Posted inColumns & Opinion

MAGA enablers

For over twenty years, my centrist friends have been giving me grief for presidential losses the Democrats have suffered. For example . . . Gore’s defeat in 2000, allegedly caused by lefties voting for Ralph Nader. Or Hillary Clinton’s in 2016, allegedly caused by lefties not voting at all. The centrist message to me went […]

Posted inOn Politics

Biased driving

It was a mixed-message week on the homefront. Mayor Lightfoot rolled out the red carpet for NASCAR the day before she arm-twisted the alderpeople into cracking down on speeders to make our streets safer. So one day the mayor is cheering on stock car racers to go faster. And the next she’s sternly demanding motorists […]

Posted inColumns & Opinion

More madness from Mary

I suppose it’s somewhat reassuring to know people still get outraged by the MAGA madness Mary Miller spews. That we all haven’t gone numb to her lunacy—even though she seems to be saying crazy things all the time. In case you forgot, Mary Miller is the downstate congresswoman who made her name last year by […]

Posted inOn Politics

MAGA hate

Generally, I like to tell a joke or two in these columns, looking to underscore the absurdity of politics with a little dark humor. But no joking this time. On Saturday, an 18-year-old white supremicist armed with a semiautomatic rifle walked into a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and started shooting people. Black people, […]

Posted inOn Culture

The end of Roe

Regarding the recently revealed U.S. Supreme Court draft ruling on Roe v. Wade: WTF? Because, it’s the F we’re talking about, right? That little itch we’re biologically programmed to scratch and its inordinate, inequitable aftermath? As I’ve opined here before, if cisgender men were the ones carrying a pregnancy for nine months, suffering through an […]

Posted inOn Politics

Whole Foods flight

In the aftermath of Whole Foods closing its taxpayer-subsidized store in Englewood, it’s as good a time as ever for me to once again remind you that it was only four years ago that the city and state were begging Jeff Bezos to please, please, please take billions of our tax dollars and build a […]

Posted inOn Politics

No más

With word just breaking that Kenneth Griffin kicked in $20 million to Richard Irvin’s gubernatorial campaign, I guess you can say he passed the audition. Irvin, that is, not Griffin. No, Griffin’s running the audition. It’s his play, and he’s casting it. I thought Griffin might abandon Irvin after his inability to answer a straightforward […]

Posted inOn Politics

Profiles in cautiousness

It’s been over two weeks since Aurora mayor Richard Irvin announced he’s running for governor, making him a front-runner for the Republican nomination. And yet he still hasn’t mentioned the T word. That’s T as in Trump. Donald Trump to be exact—the man MAGA loves to love. Though, come to think of it, I haven’t […]

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

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

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 […]