Is it just a matter of time before Supreme Ct overrules Chgo justices?

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump doesn’t think much of the political establishment of Chicago. Our public officials, after all, are clearly in opposition to the will of The Donald and are willing to publicly point out how wrong he is on so many issues.

LEINENWEBER: Standing up to Trump

So when a federal justice in Chicago ruled this week to reject the Attorney General’s attempts to have a lawsuit by Chicago against the federal government dismissed, a part of me now wonders if the presidential focus will shift to the Supreme Court.

THE ONE THAT could wind up with a solid margin of political partisanship intended to present his take on the law as the one that must be legitimate.

Just as it took several months before Trump got his way on travel restrictions meant to make it seem that people from Islamic-influenced countries were of being permitted in the United States, maybe he expects that a court rigged in his favor will gladly give him his take on “sanctuary cities.”

As in claiming that Chicago and other municipalities that refuse to have their law enforcement do the dirty work of federal immigration officials are somehow being un-American and ought to lose federal funding they now rely upon.

The scary part is that his line of “logic” isn’t totally absurd. A partisan court could wind up giving legitimacy to Trump’s ideologically-inclined ramblings.

ON THE ISSUE, U.S. District senior judge out of Chicago issued rulings saying the federal government is overstepping its bounds in its efforts to force Chicago to do away with the Sanctuary City concept.

Leinenweber a Chicago holdover from Reagan

Leinenweber isn’t a liberal-leaner by any means.

He’s a judge who got his appointment to the federal courts back in the days of President Ronald Reagan. He is the spouse of one-time Rep. Lynn Martin, who later served as Labor secretary under President George Bush (the elder),

He’s an establishment-oriented Republican. But in this Age of Trump, he’s the kind of person who finds a strong sense of shame in thinking his political party could produce someone of the ilk of the current president.

WHICH IS WHAT makes it possible for him to follow the letter of the law, which is along the general line of thinking that federal officials have jurisdiction over federal issues. Local people do their own work.

TRUMP: Waiting for Supreme Ct to overturn?

Crossing over that boundary in either direction causes serious problems that undermine the concepts upon which our society is based. Such as us not being a police state looking to harass the people who live here for political reasons.

If anything, the Leinenweber rulings may add a sense of legitimacy to Chicago’s hard-headed support for the Sanctuary City concept – one which the U.S Court of Appeals for the 7^th district (based in Chicago) is expected to consider later this year whether it should apply nationally.

Something that Trump most definitely won’t want to happen – largely because he still has his vision of the presidency being about him being the “Fearless Leader” (remember Boris and Natasha’s boss and their repeated failed cartoon attempts to “kill moose and squirrel”) who can bark out orders at will?

WHICH IS WHY he likely is counting on that partisan-leaning Supreme Court to undo every attempt to maintain a sense of logic and sensibility in the way our government operates in this Age of Trump.

Are these Trump's kind of characters?

Just as I’m sure the president is peeved with that Federal Communications Commission head who is publicly speaking out against the proposed merger of broadcast properties across the nation with Sinclair Broadcast Group – whose own clueless leanings are in line with the presidential vacuous ideology.

Maybe Trump fantasizes the high court will give him sufficient authority to make “The Apprentice,” that lame television program he once appeared on, a reality by being able to bark out “You’re Fired!” at anyone who offends his sensibilities.

We can only hope the electorate comes to the rescue and the vocal minority does not once again prevail as it did in 2016. Because we need to dump Trump, then work to undo the damage this man has caused through all his egomaniacal acts.

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Will anyone “come to save the day” for WGN radio/TV takeover by Sinclair?

Learning that the FCC (is that the Federal Cookie Company?) is expressing reservations about allowing suburban Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group to take over the WGN-TV and radio properties in Chicago as part of a nationwide expansion doesn’t quite ease my own concerns.

Will Trump allow them to intervene?

For I can’t help but think this is merely some rhetoric meant to make it appear as though federal regulators of the public airwaves are actually doing something when in reality they’re inclined to do as little as possible to interfere with the deal that would make Sinclair the largest collection of broadcast properties in the United States.

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION head Ajit Pai issued a statement implying his entity is not prepared to put the rubber stamp to the deal that would give Sinclair control of some 230 broadcast properties – including those founded by Tribune Company that have long thought of themselves as “Chicago’s Very Own.”

Yet I can’t get around the concept that Pai got the FCC post through appointment by President Donald Trump. He’s a political appointee, and the idea of putting all these broadcast properties under single control of a company with a history of believing their ideologue ways are what’s proper would be the kind of thing Trump would approve of.

So is Pai serious in suggesting Monday that an administrative law judge conduct hearings into the deal? I suppose if we learn through Trump’s Twitter rants that Pai has been dismissed for gross incompetence, then it means Pai meant what he said.

Soon to be history?

Otherwise, I suspect it’s a form of rhetoric that merely delays the inevitable, which in the case of Chicago and WGN television and radio means they’re not really locally-run broadcast properties any longer.

THE DAYS OF thinking that Channel 9 and 720-AM were somehow places on the broadcast spectrum that carried the unique perspective of the Second City are no more.

I suspect it’s just a matter of time before the Chicago stations are forced to air as part of the “local” newscasts the commentaries produced out of the corporate offices in Maryland.

The ones that have given Sinclair its reputation within the world of news broadcasting as being ideologically tainted.

The new wave?

My guess is that the first will be on an issue in which Trump wants to get on his high horse and rant and rage about how erroneous Chicago is. Sinclair would probably want to use their new Chicago stations (currently, the closest to Chicago they have to a broadcast property is the ABC affiliate in Springfield, Ill.) to tell Chicago viewers how wrong they are!

WHICH MAKES ME wonder if the character is destined to change so drastically that the properties are ruined. Similar to how back in 1984, the Chicago Sun-Times was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s media entity and the character was altered so drastically that circulation and the paper’s image plummeted – in ways that make some people think Rupert still has a hand.

Even though in reality, he sold the newspaper within two years (so he could buy WFLD-TV in Chicago).

What would Garfield Goose think of new employer?

That deal was because of federal laws controlling just how many properties one can have in a single market, similar to the ones limiting the overall number. Which is why Sinclair is supposedly working out side deals to “sell off” some of the stations they’re about to buy.

One of those is the WGN properties. The Chicago Tribune reported that Atlantic Automotive Corp. of Towson, Md., will buy the Chicago stations.

THEN, THEY WOULD work out an agreement by which Sinclair would handle the actual work of programming and maintaining the stations for them. Because, after all, what would an out-of-state car dealership know about Chicago or broadcasting?

These are the very issues Pai hinted cause the FCC to have reservations. But is the FCC really capable of thwarting a deal if the entity being “harmed” is the one that Trump persists in calling the “enemy of the people?”

Although one often suspects even Trump doesn’t fully believe the nonsense he spews whenever he speaks or Tweets like a twit.

What we’re likely to have occur? Something along the lines of that old Andy Kaufman bit where he lip-synch’s the portion of the “Mighty Mouse” cartoon theme about “Here I come to save the day!” while otherwise standing around doing nothing.

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