If you think about it, a wonder ‘the Bean’ doesn’t get tagged more often

It got more than its share of national news attention – somebody tagged “the Bean.”

Somebody felt compelled to 'leave their mark'. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

As in that gigantic bean-like structure in Millennium Park covered in highly-polished steel plates that reflect everything just like a mirror. Seven people now face assorted levels of criminal charges for graffiti that was applied to the structure – which officially is known as “Cloud Gate.”

YET EXPECTING TO find anybody who actually uses that moniker for the structure is rare. You’d probably have to find some clown of a tourist who also wants to eat at a Lou Malnati’s pizza joint – then fold over his slice of pizza pie just like they do in “Noo Nawk.”

So somebody thought they’d get their kicks by using white paint to tag the sculpture with the legend “35^th Crew.”

As though they want everybody to know THEY were the ones who dared to deface the sculpture that has become one of Chicago’s primary tourist attractions. Mostly people who just can’t believe that anybody could think a gigantic lima bean (or is it a pinto bean) could have artistic aspirations.

Of course, they didn’t really want people to know it was them. They just wanted to be able to snicker every time they walked by it at how brave and daring they were in tagging the sculpture – and how stupid the rest of us were in not knowing it was them!

BUT NEWS REPORTS indicate that off-duty security guards managed to see some of the vandals as they were leaving Millennium Park – and were able to identify them by the articles of clothing they were wearing at the time.

Which led to two people now facing felony charges of criminal damage to property and also a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass to state land. As in they were Millennium Park in the early hours of the day at a time when decent people ought to be at home and in bed – or at the very least cuddled up next to a loved one.

Instead of like these clowns, who apparently had up to five accomplices now face misdemeanor charges AND may find their own list of charges added on to as prosecutors wish to turn this into the equivalent of a ‘crime of the century’ – someone having the nerve to deface the very face of Chicago itself.

This part of the park left undefaced

Perhaps Judge David Navarro summed it up best when, while setting bond for the accused, said, “I take offense at these offenses.”

OF COURSE, THE vandalism wasn’t limited strictly to ‘Cloud Gate.’ The nearby Cancer Survivor Wall, which is meant to be a tribute to former Chicago “first lady” Maggie Daley, along with several area benches and walls in Millennium Park, also were hit with the “35^th Crew” label.

Which most likely will now go to extremes to avoid ever being detected doing anything. They probably now won’t want people to ever discover exactly who, or what, they are.

Because in all likelihood, any public disclosure of their identity would merely result in guilt, by association.

As in being connected to what may quite possibly be the stupidest act of public vandalism ever in Chicago history. One that actually required municipal maintenance crews to have to spend the days leading up to Independence Day polishing up ‘Cloud Gate’ to make it all shiny and reflective once again.

SO THAT, FROM a distance, looking at the sculpture enables one to see the skies and the clouds (hence the name).

My own reflection in the surface of 'the Bean'

I just wonder now how long will it be before somebody else feels compelled to try to vandalize the sculpture. Some people truly have nothing better to do with their time.

Think about it, the sculpture has been in place for just over a decade. It’s almost a wonder the ninnies of our society aren’t trying to tag ‘the gate’ on a regular basis.

That is, unless one counts the thousands of touristy twerps who feel compelled to leave their grimy fingerprints all over the sculpture every time they decide to check it out up close-and-personal.

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EXTRA: Independence Day, Year 243

Not quite so festive in reality this year

16 shot, 2 fatally in Fourth of July gun violence across Chicago – Chicago Sun-Times
At least 5 killed, 30 wounded by gunfire so far in Chicago over Fourth of July weekend – Chicago Tribune
2 boys, 1 man stabbed outside Navy Pier after Fourth of July fireworks; 14 others injured in stampede following false reports of gunfire – Chicago Tribune
3 stabbed, 14 trampled at Navy Pier after Fourth of July fireworks – Chicago Sun-Times

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A few sample hedlines from the Chicago press on this day after Independence Day, just to give you a taste of how inane things were capable of becoming on this holiday where we celebrate our national existence. And if the threat from gunfire mixed in with explosives wasn't enough, there also was the absurdity at Navy Pier Thursday night.

And just in case you need the knowledge for future reference, there also was this report – Gunshots or Fireworks: Learn to Tell the Difference -- Patch

NOW WE BEGIN the next holiday countdown -- only 59 more days until we honor the workers in our nation.

Happy Labor Day!!!

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Blues Brothers as a pot product? No one’s going to Joliet (prison) for it

Maybe it sort of makes sense – John Belushi portrayed amongst his various characters a blues musician and singer (with his brother on harmonica).

It may well play off the idea of bluesmen as notorious reefer addicts. It may also have taken the sensation of marijuana to enable the “Jake Blues” character to endure his stint at the Joliet Correctional Center (for holding up a liquor store to get the money to pay off a motel debt his Blues Brothers Band incurred).

OR IT COULD just be that actor Jim Belushi is truly trying to play off the persona his late brother, John, left during his just over three decades of life (actually, at 37 years, he’s been dead longer than he was alive).

But somehow, there’s just something about the idea of Jim Belushi wanting to get into the marijuana-distribution business (now that it’s gaining the overtones of a legal business opportunity) that seems a little strange.

And not just because most people would have figured the comedic personas of Cheech and Chong would have tried to be the first people to become legal drug dealers.

Crain’s Chicago Business reported this week about how Belushi now operates the Belushi Farms in Oregon, where marijuana production has been legal the past few years. Now that Illinois has passed laws allowing for recreational use of the drug (as in you won’t need a medical prescription to avoid getting pinched by police), Belushi says he wants to gear up to begin sales here.

PRODUCING HIS PRODUCTS under the Blues Brothers brand name. As in it would be the only kind of marijuana product that a discerning customer would choose to use for those moments when he feels he has a “mission for God” to complete.

He talks about wanting to promote his business venture by literally driving the Bluesmobile (which according to the 1980s film was a one-time Mount Prospect police squad car) along Lake Street, with a marijuana “joint” mounted on the car roof rather than the big bullhorn that Jake and Elwood used to promote their big show at the Palace Hotel Ballroom.

I’m sure he’s going for the imagery of driving around under the ‘el’ tracks. But as anyone who remembers the Blues Brothers film, Elwood actually lived in a flophouse on the other end of the Loop – down around Van Buren Street, with the elevated trains roaring right past his window on a near-constant basis.

That is, until Jake’s former fiancé (remember Carrie Fisher) used her explosives stash to blow the building to smithereens.

OR, UNTIL IN reality, a downtown fire managed to destroy the real life building. Yes, I remember that as one of the first news stories I actually covered during my days as a reporter-type person with the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago.

It will be intriguing to see just how all this plays out. Illinois may be the 11^th state to offer up legal versions of marijuana, but that means there are 49 states where it remains illegal.

And it likely will be that some of those states will be absolute holdouts, refusing to even contemplate any notion that marijuana could serve some medical benefits – let alone be something that people ought to be allowed to use if they so choose.

Which is why Belushi is trying to piece together a network that would be ready on that date in the future when marijuana use really can be a national product without any sort of stigma attached to it.

IT COULD BE intriguing if Jim Belushi – whose acting career pretty much peaked with the “According to Jim” television series (where he was partnered up with a pair of women – Courtney Thorne-Smith and Kimberly Williams – most definitely out of his league) ultimately wound up doing something that got him out of the shadow of being nothing more than “John’s Little Brother.”

And kind of humorous if the Blues Brothers image were to live on in ways no one would have dreamed possible back when John Belushi was a living, breathing entertainer.

Remember Bluto Blutarsky? Animal House?

And let’s not forget actress Kathleen Freeman’s “Sister Mary Stigmata” character, who to this day is probably rapping “Jake Blues” across his knuckles every time his behavior gets a touch out of line with none other than The Lord himself.

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To be honest, flag-motif t-shirts are kind of garish and not ‘real American’

I have no doubt I’m going to see more than my share of people Thursday clad in t-shirts bearing the red, white and blue colors – if not depictions of the U.S, flag itself.

A symbol of our national pride

To be honest, a part of me is going to be shuddering at the very sight.

BECAUSE I HONESTLY think that it’s kind of tacky and garish, if not quite unpatriotic, to have to see someone wearing the U.S, flag, particularly if they’ve let the image get all faded and wrinkly.

Or worse yet, if it’s a hot, humid summery-type day and they’re covered in sweat.

How disrespectful to the image of our nation to reduce it to an article of dirty laundry.

To be totally honest, I’d find it more respectful if they were to literally wrap themselves up in a real flag – which technically would be an act of desecration. U.S. flags are not to be used for clothing!

WHICH I’M SURE every single one of the ninnies who are going around on this Independence Day will be able to shout out at maximum volume to everyone who manages to offend their sensibilities of what is appropriate.

 

Bordering on skanky

When in reality, I’d argue it is their choice of attire that ought to be considered bordering on desecration.

And as far as any women who choose to wear a skimpy bikini in a pattern of the stars and stripes, all I’d have to say is that is nothing but skanky. How cheap to reduce a field of blue stars to the bikini bottom that covers up the part of her that prevents an arrest for indecent exposure from being made.

It never fails to amaze me whenever I walk into a clothing store of any type and see the assortment of red, white and blue themed shirts or articles of clothing. Meant to be sold to people who think they’re showing off just how “real” of Americans they truly are.

People most offended by sight of this … 

WHEN IN REALITY, I’d argue that they’re showing a level of gaudiness that probably illustrates just how little they truly comprehend what “patriotism” truly is and what “America” is truly all about.

The ones who probably think the day is solely about a summertime barbecue and watching a pyrotechnics display come the evening hours.

Or maybe you’ll get into a local municipal parade that is bound to have somebody clad as “Uncle Sam,” and probably far too many people wearing their “Make America Great Again” caps in bright red.

Which amuses me because I’m sure many of them are old enough to remember the meaning of the phrase “Better dead than red.” Now, they can’t get enough of the color.

BUT BACK TO the t-shirts, most of which are usually in patterns so tacky that I’d be embarrassed to wear one. Which is why I don’t actually own one.

The only red, white and blue banner I possess is an actual U.S. flag – which actually is one of those flags that is certified to have once flown over the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

 

… might well be proud to wear this

Yes, I realize its moment of being the actual “Old Glory” on Capitol Hill may only have lasted a few seconds long. But it somehow seems like more of a legitimate gesture of patriotism than wearing a t-shirt being an assault rifle image superimposed over a U.S. flag. (No, I'm not kidding. You really can find them for sale on the Internet).

Even though I suspect the kind of people who’d actually wear such a shirt are probably the grand-children of the ones who, a half-century ago, got most offended when activist Abbie Hoffman wore his American flag motif shirt in public. Now, such a garment likely would only be worn by someone of the “far right.”

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Buttigieg seeks Jackson redemption

Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign is a confounding mess – he’s raising a significant amount of money that would give him a chance to be a competitive campaigner, yet he has many would-be black voters thinking he’s the devil incarnate.

BUTTIGIEG: In trouble with black voters

So what does he choose to do? He gets himself a spot on the program Tuesday of the Rainbow/PUSH convention held every year in Chicago.

IN SHORT, HE seeks out an audience with none other than the Rev. Jesse Jackson himself – hoping that Jackson will give him the political equivalent of a papal blessing that would get many black voters to quit thinking in terms of Buttigieg as the absolute last of the two dozen presidential aspirants whom they’d consider supporting.

Buttigieg, at 37, is amongst the youngest of the presidential dreamers, and he has attracted some support from the kind of people who want to believe that everybody else is far too old to be in charge of the federal government.

Youth, vigor, somebody who understands (and is fully a part of) the world of the 21^st Century! Which is why he was able to raise some $24.8 million in donations during the second fundraising quarter – more than any other candidate.

He may have the kind of campaign cash that could make him competitive with the Bernie Sanders’ and the Joe Biden’s of the political world. But the man whose political background is serving as the mayor of South Bend, Ind., also is turning out to be the guy that black voters want to see go down to an embarrassing defeat.

AS IN THERE are some black voters who not only want him to lose, they want him to become politically-damaged goods to the point where he’d never be able to run for any government post again in the future.

It stems from an incident in South Bend where the local police were involved in a shooting incident in which a black man was killed.

It didn’t help that the officer was equipped with a body camera and a squad car with a video camera, yet neither one managed to record the incident – which might have backed up the officer’s claims that the man was armed with a knife and was brandishing it.

JACKSON: Being sought for his aid

Also the fact that Buttigieg himself has let himself get bogged down by the whole affair – making himself seem weak and indecisive and potentially helping to cover up details in the whole affair.

SO THE MAN who is openly in a gay marriage who’d like to think he’s the natural choice of all progressive-minded people has one segment of the Democratic electorate wishing he’d drop dead.

And some Democratic political operatives thinking that Buttigieg himself is just too flawed to unite the various factions that comprise the modern-day Democrats.

Hence, Buttigieg seeks redemption in the form of Jesse Jackson. Who had a meeting with the mayor, then allowed him to speak at the Rainbow/PUSH forum gathering.

But the most important part may well be the words from Jackson himself, who said he thinks the accounts many people have heard about what is happening in South Bend are distorted, and that Buttigieg has handled things about as well as any political person could.

“HE’S HANDLED AN awkward situation well by being transparent,” Jackson said of Buttigieg, while also tossing out a potshot against Indiana state law that actually forbids municipalities from having residency requirements for their police officers and firefighters.

SANDERS: Can 'Mayor Pete' beat him?

The fact that cops in South Bend don’t have to live in the city (only within an adjacent county) means local residents don’t necessarily trust them, and view them as something of the equivalent of an “occupying force.”

A description that I’m sure law enforcement types will resent, and one that could come back to bite Buttigieg on the behind if he gets perceived as having too much support from Jackson.

Although for now, I’m sure “Mayor Pete” would gladly accept a Jesse Jackson blessing, if only it results in turning black voters into a segment that eagerly awaits his electoral defeat in the 2020 presidential election cycle.

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Mixed message on urban violence

Call it the advantage of multiple news organizations reporting happenings – we get a more-thorough picture of reality.

Or perhaps it is the concept of dueling news organizations – with the various sides unable to agree on what they want the message to be. Which still results in a greater picture of what is occurring within our society.

THOUGHTS THAT RUN through my mind as I peruse reports by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBBM-TV – both of which purport to be about the levels of violent crime and murder that are occurring in Chicago.

With some individuals of a certain ideological leaning eager to want to believe that the city of Chicago is amongst the grubbiest, grossest, most violent places that exist within the United States – if not anywhere on Planet Earth.

Which is a gross exaggeration, although there are certain neighborhoods where the levels of violence seem so intense that we have to wonder how we as a people could ever have let conditions get so out of hand in those places. Although many of us choose to cope with such conditions by ignoring such places altogether.

The Sun-Times took the angle in a story published Monday that this very weekend that marks the half-way point through 2019 is yet another of a bloody morass that is modern-day Chicago.

THE HEADLINE ALONE says it all – 56 shot – 4 fatally – in Chicago over weekend.

With a subhead pointing out one incident alone on Saturday where five people were shot on the Near West Side, although in that incident, it should be noted that all five individuals were able to get themselves to area hospitals where they were ‘treated and released’ for their wounds.

Bloodshed galore. It’s a wonder we don’t have Donald Trump engaging in yet another Twitter-motivated rant about how gory Chicago has become.

But then, there was the CBS-operated station in Chicago, which came out with a story the same morning indicating the number of shootings in Chicago are down for 2019 – compared to the past.

ALTHOUGH WBBM-TV INDICATED that this was a particularly harsh weekend of violence in Chicago, overall, it seems there are signs of improvement.

Some 1,229 shootings in Chicago through Sunday – about 100 less than the first half of 2018 and lower than any year since 2015.

Also, we have 236 murders in Chicago thus far this year – which the TV reports indicate is 21 less than the fist half of last year.

And certainly might put Chicago at about 260 or so slayings for this year – if things continue at this rate. Far less than the recent years when the homicide totals reached 700 or more (or the late 1980s when Chicago would easily come close to 1,000 murders annually.

SO WAS THIS Chicago Police Department spin control in trying to give us a bigger picture about the amount of violence and crime occurring in Chicago? Or is it ideological prattle to come up with tales of how bloody and out-of-control the city was on this past weekend?

Or is it really evidence that “facts” can be found to justify any point of view one wants to take on just about any issue.

Personally, I’m inclined to think that some people use the story of urban violence in such ways as to confirm whatever ideological hang-ups they have about life and our society – wanting to further lambast whomever or whatever they have contempt for.

Then again, to those four people who were killed this weekend prior to Independence Day in Chicago this year, it WAS a most-tragic period of time – a moment that their families will forevermore mourn for its great loss!

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Productive? More like, “Drop dead!”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker gave Mayor Lori Lightfoot the time of day, as the two of them had a one-on-one meeting Saturday to discuss various issues – including whether or not state government would be capable of offering help to city government in meeting pension obligations.

LIGHTFOOT: Wants state aid on pensions

Oddly enough, both officials issued canned statements where they both said the meeting was “productive” without offering much of anything in the way of details.

WHICH I SUSPECT really means the governor told Lightfoot something the equivalent of “drop dead,” and waited until after she left the room before bursting out in hysterics.

With Lightfoot muttering under her breath at the lack of consideration she saw the governor offering up aid to the state’s largest city.

For what it’s worth, the city currently has pension funds that are about $28 billion underfunded. Which had various reports indicating that the mayor saw the solution as having the state combine the city’s pension funds into the funds that cover other municipal governments across Illinois.

In short, the state would have taken on the city’s problems – with the city then being allowed to use its sources of income to pay for other issues and problems it would rather resolve instead.

IT DOESN’T SEEM to be happening, although both officials feel the need for showing a sense of decorum. Largely because both of the government officials carry the “D” label following their names.

PRITZKER: How quickly did gov. say 'no'

If this were the “good ol’ days” of Democrat Rahm Emanuel and Republican Bruce Rauner, the two of them would be dreaming up choice insults to toss in each other’s direction. And you just know Rahm’s insults likely would have included a borderline vulgarity or two.

Because it really would be fantastical for anyone to think that Illinois state government, which has financial dilemmas of its own, would have any willingness to get itself into resolving a city government problem.

RAUNER: Would he have offered any aid?

If anything, I could envision that residents of the 96 counties outside of metropolitan Chicago (who at most account for about one-third of the state’s population) would be prepared to have a hissy-fit if Pritzker offered up any sort of aid on this issue.

IN FACT, I’VE heard so many tales throughout the years of the amount of aid the state has had to provide to bail Chicago interests out of assorted problems that I have no doubt any attempt to contemplate state aid to resolve a city pension problem would run into serious political opposition that I’m sure Pritzker would not want to have brought down upon himself.

Meaning it was a fantasy, at best, to believe the state would be able to offer up much help.

The pension problems the city now faces are most likely going to be ones that will dominate the Lightfoot Years, and may be what prevents her from being able to afford the kinds of things that Mayor Lori would prefer to be doing so as to build herself up a municipal legacy of significance.

One other point I should note; it seems that both Lightfoot and Pritzker managed to use an identical phrase – they “look forward to continuing to work together” on various issues.

EMANUEL: How vulgar would his vocabulary become?

AS IN BOTH of them still plan to ask the other for many, more favors in the future. They’re expecting that the “D” they have in common will result in each of them having their phone calls to each other returned.

They both have to continue to deal with each other for the next few years.

So Saturday’s meeting wasn’t of real significance. With the real story being what was said immediately after the two met.

And whether either one of these esteemed public officials said anything in private that would top Rahm Emanuel’s vocabulary at its most vulgar.

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