Modern...and not so good Olympics ushered in 80 years ago this month

I lost interest in the Olympics back in the 50's when they were hyped as one more contest in the death struggle between communism and capitalism; Russia versus the US. What nonsense. The Olympics have always been tied to mindless nationalism. The ancient Olympics were held at Olympia every 4 years from 776 BC to 393 AD. They were used by the Greek city-states to assert dominance over one another and spread Hellenistic influence throughout the Mediterranean. The modern Olympics, restarted in Athens in 1896, were modest affairs run on shoestring budgets and relatively devoid of nationalistic bravado through the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.

That changed forever eighty years ago with Olympiad XI held in Berlin. Awarded the games in 1931, during the Wiemar government, Germany changed course under Hitler, determined to use the games to promote the Nazi ideal and inevitability of their future world conquest. Lavishly financed and first to be broadcast and televised, Hitler also commissioned Leni Riefenstahl to document them in likely the greatest sports documentary ever, albeit to further the Nazi cause. Riefenstah's 'Olympiad' forever set the model and tone for sports documentaries, still a stunning view eighty years later.

But Hitler and his Nazi thugs almost lost the games twice in '34 and '35 when their virulent racism and antisemitism sparked threats of boycotts. The first effort followed the Nazi's demand that no blacks and no Jews compete. American Nazi enabler Avery Brundage, head of the US Olympic Committee, met with Nazis and Jewish athletes, reporting back 'no problem here' when Hitler caved on other country's use of Jewish and black athletes. The Fuhrer even allowed a Jewish token on the German fencing team, one Helene Mayer, whose Nordic stature made everyone pretend she was a pure Aryan. Brundage came back charging it was simply American Jewish communists who were agitating for an unnecessary boycott. In a close vote, the US Amateur Athletic Association voted to attend and US participation was secured.

A record number of countries and athletes descended upon Berlin for the August 1 opening event, not seeing the Gypsies who'd been shuffled off to local concentration camps or 'no Jews allowed' signs taken down for the duration.

American blacks were gung ho for the games to show their prowess in one of few avenues of achievement open to them..and they didn't disappoint. Jesse Owens' 4 Gold in Track became an iconic Olympic moment, making Hitler sputter about America's 'black auxiliaries'. But Owens didn't spoil Der Fuhrer's party as Germany crushed runner up US in medals 89 to 56, with Hungary a distant third with 16.

Best thing about the '36 Olympic? Berlin's Jews got velvet glove treatment for about nine months up to and during the Big Show. Best thing about the current Rio Olympics? They're not in Chicago.

Fox News tweaks tag line

It's now: 'Feral and Unbalanced'

Malia's twerking has nothing on 'Nightmare' Alice Roosevelt

Anyone concerned Malia Obama's twerking at Chicago's Lollapalooza upset the presidential father can rest easy. Only one prez suffered angst with daughter hi-jinks and that was 115 years ago when TR gave up the ghost controlling 'Nightmare' Alice, his first daughter born two days before her namesake mom suddenly died. Alice described herself in later life as a hedonist who experienced shear rapture upon President Bill McKinley's 1901 assassination propelling TR and Alice to the White House, where Alice became an instant celebrity and fashion icon for her beauty, charisma and outlandish behavior. For starters Alice smoked in public, rode in cars with boys and partied late into the evening. At home she placed bets with bookies and was so mad at leaving to make room for the Tafts, she buried a voodoo doll of Nellie Taft in the front lawn. Banned from the White House by both the Taft and Wilson administrations, she only got back in when her friend, new First Lady Florence Harding, arrived in 1921. Alice married playboy congressman and future House Speaker Nick Longworth in 1905 but her only child Paulina was fathered by her longtime lover and famous isolationist senator William Borah. Alice was one of the greatest wits ever, sabotaging Tom Dewey's '44 and '48 White House runs with the complaint Dewey looked like 'the little groom on the wedding cake."

Unlike Obama, who can both run the country and relate to his daughter, TR sighed, "I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both."

Trump's racism, xenophobia, misogyny just 'flash and dash' to Roskam

My congressman Peter Roskam sure is coy...and clever when it comes to dodging important moral public issues affecting our country. For months he's dodged any mention of the mendacious faux Republican Donald Trump who hijacked the Republican presidential nomination by appealing to the groundswell of angry Republican voters dismayed by eight years of Democratic governance of inclusiveness, fairness and economic progress, lifting up the needy and uninsured. They're furious Democrats extended the American Dream to young immigrant dreamers; given gays the right to marry and transgenders the right us the restrooms of their sex. But besides fueling the hate and fear and ignorance of those disaffected outliers, Trump has trampled on every precept of simple human decency; mocking a disabled reporter, war heroes, Gold Star families, Muslims, Mexicans; even obliquely referencing a female reporter's menstrual cycle as the cause of her tough questioning.

Roskam was one of a handful of Illinois Republicans who disgraced the party by not boycotting the toxic stew of fear and loathing Trump served up at the Republican Convention; arguably the ugliest and darkest acceptance speech extant. Afterwards, Roskam finally commented publicly on The Donald, telling WGN "I do think time is Donald Trump's friend. I think people are saying... alright, I'm ready to hear this guy out, see what he has got to say with the flash and dash aside."

Roskam got both points dead wrong in that disingenuous soundbite. In a democracy, time is never a friend to an authoritarian and demagogue like Trump, where the essentially decent electorate has the time to see, hear and reject mendacious behavior. And racism, xenophobia, misogyny and grotesque insults are not 'flash and dash'. They're a defilement of the American character.

You'll never hear a ringing Roskam endorsement for Trump; just pablum like 'flash and dash' and the 'friend of time' to keep the legion of Trump and Roskam supporters in line till Trump is a distant memory.

Trib discovers 'blowback'...fifteen years too late

It's nearly fifteen years since the US 'war on terror' conquered or destabilized seven countries in the Middle East and Africa, killing hundreds of thousands, including 7,000 GI's, and the Tribune Editorial Board finally gets we're suffering from murderous 'blowback', revenge attacks throughout the West. Their latest commercial for perpetual war, 'Will defeating Islamic State unleash a terrorist diaspora in the West' quotes FBI Director James Comey that "At some point we're going to see a terrorist diaspora (dispersion of terrorists)...we've never seen before."

Actually, the terrorist diaspora is already occurring as the Trib points out in the only fact they got right, with new 'lone wolf' attacks attributed to Islamic State revenge occurring weekly in Europe the Homeland. Yet, the Trib says regardless of how many and murderous these revenge attacks are, we must press on to wipe out Islamic State so these attacks disappear forever. That delusional nonsense is simply parroting our failed US military which says increased terrorist attacks in the West 'prove' we're winning the war on Islamic State. Reality check dear Trib Editorial Board propagandists: Every bomb we drop, every innocent we kill, inspires more blowback from Islamic State sympathizers around the world. Pretending that millions of bombs can wipe them all out without inspiring new recruits is madness....and you know it.

Islamic State has never posed an existential treat to the US requiring us to unleash endless bombing. We must end all bombing not related to crushing specific planned attacks against the West. Virtually none of current bombing involves that. It's simply taking sides in a civil that the local peoples there have to resolve. But the Trib Editorial Board understands, in their twisted vision of reality, that 'war is the health of the state', fueling the Military-Industrial Complex to greater power, glory and wealth. The Trib ends by saying that no matter how many of us die from terrorist blowback, it will be worth it when we win. Bunk. There is no victory from perpetual war, which inspires replacements, and lone wolf attacks here, as fast as we blow innocents to bits over there.

The Trib Editorial Board understands this truth. But when you've got a 15 year history promoting endless and failed war, it's tough to say, "Oops, sorry, we've been wrong all along."