With another disappointing Bears season having finally, mercifully, come to an end, the time has once again come for me to once again ask the burning question . . . No, not who the McCaskeys will hire as coach now that they’ve fired Matt Nagy, about a year after it was obvious he was the […]
Category: On Politics
Posted inOn Politics
MAGA science
Having spent the better part of the last week closely following the showdown between CPS and its teachers, I’ve concluded there’s no way Mayor Lightfoot truly believes the positions she’s been taking. Not unless the mayor—who ran as a progressive—has suddenly transformed into a Chicago version of Ron DeSantis, ’cause the stuff she’s been spouting […]
Posted inOn Politics
Good news, Dems
I’m happy to report a little good news as we head off into the new year—Donald Trump has endorsed Mary Miller in her race against Rodney Davis in the 15th Congressional District. I know you must be wondering why I think a Trump endorsement is good news. It’s because Davis and Miller are incumbent congresspeople […]
Posted inOn Politics
The year of the mogul
Wirtz, Reinsdorf, and Ricketts battle Bluhm to see which mogul the mayor
and council love the most.
Posted inOn Politics
Soak the suckers
In the days since a Cook County jury declared Jussie Smollett guilty, guilty, guilty I’ve been wondering how Republicans will use the verdict to squeeze even more money from the suckers and saps who finance the MAGA cause. This ongoing shakedown of MAGA by MAGA is something I know a lot about. As I receive […]
Posted inOn Politics
FOIA fighter
For the last few weeks, there’s been heated debate about Mayor Rahm and his handling of the Laquan McDonald video. The question is: Did the mayor cover up evidence of a murder when he sat on the video showing police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting McDonald in 2014—only releasing the video after a Cook County […]
Posted inOn Politics
Bad memories
As one of the few people I know who has watched Impeachment, I’m still struggling to figure out why I’m so relatively alone in watching it. Obsessively watching it, I might add. As in having eagerly awaited every new episode, and then rewatching key scenes. Impeachment: American Crime Story being Ryan Murphy’s ten-part series on […]
Posted inOn Politics
Pushing back
It took a while, but at last something reassuring emerged in the aftermath of the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse for murder by a mostly white jury in Kenosha, Wisconsin. That would be Dahleen Glanton’s insightful column in Sunday’s Sun-Times—one of the few sympathetic appraisals in the mainstream press of Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber, and Gaige […]
Posted inOn Politics
Buried secrets
For proof that the people who run this city are determined to never change their ways, I bring you the latest unsavory details regarding the harassment of female lifeguards at Oak Street Beach. They’re contained in the recently released Hays Report, so named for Valarie Hays, the corporate lawyer who wrote it. The Park District […]
Posted inOn Politics
The lying game
Just about the only good thing to come out of the Aaron Rodgers fiasco is that it gives us a textbook example of how MAGA finagles its way out of a jam. Almost as though the Green Bay Packers quarterback’s behavior was orchestrated by Donald Trump himself. First—they lie. Then—deny. Then prevaricate. Then obfuscate. Or […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Rays of sunshine
Amid the doom and gloom of MAGA’s resurgence in the race for governor in Virginia, a little good news from Illinois . . . The Democrats stuck it to those dastardly Republicans in the congressional remapping. Though you wouldn’t know that to hear centrist Dems wracked with guilt over the possible demise of Congressman Adam […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Rahm justice
Having watched almost three excruciating hours of Mayor Rahm’s testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about whether he should be confirmed as ambassador to Japan, I have concluded that . . . I deserve a raise! Seriously, folks, they don’t pay enough to sit through such dreck. Last week’s Senate hearing was a […]
Posted inOn Politics
The “fuckton” twins . . .
I was fired up to excoriate Mayor Lightfoot for her recent “fuckton” comments, when . . . John Catanzara released a video of himself holding a sign that read: “John Catanzara for mayor 2023.” And immediately I was overwhelmed with an urge to excoriate him. As Johnny C has come to Lightfoot’s rescue with his […]
Posted inOn Politics
The long haul
I’ve been writing for the Reader for so long that lots of you may think I’ve always been writing for the Reader. Like, you know, I hopped out of my mother’s womb with a pencil in my hand and a question or two for the doctor about TIFs. Not true—I didn’t have a pencil in […]
Posted inOn Politics
Sorry, Arlington Heights
Pound for pound the funniest headline for the last week, if not month, came from the unlikeliest source—Crain’s Chicago Business. Not widely known for its knee-slappers. But in this case they had me laughing out loud, when a few days ago they posed the following question in a mass e-mailed clickbait post: “A new Bears […]