A year late...Rauner does the right thing

Kudos to IL governor Bruce Rauner for finally signing the motor voter bill first approved a year ago. Rauner vetoed it by hoisting up the tired Republican canard it would lead to voter fraud, without offering a smidgen of proof. Rauner must have experienced projection, blaming Democrats for the very real Republican voter fraud, including Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach's infamous cross check scheme that has dis-enfranchised hundreds of thousands, if not a million or more voters nationwide, and those equally horrible Republican voter ID laws. Rauner may be reading his declining poll numbers ahead of his 2018 re-election bid and figures he can't afford to alienate any more sensible folks who wholeheartedly support automatic voter registration. I doubt Rauner looks forward to increased voter registration. Promoting more democracy and inclusiveness is not in his DNA. But at the end the day all that matters is he took Spike Lee's advise...and did the right thing.

Gobbledygook

My congressman Peter Roskam offered this bit of undecipherable nonsense on the white supremacist riot in Charlottesville. 

“Everybody that is looking at this past several days just scratches their heads and says good grief. That said, you operate in the environment in which you’re operating. We could prefer this, that or the other thing, but wishing it doesn’t make it happen.”

Vintage Roskam; trying desperately to sound like a wise public servant but simply stringing random words together that make no sense and offer no value. Roskam should leave the 'good griefs' to Charley Brown. For a quarter million a year in salary and bennies, we taxpayers deserve much better from our congressman. 

Roskam urges Trump to stop communicating with racists, xenophobes and bullies

Addressing several suburban chambers of commerce in Palatine Wednesday, my congressman Peter Roskam urged Trump to "put down his Twitter account". His real message to Trump was to stop communicating with the racists, xenophobes and bullies who gave him a narrow electoral victory last November. He's concerned Trump's daily dose of red meat fear and loathing against anti fascists, the press, even his own Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell and Jeff Flake, are causing his "struggling" with his legislative agenda. 

When Roskam says "We’ve got a health care system that really needs a lot of attention", he's referring to Trump's goal of stripping health care from 22 million over the next decade, allowing over 200,000 unnecessary deaths.  

When he says we have "a tax code that's desperately broken" he's definitely not promoting the rich pay their fair share. Tax reform is simply, 'wink, wink', tax cuts for the already rich.   

Though he's fluent in English, Roskam should only speak publicly with an interpreter so those outside his shrinking base of ultra conservatives will known exactly what he means. 

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn