'The Post' highlights how far media has fallen

'The Post', Spielberg's take on the NY Times and Washington Post publishing the Daniel Ellsberg pilfered Pentagon Papers, shows long standing media coziness with government officials. Publisher Kay Graham, tight with Defense Secretary Bob McNamara, was loathe to out his deception which sent thousands of US boys and millions of Vietnamese to a senseless death. She reminded editor Ben Bradley, trying to persuade her to publish the purloined papers, of his friendship with JFK which prevented him from reporting candidly on Jackie after the assassination.

But she pushed back against the Post's lawyers who argued she'd lose the Post and her freedom if she published, which she did. To her and Bradley, freedom of the press and unveiling deadly government secrecy trumped access or even survival.

Forty-seven years on the Pentagon Papers would never see the light of day. The NY Times, Post, Wall Street Journal and even Chicago's own Tribune are in the tank for the war party. They willingly pass on every mendacious government lie regarding our perpetual wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Niger and others in 149 countries defiled by our 70,000 special ops and killer drones. They join the witch hunt against Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Ed Snowden, imprisoned, holed up in an friendly embassy or on the run from a government bent on revenge for revealing the truth.

The editorial board members of the aforementioned medial giants should be locked in a theater, forced to watch 'The Post' endlessly till they figure out how to protect the public from perpetual war.

Is Roskam 'high-fiving' 3.2 million 2017 loss in health care coverage?

My congressman Peter Roskam's (IL-6) signature issue since the 2008 election of Obama has been to keep America's health case system the worst in the industrialized world. He worked feverishly with the Republican caucus to prevent passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010. Once passed, Roskam embarked on a seven year Odyssey to degrade, defund, repeal the ACA. Meanwhile 20 million people in need got first time health care; improving health, preventing medically induced bankruptcy and savings tens of thousands from an untimely grave.

That meant nothing to Roskam, who looked at the 2016 presidential candidates and opted for a candidate who bragged about sexually assaulting women instead of a women candidate seeking to dignify and empower women. Why? Roskam voted for the candidate who pledged to destroy health care coverage for the needy over the one seeking its expansion to all.

Last year Roskam got his wish. The sexual braggart won and began dismantling the ACA; cutting outreach and advertising, encouraging young people to op out, supporting every GOP initiative to reduce its effectiveness, especially a cruel campaign to shrink Medicaid coverage to the poor. 2017 saw the first drop in health insurance coverage since its passage, a whopping 3.2 million losing coverage, raising the percentage of uninsured from to 12.% from 10.9%. A grotesque effort to repeal the ACA failed by a whisker. That was Roskam's only setback in an otherwise banner year for cruelty and heartlessness. The only question remaining is: How does Roskam sleep at night?

Ives extremist, ignorant, insensitive and dangerous for Illinois.

State Rep Jeanne Ives (R-42) keeps lowering the bar for outlandish solutions to improve Illinois. Last week at an anti abortion event she railed on against a legal, common, critically needed medical procedure asserting her goal is to eliminate every abortion on religious grounds. She's oblivious apparently, to other extremist religious views that would deny her needed medical treatment for any ailment based on its being against 'God's will'.

Yesterday, at a gubernatorial candidate forum, she laid Chicago's gun violence squarely on lack of impact fathers on at risk youth. Yet, Ives solution is simply to cut taxes, denying more relief in social services, education, neighborhood rebuilding and job opportunities that would employ missing dads, incentizing them to anchor the family unit. The righteousness of Ives' zealotry offers nothing to the millions of Illinoisans suffering mightily after three years of Governor Rauner's budget cutting heaping more despair in our poorest neighborhoods. Ives' callous remarks offended Democratic candidate Chris Kennedy who reminded Ives he grew up in a fatherless home due to gun violence, calling her remarks "stupid and ignorant" before walking off the dais to protest "someone who knows so little about so much, when other people have given these issues thought and have an emotional capacity to be empathetic at the same time." When reminded Kennedy's running mate Ra Joy's son was slain by a gun, Ives' speculated it was probably a fatherless kid. How helpful.

That's Jeanne Ives: extremest, ignorant, insensitive...and dangerous for Illinois.

'The Post' shows how far media has fallen

'The Post', Spielberg's take on the NY Times and Washington Post publishing the Daniel Ellsberg pilfered Pentagon Papers, shows long standing media coziness with government officials. Publisher Kay Graham, tight with Defense Secretary Bob McNamara, was loathe to out his deception which sent thousands of US boys and millions of Vietnamese to a senseless death. She reminded editor Ben Bradley, trying to persuade her to publish the purloined papers, of his friendship with JFK which prevented him from reporting candidly on Jackie after the assassination.

But she pushed back against the Post's lawyers who argued she'd lose the Post and her freedom if she published, which she did. To her and Bradley, freedom of the press and unveiling deadly government secrecy trumped access or even survival.

Forty-seven years on the Pentagon Papers would never see the light of day. The NY Times, Post, Wall Street Journal and even Chicago's own Tribune are in the tank for the war party. They willingly pass on every mendacious government lie regarding our perpetual wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Niger and others in 149 countries defiled by our 70,000 special ops and killer drones. They join the which hunt against Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Ed Snowden, imprisoned, holed up in an friendly embassy or on the run from a government bent on revenge for revealing the truth.

The editorial board members of the aforementioned medial giants should be locked in a theater, forced to watch 'The Post' endlessly till they figure out how to protect the public from perpetual war.