EXTRA: Is a Mexican-inspired song a new Democratic political tradition?

I couldn’t help but notice the song that Mexican ranchera singer Vicente Fernandez came up with this week to tout the presidential aspirations of Hillary Clinton.

There are those Latinos who will vehemently argue that Clinton’s level of support for people of Latin American ethnic origins is apathetic, at best. But when the Republican opponent has gone out of his way to use Latinos as the equivalent of a piñata to gain political points for himself, it’s no wonder that Spanish-tinged political rhetoric is going to bear a heavy pro-Hillary tint.

THE LATINO VICTORY Project, which is based in this country, worked with the Mexican citizen to get him to record El Corrido de Hillary Clinton – a tune that says Hillary is respectful of Latinos and will be a bridge between ourselves and the masses of this society.

Perhaps if Trump could have just kept his mouth shut about Mexicans being drug dealers and rapists, nobody would have felt compelled to sing about the campaign en Español.

This reminds me of the 2008 campaign cycle when the Texas primary resulted in ¡Viva Obama!, which told us of the wonders that the senator from Chicago would bring to our nation if only we gave him a chance.

Although to my mindset, it’s just a parody of the mariachi band standard ¡Viva Mexico!

BUT WILL WE now feel compelled to have a Spanish-language novelty song for every Democratic presidential aspirant in the future? I say Democrat, because the Republicans seem determined to be the party that resists the growing number of Latinos living in this country.

Heck, George W. Bush lost a lot of his conservative ideologue support when he began to be perceived as too sympathetic to Latinos!

And for those who want to believe Latinos are too hostile to the outgoing president, I’ll be the first to concede there are mixed feelings. But I doubt we’d have had that Thalia dance at the White House if there wasn’t some sense of admiration.

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Keeping Trump quiet? Or they really just despise the thought of Hillary?

Remember back to March when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made derogatory remarks about the Ricketts family; implying they ought to keep their opposition to his candidacy quiet lest he start revealing their “dirty laundry” so to speak?
 

TRUMP: Trying to unite Republicans

Well, it appears the family that founded TD Ameritrade and whose members now own the Chicago Cubs are heeding Trump’s advice. Because they’re showing support for Trump in the clearest way possible.

THEY’RE GIVING HIM money.

As in $1 million being donated by family head J. Joe Ricketts to a political action committee that is backing the Trump campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal.

What better way for them to indicate support than to give campaign cash to the guy who theoretically is as capable of self-funding a serious presidential bid as anyone in this country? In fact, to a guy like Trump, cold hard cash probably is the only form of "respect" he appreciates!

Of course, it can be argued that Ricketts is not making the donation to Trump himself. Rather, it is to a political group that will benefit Trump’s presidential aspirations by expressing its belief that we ought to have anybody EXCEPT Hillary Clinton as president resulting from the Nov. 8 elections. So much for Cubs ownership showing its appreciation for one of their most prominent (even if she has claimed New York Yankees fandom during her residency out east) fans.

WHICH IS PROBABLY the best way to describe what the Ricketts family may feel about this election cycle. They probably still don’t think much of the man, but are willing to put their money where their mouth is – so to speak – by expressing opposition for the opponent.

 

RICKETTS: Tom's family in line behind Trump?

In short, the Ricketts answer to “Who do you hate the most?” is Clinton herself.

Either that, or there really are some serious Ricketts family secrets that Trump could have unveiled – which is what he hinted at when the Ricketts family members started making too much noise in his opposition back during the primary election cycle this year.

Of course, Trump tried to play the thing for a laugh by then by saying he’d be airing campaign advertising spots reminding us of Chicago Cubs ineptitude throughout the years and tagging it to the Ricketts family.

 

CLINTON: Cubs fan can't say Cubs owners in her bloc?

WHICH WOULD WIND up being ridiculous these days in light of the fact the Cubs actually were the first team to qualify this season for a playoff spot on the path to the World Series. Although that doesn’t rule out the possibility the Cubs could blow it in the playoffs, thereby creating more ineptitude that can be laid in the Ricketts’ family lap.

Not that the Cubs are really a factor in this political equation. It’s more about the confusion caused by the fact that many people who usually lean Republican don’t have a clue what to do about the garishness that is the Trump persona.

Take former President George H.W. Bush (as in father of “Dubya,”), for whom it became publicly known this week that he will cast his ballot for Clinton. The man who is about as Republican establishment as you can get is just that displeased with the notion of The Donald as The President.

Although I found it amusing that the reason this tip got out was because of a Kennedy family member (about as establishment Democrat as the Bushes are GOPers) let the word leak publicly, according to Politico.

WHICH IS TO say that I doubt Bush himself would ever have said anything aloud, and probably regards the tidbit about his ballot to be as gauche as Trump himself.

It will be intriguing to see how many Republican types Trump can actually keep on board his campaign. Too many defections ensure loss to Clinton come Election Day.

I’m sure there will be many people rationalizing their reasons for voting the way they do. Take the National Rifle Association, which the Washington Post reports says is fully in line with Trump because they’re concerned about the Supreme Court – which they want to remain as a judicial body with conservative political leanings. They want the court biased in their favor.

Although there are just as many other people who are eager to vote for Clinton solely because they want the shift in the high court’s leanings. Which is to say that anybody who says they know now how this election cycle will turn out is seriously stretching the truth.

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EXTRA: I guess governor wants all the credit for Bicentennial celebration

Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday used his executive powers to create a brand-new commission meant to coordinate the way in which Illinois celebrates its bicentennial come 2018.
 

The new celebratory committee

The state actually already had an entity called the State Bicentennial Commission, replacing it with a new body to be called the Illinois Bicentennial Commission. One whom the majority of members will be chosen by Rauner himself.

NOW ONE CAN argue what’s the point of all this? One fact is that the state commission’s membership was created during the days of former Gov. Pat Quinn.

Now, when Illinois goes about celebrating its 200 years of existence in just over a year, we won’t have to acknowledge any Quinn contribution. We’ll all be able to worship at the altar of Rauner – thanking our current governor for enabling us to pay tribute to our existence.

Of course, it was easy to dissolve the state commission (that actually is Rauner’s description for what he did) because it really hadn’t done much of anything to help prepare for anything in the way of celebratory activity.

Maybe it can be argued that Rauner was preoccupied with other problems to focus much attention on such an initiative. Then again, maybe it’s now that he’s able to focus his own attention on the matter.

LET’S ONLY HOPE that it isn’t just idle chatter when he says, “the Illinois Bicentennial is an incredible opportunity to celebrate Illinois’ contributions to the country and the world and plan for our next 200 years of innovation and achievements. I look forward to the commission’s recommendations on how best to move forward to ensure that this will be a celebration to remember.”

Which view of history ...

It will be interesting to see what the end result of all this is. Will Illinois do much of anything to acknowledge ourselves and our history? Or will we be bogged down by the fact that one can say that nearly three years of preparatory time were lost due to inaction?

Part of my concern about this is the degree to which neighboring Indiana went out of its way to celebrate its own Bicentennial, which was this year. It seems you can’t set foot in the Hoosier state without seeing a trace of the fact that the state is now 200 years old.

Will we be able to match up to our neighboring state? Or are we going to get out-classed by Hoosiers (a fact that the Illinoisan in me finds somewhat repugnant)?

... will our Bicentennial take?

WILL THIS WIND up being like the 200-year celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birth back in 2009 – where Illinois’ contributions seemed more like an afterthought compared to what occurred in places like Kentucky (where he was actually born) and Indiana (where he lived as a child).

So much for paying tribute to the man who arguably is the state’s most significant contribution to our national political culture.

Unless you’re among those who for ideological reasons is determined to revere the memory of Dixon-born (but lived the bulk of his life in California) Ronald Reagan.

In which case, you’re probably more preoccupied these days with ignoring our Bicentennial AND downplaying the significance of arguably the second-most significant contribution to the political culture – our soon-to-be former President Barack Obama.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, I realize both of those films are heavily-fictionalized versions of what really happened Let's hope our official celebration can bring out some fact.

Food truck operators benefit from partisan desire to dump on Rahm

At first glance, it doesn’t make much sense that the conservative millionaire brothers who operate Koch Industries and fund many ideologue causes would care about the fate of food trucks – those mobile restaurants of sorts that have been the target of city regulatory efforts.

Those lines are what bothers restaurant owners, who see them as lost customers

Then again, it makes total sense. Not because the Koch brothers care about the notion of encouraging mini-businesses of sorts or about supporting the desire to eat anything from them.
 

Kochs want to aggravate Dem Emanuel

BUT THE FACT is that Chicago city government has been involved in an intense effort to impose so many regulations against food truck operators. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Monday about the significant fines imposed on operators to the point where some are being driven out of the mobile food-serving business.

Which I’m sure, to the Koch perspective, probably puts the concept of regulations on these food servers as some sort of cause they should fight against. Or more likely, something they should support because any effort to overturn the regulations would come across as a defeat for a “liberal-leaning” city like Chicago.

Food trucks these days can extend from high-end edibles...

In short, the Koch brothers would like to be able to tell a prominent-Democratic city like Chicago how it should operate. The same motivation held by the foundation controlled by Gov. Bruce Rauner, who also has contributed money to the cause of fighting for food trucks in Chicago.

Which, to me, falls in the category of someone who should be told to mind their own business. But that’s just me ranting. And this is also an example of partisan politics bringing together interests that normally wouldn’t give a second-glance at each other.

... to something resembling a basic sandwich

CAN ANYONE SERIOUSLY envision a Koch eating anything from a food truck? I can’t! How vehemently would they fight if similar food trucks tried operating in their hometown of Wichita, Kan.?

To be specific, the Koch brothers are providing financial support to the Institute for Justice. Based in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. (the Republican-leaning part of the D.C. metro area), the group is behind the lawsuit that seeks to challenge Chicago’s regulatory efforts against food trucks.

Some restaurants are in the food truck business

Particularly the rule that says the trucks cannot operate within 200 feet of an established restaurant. And also rules limiting the amount of time that a truck can stay parked at any one location.

Let’s be honest. These rules were passed by local politicos who were motivated by the political influence of the restaurant industry, which hates the idea of these food trucks because they’re mobile and cutting into their business.

JUST ENVISION HOW a restaurant owner feels when he sees people lined up at a food truck waiting to get something to eat, rather than coming into his restaurant and spending time at one of his tables.

It’s a loss of money. I know some people are more than willing to support the food truck operators just based on the premise that the city’s rules are an example of hard-core politicking by the restaurant lobby.

Although is it really any better for public policy to be influenced by the desires of a special interest (which is certainly the way I view the Koch brothers who use their millions to fund any ideological cause they agree with) whose only motivation is to wreck havoc with the city’s regulatory efforts.

Food trucks have come a long way since the last century

Personally, I don’t see any problem with the idea of regulatory efforts against food truck operators. There certainly are enough rules that restaurants themselves have to comply with. And when it comes to the idea of food service, you can’t be too cautious.

BUT IT DOES create an odd setting to see Kochs aligned with food trucks, since much of the reason those types of businesses are thriving is that they’re making efforts to appeal to a certain young, urban type who view the idea of ordering a taco with Korean-influenced stuffings (or whatever unique edible offering they have in stock) as further evidence of their sophistication.

Certainly not the kind of people who’d be inclined to back the Kochs on any of their preferred causes. But then again, if we were just talking about a truck with a grill with a fry cook slapping together a quickie egg or two, I doubt there’d be any appeal.

My own thoughts about these food trucks is that I don’t seek them out, largely because the ones that are supposedly “hip” and trendy charge way too much (consider $7 for a taco, like I saw at one truck on Sunday) for their food.

Which is why I expect this political fight is one that eventually will end on its own as the fad fades away. Those young people will get older, quit eating such stuff, and the new generation of young people will wonder how the old geezer-types ever thought it was fun to consume such stuff.

  -30-

EDITOR’S NOTE: A website devoted to the concept of letting people know where, at any given moment, they can find a food truck offering up something to eat.

Is 2016 election cycle really about trying to delay the inevitable of 2020?

The “inevitable” is the fact that white people won’t be the majority in this country forever, and very likely the youth of our nation today will wind up living in a society where the population will be a true mixture of races and ethnicities.
 

The political reaction to the population trend?

It will be a place that won’t really have a majority group, and I don’t doubt that some people have a problem with that concept.

LISTENING TO THE rhetoric being spewed by people most enthusiastic about the presidential aspirations of Republican candidate Donald Trump, one gets the impression that what they really like about him is the idea that he sees this change in population as a problem that desperately needs to be addressed.

The Chicago Tribune reported on a new study by the Brookings Institution and the Center for American Progress that analyzed the trends in U.S. population. It concludes that by 2043, the “minority” groups will be the majority in this country.

By the early 2030s, 18-to-44-year-olds will be mostly non-white. In some places, the change will come earlier. Including Illinois.

Where in the Land of Lincoln, people who are white will be less than half by the year 2020. In short, even if Trump were to win the election on Nov. 8, the change will take place during his presidency.

TO BE EXACT, white people in Illinois are likely to account for 49.9 percent of the state population. Which may round off to half, but would be just under half, and likely would be down to 34.6 percent by 2060.

The reality of the situation, and the fact that makes the complaints by people amount to little more than nativist whining, is that there really isn’t anything that can be done to alter this shift.

Unless we’re prepared to take on a massive initiative of ethnic cleansing that would result in the world’s condemnation. Even I don’t really think Trump is capable of something like that, although the so-called “deplorables” probably wish they could have such a person as U.S. president.

Is Hillary the real vote to "make America great?!?"

It was interesting to read how in Illinois in just a few short years, the trend that has been discussed as a hypothetical will become a reality.

PERSONALLY, I FOUND the 2060 projection for Illinois to be most interesting. For it is figured that the Latino population likely will be 35.5 percent, or slightly higher than the white population. The remainder would be either black (15.4 percent) or Asian (14.6 percent).

Considering that other studies have said the Chicago population will reach a level of about one-third white, one-third black and one-third Latino by 2020, it would see that the change is bound to occur in all parts of the country.

So much for those people who would just as soon dismiss such ethnic and racial changes in population makeup as an urban trend, and that somehow the rural parts of our nation will somehow remain stable and keep our nation as a whole the way it always was.

That is what is meant by that “Make America Great Again” spiel being used, which is why some of us think that the way to really make this nation “great” is to turn out in vast numbers on Election Day to vote against the whole Trump phenomenon.

WHICH IS WHAT I honestly think can happen if people actually turn out to vote in significant numbers. A Trump victory is really only possible if people decide to get lazy and not bother to cast ballots.

Because it is likely that the Trump backers will show up at the polling places to vote. With their motivation being the trend that our population is taking – and has been for several years.

Actually, there is one uncertain factor in the future population composition, and that is just how “Latino” will Latinos be. Will people of ethnic origins tracing back to Latin American nations wind up mixing in with other groups, and wind up identifying more with them – particularly with the whites who will technically no longer be the majority?

It’s possible, unless people like Trump lay on their nonsense rhetoric so thickly (just the way that Trump does) that they wind up driving those growing Latino numbers into a group that winds up as a solid opposition.

  -30-

Will this become year “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request” loses relevance

I’m not a Chicago Cubs fan. In fact, I have to admit the only thing about the city’s National League franchise I find appealing is that Steve Goodman song.

And no, I don’t mean “Go Cubs, Go.” Which is about as insipid a lyric as ever crafted.

I’M ACTUALLY REFERRING to the early 1980s tune “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request,” which purports to tell the tale of the final moments of life of an aging man who spent his life in fruitless rooting for a Cubs team that didn’t embarrass itself, and actually brought a championship to Chicago.

Of course, it didn’t happen. The fan in the song wound up being cremated with his ashes spread at Wrigley Field – with the “prevailing 30 mile an hour southwest wind” blowing them over the left field wall and bleachers so he can, “come to my final resting place, out on Waveland Avenue.”

Which is kind of a touchingly truthful sentiment, if you think about it. But would that be a loss if this truly is the year that the Chicago Cubs wind up doing anything of significance – rather than finding yet another way to blow it come playoff time.

Because that’s the mode we’re in now, what with the Cubs managing to win a division title with Thursday night’s St. Louis Cardinals loss. Although the Cubs tried rewriting history Friday by doing the cliche'd champagne splash following a victory over the Milwaukee Brewers that came a day after the clinching actually occurred.

Cubs fans consider fantasy pennants ...

IT ACTUALLY REMINDS me of the 2000 season when the New York Yankees actually lost 15 of their 18 final ballgames. Yet because the Boston Red Sox managed to pick the identical time of the season to stink, the Yankees clinched a division title with a loss.

I suspect many Cubs fans are now fantasizing about a Yankees-like scenario – the Yankees went on to win in the playoffs and wound up winning the World Series that year. Which was an even bigger deal than usual because they got to whomp the New York Mets for the World Series championship title.

... of 1969, 1984 and 2003 ...

But then again, the Cubs don’t have Yankee aura or winning ways. Every time the Cubs try to feed off Yankee aura (Bobby Murcer as a ballplayer, Gene Michael and Lou Piniella as managers), Chicago Cubbie-ness manages to overcome success!

... to be more real than the one ...

Which makes me wonder if the smart-aleck I read on the Internet on Friday has it more correct. That person pointed out that the St. Louis Cardinals managed to win World Series titles in 2006 and 2011, even though in both years they failed to win a division title.

COULD IT HAPPEN again come 2016? Could this be the year the Cubs manage to blow it when it matters the most and the Cardinals manage to prevail yet again?

Because that would truly be in Cubbie-character. This is the team that, as Goodman put it, hasn’t won since, “the year we dropped the bomb on Japan.”

It is why I just can’t get all excited the way I’m seeing some Cubs fans already wetting their pants with glee, as though they think this year will go into the record books as some sort of championship season.

... that has flown over 35th/Shields for 11 years now

This may well be the big difference between the perception of baseball fans who root for Chicago’s two ball clubs. Cubs fans in their minds see those league pennants for 1969, 1984 and 2003 flying above the center field scoreboard.

WHITE SOX FANS still have the nightmare that they’re going to wake up someday and find that the 2005 World Series championship was somehow just a dream.

There are still several rounds of playoffs that need to be completed before we have a National League champion, which then will face off against the (likely superior) American League champs!

In fact, the way baseball is now set up with all these extra teams thrown into the playoff mix, it seems that the powers-that-be would just as soon see a lesser team actually win the whole thing.

71 years, and counting, since "the year we dropped the bomb on Japan."

Will the Chicago Cubs manage to use the remainder of the month to relax, try to prepare themselves for the pressure of post-season play? Or will they be one of these ball clubs who somehow let the lack of serious game activity throw them off-track, resulting in a first-round departure from the playoffs and continued choruses of the Goodman song?

  -30-

Pondering Mexico’s “independence” at a time when Trump wants to use ethnicity as a political punching bag

It’s Independence Day in Mexico, and if by chance you live near a Mexican enclave in this country you probably got to see and hear a taste of the celebration last night spilling over into Friday.

TRUMP: Will his defeat bring celebration?

Heck, even Gov. Bruce Rauner felt compelled to take part Thursday night in a replication in Chicago’s Harrison Park of “el Grito,” the cry for independence that acknowledged the 1810 breaking away of Spain’s colony into a free and separate nation of Mexico.

WE HEAR A lot about the growing Latino population in this country and see evidence that it is influencing the masses as a whole.

Yet I also don’t doubt there were some individuals who saw and heard the celebration that took place in parts of this country and wound up gnashing their teeth in anger.

These are the people who have their own nativist leanings whose own xenophobia has turned into a particularly irrational hang-up with regards to anything having to do with the Spanish language – particularly as it applies to Mexico.

Which makes sense, in a sense, because it is roughly two-thirds of the Latino population in this country that is specifically of Mexican ethnic leanings. I could see where people who are inclined to be clueless would think that it is “Mexico” that is somehow taking over.

NATURALLY, THERE’S BOUND to be someone inclined to use such leanings to their own benefit. That may well be Donald Trump.

RAUNER: Even Bruce celebrated Mexican freedom

The New York real estate developer who now says he wants to be president has made a point of anti-Mexico rants in his campaign rhetoric. He began by bashing Mexican people in this country as being rapists and drug dealers and all other sorts of slurs.

Of course, many Mexican Americans think of Trump as nothing more than a pinche pendejo (look up a translation yourself) and a baboso. The impression that the level of contempt being contemplated is mutual. There will be many of the people who celebrated Mexican independence who will be prepared to see Trump go down to defeat.

It is a safe bet to say that Trump will NOT take the Latino vote on Election Day. The only real question is if he will set a record low for a Republican candidate. Because many Latinos who vote will be casting ballots against him just as they did against John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

KAINE: Language an advantage?

WE REALLY DIDN'T think that highly of Barack Obama – it was more a sense that we saw him as less objectionable than his opponents. Which really is the case with Hillary Clinton in her bid against Trump; who if Latinos had had their way would have been the Democratic nominee back in 2008.

But I know there are those political observers who are unsure of what will happen because of the sense that the nativist element of our society is excited about Trump BECAUSE OF the fact he’s willing to talk so much trash about Mexicans and is willing to give them the fantasy of a government that will be openly hostile and push for mass levels of deportation.

KIRK: Turning to Spanish to save self politically

It may well come down to the 2016 election cycle being a showdown between the xenophobes and the growing Latino population. I’m sure the nativists are viewing this as a chance to put the foreigners in their place.

While Latinos, including all us Mexicans (my own grandparents came to this country in the 1920s and wound up settling in the South Chicago neighborhood) may use this election cycle as a chance to silence those people politically, once and for all.

THOSE PEOPLE OF sense will see this. I find it humorous that Clinton chose the Spanish-speaking Timothy Kaine (he once worked with Catholic missionaries in Honduras) as her running mate, particularly whenever political pundits feel compelled to say that his language skills are meaningless.

They’re probably the ones who also are peeved with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who recently cut a Spanish-language campaign ad for himself – one in which he talks about his own disapproval of Donald Trump. It could sway the Latino vote in his re-election bid against Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.

While the top priority will still be the presidential campaign. If you think the celebration last night and Friday was out of line, just envision the Latino reaction to a Trump defeat.

Think of the remains of all the piñatas in Trump’s image that will be littering the streets after being smashed to smithereens in joy!

Will Trump be in tatters on the streets of Mexican enclaves everywhere following Election Day?

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