Morning Spin: Trump will visit Illinois steel plant today

Morning Spin: Trump will visit Illinois steel plant today
Gov. Bruce Rauner won’t be on hand, noting this week that he appeared in Granite City a week ago to veto legislation that would have required the city's mayor be named to a local flood-control agency. The governor appeared with Vice President Mike Pence this month, embracing the White House despite spending much of his term avoiding saying Trump’s name.
Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday needled Rauner over his decision to avoid Trump during his visit, saying “this governor seems to want to play both sides of the issue.”
But Trump will be joined by U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, a Murphysboro Republican who is locked in a competitive re-election bid against Democrat Brendan Kelly, the St. Clair County state’s attorney.
“Looking forward to joining @POTUS in Granite City to celebrate return of 800 steel jobs,” Bost tweeted. “Pres. (Ronald) Reagan came to our neck of the woods 30 years ago & we’re still talking about it in S. Illinois. Have a feeling folks heading back to work will talk about this visit 30 years from now.”
In a statement about Trump’s visit, Kelly doesn’t criticize the president by name. After all, Trump won many southern Illinois counties that comprise the 12th Congressional District where Kelly is taking on Bost.
“Our country is deeply divided right now, but we should all agree it’s a good thing to see steelworkers in Granite City getting back to work,” Kelly said in a statement. “It’s right to confront China’s cheating on steel, but disconnected trade policies like Fast Track that Mike Bost supports have done a lot of damage in Southern Illinois.”
Trump, meanwhile, appeared with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the White House on Wednesday, when the president said “we also will resolve the steel and aluminum tariff issues, and we will resolve retaliatory tariffs.” (Monique Garcia)

What’s on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s schedule wasn’t available.
*Gov. Bruce Rauner will tour businesses in Itasca and Machesney Park, and he’ll act on tax credit legislation in Peoria.
*Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam and Democratic challenger Sean Casten will debate on Fox 32 at 10 p.m. It will be streamed live on the station’s website and Facebook page at 6 p.m.

From the notebook

*Election security: Illinois’ entire U.S. House delegation has asked federal officials for a briefing about election security, given that the state was a “major target” of Russian hackers in the 2016 election. Read more here.
*Emanuel doesn’t engage on Wilson: Mayor Emanuel pointedly declined Wednesday to weigh in on mayoral challenger Willie Wilson’s weekend event where he passed out thousands of dollars in cash to people at a South Side church.
Asked about the Sunday event at the New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church where the Wilson campaign said he handed out nearly $40,000 in personal cash to help people with various expenses, Emanuel first made a joke: “(My wife) Amy says ‘Why don’t you do that at home here?’”
But then he stepped away from the controversy: “You don’t need me to comment on something because a picture’s worth a thousand words, it speaks for itself.”
On Wednesday, Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, introduced a resolution at the City Council meeting, calling on the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the U.S. attorney to investigate whether the money giveaway violated campaign finance laws that prohibit purchasing votes. The resolution notes repeatedly that Gov. Rauner was with Wilson at the event and that the governor contributed money to a fund Wilson set up to help people pay their property taxes.
Rauner on Monday said he gave Wilson, a friend of his, $100,000 last year and an additional $100,000 "in the last month or two" to help struggling families pay their property taxes but did not approve of Wilson handing out cash at the church. Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker said on Wednesday that Rauner is “obviously aligning himself with people that are handing money out at churches.” (John Byrne, Monique Garcia)
*Da fundraiser: Legendary former Bears head coach Mike Ditka is headlining a fundraiser for a Republican state House candidate in Chicago’s northwest suburbs.
Ditka is helping Jillian Rose Bernas at an Aug. 9 fundraiser, according to an email alert from the Chicago Young Republicans. She’s running against Democratic state Rep. Michelle Mussman of Schaumburg.
Bernas is a Schaumburg Township District Library Trustee and previously worked at the U.S. embassy in Chile, according to her campaign website.
Ditka considered entering the political fray as a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in the 2004 campaign, but ultimately did not.
*Puerto Rico trip: Democratic U.S. Reps. Luis Gutierrez of Chicago and Robin Kelly of Matteson will be in a delegation to Puerto Rico led by House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. The trip starts Thursday.

Source:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-donald-trump-illinois-granite-city-20180725-story.html

Illinois GOP candidates push to merge treasurer, comptroller

Darlene Senger                                                                                         Jim Dodge

Candidates for Illinois comptroller and treasurer want to merge the offices, effectively putting one of them out of a job if they were both elected.
Darlene Senger, Republican candidate for comptroller, and Jim Dodge, a Republican looking to unseat Treasurer Michael Frerichs, say the state should merge their offices.
“Illinois is facing a budget shortfall and a politician surplus,” a joint statement from the two candidates says. “We urge the legislature to save taxpayer dollars by consolidating the offices of Treasurer and Comptroller.”
The Illinois Constitution would have to be changed to merge the offices. Senger and Dodge want to press the issue so lawmakers pass a constitutional amendment that would then be on the subsequent statewide ballot.
A spokesman for comptroller Susana Mendoza says the Republicans’ estimation of $12 million in savings isn’t accurate.
“The framers of the state constitution were familiar with the potential for corruption in having one officer in charge of receiving money, investing it and paying it out,” the spokesman, Abdon Pallasch, said. “That's because Orville Hodge embezzled $6 million in state funds in the '50's. That's $57 million in today's money – far more than the phony projected savings number.”
Senger said claims that the offices were separated to ward off corruption doesn’t make sense considering the technology that’s available to keep track of money.
“Everything’s online,” she said. “Things are now done with computers that will make sure that you’re doing things accurately.”
The Illinois state Senate voted to place the question of consolidation on the ballot in the 2014 election in 2012. Frerichs voted to put a consolidation measure on the ballot when he was a state senator. The measure never passed the House.
“We shouldn’t feel comfortable asking Illinois taxpayers to tighten their belts and hand over more of their hard-earned money when political leaders in Springfield aren’t willing to do the same thing,” Senger said.

Former Joliet City Councilman Jim McFarland Found Guilty of DUI

(PS) Late Thursday evening former Joliet City Councilman Jim McFarland was found guilty of DUI charges. McFarland resigned from his elected seat as city councilman in 2016. After 3 1/2 hours of deliberations the jury reached a unanimous verdict of " Guilty". 
As of Thursday evening it was stated by the Will County States Attorney that this now makes DUI number two for McFarland.  The first DUI was not in Will County but this charge may massively effect McFarland's driving and criminal record. 
The Will County States Attorneys spokesman Chuck Pelkie stated that due to this being McFarland's second DUI he would not be eligible for court supervision.  McFarland faces up to 240 hours of community service, 5 days in jail, fines and his licence will be revoked for 1 year at the end of which he will have to appeal to the secretary of states board to re en state his licence. 

Governor Bruce Rauner's campaign is back with the same old song and dance


(PS) Hours after Republican State Senator Sam McCann announces his run for office, Governor Bruce Rauner's campaign is back with the same old song and dance. Having spent less than 30 seconds on running a sort google search, I stumbled upon a Rauner camp ad as seen below.
Already off to a bad start. Successfully utilizing the same tactics against Republican Jeanie Ives, Rauners campaign is hoping the same disgraceful stye will work again. However, looking at the math he is clearly failing. With McCann in the race, Rauner needs to be fully focused on a positive swing for his run instead of yet again trying to associate other candidates to Mike Madigan and the Chicago Democratic machine. 

 The likelihood that Madigan is helping a Republican candidate run as a 3rd party opponent is slim to none. Madigan has shown again and again in election year that his sole focus is State Representative's elected. As that, is what keeps him in power. With Republican Governor Rauner already in a tough spot with his Republican base there would be no need for Madigan to dabble in Republican politics. 
Rauner has been taking hits from his own party since the primary election ended. The chairman of the Illinois Republican National Hispanic Assembly resigned her position after the shortly after the results. "I cannot in good conscience support Bruce Rauner," Yvonne Sencial Bolton of Will County said in her resignation letter.

 With mummers of concern about Rauners core values already, compounded by a 48.6% of his own base voting for Jeanie Ives, Rauner has the potential loss of half of his own republican voting base to compensate for. That number is not even including those voters who do not come out until the general election. 

 The current direction of Rauners campaign could mean ruin for Rauner himself. 

Illinois state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, announced early Thursday that he plans run as a third-party candidate for governor of Illinois

Illinois state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, announced early Thursday that he plans run as a third-party candidate for governor of Illinois, with this new announcement we will see more issues for Republican Governor Bruce Rauner.  
Rauner is widely viewed as an underdog in the race for the state's highest office against billionaire J.B. Pritzker. McCann's campaign with the Conservative Party stands to draw votes away from Rauner, who had alienated a lot of his conservative base. Rauner barely defeated state Rep. Jeanne Ives in the Republican primary this March.
"When I announced I was not going to run for Senate, I said the Republican Party under Rauner was unrecognizable to me," McCann said in a statement. "Rauner has smeared the reputations of proven conservatives and abandoned the principles that millions of Illinois' working families hold dear: economic liberty, traditional values, and law and order."
This will be a new venture surly causing a huge shake up in our Illinois gubernatorial race this coming fall. 

The United Nations Security Council has failed to approve a Russian-drafted resolution on Saturday

The United Nations Security Council has failed to approve a Russian-drafted resolution on Saturday that would have condemned "the aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic by the U.S. and its allies in violation of international law and the U.N. Charter."
U.S., British and French forces railed Syria with more than 110 missiles on early Saturday morning, in response to a chemical attack that killed more than 60 people last week, in the largest intervention by Western powers against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Putin said the U.S. actions in Syria made the humanitarian catastrophe worse and caused pain for civilians and the government.
"Russia in the most serious way condemns the attack on Syria where Russian military servicemen help the legitimate government to fight terrorism," Putin said.


Did World War 3 Just start before our eyes?

       The question being whispered across the world tonight is did world war three just start? Well the answer at this point is no one knows. With the US and allies bombing Syria this evening it will surely cause a stir leading to more sanctions and possibly even more military action in the west. But realistically this could be a world war three hit or miss. As Russia and other allies of Syria have warned the US and allies to stand down they must now somehow in a show of strength make a move. 

    
  As president trump and allies are finishing up a round of air strikes, Syrian officials as well as Russian official must now figure out exactly how to react to the situation at hand. Less than 20 hours ago Russia warned the United States that an airstrike could spark war and now the move has been made on our part to move forward with an air strike. 

 In the coming hours we will see where this military conflict leads the United States and Russia who are once again on cold war terms.  In a statement, Antoly Antonov said, "We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences.
"All responsibility for them rests with Washington, London and Paris. Insulting the President of Russia is unacceptable and inadmissible," Antonov added.

We will see in coming days exactly what is in store for future relations between the US and Russia. 

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)