Here’s the REAL Olympic Gold!

You can’t make this stuff up! Rio 2016 head arrested for corruption. He had 16 gold bars worth almost $2 million!

Can you imagine the corruption, waste and debt that would’ve piled up by a Chicago Olympics??

No Games Co-Founder Tells Like It Was (and Is)

From WBEZ-FM Chicago Public Radio’s Worldview program from July 19, 2016 (35 minutes):

2016 Bid Still Costing Us – BIG Time

Tom Tresser was asked to weigh in on the ongoing costs of the 2016 Olympic bid. Mayor Daley demolished the Michael Reese Hospital site in 2009 in an effort to impress the IOC. That will end up costing us as much as $150 million!

Olympic Struggle of London 2012 Resisters

From The Red Pepper, a UK publication. “Resistance to the 2012 Olympics has been widespread and under-reported, starting with London’s bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the Games back in 2004. Protests are planned to continue through to after the sporting events finish, in order to challenge the ‘legacy’ of a corporate spectacle. Many of the campaigns have organised around local issues, but the range of tactics has been impressive and has often strengthened community organising on issues beyond the Games.”

Read the full story. Our hearts go out to our colleagues in the UK who fought so hard, for so long. You were right.

No Games Story Told In Depth

Tom talked about the story and strategy behind the No Games campaign at the College of Complexes. This video is divided into three sections – the first part is the story and is about 45 minutes. The second is questions from the audience. The third is mostly unrelated to the No Games narrative.

No Games Chicago Story Told – Secrets Revealed!

All of 30 people made it to The Experimental Station Tuesday night to hear No Games organizers Bob Quellos and Tom Tresser reveal the story behind the “Battle for the Bid.” A conversation was at least started about what lessons for civic Chicago can be taken from the bid process and the opposition to it.

Jamie Kalven introduces Tom and Bob.

Listen to the story by clicking here and going to Evoca.com (49 minutes).

Coverage of the event:

• University of Chicago Weekly
• Lakefront Outlook – download pdf

Reader Columnist: “Dear IOC…”

By Ben Joravsky, from today’s Chicago Reader, “One last argument for why Chicago doesn’t need, want, or deserve the games.”

It’s been almost six months since I last wrote to encourage you not to award Chicago the 2016 games. Back then, as you recall, I was welcoming some of you to town for your official visit. Now, of course, you’re in Copenhagen, preparing to announce on October 2 which city they’ll be held in—Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo, or Rio.

I don’t want Chicago to “win” for the reasons I mentioned last time: we can’t afford the games, and they’ll tear up our parks. But let’s talk about your needs. I urge you, for your own sake: spare yourself the cost overruns, backroom deals, political wrangling, embarrassing scandals, and ugly headlines a Chicago Olympics would almost certainly bring you.

Let me explain.

Let him explain…

2016 Orders Anti-Bid News Report Cancelled

From the Drudge Report:

FOX-TV CHICAGO ORDERED NOT TO RUN ANTI-OLYMPICS STORY
Sun Sep 27 2009 21:56:11 ET

A local TV station that reported on Chicagoans NOT wanting the Olympics has been told NOT to run the report again, insiders tell the DRUDGE REPORT!

The Chicago Olympic Committee told FOX Chicago that its broadcast "would harm Chicago's chances" to be awarded the games. The station's news director ordered staff to hold fire after the report aired once last Thursday morning, claims a source.

Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio are mounting strong bids for the honor to host in 2016. The International Olympic Committee makes its decision on Friday. President Obama will lead the in-person push.

Watch the offending news report from Fox Chicago News.

Sportswriter for Nation Lays It Out – “No Games For Chicago!”

Watch this video where Nation magazine sports editor and columnist, Dave Zirin, lays out the history of the modern Olympics and explains why bringing the 2016 games to Chicago would be a disaster.

Nation Sports Writer: Olympics in Chicago Would Be “Obama’s Folly”

David Zirin is The Nation’s sports editor. He writes about Chicago’s bid in his September 22 column:

Recently Barack Obama criticized planned protests at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh because, as he knew from his Chicago days, “focusing on concrete, local, immediate issues that have an impact on people’s lives is what really makes a difference and…having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally, is not really going to make much of a difference.”

Well, on September 29 at Chicago’s City Hall a protest will take place that will focus on a “concrete, local, immediate issue,” putting the protesters across the barricades from Barack and Michelle Obama as well as the all-powerful Democratic political machine of the city. The issue is the 2016 Olympic bid and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s political pact with the Obamas to see the Games come to the Windy City. Mayor Daley, rocking a 35 percent approval rating, says that the Games would be “a huge boost to our economy, raising it to a new level. The Games will help us recover sooner from the recession that still grips our nation and enable us to better compete in the global economy.”

There is only one problem with this argument: the history of the Olympic Games almost without exception brands it as a lie.