White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf wants a $1.2 Billion dollar handout from Illinois (Don't forget about Da Bears!)

"Socialism, communism, whatever you want to call it, is never the answer." Hank Steinbrenner in 2011, just 2 years after Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees received $2 Billion in public funds subsidized by the New York City and State taxpayers to build Yankee Stadium III.

One of the biggest and most successful scams the Ultra-Rich 1% pulled on America was the Trickle-Down Economics scheme.  Give Us large amount of public money for free and the economic benefit of us using it for ourselves will flow downward onto everyone else.  There is stuff flowing down from the 1% onto us but, it sure ain't economic benefits...  And while they were aided and abetted by Republicans and other conservative politicians the goal has always been the same to gain access to public monies in order to Privatize the Profits, and Socialize the Losses.

The White Sox are looking to move from the old 35th and Shields in the Bridgeport neighborhood to the 78, but in order to accomplish this move, poor, poor Jerry Reinsdorf needs to bum a couple o' bucks from the people of Illinois.

Jerry Reinsdorf has engaged in several tactics reserved for rich plutocratic assholes.  First, Reinsdorf dusted of his 1990s playbook and threatened to move the Chicago White Sox, this time to Nashville, Tennessee.  In the 1990s, Reinsdorf successfully bilked Illinois Governor Big Jim Thompson and the people of Illinois out of hundreds of millions of dollars to repair Comiskey Park by threatening to move the club to St. Petersburg, Florida.

So, last month just before Governor J.B. Pritzker's budget address, Reinsdorf went to Springfield to press the Governor and Legislature for $1,200,000,000 in public assistance in the building of the new White Sox stadium.  Reinsdorf and his investors would come up with the additional funding for the extended stadium grounds.

Rich people stay Rich because they don't pay for things with their money.  Governor J.B. Pritzker is rich he's a real Billionaire unlike the Orange Hitler so he knows this.  Pritzker has been adamant that no public money is going to build sports stadiums,

“I think I’ve been fairly clear about the fact that the taxpayers’ dollars are precious,” Pritzker said in response to a reporter’s question at an unrelated event. “And the idea of taking taxpayer dollars and subsidizing the building of a stadium as opposed to, for example, subsidizing the building of a birthing center, just to give the example, does not seem like the stadium ought to have higher priority.”

Unfortunately, there is a quirk which might allow not only the White Sox but Chicago Bears access to a government handout;  Mayor Brandon Johnson has been stepping all over his own dick and needs win, or to be clearer he needs not to be the Mayor who 'lost" the Chicago Bears to Arlington Heights.

“As far as public dollars, we haven’t gotten into any of those specifics just yet,” the mayor said of discussions with Sox officials.  "But I will say that we’re gonna explore all options. But we have to make sure that we’re doing right by the people of Chicago. … Everything is on the table here."

Why is everything on the table?  Jerry Reinsdorf is so rich he has quietly for the past 2 years been buying up the vacant parking lots in and around the United Center, Home of YOUR HIS Chicago BULLS!

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears are floating the idea of tearing down Solider's Field and putting up a state-of-the-art doomed Stadium on the Lakefront.  They've even proposed using $2,000,000,000 of their own money.  As a comparison, Stan Kroenke of the LA (not St. Louis) Rams spent $5,000,000,000 on the SoFi Stadium, without public assistance, although the NFL did some money as well.

But, this is all posturing as the Chicago Lake front is protected by statute from building on it, as George Lucas learned when he proposed his gaudy Star Wars museum.  The Bears have already knocked down the old Arlington Racetrack, accompanying side buildings and that vast open area is going to house their Stadium, a Bears Museum, hotels, restaurants, probably apartments for players and coaches to live in, and all that revenue will go right into the extended Halas Family pockets.  It's a no-brainer.  But, at this point the Bears seem to be trying to reduce their financial commitment to the Arlington Heights community and surrounding school districts because they can rely on the non-stop messaging of "Trickle-Down" effect being good enough for the peoples who should feel privileged we wish to build a stadium in their community and probably should provide us incentives to do so!

Hand-outs to the MegaRich are called stimulus and the Rich love getting other peoples' money.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 4: Miami Yikes

Even Judge Dredd showed concern for Hostages...

Cops, huh Bad Boys! Watcha gonna do when they come for you? #BlueLivesMatterMostofAll

The video from the UPS Robbery chase and highway shoot-out was appalling. Engaging the suspects on the busy highway, shooting into the truck, shooting while hiding behind vehicles full of innocent bystanders.

"If you shoot at us, we are going to engage. We are going to stop the threat," Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, said Friday. "When bad guys are shooting at you, how do you negotiate?"

"If you're shooting into a truck and you don't have a clear vision of who you're shooting at, you don't just shoot at the truck," Manny Orosa, Miami-Dade Police Chief from 2011-2015 said.  

Two "civilians" were killed; Richard Cutshaw a 70 year old driver in another vehicle and the hostage UPS driver Frank Ordonez. But, hey whatcha gonna do?

The trite saying I oft heard uttered in Iraq was 'Better judged by 12 than carried by 6'. Nowadays a third line can be added, 'Pardoned by the 1' as the Traitor in the White House loves to pardon war criminals to #OwntheLibs. That was language used in an actual Warzone but, with the proliferation of easily obtainable guns, the wreckage of the social safety net and economy from the ravages of Trickle-Down Neoliberalism, and the militarization of Police Forces the United States is sliding rapidly into a Failed Nation State.

The recent incidents of Police Abuse, criminal acts, and murder have taken those last bits of luster of the badge. But, the odious AG Bill Barr recently said Americans, "have to start showing, more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves. And if communities don't give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need."

Respect is earned, not given away. Recall the 2nd of Robert Peel's 9 Principals of Policing;

To recognize always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behavior, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.

This Miami Yikes incident is just the most explosive recent one involving Police Officers in Florida although an Officer in LA surpassed them in immorality. I'm getting sick and tired of these criminal cops making my job harder, acosting and sometimes murdering American Citizens for minor infractions, and treating the United States like Fallujah.