44 Comments - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 10:54 am: ===“If we are requested, I believe we’ll honor that request.”=== Hmm. In a blue wave election, that may be looming… with no clear constituency… Rauner wants to film-flam… HB40, criminal justice reforms… and sending guard troops to the border? Who is Rauner’s constituency? - Real - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 10:57 am: GovJunk just made a big mistake. - PJ - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 10:58 am: Can anyone explain to me what these taxpayer funded guardsmen are supposed to be doing? Standing on one side of the Rio Grande and watching the other? They can’t even legally make arrests or engage anyone. - Henry Francis - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 10:59 am: ==I believe we’ll honor that request== He believes? I guess he needs to check with whoever is in charge. - Commonsense in Illinois - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:00 am: Henry Francis for the win. - Wow - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:01 am: The gift that just keeps on giving!!! - Ole General - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:03 am: What is he supposed to say? We will never send troops even though I have zero authority over the president on military personal. Rock & hard place. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:04 am: Rauner hasn’t figured out if he’s coming or going yet. I think the closeness of the primary has him disoriented. –Can anyone explain to me what these taxpayer funded guardsmen are supposed to be doing?– Providing distracting headlines. And clearing brush. They’re not armed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/troops-sent-by-trump-to-border-will-fly-drones-gather-intel–and-clear-brush-too/2018/04/09/8f608250-3c08-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.76c421d420c5 - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:06 am: ===even though I have zero authority over the president on military personal=== Unless the president federalizes the National Guard (as has happened), he can say no. - TominChicago - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:09 am: Ole General Trump is not nationalizing the Guard so governors do in fact have the authority to decline the request. Oregon’s governor has done exactly that. This call up of the guard is just an expensive temper tantrum from the five-year-old-in-chief. Rauner should stay no just to avoid disrupting the lives of the members of the guard who will go down to cut brush. - Anon221 - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:09 am: Rauner’s in charge this time unless the request from T changes from a Title 32 to Title 10 level, according to reporting done by NBC News. So, he can “believe” all he wants to, but the decision is on his shoulders. https://tinyurl.com/y7d4ksut - wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:11 am: – We will never send troops even though I have zero authority over the president on military personal.– Not true. That’s why it’s called a “request.” If refused, Trump would have to nationalize the guard. For example, Gov. Wallace refused a request to mobilize the Alabama guard to protect black students in Tuscaloosa. Therefore, Pres. Kennedy nationalized the guard. - Real - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:11 am: This country is involved in too much. From all these wars to Mexico and Syria. WW3 is very near. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:12 am: ===Unless the president federalizes the National Guard (as has happened), he can say no.=== Ball game. That’s why this is important, in that context. What southern “border state” hasn’t seen clear to have troops involved? Why do you think? - illini97 - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:16 am: So is Rauner trying to grab all the votes from that big pro-Trump/anti-Ives/anti-veterans/pro-life constituency? Is he trying to lose? - Truthteller - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:18 am: What would Rauner’s response be if Trump requested troops to stem violence in Chicago? - cdog - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:19 am: “Pivot to center delayed again” implies a lot. It’s a sad day that to defend the US border from dangerous people and cargo, is a partisan thought. Anyone that doesn’t understand the background to these issues is not well informed. - Pot calling kettle - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:19 am: ==I believe we’ll honor that request== Of course, he believed he would veto HB40, until he didn’t. I guess he’ll need to check in with Boss Madigan. - Spliff - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:21 am: We need them here in Illinois protecting Santa Anna’s Leg! - Anonymous - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:30 am: This is the perfect example of not knowing what your job or responsibility is as Governor - Ron - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:35 am: Really bad decision. Hopefully Trump doesn’t call on Illinois. Complete waste of resources. - downstate commissioner - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:47 am: If he wants to put the National Guard to work, there is plenty of work here at home to be done, but the guardsmen are going to be pretty upset cutting kudzu along the roads… And, from what I read, they aren’t even going to be armed, so what are they going to do, link hands next to each other along the border??? - VanillaMan - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:49 am: Why is this even an issue? Reality says that there will be no issue. - A guy - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 11:56 am: ==Therefore, Pres. Kennedy nationalized the guard.== If memory serves, Eisenhower also nationalized the National Guard in Arkansas. Similar reason. - TominChicago - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:01 pm: =====It’s a sad day that to defend the US border from dangerous people and cargo, is a partisan thought===== What’s sadder too is that someone actually believes the racist xenophobic rants of that child in the White House - Chicago_Downstater - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:08 pm: @Ole General Isn’t being between a rock and a hard place somewhere a leader should be ready to find him/herself? Those are the moments that define leaders and Rauner punted…again. @cdog “It’s a sad day when a sizeable portion of my fellow citizens hold a different view than me.” Fixed it for you. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:10 pm: –Anyone that doesn’t understand the background to these issues is not well informed.– Please, don’t hide your light under a bushel. How do unarmed guardsmen “defend the border?” From whom? - Stones - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:15 pm: Why should Illinois expend scarce resources to defend border states? I don’t get it. - Pot calling kettle - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:19 pm: How about this: It’s a sad day that to defend the US citizens from dangerous people buying guns, is a partisan thought. - OFE - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:20 pm: =Really bad decision. Hopefully Trump doesn’t call on Illinois. Complete waste of resources.= Speaking of complete waste of resources, is deploying guardsmen-women to foriegn countries requested in support of Operation Flailing Empire worth denying? - Ike - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:27 pm: But who will man DHS offices in an AFSCME strike if the Gov sends them the Nat guard to the boarder? /s - Anonymous - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:27 pm: Rauners response was adequate. No need to dig in to a position, when likelihood Illinois national guard will not be used. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:29 pm: ===No need to dig in to a position=== Governor? ===If we are requested, I believe we’ll honor that request.”=== That’s kinda digging into a position… - Jocko - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:31 pm: ==defend the US border from dangerous people== I believe cdog is referring to the caravan of rapists on their way./s - Pundent - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 12:44 pm: =How do unarmed guardsmen “defend the border?” From whom?= Net immigration from Mexico has been down for years now. The only thing that I expect they would do is to help carry the bags of those returning to Mexico. And I think this is a very legitimate question to pose to any governor. The President is clearly trying to create distractions from the scrutiny that he’s under. Today it’s the border and National Guard tomorrow it could be something completely different. The real issue for the governor is his willingness to enable that behavior. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 1:07 pm: –If memory serves, Eisenhower also nationalized the National Guard in Arkansas.– He did, in 1957. But that was to take them out of the situation, as Gov. Faubus had been using the guard to block black students from enrolling at Little Rock Central High, as had been ordered by a federal judge. Instead, Eisenhower sent 1,000 troops from the 101st Airborne to enforce the court order to integrate at the points of bayonets. The commander was Gen. Edwin Walker, a very strange figure in American history. Walker retired in 1961, and became a rabid Birch and segregation activist. In 1962, Walker was arrested at a protest trying to prevent the integration of the University of Mississippi. In April 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald is alleged to have just missed sniping Walker in his Dallas home. Walker’s last appearance in the news was an arrest in a public restroom in a Dallas park for getting handsy with and propositioning an undercover cop. He pleaded nolo contendre. - TominChicago - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 1:17 pm: Stones - For the most part, the DOD pays for the costs of the guard through the National Guard Bureau even when not called by the POTUS. - cdog - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 1:28 pm: I sure hope my response is allowed to post. It is solid opposition to the typical responses here. Actually, ISIS has published their intention to sneak a nuke through the southern US border. https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2017/0115/Terror-and-the-Mexico-border-How-big-a-threat Also, “soldiers unearthed two Claymores, a grenade launcher, two Barrett .50 caliber rifles, 17 AK-47 rifles, ballistic plates, ammunition, and magazines.” https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-10/ak-47-rifles-claymore-mines-grenade-launchers-discovered-mexico-border NG will use drones for surveillance, helicopters for enforcement. These people are doing good work. The State Dept has issued several recent warnings for all you folks wondering why that all inclusive is so cheap, recently. Xenophobic? Not in the slightest, my strawman friend. I am all for the legal free flow of people, and capital. I’m not so hot on the illegal free flow of either. Black market people (human trafficing) and black market capital don’t help any of us, anywhere in the world. Obviously there are things going on we don’t have the clearance to know about. - TominChicago - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 1:33 pm: Do those ISIS terrorists have calves the size of cantaloupes too? Anyway, didn’t the child in chief just tell us that ISIS is dead? - Huh? - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 1:40 pm: All this hot air about protecting the border with Mexico, and not 1 word about protecting the longest unsecured border with Canada. - TominChicago - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 1:54 pm: Funny, I don’t recall Trump citing ISIS as his reason for the Guard mobilization. That’s more of a Gohmert King branch of the xenophobes. Trump claims that ISIS has been defeated in any event. And dude, Breitbart as a source????? That’s a hill you want to die on? - VanillaMan - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 3:42 pm: I can’t believe I read that a gubernatorial candidate just accused a president of being racist for sending troops to our border. LOL - Leigh John-Ella - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 4:26 pm: Rauner will send troops to the Mexico border to help Trump but he won’t send them to Quincy to fight legionaella? - Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Apr 11, 18 @ 5:40 pm: This is a typical problem for self-proclaimed smart guys. They think they know everything. They answer questions they aren’t sure they know the answers too because they’ve been right 99% of the time in their lives. They want everyone else to know how smart they are. And they love the sound of their own voices. Rauner has been campaigning pretty much nonstop for five years, and he is still answering hypothetical questions. “President Trump hasn’t called.” All you had to say, buddy. You would think all his years in the financial sector would have made him wise to the perils of forward-looking statements. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.