EXTRA: Palin on Obama – bringing to mind nothing more than Forrest Gump

Learning that one-time Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin attacked President Barack Obama’s stance on gun control in the wake of the mass shootings in Orlando, Fla., by calling him “a special kind of stupid” brings to my mind nothing more than actor Tom Hanks’ “Forrest Gump” character witticisms.

As in, “Stupid is, as stupid does.”

THEN AGAIN, MAYBE she’s just eager to be mocked yet again (“I can see Russia from my house”) by one-time Chicagoan Tina Fey on national television.

Why else would Palin even bring this kind of nonsense on herself?

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EXTRA: Baseball truly a global game, even though some wish it weren’t

So just what should we make of the fact that Ichiro Suzuki, the aging outfielder for the Miami Marlins who was the first big star ballplayer to come to this country out of Japan, has theoretically topped Pete Rose for the number of base hits in his career?

I say theoretically because Suzuki hasn't officially reached the 3,000-hit milestone yet (he needs 21 more base hits to achieve that goal), while Rose over the course of his career playing for the Cincinnati Reds and other National League teams got more than 4,200 hits.

BUT WHEN ONE contemplates the fact that Suzuki got some 1,278 base hits while playing for nine seasons for the Orix Blue Wave in Japan’s professional leagues.

Making him some sort of international hit king at the professional level. While some others are all too eager to denigrate the achievement in various ways. They’re determined to claim it is an irrelevant goal that we shouldn’t pay any attention to. Then again, there also were those who couldn’t stand it when famed Japanese ballplayer Sadaharu Oh hit more home runs in Japan than either Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron managed in the United States.

While I personally admit that I think adding up Suzuki’s 1,278 Japan base hits and his 2,979 (as of Wednesday) hits in this country is an oversimplified stat that means about as much as getting the most pinch hits during the third week of August, I don’t like the hostile tone of those overeager to diminish Ichiro.

Who has a significance both athletic and cultural in the way he became the first non-pitcher of any significance from Japan to achieve success in U.S. baseball.

I'LL BE THE  first to admit the professional leagues in this country do play ball at a higher level than any other place o Planet Earth, but not because of any supposed superiority by naturally-born U.S. citizens when it comes to the game.

If anything, it is because our professional leagues literally attract the best the world has to offer. And that is because of money. All of those Latin American stars on major league teams across the country probably would have stayed back home if they could have made as much money doing so as they get here.

I’ll go so far as to say that the only reason the Central and Pacific leagues in Japan are not considered superior to the U.S. American and National leagues is because of all those “foreigners” whom some baseball fans seem to wish they could do away with.

Heck, just think of how much better the Dominican or Venezuelan leagues would be if they could keep all their home-grown talent in their native countries?

I WONDER IF the people most anxious to denigrate the Suzuki achievement are the ones who wish he’d have somehow stayed home, thereby depriving fans here of the chance to enjoy the skill with which he has played baseball since coming to this country back in 2001.

Or many of the other great stars of recent decades who have made our ball clubs in this country capable of playing at a higher skill level than ever before?

Such as Minnie Miñoso, who played many years in the outfield for the Chicago White Sox of the 1950s, but also has stats from playing professionally in Cuba and Mexico that give him a cumulative total of 4,073 base hits.

It’s a shame that it’s only now after his death that we’re fully appreciating what a talent we had playing in our fair city.

EVEN THOUGH HE has yet to make the Baseball Hall of Fame in this country Miñoso is in the Halls of Fame in both Mexico and Cuba. Which may be the ultimate achievement that Suzuki achieves if he becomes the first inductee of the Halls of Fame both in Japan and Cooperstown, N.Y.

Although that would pale in comparison to the record of Martin Dihigo, a black Cuban native who actually is in the Halls of Fame in Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and Cooperstown, albeit for his performance in this country back in the Negro leagues of old -- which is why most fans of this country are totally clueless of this international sensation known as El Maestro or El Immortal.

It’s a good thing we can claim to have seen someone such as Ichiro actually having played ball – and only a shame that we never got to see him don a Chicago uniform.

Although knowing the White Sox’ history of acquiring aging stars after they’re washed up (anyone remember Steve Carlton, Jose Canseco or Ken Griffey, Jr., in a Sox uniform?), we may get him on the Sout’ Side come 2018 or so. 

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Reality usually worse than imagination. Campaigning against Chicago just the same old partisan political nonsense?

There’s nothing new about a local political person trying to score points for themselves by trying to portray Chicago as a rat hole.

Rauner allies ad could have found a real Chicago school in bad shape if they tried

The city does comprise only about one-quarter of Illinois’ overall population (about two-thirds if one includes the entire metro area), and there are those who figure getting all the rural Illinois people all riled up can create a large mass of support for themselves.

BUT SOMETIMES, IT just comes across a little too stupid to be believed, and I want to believe that the people of Southern Illinois who are being hit with the latest such use of this tactic by Gov. Bruce Rauner will be intelligent enough to see through this.

At stake is a television spot put together by Rauner backers who are airing it on stations in the Cape Girardeau, Mo./Paducah, Ky. and Carbondale television market. It’s intent is to claim that local state legislators who are Democrats are really nothing more than lackeys of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

Because we’re all supposed to realize that Madigan is the root of all evil in Illinois, particularly since he actually lives within the city of Chicago proper (near Midway Airport, to be exact).

This particular television spot includes one moment that brings up “Bailout for Chicago Public Schools” and uses a stock photo image of one of the most decrepit buildings one can envision.

WINDOWS ALL SMASHED up, Doors broken. It’s a wonder the place hasn’t been condemned!

As though that is what has become of the Chicago Public Schools and that is what Madigan and allies are willing to waste state funds on trying to save.

The only problem is that the image comes from the Shutterstock.com website and is described as being an “abandoned office or school building.” And as the Capitol Fax newsletter out of Springfield points out, a look at an alternate image of the same building shows the mountain range off in the background.

 

MADIGAN: Why not just put horns, forked tail on him?

This image meant to depict the Chicago Public Schools in all their decrepit-ness may not actually be a school, and it certainly isn’t from anywhere in the city. The only thing we have close to mountains in Chicago are the landfills of old containing all the garbage our grandparents’ generation accumulated during their lifetimes.

WHICH GIVES THIS particular advertising spot the stink of all that garbage. It’s as nonsensical as Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s revoking of the Washington Post’s credentials to cover his campaign on the grounds their coverage is “phony and dishonest.”

It’s really pathetic to use such an image, because of the same fact I always bring up whenever a reporter-type person gets accused of exaggerating facts in a news story. They deserve our ridicule because they’re lazy.

Reality always turns out to be more absurd than anything they could possibly make up. They could have found a real school in decrepit condition and used that image. Of course, that would have required them to do some extra work. And work is just so hard!

Of course, we in Chicago will never see this particular television spot. It wasn’t meant for us, and we’ve never given any thought to the specific legislators (John Bradley of Marion, Gary Forby of Benton and Brandon Phelps of Harrisburg) who are supposedly Madigan’s lackeys.

RAUNER: Will demonization strategy work?

BUT THIS IS part of the Rauner strategy of trying to cut into the sizable Democratic caucus of the General Assembly that has shown the will to stand up to all the anti-labor union rhetoric the governor has spewed in the name of “reform.”

Maybe he thinks he can succeed where other Republican politicos have failed – in trying to demonize the Madigan name as the very image of Chicago that many of them just do not comprehend. It’s on such a larger scale than anything they ever envisioned for their own lives.

Which makes this ad more of the same nonsense, and perhaps the root of the real problem – we’d rather complain about each other than try to work to resolve the real problems that exist.

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Trump thinks the whole wide world will pay for his isolationist vision for U.S.

Likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was down in Atlanta on Wednesday, spewing his usual isolationist nonsense but with a slight twist.

 

TRUMP: Talkin' trash in Dixie!

Trump has his vision of imposing his will on the world. But he also seems to think the world will eagerly pick up the tab to pay the expense of maintaining the United States as the equivalent of a private country club for the world’s elite.

ACTUALLY, THE REASON this nation has been so successful is that we have been willing to take on the tired, the poor, the hungry masses yearning to be free. Because they’re the ones most willing to work hard and bust their behinds to achieve success.

But what caught my attention about Trump’s Georgia trash talk was the part where he talked of “safe zones” in Syria; places where those Middle Eastern people who now think of coming to the United States to seek a better life can go to instead of coming here.

Which strikes me as being the international affairs equivalent of the old “separate, but equal” doctrine.

But as Trump put it, the cost of building these zones “over there” would be paid for by those very countries. “We have to get them to pay for it,” said Trump.

IN SHORT, HE thinks we can penalize foreign nations financially to ensure that they maintain a modern-day segregationist vision for this nation.

I say “fat chance,” largely because no one else is going to cough up a dime just to help maintain our vision.

Just as Trump comes across as the ultimate fool if he really thinks the government of Mexico will assume the cost of erecting a barricade along the 1,900-mile border it shares with the United States.

He claims he can get them to do it by cutting off the ability of people already in this country to wire money back to their relatives in Mexico – which quite frankly is questionable, and probably so blatantly illegal.

JUST LIKE THE idea of Syrians, or any one else in the Middle East, paying the price for Trump to fulfill his vision of what this country ought to be like – one that doesn’t include themselves.

Now I don’t doubt that some people will want to hear xenophobic rants and dream of isolationist visions for themselves. Although I also note the polls that show Trump’s support went up in the days following his ridiculous rants about the weekend violence of Orlando, Fla.

According to a study published by the Reuters wire service, Trump went from lagging 13 percent behind likely Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton to only being 11 percent behind.

But the Bloomberg news service shows her with a 13 point lead over him, and an ABC News/Washington Post survey shows 70 percent of the nation views Trump unfavorably.

WHICH MEANS THAT in spewing rhetoric such as he did on Wednesday, Trump clearly has a vision in which his 30 percent turns out to vote while the rest of the nation gets apathetic and stays home. Perhaps he'll dream up a poll tax to ensure such a thing happens.

It clearly fits the vision of a person who thinks only certain individuals truly matter in our society. Which ought to be all the more reason why we ought to get off our behinds and cast ballots come Nov. 8. I’m realistic enough to know that anything can happen on an Election Day. There’s no such thing as a shoo-in winner.

Which is why I honestly think if Trump were to prevail, it would be our own fault for allowing it to happen. What Trump calls for is unrealistic because it fails to realize the fact that if the United States truly is to have a dominant influence over the world, we’re going to have to be prepared to pick up the tab.

For as I see it, Trump’s biggest flaw is that he’s a deadbeat who wants the rest of the world to pay for his twisted vision.

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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): McDonalds move? A big yawn

Much adieu is being given to the fact that McDonald’s is moving its corporate headquarters out of the DuPage County campus it had developed over the past four decades and is returning to Chicago.

 

Chicago will soon have another image besides the rock 'n' roll McDonald's to claim its own

Literally to the office complex that Oprah Winfrey had once developed to house her television production company. Harpo Studios, which itself left Chicago many years ago, will be replaced by the clown who is the face of McDonald’s hamburgers.

THE COMPANY IS making a big deal out of the move, saying they expect to be able to attract and keep quality executives by being based within the city – rather than out in the far western suburbs.

Which might as well be a completely different metropolitan area altogether if one happens to have their lives based in the southern or northern suburbs of Chicago, let alone the city proper.

It’s an intriguing move on some levels, and I have to admit some interest to the idea of a visible company deciding to return to Chicago proper. But I wonder if I am the exception?

Think about it. How many people will really care where the corporate offices are?

MY GUESS IS that when most people think of McDonald’s, they think solely in terms of their local franchise. Or perhaps they think of the golden arches logo in general – without regards to a sense of place.

The only time they may even think of that particular franchise is if they are in circumstances when they need something, anything, to eat. For the modern-day McDonald’s isn’t exactly a place one goes to when they want quality. It’s about being able to find identical product for sale regardless of place.

Unless moving to Chicago proper means they can attract a higher quality of corporate executive who can come up with ways to revamp the stagnant franchise, it probably doesn’t make any difference where those people work.

What else is notable these days on the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan?

 

McCARTHY: Life's unfair!

FIRING UNFAIR? McCARTHY THOUGHT SO:  Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who was dismissed from his post following the outcry over the shooting of a teenager by a Chicago police officer, thought his firing was “unfair.”

Others viewed him as the “sacrificial lamb” as Mayor Rahm Emanuel tried to minimize the outcry over the way police treated the public, particularly those who were black.

The Chicago Tribune has been fighting in court to get copies of all of McCarthy’s e-mail traffic during his final month as police superintendent – hoping to gain insight into what was going through his mind.

Some of those e-mails have been turned over (the fight continues to get the rest). But so far, it shows that McCarthy had his supporters – particularly within the department. People ought to realize the eventual court case against the officer facing charges in Laquan McDonald’s death isn’t the open-and-shut case they want to claim it is.

CLINTON WINS!!! (IN ILLINOIS, AT LEAST):  The Capitol Fax newsletter came up with its own poll for the upcoming November elections – one showing that Hillary Clinton will easily take the state’s Electoral College votes.

 

Chicago will lead Hillary to Illinois victory

With a 50 percent lead in Chicago and 12 percent lead in the inner suburbs of Cook County, which accounts for nearly half of Illinois’ population, Clinton takes some 47 percent of the poll support statewide, with 35 percent for Republican Donald Trump. While another 7 percent will go for Libertarian Gary Johnson.

It also seems the bulk of Johnson’s support comes from people who voted “Republican” in the past three election cycles.

Illinois, which during the 20^th Century was the ultimate bellwether state (it backed the winners in every single presidential election except 1916 and 1976), has become the ultimate partisan place. Meaning it’s unlikely we’ll see much of Trump here during the general election cycle, and certainly won’t get a repeat of that University of Illinois-Chicago primary appearance that never was on his behalf.

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Quinn continues political crusades; this time for mayoral term limits

And some people wonder just why Democrats didn’t get all sad and mushy about the thought of Pat Quinn losing out as governor back in 2014 – even though what it has wrought in its replacement has fulfilled some of their worst nightmares.

QUINN: Crusader won't wither away

We got to see why yet again this weekend, when Quinn reared his head to take on what must be considered yet another of his causes – pet issues he will be prepared to beat to death regardless of who gets offended.

FOR QUINN IS now an activist-type who says his latest cause is term limits for the Chicago mayoral post. He wants to set it at two terms of four years each.

Which, if it were to become reality, would accomplish what voters weren’t able to do during the most recent municipal election cycle. Rahm Emanuel would be through.

He’d be able to finish out his current term. But he wouldn’t be able to try for term three come 2019.

Of course, there are those who believe that Emanuel has been bogged down with so much baggage that there’s no way he could win a third-term anyway. He has to settle for this being his final term in office.

EXCEPT, …

The reality is that Democrats might not be able to come up with a credible challenger in 2019. They certainly weren’t able to do so the last time around. So the efforts to “Dump Rahm” may wind up focusing on forcing Emanuel off the ballot altogether.

Regardless, such an effort is not something that is going to put Quinn’s name on anyone’s guest list in coming months. Then again, Quinn is the guy who helped to create the Citizens Utility Board and also slashed down the size of the General Assembly by one-third.

If anything, his term-and-a-half as Illinois governor is probably the least significant part of his political career. His legacy will be as the guy who constantly nagged political people and pointed out their flaws and tried to shame them into doing the right thing.

WHICH DOESN’T REALLY work because many political people just don’t have any sense of shame to begin with.

Which is why they were more than willing to dump all over the Quinn gubernatorial request to extend the tax hikes he had imposed past a deadline so as to ensure there would be enough funding to cover government expenses.

You can say the Legislature, with its failure, created the current state financial mess – with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s politically partisan hard-headedness intensifying the degree to which damage has been done.

Yet I don’t think anybody seriously is wishing for a return of Pat Quinn to the governor’s mansion. The Republicans are glad to have someone bearing their own political label in place.

AND AS FOR the Democrats, many are probably glad to see that the self-styled government reformer who often was willing to turn his wrath on themselves is gone from the political scene.

Heck, there is irony in the fact that Quinn felt compelled to use a Sunday afternoon press conference to announce his effort to keep Emanuel from gaining any additional power through the benefits of incumbency.

It was his tactic from the days of old when he was the outsider banging on the doors of government desperately trying to get a response. A Sunday stunt means he gets on the Sunday television newscasts, largely because there’s little to nothing else happening that can be covered. Although it should be noted that last Sunday was the exception.

Which may wind up hurting chances of Quinn gaining attention for his latest term limits crusade – what with people potentially being more concerned with mass shootings and slaughter. Although I wouldn’t put it past Quinn to find a way to try to address that issue too on a future Sunday morning.

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What’s the difference between ISIS and Trump-loving conservative ideologues?

The world’s attention fell upon Orlando, Fla., and not because of anything that occurred at Disney World.

For in the early hours of Sunday, an armed man entered a club whose defining characteristic was that it was a place where gay people were not made to feel unwelcome.

AFTER A FEW hours, local police wound up engaging in a shoot-out with the man, and some 50 people were killed – along with more than 50 more wounded.

That puts it in the category of the worst mass shooting in our nation’s history. It seems the gunman who provoked the incident made statements claiming he did it in the name of Allah, and the ISIS activists of the Middle East also are taking credit – although it seems they are more interested in gaining public attention for themselves.

In short, the bloodbath occurred – it would seem – because someone objected to the concept of gay people being treated with any dignity or respect as human beings. What really frosts their bottom, however, is that western society generally is coming about to realize how ignorant homophobia can be.

Does that mean we can start thinking of those conservative ideologues who rant and rage about gay people being given special treatment every time they stick up for their rights as being aligned with ISIS or any of the other people of the Middle East who act up in ways they say are beneficial to Islam?

I’M PRETTY SURE that the conservatives of western society who have particular objections to gay rights would take great offense to such a statement. They probably would claim they are the real patriots willing to fight for our way of life.

Although I can’t help but wonder at how some of the ideological nonsense they spew about our society’s flaws really would put them in line with the way of thinking of these extremists who use Islam to try to justify themselves.

Perhaps our nation’s conservative ideologues on a certain level are jealous that they can’t use the extreme violent tactics of a group like ISIS against the people they disagree with?

Is that really what some people would like to have in terms of the way our culture operates? The extremism, except without all those funky Arabs. Whites only, please!

IT DID AMAZE me the degree to which so many officials were quick to come out with public acts intended to put distance between themselves and this incident. Heck, our very own Gov. Bruce Rauner was lagging behind, bringing up the rear literally in issuing the statement saying that flags at government buildings will fly at half-staff in tribute to the 50 deceased.

It’s not like this was even the only potential anti-gay incident of Sunday.

An arrest was made in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday of a man with a trunk-load of firearms and explosives. It seems he was headed for West Hollywood for an L.A. Pride festival to take place that day.

What kind of actions he had in mind, we don’t know. It seems he got caught before anything bad could happen. Which is the only reason we don’t have news reports of coast-to-coast anti-gay violence taking place in the United States.

THE SCARY THING is that these people probably do think, on a certain level, that they’re standing up for moral ideals. Just like I'm sure they'll find a way to condemn President Barack Obama for his Sunday statements defending the rights of those who were killed. I'm also sure all those people wearing those “Make America Great Again” caps and touting the ideals of Donald Trump think they’re doing right by society.

They ain’t.

And while I’m sure there are people who will argue that Trump really doesn’t buy into all the nonsense his presidential campaign has been spewing, the fact is that these are the kind of people who will get stirred up the most.

Which makes me wonder how many more actions like these do we have the potential to see in coming months? Even one is too many.

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