Say it’s so Joe…”I’m retiring”

President Joe has a dilemma. Most likely he wants to be one and done with the Presidency. He’ll be 82 a week after the ’24 election, and 86 and 3 months at the finish line…if he makes it.

If true, he’s boxed in from announcing that now. It would make him an instant lame duck and weaken his political capital. But by not announcing it, he freezes out the younger, more vibrant potential candidates progressive Democrats sorely need.

Hopefully, behind the scenes, Joe is signaling to potential replacements he’ll make his move to move on at the appropriate time, giving those contenders an opportunity to campaign without unduly impacting Joe’s governing ability.

Till then I await the day when Joe says it’s so: “I’m retiring.”

Time to abolish DuPage Township government?

DuPage County should 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 1,429 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. The several townships abolished in Illinois have provided substantial tax savings without a hint of reduced services. The taxpayers of Evanston Township have saved over $2,000,000 since Evanston Township went bye-bye in 2014.

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...which is very few.

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 700,000 voters from examining the need to eliminate its 9 townships. Illinois’ fiscal crisis escalates daily. We need to scrutinize township functions and budgets to streamline state government...without townships.

When Bobby Hull truly was the Golden Jet

Black Hawk great Bobby Hull’s death at 84 brought me back to his second season of 1958-59.

All eyes followed Bobby at my first Hawks game at the old Stadium on a Saturday afternoon against the Rangers. Tho not yet a scoring star, garnering just 13 goals in his rookie season, Bobby became an instant hero among Hawks fans as he symbolized the Hawks ascent from their long stay at the bottom of the 6 team NHL.

We weren’t disappointed as Bobby made several of his end to end dashes down the ice with his then golden locks flying straight back in the days before helmets. That is how he earned his lifelong moniker the Golden Jet. Even better, Bobby scored one of his 18 sophomore season goals that wonderful day.

A year later he became a goal machine, netting 573 more Hawk goals over 13 more seasons before owner Bill Wirtz dumped him to save money. That after a 50 goal season with his 4th highest point total in 15 seasons.

Hull had serious personal issues with domestic violence and white nationalist views that would have ended his career early on had he been playing this century. But for 15 seasons and seven more in the WHL, which paid him what the Hawks should have, Hull’s 913 goals and end to end rushes were worth the price of admission.

Worst US foreign policy in my lifetime happening today

It took 60 years but the US finally did something more dangerous to world survival than the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Last year marked 60 years since the US provoked Russia to sneak nuclear weapons into Cuba to protect it from further US invasion or assassination of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Our humiliating loss at the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion did nothing to dampen America’s lust to oust the Castro government, returning Cuba to rapacious American capitalism and a Mafia playground, regardless of how many might die.

That triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis, which, for 13 days, kept this high school senior on the cusp of nuclear annihilation. But knowing that the US red line against Russia, putting nukes just a few minutes from the homeland, could trigger nuclear war, both the US and Russia employed negotiations which defused the nuclear crisis in under 2 weeks.

Contrast the nuclear crisis of 1962 over Cuba to the nuclear crisis of 2022-23 over Ukraine. In 49 weeks, the US has totally rejected negotiations to end the Russo Ukraine war. Instead, we’ve funneled over $100 billion in weapons and other aid to keep it going indefinitely. Worse, we torpedoed Russian, Ukraine negotiations in the first weeks of the war, brokered by Turkey, that could have ended the war early on.

That would be akin to Russia rejecting US negotiations to end the Cuban crisis by steaming full speed thru the US blockade to complete its nuclear installations there. Had that occurred, a nuclear dust up between the US and Russia was virtually certain. The fact both Russia and the US sought negotiations instead of war prevented nuclear annihilation 60 years ago.

Nineteen-year-old President Biden must surely remember his close brush with his and all of our early demise. Yet, he inherited a 7 yearlong provocation with Russia he helped start as Vice President, then ratcheted it up, leading to the inevitable Ukraine invasion under his administration last February.

After the invasion his conduct only worsened. Besides blowing up that early March negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine, he’s been pouring in weaponry right up to, even likely over, Russia’s red line toward catastrophic blowback.

Starting with ammunition and assault weapons he’s moved up to Stinger anti-aircraft systems, Javelin anti-armor systems, M777 towed Howitzers, 122mm GRAD rockets, M142 multiple rocket launchers, or HIMARS, Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles, Patriot air defense batteries, National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, and 31 M1 Abrams tanks, the world’s most powerful.

Still under considerations from Biden’s weapons stockpile: armor-piercing depleted uranium (DU) ammunition and F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.

When Russia invaded, Biden promised America’s involvement would do nothing to provoke WWIII. Now it appears he’s doing and planning nearly everything to ensure that happens.

That is why US foreign policy today….is the worst in my lifetime.

Balloon brouhaha

Many foreign policy experts foresee a looming nuclear war between the US and China. That is why Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s planned trip to China next week was so important. So little direct contact with China, coupled with so many provocations, mostly initiated by Uncle Sam, spells almost inevitable conflict.

But Blinken abruptly cancelled this important trip over….get this…a balloon. Citizens below and the US government spotted a balloon high up over Montana that admittedly came from China.

Must be a spy balloon gobbling up information on US nuclear installations below, war hawks crowed. Major war promoter stalwart Senator Marco Rubio went balloonistic: "It was a mistake to not shoot down that Chinese spy balloon when it was over a sparsely populated area. This is not some hot air balloon, it has a large payload of sensors roughly the size of two city buses & the ability to maneuver independently."

Wiser US heads prevailed for 2 reasons: First, they didn’t want to injure innocents on the ground from falling debris. Second, they knew the balloon, as a spy device, was a bust, saying: Our best assessment at the moment is that whatever the surveillance payload is on this balloon, it does not create significant value added over and above what the PRC (People’s Republic of China) is likely able to collect through things like satellites in Low Earth Orbit,"

As with Russia over Ukraine, the US has pretty much shut down all talk with our imagined enemies in favor of more weapons, more overseas bases, more coordinated war games, more bluster.

I don’t worry about possible spy balloons flying overhead. I worry about real life mushroom clouds

P-51 Mustang: the bomber crews' savior that almost wasn't

 The US had a number of great fighter planes in WWII, but the North American P-51 Mustang was by far the most important.

 

The P-38 Lightning, P-39 Airacobra, P-40 Kitty Hawk, P-47 Thunderbolt, F6F Hellcat, obliterated thousands of enemy planes. But the P-51 Mustang was the only one that saved thousands of lives; the crews of the B-17’s making near suicidal missions deep into Germany.

 

General Hap Arnold was given command of the newly formed 8^th Air Force; charged with destroying Germany’s industrial base, paving the way to the D Day invasion. Arnold believed he could accomplish this with high altitude bomb runs using the precision Nordin bombsight, even tho no US fighter escorts could stay with the B-17’s thruout their missions. He tested his theory with war games over the Arizona desert with outstanding results.

 

But his real world missions were a monumental disaster as B-17’s fell from the skies over Germany like snowflakes in a blizzard. There were no German fighters and treacherous weather over Arizona to match the horrific conditions over the Reich. German fighter pilots simply waited for the P-38’s and P-47’s to turn back short on fuel prior to bomb runs; then pounced, picking off the slow ‘4 motors’ as the Germans called them. 

The 8^th had the highest casualty rate of the entire military. Crew morale sunk with many cracking up mentally before they cracked up from Messerschmitts and Focke Wulf fighters’ canon shells.

 

Then one of the all-time US WWII heroes appeared with a solution to stop the bomber carnage. Tommy Hitchcock, WWI fighter pilot, investment banker, world’s No. 1 polo player, arrived in London as an air force staff officer. 

Horrified by the  8^th’s  casualty rate, he noticed a new plane being developed by North American Aviation for the Brits: the P-51. Tho designed and built in America, it was strictly to be a multi purpose fighter-bomber for England. US Air Force brass wanted nothing to do with a British plane, especially since its US engine was swapped out by the Brits for their more powerful Rolls Royce Merlin.

 

Hitchcock recognized its wide performance edge over every US fighter. When he determined the P-51 could be fitted with auxiliary fuel tanks that could take it to Berlin and back, he knew the bomber bleeding rate could be sutured. 

But Arnold and the other US Air Force brass flying desks resisted strenuously. Hitchcock got help from revered US Ambassador to England, John Winant. Tho delayed for months, the duo finally convinced the military to adopt the Mustang as its own.

 

Voila, the bomber casualty rate plummeted as fast as the Mustang’s took to skies over Germany, shooting down German interceptors like ducks on the pond. One squadron downed 160 German fighters in their first month, compared to 120 in the previous 6 months.

 

Between January, 1944, till D Day, the Mustang kill rate and now effective B-17 bombing missions paved the way for the Normandy landing relatively free from German air power. Some military experts attributed D Day success to Tommy Hitchcock and his obsession with the P-51.

 

We’ll never know how many of the 4,754 B-17’s destroyed, resulting in over 26,000 dead airmen might have been prevented by earlier adoption of P-51. But without the P-51, the casualty rate would have kept skyrocketing.

 

There is a sad coda to the Tommy Hitchcock P-51 saga. In April 44, he was investigating a high accident rate for the Mustang when fitted with the auxiliary fuel tanks. Some would simply nose over and crash. Famed pilot warrior Hitchcock decided to investigate himself. Taking off on a test run with the extra fuel, he nosed over and crashed, ending his heroic and glorious work on behalf of the Greatest Generation.  

Syrian earthquake makes no dent in America’s life killing sanctions

Thousands dead in Syria from earthquake elicited not a shred of empathy in Uncle Sam’s damaged conscience. Ten years of sanctions degrading life, even ending it for innocents in Syria, will continue while Syrians dig out the bodies buried under the rubble.

Much of the civilized world is calling for the end to decade long sanctions designed to remove President Assad. Since we’re lavishing weapons of war on some highly authoritarian countries, it’s not because of his authoritarian rule. It’s linked to his alliance with Russia and Iran, two of our biggest imaginary enemies.

So instead of removing sanctions and offering assistance to Assad’s government in a monumental relief effort, we’re committed to ‘No relief for Syria till Assad is gone, Syrian humanity be damned.’ Or to paraphrase former president George H.W. Bush…”Wouldn’t be prudent.”

Besides refusing any relief of assistance to Syria, the US claims we’re not impeding private NGO humanitarian efforts. But according to the New York Times, US sanctions policy means Syria “is not able to receive direct aid from many countries.” While sanctions have exemptions for humanitarian goods, many banks block transactions with aid groups in Syria out of fear of America's wrath.

Ignoring humanitarian disasters for countries we hate is nothing new for America. Last June our sanctions on Afghanistan stalled relief efforts when an earthquake struck Afghanistan, killing over a thousand. Even the UN reported US sanctions complicated aid deliveries. Since the Taliban whupped America, sending us fleeing our 20 year defilement of Afghanistan, those sanctions remain in place, putting 6 million Afghans at risk of famine. Revenge is sweet for America…deadly for Afghanistan.

US sanctions afflicting over 20 countries is a national disgrace. But when they’re used to degrade countries we hate suffering natural catastrophes, it’s particularly grotesque.

Three-term Ted: Hypocrite of the Year

I’ve never understood career politicians who make term limits a signature plank on an otherwise valueless agenda. It’s as if they’re telling the public that all our troubles will magically evaporate if we can just banish those worthless career pols gobbling up governmental largesse. Then they promptly run again for the umpteenth time to gobble up more of our precious tax dollars.

Take lifetime pol Ted Cruz who’s been in politics and government since 1999, the last 11 years as Texas Senator. He appeared on Face The Nation yesterday to proclaim his prescription for America: a Constitutional Amendment to limit House member to 3 terms (6 years) and Senators to 2 terms (12 years). When host Margaret Brennan reminded Ted his announced 3rd term campaign may be viewed as hypocritical, Ted smiled, saying: "If and when it passes, I will happily, happily comply. I've never said I'm going to unilaterally comply."

Three Term Ted left out the last part of his planned response: “Since no chance of such amendment…I’ll stay in the Senate till they carry me out in a box.”