Gov. J.B. Pritzker is more than likely to win a third term as Illinois' governor, however, I find myself wondering if he's going to take a serious beating for his ongoing feud with our 47th POTUS Donald Trump.
In a recent wide-ranging interview with POLITICO at Chicago's iconic Manny's Deli, Pritzker sat down for a candid conversation covering everything from the 2024 election fallout to his sharp criticisms of Trump, his influence in state politics, and speculation about a potential 2028 presidential run. The governor didn't hold back, framing Trump's leadership in stark terms and doubling down on the confrontational style that's defined much of his time in office.
Pritzker has positioned himself as one of the leading Trump antagonists among Democrats. In the interview and recent statements, he highlights what he sees as damage from Trump's agenda to working families, farms, retailers, and more—while criticizing policies on tariffs, immigration enforcement, and broader governance. He portrays the current administration in strong language, calling out tones of political violence and authoritarian tendencies.
This video below was posted to the White House YouTube channel this morning. I see there are similar videos also produced by this outfit known as Prager U and focused often on American history. We're seeing a brand new day under the 47th POTUS Donald Trump.
As you might see in the header on YouTube - America is back. The renewed focus on Making America Great Again and just think in 2026 it will have been 250 years since the Declaration of Independence - essentially the birth of the United States of America.
I never heard of Robert Treat Paine. In this video he talks through his portrait about his role in prosecuting the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. The person who defended those British soldiers was our 2nd POTUS John Adams. Just as Adams he too signed the aforementioned Declaration of Independence.
My next question becomes I wonder who's curating content for The White House on YouTube. Often when I see content here it's often the President speaking to the press or some public appearance such was events for the 4th of July. So I found this brief video discussing history very interesting.
When was the last time this blog had a look at what's going on with the Chicago Public Schools. The Dept. of Education under 47th President Donald J. Trump is having a look at CPS' "Black Student Success Plan" citing the possibility that it is discriminatory under the Civil Rights Act.
The federal government launched an investigation into Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday related to allegations of discrimination in the district’s Black Student Success Plan.
The plan to improve the educational experiences and outcomes of the district’s Black students was solidified in 2021 legislation that remade Chicago’s school board into an elected body, following decades of mayoral appointees. Activists who championed it argued that Black students were uniquely positioned to fail because of longstanding racial inequalities in Chicago and the result of historic and ongoing discrimination in the United States.
But students of all races struggle academically in Chicago, according to a news release issued Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“Rather than address its record honestly, CPS seeks to allocate additional resources to favored students on the basis of race,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, is quoted as saying in the release.
It cites a complaint by Parents Defending Education, a group with a history of interrogating race-based policies. That group’s complaint alleges that the district’s Black Student Success Plan “violates Title VI by focusing on remedial measures only for Black students.” Parents Defending Education also filed a complaint against a similar initiative in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The group’s complaint against CPS acknowledges that the district had organized dozens of meetings with community members to implement the plan. The complaint also includes a graphic from early December 2023 on a slide at a community meeting that showed 6 percent of Black students read at a mid- or above-grade level. But the graphic shows Latino students “face even greater difficulties: (five) percent are (at) mid or above grade level.”
Part of a greater effort by the 2nd Trump Administration to fight DEI policies. Fighting against Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies has been one initiative undertaken by the new administration. Well not so new since we're past the 100 day mark.
I suppose for this I'm torn. Perhaps to help certain disadvantaged students is of no issue to me. Of course I may question how a school may go about it. What exactly makes this discriminatory to other disadvantaged students?
If you can get past the paywall, this is worth your attention.
Mr. Beat's official 2024 election video. That race proved to be such a wild race. Who knew that President Donald Trump would make his return to the Oval Office after what happened in the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential race?
One thing that caught my eye in this video is a return to the spoils system. Basically insuring that those within the government are loyalists to your administration. What has been discussed within the populist right has been how the professional bureaucrats of the federal gov't helped undermind administrations they don't like.
America has already had a spoils system and at some point in the past our gov't were often staffed by a permanent bureacracy. And another argument made is that these bureacrats make some decisions over our lives and they're not elected.
With discussions of buyouts and more recently outright firings and even head of "D.O.G.E." Elon Musk declaring in a tweet that the Dept. of Education no longer exists. I'd say as they attempt to make gov't more efficient it seems more and more likely what Trump's priority is, perhaps he doesn't want a professional bureacracy. Perhaps more Presidents should staff the executive branch the way they see fit.
Now I'm sorry for not paying attention to what Trump was talking about during the campaign. And the fact that someone was attempting to kill him during that campaign. It helped to tip the odds in his favor. The use of weaponized "lawfare" was terrible and probably showed that someone was veyr concerned about him. Everything they tried to do seemed designed to keep him from running for President again and they may know full well after 2020 he had unfinished business. I wonder if they had just left him alone would he have just gone away on his own.
Meanwhile you had a President who was showing he couldn't handle the rigors of the job and while it's noted that his Vice President and her running mate breathed new life into the Democratic Party, it became clear to me that the Harris/Walz ticket was going to have their clock cleaned. Yeah Trump didn't perform well in his debate against Kamala Harris, however, it became clear that she wasn't the one either.
I'm curious what many of you think of the 47th President so far?
[VIDEO] From yesterday's inauguration immediately after President Trump was sworn in at the 47th POTUS.
He sets the tone for the next four years of his presidency. He mentioned how he expect the Federal Gov't will be a meritocracy. He also mentions that gender is either a man or a woman 🤯. He also discusses taking control of the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
And of course after this he signs a series of executive orders with regards to some of these issues. He's ordering federal employees back into the office, several executive orders with regards to immigration and taking control of the southern U.S./Mexico border, also with regards to energy opening up Alaska for energy production.
Aside from the more pomp and circumstances aspects of January 20, 2025 he already had a relatively busy day.
[VIDEO] Well Inauguration Day has passed in America.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday - which also just so happens to be the MLK holiday.
In this video, Mr. Beat recites an amalgamated inaugual address taken from past presidents. And also goes over a bit of the history of presidential inaugurations. Like all things in America politics related the festivities of inauguration day has evolved.
I would like to share what happened after President Trump was sworn in on Monday.
This shows how in tune I am with the political scene right now.
This time four years ago, outgoing President Donald Trump held a rally where he asked his supporters to go to the U.S. Capitol to protest the count of those electoral votes in a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Which quickly became an "insurrection". It was a very scary day and I just couldn't believe that our democracy, our republic seemed to be underseige by "mob violence".
It seemed one side had to defend themselves and the other side played offense trying to paint the insurrectionists as anti-democracy or traitors. January 6 for some became a day of great rememberance. However, seemingly this day was also forgotten by a number of Americans.
Furthermore the man who won the Presidential Election for 2024 was not supposed to be in that race. There were court cases, even an impeachment trial commenced even before he left office. And guess what on this day, in 2024 he's the one who's vote are being certified in front of Congress.
If the so-called insurrection was used to try to keep him out of the White House, it helped to bring him right back in. I'm sure someone out there is protesting this. I see the incumbent President who beat him in 2020 isn't exactly organizing a rally to fight this. And the woman, the 2024 winner vanquished has to preside over the count to certify the 2024 electoral votes.
Barring any news reports of any "trouble" this should go relatively smooth. Though since President-elect Donald Trump is definitely a very polarizing figure there probably will be some protests from some members of Congress trying to object..
And just think with the "insurrection" of 2020, whatever objections to that race between President Trump and then President-elect Joe Biden fell apart once the U.S. Capitol was secured.
At this point whatever unfolds, you can see on C-Span if you don't want any editorializing of the proceedings. Or you can watch this live stream via FOX News. [VIDEO]
[VIDEO] While I did a poor job of really getting at the issues of this election other than perhaps how I believed the Biden/Harris administration was running America and perhaps the economic and crime issues that many Americans are concerned about. Also the immigration issue which President-elect Donald Trump pledged to take on day one. The one thing Trump was on record discussing were on tariffs which is a tax on exports/imports.
We'd have to go back to the 2016 election on which 45th President Trump successfully ran on the idea of America first. Bringing back manufacturing jobs to America as opposed to allowing those jobs to be sent to those nations that offer cheaper labor. And Trump wasn't the only one who had some "protectionist" rhetoric and proved to say some of the same things that President Trump is talking about today.
"Edu-tuber" Mr. Beat looks at what is a tariff and the times they have been used and why tariffs generally aren't beneficial to those nations that issues them. One thing I could see with tariffs is that other countries - as noted in this video - could retaliate with their own tariffs. Also the idea that while goods for consumers are cheaper than ever before the concern could be how expensive these goods could become once a tariff could become issues.
Do you think President-elect Trump's usage of tariffs are a great idea or do you think they may prove problematic in the future?
The YouTube channel Resyndicated (the voice over artist sounds a lot like former Republican nominee for Governor Darren Bailey) did a recent video discussing the historical notes of Grover Cleveland & Donald Trump. They were the only two men who were elected to two non-consecutive Presidents in American history.
Donald Trump achieved that feat earlier this month after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential race. Trump had earlier served from 2017 to 2021 and will become the 47th President in 2025.
For Grover Cleveland he served one term from 1885 to 1889. However, after losing the 1892 race he again one the race against the man who defeated him in 1892 - Benjamin Harrison - and won another term from 1893 to 1897.
Of course there were other candidates who not only sought their party's nomination for President multiple times although they weren't successful in their bids for the Presidency. However, there were other Presidents who had sought non-consecutive terms from Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, to Theodore Roosevelt. The most likely man to have been able to won another term as President was Roosevelt who ran again in 1912 though the winner of that election was ultimately Woodrow Wilson.
Anyway I hope you enjoy the history shared in this video.
[VIDEO] So far there will only be two debates between these two Presidential candidates - Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Back in June, former President Donald Trump debated current President Joe Biden and it was such a disaster that people were calling for President Biden to drop out of the race which he did before the DNC Convention in Chicago. Republicans already were contending since he became President in 2021 that he was not mentally capable of being president and for many even some Democrats he showed how much he slowed down in the June debate.
His Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him as the Democrat's nominee for President. She accepted her party's nomination for President in Chicago at the convention. And she took Pres. Biden's place in the debate which was held and broadcast on ABC in early September.
Some takeaways, even though it has been a whole month.
What dominated the headlines on FOX News and perhaps more conservative outlets was that there was a Haitian migrant problem in Springfield, Ohio. There were reports of migrants eating wild animals and also preying upon people's pets.
For Trump, immigration is an issue he has campaigned on. We all have something to say about the migrants that have been transported from the southern border to mostly "sanctuary" cities & states. However, in my head this who issue of migrants eating pets shouldn't have been brought up in this debate as even police in Springfield have dismissed the allegations that these migrants were eating pets.
Also the Vice President isn't exactly known for her policy chops. She doesn't answer questions and she hardly does press conferences and the interviews she has done weren't exactly slam dunks either. She may have outperformed Trump in this debate, however, I'm not sure if that's saying much.
We know what Trump brings to the table in these debates and I would dare say VP Harris brings things to these debates also. Harris was likely to use the woman and race card in these debates and unfortunately there are those who will respond to that.
We're closer to election day now than we were in September and its likely there will be no other debates before November. When this debate was over Harris publicly declared she was ready for another one and Trump put the brakes on any future debates.
I'm sure Trump knows he didn't perform well and Harris found out what she could do to make him respond. Regardless, how beneficial are these debates when in such a polarized nation performance by either side isn't going to move the needle significantly in either direction?
[VIDEO] CBS News had broadcast this debate (and aired on all the major news networks) between US Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN).
Unlike the debate last month between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris I will show this one today. That debate will come later.
This wasn't a particularly exciting debate, but I didn't detect any attacks or even any baits between these two candidates. There were some common ground seen between these two men, especially when on some issues there were a stark divide.
Both men by my eyes came off very well. I'm not so sure about Gov. Walz but then again I have no real issues with Sen. Vance. I'm glad to see Vance would be supportive of Walz if he gets elected. Hopefully Walz would do they same.
What was noted by some pundits and by my eyes Walz seemed very nervous. I would day say for me Walz at times seemed to have the "deer in headlights" look. Some will say he didn't belong on that stage, and well who am I to judge as I'm not up there. And nor is anyone else saying that although many of them are on TV and I'm not.
What I would say is that both VP Harris and Gov. Walz come from states that are most favorable to them as far as electoral process. Especially the Vice President. I don't know what the margin of victory for Walz in his elections for the Governor of Minnesota, however, that state is considered a solid blue state so who knows being on that national stage for a debate might be new territory for him.
I didn't see this debate from the beginning, missed out on the main event for NXT on The CW network (not a major network). So there were some portions of the debate that was missed but I'm glad I saw it.
[VIDEO] The Republican Nat'l Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin wrapped with Trump's Thursday nite speech accepting his party's nomination for the presidency.
Having watched this speech he mentioned the assassination attempt in Butler Township, Pennsylvania in addition to his many accomplishments as President including securing the border. He made hardly any mention of the incumbent President other than some of his opponents failures in office.
This is a pretty long acceptance speech which was about an hour and one-half. Any thoughts on Trump's Thursday nite speech?
2021 has definitely started off with a bang, and unfortunate we didn't go a whole week into the year until a major incident took place. And we're still going through the fallout. Let me be clear I don't care about the politics of anyone involved in the property damage and the breach of our US Capitol in Washington, DC. All involved must be prosecuted.
Regardless the fallout so far includes the impeachment of the outgoing President - incidentally the Capitol was breached just as the US Congress met to certify the electoral votes for the 2020 race. I don't think this will help unify America it may further divide and certainly conflict with the incoming president's calls for greater unity after a very tumultuous year.
Anyone who went to a rally before the breach of the Capitol are suffering their own consequence which is why I'm sharing this article with you. A teacher in Wisconsin had been suspended because allegedly he shared a video with regards to the 2020 race. The video disputed the 2020 election as President Trump had up until the events of January 6, 2021. What you will see in that article is that the claims of the outgoing President Trump are largely considered baseless or debunked and is considered controversial politics and also note he allegedly attending this rally in D.C. on the 6th. He had a passion about election integrity.
As stated we're going to see a lot of fallout for a while as Trump gets impeached again although he will be leaving office on January 20th. I want everyone to remember America has a history of free speech and expression. And the fallout of this will also challenge the rights to free speech and expression. There are plenty who believe this election was "stolen" or otherwise there were some irregularities that tilted the election in a certain direction.
President Trump and his team had attempted to lawfully challenge the election results so far no court has been willing to hear the challenges. The S.C.O.T.U.S. even has a hearing with regards to the results in Pennsylvania scheduled for after the January 20th inauguration. Either way most of us have heard what was said by Trump as far as his election loss, and we know the media's response to it. It's too bad that a well stated sentiment became a basis for more division when we should get at the truth.
Either way I try to maintain my optimism and hopefully a divided America will heal and unify. I'm not happy about the last two months to be honest, however, after seeing the issues with this pandemic I can't wait to see a nation finally settling down.
[VIDEO] I'm sorry to have not followed this as consistently as I should've, however, the result of this wasn't exactly in doubt. No more than the confusion that occurred in Monday's Iowa Caucuses.
The Senate voted Wednesday to acquit President Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, ending a historic Senate trial that was centered on his conduct toward Ukraine but that did not include live witnesses or new documents.
One Republican — Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah — crossed party lines to join Democrats in voting to convict Trump on the first charge, abuse of power.
Trump stonewalled the House impeachment probe, blocking witnesses and denying documents. He stands as the third president to be impeached.
The acquittal follows a State of the Union address Tuesday night in which Trump pointed to the strong economy as vindication as he sought to move on from impeachment. The speech ended with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tearing up a copy of Trump’s prepared remarks.
The crux of the case against Trump is the allegation that he withheld military aid and a White House meeting to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son. Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while his father was vice president.
It's no surprise that there are many in Washington, DC who doesn't like President Donald Trump. He's unlike anyone else who became President in recently memory. I'm glad the impeachment vote resulted in acquittal and we can get on with the business of this country.
With that said, I know many were unhappy with the results of an election that took place just about four years ago. Remember that this year in 2020, we're going through an election season that started in Iowa. By the summer we'll know who will be the Democrat nominee for President.
Still, we do have an election this year. I would encourage you to pick a candidate and if you got people in other states encourage them to vote for the candidate of your choice. If you don't like our current President, we have the opportunity to fix that later this year!
[VIDEO] This is not something we see everyday. Chicago is supposed to be a "Trump-free" zone and we are home to a piece of Trump owned real-estate that people seem to love making a statement in front of. Let's not forget Mayor Rahm Emanuel has little issue going at it in the press with the President.
Then we see state representative LaShawn Ford discussing why he would like President Donald Trump to send federal help to Chicago with regards to the gun violence. He is one local Democrat who isn't accepting Chicago as a "Trump-free" zone. He appeared on FOX & Friends on Monday morning something you might have seen on Capitol Fax yesterday.
You know I can't blame him one bit. Don't just get federal assistance, get state assistance as well. Over the years there were plans to send in the Illinois State Police at least and it seems city hall - or perhaps Mayor Emanuel himself - has rebuffed this assistance. I think it went beyond whatever animosity between Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner, Emanuel didn't get along well with our former governor Pat Quinn who is seeking to install mayoral term limits on the November ballot.
BTW, I posted this to The Sixth Ward last night with regards to the city council's Black Caucus making their own statement to the violence of this past weekend.
Lost in all the tweets of personal attacks on cable network media personalities and a video which portrays the President at a past WWF Wrestlemania attacking someone who represents CNN (whose logo you see in place of their face - probably WWF owner Vince McMahon) was a mention of federal help being sent to Chicago.
Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!
Twenty federal gun agents have been assigned to Chicago to join a
newly formed task force aimed at cutting the flow of illegal guns into
the city and cracking down on people repeatedly arrested on gun charges.
Hours after the Chicago police department sent out a news release about the task force, President Donald Trump claimed credit for sending in the agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
...
The roughly 40-person strike force, which consists of Chicago police
officers, ATF agents and Illinois State Police, will be working on
unsolved shootings and gun-related homicides and combating illegal gun
trafficking, officials said Friday.
In addition to the federal angle help from the Cook County Sheriff is coming to the south side also announced late last month:
The sheriff's office announced Wednesday that 55 to 60 sheriff's police and staff members would "supplement" the work already done by Chicago police in the Calumet and Gresham police districts.
Sheriff's officers and staff will help with patrol units, special operations, crime suppression tactical teams, evictions and other services.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) asked the sheriff's police to help "to create a safer, healthier environment," according to a news release.
Will additional law enforcement help from the federal government or the sheriff be enough to curb violent crime in the many low-income neighborhoods of Chicago?
BTW, yes the WWF is actually WWE now, however, as a wrestling fan old habits die hard. WWE will always be WWF or World Wrestling Federation to me. The usage of WWF was intentional.
Just another salvo from Mayor Rahm Emanuel against President Donald Trump as the current President continues to take shots at Chicago. Many of those shots are regarding the gun violence issue. Emanuel also took shots at his old friend Bruce Rauner as he has also made statements against Chicago's schools.
A variety of transit projects in our fair city could be on the gun but I want to emphasize one project that could be derailed - no pun intended - by the priority on people who drive their own vehicles:
Amtrak isn’t the only transportation network expected to feel the squeeze from Washington. While CTA’s $2.1 billion Red-Purple Line modernization program managed to secure $1.1 billion in matching federal funds during the waning days of the Obama Administration, Trump’s proposed budget could cast serious doubts on a plan to extend the Red Line beyond 95th Street to Chicago’s Far South Side.
If there was a time for Chicago's south side leaders to make sure we get that extension funded now, this is the time. And yes I realize Trump doesn't have many friends or allies here in Chicago.
