Oberweis channels Trump in declaring premature victory in IL 14th

Jim Oberweis took a page from President Trump Wednesday, declaring victory over incumbent Lauren Underwood in Illinois' 14th Congressional District. "There's only a handful of votes left" Oberweis observed, so no way Underwood could overcome his 895 vote lead. Tho good at numbers in creating his ice cream colossus, Oberweis somehow confuses 18,000 outstanding votes as "a handful". Sure enough, as soon as Obeweis issued his Trumpian statement, his lead began melting like an Oberweis sundae left out at room temp, dropping to 716 votes overnight. Come on Jim. Regarding counting votes, don't be like Don...be like Joe.

Ives leaves on a low note Win or lose, It’s always good to go out on a high note. We like neither sore winners nor sore losers. Alas, Jeanne Ives, defeated by incumbent Illinois Congressperson Sean Casten in Illinois’ Sixth District, chose the latter route in her concession speech Tuesday night. As we approach 10 million infected and a quarter million deaths from pandemic, Ives blamed her loss on “a handful of bureaucrats… members of both parties’ establishments, the media and other institutions that have protected entrenched interests for decades” causing some district restaurants to close up. Whew. Pandemic was never on Ives’ radar after giving her president an A Grade on pandemic response. Not a word of congratulations and coming together to heal our pandemic plagued district so important in any concession speech. Ives closed with “It is somewhat unclear to me what lies ahead for Illinois”. Maybe not to Ives but for us certainly, Illinois will be better led by Sean Casten serving the Sixth.

Win or lose, It’s always good to go out on a high note. We like neither sore winners nor sore losers. Alas, Jeanne Ives, defeated by incumbent Illinois Congressperson Sean Casten in Illinois’ Sixth District, chose the latter route in her concession speech Tuesday night. As we approach 10 million infected and a quarter million deaths from pandemic, Ives blamed her loss on “a handful of bureaucrats… members of both parties’ establishments, the media and other institutions that have protected entrenched interests for decades” causing some district restaurants to close up. Whew. Pandemic was never on Ives’ radar after giving her president an A Grade on pandemic response. Not a word of congratulations and coming together to heal our pandemic plagued district so important in any concession speech. Ives closed with “It is somewhat unclear to me what lies ahead for Illinois”. Maybe not to Ives but for us certainly, Illinois will be better led by Sean Casten serving the Sixth.

Trump lighting fuse to Election Day violence

It took 244 years for America to witness a presidential contender, indeed, the incumbent president himself, foment election chaos and violence. But it has been the Trump playbook for months since his defeat appeared inevitable with a fair, violence free vote. The first overt dog whistle to campaign chaos was his charge that mail in voting, necessitated by pandemic, would result in a fraudulent Democratic win. To his rabid, gun toting, white nationalist supporters, that is a not so subtle call to violence. They haven’t waited till Election Day. Thirteen have been arrested in a plot to kidnap and possibly kill the Michigan governor who, against Trump’s demands, enacted strong pandemic guidelines there. They took seriously his call to ‘liberate Michigan’. Rather than call out that criminality, Trump keeps stirring the cauldron of fear and loathing against Democratic governors refusing to expand pandemic death totals with irresponsible re-openings.

While we couldn’t see the deranged supporters planning gubernatorial kidnapping, we could view the crazed Trump pickup truck jockeys boxing in a Biden bus on a Texas highway. The only casualties were two Biden campaign events cancelled from the delayed bus. Check that. The real casualty was American democracy. Trump’s response? “I love Texas” over a tweet of the sickening video. When the FBI rightly announced an investigation, Trump tweeted “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. The FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA.”

Watching this unfolding desecration of our democracy by a clearly defective human being, I’m reminded of Al Jolson’s quote to his rapturous audience: “You ain’t seen nothing yet”.