Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Trump Feud: Will It Cost Him in the 2026 Governor's Race?

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.

Check out the interview here [VIDEO]

NBC Chicago — Separation: A State without Chicago

 Get a load of this, this was uploaded to NBC Chicago's YouTube channel. A documentary about a movement for the rest of the state of Illinois to separate themselves from Cook County & Chicago. Legitimate gripes is for example continued control over Illinois by the politicians of the Chicago area.

Might be more to it than that certainly complaints about quality of life, taxes, even mentions of Chicago being less of a goldmine than a financial disaster. Perhaps the divide depicted in this documentary are between the rural and small towns of this state and a big city like Chicago. [VIDEO]

Question to be asked here, how can we make Illinois a better state?

CapFax: Illinoisans should not have to live this way

 I found this interesting on Capitol Fax, yesterday

* One of my top complaints about Democratic rule in this state is the super-majority party’s unwillingness to firmly step in to help some small Black-majority suburban and Downstate towns find their way to fiscal solvency. East St. Louis is just one of many…

What caught my eye is that there is a complaint about Democratic rule in Illinois. The bad news is there's no serious opposition in this state.

It won't solve all problems, however, the right politician could use this. Hopefully this theoretical politician would be serious about getting this done. 

Livestream: NASA’s Artemis II Crew Flies Around the Moon

 

[VIDEO] The four astronaut crew of Artemis II aboard their Orion capsule Integrity will break the distance record set by Apollo 13. They will be the furthest distance from Earth any human beings have been, a record set by the ill-fated crew of Apollo 13 that suffered a castrophic failure that cancelled an attempt to land on the moon.

Hope you enjoy, even if you only watch the replay. At the time I wrote this the crew was about 27 minutes before they reach the far side of the moon, where they will lose contact with the Earth for about 40 minutes.

Now I want to pop Apollo 13 the movie into the old VCR....err get with the times I can stream it now! 

Artemis II pilot Victor Glover

 He's about to make history as being the first Black American to orbit the moon. Of course he was quoted as saying it shouldn't be about his race, to go to the Moon as we had during the 1960s with the Apollo missions is a human achievement.

Artemis II launched Wednesday sending four people which also includes the first Canadian and woman to orbit the moon. The design is like an Apollo Command capsule, although there is a much differently designed service module that will propel them around the moon and return them to the earth.

Glover before becoming an astronaut served as a pilot in the US Navy and according to this NY Post article was formerly a two-sport athlete in football and wrestling in his college years.

NASA is live streaming coverage of the Artemis II mission here. [VIDEO]

No more penny...

 The time has come. The penny has been retired and production has ceased at the US Mint. The penny costs a lot to produce in recent years thanks to inflation so that helped with the decision of the Trump administration to end the production of the penny.

Here's an IG post on it.

Secretary Hegseth's 'TedTalk'

Yesterday was a big day, there was news in the press that the Secretary of Defense War Pete Hegseth had called all US flag officers - Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, Generals & Admirals - to a meeting at Quantico which is a Marine Base in Virginia.

I'm sure his 45 minute speech to these Generals & Admirals was very jarring, but I wonder if it's appreciated that he's setting a new direction for the armed services. He's right about the military, they are in the business of life and death and anyone who's in the service needs to act accordingly. He definitely emphasize the importance of physical fitness of all servicemembers.

He also emphasizes the meritocracy and no more D.E.I. initiatives. Secretary of War Hegseth wants to insure that no one will get promoted based on their race and gender or some other characteristic. What matters most is how they perform in their roles.

If I wasn't already over the age limit I'd sign up right now just to see if I could make it with these new rigid standards.

Here's his speech. Reminds me of a TedTalk. [VIDEO]

A lot of people who analyzed Secretary Hegseth's speech sort of compared it to the opening scene of Patton with the flag in the background and Patton played by George C. Scott giving his own speech. That would be a very iconic scene that many evoked here.

Also note that Patton is one of the historic generals that the Secretary of War noted in his speech. Some military analysts have noted we no longer have that swashbuckling generals that get the job done these days. Patton was one, MacArthur, Grant, and there are others surely.

Anyone have any thoughts on this. Any currently service military personnel or even veterans have any thoughts on this?

 

Now we have a Dept. of War

 The President of the United States - one Donald J. Trump - had been talking about this at least since he became President last year. And just last week he made good on it with an executive order. However, to make this more official it still takes an act of Congress for him to officially change the official name of the Department of Defense.

I've screen-capped the Defense/War Department Website and Instragam just to let you know what I've found on those sites.

Ex-CPS principal found dead on day of sentencing

 This story caught my eye and is worth sharing.

Former Brennemann Elementary School Principal Sarah Jackson Abedelal was found dead after she failed to show up for her sentencing in an overtime kickback scheme, her lawyer told a judge Wednesday.

Abedelal, 61, had been scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday morning before U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, who issued an arrest warrant after she failed to show up an rescheduled the hearing for Wednesday afternoon.

At those proceedings, Abedelal’s attorney, Jonathan Bedi, told the judge he was informed last night that his client had passed away. No further details of the circumstances of her death were discussed in court.

You might want to know what she did that caused Federal scrutiny

Abedelal was charged in July 2021 in a 10-count wire fraud indictment alleging a seven-year scheme to have employees file for overtime they didn’t work and kick back at least $200,000 to her, which she allegedly used for her own purposes including for her car and her student loans.

Abedelal was one of six defendants — including two of her underlings — ensnared in the case, which also involved an alleged scheme to falsify orders for school supplies to provide iPhones, iPads and prepaid gift cards to school officials for personal use.

Abedelal pleaded guilty to a single wire fraud count nearly three years ago. Prosecutors had been seeking a 38-month prison sentence, arguing she “diverted critical funds meant to further children’s education away from a school and school district that were already having financial difficulties in order to line her pockets.”

A statement from her lawyer emphasized that this chapter of her life and that she impacted the educational journey of "hundreds of students". And will be deeply missed by her many friends, family and colleagues.

Also this not to stay in the negative with regards to her:

Abedelal’s attorneys, meanwhile, had asked for six months behind bars. In a recent court filing, Abedelal’s lawyers said she has a history of mental issues including bipolar disorder and depression, and they asked she be placed in a treatment program if she was incarcerated.

 Now that she's no longer with us the charges against her will be formally dropped.

Gov. George H. Ryan R.I.P.

 George Ryan served as the Governor of Illinois from 1999 to 2003. There was a Republican dynasty from 1977 to 2003 which included Governors Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar, and finally Ryan. That dynasty ended upon the election of Democrat Rod Blagojevich as IL Governor.

George Ryan I recall was the last effective governor Illinois had. There was significant infrastructure investment during his term and one infrastructure project involved the rehab of the Douglas branch of the CTA L (back then it was part of the CTA Blue Line, today it's the Pink Line). His infrastructure program was called Illinois First.

He's primarily known for commuting all death sentences in the state after at first placing a moratorium on death sentences. He had been demonized for this by death penalty advocates and they cite his political problems as a result of what was going on during his tenure as IL Secretary of State.

You might remember license for bribes you can read more about it here. This scandal led to his downfall (that is is one term as Governor) and ultimately his status as a convicted felon. Sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison in 2006, he was released from federal custody in 2013.

His wife preceded him in death and Gov. Ryan showed little regret in his decisions regarding the death penalty. However, many still view his moves on that issue as more politically motivated.

For the record, while I do consider myself right of center (or conservative) I'm against the death penalty. I'm in favor of justice, and hard for me to justify the death penalty when it's not always applied in the most just way. And certainly that some people may not be guilty of the crime for which they will be put to death. Also I don't find the application of the death penalty very humane.

I would say regardless of what motivated his decisions on this issue, I think he did the right thing in hindsight. Almost a decade after Gov. Ryan had left the Illinois Governorship, the state abolished the death penalty. And a later Republican Governor - the ineffective Bruce Rauner  - had proposed reinstating the death penalty and that failed.

To make a comparison while I may not like the progressive politics of J.B. Pritzker, I would give him credit for being an effective IL Governor. What both men have in common is that they both are interested in governing more than anything. That's what this great state needs.

Gov. Ryan died on May 2, 2025, he was 91.

I'm sorry to say I was slow to share with you news of the death of Gov. Jim Thompson who died in 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. He was Illinois' longest serving governor from 1977 to 1991.

Also we have Gov. Thompson's immediate successor, Jim Edgar who is currently fighting cancer. Having seen someone I was very close to deal with this, I feel for Edgar. He was another one who was truly an effective IL Governor serving from 1991 to 1999. I hope he defeats that dreadful disease.

Tribune: Feds probe Chicago Public Schools over alleged racial discrimination in Black Student Success Plan

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.

From the Chicago Tribune: 

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.

Favored design of the Illinois state flag - the people have spoken.

 The people of this state cast 165,602 votes for the current state flag. As our Secretary of State says  in a video below this flag got more votes than five of the other designs combined.

Drum roll please…🥁 After receiving 385,000 votes, we have a DECISIVE winner in the state flag redesign contest! The Illinois Flag Commission will now report the results to the General Assembly who will vote on whether to adopt a new flag or keep the current one. pic.twitter.com/CS3RMesLH6

— Secretary Alexi Giannoulias (@ILSecOfState) March 6, 2025

You can see how many votes was cast for each flag here. Only wo of my favored designs in the ten submitted for a new state flag came in the top five votes. That includes the one that had a blue and red stripe on each side of the state seal coming in at #4.

Though I should note feedback on these chosen designs weren't very good. These results will be submitted to the general assembly and who knows the state legislature may still decide to come up with a design for a new state flag.

Though I would still say we could keep the current state flag for the governor. A few states have standards for a state's governor. An Illinois governor has no standard.

Rating the 10 finalists for Illinois' state flag.

UPDATE (2/4/25): The video that I had embedded was made private but here is that same segment via Illinois Public Radio that you can listen to.

[VIDEO] This video was published to YouTube last month before voting started for a new IL state flag. And the guest on this segment - Ted Kaye of the North American Vexillological Association takes a look at the designs for a future state flag.

He notes that the states of Utah, Minnesota, and Mississippi most recently had adopted new state flags and all of those flags were discussed by Kaye on this segment. Mississippi broke the rule of not having words on a flag though allowed this was more or less a political or historic compromise.

I think his views on the state flags designs are semi-similar to mine and I slept on (the wild-card) that I think could make a great flag. The one you see in the screen cap the very top left corner - almost a true tricolor with the white space that is shaped as the letter I - the letter I is for Illinois :P. And I feel as if this could be the most American design possible.

C-Span: Donald Trump inauguration speech

 

[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. 

Any thought on his inauguration speech?

Today is January 6, the day to certify the 2024 Presidential Race

 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]

Proposed designs for the Illinois state flag

 

[VIDEO] I have my own favorites, but what are yours? Some of these designs catch my eye, I'm sorry it's too late for me to submit my own design.

I think simplicity is key but in keeping with my idea for an Illinois Republic, the new state flag should be something of a Tri-Color like the French flag although not necessarily the same colors and not a mere replication.

Visit this site: www.ilsos.gov/stateflag

I wish I could see the other proposed designs that didn't make the top ten you will see at the link above.

60 Minutes: How President-elect Trump won Pennsylvania

 

[VIDEO] To be honest there were some aspects of this story I wish was handled differently. They had to mention that President Trump is a convicted felon. Then they mentioned those people who were an election denier (2020 race).

What is accurate is that the Democrats misread the electorate. That although Trump has his flaws (yeah being a felon isn't necessarily a flaw, there are much more real flaws than that), a lot of people chose him over Vice President Kamala Harris. No one uses the term "kitchen table" issues, but that term would be the key one to use here.

The cost of housing, groceries, and let's not forget about gas. Those were issues that people were following throughout these last four years of the Biden presidency. And also as a consideration people might remember Trump's presidency at least before the pandemic in 2020.

It's amazing that this was a landslide. Trump's victory in 2016 he lost in the popular vote but he was able to get a majority of electoral votes to secure the presidency. This year he won in both the popular vote and electoral votes. He was able to sweep such battleground states as North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, and most recently Arizona.

Wisconsin and Pennsylvania certainly helped Trump secure the presidency for the second time.

One last takeway, there was no enthusiasm for the Vice President who sought to become America's first woman president. She had a lot of flaw and the more voters knew about her, I'm sure those flaws turned them off.

As I've learned about voter turnout. Let's say a particular base isn't that enthused by a candidate they're most likely to vote for they won't vote. They may just stay home instead. As with 2016 there was more enthusiasm for President Trump.

Grover Cleveland

 On Tuesday night, 45th President of the United States Donald Trump (2017-2021) became only the second man to have served one term, lost his re-election bid, and then get elected to yet another term as President. He defeated in a landslide Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday and was able to repeat his feat from 2016. Better still he not only wins in the Electoral College, he also wins handily in the popular vote - something he didn't do in 2016.

He shares this historical footnote with only one other man, his name is Grover Cleveland who was the 22nd (1885-1889) & 24th (1893-1897) President of the United States. Oh and an interesting footnote here, just as happened with Trump in 2016, Cleveland actually won the popular vote in 1892 and yet lost in the Electoral College to his successor Benjamin Harrison - the 23rd President (1889-1893).

Grover Cleveland

I'm sharing this most recent story I found this morning from Spectrum News. While it appears to have only been published to YouTube a day ago just from the way they were talking it had to have been produced before Election Day 2024. [VIDEO]

60 Minutes: This Wisconsin county has backed the winning presidential candidate for the last 6 elections

 

[VIDEO] Door County, Wisconsin right at the top of the eastern peninsula of the state. This county could "decide" the the next P.O.T.U.S. And Wisconsin is a battleground state.

In the 2016 election Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania made the difference and handed the 46th P.O.T.U.S. Donald Trump the White House. Those states proved pivotal for Joe Biden in 2020 where he was elected the 47th P.O.T.U.S. and he effectively flipped those states back to blue. Oh yeah let's not forget nominally these are often blue states. Perhaps Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are more purple than blue.

And also add that 2016 and 2020 the results in those elections for President were very close. Narrow margins and in 2020 certainly in Detroit, MI or Philadelphia, PA there were allegations of "voter fraud".

Regardless, whether you vote early or wait for election day next month vote. Make sure it counts, the race shouldn't just be "decided" by one county in the whole nation! 

Sept. 10, 2024 - Presidential Debate

 

[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?