Federal bureaucracy, red tape – is that the key to thwarting sanctuary cities?

It has long been the conservative ideologue manner for dealing with abortion – a medical procedure they’re determined to view as criminal, but which sensible people do not.

Just another step in Trump's efforts … 

They have their similar-minded elected officials push for policies and regulations that make a person’s ability to obtain the procedure so much of a burden that it effectively makes it impossible for many women to obtain – even if it remains in the law books.

IT SEEMS THAT the ideologues are taking a similar approach to immigration; specifically to the notion of Sanctuary Cities. As in the concept that federal immigration officials ought to do their own work in enforcing federal policies that are overly harsh, and shouldn’t be able to draft local law enforcement into doing their leg work.

It seems they’re once again trying to mess with the federal funds that many local police departments rely upon to fund their efforts. Almost as though they’re saying cities are free to declare themselves sanctuaries from the ideological nonsense that has taken over our federal immigration policies.

But those cities can count on being messed with in ways that it will make it difficult, if not impossible, to do the jobs that actually are within their listed responsibilities.

That certainly is happening in Chicago, where on Friday the city felt compelled to file a lawsuit yet again against the U.S. government for messing with the funds the Chicago Police Department expect to get. And that, in fact, every police department gets.

EXCEPT THAT IN this Age of Trump, officials want to withhold as their way of pressuring Chicago into accepting a more intolerant attitude toward “all those foreigners” whom they’re determined to believe are the root cause of all the problems our society faces.

Because once again, Chicago is being forced to fight for its share of the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant funds – a program that has become a significant part of the federal government’s efforts to help bolster local law enforcement.

Which is something that President Donald J. Trump always claims he’s interested in doing whenever he goes on yet another of his nonsensical rants about how messed up he thinks Chicago is.

… to bully Chicago and Rahm Emanuel into submission

But yet what does he actually do? Trump has talks with singer Kanye West about a whole lot of nonsensical babble, while messing with the funding that might help local police to do more in addressing crime.

THIS PARTICULAR ISSUE is pathetic in so many ways – largely because it occurred a year ago.

Chicago had to take legal action in order to get its share of grant monies, and a U.S. District judge wound up ruling in the city’s favor that federal demands requiring city and Cook County jail officials notify them of every inmate they were holding who had questionable immigration status were not sufficient cause for the feds to withhold some $2 million from the Chicago Police Department.

Yet it seems the Justice Department is once again refusing to cough up the cash, as city officials still have yet to receive the letter confirming that they’ll get the money this year.

As though officials in this Age of Trump have decided they don’t want to pay attention to any court order. They’re going to persist in pursuing their ideologically-motivated policies whose long-range intent are to make certain people feel so unwelcome in this country that they’ll want to leave.

ALMOST LIKE THAT “self-deporting” nonsense talk that came up during the presidential campaign of 2012. It’s as if this goes beyond anything that Trump says or thinks, and has become a part of the Republican platform for addressing the issue.

Ought to think before rants about bullying

Ignore those people who won’t do what they’re told, and maybe they’ll just give up.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes the courts to issue an order forcing the federal government to cough up Chicago’s share of the proceeds. It’s not like there’s anything new this year that didn’t apply last year.

As for whether the same nonsense will occur again next year, most likely it will. That may be the ultimate reason that strong turnout come Nov. 6 (and again in 2020) is so important – perhaps the so-called “silent majority” needs to be reminded their guy got 3 million fewer votes in 2016 – and that they’re really a loud-mouthed minority whose ideological bigotry doesn’t belong in the 21^st Century.

  -30-

Is it just a matter of time before Supreme Ct overrules Chgo justices?

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump doesn’t think much of the political establishment of Chicago. Our public officials, after all, are clearly in opposition to the will of The Donald and are willing to publicly point out how wrong he is on so many issues.

LEINENWEBER: Standing up to Trump

So when a federal justice in Chicago ruled this week to reject the Attorney General’s attempts to have a lawsuit by Chicago against the federal government dismissed, a part of me now wonders if the presidential focus will shift to the Supreme Court.

THE ONE THAT could wind up with a solid margin of political partisanship intended to present his take on the law as the one that must be legitimate.

Just as it took several months before Trump got his way on travel restrictions meant to make it seem that people from Islamic-influenced countries were of being permitted in the United States, maybe he expects that a court rigged in his favor will gladly give him his take on “sanctuary cities.”

As in claiming that Chicago and other municipalities that refuse to have their law enforcement do the dirty work of federal immigration officials are somehow being un-American and ought to lose federal funding they now rely upon.

The scary part is that his line of “logic” isn’t totally absurd. A partisan court could wind up giving legitimacy to Trump’s ideologically-inclined ramblings.

ON THE ISSUE, U.S. District senior judge out of Chicago issued rulings saying the federal government is overstepping its bounds in its efforts to force Chicago to do away with the Sanctuary City concept.

Leinenweber a Chicago holdover from Reagan

Leinenweber isn’t a liberal-leaner by any means.

He’s a judge who got his appointment to the federal courts back in the days of President Ronald Reagan. He is the spouse of one-time Rep. Lynn Martin, who later served as Labor secretary under President George Bush (the elder),

He’s an establishment-oriented Republican. But in this Age of Trump, he’s the kind of person who finds a strong sense of shame in thinking his political party could produce someone of the ilk of the current president.

WHICH IS WHAT makes it possible for him to follow the letter of the law, which is along the general line of thinking that federal officials have jurisdiction over federal issues. Local people do their own work.

TRUMP: Waiting for Supreme Ct to overturn?

Crossing over that boundary in either direction causes serious problems that undermine the concepts upon which our society is based. Such as us not being a police state looking to harass the people who live here for political reasons.

If anything, the Leinenweber rulings may add a sense of legitimacy to Chicago’s hard-headed support for the Sanctuary City concept – one which the U.S Court of Appeals for the 7^th district (based in Chicago) is expected to consider later this year whether it should apply nationally.

Something that Trump most definitely won’t want to happen – largely because he still has his vision of the presidency being about him being the “Fearless Leader” (remember Boris and Natasha’s boss and their repeated failed cartoon attempts to “kill moose and squirrel”) who can bark out orders at will?

WHICH IS WHY he likely is counting on that partisan-leaning Supreme Court to undo every attempt to maintain a sense of logic and sensibility in the way our government operates in this Age of Trump.

Are these Trump's kind of characters?

Just as I’m sure the president is peeved with that Federal Communications Commission head who is publicly speaking out against the proposed merger of broadcast properties across the nation with Sinclair Broadcast Group – whose own clueless leanings are in line with the presidential vacuous ideology.

Maybe Trump fantasizes the high court will give him sufficient authority to make “The Apprentice,” that lame television program he once appeared on, a reality by being able to bark out “You’re Fired!” at anyone who offends his sensibilities.

We can only hope the electorate comes to the rescue and the vocal minority does not once again prevail as it did in 2016. Because we need to dump Trump, then work to undo the damage this man has caused through all his egomaniacal acts.

  -30-

What’s so sensible about police dog, gun sanctuary political policies?

I remember once talking with someone of a social conservative ideological bent who seriously perceives conservatives as merely being people who view their ideas as “common sense” principles that we all ought to be eager to follow.

Is this canine the victim of  possible drug law?

I remember laughing in his face at the thought of some of the extremist thought being perceived as logical by any means, and some of the ideas cropping up in Illinois these days in the name of sane social policy are equally ridiculous.

MUCH OF THIS comes from the regional split between urban vs. rural – with many of those in less-populated places being (in my opinion) too isolated from the real world to fully appreciate what goes on amongst the majority of us.

Take marijuana use.

That drug oft inhaled in the form of handmade cigarettes (although I’m sure some are making jokes about brownies) is the focus of proposals that could come before the General Assembly in the near future as to legalization. Some see the logic in legitimizing the substance, with the product being produced under regulated conditions and taxed.

Boy, do some government officials want to tax it! While some are so determined to keep the taint of illegitimacy attached that they’re going to come up with lame arguments as to why its use ought to remain some sort of criminal act (mostly because they think it’s people NOT like themselves who are using it – which is itself absurd).

WHICH IS WHY some law enforcement types are now spewing out an argument against legalization – it would reduce their need for those police dogs whose principal purpose is to use their strong sense of smell to detect the presence of pot.

One thing about the dogs used by police is that they are trained intensely to serve a sole purpose. The idea of retraining those animals likely is not practical – and they’re certainly not of any use as house pets.

The Herald & Review newspaper of Decatur reported about how law enforcement officials are saying their dogs would all have to be retired, and in many cases euthanized, since the one task they were trained to do would now be something no longer needed by police.

The real target of those 'sanctuary' gun communities

Maybe they think they’re going to get all the animal rights activists on their side because of the very thought of all those dead dogs piling up somewhere.

THE THOUGHT THAT a change in law would mean there would be no more need for such dogs in police work is just too radical a thought for those people determined to keep pot criminal.

Although the more absurd line of logic being peddled by ideologues involves another measure being pushed in certain counties of rural Illinois where the gun rights activists are determined to think their firearms are some sort of moral right – just like they want to think only “hippie freaks” use marijuana.

These are the counties following the lead of officials near Effingham that have declared themselves to be “sanctuary” spaces for people with firearms.

As in the local law enforcement officials will not feel compelled to assist with enforcement of firearms restrictions that local officials deem to be intrusive on their idea of what are our “rights.”

MUCH OF THIS thought ties into the ongoing debate over federal immigration policy and those who want to alter laws so as to boost deportations from this country. These ideologues are offended at the thought that some cities have declared themselves “sanctuaries” or “welcoming cities” where local cops let federal immigration officials do their own work – rather than offering any unasked-for cooperation.

So now they think they’re “mocking” those who want serious reform of immigration policy, while also strengthening the position of political partisans who are obsessed with firearms and who think that singer/songwriter John Lennon got one thing right in his life when he wrote, “Happiness is a Warm Gun.”

Beatles' parody of gun magazine that parodied Peanuts

Of course, I feel like I’d get the last laugh when somebody who doesn’t fit into their idea of a “real” person winds up showing in their isolated communities bearing arms. How quickly would they cooperate with prosecution of an "undesirable?" And would that person be able to use the idea of inconsistent application of the law to “beat the rap,” so to speak.

Just like I’m sure the same ideologues suddenly become rational about drug laws when it’s their own kids who get caught taking a toke and trying to figure out if Bill Clinton wasn’t totally full of it when he said he, “didn’t inhale.”

  -30-

Feds still tipped off to DACA beneficiary, despite sanctuary policy

Christian Gomez Garcia spent a couple of days in jail this week, awaiting the possibility of deportation from the United States even though he’s one of the individuals under federal policy who supposedly is protected from such a fate.

Gomez is one of the people who registered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program so that he could live openly in this country even though his mother brought him here at age 6 without getting valid visas for herself or her son.

TECHNICALLY, HE’S AMONG the ranks of the undocumented in this country – an illegal alien in federal bureaucratic-speak that the ideologues like to use because it dehumanizes the individuals they wish to deport.

Technically, his fate is one that isn’t supposed to happen. It was a screw-up by law enforcement, although the Chicago Tribune reported that his DACA protections may have lapsed. Which is why Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials reviewed his case before releasing him from the county jail in Kenosha, Wis., where they house some immigration cases while they’re pending prior to deportation.

But I’m sure Gomez isn’t going to feel all that relieved. He’s going to know that the slightest little slip-up will cause the bureaucrats to throw his life out of whack – and that the ideologue-inclined of our society won’t feel the least bit of sympathy.

Gomez is 29, and he’s supporting his mother, Luz Maria Garcia, who left their native Mexico to get away from instances of domestic abuse. He came to the attention of law enforcement for an incident in December. He drove his car through a stop sign, and was issued a ticket.

HE HAD HIS day in court on Monday, making his appearance at the courthouse in suburban Skokie. All routine; something I’m sure all of us have gone through at some point in life.

But when Gomez tried leaving the Skokie courthouse, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he found ICE agents waiting for him in the lobby. It seems someone notified federal officials that a person with uncertain immigration status was in court that day, and they should come to pick him up.

Even though the whole point of the DACA program is that those young people with no serious criminal records aren’t supposed to have to fear such hassle from law enforcement. DACA registration gives them the work permits provided they continue progress through the naturalization process toward eventual U.S. citizenship.

What has Latino activist-types all worked up is that this happened in a Cook County government facility. If it turns out to have been a sheriff’s deputy or some other county official who picked up the phone to call the feds, then someone is in violation of Coo County’s own sanctuary policy.

THAT’S THE POLICY that says county officials don’t assist federal immigration officials by providing such information about their jail inmates. It means that appearing in court for a traffic ticket should have been a circumstance in which Gomez felt secure.

Now I’m sure some people are going to argue that the inconvenience to Gomez wasn’t that big a deal. After all, the federal government wound up admitting their error and releasing him on Thursday.

Although it also means that he came to the attention of immigration officials, and this is exactly the kind of bureaucratic screwup that has the ability to come back and bite one on their nalgas. Or their derriere, if you prefer more effete language!

Who’s to say that having drawn this kind of attention will cause federal officials to tune their antennae more intensely to Gomez’ presence, looking for anything they could construe as a screw-up so they can justify their actions of this week?

BESIDES, I ALSO wonder how many of the rest of us would appreciate a screw-up that resulted in having to spend even a single day in a county jail. Particularly since the offense that initiated this whole incident was a blown “stop” sign.

The DACA policy, the one-and-the-same that President Donald Trump would like to see done away with, or at least extort other ideologue benefits in exchange for keeping it, was supposed to eliminate the chance of deportation being the end result for such petty offenses by people who are far from criminals.

Except in the mindset of those ideologues who want to believe that existing in this society without being exactly like their narrow-minded selves is a crime in-and-of itself.

For so long as we allow the immigration debate to be dictated by the idiotic thoughts of the most bigoted of our society, we’re going to continue to have more silly incidents like these clogging up our justice system.

  -30-

Federal immigration sweeps more about intimidation than enforcement?

Sometimes, the schoolyard bully beats up on someone merely to show everybody else that they can.
 

Are we really safer because 30 picked up by ICE sweeps?

That´s about how I perceive the latest round of sweeps done by federal immigration officials this week – the ones that they´re boasting resulted in some 498 arrests of individuals from 42 countries now living in the United States without a valid visa.

NOBODY OUGHT TO think our society is any more safe, or that our federal immigration policy is any less of a bureaucratic mess, just because Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials felt the need to do the mass sweeps during a four day time period this week.

I’m not even swayed by the fact that immigration officials claim that 317 of the people they arrested this week have criminal records – which they’d like for us to believe means those particular individuals should never have been in the country to begin with.

The fact is that if we consider these sweeps that took place in cities across the country that have designated themselves as sanctuary cities as somehow representative of the immigration ¨problem,” I’d say what they proved is that the problem isn’t anywhere near as significant as the nativist ideologues amongst us would have us all believe.

Federal officials said that 30 of the people who were picked up in the sweeps were busted in Cook County. That’s really not a significant number – particularly when you contemplate the number of people who actually live here, the large percentage who have ethnic origins in other countries and the significance of those who could have been picked up.

EMANUEL: Lawsuit got fed ct to back sanctuary cities

IN A STATEMENT to the Associated Press, acting immigration Director Tom Homan said that sanctuary city policies – such as what exist for both Chicago city and Cook County goverments – create “magnets for illegal immigration.”

And since the policies of the Chicago Police and the Cook County Sheriff’s departments are that they don’t turn over data on every single person they encounter who may (or may not) have uncertain immigration status, it means the federal officials want us to see they’re not going to be thwarted.

Immigration, Homan says, is “forced to conduct at-large arrests in those communities.”

DART: Won't hand over jail inmates to ICE

Which means that immigration officials were out-in-force in recent days, actively looking for people they could come up with busts for – similar to the days of old when local police would decide they needed to do something to appear busy, so they’d raid a few “dens of inequity” and make some cheap criminal busts.

THE “FEDS” WANT us to know that they’re going to make arrests amongst the significant ethnic populations of Chicago, even if they’re not getting the cooperation of the local police and sheriff, whom they wish would notify them every time they’re about to release somebody whose immigration status is suspect.

Then, the immigration officials could be waiting for them at the county jail – perhaps making their “bust” just as the inmate was hoping to catch a bus on California Avenue to get out of the area and try to get back to their local “homes.”

To me, the sad part of all this is that it means we have people devoting their time and effort to trying to pick up as many people as they can, and complain about all the hindrances they face.

We’d all be better off if we had such effort and devotion being paid to the idea of trying to make sense of our federal immigration boondoggle – a collection of policies that are in serious need of reform so as to clarify who exactly is worthy of being able to live in this country and whom amongst the ranks of the undocumented do we have legitimate reasons to fear.

 

TRUMP: Are ICE sweeps his response?

THE PROBLEM IS that, to the nativist element, they want to fear all. Their idea of immigration “reform” is deportations in as mass a group as they can put together. Which really is a waste of our time to try to achieve, and most likely impossible to think we can get rid of the tens of millions of people living here without that visa.

Particularly how in most cases, there was no legitimate reason to deny those individuals a visa – except that the bureaucracy made it difficult to impossible for said visa to be obtained.

Which is the ironic part of the immigration reform debate, as far as I’m concerned. The conservative ideologues who all too often rant that government is too big and burdensome and interferes with things getting done (Ronald Reagan famously quipping, “Government IS the problem”)?

When it comes to immigration policy, they may be right. It’s just a shame they can’t listen to their own rhetoric and try to do something about it for the betterment of us all.

  -30-

Will Gov. Rauner commit political suicide w/ immigration-related move?

To listen to the ideologues of Illinois, Gov. Bruce Rauner is going to do some serious

RAUNER: On the outs w/ ideologues

harm to his political reputation next week, if he follows through with his talk that implies he’s going to sign into law a measure meant to restrict law enforcement across the state from meddling into immigration enforcement.

Most famously, Chicago and Cook County, have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities – where people who might not have legal residency status to be in this country don’t have to worry every time they come into contact with local police for a traffic ticket or other matter.
 

TRUMP: Most definitely in good standing

EVEN SOME SUBURBS such as Evanston and Oak Park, along with nearby cities such as Gary, Ind., have declared themselves welcoming cities, which is a status meant to ensure that local police don’t get involved in federal immigration enforcement unless essential for local interests.

Now, the General Assembly this spring approved a measure it calls the Trust Act, which would prevent Illinois law enforcement entities – including local cops across the state – from arresting or detaining anyone based on suspicion of illegitimate immigration status.

Local police would only be allowed to detain a person who is not a .U.S. citizen or legal resident if there is an arrest warrant for that particular individual.

To many people, it is merely common sense that local police are busy enough enforcing local laws and that federal authorities are the ones with jurisdiction to handle the nuances of immigration law – which go farther than the notion of deporting everybody who isn’t like themselves.

BUT TO THE ideologues who support these kinds of ridiculous crackdowns (and likely idolize all of Donald Trump’s stupid-talk on the issue), the fact that Rauner has called the Trust Act “very reasonable” is offensive. The fact that both the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune reported that he is inclined to sign the bill on Monday is a major negative action.

WALSH: Rauner is 'done'

One Republican legislator from the part of Illinois near St. Louis said that Rauner approving this measure would be the “last straw” that would tick off rural Illinoisans who have been solid Rauner backers.

The Sun-Times quoted Republican activist-types, including former Rep. Joe Walsh of the northwest suburbs, as saying that Rauner approval for this measure as dooming him politically. “Governor Rauner is done,” Walsh said in Trump’s favorite medium – the 140 characters of Twitter.

Now as one who has followed the political debate over immigration policy and the need for reform for years, it doesn’t shock me to learn that the ideologues are taking a hard line that bears no tie to rationality.

IT WOULD SEEM the fact that Rauner has gone through his two-plus years as governor openly hostile to much of Chicago’s interests to try to garner the rural support isn’t sufficient.

Showing quarter on this issue is one that would undo everything else. Just as it was no accident that the Trump presidential campaign’s initial inanity was to criticize Mexicans and much has focused on non-Anglo people with strong ethnic ties to other parts of the world, they want the governor to behave in the same manner.

Would a Trump pardon for Arpaio be viewed ...

Even though amongst law enforcement officials, the concept of jurisdiction is a strong one, and cops usually are aware of when they have no authority to take on a particular incident. So why they’re expected to run roughshod over jurisdiction in immigration cases really makes little to no sense.

Of course, what these ideologues want is for someone to reinforce their own irrational hang-ups about our society. Trying to apply logic won’t work for Rauner in this case.

I WASN’T KIDDING when I wrote that they want more nonsense-talk like that of Trump – who just this week while in Phoenix hinted he’s inclined to give a pardon to former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He’s the cop who throughout the years was so vociferous in his efforts to crack down on immigration that he violated federal court orders that were meant to restrict him from harassment.

... similar to when President Ford pardoned Nixon?

Arpaio faces sentencing in October for his contempt of court conviction, and he could get some jail time – a thought that would please many people who have been harassed by him throughout the years. Yet Trump says he’s inclined to offer a pardon – which would pre-empt the possibility of incarceration.

A move that would be perceived by some as more despicable than when then-President Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for his Watergate-era offenses.

I have no doubt that some will lionize Trump if he does that, just as they will lambast Rauner if he follows through with his talk on the Trust Act. Stances that actually say more about the depraved ideals those people have, more than anything about the governor or president themselves.

  -30-

Rahm wants federal cts to fight against Trump's 'hot air' on immigration

Odd timing, to say the least, to learn of Chicago’s intentions under Mayor Rahm Emanuel to take the federal government to court what with the hostile and threatening rhetoric being spewed during this Age of Trump with regards to immigration.

I'm sure that Rahm Emanuel ...

For it comes at the same time that Cook County government is planning to sue the people who fought so hard to challenge the legitimacy of the pop tax. The county wants the months’ worth of revenues they otherwise would have collected during July from such a tax.

BUT JUST AS carbonated beverages create a gassy condition, one can also claim that the Trump administration, through its Justice Department, has also been full of hot air every time it talks about immigration policy and the way some cities – including Chicago – show support for the immigrants through “sanctuary city” status.

President Donald J. Trump has let it be known he wants to start penalizing those municipal governments that won’t hop into line with his rhetoric – which is meant to appeal to the segment of our society determined to live in bigotry.

Many of those people live in isolated communities of this nation, and in fact it wouldn’t shock me to learn that many of the people who chose to live in Chicago did so to escape such narrow-minded people like these.

Anyway, we’ve been hearing months’ worth of threats about how federal funding provided to the city will be cut – unless the city stops its policies that restrict the ability of local police to get involved in areas of the law involving immigration policy.

WHICH, AFTER ALL, is a federal issue that local officials really are not the least bit qualified to handle. No more than we’d want Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to be involved in the daily investigations of the homicides occurring in the city.

Emanuel this week said he plans to have attorneys argue in U.S. District Court that the U.S. government cannot tamper with Byrne grant funds from cities it is upset with.

... can find a judge somewhere in this complex ...

As the Chicago Tribune reported Friday, those particular grants are used to buy squad cars for the Police Department. It’s not a large sum of money at stake.

Which makes this more about the principle of the issue – getting a federal judge in Chicago to tell the president to back off his harassment. Which, admittedly, is being done largely to score bonus points for the president amongst his ideologue followers.

JUST AS WHEN Trump early on in his presidency tried to impose his travel restrictions against people from certain Middle East countries from being able to enter the United States, the federal courts came up with judges willing to thwart the president’s ideological, nativist desires.

I’m sure there is a federal judge working in the Dirksen/Kluczynski complex who will be more than willing to view Emanuel as a daily part of his/her legal life – while the president is just some esoteric concept who complains that his government-issued mansion in D.C. is “a dump.”

Any real resolution of this issue (whether cities have the right to refuse full compliance with the whims of federal immigration officials) is going to be decided at a higher level.

Maybe even possibly the Supreme Court of the United States – which probably is going to become preoccupied in coming years with determining just how much of Trump’s rants and “tweets from a twit” that he tries to impose into law have any legitimacy.

WHICH MAKES THE use of the local federal courts the same as the lawsuit the county is pursuing to pressure the anti-tax activist types to back off their opposition to the pop tax.

... to tell Trump to 'stifle' himself on immigration

Maybe it’s a form of legal intimidation. Or maybe it’s using the system to try to prevent others from abusing their authority. Which is what many view Trump’s efforts on immigration policy to really be all about.

Yes, the pop tax is about raising more government funds through a fee on the sale of carbonated beverages – those that can make us let out a loud belch.

Which, when you come to think about it, is about the same reaction I feel every time I think of the Trump administration’s efforts to use peoples’ nativist attitudes against immigrants to try to lessen the record-low disapproval ratings they are garnering.

  -30-

We don’t trust Trump? For shame!!! (Heavy sarcasm definitely intended)

You’d think President Donald J. Trump were asking us for our Social Security and credit card numbers, what with the way several states are reacting to a request for personal information about our voter registration rolls.

TRUMP: Give me your info!

Officially, the federal government says it wants to do a review of the policies in place to ensure that people are voting in legally legitimate ways. Which led to the information request from the entities in each of the 50 states that are in charge of keeping track over who is legally allowed to vote.

FOR THE RECORD, Illinois (in the form of the State Board of Elections) says it won’t provide anything to Trump.

They say we have existing laws in this state that prevent the voter roll data from being shared with political committees.

And it would seem many people are viewing this Trump-era investigation as some sort of fact-finding mission to advance the concept of there being certain people who have no such business thinking of themselves as having a right to vote.

Maybe it means that Trump finally accepts that only 46 percent of the electorate in 2016 wanted him to be president and that some 3 million more people wanted Hillary R. Clinton instead.

BUT RATHER THAN accept that a majority of the nation is displeased with him, perhaps Trump now wants to figure out a way to bolster his support by subtraction.

Find people who are not inclined to vote for him and come up with a legalese way of taking away their vote. Do enough of that, and you could take his “46 percent” and turn it into a majority.

Conniving? Less than honorable? Of course!

Donald Trump's baseball idol?

But then again, I’m sure Trump is of the Leo Durocher School (“Nice Guys Finish Last”) of politics, even though I’m sure he’s intellectually unadventurous enough to have a clue who Durocher was – or that the baseball club he once managed in Brooklyn wasn’t always a part of the Southern California scene.

SO WHY WOULD Trump-allied people want to gather up personal information about who is capable of casting a ballot? Who knows.

It brings out the most suspicion that exists in our human nature in that we’re willing to think the worst.

Which is why Illinois is saying flat-out that it won’t give any information. Many other states say they’re only going to give the most basic of details; so little that it’s likely the Trump-types won’t be capable of learning much of anything from this.

In all, some 44 of the 50 states are being less-than-cooperative in dealing with the president. Something I’m sure he will regard as a personal insult – and perhaps reason for him to consider cracking down on those states when they start asking for favors.

WHICH PROBABLY IS the way he views their requests for the funding that the federal government provides to states that they, in turn, use to support their own obligations to their residents.

I wonder if it will turn out to be something along the lines of the legal actions he is threatening against cities, including Chicago and Cook County, Ill., both of which are continuing to maintain their “sanctuary city” status with regards to immigration. Meaning the local cops won’t turn over every bit of data they stumble across to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Federal Immigration officials have to do their own legwork in their ongoing pursuit of people to face deportation.

Trump's fantasy? Except I doubt he's ever read it

It’s good to see that so many states are refusing to go along with this potentially-partisan political witch hunt – a search for anybody not inclined to worship at the Altar of The Donald. It makes me feel sorry for those people in the six states that see nothing wrong with going along with Trump on this issue.

And it is comical the efforts in some states where some people are going so far as to un-register themselves to vote – so as to ensure there is NO information on them to provide to the T-Men. Although I suspect that the Trump types will have their ways of finding out personal dirt on whomever they want – it most definitely is their style.

  -30-

We made it through the 100-day mark; only 1,360 more to go for Trump

New York real estate mogul Donald J. Trump is no longer beginning his new venture as U.S. president; he has completed the time period during which he supposedly is filled with so much vim and vigor that he’s able to get things done.
 

TRUMP: He's no longer new, he's just incompetent

Of course, there is nothing typical about the way Trump has handled the political post to which a vocal minority of the electorate chose him to fill back in November.

SO TRUMP ISN’T exactly wrong when he says the 100-day standard is kind of trivial, and really shouldn’t mean much of anything.

But then again, he’s accomplished so little that the Trump presidency is bordering on truly pathetic – even though Trump’s view of the world claims he has achieved significant goals that will forevermore change mankind. There are those who say he has the worst presidential start ever – although most would have said that regardless of what Trump actually accomplished.

Then again, even Trump can’t really be specific about what those goals were!

The one thing we do have to credit the Trump administration for is that it managed to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States – one that had been open for more than a year.

THE NATION’S HIGH court is now up to a full compliment of nine justices, with a slight partisan lean toward the conservative ideologues of our society.

OBAMA: His health care reform still stands

That is a fact that has the more progressive segments of our society terrified, but then again some of them were among the lazy ones who didn’t bother to turn out to vote in the Great Lakes region – resulting in the Trump political victory by which 46 percent of the popular vote and 2 million fewer than his opponent was enough to win.

Of course, with both the Senate and House of Representatives containing Republican majorities filled with politicos who view the ideologues of our society as the only ones who matter, it would have been downright pathetic if Trump couldn’t get his nominee for the Supreme Court confirmed.

It is a rigged process of people who will benefit no matter how incompetent or crazy Trump behaves as president. That truly is the scary part about this era we’re now in.

LINCOLN: Now HE had a tough 1st 100 days

OF COURSE, TRUMP also can claim to have authorized a military action involving Syria – which may make his bloated ego feel particularly satisfied. In fact, I suspect Trump is eager to find a war that he can engage the United States military in.

Perhaps he thinks that being a war-time president is the one way in which his approval rating can shoot up to a majority standard.

Although the truly great leaders of our society are the ones who manage to figure out ways around armed conflict – acting like diplomats rather than armchair generals.

Heck, Abraham Lincoln’s presidency is acknowledged for the way it kept a country from splitting in two, but let’s be honest. Lincoln himself would eagerly have done whatever he could to avoid war – to the point where some of his thoughts cause the pundits of today to accuse him of being a closet bigot.

PERHAPS AS OPPOSED to Trump, who wants to publicly be thought of as someone sympathetic to those who want public policy set by their racial and ethnic hang-ups.

That’s what gets us talk about foreign travel restrictions, walls along the U.S./Mexico border and immigration restrictions in general, including the elimination of sanctuary cities and the erasing of the Affordable Care Act– all of which are among the failures Trump has achieved because he inherently is a political amateur outclassed by the public officials with whom he must deal. Which benefits our society as a whole.

Now water ringed?

Although personally, I think the most appalling aspect of Trump is the little news nugget that the Reuters wire service uncovered in a presidential interview – that red button rigged up on his desk that calls for a uniformed servant to bring him a Coke at his Oval Office desk.

That’s the famed Resolute desk that John F. Kennedy used to work at (and John John played under), and that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama also used as a tribute. I wonder if Trump has the sense to use coasters, or if he’s defiling that famed desk with little rings of water from his drinks?

  -30-

Trump, ideologue allies suffer immigration defeat (for now, at least)

If Donald Trump were truly interested in “making America great again,” he’d never have tried becoming president. One can argue it is his combative nature on behalf of conservative ideologues that IS what’s wrong with our society these days.

Will Supreme Ct save us from Trump excesses?

Our inability to work together on issues despite our differences about the details is what ultimately will cause a chasm that splits our society beyond repair. Compromise is the “American Way,” even though many of the ideologues refuse to accept that notion.

IT IS BECAUSE of this that we’re going to have to turn to our court system to ensure that havoc is not wrecked upon us all. Which the ideologues will contend is unjust and evidence of unelected judges imposing their will upon us all.

Although it really is the way the system of checks and balances is supposed to work – Congress creates laws, the president approves them and the courts are there to ensure that if the politicos screw up, the damage will be repaired.

Which is what’s happening with regards to immigration and the concept of “sanctuary cities” – places where the local police don’t automatically share all the information they come across with federal Immigration officials.

Trump, in his bid to appease those individuals amongst us whose idea of immigration reform is a mass increase in the number of people deported from the United States, wanted his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to crack down on the federal funding his office provides to police departments in such cities – including Chicago.

MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL (who as a former member of Congress and White House chief of staff has a few clues about how to manipulate the federal government process) made it clear earlier this week Chicago wasn’t going to do anything to change the way it conducts itself on this issue.

That now has the backing of a federal judge – U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued an order Tuesday preventing the federal government from cutting off such funding for police.

Ironic in that Trump always goes on about the crime rate in Chicago and the violence, but then would want to take a whack at the funding the Chicago Police Department has available to him.

ORRICK: Will his ruling stand?

Trump on Wednesday turned to his Twitter account and began tweeting like a twit – lambasting the U.S. Court of Appeals based in San Francisco. That court is the one that will wind up hearing whatever challenge is filed to Orrick’s injunction, but it hasn’t acted yet.

ALTHOUGH I SUSPECT that to Trump, one judge looks just like another judge – they’re all interchangeable and that, in his mind, they’re all supposed to rule in his favor.

But a part of me also thinks Trump is just more interested in being a grump. Complaining about sanctuary cities, complaining about courts, ranting about that wall he wants built along the U.S./Mexico border but which action will not occur until at least autumn.

Trump is of the political type that wants to tell you that everything you think is “wrong” (because it’s not exactly like yourself) is “somebody else’s fault,” Support him, and he’ll commiserate with you. On this issue, it's the fault of the "flakes" in Frisco who won't follow his commands!

But he certainly doesn’t have solutions to the problems that face society. That’s hard work – as evidenced by the lack of much significant activity during the president’s symbolic First 100 Days. The time in which we determine if he gets off to a good start.

ADMITTEDLY, TRUMP GOT a Supreme Court justice appointed to fill a long-festering vacancy on the nation’s high court. But with the current political circumstances, the process was geared in his favor. It would have been the ultimate evidence of incompetence on Trump’s part if he had failed.

Which be the key to comprehending whether anything of lasting significance will be accomplished in the next roughly 1,360 days.

BARRON: Will his dad behave?

A rigged Supreme Court that overturns any lower court that dares rule in ways contrary to the desires of The Donald may be the only way Trump can get government to do anything.

Then again, we may find that even those justices on the high court will turn out to surprise us and for that, we should be grateful, even though we’ll inevitably get reports emanating from the White House about all the temper tantrums being thrown by Barron’s dad!

  -30-