Question of the day
Tuesday, Aug 23, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Donald Trump told Fox News that Chicago’s crime problem was essentially a no-brainer…
On the show, Trump said the Chicago police force does not have “the right people in charge.” […]
“How? By being very much tougher than they are right now. They’re right now not tough. I could tell you this very long and quite boring story. But when I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police. I said, ‘How do you stop this? How do you stop this? If you were put in charge — to a specific person — do you think you could stop it?’ He said, ‘Mr. Trump, I’d be able to stop it in one week.’ And I believed him 100 percent,” Trump said. […]
Trump responded: “All I know is this. I went to a top police officer in Chicago, who is not the police chief, and I could see by the way he was dealing with his people, he was a rough, tough guy. They respected him greatly. … He said, ‘Mr. Trump, within one week, we could stop much of this horror show that’s going on.’”
When pressed, Trump said the officer didn’t say exactly how. “No, and I didn’t ask him because I’m not the mayor of Chicago.”
* The Question: What other problems could Chicago solve in “one week” if they just got “very much tougher than they are right now”? Don’t forget to explain!
- Tom B. - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:15 pm:
We could solve obesity in this City if those Chicago arteries just toughed it out with those beef sandwiches and deep dish pizza.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:18 pm:
===What other problems could Chicago solve in “a week” if they just got “very much tougher than they are right now”?===
The dreaded ketchup on a hot dog…
There are “milleons and milleons” of ketchup bottles at hot dog stands. If Chicago ruled ketchup outlawed, no ketchup on hot dogs.
Ketchup on a hot dog? Be gone in a week, tops.
- Siriusly - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:20 pm:
Education. The teachers just need to be tougher on the students. much much tougher. CPS would be fixed in a week.
- JRTC Fan - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:20 pm:
If they just found a tougher real estate agency they could have the James R Thompson Center sold in one week.
- Winnin' - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:20 pm:
Shortly after I am elected, very shortly, the pensions will be funded 100 %. Believe me.
- Delimma - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:21 pm:
Obviously that weird carp fish could be eradicated if we just got tougher.
- Sue - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:21 pm:
If CPS had tougher negotiators- a contract with no pension pick up
- Albany Park Patriot - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:23 pm:
You could probably do away with the U.S. Constitution in a week. Hell, Trump could do it in a day!
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:23 pm:
It’s like I tell my wife, we just have to keep beating the children and sooner or later they’ll stop bugging us. Clearly we aren’t hitting them hard enough now. We need to do much better.
- Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:23 pm:
It could solve its “inferior fake Blues Brothers” problem by banning Jim Belushi.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:23 pm:
Stoplight cams. If Chicago placed a shotgun guard on one of those high lifeguard chairs at every intersection, running red lights would be solved.
In a week.
- Winnin' - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:25 pm:
In one week, both the Cubs AND the Sox will be in first place, believe me.
- Linus - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:26 pm:
If Chicago were only rougher and tougher, we could finally solve the problems of (Cubs / Sox) fans straying into the (South / North) side of town by building a great wall along the Congress and extending all the way west along the Ike. A big, beautiful wall — and we’ll build it so fast, and so beautifully, it’ll make your head spin. Believe me.
- Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:27 pm:
Could solve the problem of losing jobs to Northern Indiana and Wisconsin in a week by just sending a “bunch of our guys” to beat up both Northern Indiana and Wisconsin.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:29 pm:
Ridding the city of rats. Just have Trump call all his mascots to an auditorium full of Trump 2nd amendment supporters. There may be a little collateral damage and casualties, but the rats would be gone.
- Winnin' - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:29 pm:
In just one week, I’ll pass your Governor’s turnaround agenda, give parents the choice of where they want to send their kids to school, and reopen Meigs Field.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:30 pm:
Give me a week and I can resurrect Richard J. Daley. His zombie corpse would run Chicago like it is Toronto. The problem I see is trying to find the brains he’ll need to stay around longer than a week.
- Winnin' - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:31 pm:
All of the city’s issues can be solved with more money. I will go to the legislature and get a casino license for Trump Tower, the building with my name on it.
- Concerned - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:32 pm:
For the Donald, all issues are “no brainers” as that is what he brings to the table–no brains.
- Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:32 pm:
Our city’s gelato problem could be solved in a week by stationing a bouncer at the allegedly inferior gelato stand who would inform naysayers the same thing my parents used to say to me when I didn’t want to eat something — “you can eat it, or wear it.”
- Earnest - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:32 pm:
Poverty. If you reported that you earned less than the Federal Poverty level last year, you get the death penalty. They’d save expenses with fewer schools, social services less crime, and government benefits such as Medicaid and food stamps.
Aside–well done Trump on utilizing the brilliant “I spoke to _____ and have no details at this time” answer. We’ve finally discovered something that has more magic than beans.
- traveler - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:34 pm:
Triple-decker expressways. That’s how the city gets tough on solving traffic.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:38 pm:
You want the police to release incriminating videos and/or e-mails? Tough.
I think that’s what Trump means.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:39 pm:
Asian Carp in Lake Michigan. Salmon and other native Lake Michigan species need to get tough on illegal fish border crossing. Lake Michigan fish need to protect their borders and build a wall if necessary.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:40 pm:
Ticketing law breaking bicycle riders and jaywalkers. Would solve traffic problems in a week!
- Ok - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:42 pm:
If we started an aggressive downtown bird-shooting program, we would solve the problem of all these birds crashing into buildings. Could be solved in one week.
- AlfondoGonz - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:44 pm:
Traffic congestion on I 90/94 could be fixed, easily, and, I will say, very, very not bigly expensive, in one week if I, and only me, were in charge. Bigly. Believe me folks.
- Tom B. - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:50 pm:
The poop and waste discharge in the Chicago River. Tough it out Chicago, just swim in it.
- JackD - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:50 pm:
“The beatings will continue until morale improves!”
- Casual observer - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:51 pm:
We need to build a water pipeline between Lake Michigan and California. They have tons of money and no water. We have tons of water and no money. It’s a win/win. In a week? Believe me, I know how to build. And California will be happy to pay for it. Trust me.
- cover - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:52 pm:
“I’ll solve the problem of lead in Chicago’s drinking water. I’ll bring in the best alchemists in the country to turn it into gold, believe me.”
BTW, kudos to Bill O’Reilly for putting on a journalist hat last night and persisting in demanding real answers from the Donald. I’ll bet Trump was expecting a more receptive host, such as the commentator-turned-advocate who appears on that network 2 hours later. I’ll bet O’Reilly has lots of hate mail to read through today.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:54 pm:
Concerned: Bingo! ‘No Brainer’ is in his wheelhouse all day long
- Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:57 pm:
“If we started an aggressive downtown bird-shooting program, we would solve the problem of all these birds crashing into buildings. Could be solved in one week.”
If we started an aggressive downtown tourist-shooting program, we would solve the problem of all these tourists wandering aimlessly down the sidewalk in everyone’s way… /s
- Belle - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 2:59 pm:
Snow
Just hang some plastic sheets (like the ones they use on MY building sites, maybe we have some left-over from MY building) from the sky. Then the snow will stay up there.
- Stones - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:01 pm:
In pretty sure a tougher manager would have the Sox playing better baseball.
- Amalia - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:02 pm:
one week, heck with Trump’s power it could be done just by him shouting it out. rainbows will fly out of his whatever and Jesus and he who shall not be named will skip down state street singing New York New York.
- Ducky LaMoore - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:05 pm:
No brainer! Get tough on Southpaw. Ribbie and Roobarb can give him, you know, a little ‘talk’. Maybe they will bomb the s*** out of him. He’ll have blood coming out of his wherever. And in one week, the Sox will be in the World Series. Make the White Sox great again! If we don’t do this, we aren’t gonna have a country anymore, folks.
- Southern Dawg - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:05 pm:
If they hired a tougher manager now…the White Sox would be in the playoffs in Oct. But they gotta hire the tough guy NOW!
- Ghost - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:08 pm:
CPS schools could be fixed in 1 week if they got tougher on taxes and stopped cutting trump towers a tax break….
- Been There - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:10 pm:
Heck, I could solve our crime problem in a week too. Of course the hundreds of millions we have paid out in settlements because the police were trying to do just that would turn into billions.
- Groucho - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:12 pm:
By the time I win the election on November 1, 2016, I will have motivated the Cubs to win a World Series. A no brainer.
- Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:13 pm:
All these foreign immigrants coming into town.
We must build a YUUUUGGGEEE wall around the city limits.
Oh, and let Springfield pay for it.
- A guy - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:23 pm:
I think the Smelt fishing season only lasts a week.
- blue dog dem - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:23 pm:
One big-big problem I would solve in Chicago in 24 hrs Is the asking for ID’s of people age 71 or above. On my upcoming farewell tour, several of us blue hairs( and no-hairs) will be getting a few drinks. Anybody who cards me will be immediately shut down. Zero tolerance for stupidity.
- Lil Squeezy - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:26 pm:
Rats. Whatever the city uses is not tough enough. But you know Rahm or Obama has something sitting around that could kill these rats in 6 days! Now why do you think they do not want to kill the rats? Very suspicious! Sad!
- Way South of I-80 - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:29 pm:
Sorry - I just have to say that I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time!
- PublicServant - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:52 pm:
Build 4 walls connected at the corners and make the bad guys pay for them Drop the bad guys inside. No food. No water. Yep,…should take about a week. Oh yeah. First, disregard the constitution. It’ll work. Ok? Believe me.
- Wensicia - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:54 pm:
Just get rid of all smart phone cameras, officer cameras, red light cameras, and any other outdoor cameras, then Rahm Emanuel’s poll numbers will jump sky high in favorability ratings in one week!
- Gooner - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:55 pm:
Given that all politics is local, the most pressing need in my area is softball fields in the local park.
If police just got very much tougher on beer consumption in the park, the presence of softball fields would become irrelevant in one week.
- RNUG - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:55 pm:
== Stoplight cams. If Chicago placed a shotgun guard on one of those high lifeguard chairs at every intersection, running red lights would be solved. ==
Think big. Charge sportsmen for the opportunity to bag red light runners. Ot only would you solve the problem at zero cost, you would actually generate some revenue. Win-Win!
- Huh? - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:58 pm:
Crowds on the lakefront trails and sidewalks. Tough love - run over the slow poke in front of you.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 3:58 pm:
There might be something to this - I remember one of the cops from East St. Louis telling me that the cops in Brooklyn IL had a reputation for “knocking heads” and keeping mischief-makers outta there. I guess they were preserving the sanctity of all the strip clubs.
- The Fool On The Hill - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:01 pm:
=I went to a top police officer in Chicago=
And we wonder why we have problems with the CPD.
- SOIL M - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:02 pm:
You know the State of IL has a big problem with Democrats. But I could solve that in one week. Build a wall around Chicago and keep them all there. And we will make them pay for it too. The Limousine Liberals got the money we will make them pay for the wall. And it will be big. We make sure Madigan and all the people he controls are in the city then we wall them all in
- @misterjayem - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:04 pm:
If Chicagoans got very much tougher than they are right now, everybody would appreciate the manly wisdom of the manly man John Kass and the Tribune’s circulation problems would be fixed in one week.
– MrJM
- retired guy - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:15 pm:
Here’s a revenue generator…..write tickets at the O’Hara toll gate entrance off the expressway where people park on the side of the road instead of taking 2 minutes more and going to the cell lot. I must see 50 vehicles parked on the area of the toll booth and many more on the side of the roads leading the terminals.
- BBG Watch - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:30 pm:
You guys having me laughing my butt off. I needed that today!
- Amalia - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:31 pm:
This is for Gooner….Arsenal. Donald Trump can fix Arsenal in a week. Messi will arrive, Mertesacker will be miraculously healed and actually able to play (for those who know, M’s play was always suspect), the fans will actually chant all the time, and the team will find their own song. If City’s fans can appropriate Palace’s Glad All Over as Guardiola, we can appropriate too. and not I’m forever blowing games…..Trump can turn the red and white to the gaudy gold.
- Fred - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:32 pm:
@ Linus
===If Chicago were only rougher and tougher, we could finally solve the problems of (Cubs / Sox) fans straying into the (South / North) side of town by building a great wall along the Congress and extending all the way west along the Ike. A big, beautiful wall — and we’ll build it so fast, and so beautifully, it’ll make your head spin. Believe me. ====
And the Cards will pay for it all.
It will be so beautiful.
- blue dog dem - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:39 pm:
Bring back the paddle with the holes drilled into it…..
- Sangamo Sam - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:39 pm:
Chicago could stop allowing names in yuuuuge tacky font on the sides of buildings in one week if they were very much tougher than they are right now. Sad!
- blue dog dem - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:41 pm:
….the belt might be a bit over the top.
- Biker - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:41 pm:
Legalization: http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs-the-grass-gap-racial-disparities-in-pot-enforcement/
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:45 pm:
Now, if he could just fix the Chicago Bears.
- Seymourkid - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:45 pm:
Easy answers to difficult problems are always suspicious. I’m
- Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:48 pm:
Anyone have an idea how we could apply this concept to Illini athletics?
- WhoKnew - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:52 pm:
“The beatings will continue until morale improves!”
Sounds good JackD, but the beatings would have to be tougher using a HHHUUUUUGGGEEE paddle with holes!
- Dutch3001 - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 4:59 pm:
Chicago’s problems with all those “downstate” communities like Hoffman Estates and Barrington that don’t like it. I would build a “Game of Thrones” type wall around the city in a week, tops, to cut them of and keep them from coming to Cubs games. It’ll be HUGE!>
- just askin - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 5:34 pm:
Forgive the redundancy (commented on earlier post but relevant to this one too) but ever since the McDonald fiasco, CPD and the mayor have their hands tied in a Gordian knot. That leaves parts of Chicago a war zone. But the Gov can do something others can’t. Why not bring in the National Guard? Just askin…
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 6:29 pm:
One week
Video poker in every Chicago tavern
Tons of dough for schools…cops
Casinos in Indiana fold
And you night not need bigbrain’s tax hike
- Harvest76 - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 7:28 pm:
Lake effect snow. They got the wrong weather reporters up there. They need to get tough with that wind and cold and quit being weak.
- Property of IDOC - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 8:52 pm:
Wonder who the FOP will be endorsing???
- Juvenal - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 9:01 pm:
Organized crime.
If Chicago would just get tougher, like New York City and New Jersey, they could put an end to all the chaos and get crime organized again in Chicago in just one week.
Believe me.
- Just Me - Tuesday, Aug 23, 16 @ 9:17 pm:
All of political corruption and dysfunction would go away if we just had term limits.
- The Fool On The Hill - Wednesday, Aug 24, 16 @ 9:44 am:
Go away Just Me, you troll.
- fed up - Wednesday, Aug 24, 16 @ 9:47 am:
I’m not sure about tougher, but maybe Chicago could go easier on Trump. His welcome to UIC could have been more cordial.