“Deport ‘em all” seems to be the extent of a Trump campaign strategy

Donald Trump may well have said stupid things about just about every group of people possible who isn’t like himself, but he’s the guy who kicked off his time as a political person by calling Mexicans “drug dealers,” “criminals” and “rapists.” 

TRUMP: He wants to stay in D.C.!

So it really shouldn’t be surprising that to kick off his bid for re-election, he’s going on a rant about deportation.

AS IN HE’S going to have federal immigration officials begin the process of kicking out millions of people whom he wants to believe have no business being in this country.

Of course, that’s just Trump his role as the twit who Tweets – using his Twitter account Tuesday morning to send out messages to his followers about how he’s going to get serious about removing all these foreigners from this country.

Which may well be a task too large to take on. It may well be that trying to get rid of that many people at once is too great to accomplish. It may very well overwhelm the infrastructure of our immigration department.

But then again, I doubt that Trump is seriously intending to accomplish much of anything – other than spewing cheap trash talk to get his ideologue followers all worked up.

AND SINCE MANY of his backers seem to have a xenophobic streak behind their thought processes, saying he’s going to get the foreigners out of this country so that only people like themselves will remain will be just the kind of trash talk that will get them all worked up.

Which makes this perfect for the rally Trump planned for Tuesday night in Orlando, Fla. – the one where he officially kicks back into campaign mode and becomes the guy trying to win himself re-election.

Actual governing? He’ll leave that to the geeks whom he has appointed to various federal government posts. And when they turn out to be incapable of getting anything done?

 

OCASIO-CORTEZ: She's not leaving, either!

Well, he’ll blame it all on Democrats for standing in the way of everything he wants done on behalf of people just like himself.

OR MAYBE HE’LL blame it all on Alexandra Ocasio Cortez – the congresswoman from New York whom the far right seems overly obsessed with. Even though many of them don’t even appear to know her name, instead merely referring to her as “that AOC woman!”

Who knows? Maybe Trump, in his own delusional way, thinks she’ll be the first one he can have deported. Or maybe one of her relatives – even though as one of Puerto Rican ethnicity, that means her family consists of U.S. citizens going back generations.

For all I know, she’s more a “real American” than any of the Trump backers whose families came here a generation or two ago from somewhere in Eastern Europe – and view nodding their heads in accordance with Trump trash talk as their way of “fitting in” with our society.

But back to Trump, who’s more than willing to use his xenophobic scare tactics to stir up support.

TAKE TRUMP’S SON, Eric, who had an e-mail message sent out Tuesday telling people that his father wanted $7 million in contributions made to him that day – a “huge” and “incredible” gesture meant to show that everybody loves Donald. “Even the Radical Left won’t be able to lie their way out of this one,” Eric said.

 

BIDEN: Can he even beat his 20-plus opponents

Although going through my e-mail, I also found a message from the Joe Biden presidential campaign – announcing his own Internet-based fundraising effort.

Both men are seeking donations of $5 or more per person (although Trump claims the average donation he’d like to see is $42), all in a grand to try to one-up each other. Which makes me think that Trump’s trash talk about deportations is meant more to inspire donations toward his $7 million goal, rather than being about removing a single soul from this nation.

And making believe all the moreso that Election ’20, regardless of its outcome, is going to be an incredibly depressing period in our society – as we all dive down to the bottom of our pit!

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Will Jimenez join ranks of ballplayers who bite Chicago Cubs’ fans on their behinds for seasons to come?

Eloy Jimenez is the star ballplayer from the Dominican Republic who is expected to be a significant part of the rebuilt Chicago White Sox ballclubs that will play in future years. 

Coulda been a Cubs star, but w/ Sox instead

And his quality of play will most definitely be studied these next two days. Every little move he makes will be watched for evidence that he’s making his former employer “suck it” big time.

FOR JIMENEZ IS the big White Sox star whom the Sout’ Siders acquired in a trade a few years ago with the Chicago Cubs. Jimenez was the guy whom the Cubbies knew had potential to be a big star – but they let him go in a trade to acquire a more-experienced pitcher.

Yes, Jose Quintana has been a solid pitcher for the Cubs – giving the ball club what they expected when they acquired him. Yet I can’t think of a single White Sox fan who’d rather have Quintana back.

Jimenez has finally made it to the major leagues this year, has had some big ballgames (particularly against the New York Yankees) and could very well join all those Cubano ballplayers the White Sox have acquired to create a talented (and potentially championship) ball club.

And now, due to the concept of inter-league play, the White Sox will be playing the Cubs. The White Sox will be the visiting ball club – traveling to the North Side for a two-game series.

 

Wound up winning Sox champ instead

YOU JUST KNOW that White Sox fandom will be rooting for Jimenez to be the big bat who beats the baby blue Cubbie bears over their batting helmet-clad heads. While I don’t doubt Cub-dom will hope that Jimenez turns out to be insignificant – or perhaps makes an error or strikes out at a key point in the game.

All so they can spew some trash talk that this Jimenez kid (he’s only 22 now) is a bust who won’t ever amount to anything special!

A Hall of Famer … for dreaded Cardinals

Of course, there have been several dozen ballplayers who managed to do time with both the White Sox and Cubs. There also are those players whom the Cubs have managed to let go – only to have them turn into stars somewhere else.

Take the case of Jon Garland, who back in 1997 was a first-round draft pick of the Cubs. Only to be traded to the White Sox a year later for more-experienced pitcher Matt Karchner.

White Sox would gladly have returned him

GARLAND EVENTUALLY DEVELOPED into a solid starting pitcher for the White Sox, and was a significant part of their pitching rotation in 2005 – the year they brought Chicago its first World Series victory in 88 years (and first of the 21^st Century).

Before anyone starts thinking the key to the White Sox acquiring major league talent is to make a trade with the Cubs, I’m sure many Sox fans will recall the 1974 trade that saw Cubs legend Ron Santo have an absolutely awful (a .221 batting average, 5 home runs and 41 runs batted in) stint with the Sox.

That, even more than his overbearing, Cubbie-loving personality, is why his persona will always be detested on the South Side.

But it hasn’t always been good times for the Cubs and their fans, who had to endure decades of grief over the 1964 trade that saw then acquire pitcher Ernie Broglio in exchange for outfielder Lou Brock – who went on to become a St. Louis Cardinals star, a great base stealer, and a Hall of Famer.

THAT IS ONE trade that Cubs fans wish could be erased from baseball history. Or at least the chapters related to Wrigley Field.

Sox would have refused his return

I remember back when Cubs fans tried downplaying that deal by insisting that an even bigger embarrassment was the 1992 deal where the White Sox eagerly acquired slugging outfielder Jorge Bell for a skinny Dominican kid outfielder Sammy Sosa.

The same Sammy who bulked up and went on to hit all those home runs (600-plus), only to get tagged with tales that he used steroids and that his whole experience was a fraud. All the more reason why White Sox fans never felt any sense of loss at the trade while many Cubs fans now try to pretend that Sosa never really happened!

Although one wonders if Jimenez has the chance to become an even bigger embarrassment to the Cubs than any of these deals – if he continues to show his stardom in Chicago!

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Will packed ballpark become a more common site on Sout' Side?

It was a cloudy, overcast, all-around-crummy Saturday in Chicago. Most definitely not the stereotypical image of a beautiful day for a ballgame.

No crummy attendance jokes on Sout' Side -- not Saturday, at least. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

Yet the stands at Guaranteed Rate Field were packed.

I WENT TO that particular ballgame, where the Chicago White Sox managed to get beat up upon by the New York Yankees. Yet the ballpark was packed with people -- officially just over 36,000 people bought tickets.

And even accounting for people who got discouraged from showing up because of the rain (who wants to get drenched, or have to wear a crude poncho to try to keep dry), there were still 30,000 plus people actually in attendance.

Which is significant because Chicago Cubbies fanatics would have us think that the White Sox are the ball club nobody cares about and nobody ever goes to see -- because EVERYBODY feels the need to go out to Beautiful Wrigley Field instead!

Because everybody loves the Cubs. It's only natural. Or so they'd have us think.

PERSONALLY, I'VE ALWAYS felt that the Cubs were the ballclub that managed to draw a solid number of tourists -- thereby inflating their overall attendance figures. If you take actual interest in the two teams, I'd say they come out about even.

A loaded parking lot made me thankful I took the 'el'

Except to the Cubbie fanatics, who want to believe they're the only ones who count. Almost like how Donald Trump's political backers explain away their guy's constant decline in poll ratings. Their people are the only ones who matter, and who should be paid attention to.

Not intimidated by Yanks -- this year, at least

To which I give the giant raspberry. As in ptbthhhhhb!

Or should we call it the Bronx cheer? Which might actually be appropriate because of the way the White Sox this weekend managed to produce what might well be the highlight of 2019 by beating up on the Yankees.

THE BRONX BOMBERS are the ball club who are in first place in their division, despite the injuries to so many key ballplayers, although on Saturday shortstop (and star) Didi Gregorius was back in the lineup.

Real 'South Side Hit Men'

But the White Sox have managed to hold their own, wining two of three games the teams played back in April, then managing to win a majority of games they played this week.

Technically, the White Sox won their "series" this year against the Yanks. Not bad, considering the team started out this season awful -- and it has taken this massive stretch of winning ways (including against the Yankees) just to get back to a .500 (half) winning record.

Is this going to be the beginning of the so-called rebuild White Sox management keeps insisting will turn the South Side Hit Men into a championship calibre ballclub by about 2021 or 2022?

WAS THE WELL-PACKED ballpark on Saturday (all of last week actually) a sign of what we're likely to see in coming years.

Can Sox keep winning Tue. and Wed. at Wrigley?

Or was this just a fluke and likely the highlight of the upcoming decade we're likely to get out of the Guaranteed Rate Field crew.

I did notice one significant change from recent years -- the number of people arriving at the ballpark wearing No. 7 jerseys (for Mickey Mantle) or No. 2 (for Derek Jeter) were on the decline. In fact, the most popular bit of garb Saturday night was worn by the fans who got the freebie promotional Hawaiian shirt -- covered with White Sox logos instead of tropical floral patterns.

And I have to admit to one plus brought about by being forced to buy a seat in the outer reaches of the upper deck -- my seat was sheltered by the upper deck roof. Meaning I remained dry all the way through the Saturday night rainfall that caused a rain delay.

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Will judge give Cochran a ‘get out of jail, free’ card in corruption case?

It will be intriguing to see just how a federal judge rules with regards to former 20^th Ward Alderman Willie Cochran, whom federal prosecutors say used funds meant for ward activities instead for personal use.

COCHRAN: Doesn't want to go to prison

Cochran has entered a “guilty” plea, and as expected is hoping his judge will be sympathetic. Although some may say “delusional” would be a more accurate descriptive term.

FOR COCHRAN IS the alderman who earlier this year sent his attorney a written legal brief in which he argued that prison time would be totally inappropriate. But because he apparently got confused in sending out e-mail, a copy was sent to the U.S. Probation Office.

For as Cochran stated, his actions would constitute political corruption. And history shows us that threats of incarceration haven’t done a thing discourage Chicago aldermen (or elected officials from anywhere, actually) from doing things that federal prosecutors believe do not serve the public good.

How else to explain the dozens of former aldermen who wound up ending their time in public service with a prison stint.

Cochran argued that a period of home confinement (say, six months or so) would be a more appropriate punishment for the alderman who solicited donations to provide financial support for a back-to-school picnic, a senior citizen event for Valentine’s Day and other holiday-type events.

PROSECUTORS, HOWEVER, SAY that Cochran took the contributions, then used the money for personal expenses.

Which is why they whacked him with a criminal indictment, resulting in Cochran entering a “guilty” plea back in March. No trial. A chance at a lesser sentence.

Sometimes, it seems these people don't understand the law

Except that Cochran seems to want us to think he didn’t do it – even though he submitted the guilty plea. It’s as though he doesn’t realize the significance of what it means to plead guilty. He’s going to have to take some sort of a legal blow when he comes up for sentencing on June 24.

Which is why the Chicago Sun-Times has reported this week that federal prosecutors are now demanding that Cochran get prison time.

THEY WANT HIM to get something along the lines of an 18-month prison sentence, which they say is close to the maximum sentence he could get. While admitting that if Cochran keeps trying a legal strategy along the lines of “I’m guilty, but I didn’t do it,” they’ll go for the max.

As in two full years of prison time. Which would put Cochran in line with the many other aldermen who wound up having to answer to the title of “inmate,” rather than “counselor.”

It would seem that Cochran has a tenuous grasp of what the law says, and means.

Which shouldn’t be surprising. Because one of the things that has often amazed me through all the years I have written about governing and the making of public policy is just how little officials truly comprehend legal issues.

EVEN THOUGH MANY of them are law school graduates and are certified to practice law, it would seem what they truly grasp are the mechanizations of politics. Which often differs greatly from what prosecutors will accept as legitimate.

These people want to criminalize govt.

Hence, the idea that some 30-plus aldermen ended up as criminals. That’s going back to 1973 – I’m sure the tally would be higher if you pushed the timeline back.

Although then again, legal interpretations used to be looser so that actions we’d now claim are criminal would have been regarded as legitimate, way back when.

Which may well be why federal prosecutors said they plan to enter into evidence the oaths of office that Cochran took when he became an alderman – perhaps they think elected officials need a reminder that the old cliché “talk is cheap” doesn’t apply, and that there’s a meaning to all the gibberish about “upholding” the federal and state constitutions.

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It’s an urban/rural race to the top of the pay scale for minimum-wage workers

I was amused to learn that the City Council will likely be considering a measure that would boost the minimum wage for workers at Chicago-based companies.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed off on $15 by 2025; will we see demand for $15 by 2021?

The measure in question by 4^th Ward Alderman Sophia King wants to see the minimum wage – currently $13 an hour – rise up to $15 by the year 2021.

WHAT’S THE BIG deal? Illinois law already calls for increases in the minimum wage, with the General Assembly just this year passing a bill that boosts the minimum pay to that $15 hourly rate by the year 2025.

If the city does nothing, that $15 rate eventually will be achieved. It will apply to employees of Chicago-based companies just as much as those of companies based elsewhere in the state.

Yet King argues that the city needs to have a higher pay scale, so to speak, than other parts of Illinois, because the city has a higher cost of living than other parts of the state.

It’s important, King argues, that Chicago reach the $15 hourly rate for adults stuck working in menial jobs before everyone else in the state. Thereby making it a race to the top of the scale between those working in Chicago and those working elsewhere – which usually is more a matter of where one happens to live.

NOW I’LL ADMIT that in some aspects, urban life carries a higher price tag.

Although I also know of people who insist that suburban life is more expensive. Often these are the people who live their lives in parts of the city that those with more significant incomes can choose to avoid living in.

They say that a move to the suburbs would wind up being too costly.

More often than not, they’re likely to be the individuals who most likely are forced to eke out an existence on an income based on a minimum-wage job – often doing some sort of scut-work that those of us with opportunities can avoid having to do.

KING: Pushing for minimum wage raise for Chgo?

SO IS IT really the case that a Chicago worker needs a higher minimum-wage pay rate than someone elsewhere in Illinois? It doesn’t really matter how low a cost-of-living rate is in a community.

Truth be told, a minimum wage isn’t going to stretch that far. Even at a $15 hourly rate, one is not going to “live like a king” if they’re stuck laboring at a job that many people would associate with a teenager who’s never had a job before in their lives.

Who, by the way, would not be impacted by these increases in minimum-wage rates. Companies will still be able to pay those workers less -- $4.25 an hour, if under 20.

Which makes me wonder if an increase in the minimum wage rate (an issue that is popular amongst a certain type of person with activist mentality) will only result in more teenagers getting hired.

WE’LL GO BACK to walking into a fast-food franchise and seeing pimply-faced teens trying to earn spending money, rather than a middle-aged person whose job skills are such that they have few other options in life.

I do realize labor is labor. A job is a job – particularly since there have been points in my own work life that I did jobs whose only real purpose was to bring in a paycheck, no matter how minimal. There was nothing noble about the work – other than it brought in an honest income that enabled some bills to be paid.

Will minimum wage fight shift to City Hall?

But I wonder what happens come the mid-2020s when Illinois’ minimum wage rate reaches $15 – some four years after Chicago. Will city-based workers wind up demanding yet another raise in their rates?

Will we become too accustomed to city-based people in menial jobs having to be paid just a tad extra than those elsewhere doing identical work, leading to the urban-rural brawl of the future!

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EXTRA: Will Disco Demolition really sell Buona Beef more sandwiches?

Thursday is the day (the night, specifically) that the Chicago White Sox will be using 40-year-old memories of exploding records and running amok on the Comiskey Park turn to try to attract fans to the old ball game.

The game against the New York Yankees is having a t-shirt giveaway -- 10,000 shirts remembering the events of July 12, 1979 when the White Sox bolstered their attendance for a double-header with the Detroit Tigers by letting people into the ballpark for 98 cents IF they brought a disco record to be blown to smithereens.

THE PROMOTION WOUND up being too successful. The anticipated crowd of some 20,000 turned out to be in excess of stadium capacity, with another 20,000 or so people stuck outside trying to figure out a way to sneak in.

And as we all remember, all the burn-outs who wanted to rock 'n' roll all night and rage against the evils of disco music (mostly because they couldn't dance) wound up losing control, storming the field, causing significant damage to the playing field, and have many people to this day ranting and raging about how "stoned" all those kids must have been.

The event is considered something significant in White Sox history -- which is why the team says it went ahead with using the 40-year-old event as a reason to celebrate.

The giveaway

Although I wonder just how many sandwiches Buona Beef (the sponsor of Thursday's event who paid for all the t-shirts being given away) will actually wind up selling as a result of the event?

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Included is a YouTube recording of that ballgame, The 2-hour, 34-minute mark is the key point where the records blow up, while 2-hours, 39 minutes is where the "fans" take over, and where broadcaster Jimmy Piersall starts denouncing the crowd as a batch of followers.

Women to become like knights in chess; leaping from square to square in search of safe space for abortions

There are those people with dreams that the Supreme Court of the United States is on the verge of striking down their 1973 ruling that made abortion of a pregnancy a legitimate medical procedure.

Queen the 'most powerful' chess piece, but women could become more like knight, hoping around the states looking for safe space when it comes to abortions

They fantasize that the overturning of the “Roe vs. Wade” court ruling will allow states to go back to the old days, so to speak, when a woman losing a child would be reason for a police investigation – to see if anyone did anything deliberate to cause the loss of a child.

WHICH ALSO MAKES these people the ones whose blood pressure shot sky-high Wednesday, when Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act into law.

That’s the measure approved this spring by the General Assembly (the one that got Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton excommunicated from the Catholic Church by the bishop for Springfield).

It is the one that says any attempt to take down a woman’s right to end a pregnancy by her own choice at the national level won’t change things in Illinois. Because our state will remain one where the issue is perceived as a gynecological one – rather than something involving morals.

Of course, that enhances the concept that our nation is destined to become a chessboard, of sorts.

OUR NATIONAL MAPS will start to have versions where abortion is regarded as a health issue – as opposed to one where the police are called for whenever a pregnancy ends unsuccessfully.

Abortion restrictions continue to evolve into national chessboard effect

Think I’m kidding?

Take our own Midwest. We could wind up one of the most split regions of our nation when it comes to abortion policy.

For Illinois is establishing itself as a state where a woman can go, if she needs/desires the procedure. While our bordering states are becoming places eager to establish themselves as one where we call the cops on any woman who doesn’t view the creation of a new life as her most significant function on this planet.

OVER IN INDIANA, the state has a law requiring a fetus to receive a proper funeral (either through burial or cremation), which would create more of a hassle for women viewing an abortion as a way of getting out of an inconvenient pregnancy. The Supreme Court recently upheld that.

Whereas over in Missouri, one of the controversies of late is the fact that officials are refusing to renew the permits allowing Planned Parenthood to operate a clinic in St. Louis that includes abortion amongst the services it performs.

That clinic happens to be the only one anywhere in Missouri where a woman can get an abortion. Meaning the clinic in nearby Granite City, Ill., is now likely to become jammed up with women crossing the state lines so they can no longer be pregnant.

Whose choice should it be … 

The Mississippi River could become a boundary women will have to cross. So too could State Line Road – the street that literally separates Chicago from Hammond, Ind. AND Illinois from Indiana. Since our Hoosier neighbors have made it clear they also view abortion as something that ought to be a police matter.

WITH THAT STATE’S attitudes receiving national prominence because many of its efforts to restrict abortion access came about back when Vice President Mike Pence was Indiana governor – and he makes it clear he’s not only not repentant, he’s one of those who’s hoping all the Southern states (Alabama, Mississippi, etc.) pushing their own anti-abortion measures ultimately result in giving the Supreme Court an excuse to take down “Roe vs. Wade.”

… with regards to that potential for a baby inside?

It’s going to be the chessboard effect – with some 30 of the 50 states enacting laws intended to make abortion, if not a criminal act, one that is next-to-impossible to obtain. Women in places like Illinois, New York or California (or other states dominated by a sizable urban area) will have it, while those in more rural places will be like the knight in a game of chess – leaping over state lines to wind up somewhere where political people are more tolerant.

Even though there is evidence that many women everywhere are supportive of the notion that abortion is a medical issue – a recent poll for NPR and PBS found 63 percent think a woman who is raped or suffers from incest (which are criminal acts) ought to be able to end a pregnancy, while 86 percent think saving a woman’s life or health is sufficient reason.

While only 24 percent think that a doctor performing such an act is a criminal – with 71 percent opposed. Just one more bit of evidence on how out-of-touch the ideologues are when they spew their rhetoric about the, “cruel dehumanization of unborn Illinoisans on a mass scale.”

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