Roskam's 80% solution for the 1%

My congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6) supports the GOP tax plan that takes care of the GOP and Roskam's real base as legislators: the upper 1%. The non-partisan Tax Policy Center has taken a peek and reports that 80% of the trillions in tax cuts over the next decade go to this tiny, favored elite while blowing a gigantic hole in the deficit. But there are few in any one-percenters in Roskam's IL Sixth District, heavily populated by solid Republican voters in the 80th to 90th income percentile.They should cease doing cartwheels over envisioned tax cuts because the GOP-Roskam plan raises taxes on 60% of them in the form of eliminated deductions in the guise of 'tax simplification.' That's the GOP-Roskam tax plan: simply dreadful.

 

4 of 435 Congressmen a start

Four congressman introduced House Concurrent Resolution 81 to end US war crimes in support of Saudi war crimes against the Saudis' pitiful neighbor Yemen. The Saudis attacked the Shi'ite Houthis who took power in 2015 and has killed thousands of civilians with bombs and a blockade that has infected millions with cholera and starvation...all with the help of US WCD (weapons of civilian destruction), logistical support, even mid-air refueling of high flying Saudi people killers. “We aim to restore Congress as the constitutionally mandated branch of government that may declare war and retain oversight over it” is how Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) pitch the resolution sure to be quashed by the vast majority of the other 431 congressmen who take their voting orders from the war party. The resolution is bi-partisan; the other two sponsors are Tom Massie (R-KY) and Walter Jones (R-NC). Obama signed on to unauthorized US war crimes upon pleas for help from our best WCD Saudi Arabia two years ago, and Trump has increased US war crimes there as he's done in the other 6 countries in the Middle East and Africa we're defiling with our bombs and special ops. Congress loves it that way...they keep their fingerprints off the war crimes and can blame the president if things go badly for Uncle Sam. Let's hope enough congressmen join these courageous four to stand up for peace and an end to the madness of perpetual war and the crimes our government commits with our tax dollars. 

What's the price?

We know what the price is for squandering $600,000 on private jets to avoid the cattle cars of commercial flights as a cabinet official. But what, we wonder, is the price for squandering the lives of some of the millions suffering in Puerto Rico from insensitivity and incompetence?

Is Ives' imaginary friend inspiring possible Rauner challenge?

Wheaton State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-42) has an imaginary friend, God, who apparently is influencing her pronouncements and policy as an Illinois legislator. He whispers in her ear that gay marriage is 'disordered' and that gays are 'trying to weasel their way into acceptability so that they can then start to push their agenda down into the schools, because this gives them some sort of legitimacy... and we can't allow that to happen.' When gay marriage became the law of the land Ives pivoted, listening again to her imaginary friend who told her that school officials supporting transgender rights are 'like dirty old men in trench coats lying in wait to expose children to sordid things.' He went on to tell her 'Christians must exit government schools,' encouraging Christian parents to pull their children out of public schools as the battle by some against transgender bathroom rights is waged. Furthermore, 'no Christian should teach in an institution that requires them to facilitate the body- and soul-destroying fiction that humans can be born in the 'wrong' body.' He also tells Ives to oppose giving vital reproductive health care to poor women because it violates His concept of the sanctity of life, irregardless of the damage it does to Their sanctity of life. Apoplectic that Governor Rauner signed desperately needed legislation giving women in need the same access to reproductive health Ives and her wealthy base takes for granted, Ives' imaginary friend may now be dropping hints she is His chosen one to oppose Governor Rauner's re-election bid.

Ives has every right to an imaginary friend and even use His counseling to guide her life. God knows I've got an imaginary friend or two that help me navigate the vicissitudes of life. But when elected to the legislature Ives should have relegated her imaginary friend to the recesses of her personal life and kept her day job legislating for all Illinoisans as secular as our national and state constitutions require.