Promote peace this Veteran’s Day

Started 101 years on November 11, Armistice Day was established in the UK to commemorate the armistice which ended WWI a year earlier. In 1926 Congress made it a US remembrance to "perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations...a day dedicated to the cause of world peace." What a wise way to turn the most destructive war in history at the time into a lesson for peace. Alas, in 1954 Congress changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day to commemorate military personnel past and present. The raging Cold War with Russia may have inspired the switch from peace to militarism during a dark era of fear and loathing in America.

Since then 'perpetuating peace and mutual understanding between nations' has been left behind. It has largely become a commercial for American perpetual war around the world which today sees over 165,000 soldiers deployed in 150 countries. Almost daily we bomb innocents in at least 8 countries we know of. While every decent function of government loses funding, the annual increase in our $700 billion plus military budget alone dwarfs what most countries spend on their entire military. All vets but the near centenarians of WWII fought in undeclared, unnecessary and senseless wars which slaughtered millions while doing nothing to promote peace.

After 66 years it's time for another name change. How about Peace Day? Peace Day would honor our millions of veterans without promoting endless militarism around the world. But its primary purpose would be to once again to promote peace as exemplified by Dr. Martin Luther King, Gandhi and a courageous American military hero, Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who spent seven years in prison for outing American war crimes in Iraq. John Lennon famously sang, 'Give peace a chance' decades ago. It's time for all of us to give peace a chance by commemorating the end of the War To End All Wars this November 11 to end the wars raging a century later.

Many happy sights, one pathetic sight

The wall to wall joy of large crowds all over the land on cable news was punctured by one truly pathetic scene: A lone, dejected Trump flailing away at that little white ball on a golf course near the White House. Only soul around was a Secret Service agent serving as Trump's golf cart chauffer, likely glad he wasn't protecting him at a covid superspreader campaign rally.

The tortured logic of the Tax Amendment 'No' voter

I’m dismayed but not surprised the Illinois Graduated Income Tax Amendment failed. Having talked with a number of folks who would get a tax break or at worst a freeze, but said they’d vote no, led me to predict failure. Everyone agreed a progressive tax is fairer than the current flat tax. But everyone said they would not vote for it till Illinois gets its financial house in order. The irony is that our current financial difficulties impinge not one whit on their lives. But voting no will now likely increase their taxes, and those involved in state jobs and services may garner a pink slip. Their logic of tying a simple vote on an overall tax improvement to a complex matter that has no simple, clear or quick solution congers up this analogy. It’s like an oncologist telling a person with possible terminal cancer, “I’ll give you chemo and radiation AFTER you completely change your reckless life style which gave you the cancer”.

New White Sox manager Tony La Russa by the numbers:

World Series wins 3

DUI arrests 2

DUI convictions 1

Chances of managing Sox in 2021 0

Trump the 21st century Typhoid Mary

The now escalating covid infections and deaths in America, greatly worsened by Trump's delay, denial, denigration and superspreader events, brings to mind the saga of Mary Mallon, A.K.A. Typhoid Mary. Between 1900 and 1915 Mallon (1869-1938), an immigrant Irish cook, infected 53 persons, 3 of whom died, from typhoid fever. She was an asymptomatic carrier, who infected the unsuspecting in a number of homes and institutions which employed her. First quarantined from 1907 to 1910, Mary went right back to servant cooking and infecting more close at hand. Her second quarantine lasted for her remaining 33 years.

Compared to Trump's infection and death stats, Typhoid Mary was an amateur. We don't need to quarantine Covid Donald for 36 years like his contagious mentor.....just the last 72 days of his catastrophic stint as hired spreader of the worst pandemic in a century.

Trump presidency in 6 words

It’s OK to talk about the Trump presidency in the past tense. An authoritarian demagogue from start to finish, Trump lost big Election Day. He’s down nationally 5.1 million votes on way to a six million plus deficit, and likely 74 votes in the Electoral College. He resurrected the Blue Wall of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. He lost Georgia, Virginia and Arizona, states he should have won easily.

Trump never governed as a president to all the people. He governed solely for the 47% of Americans with grievances; some economic, some cultural, some racist and xenophobic. Many low information voters were merely transfixed by a talented demagogue. Virtually all hung in with him four years on.

He never worked to provide all Americans health care; indeed, he spent his presidency taking it away. He never once embraced a national strategy to combat pandemic, thrusting America to the top for the world’s worst response. 10,700,000 infected, 247,400 dead and spiking beyond our control will haunt him till the end of his days, if he’s even capable of being haunted.

He announced in 2015 with fear and loathing, campaigned with fear and loathing, governed with fear and loathing. Demonizing President Obama as an African was his way of calling him the N Word…and it worked. He trash talked his 15 rivals to win the 2016 nomination and they sat back stupefied as it worked. He degraded Hillary Clinton as the meanest of mean girls and it worked. He re-started his Nuremberg style campaign rallies in Week 1 and kept them up for the next 200 weeks, save for the two weeks recovering from covid he essentially gave himself with superspreader rallies and maskless White House events. He made the White House, with 34 infections and counting, the epicenter of irresponsible pandemic behavior.

It took America four years to remove the only other truly dangerous demagogue in my lifetime, Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin in 1954. Compared to the damage Trump has wrought, McCarthy was an amateur. Unlike McCarthy, who slid away in an ocean of booze, Trump holds onto his messianic control of his 72,000,000 voters, jeopardizing our fragile political culture with a refusal to concede; not even assisting his certain successor to jump start solving monumental unsolved problems.

Summing up in 6 words? Trump was president; never was presidential.

What were they thinking?

In a just world Trump would be imprisoned for peopleslaughter for his pandemic response. He is the most responsible person in America for getting it right. Instead, he got it completely wrong, not from simple negligence, tho his was overwhelming. He got it wrong more from pure evil...demonizing any and all who wanted it done right. In his twisted mind that was the path to re-election. It didn’t work. But as he is inevitably pushed out of the White House he clings to with a death grip, America faces a calamitous rise in infections and covid deaths now at 10,900,000 and 248,000 respectively. The hospitals are filling up to capacity, threatening the collapse of our health care system. There is no relief in view.

But 72,000,000 voters saw that record and said, "Yah, I'm cool with that".

Time to abolish DuPage Township government?

 

It's time DuPage County consider abolishing its 9 townships. They are an anachronism of primitive 17th century America when there were few cities, counties, even states to provide governmental services. They declined dramatically nationwide in the second half of the 20th century, as cities, towns and states absorbed their governmental functions. But not in Illinois where there are still 1,428 townships in 84 of Illinois' 102 counties. While they have little left to do, they continue to gobble up valuable tax dollars in a state plagued by spiraling deficits. Massive layoffs and curtailment of truly essential governmental services are ahead with defeat of the Fair Tax initiative and continued pandemic destruction of our economy. The alternative? Sizable tax increases on every Illinois taxpayer from our regressive flat tax. Both painful options are more likely. Consolidation of units of government in Illinois is more essential than ever. We have plenty to consolidate as our 6,963 such units lead the nation, 2,092 more than second place Pennsylvania with a hundred thousand more residents.

Why focus on townships? They spend extravagantly on minimal functions that could easily be parceled out to the counties, cities and state. My DuPage Township of Milton spends over $2.5 million annually simply to issue tax assessments, hand out aid to the needy, and maintain roads not covered by the state or county in unincorporated areas. Milton residents are not getting a bang for their tax buck....just a whimper. Many Milton residents aren't even aware Milton Township government exists. Election of its 4 trustees and 4 managers occurs at the off year Consolidated Election which has a shamefully low voter turnout; just 14.8% in 2019. This makes the township office essentially a sinecure for office holders who hang on endlessly to this wasteful governmental unit largely under the radar of public scrutiny.

Alas, abolishing a township is daunting goal. All nine DuPage townships would need to be voted out of existence simultaneously by an election referendum. That should not dissuade DuPage's 657,000 voters from examining the need to eliminate its 9 townships. Illinois’ fiscal crisis escalates daily. At the least we must begin to scrutinize township functions and budget to help confront our untenable fiscal crisis.

Out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria before Inauguration Day

Those of us promoting peace should applaud the first statement new Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller sent to his Pentagon staff yesterday.

“We are not a people of perpetual war — it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end. Ending wars requires compromise and partnership. We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now, it’s time to come home.”

Tho not specifically directed at Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the implication is clear that Miller is referring to the approximately 15,000 soldiers still in those three countries. All three have been victimized by U.S. obsession with perpetual war since the 911 attacks 19 years ago, causing hundreds of thousands killed and millions sent fleeing ravenous American firepower. Assisting Miller in his new role is former Army Col. Douglas McGregor, who has also called for withdrawal from these failed zones of perpetual war.

Obama tried and failed to end U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He even instigated new U.S. interventions in Syria and Libya which got more hundreds of thousands killed for nothing. Those latter two will haunt his legacy.

Trump nearly started shooting wars with North Korea, Iran and Venezuela. But he tried and so far failed to extricate the U.S. from wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, which were never justified. The military chiefs, the weapons makers, the war loving senators and representatives have more combined power than any president. That must end. Maybe Christopher Miller, Douglas McGregor and their boss Trump can pull off a miracle for peace in the last 66 days of Trump’s presidency. We could all applaud that singular accomplishment in a so far disastrous reign.

New White Sox manager Tony La Russa by the numbers:

World Series wins                             3

DUI arrests                                        2

DUI convictions                                 1

Chances of managing Sox in 2021   0