hZEhkh_baHbZa5osonriwdQxU3v452SpNlhrv_dnk26JWoT2AiX0-pBO-8NaLZMZWnpXcTskniYBYLJQWxUFhJv/s1600/luke+appling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="312" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizRGQ9nhK3WmKCDQrdHY3guVF3rV5kG9ILCZpK6vhAakuwAlHvnbZS3hZEhkh_baHbZa5osonriwdQxU3v452SpNlhrv_dnk26JWoT2AiX0-pBO-8NaLZMZWnpXcTskniYBYLJQWxUFhJv/s320/luke+appling.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>One of the few life-long Sox</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It’s
not exactly out-of-line to think that the White Sox of the 2020s could find
their championship dreams thwarted by the up-and-coming teams the New York
Yankees are putting together these days.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which
actually would be in character with White Sox history, as the “Go Go” teams of
the 1950s wound up finishing most seasons in second place behind the Yanks.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
we’ll have to see for ourselves just how much a part of White Sox history Abreu
himself (will number 79 be the next uniform digit retired) is destined to
become.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-31017387894948945982019-07-12T00:01:00.000-05:002019-07-12T00:01:03.236-05:00Trump seems determined to use immigration trash-talk to get re-elected<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">President Donald Trump wants another term
in office, and seems determined to create the impression of himself as the guy
who kicked all those frickin’ foreigners out of this country.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFJZCoacYr6B63gc7rlvYsatz_v6Ot4vdZxcR-dEr2UN-b2sKyh1oUqXxF45XDjE3J-eqJ85Nl8xuz-3xFDzn1fXivWtBK3FiH_doLpboCPJn5EAD1JdS9gitbH3wN6agypSikNRefmWx/s1600/Donald+Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDFJZCoacYr6B63gc7rlvYsatz_v6Ot4vdZxcR-dEr2UN-b2sKyh1oUqXxF45XDjE3J-eqJ85Nl8xuz-3xFDzn1fXivWtBK3FiH_doLpboCPJn5EAD1JdS9gitbH3wN6agypSikNRefmWx/s400/Donald+Trump.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>TRUMP: National equivalent of playground bully?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">He’s the guy who wanted a series of
national immigration raids to create a sudden boost in the actual number of
deportations.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">OF COURSE, SO many details got out about
where and when these raids would take place that Trump put a hold on the plan –
while insisting he did it as a courtesy to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., who was working to put together a border aid package in Congress.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Not that anybody believed Trump would do
anything out of courtesy to anybody but himself. Which is why the talk is
starting up again that raids of a sort will start Sunday.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">With activists saying they’re planning a
protest rally in Chicago for Saturday, hoping to get several thousand
individuals to publicly express their disgust with The Donald and his
immigration desires.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">This comes as Trump made his announcement Thursday
of his latest desire to get information about non-citizens living in this country. He contemplated an executive order that would require a Census Bureau question as in being able to
enact his desires without having to get Congress to sign off on them first,
which truly is the “American Way” of doing things.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">TRUMP, WHO HAS tried to get the 2020
Census population count altered so as to include questions about the citizenship
status of those reporting, now says he’s going to require federal government agencies to turn any information over to the Commerce Department so it can be compiled into incriminating information.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">He’s not concerned with the several court
rulings that have found there to be no legitimate purpose to having such a
question as part of the Census. Because the purpose of the Census is to get as
accurate a count as possible of the U.S.’s actual population on April 1, 2020.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And Trump is determined enough that his
way MUST prevail that he’s going to get his question included in some form, so as to gather
up as much information as possible as to who exactly is here.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which has some concerned that all Trump is
doing is trying to gather intelligence that could someday be used to single out
even more people for deportation. Trump backers try to claim that it’s overly
cynical and paranoid to think ill of the presidential intentions on this issue.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">BUT IT PROBABLY says much about the lack
of trust the majority of our society has in the executive abilities of Trump
that we don’t fully trust him. And for good reasons.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Because this is the man who started off
his political portion of life by letting it be known he was more than willing
to single out for abuse certain types of people – and was more than willing to
kowtow to the segment of our society that has a strong xenophobic streak
running down its spine.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The kind of people who will wet their pants
with glee at the very thought of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
working overtime on Sunday to weed people out, arrest them, then deport them.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And those who are willing to think that
the courts’ refusal to go along with Trump’s desires for a Census Bureau
question that some in our society would not feel comfortable answering is merely
evidence that the courts themselves ARE the problem.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">IT WILL BE curious to see if this becomes
a winning strategy; letting the ideologues amongst us think they are succeeding
in reclaiming our country from those of us who’d prefer to see American ideals
prevail in the way things are done.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which is why I found interesting the
results of a Morning Consult poll that shows one-time Vice President Joe Biden
holding slight leads over would-be presidential challengers Kamala Harris and
Elizabeth Warren.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">But that is amongst people who identify
themselves as most likely to actually vote. Which means it could well be in the
hands of those slightly-more apathetic about casting ballots to decide whether
we actually replace Trump come November of 2020.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Which may well be part of the Trump
strategy as well – stir up so much trash that the bulk of people will be
dismayed enough to not bother voting. Truly a sad strategy that says little
about the man’s inherent character.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-586914322065730371.post-37764426732574368022019-07-11T16:13:00.007-05:002019-07-11T16:15:31.144-05:00EXTRA: Gas prices on the rise. So are the level of complaints we’re hearing<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Just
a thought as far as people complaining about the price of gasoline going up these
days on account of the increase in the state of Illinois’ motor fuel tax.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf28yD-NcCdi2qkHIUgjAKwUtzSWAoiACmqeSdM5nSDz377CNjtfFXrOn_FbPQiVAAPjs8nxWQiaTceubgWhH92Bs7So4KA-IB6F37YodBeD3vV1s4Wah9OY_ZNnmGFHAhLUmrrdUxFNlp/s1600/chi-high-gas-prices-20130430.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="599" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf28yD-NcCdi2qkHIUgjAKwUtzSWAoiACmqeSdM5nSDz377CNjtfFXrOn_FbPQiVAAPjs8nxWQiaTceubgWhH92Bs7So4KA-IB6F37YodBeD3vV1s4Wah9OY_ZNnmGFHAhLUmrrdUxFNlp/s400/chi-high-gas-prices-20130430.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Remember when gas prices soared this high in Chicago?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Yes,
it costs less in surrounding states, which could make for an advantage if one
happens to be in a bordering region at the time they need to make a automotive fuel purchase.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">SUCH
AS MY own circumstance earlier this week when I happened to be in Gary, Ind.,
and encountered a Mobil gas station charging $2.69 per gallon of gas. Other
stations I witnessed in the land of Hoosiers had gas prices ranging from $2.79
to $2.95.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Yet
the moment I came back to the land of civilization, the cheapest gas prices I
saw were around $3.19 – with motor fuel at name-brand stations costing
potentially $3.30 per gallon. With the additional cost that gas usually incurs
in Chicago proper, the cost goes up further.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">With
the gaspricewatch.com website indicating Thursday that gas prices in the city
topped at $3.45 per gallon. Much higher than the national average of $2.81 per
gallon.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<i></i><i></i><i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">So
excuse me (think Steve Martin in the white suit with arrow through his head) if
I’m not overly swayed by a <a href="https://www.sj-r.com/news/20190710/new-illinois-gas-tax-hurting-south-beloit-gas-stations?rssfeed=true">story published</a> in the State Journal-Register of
Springfield (which the newspaper picked up from the Register-Star newspaper of
Rockford) that says prices on the Illinois side of the Illinois-Wisconsin
border are now out of control.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDLzNBLLN7RI6jzhojvaFKpNu_1Cnoo4Hap5nSoqlGW0q55H1_oil0aN-v5a80Cw7Dt08yHxnwYFPm-3HZcuudCchgKfywNDchtch3OSRdi70Q_U4uoX9XGrauSt5oREKWjVDBasuIYJda/s1600/IL_RRS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1311" data-original-width="700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDLzNBLLN7RI6jzhojvaFKpNu_1Cnoo4Hap5nSoqlGW0q55H1_oil0aN-v5a80Cw7Dt08yHxnwYFPm-3HZcuudCchgKfywNDchtch3OSRdi70Q_U4uoX9XGrauSt5oREKWjVDBasuIYJda/s640/IL_RRS.jpg" width="339" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>An outrage? Not necessarily</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i></i><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">THE PAPERS INDICATE gas prices at $2.78 per gallon at stations in Illinois,
compared to $2.61 per gallon just north of the state line in Wisconsin.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">My
point is there are more drastic price differentials than what this paper is
trying to pursue as evidence of an outrage. Things are worse elsewhere.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And
as far as my own situation, I don’t know I’m willing to make the trip to Gary
every time I need to fuel an automobile. It was a circumstance that benefitted
me that one day.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Now
if it turns out that the gas tax revenue increase does NOT benefit all the road
repairs and other projects that the state of Illinois alleges the money will go
do, THEN we can rant and rage. Until then, those of us with complaints ought to
quit showing that we’re more full of gas than our cars.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>-30-</span></div>
Gregory Tejedahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03233009340333100205noreply@blogger.com0