by Frank Holmes, reporter
The media always present the Democrats as the party of the little guy, the protector of the poor, the guardian of the homeless—but a court case involving former President Barack Obama just put the big lie to that.
A group of advocates for the poor have waged a years-long legal battle to stop Barack Obama from building the Obama Presidential Center on the grounds of a city park that’s a meeting place for poor people and “home” to some of the city’s large homeless population.
But a federal judge—who was nominated by Barack Obama—just ruled against them.
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U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakely, whom Obama named to the bench in 2014, sided with the wealthy and powerful, swatting down the poor in a one-page ruling last Thursday.
“This Court finds that Plaintiffs have not met the standard for injunctive relief,” he said, with no explanation.
That’s a big win for his old boss: Crews will start laying down roads through the park and prepping the way for the Obama Presidential Center to be built starting next Monday, August 16.
The center’s groundbreaking will follow in September. But it won’t be open to the public until about 2025.
Defenders of the gargantuan, four-building complex—larger and more expensive than any other presidential library that exists today—have a simple explanation why people oppose this: They’re racist.
“Supporters of the Jackson Park location have accused the activists of trying to thwart a project meant to honor America’s first black president,” according to a report in Politico.
But that’s going to be a hard sell, since the groups opposing Obama’s Pantheon to himself include Black Youth Project 100, the Poor People’s Campaign, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and the Chicago Jobs Council.
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The city’s grassroots activists and community organizers say that the Obama Presidential Center’s plan is Robin Hood in reverse: It robs taxes and a community gathering place from the poor and gives it to the rich. Barack Obama, who just partied down with a few hundred friends at his exclusive Martha’s Vineyard beach home, has an estimated net worth of $70 million.
It’s a little fishy that the Obama Foundation plans to raise $1 billion in donations for the $700 million facility.
But it’s already got a leg up—thanks to the taxpayers of Illinois and Chicago. Gov. J.B. Pritzker bragged back in April that the state had donated $174 million of “investment” in the project.
And Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the Chicago City Council—which probably has other programs that could use the money—donated $200 million to prepare the work.
Not only do the poor have to get pushed out of their community, but they have to pay for the privilege.
Lightfoot says the presidential center will turn the South Side of Chicago into “a world-class economic and cultural hub”…but the locals are skeptical.
“These are not the best ways to use public funds to invest in the future of Chicago,” a group of professors, who stand with the community organizers and poor, wrote back in 2018.“This is a socially regressive plan.”
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Obama and his cronies said the people of Chicago love him and can’t wait for him to open his shrine to himself.
“We know many in the city and community are eager for us to continue our work to bring jobs and investment to the South Side and the ruling allows us to do just that,” said an unnamed spokeswoman for the Obama Foundation.
They also thanked the local powers-that-be who testified that they wanted the center to open. “We have appreciated the voices of the many leaders who weighed in on this issue with the court to move the (Obama) center forward as the city focuses on its recovery efforts and steps to build a more inclusive economy.”
The Obama Presidential Center promised 5,000 jobs—but the professors who looked at the plan say it won’t even come close to that.
That’s why the group behind the lawsuit, Protect Our Parks, isn’t backing down, saying that it “will review the full opinion and explore all available options, including immediately filing an appeal and seeking relief from the appellate court.”
But the latest court decision makes it hard for POP to win.
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You can’t fight City Hall, much less Obama’s Midwestern White House.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”