Chicago out-conned by Rio de Janeiro?

For all the rhetoric we hear about how venal and corrupt the inherent character of Chicago truly is, I couldn’t help but wonder if the real problem is that our city is run by a batch of goo-goos.

The 'games' that never were

It was the thought that popped into my head when I read reports about the bribery and corruption that is being alleged, tied to the decision more than a decade ago to stage the 2016 Summer Olympic games in Rio de Janiero.

THE OFFICIAL RHETORIC was that the International Olympic Committee decided it was FINALLY time to stage an Olympics in a city south of the equator.

But now, we have a former governor of Rio saying he paid the U.S. equivalent of over $2 million to committee members in order to ensure they voted for Rio over any of the other cities around the world that were competing for those games.

In short, bribes were paid. The process was rigged.

Now how truthful should we think all of this is? Well there’s the fact that former Governor Sergio Cabral already is convicted of criminal acts and is serving a lengthy prison term – at 200 years, it is one he may never be free from.

SO WHAT REASON would Cabral have to lie? It seems he has nothing to gain, or lose, by coming forth now with the testimony he offered in court last week. Or it could be the ultimate reason – political revenge.

There are other officials who will have trials coming up soon – and this could be a desire on his part to take down those officials to make them suffer the same fate that he is now enduring.

Daley's soul supposedly too black, but … 

Attorneys for those officials, by the way, claim it’s all trash-talk on Cabral’s part. He’s got no proof! Or so they say.

Now how is any of this the least bit relevant – or interesting – to those of us in Chicago? It’s because those 2016 Olympic Games were the ones that then-Mayor Richard M. Daley was determined to bring to the Second City. Remember the plans for a stadium to be temporarily erected in Washington Park?

REMEMBER THE GLOBAL battles between Tokyo, Madrid, Rio and Chicago? Remember the sentiment that this was a fight for Chicago to win so as to show our global dominance?

… was Hizzoner really too honest to prevail?

Remember the thousands of people gathered in Daley Plaza on that date in 2009 when the Olympic site was chosen – with fanatics chanting “We’re Number Four” (Chicago’s place on the four-city ballot) only to be suddenly silenced when it was learned that Chicago’s bid was the first to be knocked out of the running.

We really were number four – in terms of actually getting those games. The visions of Barack Obama presiding over an Olympics held in his home city turned out to be fantasy.

Mayor Daley was so disgusted by the city’s failure to win the Olympic games that the city has pretty much given up on attracting the International sports scene. It’s a large part of the reason why the 2026 World Cup tourney for soccer will be played partially in the United States – yet none of the matches will be held in Chicago.

EVEN RAHM EMANUEL had enough of the bad aftertaste to not want to bother with the international sports scene.

But now, we hear the whole thing may well have been rigged. We may well have lost that political fight to Rio de Janeiro because we weren’t corrupt enough. As in maybe we would have attracted the Olympic games and all the international attention that Daley wanted to bring to Chicago if only we were as corrupt as some of the political ideologues would want to insist we are.

The 'facility' that never became!

Not that I’m claiming we in Chicago should have loosened up our wallets and come up with more cash than the International Olympic Committee demanded from the Brazilians.

But it makes me wonder how much those ideologues are choking on their rhetoric at the notion that Chicago was out-corrupted by somebody else. And that it may well have been a Daley who got out-hard-balled politically for being too honest.

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Was ‘Sweet 16’ of our century really that miserable? Or just the Cubs?

It is a running theme of much commentary these days – the year 2016, to put it mildly, sucked.

TRUMP: Ugh, is all many of us will ever think

One can cite the many celebrity deaths of the year that extend far beyond Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds passing just one day apart, or Zsa Zsa Gabor, Florence Henderson (how can 'Marcia, Marcia, Marcia's' mom be gone?), David Bowie and Prince, along with Muhammad Ali. Or actor William Christopher (of M*A*S*H fame) who died Saturday.

THOSE ARE JUST a few, as in the ones I can recall right off the top of my head as I write this. I’m sure you instantly will remember someone else who has passed and will want to dash off a quickie note to me telling me how stupid I am for forgetting so-and-so.

Those are on top of the 778 homicides that occurred in Chicago, with the likelihood that another two or three people will slip into the total before it becomes absolute. As in 2016 was the bloodiest year on Chicago streets since 1997 – and is becoming too close to the totals we used to achieve back in the late 1980s that we had hoped were absolutely in our past.

And if that isn’t enough, let’s not forget the election of garish real estate developer Donald J. Trump as our nation’s president. The ongoing partisan political nonsense between Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, that is rearing its ugly head again now that the interim budget agreement has expired with nothing even close to a long-term agreement.

Or the fact that the Chicago Cubs managed to do something they hadn’t achieved in over a century – winning a World Series. I put those last items on the list even though I’m sure there are some people who will be grossly offended at thinking negatively at those things.

SUCH AS THE 46 percent of the electorate who actually voted for Trump and seriously believe that the nation dodged a bullet by avoiding the concept of “President Hillary R. Clinton” for the next four years.

RAUNER: Not likely to lighten up anytime soon

But I’m inclined to think of the nearly 49 percent who are now seriously disillusioned with our government process – one that could allow someone with 2.86 million fewer votes to actually proclaim himself the winner without the rest of us needing to call for the psychiatrist.

Plus the other 5 percent or so who voted either for a Libertarian or a Green or whatever other fringe name was on the ballot that they thought would make a better commander in chief than either of the major party doofuses.

That’s a lot of people who are going to forever remember this year as the one in which the nation’s electorate got goofy. They’re the ones who can’t help but think that 2017 has potential to be even more stupid because we’ll actually have the presence of a “President Trump” in place – doing his thing, whatever that may well be.

CHRISTOPHER: No longer w/ us

THOSE WHO ARE more rational are the ones who are most scared because we really don’t know what to expect – except that Trump’s idea of “reform” is likely to benefit only those few individuals like himself.

Even the masses who voted for him because they fantasize that their ballot action somehow makes them more like him than the working stiffs they truly are won’t truly get any benefit.

But they will justify their vote in future years because of how horrid they want to believe a second coming of Bill Clinton would have been for the nation.

Although the only thing that would have been horrible about it is if the partisan trash-talk that Bill endured during his two terms in office were repeated for Hillary. It is that partisan trash we as a nation need to rise above. Instead, we rewarded the people who spew it by putting them too firmly in charge.

BUT THERE WILL be differences of opinions about how good, or bad, this truly made 2016.

Which in my mind makes having to endure the Chicago Cubs’ ego trip as the worst aspect of the year – and in future years. Not that I care about denying the Cubs a victory (truthfully, it's about time). But the same Cub fan types who always wanted to talk as though 1969, 1984 and 2003 were truly Cubs championship years (if only they hadn’t been robbed) are now seriously acting as though the next four or five seasons of National League championships are already won.

To those who are Sout' Side in spirit, the scene of the year's low point

They’re buying into the hype to the point where they’re going to be insufferable for all of us to bear with – particularly if the truth turns out to be that 2016 was just a fluke year in between a series of contending St. Louis Cardinals teams and they’ll go back to thinking the whole wide world is supposed to pity them.

Of course, a part of that sentiment stretches from the realization that the only World Series that truly meant anything was the one played some 12 years ago. Now 2005, that was an incredible year!

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