For way Dems backed J.B., we might as well have been at Bismarck Hotel of old

We’re several years into the 21^st Century and we’d like to think we’re urbane and sophisticated. Yet when it comes to electoral politics, the spirit of the smoke-filled room and political party hacks gathering together to tell us what is for our own good come Election Day still prevails.

PRITZKER: The officially-preferred Dem gov hopeful

For the Cook County Democratic Party, the heart and muscle of Democratic organizations in dominating Illinois, decided Friday amongst themselves that the gubernatorial campaign of J.B. Pritzker is the officially-preferred choice come the March 20, 2018 primary.

FORGET CHRIS KENNEDY and his family aura, or the idealism of Ameya Pawar or Daniel Biss, or the political delusions any of the other gubernatorial dreamers may have.

The party will put its money, so to speak, on the member of the Pritzker family whose wealth originates with the Hyatt Hotels chain, betting he is the most likely to have a chance to defeat Gov. Bruce Rauner’s dreams of re-election come the Election Day on Nov. 6.

Actually, that phrase about “put its money” is a misnomer, since the party hacks largely see the advantage of a Pritzker campaign is that he has a large private fortune and has expressed a willingness to make many large donations to himself in order to pay the costs of a political campaign.

Political spirit of the one-time Bismarck Hotel ...

Democratic Party organizations won't have to make a priority of trying to raise money for a governor's race where they will be outspent overwhelmingly by Rauner's own personal fortune.

DEMOCRATIC REGULARS SEE that as absolutely essential to compete with the significant private wealth that Rauner is prepared to spend to try to get himself re-elected, and also to alter the General Assembly composition in ways to create political allies for himself.

Because it has been a hostile Legislature run by urban Democratic Party interests that has been the buffer between the public interests and the many anti-union fantasies that Rauner repeatedly tries to portray as “reform.”

Cook County Democrats gathered Friday at the Erie Café restaurant (Italian food, but the prime rib looks scrumptious) to come to their decision to officially slate Pritzker’s campaign over all others for governor.

... carries over to a Near North restaurant

But the spirit may well have been that of the one-time Bismarck Hotel where politicos used to merely have to walk across the street from City Hall to gather in those aforementioned smoke-filled rooms to decide which candidates were worthy of political support.

THAT ACTUALLY IS the key to comprehending what the value of the party’s slate truly is.

It means the party regulars are now bound to back Pritzker for governor. They’re bound to have their campaign workers out on the streets trying to stir up the vote for J.B.

If by chance they are absolutely appalled at the thought of a Pritzker as governor, they’re required to keep their mouths shut about it. They can’t go off and offer support for anybody else – unless they want to be viewed as renegades.

Although Pritzker’s preferred status by the party isn’t really surprising – he did have a sister, Penny, who served as Commerce Secretary under President Barack Obama. The family isn’t new to electoral politics.

AS FOR WHAT the other gubernatorial candidates wanted was for the party to slate no one. Which would have given the individual party regulars the ability to make up their own minds and allow their campaign workers to push for votes for whomever they truly supported.

Now, J.B. has something of a political army willing to do the legwork to try to gain him more political support beyond what he hopes to buy during the election cycle.

BAULER: Some sentiments never change

Dems may think this is a strength, but it also is potentially the Pritzker weakness – one that Biss already is trying to play off of. He says that a “Gov. Pritzker” would be no different than a “Gov. Rauner,” just another rich guy who won’t have the public interest in mind.

So while we might be nearly two full decades into the current century, there’s just enough of the old sentiment remaining that the idea of letting political people pick which pol they prefer may just be too modern a concept and the decades-old ideal of one-time alderman/saloon-keeper Mathias “Paddy” Bauler (“Chicago ain’t ready for reform”) still applies.

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EXTRA: Could Kaepernick have borne down for Chicago Bears in ’17?

It’s going to be interesting to see how the Chicago Bears’ quarterback situation shakes down this season – although after the first preseason game, the delusional parts of Bears fans want to believe that rookie Mitchell Trubisky could just wind up being the team’s salvation.
 

Could he have helped the 'pride and joy of Illinois?'

Although anything would be an improvement following the several seasons of sub-par play from Jay Cutler.

THE POINT IS that the Bears went into this season desperately searching for a quarterback, and they wound up offering some big bucks to free agent Mike Glennon, who is competing with Trubisky for the spot – although none other than Hall of Fame coach Mike Ditka is touting Trubisky for the job these days.

One thing the Bears definitely did NOT do was give any consideration to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who as of now still has no ties to a professional football team.

He was released, and nobody in the National Football League wants anything to do with him.

Kaepernick, of course, is the guy who made a point of refusing to stand at attention with other players during the playing of the National Anthem prior to each game. He didn’t do anything to disrupt the anthem’s being played. He just refused to make the token gesture of support that many ballplayers do as part of the pre-game ritual, in part as a statement on the current state of racial relations in this country.

One of these guys had better work out ...

SAN FRANCISCO GOT tired of the constant coverage of Kaepernick and let him go. The perception out there now is that he’s being ignored despite his athletic talents by football clubs more interested in making conservative political statements of their own.

Now I’m not necessarily arguing that Kaepernick would have been a better Bears option that Glennon, Trubisky or anybody else they could have gotten this year. But they had better hope one of these guys plays well enough that the Bears don’t become the poster child for a sports team more interested in maintaining a certain societal image rather than winning games.

... if the Bears to avoid looking foolish in 2017

The Bears will look foolish if by mid-season they still have significant flaws at quarterback, and the people who are now deriding professional football in general for Kaepernick’s continued unemployment start deciding that “da Bears” in particular were the team that could have benefitted from his presence.

Insofar as Kaepernick’s status is concerned, it wouldn’t shock me if football teams are skittish enough to not want Colin around – with probably a team or two owned by some ideological nitwit who would ignore talent.

IF ANYTHING, IT shows that the situation in athletics hasn’t changed much since the late 1960s when then-pitcher Jim Bouton wrote his baseball season diary, “Ball Four.”

Some things never change, nearly half a century later

In it, he wrote sarcastically that ballplayers were free to say whatever they wanted on high-minded social issues, provided the things they said were of a conservative leaning, because that would mean they were “right” about the issue.

Saying something more liberal would mean they were “wrong” and should pipe down.

Although the Major League Baseball of that era and sports of today still bear evidence that Bouton was correct when he wrote of the typical ballplayer’s view of his colleague – “He’s a great guy. Wouldn’t say shit if he had a mouthful.”

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Can Stratton help Pritzker jump ahead of pack to take governor’s post in '18?

I’ve always had my own theory about Illinois state government posts – Democrats win them when Chicago city voters are motivated enough to care about who wins.
 

STRATTON: Illinois' next lieutenant governor?

Which can be a challenge. Because the city perspective is that the mayor and aldermen are all-important, while there’s some attention as to who gets sent “up and out” to Washington.

BUT AS FOR the clowns in Springfield? It’s easy for those elections to become after-thoughts to Chicagoans, while they’re way more significant to those in the rural parts of the state. Whichever one of the half-dozen or so Dem candidates dreaming of becoming governor needs to do something to get city residents to care, or else we'll get "four more years" of Gov. Bruce Rauner -- regardless of how much that thought appalls some urban voters.

Which is the reason why candidate J.B. Pritzker’s announcement Thursday that he will have state Rep. Julianna Stratton, D-Chicago, run with him as a lieutenant governor makes any sense.

It’s actually way too early to be thinking about running mates. Besides, the lieutenant governor candidates actually runs separately during the primary election cycle. So anyone who votes for Pritzker in the March ’18 primary could easily decide to ignore his choice of a running mate.

But Pritzker is trying to give Chicago voters, particularly that segment of the city that lives on the South and West sides, a reason to care about whether or not he winds up winning the election.

 

PRITZKER: Trying to jump to head of Dem pack

THERE MAY BE some city voters who will be motivated merely by the fact they want to dump Bruce Rauner as governor. But their contempt for the governor and the alternative being yet another rich billionaire who thinks it’s a strength he can pay for his own campaign is a perfect recipe for voter apathy!

Stratton is the legislator who has already been through a tough, big-money campaign. She was the woman who defeated Ken Dunkin, the South Side legislator who got challenged for his Illinois House seat because House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, was disgusted with Dunkin’s continual undermining of his authority. She’s also the one who can claim a personal endorsement from Barack Obama himself in that election cycle.

RAUNER: Counting on rest of Ill. to back him

Plus, she is a black woman – which could have an impact in making the African-American segment of the electorate care enough to vote for somebody. Would they really care about two rich white guys?

There are those political observers who think former Gov. Pat Quinn’s biggest mistake in his failed re-election bid of 2014 was dissing black voters by picking a white guy (former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas) as his running mate instead.

SO COULD THIS be a move to try to make Pritzker stand out further in the Democratic field? Then also to stand above Rauner come the November 2018 general election?

KENNEDY: Flaky?

At this point, anything that gains him attention over the crowd could help. Because I sense many voters just see a mass of candidates, with nothing that really distinguishes them.

I recently had a conversation over dinner with relatives about the upcoming election, and the consensus was that Chris Kennedy was kind of flaky, Daniel Biss might have some potential and everybody else was kind of bland. Except for Ameya Pawar, of whom I was the only person who even knew who he was.

BISS: Maybe?

Stratton could be the jolt that helps Pritzker leap above being bland.

NOT THAT IT should be thought I’m saying she’s unqualified. She may have only one term in the Illinois House of Representatives. But she’s a former head of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Public Safety and Justice, and also with the Cook County Justice Advisory Council and Justice for Children.

PAWAR: Who?

She certainly has qualifications for a public post, and it is the lieutenant governor’s position – where she is the person to be on-call in the event that a “Governor Pritzker” were to become incapacitated. Take the current lieutenant governor, Evelyn Sanguinetti, whose qualifications prior to the post were being a municipal official in suburban Wheaton.

So now Democratic voters have a ticket of “Pritzker/Stratton” to consider, along with a batch of other stray candidates. I’m sure Pritzker will want us to think that means he’s better organized than his opponents.

As to whether the voters believe that sentiment, we’ll see come March and November following Election Day.

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Wishing we, the people, could pick up a history book every now and then

I don’t doubt that North Korea leader Kim Jong-un has a screw or two loose in his

Wishing this were just a debate ...

mindset – he may very well believe his place in history is to be the guy who gives the “go” order that unleashes a nuclear weapon on a city or two within the United States.

Although when I hear our nation’s president, Donald J. Trump, spew out rhetoric about “fire and fury” being unleashed against North Korea, it makes me wonder which world leader’s instability is more likely to cause the problem?

 

... over who has the sillier haircut?

AND I DON’T particularly care if such rhetoric plays well with the 46 percent of the U.S electorate that actually voted for Trump to be president. That only proves our overall ignorance of history and world events.

For all I know, Trump may well want to give the order to unleash an attack on some part of the world so as to enhance his credentials as a world leader in the same way that Kim thinks he’s appeasing the rest of the world by saying he’d only consider use of nuclear weapons on the United States.

I also don’t doubt that Trump’s rhetoric is being played in such a way that Kim is making sure everybody currently trapped into living within North Korea thinks that Trump is the ultimate demon who is threatening to annihilate their country.

Similar to how Fidel Castro had a generation of Cubans thinking the reason their nation had become so impoverished was because of generations of U.S. presidents imposing imperialist policies through the trade embargo that in the end wound up depriving our nation of economic opportunities more than it hurt Cuba.

Kim trying to top Fidel on crazy scale? Image provided by Library of Congress collection

YES, I’M VIEWING this whole situation developing between the United States and the nation with which we technically have been at war with for nearly seven decades with some trepidation. Although the broadcast pundits who now are spewing cheap talk that we’re approaching a sequel to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 may be overstating it.

We’re not there, yet. Although I’m wondering if the cooler heads who need to prevail for such a situation to never develop will wind up being drowned out by the nonsense talk of Trump and Kim.

I heard one such pundit make a comment Wednesday about how it is possible that U.S. military interests could “take” North Korea in a fight. It’s just a matter of how much carnage we’re willing to put up with, and how much we’re willing to sacrifice South Korea (our ally and a nation in which we have a military presence) in the process.

I think too many people are willing to ignore that last aspect, even though they shouldn’t.

BECAUSE IF WE want to be realistic, we would have “taken” North Korea a long time ago if it were at all practical. But the fact that China would not want to see a reunified Korea if it means that the part of it historically allied with itself were seen as the “loser.”

And I definitely don’t want to see a situation where we have a U.S./China conflict provoked by a long-forgotten military conflict of the early 1950s. Cold War politicking has the potential to create too many headaches.

Yes, I use the phrase “long-forgotten” to describe the Korean conflict because I really don’t believe most people have a clue about it. They either get it confused with the later actions in Vietnam, or they think it’s something about hospitals and “M*A*S*H” on television.

NOT what Korea was about!

Which means they’re dredging up comical images of actor Jamie Farr in his Scarlet O’Hara dress or swinging a purse while carrying a rifle on guard duty.

CERTAINLY NOT AN image with any bearing in reality. And certainly not one that should be taken into account by anybody with a hand in setting our public policy.

Which is why I do take some comfort in the comments of people like Defense Secretary Jim Mattis who says North Korea needs to “stand down” in its desire to get a usable nuclear weapon. We can only hope that such sensibilities prevail, and that fantasies of South Korean military troops marching in to Pyongyang to occupy the capital of the North do not.

It reminds me of a professor I had in college who liked to say of Harry Truman’s use of atomic weapons to end the Second World War that it was “Harry Truman 2, Rest of the World 0.”

I’d hate to think that we’re headed for a day when his line will have to be amended to read “Truman 2, Kim 1 and Trump 1.”

  -30-

Nobody wants to pay taxes, but they’ll also complain about lack of services

There’s a scene in the 1995 film “My Family” in which actor Jimmy Smits’ character marries a woman from El Salvador to bolster her efforts to avoid deportation, then tries to dismiss his parents’ disapproval of such cynical behavior against the sacred institution of marriage by sarcastically saying, “I’m a god---n revolutionary.”

Who'd have thought political statement being made?

I can’t help but think the same sarcasm applies to many of the people who these days are getting offended over taxes – particularly the one that is drawing the national attention to Chicago in the form of the pop tax.

JUST ON TUESDAY the Chicago Tribune reported about one of the latest lawsuits filed in Cook County Circuit Court. There’s a man from suburban Schaumburg who’s upset that when he went to his local Walgreens store to purchase bottled sparkling water, he was hit with the tax.

He argues the packaging clearly indicates the water is unsweetened, while the so-called pop tax applies to sweetened beverages.

The man who filed his lawsuit last week said he wants a jury trial (probably because he wants a court ruling based in public sentiment rather than the technicalities of the law) and class-action status, which would allow for other people who have objections to the Cook County pop tax to pile on.

Why have one lone person suing someone over the penny per ounce fee the county wants to charge on pop and other sweetened beverages if you can have many?

THIS IS ABOUT people wishing to make a stink over an issue which basically amounts to them feeling a bit cheap and not wanting to pay an additional cost every time they buy their 2-liter bottle of pop (which can come to about $0.65 more).

In the case of Walgreens, the Tribune reports that the company admits it screwed up when coding the products it sells – which means that when the cashier swipes the water bottles at the register, it comes up with the pop tax added on even though it’s not supposed to.

And since it’s programmed to do that, the cashier has no authority, or ability, to take it off. Walgreens officials say they’re working to fix the situation. Which is about all we should expect to happen.

PRECKWINKLE: Arousing cheapskate anger?

I think the people who are hoping to go after Walgreens as a way of attacking the pop tax itself are just more interested in hearing themselves yell and scream. Of course, they’ll scream even louder whenever government fails to provide the services they expect as part of their life’s routines.

THEY’RE BEING ‘REVOLUTIONARIES’ against the issue of about 20 cents being added on to the cost of a single-serving sized plastic pop bottle. All of which is meant to help balance out the Cook County government budget.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been making an effort for the past year or so to reduce the amount of carbonated beverages I consume (I enjoy an occasional Coca-Cola too much to totally give up the habit, but it certainly doesn’t have to be a daily purchase), but this particular pop tax just strikes me as being yet another increase in the cost of daily life. Nothing is as cheap as it used to be when I was younger.

Yet some people are determined to carry out this petty fee and their disagreement to an extreme. Maybe it’s because the more serious taxes are too complex for them to go after.

Similar to how some Chicago residents get all worked up over being charged 7 cents for the cost of a plastic bag whenever they buy something.

PERSONALLY, I VIEW that fee as a cost of convenience for not having to carry my own bags to the store. Although for those who have their own canvas totes or whatnot to bring with them when they shop, more power to them!

Yes, I’m aware of the new poll showing 87 percent of those questioned hate the pop tax. Then again, how many people are going to do anything about it? This is one tax that gradually is going to become a part of the daily routine – no matter how much some retail groups try to challenge it in court and how petty Cook County gets with their counter-lawsuits against them.

Personally, I’d feel like a phony revolutionary if I claimed I was opposed to either of these taxes (pop or plastic bags) on some high-minded principle involving the legitimacy of taxation.

It would be more honest if the people who are complaining were to just come out and tell the truth – they’re feeling cheap!

  -30-

On Asian carp issue, does Illinois really have faith? Or is state just cheap!

The Asian Carp, a species of fish that devours everything in its path and whose presence in the Great Lakes would likely kill off all the species of fish and plant life that are native to our area, are an issue that we’re supposedly desperate to find a solution to.

Army Corps of Engineers has new plan for Asian carp

For we have evidence that the carp have managed to creep their way up into the Calumet River and are extremely close to the mouth of Lake Michigan – which would feed them into the Great Lakes as a whole.

CATASTROPHE TIME, OR at least that is what we’ve been led to believe.

Yet I find it interesting that Illinois government officials, or at least those in positions of authority within the governor’s office, are skeptical of the latest proposal by the Army Corps of Engineers meant to keep the carp away from the lake.

They talk about an upgrade of the Brandon Road lock and dam near Joliet to include high-power water jets and loud noises – all of which would create enough of a barricade to keep the carp who have swum up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to be up around Joliet from getting any closer to Chicago.

Currently, officials have relied upon electrifying the area on the Des Plaines River so that any carp who try to swim through the area get killed – thereby preventing them from getting any closer to Chicago than they already are.

YET ILLINOIS OFFICIALS made it clear Monday they don’t think much of the Army Corps of Engineers’ proposal.

In a prepared statement that state officials say is to be attributed to Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti (she doesn’t do much else), “this new approach is neither cost-effective nor environmentally sound.”

Illinois officials go so far as to say, “Science tells us our comprehensive strategy is working.”

SANGUINETTI: Gets to make carp stance for state

Although I’m sure those people who found evidence of the carp existing in the waters of the Calumet River (which puts them within the Chicago city limits – much too close for comfort to Lake Michigan for some people) don’t have the same faith in the existing measures.

I’M GUESSING WE have to figure out just how much faith do we have in Gov. Bruce Rauner and the judgment of his people to not want to consider taking the additional measures to try to keep the carp out of Chicago.

Because I am fairly certain that if the carp do manage to get to the Great Lakes, there are many people across the region who will be more than eager to blame Chicago for the mess. There are those who always like to bring up the late 19^th Century reversal of the flow of the Chicago River as somehow being responsible.

Because if we had let Mother Nature exist as she intended, we might not have such problems. A though of which I’m skeptical.

The point being we probably can’t rule out any solution, although I also appreciate much of the reason for Illinois’ official skepticism is the cost.

THE ARMY CORPS of Engineers’ plan has a $275.4 million price tag – of which Illinois would be on the hook for $95 million in construction costs and another $8 million per year for operations and maintenance expenses.

Could Asian carp have already made it to waters of Calumet River? Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

I know Illinois government is not flush with extra cash these days. Yet there are some expenses we’re probably going to have to just knuckle down and accept. Could this be one of them?

Because while Illinois talks about the disruption of native fish migration patterns that would be caused by noise barriers and water jets, I’m wondering.

How much more will it wind up hurting Illinois financially if the carp do wind up making it all the way into the Great Lakes? A whole lot more than some dead fish carcasses washing ashore on Oak Street Beach!

  -30-

Obama Day in Illinois is bound to become a politically partisan fracas

Beginning next year, we in Illinois are going to have the concept of Obama Day.

Some will sing 'Happy Birthday,' others will boo

Everybody duck! Take cover!!! You just know the very notion is going to get some people amongst us all riled up.

PARTICULARLY SINCE IN this Age of Trump, we’re supposed to be repudiating everything that our nation’s 44^th president ever stood for. So how dare anybody think that Barack Obama’s memory is in any way worth veneration?

Yes people, my foot is leaning extra heavy on the gas pedal of the sarcasm engine in writing that last sentence. Although I don’t doubt there are individuals who are going to be grossly offended Illinois really took such action.

Personally, I feel having Illinois acknowledge publicly one of the few presidential figures who had ties to this state isn’t that inappropriate. It’s probably the least the state can do (and yes, Illinois is usually capable of doing its least on any issue).

But there are those who want history rewritten in such a way that the Obama memory becomes one of great shame that our nation was ever deluded enough to choose “one of THEM” to be president.

THESE ARE THE same people who want to believe that the man who got 46 percent of the vote in last year’s presidential election really won by a majority! Because they want to believe people who had no business voting were amongst those who voted for Anybody But Trump!

Although one can also make the legitimate argument that Obama’s legacy is heavily tied to his inability to overcome the political hostility he faced during his eight years in office. More bluntly, he was too weak to overcome the bigots of our society.

Who are now going to get all worked up over the fact that Gov. Bruce Rauner signed off on the measure that turns Aug. 4 (Obama’s birthday anniversary) into the aforementioned Obama Day.

Will Rauner face backlash for backing Obama Day?

The bill specifically says that Obama Day is not one of the official holidays for which state government closes. It’s purely ceremonial.

YET THAT WILL be enough to bother the ideologues who went through the 2008 and 2012 election cycles desperately determined to spare this country the humiliation of a non-Anglo working in the Oval Office.

It didn’t matter that with his Ivy League education (Columbia and Harvard Law), his credentials were remarkably similar to many of the other white men who have served as president. He still wasn’t good enough.

In fact, I suspect much of the hostility that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., faces these days for refusing to support the efforts to blindly dump the health care reform measures implemented by the Obama administration is more frustration that McCain lost that 2008 presidential campaign.

The bitterness remains. Just run through the anonymous rants appearing Sunday on various newspaper versions of the Obama Day story. One implied Illinois should honor a “REAL president from Illinois … The Gipper” (even though it could be argued his preferred Ronald Reagan abandoned Illinois after finishing college).

WHILE ANOTHER LAMBASTED Obama for “setting race relations back 300 years … demonized law enforcement and wrecked healthcare.” And a third mocked that such a day should only be “commemorated in Kenyan mosques.”

One person's tribute is another's offense

The ideologue nonsense is firmly entrenched in some people, and they’re going to be determined to go through lives snapping at anything and everything that challenges their narrow view. A part of me wonders if the way to truly “Make America Great Again” would be to take away the vote from all the nitwits who wear those caps? An idea that makes as much sense as what some of those people try to pass off as “the American Way.”

A part of me wonders if Rauner is going to get backlash. Such a gesture was probably meant to appease the majority of the people of this state who view the situation rationally. Yet it is many of those irrationals who could be called upon to vote for his re-election bid in 2018.

Personally, I think their hostility toward Obama, even now that the man’s time as a public official of any kind has come to an end, really says more about their own pettiness and ignorance than it does about anything Obama did or did not accomplish.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, I signed the digital birthday card last week for Barack Obama meant to mark his 56th birthday anniversary on Friday. No, I didn't make a contribution to the Democratic Party, which was the real point of the party seeking to honor Obama's memory. And yes, I'm probably a cheapskate!