If only Rauner would listen to himself, let alone thoughts of Catholic church

“The unfortunate truth is the longer we take to resolve our issues, the more painful the choices we must face will become. The cuts we will have to make become deeper, and what we ask of taxpayers will be steeper” – Gov. Bruce Rauner, in a letter to the Illinois Legislature concerning the lack of a state budget.

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RAUNER: He should listen to himself

I couldn’t agree more with the statement that Gov. Bruce Rauner made this week with regards to the ongoing delay in putting together a state budget. Even if for not the same reasons he intends with it.

It has been just over two-and-a-half months since Illinois Fiscal 2016 began, and we’re no closer now to resolving the split that keeps state government officials from approving the Constitutionally-required budget for government to operate properly.

THE REASONS FOR the split haven’t changed – Rauner was interested in gaining political power because he wants to use it to ram through a series of measures meant to undermine organized labor in Illinois. He wants to blame it for society’s ills, or the fact that it hurts the financial bottom line of the corporate interests of he and his business colleagues.

Meanwhile, the overwhelming Democratic Party-majority of the General Assembly is taking up the cause of the labor unions, particularly those who represent the employees of state government.

Both sides are clinging steadfast, which is why there isn’t a budget in place and no sign that there will be one approved any time soon.

I still wonder if we’re destined for Fiscal ’16 (ending June 30, 2016) to be the year without a budget – which would be a financial disaster for so many entities, as Rauner conceded this week.

MADIGAN: As stubborn as the governor!

BUT LET’S BE honest; his intent in making that statement was to try to scare his political opposition into thinking they are the ones who need to concede. That just won't happen!

Then again, it would be equally arrogant for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, to think the Rauner opposition will suddenly “come to its senses” and back off.

This really is about compromise – something we haven’t seen any signs of during this political brawl. Which is why we could go for the fiscal year without a budget unless we get a catastrophe that forces the two sides to come together.

Although I can’t conceive now of what catastrophe would achieve such a goal – I could envision both sides being more interested in assessing blame on the other.

CUPICH: Will anyone listen?

WHICH IS WHY I found it intriguing that Catholic Archbishop Blasé Cupich felt the need to get himself involved (and also invoke the names of Pope Francis and former Cardinal Joseph Bernardin) in the mess.

For the pope made it clear the Catholic church is siding with the labor unions, while adding that business, government and organized labor need to cooperate for the good of Illinois. “In the church, we call that solidarity, a word I know is very familiar to union members,” Cupich said when speaking to the Chicago Federation of Labor.

Whether anyone in government will be swayed is questionable. A part of me would fully expect certain people to think (if not tell him outright) that the church ought to mind its own business.

WHICH IS CURIOUS. The ideologues of our society seem to approve when the church tells people (such as on abortion) what they must do. But call for cooperation, then they think the church should shut its mouth.

So I don’t expect that anyone with the governor is going to be swayed by the archbishop. Both sides are entrenched so deeply that the governor’s words come across as mere lip service.

Not even the Pope’s emissary in Chicago can change their mind. For all I know, God himself could speak on the issue, and nobody would be swayed.

That’s how stubborn the state of Illinois has become these days!

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Still way too early to learn much of substance about presidential dreamers

I didn’t bother to watch the Republican presidential debate that was televised Wednesday night – I just wasn’t in the mood to sit through political psycho-babble, particularly anything from the mouth of Donald Trump.

FIORINA: The winner?

Although after reading and watching the news accounts from those entities who felt the need to see the supposedly-top presidential dreamers stand in front of “Air Force One” (the closest most of them will ever get to that aircraft), I don’t think I missed much by waiting until Thursday morning to know what was said.

AND I ALSO don’t think anyone who bothered to watch it live is any better informed about its significance – unless they really needed to pretend that they were there to see it all happen.

My own quirk is that after having covered many political debates (including some that involved presidential prospects), they all seem alike.

So what’s the real point here? I still think this field is overly-broad, and that most of the people who blathered on and on will not be a factor next year when people are actually asked to cast ballots for who will get the right to be the next president come January 2017.

The overview I have heard from many is that former CEO Carly Fiorina somehow showed herself to be the most credible persona of the Republican presidential batch.

THAT MAY WELL be true, although I’d say the reason she stands out is that the rest of the batch is so mediocre – past political failures who are trying again, or people whose only qualification to be the nation’s chief executive is their own over-bloated ego.

BUSH: He's sorry

And as for the fact that the so-called most-tweeted moment was former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s apology to his mother for having smoked marijuana when he was young?

It was probably a more honest moment than Bill Clinton back in 1992 when he said he smoked, but “didn’t inhale.” Which all these decades later, I still don’t know what he thinks the difference is.

All in all, not the most enlightening of shows.

THE KEY, OF course, is Donald Trump, whose money and bluster enabled him to take large early leads – with some of the candidates coming in so low they barely register.

TRUMP: Will he still be relevant tomorrow?

Although it is interesting that the neurologist, Ben Carson, has had recent polls showing he is running neck-and-neck with Trump. It could be that about half of those who have an opinion back either of those two.

Evidence that the Republican hard-core wants a new name – no matter how much that person may not have a clue about what is actually involved in being president. It’s not all about having a personal jet plane to fly around on, and you don’t get to “bark” orders to Congress.

Just think how much happier Barack Obama would be if he could have told Congress what he wanted, and they would have been obligated to obey.

BUT THE MOST truthful thing I may have read in recent days was a poll in the Washington Post – 27 percent of people actually have an opinion about who should be president. It’s still early. We’re more than a year away from the general election.

The serious people will probably start giving all this a thought come January. Everything we’re reading or hearing these days is going to be so irrelevant by the time it matters. Don’t forget that Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, has already dropped out (his second presidential failure). More and more will fall to the wayside in coming weeks and months.

Would you mess with the U.S. if this man was present?

Which is why I didn’t feel compelled to watch on Wednesday.  The re-run of “Hill Street Blues” that I watched was more entertaining than learning that Trump tried to back away from his past sexist trash-talk about Fiorina.

I say “Capt. Furillo” for president ("Joyce Davenport" for first lady), with “Mick Belker” ("Grrrrrrr!!!!!") as his personal enforcer. It makes as much sense as any of the people who are really in the running.

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Do we really need the food carts coming to Chicago? I don’t think so

A part of me supports the idea of food carts being permitted to operate openly on the Chicago streets; primarily because I thought it was absurd that those food trucks are allowed but the carts aren’t.

Could become a common sight in Chicago

Yet let’s be honest; I can’t say I’m eager for the pushcarts to be cluttering up the sidewalks and other public ways. It seems like there are ample food options that it’s not like anyone is incapable of getting something quick to eat.

UNLESS THEY DON’T have money. Although that is a different issue to be argued another day.

Personally, I think one of the most overrated aspects of New York is the pushcarts peddling hot dogs. The idea that those things are particularly edible is about as ridiculous as thinking a ballpark hot dog is anything special.

Maybe not as overpriced as the $6 or so that anyone pays to eat a hot dog while watching the White Sox or Cubs blow a ballgame. But still, there are better food options.

That is something we have never experienced in Chicago, on account that the restaurants have used their political clout to keep away competition in as many forms as possible.

IT WAS A major concession when food trucks were permitted a few years ago – feeding off the business of certain hipster types who think there is something special about eating from a kitchen on wheels even though the typical greasy spoon diner probably offers much the same thing.

Now, the City Council’s License Committee spent the day Wednesday discussing the issue, then recommending its passage. The full City Council could approve a change permitting food carts as soon as next week.

One of the few pushcart-worthy items

Although I couldn’t help but notice that many of the people touting this issue were of a Latino ethnic persuasion. As though pushcarts in Chicago would be peddling tamales or elotes.

I don’t care for the latter dish (it’s corn, slathered in mayonnaise that drowns out any other spices that have been added) and realize that getting a decent tamale takes a certain level of care that someone with a pushcart isn’t going to be able to put into their product.

Paletas and tamales were the topic of conversation at the Hall

SO I’M NOT exactly anxiously awaiting the coming of the pushcart, which has existed on a limited basis. There are certain parts of Chicago where one can buy sliced fruit or other snack-type items.

Although the one thing I admit to enjoying from a pushcart is a paleta. Think of an ice cream bar – although instead of some generic chocolate or vanilla, the flavorings are more fruit-based.

Personally, I’d like it if I could occasionally enjoy a mango-flavored paleta more easily. Then again, there are the times when I’ll pick them up at the supermarket (if you shop beyond the Jewel, they’re not hard to find) so I can have them more often than when I stumble across a pushcart.

Yet I’m not so sure my sentiment is all that common.

I DID NOTICE the council is considering requirements meant to ensure that any food sold from a pushcart won’t be unsanitary. The food is to be properly packaged, and cooked in a commercial kitchen. This won’t be cooked in someone’s personal kitchen.

Or at least it’s not supposed to be. I do wonder how many people will claim that such requirements are over-burdensome and prevent “the little guy” from establishing his own business. There’s always somebody who will complain about any aspect of an issue.

Besides, a part of me recalls the story my father tells about why he never liked enchiladas – he still recalls the time as a child he saw a street vendor serving them and kept using the same plate over and over to serve each customer.

I’m not saying that’s going to be a common occurrence in Chicago if this ordinance gets approved. But I’m just not sure what this really adds to our municipal ambiance!

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Will we want to hear what former Bear Clark thinks about his kid’s schooling?

The way we want to think of Desmond

I find the circumstances of former Chicago Bears tight end Desmond Clark to be intriguing.

Clark went to his son’s high school in suburban Vernon Hills to confront officials about what he thinks is unjust treatment, and HE winds up facing criminal charges. School officials say they felt intimidated by Clark’s demeanor.

ACTUALLY BY BOTH Clark and his wife, Maria. He is charged with disorderly conduct, while she is charged with assault. Both are free on $2,500 bond.

The two got arrested for an incident on Aug. 29 at the high school that was supposed to be a discussion about the fact that their son says he’s being harassed on racial grounds.

They wanted to see what, if anything, the school was prepared to do about it. The fact that the high school appeared to be interested in doing nothing about it angered the Clarks – which is totally understandable.

Even though the high school wants to believe they’re the victim in this saga – and I’m sure there are enough people out there who get all squeamish whenever racial issues come up that they’ll be willing to believe that the former ballplayer ought to just shut up about it!

THIS MAY BE the one “cardinal sin” a former professional athlete can commit. Many bad things would be forgiven because of the fact that Clark was once athletic enough to wear the uniform of the Chicago Bears.

But bring up racial issues? That’s very bad, in some eyes.

Most of the news accounts I have read about this incident have been rather vague. Which is why I find it ridiculous that the high school district felt compelled on Monday to say it thinks the incident has been taken out of context.

I’d argue the reports have not put the problem in any true context. We really don’t know what happened, or what the behavior is that the son has had to endure that had the parents so upset.

EXCEPT FOR A WBBM-TV news report where Clark opened up to a little more detail, saying his son has been harassed on racial grounds ever since he started at the school in 2012. Such as being called assorted racial slurs and being told his parents hang from trees in the front yard.

Usually, they'd be proud to have former Bear amongst parents

Totally believable in light of the fact that there are people with their own racial hang-ups, and at that age they’re stupid enough to think their nonsense actually means something.

But the current outburst is related to the fact that Clark’s son was being disciplined by the school for being seen intoxicated while at a rally celebrating the Chicago Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup victory earlier this year.

Because of that, school officials said he was prohibited from participating in a lip-synch contest being held at the high school. When the son tried challenging that decision, a school administrator is alleged to have said, “If he wants to act like a criminal, he can get out.”

A COMMENT THAT infuriated Clark to the point where he and his wife went to meet with school officials, and tempers were lost to the point where the school called the police – and Clark is now banned from the high school campus.

A move that strikes me as being motivated more by trying to make Clark look bad when the criminal case eventually goes to trial – or winds up getting settled with some sort of plea deal.

Admittedly, Clark’s account makes it seem like an open-and-shut acquittal for him, particularly since the school is refusing to say much of anything – usually a sign of someone covering up. But I don’t doubt that there are those who wish Clark would just pipe down so we can go back to just thinking of him in terms of those former Sunday afternoons when he took to the gridiron at Soldier Field.

Although if we want to be honest, those people who can’t view ballplayers as human beings and don’t want to address such racial outbursts most often are the real problem our society faces.

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EXTRA: Are you already celebrated-out by Mexico’s Independence Day

It was intriguing to see Gov. Bruce Rauner’s public schedule for Tuesday – one event, an evening appearance in Chicago's Harrison Park for an “El Grito” celebration.

RAUNER: Gave face-time to Mexico independence

I’m sure many who might otherwise have paid attention took a look at the evening hour (9 p.m., to be exact) and figured it was worth ignoring. Too late to make the evening news!

YET TO ME, the problem with taking the event seriously was that it wasn’t late enough.

For an El Grito event (as in one that replicates the cry for independence given by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla on Sept. 16, 1810) with any authenticity would have taken place at midnight.

For that is when the priest interested in Mexican independence from Spain supposedly went to the church-top in Dolores, rang the bells and made his inspirational cry that made the Mexican people begin what became a 12-year fight to achieve status as a separate country – and not just a colony of Spain. By comparison, the British meekly gave up their North American colonies after just a six-year brawl.

If you need a U.S. historic analogy to put this into context, think of Paul Revere and his “Midnight Ride” that supposedly warned English colonists and motivated them to want to fight for independence from King George III of England.

IN FACT, IF you’re in Mexico right about when this is being published, the fireworks are exploding all across the country in a way that would rival any July 4 Independence Day celebration. The mood would be equally patriotic. One of my Facebook friends who is in Mexico City now called the event "truly inspirational."

And it certainly would be more sincere than any May 5 celebration in the United States that too many Anglos mistake for an Independence Day celebration for Mexico.

Mexico Independence Day in Chicago won't match this scale

It was actually the beginning of a fight to keep Mexico from being recolonized by France. But that’s a different story.

Although any local celebration on Wednesday is likely to be tampered by the fact that all the parades honoring Mexico Independence Day locally were held on Sunday. Got to keep it from interfering with people’s ability to go to work.

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Are we headed for brawl with Houston?

The Reuters newswire service felt compelled Monday to report a story that has been hinted at by many entities for years – Houston will someday have more people living there than Chicago.

Chicago will always have edge over Houston

The one-time Second City (only to New York) will someday have to settle for Number Four – and most likely sometime during our lifetimes.

REUTERS REPORTED THAT by the year 2025, Chicago’s population (currently about 2.7 million) will be 2.5 million. Whereas Houston (which in 2010 had 2.1 million people) will be about 2.54 million people.

It will go New York City, Los Angeles, Houston THEN Chicago. Which on a certain level makes me want to wretch.

Not that it really makes any difference. I wouldn’t want to live in any Texas city, and certainly wouldn’t think of Houston as being superior to Chicago on any level. Just as I don’t really think of Los Angeles as superior to Chicago just because back when I was in college it managed to surpass Chicago in population.

Although I can already hear the Texas-type boasts (that always come across as insecurity at its worst) about how wonderful this makes Houston – except for those people from Dallas, who will probably be more appalled by this news than anyone from Chicago will be.

OF COURSE, THERE is a factor in all of this growth that explains how a southwestern city could possibly be larger than Chicago, or any Midwestern U.S. city.

Space!

A bi-state region with that big huge lake ...

Houston has space surrounding it. Room for it to grow that can be incorporated into the city proper. Evidence that it is located in a region that could accurately be described as the middle of nowhere (just like Las Vegas, Nev.).

Whereas Chicago has been hemmed in on all sides by Lake Michigan to the east (an asset that I’m sure Houston would kill to have) and suburban communities in all directions.

THERE’S NO SPACE for Chicago proper to grow. There is room on the outskirts for the suburban area to continue to grow. In fact, metropolitan Chicago is getting larger even though the city proper is shrinking.

... will always be superior to city in the desert

The Census Bureau indicates that back in 2010, Houston and its suburbs have some 5.95 million people. By comparison to Chicago, which the Census Bureau offered an estimate of having some 9.73 million people in 2011.

I don’t doubt that Houston’s suburbs will get larger and the gap will close.

But it’s very likely that come 2025, Houston’s city population will be slightly larger while Chicago’s metro area population will remain significantly larger. I can already hear the arguments that will arise, particularly from Texas-types who will resent the idea that anybody challenges their claim to being Number Three when you could argue they remain Number Four!

WHICH WILL MEAN that Chicago will have to settle for being the largest city in the Midwest or Great Lakes regions – because it’s not like St. Louis, Milwaukee, Detroit or Minneapolis/St. Paul are on the verge of surpassing Chicago anytime soon (if ever).

Now I don’t want to come across as mocking Reuters. Although I’m not sure why this is news now. Estimates that Houston will someday have more people have been spreading around for years now.

Just as it was long expected that Los Angeles would surpass Chicago by the time it actually happened in 1984 (New York is so much bigger than anything else that nothing is likely to surpass it anytime soon).

These population shifts don’t change the true character of either city, or the fact that in a Chicago vs. Houston brawl, our city will be able to claim a World Series advantage – our White Sox did sweep the Houston Astros four straight games back in ’05. Nothing changes that!

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Some people just determined to live in the past (and make us live there too)

I can’t say I was surprised to learn recently that a state legislator is talking about wanting to bring back the death penalty to Illinois.

HAINE: Wants to bring back death penalty

There hadn’t been an execution in this state since 1999, and then-Gov. George Ryan cleared out the state’s ‘death row’ just before leaving office early in 2003. Then, the Legislature and then-Gov. Pat Quinn did away with the capital crimes statute in 2011.

WHICH MEANS THE worst of the criminal element in Illinois get locked away in prison for life, without the option of parole. To anyone with sense, that sounds pretty bad. You can’t get more severe than letting someone know they’re going to grow old and die in a place that no one with sense ever wants to be in.

But there are always those people like Bill Haine, a state senator from Alton (near St. Louis), who last week said he plans to sponsor a bill to bring back the death penalty.

He’s falling into a line of logic that really doesn’t make much sense – some crimes are so high-profile that people are entitled to know someone will die for them.

He brought up the recent cop killing in suburban Fox Lake (which has been getting significant news coverage largely because it’s coming at a time when there’s little else happening – a “slow news day,” so to speak) as such evidence. He probably will get someone with a vengeance streak strong enough to want an execution.

NOT THAT IT would really mean anything. Chances are that anyone with a personal stake would be so offended that even an execution wouldn’t appease them.

My own death penalty stance actually got solidified on that spring night in 1994 when John Gacy was put to death at the Stateville Correctional Center. I was a reporter-type person that night, and got to see the many people who felt compelled to see blood. I was particularly peeved at the batch who felt the need to taunt a pair of nuns and a priest who were among the few who felt any compassion for human life in general.

So excuse me for not being sympathetic to those people who can’t handle the thought that the idea of homicide in the name of ‘justice’ just doesn’t make any sense.

It will be a dark day at Statehouse if death penalty actually returns

Then again, there will always be those people who want to think that the trends of society moving forward is a mistake.

JUST LIKE THOSE individuals like that clerk in rural Kentucky who did a few days in a county jail, and thinks she’s now a victim who suffered for Christianity – all because she can’t handle the idea that marriage for gay couples has the support of the law.

The people who have that hang-up are likely to focus their efforts on trying to figure out how to thwart the concept as much as possible. In their minds, they’re probably looking to all the anti-abortion activists who throughout the years have been able to push for so many restrictions that there are large swaths of the United States where it becomes next to impossible to actually obtain an abortion.

They’d probably like to have only certain places where gay couples could get married – then they’ll try to restrict the ability of their local residents to even think of going to those places.

All issues where a 19^th Century mentality is what is being sought by the ideologues of our society.

WHICH IS WHERE the death penalty becomes yet another issue where some people want to live in the past.

It’s another issue where the trend is to ditch the idea (although Wisconsin has not had a capital crimes statute for most of its existence, and it is surviving very well). Some 20 states have done away with the death penalty, some since Illinois.

Does anyone think Dahmer got off lightly?

Wisconsin, of course, was the state that gave us Jeffrey Dahmer some two decades ago. He of the cannibalistic streak whose own lengthy prison sentence came to an abrupt end when another inmate decided to kill him for who knows why!

Somehow, I don’t think that a similar fate for whoever winds up being arrested for the slaying of Fox Lake police Lt. Joseph Gliniewicz would be out-of-line.

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