Jussie Smollett just can't stop lying!
And what are we to make of Chicago's drop in crime? And Trump's tsunami of pardons?
5-29-2025 (issue No. 195)
This week:
News and Views — Hot takes, fully baked
Land of Linkin’ — Where I tell readers where to go
Squaring up the news — Where Charlie Meyerson tells readers where to go
Quotables — A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately
Quips — The winning visual jokes and this week’s contest finalists
Good Sports — An update on the Colorado Rockies’ prospects for setting a new standard for futility just one season after the White Sox did
Green Light — A recommendation via Peter Sagal of the 1985 novel “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry
Good riddance at long last to Jussie Smollett
I was hoping never again to type the name of the fatuous, self-important liar Jussie Smollett, but the actor and singer is back in the news with a recent statement on social media in which he declared, “Despite arduous and expensive attempts to punish me, I am innocent both in the eyes of God and of our criminal justice system."
The statement accompanied news that Smollett has agreed to make a $50,000 donation to Building Brighter Futures Center for the Arts, a South Side not-for-profit agency, in exchange for the city dropping a civil suit against him. That suit sought to reclaim the estimated $130,000 police spent investigating Smollett’s phony claim in early 2019 that he’d been the victim of a racist, homophobic attack on a sidewalk in the Streeterville neighborhood.
God knows it was lie.
And the criminal justice system found Smollett guilty in 2021 of staging the attack, presumably to raise his public profile and advance his career.
The only reason he can claim innocence is that, thanks to the bizarre and unaccountable bumbling of former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled last fall that an early, hasty decision to drop the charges against him constituted a binding plea deal so he should never have been tried.
For a full retelling of this saga, consult my post in the wake of that high court ruling, “Please indulge me one last time in calling bullshit on Jussie Smollett and Kim Foxx,” which turns out not to have been the last time.
Had Smollett quietly made his settlement donation and slithered away, I might not even have mentioned it. But this statement is so jaw-droppingly obtuse, dishonest and provocative, I must reproduce it in full simply for the record:
Over six years ago after it was reported I had been jumped, city officials in Chicago set out to convince the public that I willfully set an assault against myself. This false narrative has left a stain on my character that will not soon disappear. These officials wanted my money and wanted my confession for something I did not do. Today, it should be clear they have received neither.
The decision to settle the civil lawsuit was not the most difficult one to make. After repeatedly refusing to pay the city, I was presented with an opportunity to make a charitable donation in exchange for the case being dismissed. Despite what happened there politically, Chicago was my home for over five years, and the people became my family. Therefore, making a donation to benefit Chicago communities that are too often neglected by those in power will always be something I support. I've made a $50,000 direct donation to Brighter Futures Center for the Arts, a local nonprofit doing incredible work nurturing self-expression, creativity and exploration of the arts for Chicago youth. This organization was of my choosing, and I'm comforted that there will be at least one winner from this experience.
Though I was exonerated by the Illinois Supreme Court in a unanimous decision, and the civil case will be dismissed, I'm aware that it will not change everyone's mind about me or the attack I experienced. However, despite arduous and expensive attempts to punish me, I am innocent, in the eyes of God and our criminal justice system. What I have to do now is move forward. I will continue creating my art, fighting passionately for causes I hold dear, and defending my integrity and family name with the truth.
Lastly, I'm grateful to have had the resources to defend myself. So many do not. They are backed in the corner to take deals or confess to crimes they did not actually commit. In their honor, I am donating an additional $10,000 to the Chicago Torture Justice Center, who provides resources to communities healing from the violence of the Chicago Police Department. To anyone who has had to prove they have in fact been violated, you know how difficult this can be to navigate. I stand with and for you.
To everyone who has supported me, thank you. Your prayers and belief in me mean more than words can properly express.
I will never take it lightly. I will never forget.
Onward.
Just to reiterate, Smollett was not “exonerated” by the Illinois Supreme Court, which did not address the powerful evidence of Smollett’s guilt, evidence that Smollett’s appeal did not challenge. Rather the justices simply overturned an appellate court ruling — confoundingly in my view — by holding that putting him on trial amounted to double jeopardy in light of the agreement Foxx’s office had — again confoundingly — struck with him.
The civil case was not “dismissed” but settled, with the liable party (Smollett) paying up.
Perhaps this will be the last time I will type Smollett’s name?
Onward.
Last week’s winning quip
If you drink enough, any bar can be a karaoke bar. — @KevinBuffalo
Here are this week’s nominees, and here is the direct link to the new poll.
News & Views
News: President Donald Trump is drunk on his pardon power
View: It will require a constitutional amendment to rein in the presidential pardon power because, evidently, the Founders never anticipated a president so deeply corrupt that he would use the power simply to reward his allies, throw shade at the justice system.
His pardon of the goons who beat the crap out of Capitol Police officers during at attempted insurrection on Trump’s behalf on Jan. 6, 2021, and his pardon of our sleazy former Gov. Rod Blagojevich were illustrative. Recently he’s pardoned:
Former Culpepper County, Virginia, Sheriff Scott Jenkins, a staunch MAGA supporter. who was about to start serving a 10-year prison sentence for conspiracy, honest services fraud and bribery. ““He is a wonderful person who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,” Trump wrote on social media.
Reality TV performers Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted in 2022 for attempting to defraud banks for more than $30 million along with several tax crimes and were serving 12- and 7-year sentences respectively. Their daughter, Savannah, was a key part of “Team Trump’s Women Tour,” and she poke at the Republican National Convention last summer. Her parents had been “overly prosecuted by an unjust justice system,” a White House spokesman said.
Former nursing home executive Paul Walczak, who pleaded guilty last year to tax crimes. Here’s The New York Times’ summary:
Between 2016 and 2019, (prosecutors) said, (Walczak) withheld more than $10 million from the paychecks of the nurses, doctors and others who worked at his facilities under the pretext of using it for their Social Security, Medicare and federal income taxes. Instead, he used some of the money to buy a $2 million yacht and to pay for travel and purchases at high-end retailers, including Bergdorf Goodman and Cartier.
But Walczak’s mother, Elizabeth Fago, had raised millions for the campaigns of Trump and other Republicans, co-hosted a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago and attended ta $1 million-per-person fundraising dinner in April. So Trump spared Walczak an 18-month prison sentence and nearly $4.4 million restitution payment by granting a full pardon. Why? Because he’d been “targeted by the Biden administration over his family’s conservative politics,” said a White House statement.
The list goes on. and includes former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland and former New York U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm — both are Republicans, both pleaded guilty to felonies, both spent time in prison and both received presidential pardons on Wednesday.
(I’m not counting Wednesday’s commutation of former Gangster Disciples leader Larry Hoover’s federal life sentence because he’s still incarcerated on state murder charges for which Trump cannot pardon him.)
Back away from the keyboard, those of you who want to remind me of when Democratic presidents have abused the pardon power. Granted! This is a bipartisan problem and calls for a bipartisan move to curtail it by amending the Constitution.
News: Crime rates are dropping in Chicago, which saw the least violent Memorial Day weekend in 15 years.
View: This is good news, of course, and the overall drop in violent crime from spikes during the pandemic is a relief.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is taking a victory lap: “Through these critical investments that we are making for housing and economic development, robberies are down by 36%, shootings are down by 36%, homicides are down by 21%, and violent crime overall is down by 21%," he said, citing the reopening of three community mental health clinics and a bigger summer jobs program for youths.
But other major cities have experienced greater or, in some cases, similar drops in violent crime, and the reasons for the improvement are varied and somewhat mysterious. Criminologists pore over this sort of data and try to tease out the cultural, economic, technological, environmental, penal and police deployment factors that lead to movements in the crime rate.
Johnson thinking his policies are the reason crime is down may be like the rooster thinking his crowing brought about the sunrise. And if crime ticks back up in 2026 — the year his reelection campaign will swing into gear should he choose to run again in early 2027 — he’ll have to take responsibility for it.
News: Democratic U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Naperville has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Dick Durbin.
View: Underwood had a strong showing in some early “what if?” polls on the 2016 Democratic U.S. Senate primary, and while it’s hard to tell where her support might go, I suspect much of it will go to U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg. He has entered the race along with Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton of Chicago and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Lynwood. Stratton has the endorsement and presumably the considerable financial backing of Gov. JB Pritzker as well as the endorsement of Sen. Tammy Duckworth, but her legislative experience is very thin and Krishnamoorthi has a $19 million campaign war chest to underscore that for voters.
I still think Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias would win the primary, but he hasn’t entered the race. His entry or the entry of Comptroller Susana Mendoza, also still on the sidelines, would dramatically change the contours of the race.
News: Trump’s budget proposal will eliminate federal income taxes on tips.
View: There is no logical reason that tips aren’t every bit as much “income” as wages, so this idea makes sense only as a tax break for those for whom tips make up a significant part of their earnings — often low-paid employees.
But why Trump instead didn’t simply create a truly progressive tax benefit that would cover all low-paid employees instead of those just who work for tips is beyond me, as is how the diminished Internal Revenue Service is going to get around those who try to game the system. A recent Tribune editorial included the tip exclusion among the “illogicalities (and) craven giveaways” in the budget bill.
It won’t be difficult to newly classify some form of income as “tipped” to gain that tax-advantaged status and employers might well correspondingly try to reduce non-tipped components of tipped employees’ income and argue the worker will come out the same. We could see a world where tips become very heavily “suggested” (possibly by a computer) if a consumer wants to get a fair deal and an employer wants to save money. Imagine an Uber ride (or a meal) where your cost goes down with a suggested “tip.”
It’s an incoherent and costly initiative, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy for the Democrats — once, God willing, they take charge again — to repeal it.
News: Former Chicago police officer who killed her husband, also a police officer, will spend just seven days in prison after her plea deal.
View: I’m not a student of this case, in which Jacqueline Villasenor pleaded guilty to shooting and killing her husband, German Villasenor, during an argument in 2021. She said it was an accident that happened after she pulled out her gun and threatened to kill herself. Who knows?
But what caught my eye was that, even though she received a six-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter, the Sun-Times reported that “with Illinois’ day-for-day sentencing law and credit for the years she spent on electronic monitoring awaiting trial, Jacqueline Villasenor is expected to serve about seven days in the Illinois Department of Corrections, plus a year of supervised release.”
Illinois law counts a day wearing an ankle bracelet the same as a day in prison, which is an almost offensive legal fiction. If it were true, then we’d let convicted felons serve their time on electronic monitoring.
And don’t get me started on the “day-for-day” sentencing law that all but automatically cuts sentences in half. I’m not saying sentences should be longer than they are, just that judges (and the media) should be honest about how long they are.
News: Trump has acted to halt the minting of pennies
View: “At last Trump proposes change I can believe in.”
From my click survey in April 2023:
Land of Linkin’
Recommended: Tribune contributing columnist Jim Nowlan’s op-ed “With the Chinese outpacing our tech advances, has our ‘Sputnik moment’ come and gone?”
Self-pitying troglodyte John Kass wrote this in a Sunday blog post: “The Trib was once the voice of midwestern conservatism. It was about as mainstream as you could get. No longer. Once the leftist Jacobins took over newsroom, the knives came out and I had to go.” So I am obligated, due to the bond with my readers, to once again offer a link to “The truth about John Kass’ dispute with the Tribune and the Tribune Guild.”
I went down the Weird History rabbit hole. It’s a “Sunup already?” website, I warn you.
Is it accurate to refer to the deadly gun attack on two employees of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., as “an act of cowardice”? I put my opinion — no — to the readers on Tuesday.
“‘Our people hire our people’: Long before DOJ probe into Mayor Brandon Johnson, racial politics coursed through City Hall hiring,” by the Tribune’s Alice Yin, is exactly the sort of in-depth, historical reporting relevant to a current issue that keep newspapers vital.
In “Police oversight in Chicago is a bureaucratic nightmare,” my fellow “Mincing Rascals” panelist Austin Berg makes the case for a Los Angeles-style single oversight body, because “Chicago’s convoluted oversight structure produces too much political infighting and not enough accountability or transparency. It’s not just inefficient – it actively prevents meaningful police reform.”
Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker, a frequent critic of his institution, defended it against President Donald Trump’s ominous efforts to undercut the university in a New York Times essay, “Harvard Derangement Syndrome.”
Squaring up the news
This is a bonus supplement to the Land of Linkin’ from veteran radio, internet and newspaper journalist Charlie Meyerson. Each week, he offers a selection of intriguing links from his daily email news briefing Chicago Public Square:
■ David Dayen at The American Prospect says Senate Democrats have a tool to stop President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
■ The anonymously bylined Closer to the Edge newsletter: “We read every word of the bill. All 1,000+ pages of it. What we found … was a sprawling Rorschach test of authoritarian fantasy, fossil fuel worship and trickle-down mythology. Still … there are a few shiny coins buried in the wreckage.”
■ You don’t have to look far to find sanewashing like “Trump honors fallen soldiers at Arlington” atop accounts of the president’s Memorial Day exploits—but that undersells an address in which Wonkette’s Evan Hurst says Trump “babbled like a demented Nero.”
■ Days after publishing a 900-word “manifesto” from the Chicago man accused of killing two Israeli Embassy aides, investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein shared “messages from a private group chat where (the suspect) was a prolific poster (right up to the day before the shooting).”
■ Weather forecasters see years of killer heat ahead as the globe gets warmer.
■ The U.S. nuclear energy industry’s surge is taking hold along Lake Michigan.
■ Columnist Andy Shaw flags Chicago’s street crime: “I’m not just talking about the number of carjackings, armed robberies and smash-and-grab burglaries. … I’m talking about something even more disturbing: The utter failure of the Chicago Police Department to catch the perpetrators.”
■ Chicago journalist Dan Sinker found himself discouraged as he read “hundreds of applications for something” clearly written by a chatbot—until he found “delight and joy and sadness” in one “written entirely by a person.”
■ Then again: Mother Prompter columnist (and, ahem, your Chicago Public Square columnist’s daughter-in-law) Nicole Willis Meyerson offers two AI-powered cooking hacks to save parents time and mental energy.
■ “How to kill 346 people and get away with it”: Popular Information reviews what’s happened since a Boeing 737 Max crashed into the Java Sea after takeoff in 2018.
■ SpaceXcruciating: Another Elon Musk-funded Starship launch went bad, evoking this recurring cartoon bit from the very early “Sesame Street.”
You can (and should) subscribe to Chicago Public Square free here.
Quotables
A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately
Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because ignorance works for power. First, make the truth seekers live in fear. Sue the journalists. For nothing. Then send masked agents to abduct a college student, a writer of her college paper who wrote an editorial supporting Palestinian rights, and send her to a prison in Louisiana and charge her with nothing. Then, move to destroy law firms that stand up for the rights of others. With that done, power can rewrite history. With grotesque, false narratives, they can make heroes criminals and criminals heroes. And they can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality. — CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley
One thing about my marriage is, it's never involved me having to send hush money to a porn star after cheating on my spouse. … So they want to debate family values? Let's debate family values. I'm ready. — Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter is not a nice person. — Dave Barry
A lot of Boomer wisdom is simply complaining — the senescentt spewing of a generation that has turned into old farts, just as the generations before us did. — Dave Barry
If you're wondering whether something is AI or not, AI has already won. — William Ader
Correct me if I’m wrong but I feel like the U.S. is the only country with a president who calls the citizens scum in his holiday messages. — Sgt. Pepper
I once owned a dog who avidly chased squirrels, but looked away when he met a deer. My wife explained: "Some things are too big to see." I recall that saying when journalists get excited over "Biden was addled" and ignore "Trump is a Putin- or Mobutu-scale crook." — David Frum
Quips
Due to the Monday holiday, there was no visual jokes poll this week.
The new nominees for Quip of the Week:
My dental health plan is chew on the other side. — @BobGolen
After age 30, an all-nighter is not getting up to pee.— @SundaeDivine
It is impossible to drink “too much” coffee. You have failed the coffee in your weakness. The coffee is not to blame. — @donni.bsky.social
Screw you double negatives! Screw you for not never doing nothing for nobody! — @jakevig.bsky.social
Me (having heard about a terrible thing happening to some random person):“Oof. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy” Later that day, Me (hearing about the same terrible thing happening to my worst enemy): “You know, I’m actually OK with this.” — @wheeltod.bsky.social
Home ownership is mostly saying “we should really repair that this summer” and then quietly letting 6 years go by. — @LurkAtHomeMom
There is a correct number of bananas you should buy for your household that will get eaten before they go bad. You're convinced the number is ten, but it's four. — @jackboot.bsky.social
Ernest Hemingway: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Shoe store manager: *pulls him aside* The “for sale” and “never worn” parts are implied, Ernest. — @frovo.bsky.social
I just found a grey pubic hair. I was so upset I had to throw the rest of the muffin in the bin. — @wildethingy
I believe it's not butter. I was just pretending it was butter to be polite. — @bestestname
Vote here and check the current results in the poll.
For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.
Why the new name for this feature? See “I’m rebranding ‘Tweet of the Week’ in a gesture of contempt for Elon Musk.”
Minced Words
Cate Plys, Austin Berg and I joined host John Williams on this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast. Topics included Chicago’s encouraging crime statistics, Jussie Smollett’s churlishly defiant statement after he settled the city’s lawsuit against him and the CTA’s Red Line extension project.
Recommendations:
John — A yellow light for the HBO series “The Rehearsal.”
Austin — A green light for the Season 2 finale of “The Rehearsal.”
Cate — A green light for the new Broadway staging of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” starring Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr and Michael McKean.
Eric — A green light for Larry McMurtry’s novel “Lonesome Dove,” highlighted below.
Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720.
Read the background bios of some regular panelists here.
Good Sports
Is the Tribune smart not to be aboard the Sky train?
The Sun-Times is sending journalists on the road to cover the WNBA Chicago Sky, while the Tribune is relying on wire copy. The Tribune’s story on Sunday’s game didn’t appear in the newspaper until Tuesday morning because it was a “late” game (that started at 5 p.m.).
But interest in the Sky may wane considerably if they don’t start winning games — they’re off to an 0-4 start after blowing a 16-point third quarter lead Tuesday night in a five-point loss to the Phoenix Mercury. Angel Reese, the marquee player, gets a lot of rebounds and makes her share of short shots, but isn’t really that much fun to watch.
Meanwhile, news that Indiana Fever phenom Caitlin Clark’s quadriceps strain will keep her out of the June 7 Sky-Fever game at the United Center has reportedly caused ticket prices to fall 71% on the secondary market. The game was moved from the Wintrust Arena (basketball capacity 10,387) to the United Center (basketball capacity 20,917) to accommodate what was expected to be a huge crowd.
On the rocky road to ignominy
After Wednesday’s third-straight loss to the Cubs, the Colorado Rockies stand at 9-47 (a winning percentage of .161), a start to the season even worse than the 10-46 start by the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, a team that holds the record for the worst record in MLB history for a season longer than 120 games (they finished 20-134, for a winning percentage of .130).
The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (36-117, .235) are considered the worst team in baseball’s modern era — which dates from 1900 for reasons explained here — and after 56 games, their record was 17-39.
The 2024 Chicago White Sox, current holder of the record for most losses in a season (41-121, .253), were 15-41 after 56 games. The 2025 White Sox are now 18-38.
The division-leading Cubs outscored the visiting Rockies by just four runs over three games, which suggests to me that they might not end up as the worst team in MLB history after all.
Green Light
Green Light features recommendations from me and readers not only of songs — as in the former Tune of the Week post — but also of TV shows, streaming movies, books, podcasts and other diversions that can be enjoyed at home — i.e., no restaurants, plays, theatrical films, tourist sites and so on. Email me your nominations, and please include a paragraph or two of explanation and background along with helpful links, perhaps including excerpts from reviews or background articles. For TV shows, please include links to trailers/previews on YouTube and advice on where to stream them.
This week’s Green Light is for Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 novel “Lonesome Dove” and comes from a Facebook post by author Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s long-running comedy quiz show “Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me”:
A few months ago, I was talking with (a friend) about novels. and he referenced "Lonesome Dove." And I said I'd never read it, and he just looked at me with a particular kind of surprised pity and said, "You've never read ‘Lonesome Dove’? Dude." So I’ve been reading “Lonesome Dove,” … (and) OMG I regret every minute I spent of my life not reading this book. I'm not finished, and find myself slowing down towards the end because once it's over, then I will no longer be able to be reading “Lonesome Dove.”
I remember having the same feeling reading “Lonesome Dove” shortly after it came out. It’s nearly 900 pages, and I came to dread the thought of finishing it.
Sagal’s post mentions a recent essay about McMurtry by Thomas Powers in The New York Review of Books:
“Lonesome Dove” (is) an irresistible saga of two retired Texas Rangers and half a dozen cowboys trailing a herd of cattle from the Rio Grande in Texas to Montana in the summer of 1876. … In Lonesome Dove the retired Texas Rangers — Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call — chafe but are bound to each other. Gus is lazy and talkative but focused in sticky situations, in a Texas way. Woodrow sleeps alone, rides a half-wild horse called the Hell Bitch, is a slave to duty, and is always ready for trouble, in a Texas way. How Gus and Call look at life and the world, and what holds them together, is the point of the book. Something hard to name lingers with the reader—the kind of thing we sense when we say a book is about something, or means something.
Though my general view is that life is too short to reread novels when there are so many excellent works I haven’t read, I’m very tempted to revisit “Lonesome Dove.”
I’ve read “To Kill a Mockingbird” three times and a bunch of high school-level classics (“The Scarlet Letter,” “Huckleberry Finn,” “Jane Eyre” and so on) twice, once in my school days and again when my daughter was reading them for English class.
Which books have you read more than once?
Info
Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise. Browse and search back issues here.
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Thanks for reading!
My theory is that the horrible weather in the last month and over Memorial Day helped lower crime. No one wants to go out when it’s cold and rainy. Even criminals.
Didn't know you could blow up the same thing twice--namely my head, which was already decimated after reading the shorter social media version of Jussie Smollett's indescribably awful statement of innocence. Thanks--sort of--for giving us the director's cut.