Ivanka's got nothing on Anna

One of the truly unsung heroes in American History is Anna Roosevelt (1906-1975), first child of FDR. In 1943 she moved into the White House during her publisher husband's military duty, where she changed history. She became her dad's personal assistant, also functioning as First Lady during Eleanor's frequent travels. In early 1944, she saved FDR's life, enabling him to soldier on to a fourth term, overseeing the victorious Allied juggernaut, and most importantly, birthing the creation of the UN with England and Russia. In February she realized FDR was rapidly failing. She commandeered his first heart exam by Naval cardiologist, Howard Bruenn, who quickly concluded FDR was dying. No dummy, Roosevelt drastically curtailed his work, eating and smoking habits, determined to preside over first, the end to WWII, then the birth of the UN. He almost made it; showing immense vitality to win his fourth term that November, then paving the path to the UN at Yalta in February, 1945, two months before expiring. Anna almost certainly added a year to FDR's life and many contributions to the American Story.

Seventy-three years later another devoted daughter appears to be reprising the role Anna played. Ivanka Trump is filling in for her stepmom Melania, the Slovenian born fashion model who simply doesn't fit the First Lady image and and apparently won't even move into the White House. When Melania served as glittering eye candy for the rapacious business mogul Trump, she was just fine. Enter Ivanka who has the charm and grace Trump needs to burnish his sputtering presidential image.

The contrast between Anna and Ivanka couldn't be more stark. Anna extended FDR's life a year, critically maintaining continuity in both war and peace. And Ivanka? Her main task is to put lipstick on a pig.

US destroys Yakla: Que the Big Yawn

Do even 3 in 100 Americans know we're engaged in a 2 year long murderous war in Yemen? Maybe a few more do once they learned a US commando was killed and three others injured in a botched US raid that slaughtered 57 civilians and largely leveled the town of Yakla. US officials are frantically searching for evidence we only killed high level al-Qaeda operatives, but turns out it was just the residence of a unimportant collaborator filled with innocents. Why America is both assisting the criminal Saudi war against their desperately poor neighbor Yemen and conducting their own criminal operations is known only to our Masters of War in the Military-Industrial Complex. The clueless Trump came to office oblivious of the carnage which has killed over 25,000 Yemenis and caused starvation of a quarter of their 24,000,000 disparately beleaguered souls. Now he's out front shedding crocodile tears for the American cannon fodder caught up in this madness. The only thread which connects Bush to Obama to Trump is America's murderous export: perpetual war.

An Obama milestone Trump can't match

In 2,922 days as President, Barack Obama never had to cancel a single US event due to threatened protests. And Trump? On day 12 he cancelled planned trip to tout his American First shtick at the Harley Davidson plant in Milwaukee over fears of massive protests. Come to think of it, the meme of his administration is actually: 'Anti-Trumpism First.'

Roskam's 'wild card' missing from political deck

Back in July my congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6) had this to say about Trump: "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." In October Roskam opined: "Trump's comments (on grabbing women's genitals) are disgusting and corrosive"....they fly in the face of every lesson wife Elizabeth and I taught our daughters and sons about how men and women interact. However, this election is a binary choice in which I am choosing to vote for a wild card over an unworthy candidate."

Three months later Roskam's female frisky 'wild card' is president, putting a white nationalist on the National Security Council, defunding foreign efforts to control population, implementing a hideous, unconstitutional ban on Muslims from nations not doing business with the Trump brand; then firing the principled Acting Attorney General for challenging it...for starters.

Now that Roskam has time to 'hear this guy out' as well as see the wreckage he's caused in a week, the press reached out to Roskam, inquiring if he'd join Republican colleague Randy Hultgren who said this about Trump's trampling of the Constitution and presidential power: “We should have our arms open to those who are fleeing oppression and seeking safety, not turning them away at the door.” Alas, Roskam and staff neither answered phone calls or responded to emails. Maybe he's still wading through all that 'flash and dash' to determine what Trump really stands for. Or he's still searching for that 'wild card' which suddenly disappeared from his political deck.

Didn't take long, did it?

On Trump's tenth day as president a US commando along with some women and kids, died in US Yemen attack

Didn't take long for Trump to soak his legacy in the blood of perpetual war. Trump is so clueless, when asked about aiding the Saudis against their imagined enemies in neighboring Yemen, he said we shouldn't be getting involved in wars not in our national self interest; oblivious to the fact we've been aiding the Saudi slaughter there for nearly two years. Since Yemen doesn't have any business deals for Trump to exploit, it isn't on his ravenous radar.

Presidents come and go; Trump's may be the shortest ever at the rate he's defiling the office. But however long it lasts, he'll rack up many needless deaths in American's death spiral of perpetual war.

Atty Gen Lisa call Gov Bruce's bluff

In asking an Illinois court to stop payments to state workers absent a state budget, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has called Gov. Rauner's bluff in his cynical 18 month campaign to degrade the Illinois social safety net in favor of the business elite. Lisa argues such payments are illegal and must stop March 1. If successful, Rauner's ploy to keep the state operating, in spite of drastic cuts to state universities, needy students and non-profit public service providers will end, forcing him to abandon his use of non-budgetary items as extortion in the budgetary process. Rauner touts his efforts as an end to 'business as usual' in Illinois; ignoring that his trick of paying state workers without a budget while stiffing the students, the needy, the powerless, the marginalized, is simply 'business as usual' for a greedy venture capitalist.  

Gov. Rauner provoked an unconscionable crisis for the most vulnerable Illinoisans with his scheme to widen the gap between the haves and have nots. Degrading state services to the needy, stopping critical educational and infrastructure investment, signaling the critically needed capital markets Illinois is not in the game, is a governing catastrophe unprecedented in Illinois history. Rauner has been able to maintain this twisted 18 month long saga through a dubious legal maneuver that pretends Illinois is functioning under a budget when it isn't. The Attorney General's move may finally get the judiciary to pull the plug on the bathtub in which Gov. Rauner is drowning Illinois.