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The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

1. Dunes Dunce.
“The Trump administration is opposing a bipartisan plan pending in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate to re-designate the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as a national park,” the Northwest Indiana Times reports.
“While the National Lakeshore already is operated by the National Park Service, supporters of designating the Dunes as a national park say the change would draw significantly more visitors to the lakeshore’s beaches, wetlands, savannahs, sand dunes, hiking trails and recreational facilities, as well as Northwest Indiana hotels and businesses.”


2. Fact Check: Bruce Rauner Is A Fundamentally Dishonest Person.
Will the media ever just come out and state this objective truth? The evidence is way past in. Shouldn’t his problem with the truth be a campaign issue?
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The latest, from AP: No Pritzker Plan To Increase Taxes 26 Percent.
3. Fake Friends.
“One of the biggest supporters of President Donald Trump’s trade policies, according to the president, is the unnamed chief executive officer of a mystery company,” Bloomberg reports.

“I was with one of the greatest companies in the world. The chief executive officer. Very short while ago. And it really affects him,” Trump said at a July 31 campaign rally in Tampa, referring to his controversial use of tariffs. “He said ‘You know what, this does affect our company. But, Mr. President, keep going. You’re doing the right thing.”‘
Trump didn’t identify his supporter, and the White House won’t say who it is. Trade groups representing the largest U.S. businesses and CEOs have almost universally opposed Trump’s disruptive approach to trade. But the person fits a model: an anonymous figure – important and powerful – who invariably supports the president’s position, according to Trump himself.
They are fixtures of Trump’s speeches, defying conventional wisdom and popping up to back the president on issues including prison reform and immigration, in addition to trade. In some cases Trump’s accounts are rebutted by the people he seems to describe. Key details change when he repeats the stories.

Of course, the greatest chronicler of Trump’s lies is Daniel Dale, the Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star. His Twitter feed is one for the history books.
4. Speaking Of Charlatans . . .
“[Elon Musk] is announcing that his Boring Company plans to dig a tunnel to [Dodger Stadium], through which fans would ride in pod-like electric skates,” Wired reports.

The 3.6-mile tunnel would pick up near one of three LA Metro subway stations and run under Sunset Boulevard, ending in the stadium parking lot and making it far easier to take public transit to the game. Fans would pay about a dollar for the four-minute ride, called the Dugout Loop.
This project is just a single tunnel, meaning the service can only run one way at a time. It’ll stage a number of skates at one end and sell tickets with fixed departure times. When fans turn up (hopefully riding the Metro, biking, or walking), they’ll pile into the 8- to 16-passenger pods, which will whisk them through the tunnel. The skates will then be parked at the other end. After the game or concert, they run the other way.
Bookings for seats will be limited to 1,400 people per event at first, about 2.5 percent of stadium capacity.

Look, I don’t want to shit all over innovation and risk. That’s how we move things forward, no pun(ishness) intended. But . . . we can do better than Elon Musk and his electric skates.
5. Senger Agrees Rauner Is ‘Lesser Of Two Evils.’
So is Pritzker.
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
Tribune Lawsuit: Belligerent Sinclair Blew A Sure Thing
“[F]rom virtually the moment the Merger Agreement was signed, Sinclair repeatedly and willfully breached its contractual obligations in spectacular fashion.”
Plus:


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Not Saying John McCain’s Name Is Least Vile Thing About Trump’s Signing Of $717 Billion Military Spending Bill
‘I can’t think of anything that better sums up the moral bankruptcy and cliquishness of DC media than the uniform meltdown over a $717B defense bill – one that codifies funding for Saudis massacre of Yemeni children – not being properly credited to McCain as if that’s the goddamn problem.’
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The Ex-Cub Factor
Transaction Jackson!
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RockRadio.com
At 7:45:36 on Wednesday evening.
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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
Chicago Cat TV Is Almost Here.

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TweetWood
A sampling.


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The Beachwood Tronc Line: Hush money.

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Posted on August 16, 2018