Has anyone a list of the Republican members of Congress who have voted for USAID and public brodacasting funding many times and voted now to defund both at the instructions of the Wizard of Mar-a-Blago?
garry, you are remarkably consistent in your political opinions. and tho i frequently disagree with you, you let 'er rip with best of 'em.
whatever you think of paul [jr] and massie, they are not MAGAts, and are less lackeys of trump than the collection of repub invertebrates in the US house & senate. at least they voted against the Big Bloated Bullshit Bill.
not saying you shd like them, or even respect them. but i have some faith in repubs who aren't MAGAts.
You have to admit this about Paul. He sticks to his guns. I don't even consider him a true Republican. The Republican Party is simply closer to his libertarian views than Democrats. And you can't elected to Congress without aligning with one or the other. If you want batshit crazy, try John Fetterman. I just recently unsubscribed from his daily emails. Actually, I have no idea how I got on his list in the first place.
Even though we know the demographics of the readers of the PS thanks to EZ’s poll, you could also use the results of the Emmys poll. Lots of haven’t seen it answers. Including mine. 😅
I’ve only seen the first couple episodes. TBH I only started watching because I wanted to see the beginning of the episode that featured Sufjan Stevens and Lin Brehmer. It’s a tough watch.
You have more self discipline than me. Also, where I live, I can only pick up the PBS station from Gary. I tried, in order to get Sox games. I couldn't. Now that option is gone anyway in order for the Sox to kiss Comcast's rear end.
If you’re going to have just one channel, the Indiana PBS station is a pretty good one to have. They have most of the other excellent programming found on WTTW, and they have reruns of The Lawrence Welk Show on Saturday and Sunday nights at 7.
It could be just the sheer number of choices out there these days. There used to be three networks and a handful of shows that everyone watched, now there's a handful of platforms and dozens if not hundreds of offerings flooding popular culture. There's simply not enough time for a person with normal life commitments to watch all of this content.
I haven't seen any of the shows on the Emmy list. I realize it's highly unrealistic to expect that we'll ever return to the days of Channels 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 26, and 32 for free. I pay too much for Hulu streaming. I don't need the additional subscriptions.
I would have agreed under normal circumstances that taking the fifth, while an important constitutional right, makes one look less than innocent. However dealing with the current regime, I would not hold it against anyone. Anyone caught in the crosshairs of Trump's corrupt and weaponized DOJ knows that anything you say, will 100% be used against you, any carelessly uttered word may be a hook for potential prosecution, persecution, scandal, a hit piece on Fox, anything you can imagine. So I wouldn't hold it against anyone taking the fifth.
Regarding Comey and Trump's vindictiveness - that reminds me of the fallout from the first impeachment (the "perfect call" with Zelensky), he not only fired Alexander Vindman, the main witness against him, but also his twin brother Eugene, who had nothing to do with the proceedings, just out of spite.
It makes me wonder if Biden's pardons should have included his wife, doctor, and the first lady's advisor. An increasingly unhinged Trump is striking out at an increasing number of perceived enemies. The mass firings are another example of his extreme vindictiveness.
I don't think Jill Biden would be testifying against her husband. It sounds like the Oversight Committee is investigating if there was a cover up on Biden s unfitness for office. She is herself a potential target.
I found it crazy how perplexed EZ was about Biden and then immediately wrote the Comey thing. Maybe, just maybe, Biden took the 5th because Trump is "a vindictive piece of shit"?
Not only that, but what do any of them have to lose by pleading the fifth, regardless of what it may look like to the public? Joe Biden is never going to hold office again, and I doubt any of the ones subpoenaed are going to either. And it's a legitimate Constitutional right for them to invoke.
I agree that taking the fifth is they way to go. They owe nothing to Congress, and saying *anything* potentially exposes you to criminal liability. Clamming up should be the default option when being interrogated by authorities
Yes. In this case of investigating something that could be wrongdoing, I would take the fifth regardless of who was in the Whitehouse or which party had a congressional majority. There is only downside
As a believer, I find the statements by Johnson and Noem almost blasphemous. In the absence of a clear and obvious "Thus Saith the Lord", we can't know what God thinks of the attempted assassination of Trump and the flooding in Texas. We now know that the camp where all those poor kids drowned got a warning in plenty of time and they didn't act on it in time unlike another camp in the same situation. It may sound cruel but I can understand the camp director dying trying to rescue some of the campers. How could he have lived with himself for the rest of the life knowing that he was responsible for their deaths?
In agreement with David, here is an additional reference. Unlike Republican Speaker and self-proclaimed Christian, Mike Johnson, Jesus himself said in Matthew 5:45 that God "makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust." So, given Jesus' understanding, if a Christian wants to make a case for a Miraculous intervention by God, there needs to be a unique suspension of a law of nature or a unique intervention by some angelic being, otherwise, the circumstance is just a normal operation of God's creation. Neither of these unique interventions took place in the Trump shooting. So, apparently Jesus would acknowledge that it is simply a matter of politically religious hypocrisy to claim Trump as "God's man".
Eric's other issue asking how it is possible that a good supreme being can allow depraved people to thrive has been wrestled with for many millennia and cannot be addressed adequately in this kind of forum.
I'm not a believer but I find the statements by Johnson and Noem totally blasphemous!! Just where in the Bible is the "God saves one person while allowing the other person to die" verse?!? I have read the Bible and I can't find it.
Blasphemous, yes. If God indeed was determined to preserve Trump's life, why didn't He prevent the assassin from arriving at the rally at all, which would have spared volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore's life as well?
And why aren't MAGAs acknowledging that because no one fired shots at President Obama at all, that proves that God liked him better, and wanted him to survive as righteous contrast to his offensive successor, personifying how a President is supposed to act?
I won't go as far as Garry and say there is no God. But it's time to stop blaming Him for bad things. I remember when the floods hit New Orleans, the unChristian evangelicals were lined up to say that God was punishing New Orleans for its wickedness. I wonder how they explain what recently happened in Texas. The little girls were tools of Satan?
Over the years I have noted many more examples of people giving God credit for good things (especially benefits to themselves or others they like, such as Trump's near-assassination), yet absolving Him of responsibility for tragedies, because God is all-good and His benevolent ways are mysterious.
But you make a good point about the interpreters of punishment. If God really does inflict huge tragedies on His people and then coyly leaves them to guess what He's peeved about, that's a mighty passive-aggressive, sloppy way for an Omnipotent One to run a Universe.
Assume Pat (generic name) has done me a personal, intentional grave wrong. If I respond by driving twenty miles to his house and blowing up his mailbox under cover of darkness, I've only vented my spleen while giving him NO information about what (if any) of his behavior to consider changing. The act might motivate Pat, though, to shoot at the Goth teenager down the street when he walks past his driveway, and to back over another neighbor's rose bush, because the vandal had to be one or the other of those folks! Now the whole neighborhood is righteously aggrieved and mutually suspicious. Sounds a lot like World History, eh?
This tangent is a favorite in my own quotation collection:
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
Let's simplify things. I'll keep this to me. I have had both successes and failures in my life. If I examine each individual occurrence, I will find that I, not God, was responsible for both successes and failures. Now there may have been a confluence of events involving other people over which I had no control. But nothing I said for reasons involves the interference of God.
Regarding the Elia quote, let's take a moment and tip our hat to the late, great Les Grobstein. He was there that day with his trusty recorder otherwise the audio would be lost to the ages. From the early days of Sportsphone to eating hours on the midnight shift on Score, he was a character. Our character. Anyone who has spent any time listening to him has to have a soft spot for him.
I'm okay with higher with that if the product improves as I don't see any other way in today's professional sports. As far as the stadium, he'll bring more personal dollars to the table than Reinsdorf ever did. I think he'll build something near where the Fire is building.
The product won't improve & not with my tax money, not for a stadium or for infrastructure. if you're a billionaire with a team worth billions, use your own money as Mansueto is doing & use the team's value as collateral for a bank loan, if you can find a bank stupid enough to loan you money for a losing proposition, as every new stadium built has been!
i think the agmt has it that ishbia cd take over by '29. i don't know all what the timing depends on - whether it's just reinsdorf's whim, or if there i some objective component to the agmt.
Regarding government cut backs it reminds me of some times at work when I was asked if I could do with less of a staff/money. I’d usually answer, yes, as long as nothing breaks. Same thing today. We’re fine… except every time something breaks. I feel bad for the under funded people who had to make choices about what not to do because there wasn’t enough money to do it all. It’s a little like playing Russian Roulette. Most of the time you’ll be just fine.
I'd like to argue with your statement "Trump is a vindictive piece of shit" - except 1) first part is not true; 2) second part is true. :P "History of Applause" unpopular opinion - drawn out standing ovations are irritating. No 'roaring 20s' here.
I have being trying to understand this comment and failing. It seems that you are asserting that trump is not vindictive. Surely there is ample evidence to the contrary (see the firing of Maureen Comey just yesterday). Perhaps I have misunderstood. If so, I apologize.
I stream many shows (e.g. Trying, Andor, the Crown, Heartland, to name just a few---and right now I'm totally enjoying the 90s series The Eliott Sisters on Britbox.) But I kept hitting "Haven't seen it" on these Emmy noms, and was taken aback that I was clearly not "with it" culturally---until I finally got to The Bear--green light! I agree with Eric that the scene with Carmy and his mom (Jamie Lee Curtis) in Season 4 was flat out incredible, heartbreaking, but also beautiful, with amazing acting. Also, part of why I love the Bear is that, in my opinion, it's a pure love letter to Chicago, good and bad. The L, the restaurants, the wonderful and the grungy parts of the city---it's all lovingly filmed IN Chicago. BTW, I read that the "comedy" category was chosen by The Bear powers-that-be because there's less competition there than in the drama category. As for not having seen so many Emmy shows---I guess I'm in good company with many EZ readers!:-)
David Brooks offers thoughtful criticisms of modern society. However, I feel he stops short of calling for the radical changes in our economic system that seem to me to be the only way to address the problems he identifies.
I'm reminded of an episode of 'The Day the Universe Changed' where host James Burke talked about how jousting became increasingly more violent as knights sought an advantage over their foes. To avoid being unseated, knights would use high-backed saddles, but that led to more force being transferred to, and thus injuring, the horses. So that led to bigger, stronger horses being used, which led to harder hits and knights getting injured. And that led to knights switching from chain mail to plate mail, making them heavier and needing even bigger, stronger horses. And so on, and so on.
The point being, adding helmets and pads in football has led to what we have today, with players hitting harder and faster, which has led to more concussions.
I'll tell you what I think about. Many athletic fields and courts have remained the same size while players have grown bigger and faster. There was a time when many NBA guards couldn't dunk. Now point guards are sometimes as big as centers were in my days and much more athletic. In the football of my youth, a large defensive lineman might be 240 pounds. Now many of them are over 300 pounds and much more able to roam from sideline to sideline. Linebackers and defensive linemen are now more able to catch up to speedy offensive backs and slam them. Improved training techniques and more time in the weight room means no more little skinny defensive backs. I agree with everything you said. But on fields the same size for a hundred years we have much larger, faster, and stronger defensive people. Maybe field sizes should change. Watch a Canadian football game some time. Rules such as only 3 downs, and multiple receivers able to move forward before the snap put a much higher premium on fast movement rather than trench warfare.
Looking back to the NHL and helmets, I understand that most everyone wanted to wear one but that they didn't want to do it alone. Once the league required the helmets, everyone was saved from the imagined ridicule.
The NFL should just look at ALL the players who suffer from brain injury and mandate the safer helmets yesterday. For all players.
There were quite a few NHL players who wore them voluntarily, particularly after Bill Masterton’s death, even before the league made them mandatory in the late ‘70s. There was also the quirk of the grandfather clause that enabled players who were playing before the mandate to continue to go helmetless, so that year by year, there were fewer and fewer unprotected heads on the ice. By the early ‘90s I noticed how rare it was; there’s Doug Wilson…and Brad Marsh…and Ron Duguay…and Al Secord…and old Harold Snepsts…oh and Guy Lafleur since he came out of retirement ….and that’s it.
In regards to housing and the ADU comment, id like to point out that the bigger housing initiative of the week passed without a peep from anyone. Parking requirements within a half mile of a CTA station and quarter mile of bus major bus stops. This is huge! This will make it easier and cheaper to build classic Chicago housing like 3 flats and courtyard buildings. The ADU co versation sucked up all the air but this transformational. Its weird thr ADUs got so much attention but this parking reform, much more transformational for the city, got barely noticed.
How come people are so quick to accept Mendoza? Is it because she says mean things about Brandon Johnson?
We just put her mentors in prison and already want to give that strain of Illinois politics power again. Its weird. This is what happened with Vallas, people didnt want to see a Daley stooge back in office. This city's centrist dems will make the same mistake as New York, find someone who actually wants to make the city better and has plans to do that. Running the same, tired playbook hasnt worked and I doubt it will for Mendoza
Daley is the sole reason Vallas lost the primary to that crook Blago, as Daley refused to endorse anyone then, due his his annoyance with Vallas getting all the credit for the school system revival.
So they ended sourly, who cares? Vallas still ran CPS longer than the vast majority of school superintendents and had Daley's full backing. Together, he and Daley cost CPS $1.5 billion since he left. CPS has never recovered and this failure has resulted in the CTU going to war. The school closures are a result of this. Crime and falling test scores correlate with poor school performance and school closures.
What Vallas did to CPS has had major, horrible fall outs that we are dealing with every single day and every election. Everything that happens in this city happens in the shadow of what Vallas did to CPS financially.
Nope, see, you're blaming a group you dislike instead of dealing with what actually happened. Vallas, messed up the budget a decade before what you are referencing. Those school closures and the CTU becoming the force it is today is a reaction to Vallas', Daley's, and Chico's horrible running of the district.
Vallas took money out of teacher's pensions to fund the general operating budget. Stock market didn't do so hot, teacher pension account got destroyed. We now are in the hole $1.5 billion to the teacher's pension. Ever since then the school district has been playing catch up. We have had to scale back school bus routes, close schools, lay off staff, and make the district worse.
In the meantime, Vallas also invested in charter schools, which don't provide better education, but DO suck money out of the system further weakening it.
Now, we can't upkeep our schools and we can't pay our teachers or staff, further weakening the system and the neighborhoods. CTU is VERY aware o this. They know EXACTLY why we can't pay our bills, and it's not them (despite all the finger pointing they get!) If Vallas never structurly weakened the district the CTU would never be the problem it is. But Vallas, with supporting roles from Emmanuel and Barbara Byrd-Bennet, destroyed trust in the city so the CTU took things into their own hands.
Not paying teacher's pensions and investing in charter schools has had disastrous effects across the whole city. It's weakened neighborhoods, it's weakened our financial position, it's empowered the CTU, and it's made the city less appealing as a whole.
Why we still want to vote for these people who have such long tales of failure is mind bogglingly.
Vallas did nothing without Daley's approval, as Daley was a hopeless egomaniac.
He wanted credit for everything that went on in the city, but none of the blame for what went wrong.
CTU has been wrecking CPS for decades with their outrageous salary & benefit demands.
The hardly pay anything for their pensions, the school board, meaning the taxpayers are supposed to put the equivalent of 9% of their pay into their pensions & the teachers are also supposed to put 9% of their salaries into that same pension fund.
But for decades now, the taxpayers are putting 16% of it into that fund & the teachers just 2%!
Then why did Vallas do the exact same things in Philadelphia and New Orleans where he didn't have Daley? Why does he still support the same, bad ideas that have done nothing but get him promoted?
Also, what is with center right Chicagoans absolute love affair with Paul Vallas? For the life of me, I will never understand why he is so well defended.
I get you, and a whole bunch of other people in Chicago, hate the people who teach children and don't deserve the pay they get, but they did make those deals. It was the city (Vallas) who failed to fund their pensions. It is the city who, after failing to fund their pensions, wanted to fire them and get rid of their jobs.
No wonder they got radicalized! They were lied to and stolen from. But hey, let's keep blaming the black woman for being so terrible... certainly not the people with actual power who made actual decisions.
'... can't pay our teachers and staff'? what a crock.
Current average CPS teacher salary (2025):
$86,439 per year for a full-time teacher.
In April 2025, newly ratified union and district contracts project that the average salary for a CPS teacher will surpass $114,000 by the 2027–2028 school year
you are deluded.
and why do you blame charter schools for '... disastrous effects across the whole city. It's weakened neighborhoods, it's weakened our financial position ...'? where's the evidence, other than the self-serving 'evidence' from CTU leadership? why does it seem that all opponents of school choice think low income parents of miority students 1] aren't capapble of make a school choice for their child and 2] don't deserve school choice?
the raving lunatic/hypocrite SDG vigorously opposes school choice - except for her own child[ren].
your rationale is just to protect the bloated system for the employed adults, it appears.
revisionist history - you have no idea of what you're saying about the vallas era at CPS.
explain, e.g., the alleged '... he and Daley cost CPS $1.5 billion since he left.' - where's your proof? 'where's the beef?', as clara wd say.
as to the school closures - not enough CPS schools have been closed. 47 out of Chicago's 644 public schools operate at less than one-third capacity. they should be closed or merged. get rid of the excess administrators [principals, asst principals] and costs of operating the bldgs [utilities, bldg engineers, etc].
CPS needs to tighten its belt before coming to the txpayers for more $$.
Some of you were being so nasty to each other, I decided to stay out of it. There's a middle ground here. Schools work when qualified teachers are in front of students paying attention with support from home. That has been my experience for over 40 years. I have taught in rural communities that spend half of what CPS spends per student. I fully admit that rural students don't live in the same world as city students. My point is that education is education, no matter what we want to argue about money and politics. But since all you brought it up, union issues are an old story in Chicago. You can go back further than Vallas and Richard M. Daley. Hizzoner, Richard J. Daley built his career on the backs of unions. Also, a good deal of his political support came from the black wards, ruled over by Congressman Dawson. The black wards saved him in 1962, when there was a tax revolt over the building of the UIC campus and the destruction of the surrounding neighborhood. Blacks learned a long time ago not to expect much from the Democratic machine. They simply expected a lot less from the GOP and were constantly threatened with having government aid taken away from them. Anyway, I didn't plan on a Chicago history review. I'm simply saying that while the politicians play their power games, the dynamics of educating kids don't change. I'm not a big fan of charter schools. But what can parents do if they really believe that CPS can't get the job done? They care a whole less about CTU, the pension mess, and all the other political mess than getting their kids educated.
They have mostly proven themselves not able to do any better than public schools. They are too often caught using unlicensed personnel. They divert resources from public schools. Let's remember what public schools are for. When operating properly they are supposed to educate everyone including students that don't particularly want to be there and often disrupt things for others. They are for everyone.
Totally agree on the disgusting statements assigning divine providence to Trump surviving being shot while the people behind him weren't so lucky. It's kind of like thanking God for letting the tornado wipe out your neighbor's house instead of yours.
I haven’t really heard “the 20s” much either, and not sure why. Maybe it’s because it’s been so edified as reference to the 1920s that the 20th century is perceived as having some sort of unofficial copyright.
I did use to refer to the 1990s as “the gay 90s”, though, usually to much amusement.
I think there's not as much cultural identity anymore that can be assigned to a 10-year period of time. Some things move much much faster now, like technology and gadgets, so they can't be tied down to a decade, every couple of years there is something new that dominates the lifestyle. Other things have kind of stopped changing, like music and fashion, in my view, not that many distinct original trends have been introduced to identify a decade.
I think we're just mixing lot of per-existing movements. I think the 90's were the last identifiable decade, with grunge and alternative being major movements, then starting around 2000, we've just been cycling through all the previous styles.
Has anyone a list of the Republican members of Congress who have voted for USAID and public brodacasting funding many times and voted now to defund both at the instructions of the Wizard of Mar-a-Blago?
My guess would be every single one of them, other than a few whackjobs like Rand Paul & Tom Massie.
garry, you are remarkably consistent in your political opinions. and tho i frequently disagree with you, you let 'er rip with best of 'em.
whatever you think of paul [jr] and massie, they are not MAGAts, and are less lackeys of trump than the collection of repub invertebrates in the US house & senate. at least they voted against the Big Bloated Bullshit Bill.
not saying you shd like them, or even respect them. but i have some faith in repubs who aren't MAGAts.
I agree, they aren't MAGAts, both are batshit crazed fucking lunatics!
as prof. fahey used to say, 'i can hardly argue with that.'
You have to admit this about Paul. He sticks to his guns. I don't even consider him a true Republican. The Republican Party is simply closer to his libertarian views than Democrats. And you can't elected to Congress without aligning with one or the other. If you want batshit crazy, try John Fetterman. I just recently unsubscribed from his daily emails. Actually, I have no idea how I got on his list in the first place.
In regard to that appalling bullshit prove of Biden's mental state, I offer the following advice to anyone subpoenaed to testify.
1. If you're an MD, just say, the federal HIPAA law prohibits you from revealing any information about a patient.
If he wasn't your patient, then long standing medical ethics prohibits me from commenting on someone I have never examined.
2. If you're anyone else subpoenaed, just say, I'm not a medical doctor & I'm not qualified to say what his mental state was!
After saying that, there's nothing those fascist trolls on the committee can do to you!
Good point. Since Biden is not being accused of shooting anyone, his medical condition is none of the MAGAs business.
Even though we know the demographics of the readers of the PS thanks to EZ’s poll, you could also use the results of the Emmys poll. Lots of haven’t seen it answers. Including mine. 😅
It could be that people of a certain age just don’t use all the streaming services available. But what’s my excuse? I have all of them.
I seem to be the only person who doesn’t like Bear. I watched part of the first season. I was the only red light when I voted.
I’ve only seen the first couple episodes. TBH I only started watching because I wanted to see the beginning of the episode that featured Sufjan Stevens and Lin Brehmer. It’s a tough watch.
I wanted so badly to like it and watched several episodes before I gave up. Too frantic for me.
That would definitely be me. I have a hi-def television with Direct TV cable service, so if it isn’t available on that, then it’s unseen by me.
I have no streaming or cable, just an antenna.
You have more self discipline than me. Also, where I live, I can only pick up the PBS station from Gary. I tried, in order to get Sox games. I couldn't. Now that option is gone anyway in order for the Sox to kiss Comcast's rear end.
If you’re going to have just one channel, the Indiana PBS station is a pretty good one to have. They have most of the other excellent programming found on WTTW, and they have reruns of The Lawrence Welk Show on Saturday and Sunday nights at 7.
It could be just the sheer number of choices out there these days. There used to be three networks and a handful of shows that everyone watched, now there's a handful of platforms and dozens if not hundreds of offerings flooding popular culture. There's simply not enough time for a person with normal life commitments to watch all of this content.
I haven't seen any of the shows on the Emmy list. I realize it's highly unrealistic to expect that we'll ever return to the days of Channels 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 26, and 32 for free. I pay too much for Hulu streaming. I don't need the additional subscriptions.
I would have agreed under normal circumstances that taking the fifth, while an important constitutional right, makes one look less than innocent. However dealing with the current regime, I would not hold it against anyone. Anyone caught in the crosshairs of Trump's corrupt and weaponized DOJ knows that anything you say, will 100% be used against you, any carelessly uttered word may be a hook for potential prosecution, persecution, scandal, a hit piece on Fox, anything you can imagine. So I wouldn't hold it against anyone taking the fifth.
Regarding Comey and Trump's vindictiveness - that reminds me of the fallout from the first impeachment (the "perfect call" with Zelensky), he not only fired Alexander Vindman, the main witness against him, but also his twin brother Eugene, who had nothing to do with the proceedings, just out of spite.
It makes me wonder if Biden's pardons should have included his wife, doctor, and the first lady's advisor. An increasingly unhinged Trump is striking out at an increasing number of perceived enemies. The mass firings are another example of his extreme vindictiveness.
Agree with your and Mark K's reasoning.
All I know of criminal law comes from watching TV legal dramas, but aren't spouses supposed to be exampt from testifying against each other?
I don't think Jill Biden would be testifying against her husband. It sounds like the Oversight Committee is investigating if there was a cover up on Biden s unfitness for office. She is herself a potential target.
I think it's a political show to please the orange stain.
I had deja vu reading today's PS. My husband has always referred to Trump as a vindictive little shit.
I found it crazy how perplexed EZ was about Biden and then immediately wrote the Comey thing. Maybe, just maybe, Biden took the 5th because Trump is "a vindictive piece of shit"?
Not only that, but what do any of them have to lose by pleading the fifth, regardless of what it may look like to the public? Joe Biden is never going to hold office again, and I doubt any of the ones subpoenaed are going to either. And it's a legitimate Constitutional right for them to invoke.
This kind of administration is probably exactly the reason why the founders had the idea to include this protection in the Bill of Rights.
I agree that taking the fifth is they way to go. They owe nothing to Congress, and saying *anything* potentially exposes you to criminal liability. Clamming up should be the default option when being interrogated by authorities
Plenty of people in prison who thought they were smart enough to avoid incriminating themselves...
Yes. In this case of investigating something that could be wrongdoing, I would take the fifth regardless of who was in the Whitehouse or which party had a congressional majority. There is only downside
As a believer, I find the statements by Johnson and Noem almost blasphemous. In the absence of a clear and obvious "Thus Saith the Lord", we can't know what God thinks of the attempted assassination of Trump and the flooding in Texas. We now know that the camp where all those poor kids drowned got a warning in plenty of time and they didn't act on it in time unlike another camp in the same situation. It may sound cruel but I can understand the camp director dying trying to rescue some of the campers. How could he have lived with himself for the rest of the life knowing that he was responsible for their deaths?
In agreement with David, here is an additional reference. Unlike Republican Speaker and self-proclaimed Christian, Mike Johnson, Jesus himself said in Matthew 5:45 that God "makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust." So, given Jesus' understanding, if a Christian wants to make a case for a Miraculous intervention by God, there needs to be a unique suspension of a law of nature or a unique intervention by some angelic being, otherwise, the circumstance is just a normal operation of God's creation. Neither of these unique interventions took place in the Trump shooting. So, apparently Jesus would acknowledge that it is simply a matter of politically religious hypocrisy to claim Trump as "God's man".
Eric's other issue asking how it is possible that a good supreme being can allow depraved people to thrive has been wrestled with for many millennia and cannot be addressed adequately in this kind of forum.
The reason there are so many evil & vindictive people is easy to answer: T here is no god & never has been one!
And then they meet a quality human being like Garry Spelled Correctly ♥ and say, "I guess there's a god after all" !
Not me!
eloquently stated - thank you.
I'm not a believer but I find the statements by Johnson and Noem totally blasphemous!! Just where in the Bible is the "God saves one person while allowing the other person to die" verse?!? I have read the Bible and I can't find it.
I believe it to be blasphemous to use Johnson and Nomind ang God in the same sentence.
Nomind. There, I corrected it for you.
Blasphemous, yes. If God indeed was determined to preserve Trump's life, why didn't He prevent the assassin from arriving at the rally at all, which would have spared volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore's life as well?
And why aren't MAGAs acknowledging that because no one fired shots at President Obama at all, that proves that God liked him better, and wanted him to survive as righteous contrast to his offensive successor, personifying how a President is supposed to act?
I won't go as far as Garry and say there is no God. But it's time to stop blaming Him for bad things. I remember when the floods hit New Orleans, the unChristian evangelicals were lined up to say that God was punishing New Orleans for its wickedness. I wonder how they explain what recently happened in Texas. The little girls were tools of Satan?
Over the years I have noted many more examples of people giving God credit for good things (especially benefits to themselves or others they like, such as Trump's near-assassination), yet absolving Him of responsibility for tragedies, because God is all-good and His benevolent ways are mysterious.
But you make a good point about the interpreters of punishment. If God really does inflict huge tragedies on His people and then coyly leaves them to guess what He's peeved about, that's a mighty passive-aggressive, sloppy way for an Omnipotent One to run a Universe.
Assume Pat (generic name) has done me a personal, intentional grave wrong. If I respond by driving twenty miles to his house and blowing up his mailbox under cover of darkness, I've only vented my spleen while giving him NO information about what (if any) of his behavior to consider changing. The act might motivate Pat, though, to shoot at the Goth teenager down the street when he walks past his driveway, and to back over another neighbor's rose bush, because the vandal had to be one or the other of those folks! Now the whole neighborhood is righteously aggrieved and mutually suspicious. Sounds a lot like World History, eh?
This tangent is a favorite in my own quotation collection:
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
-- Susan B. Anthony
Let's simplify things. I'll keep this to me. I have had both successes and failures in my life. If I examine each individual occurrence, I will find that I, not God, was responsible for both successes and failures. Now there may have been a confluence of events involving other people over which I had no control. But nothing I said for reasons involves the interference of God.
I made that same comment to Thomas during episode 2. It irks the bejesus out of me.
Regarding the Elia quote, let's take a moment and tip our hat to the late, great Les Grobstein. He was there that day with his trusty recorder otherwise the audio would be lost to the ages. From the early days of Sportsphone to eating hours on the midnight shift on Score, he was a character. Our character. Anyone who has spent any time listening to him has to have a soft spot for him.
Totally agree, Dan. And wouldn't it be great to see see/hear some of that same Elia-emotion coming from the White Sox organization.
The Cubs had few fans apparently before Reinsdorf took the Sox off free tv and Harry Caray jumped north.
I'm rooting for Justin Ishbia to take control. The sooner, the better.
be careful of what you wish for. He'll probably raise the prices of everything & demand a new free ball park from the taxpayers!
I'm okay with higher with that if the product improves as I don't see any other way in today's professional sports. As far as the stadium, he'll bring more personal dollars to the table than Reinsdorf ever did. I think he'll build something near where the Fire is building.
The product won't improve & not with my tax money, not for a stadium or for infrastructure. if you're a billionaire with a team worth billions, use your own money as Mansueto is doing & use the team's value as collateral for a bank loan, if you can find a bank stupid enough to loan you money for a losing proposition, as every new stadium built has been!
No tax dollars EVER for a sports stadium / arena!!!!
Is it all Mansueto's money? Who's paying for water, sewer, new streets, and police?
Not until 2034- unless Reinsdorf kicks the bucket sooner and his family cedes control.
He’s 89. How many 98 year olds do you know? Shoot, how many 90 year olds?
No disagreement. Why are we arguing about age? I'm telling you what the agreement says.
i think the agmt has it that ishbia cd take over by '29. i don't know all what the timing depends on - whether it's just reinsdorf's whim, or if there i some objective component to the agmt.
yes, please please please, justin & family - buy the White Sox ASAP!
yeah, how 'bout it!
Regarding government cut backs it reminds me of some times at work when I was asked if I could do with less of a staff/money. I’d usually answer, yes, as long as nothing breaks. Same thing today. We’re fine… except every time something breaks. I feel bad for the under funded people who had to make choices about what not to do because there wasn’t enough money to do it all. It’s a little like playing Russian Roulette. Most of the time you’ll be just fine.
I'd like to argue with your statement "Trump is a vindictive piece of shit" - except 1) first part is not true; 2) second part is true. :P "History of Applause" unpopular opinion - drawn out standing ovations are irritating. No 'roaring 20s' here.
I have being trying to understand this comment and failing. It seems that you are asserting that trump is not vindictive. Surely there is ample evidence to the contrary (see the firing of Maureen Comey just yesterday). Perhaps I have misunderstood. If so, I apologize.
Just a bit of sarcasm. In short no argument to be had because EZ comment is totally valid
OK. Thanks.
I stream many shows (e.g. Trying, Andor, the Crown, Heartland, to name just a few---and right now I'm totally enjoying the 90s series The Eliott Sisters on Britbox.) But I kept hitting "Haven't seen it" on these Emmy noms, and was taken aback that I was clearly not "with it" culturally---until I finally got to The Bear--green light! I agree with Eric that the scene with Carmy and his mom (Jamie Lee Curtis) in Season 4 was flat out incredible, heartbreaking, but also beautiful, with amazing acting. Also, part of why I love the Bear is that, in my opinion, it's a pure love letter to Chicago, good and bad. The L, the restaurants, the wonderful and the grungy parts of the city---it's all lovingly filmed IN Chicago. BTW, I read that the "comedy" category was chosen by The Bear powers-that-be because there's less competition there than in the drama category. As for not having seen so many Emmy shows---I guess I'm in good company with many EZ readers!:-)
David Brooks offers thoughtful criticisms of modern society. However, I feel he stops short of calling for the radical changes in our economic system that seem to me to be the only way to address the problems he identifies.
Biden’s doctor can’t answer because of HIPAA.. Would he be self-incriminating if he did?
Re: Guardian Caps. Why don’t they just make better helmets?
I'm reminded of an episode of 'The Day the Universe Changed' where host James Burke talked about how jousting became increasingly more violent as knights sought an advantage over their foes. To avoid being unseated, knights would use high-backed saddles, but that led to more force being transferred to, and thus injuring, the horses. So that led to bigger, stronger horses being used, which led to harder hits and knights getting injured. And that led to knights switching from chain mail to plate mail, making them heavier and needing even bigger, stronger horses. And so on, and so on.
The point being, adding helmets and pads in football has led to what we have today, with players hitting harder and faster, which has led to more concussions.
I'll tell you what I think about. Many athletic fields and courts have remained the same size while players have grown bigger and faster. There was a time when many NBA guards couldn't dunk. Now point guards are sometimes as big as centers were in my days and much more athletic. In the football of my youth, a large defensive lineman might be 240 pounds. Now many of them are over 300 pounds and much more able to roam from sideline to sideline. Linebackers and defensive linemen are now more able to catch up to speedy offensive backs and slam them. Improved training techniques and more time in the weight room means no more little skinny defensive backs. I agree with everything you said. But on fields the same size for a hundred years we have much larger, faster, and stronger defensive people. Maybe field sizes should change. Watch a Canadian football game some time. Rules such as only 3 downs, and multiple receivers able to move forward before the snap put a much higher premium on fast movement rather than trench warfare.
Looking back to the NHL and helmets, I understand that most everyone wanted to wear one but that they didn't want to do it alone. Once the league required the helmets, everyone was saved from the imagined ridicule.
The NFL should just look at ALL the players who suffer from brain injury and mandate the safer helmets yesterday. For all players.
There were quite a few NHL players who wore them voluntarily, particularly after Bill Masterton’s death, even before the league made them mandatory in the late ‘70s. There was also the quirk of the grandfather clause that enabled players who were playing before the mandate to continue to go helmetless, so that year by year, there were fewer and fewer unprotected heads on the ice. By the early ‘90s I noticed how rare it was; there’s Doug Wilson…and Brad Marsh…and Ron Duguay…and Al Secord…and old Harold Snepsts…oh and Guy Lafleur since he came out of retirement ….and that’s it.
The Blackhawks Glenn Hall was one of the last goalies to play without a mask.
amazing, in retrospect, how goalies played w/o masks back in the day. did you ever see a photo of terry sawchuck late in his career? scary.
In regards to housing and the ADU comment, id like to point out that the bigger housing initiative of the week passed without a peep from anyone. Parking requirements within a half mile of a CTA station and quarter mile of bus major bus stops. This is huge! This will make it easier and cheaper to build classic Chicago housing like 3 flats and courtyard buildings. The ADU co versation sucked up all the air but this transformational. Its weird thr ADUs got so much attention but this parking reform, much more transformational for the city, got barely noticed.
https://www.chicagocityscape.com/blog/city-council-reduced-parking-mandates-in-a-big-way-today-67f18e3990
Totally agree; didn't even know about it.
How come people are so quick to accept Mendoza? Is it because she says mean things about Brandon Johnson?
We just put her mentors in prison and already want to give that strain of Illinois politics power again. Its weird. This is what happened with Vallas, people didnt want to see a Daley stooge back in office. This city's centrist dems will make the same mistake as New York, find someone who actually wants to make the city better and has plans to do that. Running the same, tired playbook hasnt worked and I doubt it will for Mendoza
Vallas was never a Daley stooge!
Daley is the sole reason Vallas lost the primary to that crook Blago, as Daley refused to endorse anyone then, due his his annoyance with Vallas getting all the credit for the school system revival.
So they ended sourly, who cares? Vallas still ran CPS longer than the vast majority of school superintendents and had Daley's full backing. Together, he and Daley cost CPS $1.5 billion since he left. CPS has never recovered and this failure has resulted in the CTU going to war. The school closures are a result of this. Crime and falling test scores correlate with poor school performance and school closures.
What Vallas did to CPS has had major, horrible fall outs that we are dealing with every single day and every election. Everything that happens in this city happens in the shadow of what Vallas did to CPS financially.
We should not be voting for these same clowns.
Those school closures were absolutely necessary & we still need to close & consolidate at least 50 more schools that have less than 40% capacity!
Vallas didn't wreck CPS, the CTU has wrecked CPS with its insane demands & now getting a total incompetent stooge of theirs as mayor!
Nope, see, you're blaming a group you dislike instead of dealing with what actually happened. Vallas, messed up the budget a decade before what you are referencing. Those school closures and the CTU becoming the force it is today is a reaction to Vallas', Daley's, and Chico's horrible running of the district.
Vallas took money out of teacher's pensions to fund the general operating budget. Stock market didn't do so hot, teacher pension account got destroyed. We now are in the hole $1.5 billion to the teacher's pension. Ever since then the school district has been playing catch up. We have had to scale back school bus routes, close schools, lay off staff, and make the district worse.
In the meantime, Vallas also invested in charter schools, which don't provide better education, but DO suck money out of the system further weakening it.
Now, we can't upkeep our schools and we can't pay our teachers or staff, further weakening the system and the neighborhoods. CTU is VERY aware o this. They know EXACTLY why we can't pay our bills, and it's not them (despite all the finger pointing they get!) If Vallas never structurly weakened the district the CTU would never be the problem it is. But Vallas, with supporting roles from Emmanuel and Barbara Byrd-Bennet, destroyed trust in the city so the CTU took things into their own hands.
Not paying teacher's pensions and investing in charter schools has had disastrous effects across the whole city. It's weakened neighborhoods, it's weakened our financial position, it's empowered the CTU, and it's made the city less appealing as a whole.
Why we still want to vote for these people who have such long tales of failure is mind bogglingly.
Vallas did nothing without Daley's approval, as Daley was a hopeless egomaniac.
He wanted credit for everything that went on in the city, but none of the blame for what went wrong.
CTU has been wrecking CPS for decades with their outrageous salary & benefit demands.
The hardly pay anything for their pensions, the school board, meaning the taxpayers are supposed to put the equivalent of 9% of their pay into their pensions & the teachers are also supposed to put 9% of their salaries into that same pension fund.
But for decades now, the taxpayers are putting 16% of it into that fund & the teachers just 2%!
Then why did Vallas do the exact same things in Philadelphia and New Orleans where he didn't have Daley? Why does he still support the same, bad ideas that have done nothing but get him promoted?
Also, what is with center right Chicagoans absolute love affair with Paul Vallas? For the life of me, I will never understand why he is so well defended.
I get you, and a whole bunch of other people in Chicago, hate the people who teach children and don't deserve the pay they get, but they did make those deals. It was the city (Vallas) who failed to fund their pensions. It is the city who, after failing to fund their pensions, wanted to fire them and get rid of their jobs.
No wonder they got radicalized! They were lied to and stolen from. But hey, let's keep blaming the black woman for being so terrible... certainly not the people with actual power who made actual decisions.
'... can't pay our teachers and staff'? what a crock.
Current average CPS teacher salary (2025):
$86,439 per year for a full-time teacher.
In April 2025, newly ratified union and district contracts project that the average salary for a CPS teacher will surpass $114,000 by the 2027–2028 school year
you are deluded.
and why do you blame charter schools for '... disastrous effects across the whole city. It's weakened neighborhoods, it's weakened our financial position ...'? where's the evidence, other than the self-serving 'evidence' from CTU leadership? why does it seem that all opponents of school choice think low income parents of miority students 1] aren't capapble of make a school choice for their child and 2] don't deserve school choice?
the raving lunatic/hypocrite SDG vigorously opposes school choice - except for her own child[ren].
your rationale is just to protect the bloated system for the employed adults, it appears.
revisionist history - you have no idea of what you're saying about the vallas era at CPS.
explain, e.g., the alleged '... he and Daley cost CPS $1.5 billion since he left.' - where's your proof? 'where's the beef?', as clara wd say.
as to the school closures - not enough CPS schools have been closed. 47 out of Chicago's 644 public schools operate at less than one-third capacity. they should be closed or merged. get rid of the excess administrators [principals, asst principals] and costs of operating the bldgs [utilities, bldg engineers, etc].
CPS needs to tighten its belt before coming to the txpayers for more $$.
Some of you were being so nasty to each other, I decided to stay out of it. There's a middle ground here. Schools work when qualified teachers are in front of students paying attention with support from home. That has been my experience for over 40 years. I have taught in rural communities that spend half of what CPS spends per student. I fully admit that rural students don't live in the same world as city students. My point is that education is education, no matter what we want to argue about money and politics. But since all you brought it up, union issues are an old story in Chicago. You can go back further than Vallas and Richard M. Daley. Hizzoner, Richard J. Daley built his career on the backs of unions. Also, a good deal of his political support came from the black wards, ruled over by Congressman Dawson. The black wards saved him in 1962, when there was a tax revolt over the building of the UIC campus and the destruction of the surrounding neighborhood. Blacks learned a long time ago not to expect much from the Democratic machine. They simply expected a lot less from the GOP and were constantly threatened with having government aid taken away from them. Anyway, I didn't plan on a Chicago history review. I'm simply saying that while the politicians play their power games, the dynamics of educating kids don't change. I'm not a big fan of charter schools. But what can parents do if they really believe that CPS can't get the job done? They care a whole less about CTU, the pension mess, and all the other political mess than getting their kids educated.
you make sound, reasoned and uncontentious arguments. tho i would not concur if you considered mine among the 'nasty' comments. not that it matters.
but perhaps you could help me understand why you're not a big fan of charter schools.
They have mostly proven themselves not able to do any better than public schools. They are too often caught using unlicensed personnel. They divert resources from public schools. Let's remember what public schools are for. When operating properly they are supposed to educate everyone including students that don't particularly want to be there and often disrupt things for others. They are for everyone.
Its such common knowledge he cost the city $1.5 billion that is makes his wikipedia page.
But aince you want a source: How Vallas Helped Wall Street Loot Chicago’s Schools https://share.google/UVg8W4wRb1QYgw0UF
interesting. i went to 2 far less-biased sources than yours, and they corroborate you claim.
so thanks for that - i concede your point, and i'm a little smarter now on that matter.
Totally agree on the disgusting statements assigning divine providence to Trump surviving being shot while the people behind him weren't so lucky. It's kind of like thanking God for letting the tornado wipe out your neighbor's house instead of yours.
I haven’t really heard “the 20s” much either, and not sure why. Maybe it’s because it’s been so edified as reference to the 1920s that the 20th century is perceived as having some sort of unofficial copyright.
I did use to refer to the 1990s as “the gay 90s”, though, usually to much amusement.
I think there's not as much cultural identity anymore that can be assigned to a 10-year period of time. Some things move much much faster now, like technology and gadgets, so they can't be tied down to a decade, every couple of years there is something new that dominates the lifestyle. Other things have kind of stopped changing, like music and fashion, in my view, not that many distinct original trends have been introduced to identify a decade.
I think we're just mixing lot of per-existing movements. I think the 90's were the last identifiable decade, with grunge and alternative being major movements, then starting around 2000, we've just been cycling through all the previous styles.
I've heard more references to the 21st century rather than any specific decade since 2000.
Perhaps there hasn't been enough significance to the individual decades for them to stand out as of yet.