EXTRA: Trump reaches out to Chicago of the past in brief city stopover

You don’t hear it said quite as often as it used to be; that Chicago has more Polish people living here than anywhere else except for Warsaw.
 

The voters Trump tried appealing to Wednesday

So perhaps it would take a presidential candidate whose campaign theme is to look to the past out of the belief that is where “greatness” for our country can be found to acknowledge the old days when Milwaukee Avenue was the cultural center of Polish-oriented neighborhoods where one could live out an entire life without ever needing to know English.

IT’S STILL POSSIBLE to get by without English in many ethnic-oriented parts of the city, although Polish is no longer the language of choice in those parts of Chicago.

All this is to say that Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who has made a point of singling out Chicago and the crime statistics for his rhetorical abuse, dared to set foot within the city limits.

While campaigning in Iowa and Wisconsin on Wednesday, he added in a surprise morning visit to the Polish National Alliance offices up on Cicero Avenue. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that he met with various Polish-American local organizations – commiserating with them as they adjust to a changing world in which they’re merely one of many ethnic interests in this city.

No, Trump wasn’t in the heart of Chicago/ Those offices are only a couple of blocks from the city limits near suburban Lincolnwood. Some might argue the area is more suburban-feel than city.

IT DOESN’T CHANGE my basic premise that Trump wouldn’t dare to set foot anywhere else in Chicago, and most likely isn’t the least bit concerned about such places.

One vote Trump won't get

They don’t fit his limited view of what the world ought to be like – one in which women don’t let themselves get all bloated and fat like that Miss Universe candidate he has feuded with throughout his campaign.

But I don’t doubt that Trump will view his visit as himself having the nerve to set foot in the heart of the very beast itself. Before he went off to the suburbs proper for a Bolingbrook appearance with people inclined to pull out their checkbooks and give him campaign contributions.

Then off to Iowa and Wisconsin, where Trump can actually dream he has a chance of winning Electoral College votes in his Quixotic campaign to resurrect a national greatness that most likely would be best preserved if we were to send him off packing past Nov. 8.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Alicia, an aspiring actress, has since become a U.S. citizen. Which gives her a vote on Election Day -- one that I'm sure she will put to use against Trump, who can't accept the fact she no longer looks the same as she did when she won his pageant some 20 years ago.

What should we think if World Cup final gets better ratings than Miss USA?

That’s a very real possibility, what with the fact that the Women’s World Cup championship match scheduled for this Sunday will be on the Fox television network, whereas the Donald Trump-owned pageant has been relegated to Reelz (channel 507 on my local line-up).

The show will come to an end Sunday for another four years

I wonder how many people don’t have a clue where to find the channel (I didn’t until I looked it up, and figured out it was one of those channels I usually fly right by while trying to find something worthwhile to watch).

BUT THAT IS the reality, where the women’s national teams from the United States and Japan will play against each other this Sunday, and Trump will give us a girlie show (in the name of scholarship) on July 12.

The Miss USA pageant lost its spot on the NBC network because of the fact that Trump engaged in stupid comments about Mexico – as though someone as gauche as he has any right thinking himself superior to anything on Planet Earth!

That caused NBC, whose holdings also include the Spanish-language Telemundo network, to drop the program, and also for the Univision network that would have carried the pageant into Latin American countries to drop it as well.

There also are a lot of business entities, including the one-time Marshal Field’s now known as Macy’s, who are refusing to be connected to Trump anymore. No more “Trump, the Cologne,” or any other products with his brand name.

HIS GARISH BEHAVIOR for all these decades has always been embarrassing. But now, his tacky mouth may wind up harming him.

Miss USA winds up on a channel people will have to hunt for

Which makes me think, “It’s about time!” The reason I haven’t felt compelled to write anything trashing Trump for his latest Mexico rant is that it doesn’t strike me as being any more stupid than anything else he has ever said or done. I never paid any attention to him, then or now.

So Trump’s program (he owns the pageant) will not draw the kind of television attention it usually gets. Although I suspect enough people will hunt for the program next weekend that it will be rhetorically spun into some sort of “historic” event – for the Reelz network, at least.

Instead, the big event may turn out to be the Women’s World Cup – which has been ongoing for the past month and comes to its conclusion this weekend.

Mexico won't participate this year

THAT GERMANY VS. England matchup that I’m sure some people were desperately hoping would be the championship final will wind up being the consolation match on Saturday.

Instead, we’re going to get that rematch of the 2011 Women’s World Cup, when a 2-2 tie turned into a Japan victory on a shootout. The U.S. revenge comes Sunday? Or will the ideologues be ranting on Monday about the “shame” of losing to Japan in anything?

This may wind up getting decent television ratings because it reflects the reality of the U.S. sporting mentality – U.S. fans will watch soccer if they feel the U.S. team has a good chance of winning the whole thing and dominating everyone they play.

Anything else is considered downright dull. As though the U.S. men’s basketball Olympic Team is the way all sports are intended to be. They’ll watch if they think the United States will get its first Women’s World Cup victory since 1999.

IF ANYTHING, IT will be interesting to see just how much better soccer does than the pageant in the ratings. Although I can already hear the rants claiming that any ratings won’t reflect the reality that some people want to perceive.

What really is more intriguing:  90-plus minutes of the “beautiful game” or learning who will represent the United States at the Miss Universe pageant come early next year?

Considering how Mexico and other Latin American nations are considering not even participating (and the number of pageant winners that usually come from Latin America), could this become the Miss Universe equivalent of the 1984 Summer Olympics – remember all the Soviet bloc nations that dropped out; weakening the overall competition level?

Chastain's moment lives on

Why do I suspect that the upcoming star or personality of Sunday’s Women's World Cup match (remember Brandi Chastain from 1999?) will have longer staying power in our society’s collective memory than whichever bathing suit-clad woman wins the Miss USA pageant the following week?

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