COD Trustee Wars Episode Five: McGuire's Empire strikes again!

For the fifth time in five weeks College of DuPage Trustee Dianne McGuire led her three person Board faction to boycott a Board meeting, continuing shutdown of College of DuPage governance. Bills are not being paid. Academic programs are on hold. New new hires are going forward; tenure decisions remain in limbo. Worst of all, the Board is paralyzed in its most critical mission: complying with the Higher Learning Commission's (HLC) requirements to get COD off academic probation which endangers their academic accreditation.

The crowd of about a hundred community residents once again called for McGuire, as well as Erin Birt and Joe Wozniak, to resign or be charged with official misconduct. Acting Board Chair Deanne Mazzochi reiterated her plea at last week's two boycotted meetings that COD's urgent business cannot go forward without the Boycott Three's involvement; welcoming them to return at the next meeting without rancor or recrimination.

Besides boycotting all COD Board meetings, McGuire's Boycott Three are boycotting their sworn duty to pick a replacement for former Board member Kathy Hamilton. Though 28 local residents have applied for the seventh trustee spot, McGuire has written to the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) stating her faction will not work with the three working Board members to pick Hamilton's replacement, leaving the decision to an outsider, Acting ICCB Chair Laz Lopez.

Sometimes silence is not golden. McGuire and company's silence tonight spoke load and clear about their disdain and disrespect for public service, the College, students, faculty and taxpayers.

Not lead, but Rauner's drip, drip, drip of austerity still toxic

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is getting national attention since the scandal over changing Flint's water supply from Lake Huron Pure to Flint River Lead. That represented a feather in Gov. Snyder's austerity cap, saving Michigan a cool $15 million. Alas, Flint River Lead, besides looking like molasses, began poisoning Flint residents two years ago as it leached lead from water pipes into fragile bodies of unsuspecting Flintites.

While not well publicized outside the Land of Lincoln, there's a form of toxic leaching going on here that deserves national attention. It's the leaching of the budget austerity that Gov. Bruce Rauner has imposed on us 13 million Illinoisans, poisoning the lives of the needy being denied basic services they depend on to lead a semblance of a decent life. Whether its cutbacks to help for sufferers of autism or day care for low wage workers unable to afford this basic need, Gov. Rauner is holding them all hostage to his refusal to provide a budget with sufficient revenue till the legislature passes his non-budgetary priorities to diminish workers rights, wages and dignity.

Gov. Snyder has launched an apology tour to extricate himself from having to resign or even possibly hire a defense attorney to defend against criminal misconduct against the hapless residents of Flint. Don't expect an apology tour from Gov. Rauner. He's just a year in to his four year hitch leaching heartless insensitivity into the lives of Illinois's needy.

When the Cubs struck the World Series

2016 marks 108 years since the Cubs won the 1908 World Series, their last. While many excuses have been offered - bad players, inept management, even the curse of Sam Siannis' goat, expelled from a 1945 World Series game at Wrigley though his teeth clenched a valid ticket, one factor haunting Cubs futility has been overlooked: the strike they joined in with the Red Sox during the 1918 Series.

1918 was possibly the most tumultuous in baseball history. With World War I raging, it looked like upwards of 80% of major leaguers would be drafted. Congress passed a law stating all fit men must fight or work in the war industry. Baseball big-wigs weren't able to convince authorities that entertaining war-weary citizens qualified as war work. Many players, including White Sox star Shoeless Joe Jackson, headed for the shipyards which used them mainly to play on company teams. Uncle Sam finally relented, letting the Bigs keep playing till September 1; then allowing another exemption for the World Series, featuring our Cubbies versus the Red Sox. All hell broke loose when the league, suffering reduced attendance from a shortened season, told the two champs they'd get a greatly reduced Series share, dropping from $2,000 and $1,400, to $1,400 and $800 respectively, for the winners and losers. One the train to Boston for game 5, Cubs and Sox players huddled up and planned to lobby the National Commission, which ruled the game, for their full expected share. Brusquely turned down, both teams refused to take the field before a full Fenway crowd, including many wounded vets, at game time. A drunk American League president Ban Johnson cajoled the players to end their strike after one hour on the promise to re-instate their expected pay and not punish them. The game went on with the Cubs losing (of course) to the BoSox in six. Afterwards, the players got even less than the original paltry payoff promised and were denied the World Series medals (1918's version of WS rings) they deserved.

Maybe it's simply coincidence or truly bad Karma, but neither team won another World Series for 86 years. The Red Sox have now won two. And our Cubbies? With Cub fever 108 and rising, don't expect a big parade down Addison Street this October.

US should apologize for Operation TP-AJAX

With the nuclear deal and emerging diplomatic baby steps between the US and Iran, it might be useful for the US to officially apologize to Iran for Operation TP-AJAX. That was the joint US-British led coup that deposed Iran's legitimate ruler Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq in August, 1953. The Brits conceived the coup in 1952 and presented it to 'Give 'Em Hell' Harry Truman, who told the Brits to go to Hell. A year later newbie Prez Ike greenlighted TP-AJAX to allow Britain to grab back its Iranian oil monopoly nationalized by elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq. For Ike, it was a chance to make his bones as a bonafide anti communist, due to Mosaddeq's unwillingness to crush Iranian communist influence. Leading this first official CIA coup against a foreign leader who wouldn't do our bidding was TR's grandson Kermit Roosevelt, following a family tradition of senseless and bellicose militarism. Our hand picked successor was Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, son of the first Pahlavi monarch Reza Shah Pahlavi. His reluctance and indecision almost wrecked Uncle Sam's best laid plans, but our CIA Iranian operatives, masquerading as commies, shed enough blood to turn the tide against Mosaddeq. The Shah ruled Iran for another 26 years, with his CIA trained secret police killing many thousands who dared speak out against his tyrannical rule.

The CIA, emboldened by their success, toppled the Guatemalan government a year later and were on a roll till their insane 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco led us down a torturous path of anti Cuba machinations which nearly got us all vaporized a year later.

The next time someone chirps Iran is our enemy because of the 1979 hostage crisis, tell them about 1953. And while at it, request they support a US apology to Iran for it as well.

Is Roskam least informed 6th District resident on Iran nuke deal?

Already becoming old news, the groundbreaking 5+1 nuclear deal with Iran has somehow escaped, in this internet age of instantaneous communication, my congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6). Search 'Iran' at his websitewww.roskam.house.gov and find only stale posts, up to two years old, pondering how to sabotage this now done deal that removes Iran's nuclear ambitions along with war as the only alternative to no deal. Two of the first eight posts are Roskam op eds in the Times of Israel, Roskam's first choice for publishing anti Obama, anti Iran detente hit pieces in furtherance of Israel's foreign policy of war with Iran...led by the good 'ol USA. The Iran agreement further cements President Obama's legacy as a transformational leader achieving peace and stability in a troubled world in spite of Roskam's endless fearmonger which, if followed, would only lead to more war. If they weren't so pathetic, the titles of Roskam's anti Iran detente posts would provoke laughter:

Roskam Op-Ed in Times of Israel: 60 Days to Sink the Iran Deal

Broken Promises: Clinton ’94 on North Korea v. Obama ’15 on Iran

Roskam: Time to End Nonsensical Nuclear Talks with Iran

Roskam: All Talk, No Progress on Iran Nuclear Deal

Roskam Blasts Final Nuclear Agreement with Iran

I called Congressman Roskam's office to request he take down these irresponsible posts and acknowledge the Iran agreement which makes this dangerous world a little bit safer for ourselves, our children and their future generations. So can you at 630 232 0006.