EXTRA: Does Kirk gain bonus points politically for speaking Spanish?

KIRK: Habla en Espanol

I'm sure that Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., thinks he gained himself some political points when, during a final debate held Friday between himself and Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth, he reverted to the use of the Spanish language.

He showed off his bilingual abilities when asked a question by Univision-Chicago broadcaster Erika Maldonado about where he stood on immigration reform, saying, "I'm going to answer this question in the language for whom the issue is most meaningful."

DUCKWORTH: Fighting back in Thai

HE THEN TRIED to say in Spanish that he has been a supporter of the issue, while most of his Republican colleagues in Congress have not. He also tried rubbing it in by saying, "My opponent does not speak any Spanish."

Of course, it could be argued that by trying to portray the issue as purely one impacting Latinos, he is trying to isolate it off so that other voters don't give it much thought. There's also the argument that by giving his answer of moderation in Spanish, he ensures that many of the people who are most hard-core xenophobic in their thought process won't have a clue what he said.

And won't be reminded just how much they disagree with Kirk on this issue, and many others. After all, if he were really in line with their thoughts, they'd probably be backing him and it could be argued that a Donald Trump presidential candidacy would have coat-tails strong enough to carry him back to the U.S. Senate.

I also couldn't help but notice the wire service news accounts of the debate, which indicated that while Duckworth may not speak Spanish, she did show off her skills in the Thai language when answering questions from reporter-types.

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EXTRA: Leftover papers? Or souvenirs for those 5M who supposedly attended victory parade in Grant Park?

So what should we think of these piles of Thursday newspapers found Friday afternoon at a Walgreens' pharmacy in the southern part of metro Chicago.

Sox fans appalled at the front page play? Or Tribune Co. (that's Tronc, to those in the know) wanting to make as much money as they could off the Nov. 3 editions of the paper, to the point that they printed up more copies and had them shipped out to stores all over the place?

THE SALES CLERK at the Walgreens where these stacks were seen told me people were so anxious to buy the paper on Thursday that her hands were all blackened from the newsprint ink. "You'd think I worked at the printing plant," she told me. So more copies of the Thursday paper arrived Friday. Similar to how more press runs were printed up back in '08 when Barack Obama became president.

I get the idea that many people are going to want something of a keepsake of that particular date. There's just one thing to keep in mind -- with so many copies of the paper being printed, they're not going to be scarce for a long, long time - if ever!

And the only way anyone's copy of the Thursday paper will ever become worth anything is if your copy, and the copies of just about everybody else you know, wind up becoming trash throughout the years.

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How eager are national political people to jump on Chicago Cubs’ bandwagon?

So is the key to Donald Trump actually prevailing in Tuesday’s presidential election the notion that all those Chicago Cubs fans drunk with the glory of their favorite ball club actually winning something for once now turn around and vote for him?
 

Will Cubs fans back fellow fan Hillary?

That they’d pick Trump for president over Democrat Hillary Clinton – who’s actually a Cubs fan.

JUST A THOUGHT put into my head when I learned that Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway was spreading thoughts about, letting people learn of the story that the FiveThirtyEight.com had published during the weekend headlined “The Cubs Have A Smaller Chance of Winning Than Trump Does.”

The website that likes to reduce everything that happens in our society down to mathematics wrote its piece back when the Cubs were one game away from losing the World Series. Who’d have figured Cleveland could be unable to win one more game in three tries?

Now that the Cubs have that World Series championship, Conway would like for us to think that Trump can overcome all the obstacles that various polls have shown stand in between Trump and the presidency.

Such as all those groups of voters that Trump has gone out of his way to demonize so that he could gain the political support of conservative ideologues and other crackpots in our society!

WHAT’S FUNNY IS that earlier this year, Trump tried putting some distance between himself and the Ricketts family, the wealthy people who own the Chicago Cubs and were once among the Republican types who publicly were denouncing Donald.

 

Or will they go with owner's fave Trump?

But the two sides have clearly made nice – what with the Ricketts family elder making sizable contributions to political action committees that are trying to get Republicans to overcome the contempt they may feel personally for Trump.

Although one of those political action committees is a group trying to get Latinos to take seriously the notion that they should cast ballots for Trump – even though Latinos have been amongst the groups that Trump has most vehemently demonized to try to get himself nativist votes.

 

Can soon-to-be former Prez get Cubs love?

Although the Latino Decisions group based in Miami recently came out with its own study saying that Trump likely was going to take about 18 percent of Latino votes come Tuesday – which will make him the weakest GOP presidential candidate ever when it comes to that segment of the electorate!

SO WHAT’S THE deal? The Ricketts family is now willing to blow the good will they’d gain from a Chicago Cubs victory by getting in bed with Trump?

Or could it be that the Ricketts family doesn’t realize the potential good will that could come from having their ball club be the preferential choice of the occupant of the Oval Office.

The Chicago White Sox certainly managed to gain some national attention from the fact that Barack Obama always vocally referred to himself as a fan – to the point where he ticked off Major League Baseball when he insisted on wearing his White Sox warm-up jacket when appearing publicly at an All-Star Game rather than a more-neutral jacket touting the game itself.

Do they not want a “President Hillary Clinton” who would think nothing of donning the baby blue of the Cubbies in public and talking up her own childhood memories of following the ball club?

Emanuel to get his moment on Friday

OR DOES TRUMP, whose own baseball loyalties seem to be tied to being seen sitting next to New York Yankees former owner George Steinbrenner at Yankee Stadium, have some dirt that he really can use on the Ricketts family – as he hinted way back in March?

Speaking of Obama, I did find it intriguing that he issued his own statement acknowledging his Sox ties but also congratulating the Cubs and offering to have their White House visit take place before he leaves office in mid-January.

Which would be odd, since the official visit of World Series winners usually takes place the following spring, which would let presidents Clinton or Trump be the one who gets to look dorky while trying to leech public attention off the ballplayers.

Does Obama want to steal this moment from Hillary? Would it wind up being a joint Obama/Clinton appearance with the Cubs? Or is Barack trying to ensure that it won’t be a President Trump that gets a moment of glory being seen in public with the baby Bruins?

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The fact that one-time baseball star Pete Rose signed that particular ball for Donald Trump is probably enough reason not to vote for him to be president. Particularly since it makes me wonder how much Rose charged Trump for his autograph, which may well be his most reliable source of income -- unless you really thought much of Rose's performance as a sports commentator during World Series broadcasts!

¿Did Donald do himself in politically with his habla on Mexicaños?

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has been one of hitting hard and often several groups of people he figures were never going to support him anyway; but it was notable that his political trash talk began with Mexicans.
 

Will Latinos turn Trump into electoral piñata?

You remember? His spiel that Mexicans were rapists and drug dealers, and that erecting that barricade along the U.S./Mexico border would be a significant boost to the national security?

TRUMP AND HIS operatives always figured it couldn’t hurt them to talk like that because there just wouldn’t be enough Mexican-Americans to cast ballots. And such talk likely would inspire the nativist element of society that Trump is counting on to prevent him from electoral embarrassment come Tuesday night.

Now I don’t doubt that the xenophobes amongst us will be motivated to turn out and vote. Heck, I don’t doubt that in the isolated parts of the country, they will be dominant and will create political maps with large swaths of red.

Tainted, in the ideologues’ minds, by those pimples of blue that represent the urban areas where people (including voters) actually live.

But the complicating factor from the Trump perspective is the Latino vote – which has been on the rise but also shows signs of significant numbers of Latino voters can be apathetic.

WHICH IS WHAT makes the Miami-based Latino Decisions group intriguing. It shows an anticipated record-high Latino vote for the 2016 election cycle. As many as 14.7 million Latinos casting ballots in the Tuesday elections.

With some 79 percent of those anticipated to vote for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. Another 3 percent are expected to be amongst the contrarians voting for Libertarian or Green candidates.

Trump may well have motivated people with their ethnic origins in the rest of the Americas to think of Hillary as their friend. We laughed sarcastically when she tried comparing herself to a friendly abuelita, but we clearly see Trump as that Yankee imperialist whose view of Latinos is one of how he can exploit us by building his garish hotels in our neighborhoods, and get some of us to work for as close to minimum wage as he can get away with.

Kind of like the way our organized crime interests tried turning Havana into their hotel/casino paradise – which motivated certain people to give power to a tyrant like Fidel Castro.

IT DOES SEEM like Trump will have no one else to blame but himself if he does not prevail. If he had kept his mouth shut and been the least bit respectful, perhaps he wouldn’t have people already turning out at early voting centers to ensure they cast their ballots against him.

Then again, a Trump that is respectful would not really be Donald Trump. His brash bluster and arrogance is what makes him (and he alone) think he is fit to be president.

Of course, if a strong Latino vote really does turn out to block Trump’s presidential aspirations, THAT is what will be perceived by the ideologues as the “rigged” element of this year’s election cycle.

Because as they probably see it, only people like themselves ought to be allowed to vote – just like in the old days, which weren’t nearly as great as some would like to believe they were.

PERSONALLY, I’LL BE watching for all the bits of evidence that crop up to indicate just how strong a Latino vote will turn out to be – because it could be the evidence of the growing strength of the Latino electorate.

As in Trump may have opened up the can of worms, so to speak, that his ideologue-types would have preferred remained sealed shut.

Because as the Latino vote (which back in 1992 when Bill Clinton became president only accounted for some 4.3 million votes) continues to grow (a record-high 11.2 million in 2012 that will be shattered again this time around), it will only be more difficult for the xenophobes amongst us to prevail.

Which means that in the end, those of us with an interest in growing Latino political empowerment may wind up thanking Trump for being the guy who made the masses realize how stupid his attitudes truly are!

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EDITOR’S NOTE: A website for those who want to view pictures of people smashing piñatas in the image of Donald Trump. Or, you can just wait until Election Day and see how severely we vote against him.

EXTRA: Chicago wins its second World Series title of the 21st Century

It seems the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday didn’t manage to blow it big time. They won a World Series championship – their first in 108 years. Although it took extra innings in the final game to achieve.
 

Did 1st pitch honors 'sted of Charlie Sheen

It’s also the second World Series won by a Chicago baseball team in this century – let’s not forget the Chicago White Sox won a title back in 2005. Even though Cubs fans have been going out of their way for the past week to try to ignore that fact.

THE SARCASTIC SIDE of me wants to say “It’s about time” those lazy slackers on the North Side managed to win something on behalf of Chicago. Quite frankly, I’m tired of dealing with out-of-town crackpots who presume there has to be something wrong with Chicagoans as a whole because we take the loser Cubs seriously.

But some of us do, and I don’t doubt that they’re feeling a certain level of glee that White Sox fans felt some 11 years ago. Hope you Cubbie-fan types enjoy your parade that the city likely stages for you in coming days. Although I somehow suspect that the White Sox title meant more to the city and then-Mayor Richard M. Daley than this year’s Cubbie victory does to Mayor Rahm Emanuel – who did finally deign to show up at the ballpark for Game 7 on Wednesday in Cleveland.

As for the celebration, I’m sure Cubbie-types will get all worked up and think it’s a historic moment. I know there are Sox-fan types who can tell you exactly where along their parade route they stood, and how close they were to first baseman Paul Konerko when he voluntarily handed over the final ball from Game 4 to team owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

Not that any of this is in any way a sign that our city is “united” behind a ball club. That will never happen. The character of Chicago baseball is the very split, and the hard-core of each side would consider it sacrilegious for any kind of unity to occur.

 

Hit a grand slam (not a Denny's breakfast)

HOW ELSE TO explain those Bridgeport types who actually deigned to wear caps bearing the Chief Wahoo logo in recent days. I strongly suspect those caps will be mutilated in coming months – perhaps the first time that arch-rival Cleveland makes a visit to Chicago in 2017 to play the White Sox.

Because seeing the Indians in the World Series was a reminder that the White Sox weren’t, and may have hurt even more than the Cubs’ presence there. Although I did get my kick out of seeing that for Game 7, the Indians used for their first ball ritual one-time White Sox slugger Jim Thome. Thereby sparing us the sight of actor Charlie Sheen, who wants us to think he really played for Cleveland.

 

Hit a more-legendary 4-bagger in '05

I’m sure there are some Cubs fans who felt a tinge of annoyance at having a Sox slugger so prominently displayed – even if he also was an Indian (and a Phillie and Twin).

I wonder how long the resentment will carry out on Jason Kipnis, the Indians infielder from suburban Northbrook who hit that home run in Game Four that put the hurt on Cubbie blue hearts for a little while.

ALTHOUGH I’M SURE the Addison Russell grand slam home run of Tuesday night helped console them. While also reminding White Sox fans about that similar shot Paul Konerko hit back in Game 2 of ’05.

Which brings us around to what will be the lasting bit of trash talk that Chicago baseball fans will now start to engage in for years to come. Who was better – ’16 Cubbies or the ’05 Sox?!?

As much as I already hear that “best team in baseball” nonsense being spewed all year by Cubs fans, anybody with sense knows that the Buehrle/Garland/Garcia/Contreras pitching rotation would shut down the baby blue bears over and over and over again. 

We're long overdue for a rematch, don't you think?

Which is why we need to have an all-Chicago World Series, and soon! Although there are times I wonder if Chicago could handle the stress level that a Sox vs. Cubs series would create in the chill of a Second City October?

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We really are a dual city, Chicago is

The weekend leading into Halloween 2016 is going to go into the memory banks of a segment of Chicagoans as a glorious moment, and perhaps even a historic occasion.

For it was the World Series being held in Chicago, and by the Cubs, no less!

THREE GAMES PLAYED at Wrigley Field in the Lakeview neighborhood to capacity crowds, plus many more crowded into the local taverns so they could say they were a part of the scene.

There were many thousands more who decided to claim to have been on hand for the event merely by gathering in the vicinity of Clark and Addison streets. Technically, they were loiterers. But because they did manage to behave themselves, nobody was looking to have them arrested.

Yet Chicago really is a city of neighborhoods and regions that often have little to anything to do with each other. This Halloween weekend, or World Series weekend, if you prefer, may be the ultimate evidence of that.

For while North Side Chicago, and those people who spiritually consider themselves a part of it, were obsessed with “the Cubs!,” there were other parts that were seeing the periodic outbursts of violence that occur in Chicago.

THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES reported Tuesday that 17 murders occurred during the weekend, although the Wall Street Journal says the figure is actually 18 – and that the total for 2016 thus far is 614.

Which could result in the year ending with a tally of somewhere about 700 homicides.

Not quite like the days of the late 1980s when the homicide total would typically average two or three a day and would invariably end with a total of just under 1,000 per year.

But considering how much some people freaked out (usually to reinforce their own partisan political ideological hang-ups about urban life) when the murder rate reached 500 a couple of years ago, you just know they’re going to react to 700 as though the hordes have run amok.

SOME HAVE TRIED hinting that all the extra police on hand around Wrigley Field to ensure that all the Cubs fans were “safe” might have left the rest of the city short-handed. Although any rational look at the situation would show that to be nonsense.

But yes, all of the homicides of the Halloween weekend took place in South or West side neighborhoods where it was likely that the Cubs, or baseball in general, wasn’t really the focus of the weekend routine.

Heck, it was probably just another weekend in the life of Chicago for the locals – except for the 17 (or 18) who died. For them, it was the finale of their life in this realm of existence.

If you want to be sarcastic in your world view, it could be said that the presence of the Chicago Cubs in the World Series was the end of world as they knew it (Yes, you can cue the R.E.M. song lyrics in your mind, if you must).

THERE IS A degree to which I think people take the homicide stats too seriously. They make too much of them, particularly since they get obsessed with just the numbers without giving any thought to the individuals who no longer exist.

For 17/18 isn’t just a number. Those are people whose families are now going to have to do their part to enrich the funeral industry. In the next few days will be the rituals that will allow their families to see them off and begin coping with the loss.

Something to keep in mind; that not all the “sadness” you may see in coming days will be from people upset that the Chicago Cubs fell short to the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.

And if by chance the Cubs do pull off that athletic comeback that enables them to win a World Series on Wednesday, not every person who doesn’t share in the joy of the moment is a disgruntled Chicago White Sox fan who can’t get with the program.

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When it comes to $13 minimum wage; we won’t pay, some communities say!

I wasn’t the least bit surprised to stumble across a story published by the Daily Herald newspaper in the northwestern suburbs – one that says some communities are planning to resist the recent effort by the Cook County Board to impose a higher minimum wage for the suburbs.
 

PRECKWINKLE: Some don't want to honor wage boost

The Chicago City Council already has enacted a plan that will gradually boost the minimum wage for companies based in the city up to $13 an hour by the year 2019.

IT WOULD SEEM that county board commissioners didn’t like appearing to be cheapskates by comparison to aldermen in the city.

So last week, they approved their own measure that will impose annual increases in the minimum wage through 2020 – by which time it also will be $13 an hour.

Currently, the minimum wage is $8.50 – which already is above the $7.25 hourly rate that is required by the federal government.

Meaning that people who work crummy jobs in Illinois already get paid a little bit more than their counterparts in other states – particularly Indiana, where it is noticeable that someone working as a fry cook in Hammond gets less than someone doing the same job at a Burger King based in the Hegewisch neighborhood.

SOME SEE THIS as a good thing. Our workers are getting paid better. Others are more than willing to look at it as the ultimate of stupidity – our companies have to pay more for the same low-skilled labor, and it cuts into their bottom line.

After all, the basic rule of business is that anything that cuts into the profit margin is bad. Very, very bad!!!

That explains the Daily Herald report, which indicates that officials in Barrington, Elk Grove Village and Prospect Heights are seriously looking at ways they can legally exempt themselves from the spirit of the Cook County Board’s action.

Which is that minimum wage workers in those municipalities don’t have to receive the same pay as workers in other communities. For all I know, they may wish they could get out of paying the state minimum wage and try to comply with the federal pay rate.

NOW I’M NOT aware they’re going to try for that. Something like that is probably their ultimate fantasy that they can only wish for.

But it doesn’t surprise me to learn that some companies are fully capable of thinking of their labor as an entity that cuts into their profit margin – rather than being a necessary expense that enables them to make money.

That is, unless the company is poorly managed and the executives ought to be replaced. Then again, it’s probably easier for them to think it’s the workers’ fault – they’re making too much money.

What I expect these municipalities (and there may well be more in other parts of Cook County) to argue is that the county board merely governs the unincorporated parts of Cook County. Businesses located in areas that are not a part of any specific municipality would have to comply with the county’s rules.

THEN AGAIN, SUCH parts of the county usually are isolated and don’t have much in the way of business located within them. Which means that the county board clearly meant to impact suburban municipalities with its efforts.

But we’re going to hear a lot about “home rule” that gives local governments the authority to set their own policy on assorted issues. We may even get the General Assembly involved in trying to pass some convoluted measures that would give specific communities the right to get around this issue. My own experience of covering Cook County government is that there are those people who believe its authority to do anything is so very restricted – even though it potentially can impact people the most in their daily lives.

The fact is that people are going to have to decide just how much they care about the ability of someone whose lot in life sticks them with low-skilled jobs to be able to earn an income that they can actually live upon.

The simple fact is that the person ringing up the cash register when you order that salad at McDonald’s may be about the most invisible individual you encounter – unless you take into account the person who has to mop up the floor after you leave.

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