Rauner to run to the ‘right?’

It’s one of the so-called rules of running an election for government office that in a primary, one takes on all the ideological issues they’re comfortable with so as to get the hard line voters possible.

RAUNER: Wants the 'right-wing' vote

But come the general election cycle, candidates of both major political parties veer to the “center,” so to speak – so as to try to get as many people as possible to cast ballots for them.

COULD THE RE-ELECTION campaign of Bruce Rauner for governor become an exception to that “rule?” Could his campaign for the Nov. 6 election become a test of just how conservative can Rauner make himself appear to be?

Rauner is the guy who narrowly won the Republican primary held last week, with his opponent going out of her way to tag him as some sort of liberal freak who stands against everything “real” Republicans are about.

She brought up his actions during his first term as governor related to abortion, immigration and civil rights for gay people, and her message stuck. There are people who insist they’re Republicans, but won’t consider a vote for Bruce come the general election.

It doesn’t matter that the very essence of Rauner’s term as governor were actions meant to push for policies that would undermine the influence of organized labor within government. Rauner is anti-union enough to be a hard-core Republican, but that’s not good enough.

PEREZ: Rauner's sacrificial lamb?

SO IS RAUNER going to start looking for every means possible by which he can make himself appear to be some sort of right-wing ideologue – being worthy of those people whose own image of what our society ought to be about is such that they’re totally comfortable with this Age of Trump in which we’re now in?

There was that veto the governor handed down right before the primary election – the one in which he rejected a bill the Democrat-controlled General Assembly handed down related to firearms and state regulation of gun shops.

It was the Illinois Legislature’s reaction to the violence at a school in Parkland, Fla. – which means Rauner made his own statement with regards to gun control measures.

IVES: Inflicted serious damage to Bruce

And now, there’s the deportation of Miguel Perez, Jr., who served in the Army in Afghanistan and was under the assumption that he became a U.S. citizen at that point in time. But after military service, he became involved with illegal narcotics, wound up being arrested and serving time in prison.

PEREZ CAME TO the United States from Mexico when he was 8 and had a “green card.” But that was revoked upon his conviction, and because of his lack of citizenship, upon his release from prison Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials began the process of deportation.

Which in his case took 16 months because he tried fighting it. But in the end, Perez was among a group of deportees being held in Kenosha, Wis., who recently were put on a bus and driven to the Gary/Chicago International Airport, where they were put an an airplane and flown to Brownsville, Texas, Then, they were driven over the border into Matamoros in Mexico, where they were formally turned over to Mexican authorities.

It turns out that among the moves Perez tried making to stay in this country was a request for a pardon from Rauner. If he had been granted some form of clemency for his drug conviction, it might not have been able to be used against him as far as deportation proceedings were concerned.

But Rauner went out of his way to reject such a request. While refusing to be specific on his reasons, Rauner wanted it known he said “no” to a U.S. military veteran whose problems post-military were due to post traumatic stress disorder.

“WE MADE THE decision not to grant (clemency) in that case,” Rauner told WLS-TV.

PRITZKER: Will J.B. be ultimate victor?

Rauner already was getting grief from the ideologues because he didn’t veto a measure that restricted Illinois law enforcement authorities from cooperating fully with federal immigration officials, similar to the “sanctuary city” initiatives that exist in Chicago and Cook County or the “welcoming city” measures of places like Evanston and Oak Forest – or Gary, Ind. (whose airport is used as part of the deportation process, which angers some local officials).

So is forcing Perez, who hadn’t actually been in Mexico in 31 years and whose life is oriented towards being in this country, to leave just Rauner’s gesture of support to the ideologues? If it is, it’s a cold gesture.

It makes me wonder how many more “gestures” Rauner is going to feel compelled to give to the “right” to bolster his standings, and if he’s going to wind up becoming more “Trump-like” in his political behavior. Because, after all, he needs the votes to avoid getting his clock cleaned Nov. 6 by Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker.

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Internet scam appeals to those who want to be greedy, instead of stupid

It seems that somebody has spent way too much time watching Three Kings, that 1999 film about soldiers in the aftermath of the early 1990s Gulf War who stumbled across, and tried to keep for themselves, gold bars that belonged to/had been stolen by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.


That film had a soldier portrayed by actor George Clooney, with a platoon consisting of Mark Walberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze, seizing the gold in the days after the war, then trying to figure out a way to smuggle it out of the country.


I WAS REMINDED of that film earlier this week when I stumbled across an e-mail message I received that purported to be from a U.S. Army sergeant currently serving in the military efforts in Afghanistan.


This sergeant contends that while on patrol on Friday, she found three bags in a small hidden tunnel.


Inside the bags was $3.2 million in U.S. currency which may have been stashed away for future use by Taliban interests (although this sergeant chooses to spell it "Taleban").


Hence, this soldier doesn't seem compelled to do anything to let higher authorities know about this (claiming in the email that I am "the first person am disclosing this to"). Just as in Three Kings, where it was only by a fluke that the higher brass learned of the gold, and which some of which was inadvertently "lost" before it could be returned to the Kuwaiti royal family.


NOT THAT I'M gullible to believe there is a soldier out there with $3.2 million (or THREE MILLION TWO HUNDRED United States dollar) who's willing to cut me in for a piece of the action, IF I'm willing to provide some personal financial information about myself to help that "soldier" get the cash out of the country before she gets shipped off to a new province.


It's the oldest Internet scam known to mankind; appeal to someone's greed in thinking that they can get something that really isn't theirs -- then bleed them dry of what little they do have once you get that valued financial information.


My guess is that suckering a lot of people of little bits of cash each can add up to a significant financial score.


I usually don't feel sorry for people who get scammed in such a way -- because it usually is their own greed that makes them dumb enough to get suckered.


BUT SOMETHING ABOUT this particular scam caught my attention -- the fact that when I first saw the "line" about this e-mail, it came up as "Active USarmy." Some soldier's private e-mail account got hacked into, which makes that person the victim.


If not just for the hassle that soldier is going to have to go through in order to change their accounts to make them secure again.


Somebody seems to think that putting the military spin will appeal to all the people who want to go out of their way to "support our troops" no matter what the cause or action they're involved in. It has way too much potential to appeal to more gullible types in our society, in addition to the greedy who probably fantasize about spending the Taliban's cash on Internet pornography, or something equally insipid.


A part of me wants to send a response to this e-mail, one laced with expletives, so as to express my contempt for anybody who would stoop to such a level.


AND NO, I don't believe the Taliban is in any way involved with this effort. It's some wormy little twerp who has spent way too much time with his/her carcass parked behind a computer -- which ought to be tools to do significant things with, rather than an end in and of itself.


But I'd probably wind up singling out my e-mail account at this site for more potential hacker abuse. It's not worth it. I'm off to dig up my copy of "Three Kings," which is always good for a laugh, along with a mix of serious commentary about that two-decades-old military initiative.


So consider this commentary my response -- which not only serves to warn anybody else of the possibility of getting this message, but also allows me to say to whomever came up with this message the following of my own.


Drop dead!!!


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