Republicans ought to stifle their trash talk about overly partisan political acts

“Illinois House Democrats had a chance to govern differently and compromise, … but they failed. Like the Senate Democrats, they chose to ram through this costly and short-sighted piece of legislation just so they could make good on a vacuous campaign slogan.” Also, “Governor Pritzker has one last chance to show he really meant it when he said he wanted to compromise and take bipartisan action on major issues facing the state.

“We hope he follows through, but we aren’t holding our breath.”

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Will Pritzker or Trump (below) … 

That was part of the official partisan rhetoric, issued in the name of Illinois GOP spokesman Aaron DeGroot, in the moments after the General Assembly completed the vote Thursday on a measure that will gradually raise the minimum wage for Illinois to $15 an hour.

Republicans were p-o’ed, even they were in no position to halt the measure, which was a significant part of the Democratic Party rhetoric of what they’d do if they won election. With the veto-proof majority, they can ram it through, and there’s nothing that Republican partisans can do but whine.

SO I CAN’T help but feel nothing but contempt for such rhetoric considering that the same people who are demanding there be bipartisanship and that Republicans be included in the process most likely are the biggest supporters of President Donald Trump’s “national emergency” declaration on Friday.

One can argue that Democrats acted as heavy-handed as did Trump, but there is one major difference.

Illinois voters picked a heavy slant to the General Assembly that approved the minimum-wage measure, and a governor will sign off on the measure some time likely next week.

… wind up the bigger political victor?

Whereas Congress made it damned well clear they weren’t going to do a thing that would support any of Trump’s nonsense-talk about the need to erect barricades along the U.S./Mexico border – which now has an $8 billion price tag attached to it.

THIS MEASURE MEANT to result in erection of a border barricade so as to keep the foreign elements out of our society is the ultimate example of strong-arm political tactics meant to ignore the will of a majority of the people – who’d rather see this whole idea wither away.

As for doing something “solely to make good on a vacuous campaign slogan,” I’d have to argue that everything Donald Trump has tried doing has been nothing more than trying to fulfill his lame slogans.

Particularly when it comes to anything related to federal immigration policy or Latin America. Trump is determined to be the president of xenophobes, with the rest of our society having to just shut up and tolerate their ignorant view of what our world should be like.

So excuse me for thinking that the president’s live statement about a “national emergency” was just a whole lot of hooey. One that it wouldn’t shock me to learn upset many morning television viewers because its broadcast pre-empted “Let’s Make a Deal.”

NOW I’M SURE some are going to jump all over my minimum wage boost and the thought that Republicans can only whine about it, by trying to claim the Democratic opposition to Trump’s immigration thoughts are equally lame.

Which issue gets people riled up more: border barricades … 

But seeing that not even Republicans in Congress really wanted to be bothered with this particular issue (largely because they took the political hit for using it to shut down government operations last month), it’s obvious the only person who perceives a “national emergency” is The Donald himself.

In fact, I get my amusement these days from the pundits who say that the only “national emergency” our nation faces is the Trump presidency itself.

It will be interesting to see how quickly and thoroughly the courts ultimately interfere with any such border barricade from being build. And for those who have a problem with that happening, keep in mind that the judicial branch of government’s very purpose is to interfere every time government officials get stupid and try to over-step their bounds.

OF COURSE, IT also will be interesting to see how the raising of minimum wages progresses from state to state.

… or minimal pay for the impoverished?

Illinois will be far ahead of many other states in terms pay the minimum pay its workers can get. Many are like Indiana, our neighbor, which clings to the $7.25 per hour rate that is the federal standard.

Indiana’s Legislature has contemplated raises to the $15 per hour standard, but has always thwarted then in blatantly-political fashion. But is the gradual increase to $15 in Illinois by 2025 going to result in the Hoosier State and other like-minded states being forced to follow suit?

With the courts eventually trampling all over Trump’s narrow vision of our society, will the ultimate outcome of this Age of Trump be a whole lot of failed initiatives that withered away in their own pile of ignorance?

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O’Farrill to Chicago's jazz fanatics at festival: We don’t need no stinkin’ wall

It seems we’re truly in the Age of Trump; we can’t escape it no matter where we go.

Arturo O'Farrill works immigration reform, a border wall and Donald Trump-bashing into jazz fest. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

Not even at the Chicago International Jazz Festival, which wrapped up Sunday at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.

AMONGST THE PERFORMERS who appeared on the final night was Arturo O’Farrill and his sextet – which consists largely of his sons. Who are the grandchildren of Chico O’Farrill, the legendary bandleader and performer of Afro-Cuban music. A family affair?

It was a pleasant-enough performance, but one that felt the taint of partisan politics. What with the way Arturo felt compelled to work political pot shots related to immigration reform and the possible erection of a barricade along the U.S./Mexico border into his performing patter.

Such as his riff off the ever-quotable line from the 1948 film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” With O’Farrill telling his Chicago audience, “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges. We don’t need no stinkin’ border. We don’t need no stinkin’ wall.”

And yes, I know that the line “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges” never actually appeared in the film in that form. But that didn’t stop the jazz gathering from appreciating the humor.

THE LINE DREW applause from the jazz fanatics in attendance, along with O’Farrill’s line that avoided using the name “Donald Trump,” but said we can always tell when he’s being dishonest. “His lips move,” O’Farrill quipped.

And just in case the audience had Trump fanatics amongst it (not that any of them felt compelled to react publicly), O’Farrill said that the fact we as a society are filled with people who disagree, “is what makes us great.”

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Trump needs new target; will it be the nation's Mexican-American population?

No matter how much President Donald J. Trump wants to say that Democrats will take the blame for the failure of his version of health care reform to pass, the masses are fully prepared to blame the Trumpster himself.

Will we soon see uptick in Trump piñatas?

And since in the world of The Donald, he is all knowing, all wise and never fails at anything, I’m sure that Trump is now scouring the scene for another issue that he can score a quick victory on.

ONE THAT WILL allow him to rebound with something resembling success. Something that he hopes will be considered more important than any mere loss with regards to health insurance access.

Which is an overly complicated issue that no one should have expected the Trumpites of the world to achieve any level of success. Even the brightest of minds have trouble with the nuances of insurance and health care. And let’s be honest, we don’t have the brightest of minds in charge of our government these days.

We have the most egomaniacal of ideologues, and ones with a nativist streak that tends to outright xenophobia.

Personally, I can’t get around the fact that the Trump presidential fantasies (nightmares for the majority of us) began with the attacks he made on Mexico and those people in this country with ethnic ties to the land down south – although in some of our cases, it was the border dropping south so that our great-great grandfathers went from being Mexican to “American.”

ALBEIT A SECOND-class status of American, because the Anglo types who settled the Southwest likely would never have done so if they had thought all those people already living there would be treated equal to them.

Will this site become common?

In my mind, the failure of Donald Trump and his pathetic band of backers to erase former President Barack Obama’s version of health care reform from the books means he’s going to try to revamp his persona with a political victory of sorts against the foreigners.

And since he has now repeatedly failed in his efforts to pass travel restrictions against people from nations where Islam is a predominant religion, he may decide that he needs to get his victory at the hands of Latinos.

Whom he’ll probably proclaim to all be Mexicans. Even the ones of Puerto Rican ancestry who have U.S. citizenship by birth, or the ones from Cuba who still get preferential treatment because of the old desire to do things that humiliate the now-deceased Fidel Castro.

I KNOW THAT in a lot of Spanish-tinged enclaves and neighborhoods in this country, including in Chicago, there is the increased sense of paranoia that immigration agents are on the verge of being unleashed for mass rounds of deportation.

Can this wall really be made to look pretty?

Which may even pick up a few U.S. citizen-types of Latino backgrounds, because the bulk of Trump backers really are clueless when it comes to distinguishing people – except to be able to say who isn’t exactly like themselves!

Could Trump’s wrath take the form of some dramatic action to try to force a confrontation about “the wall” that the president has said he wants erected along the 1,900-mile U.S./Mexico border?

The one that supposedly will be 30 feet high and beautiful to look at, from the U.S. side. Although I can already envision the graffiti marring it, along with the tunnels that will wind up underneath. Why do I suspect that any border wall will be as secure as Stalag 13 from that staple of 1960’s television “Hogan’s Heroes?”

If Trump is Klink, who's playing the part of Col. Hogan?

DOES THAT MAKE White House strategist Steve Bannon the equivalent of actor John Banner’s “Sgt. Hans ‘I know nothing’ Schultz?” With Trump himself as the immortal Col. Wilhelm Klink – making ridiculous boasts about how “No one escapes from Stalag 13” – which was about as accurate as all the “fake news” that Trump now spews on ever so many issues.

Or are we really in line for some immigration raids so we can get a few busloads of people being driven back across the border into Mexico – and in the process, probably a kid or two who gets mistaken for Mexican (and probably will wind up having parents who voted for the Trumpster)!

Winnah, and still Champeen?!?

President Trump has just shown too much incompetence, but has too big an ego to let it go and try to think the issue through rationally. Like in the 1978 film “Animal House,” when the Delta fraternity responds to their being expelled from college with “a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.”

The best we, the true majority of our society, can hope for is that their streak of political incompetence continues. Although the one sad truth is that real people will wind up getting hurt – all to salvage the ego of the man who couldn’t beat Obamacare!

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It took less than a week for president to resort to “Latino card” for trash talk

The Latino segment of the electorate was always wary of the concept of “President Donald J. Trump,” remembering that the very first outlandish and irrational attack he made during his presidential campaign was against Mexico.

Parts of the U.S./Mexico border already have barricades. Not that it has done much good.

We realized that if the people truly gave in to their worst instincts and picked him to be the nation’s chief executive, we’d probably wind up being targeted by much of his trash talk.

SO PERHAPS THE only surprise in Trump’s initiatives this week concerning sanctuary cities and border barricades is that they didn’t come sooner.

As it was, Trump signed off on a pair of executive orders related to the two issues within the first week of his presidency. Perhaps we can take comfort these are merely executive orders that a future president will be able to erase with the sign of a pen.

It’s not like Congress did anything to grant approval that would have given the Trump trash talk some government muscle to back it up. It can easily be undone once we have a serious person back in the White House. There also are questions as to the practicality of enforcing either of Trump’s orders for the long-term.

But just as an attempt to revoke the Affordable Care Act because some people don’t want the nation to be involved in providing for the healthcare of its residents is going to harm some residents in the short term, there will be Latinos (regardless of whether or not they’re Mexican, because the ideologues can’t tell the difference and think we’re all Mexican) who will get hurt by this xenophobic focus created by the president.

FOR ALL I know, there are bound to be Latinos who lose their healthcare – taking a double blow because of the partisan nature of this particular president.

I’m not sure which of these two “issues” bothers me more?

Sanctuary cities truly are a worthy concept – it’s a wonder that more places don’t adopt the idea, which basically amounts to the notion that local cops do their own jobs and leave the responsibility of enforcing policy to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who are trained in the nuances of immigration law.

Chicago won't be alone in granting sanctuary city status

The fact that Chicago is a sanctuary city does not, in any way, impede the authority of federal immigration officials to do their job. People can’t “hide out,” so to speak, in Chicago – or any other city with such status.

ALL IT REALLY means is that a traffic ticket can’t evolve into a deportation hearing. Nor should it be allowed to!

Unless you’re the type of individual who wants the police to be little more than the armed thugs of government. In which case, you are the real problem our society faces.

Honestly, though, it may be the border wall (which was the subject of Trump’s campaign-beginning rhetoric) that will make this nation look more ridiculous. If it gets built (and the cost would be stratospheric), it will fail to accomplish its goal of keeping “Mexicans” out of the United States.

In fact, all it may well wind up doing is becoming a graffiti-laden barricade that provides the world with an embarrassing entry point to the nation that likes to boast of the Statue of Liberty and turn her, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” into the ultimate proof that talk is cheap.

TRUMP SHOWS HOW absurd he is with this policy, which merely reminds me of the smart aleck wisecrack often made about how a 10-foot wall can be scaled by an 11-foot ladder. There’s no such thing as an impenetrable barrier – not even the uninhabitable deserts that comprise many of the border region’s 1,900-plus miles.

 

TRUMP: A failed wall can be his legacy

We may wind up creating the 21^st Century’s equivalent of the Berlin Wall, which was built by the Communist regime of the old East Germany to isolate their portion of Berlin from the rest of the world. Just as Trump-ites dream they can isolate the United States from the presence of Mexico.

It's particularly ridiculous that Trump talks of forcing Mexico’s government to pick up the construction tab. A 20 percent surcharge on Mexican imports is pure fantasy, no matter how many times Donald J. says it. If anything, Trump ought to devote his own personal fortune to paying for such construction. We’ll even allow him to put his name on the wall like he does all the other structures he has erected around the world.

A “Trump Border Wall” can be his lasting legacy – a structure that totally fails to achieve its intended purpose of keeping people out, visually illustrates the ignorance of his political talk and possibly bankrupts the man and his family financially in the process.

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