Community Roundtable

The Illinois Senate agreed to a gradual hike in the minimum wage over the next six years; hourly wage having been stalled at $8.25 an hour since 2010.  The phasing-in would increase hourly wage to $9.25 on 1/01/2020, to $10 on 7/01/2020, then increases $1 an hour each January thereafter until reaching $15 in 2025.  Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford introduced the bill and proposes a with-holding tax credit for employers with 50 or fewer employees to offset their costs; a 25 percent tax credit in 2020, then scaling back annually, phasing-out by 2026.  The bill goes to the Illinois House which has a Democratic majority.  Governor J.B. Pritzker has indicated that he would sign the bill, and stated he is “committed to enacting a balanced budget  to ensure children, families, small businesses, public colleges and universities, and community-based organizations have the resources they need to give their workers a raise”.   (A current National report reveals that 7 million-plus Americans are 90-days behind in car-loan payments and other bills, as inflation steadily climbs.  We need fundamental change NOW — a huge tax cut for the poor and middle-class, not the billionaires!  Experts say we are heading for another big economic crash!)

Trish Forsyth Voss

Trump’s farcical 82-minute speech was rife with exaggerations, overstatements, outright lies, hypocrisies and threats.  He calls for unity, says he’s ready to work with Congress, but calls the bipartisan budget-deal being hammered-out in-committee: “wasted time”; (he may AGAIN ‘be forced to’ shutdown the government or declare a National Emergency).   “We must be united at home to defeat our adversaries abroad.”  He doesn’t even seem to know who our adversaries are (won’t listen to intel-briefings); the Divider-in-Chief ramps-up every possible divisive issue.   “We can’t have peace and legislation with ‘war’ and investigations.” His barely-veiled threat from his bully-pulpit won’t work; (similar tactic didn’t work for Richard Nixon in his 1974 SOTU appeal).   “Wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind walls, gates and guards.”   The ‘exposed-Emperor of House-Trump’ has long hired ‘cheap-illegals’ in all his businesses, lives atop a golden, guarded tower and presides as Mad-King of Mar-a-Loco.  Farcical!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Border security is important!  There is drug-smuggling, human-trafficking and other evils occurrent in our world.  Dems have agreed to fencing-barriers in some areas and advocates smart-technology barriers in others, more security agents and immigration judges.  The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, among those are entrants who have overstayed their visas; a border wall can’t solve that problem, legislation can.   There is a “bipartisan border-wall conference committee” working toward a solution, one which Coulter, Limbaugh and Trump will never champion.  Hostage-taker-in-chief obviously saw movie Sicario: Day of the Saldado, using its fictionalized details to incite his fearful base, to justify declaring a National Emergency.  “Trump is the national security-threat!”  When we should be building bridges, who will build the big, beautiful wall?   Maybe ?  Ivanka-friend, EVRAZ, Russia’s second-largest steel company owns 3 “American” subsidiaries in Colorado, Oregon and Chicago .  Immigration is the STORY of America; history and herstory!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Directly following a phone call between president Trump and Turkey’s president Erdogan in December 2018, Trump tweeted his new foreign policy: that the U.S. would be withdrawing troops from Syria immediately, and that ISIS was vanquished!  That reversal, reached without counsel from military advisors, was a shock to our military and our allies.  Erdogan stressed to Trump that the “Syrian Kurds were the terrorists, and he threatened to send troops across the border to attack U.S-allied Kurdish forces in northeast Syria.  That decision coincided with the administration’s notification to Congress that Turkey’s long-sought purchase of U.S- produced Patriot-missile defense-batteries had been approved.”  Defense Secretary James Mattis and Brett McGurk, top U.S. envoy for Global Coalition, resigned in rebuke of Trump’s “rash and unwise” decree.  The Russian-Assad-Iranian-Turkey’ alliance’ is gratified.  We are abandoning the Kurdish forces we trained and repeatedly vowed to stand behind.   “Regardless of Trump’s questionable motivations and lack of strategy”, we should focus on expeditiously exiting safely.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi, the only female to have served as Speaker of the House, is the highest-ranking elected woman in U.S. history; she is second in the presidential line of succession.  In her 17th term as congresswoman from California, when receiving the Speaker’s Gavel for a second time stated, “Our nation is at an historic moment …. the American people spoke and demanded a new dawn”.  Being the Speaker’s honor to invite a president to deliver a ‘State of the Union’ address before Congress, Pelosi wrote to Trump delaying his address “until government has re-opened”, citing security concerns of Homeland Secretary Nielsen’s designation: as a “National Special Security Event”, requiring hundreds of (unpaid) people working on logistics.  NBC aired a segment with correspondent Jacob Soboroff, standing with border officials in a huge smuggling tunnel, of which there are miles of such along the southern border.  Spending billions building a wall, a 4th century solution to a 21st century challenge, is stupidity!

Trish Forsyth Voss

McConnell could do his job.  I support “regular process”, calling an end to the hostage-taking distraction-device of the “acting president”, who stated today, “I have the absolute right to Do a national emergency if I want!”  Are you at all confused about why this ‘sense of emergency’ is now so crucial?   The GOP has been in complete power for the past two years; why did they not pass legislation to build this wall?  Why is it only now when Dems control the House that this has become “a crises”?  Don the Con wanted a divisive issue; he needs to control the narrative; he needs to rile his base.  For the week prior to the government shutdown, which Trump stated he’d be “proud” to own, Michael Cohen’s cooperation was the headline news.  Hannity, Limbaugh, Ingraham have fueled this trumped-up fight.  Donald wants a 30 ft. monument to TRUMP!   The Donald is our national emergency!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Sparse coverage was given to the blockade of Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia, UAE, and their allies. As of Nov 2018, eight sovereign countries have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, banning planes and ships from entering their airspaces and sea routes along the Saudi border.  Qatar, a tiny, peninsular, oil and gas-rich country, depends largely on food imports and other necessities, for trade and travel in and out of the region.  The rift affects and imperils US military operations in the region, as Al Udeid Air Base, is the primary base of US air operations against ISIL.  What’s the connection between that and Trump declaring ISIS has been obliterated?   Trump/Kushner backed the 2017 Saudi-aggression against Qatar, after Qatar initially refused the half-Billion dollar extortion Kushner demanded for his 666 Fifth Avenue realty-deal gone awry.  Thereafter, bailout came through Toronto-based, Brookfield Properties, among whose major investors are: Qatar Investment Authority.  Trump and Kushner have used their public offices to manipulate Gulf countries for personal gain.

Trish Forsyth Voss

The Ayes have it;  Investigations, Indictments, Imprisonments and Impeachment!  A Democrat-controlled House will begin in earnest with investigations into all things-Trump, and the Mueller investigation continues full-speed ahead with many indictments and disclosures coming in the New Year!  The Michaels: Flynn & Cohen need to be more forthcoming to avoid dire personal jeopardy.  Trump owns the detrimental government shutdown that he announced he was proud to perform; hopefully it’s resolved before years-end.  A border-wall will not improve Trump’s presidency or his masculinity.  Hoping to see Republicans rise to help pass a righteous, humane immigration policy and to reconnect kids with their parents. Hoping our economy doesn’t crash!  Hoping we can extricate ourselves from long-standing foreign wars and stop committing atrocities on humanity.  Hoping we can avoid another civil war here.  My most fervent hope is to dethrone the most farcical, capricious showman on Earth, the ‘acting-president’, Putin’s apprentice and useful-idiot, The Derelict Donald.

Trish Forsyth Voss

My favorite charities are Safe Harbor, Purple Hanger, and local child advocacy groups that help victims of domestic violence, as well as abused and neglected children, and substance-abusers, problems interconnected and pervasive in our country and our communities.  These groups need all the help, counseling and support services that can be made available to assist them in recovering and healing from the extremely detrimental effects of abuse of all kinds.  Helping these individuals heal and thrive serves to break the cycles of learned abuse and thus strengthens our nation as a whole.  Starting at the community level and working outward and upward intrinsically serves us all.

Trish Forsyth Voss

The unraveling of a criminal enterprise is happening in earnest.  When the entirety of the “dirty deeds” done by all the collaborators, the many bad actors involved  in the smorgasbord of crimes committed: tax evasions, money-laundering, bank fraud, racketeering, campaign-finance violations and election collusion with foreign agents to deceive and defraud the American people (aka treason), the electorate will see how completely they were conned by the circus atmosphere, acts, and words of a dangerous cult.  The Trumpino crime family and the Trump Organization will be scrutinized and found to be organized crime foundations.  Investigations and indictments continue, bank’s and attorney’s offices raided, testimony given, evidence procured, prison sentences handed out, but many more will be indicted.  (Over four dozen men were indicted under the Nixon scandals, so many parallels to that administration.)  The Leader of the Cult is a gangster, who will be impeached and imprisoned ….if there’s justice.

Trish Forsyth Voss