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"Having money means you can avoid certain consequences. But for a narrative aim in your fictional work, it doesn’t make sense for there to be no consequences." Nina Metz talks to U Delaware Prof. Dominique J. Baker about TV's relentless wealthaganda: chicagotribune.com/2025/06/18/col…

Sore but happy, I just got back from a bikepacking excursion from Lower Manhattan to Connecticut and back, with a lot of help from, among others, a movie I hadn't seen in years. chicagotribune.com/2025/06/19/col…

Trump announces attack on Iran. No congressional approval. At the hands of the self-proclaimed "anti-war" president.

The president does not have the power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to our nation. Where is Congress here?

Obama’s Iran nuclear deal was working until Trump pulled out of it. His own staff warned him not to because the alternative was war. Well, now we’re at war with Iran because Trump is weak, stupid and hated Obama more than he cared about preventing Iran from getting a nuke.

So we’re at war now. It’s the clearest way to get a craven 5-4 Supreme Court to back a third term.

Plot thickens.

Guardian: “The strikes are a perilous decision, as Iran has pledged to retaliate if the U.S. joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally, having won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of foreign conflicts.” US media, avoid this context at your peril.

- war without congressional approval - masked thugs abducting and deporting people without due process - concentration camps on foreign soil - US military deployed against protesters - tariffs costing families thousands - gutting healthcare for millions … we’re only 152 days in

Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, died over the weekend. A passage from his obituary and 2 charts from today’s papers illustrate the fallacy of Republican Party economics. From Fred Smith’s obituary:

Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security.    Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.   Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. —Harry Truman, 1952

“I hold all the levers”

A good Fourth to those who will fight for the Constitution, the rules of law, the 1st Amendment as well as the 25th— and a country that owns its mistakes and learns to inspire all of us.

Oh, and the 22nd amendment. That’s a really good one.

The president asserts unilateral power to raise taxes on Americans, who import from two US allies. The memo also suggests he could change tariffs yet again. It further suggests the countries should manufacture in the US. Japanese automakers and others already do. From NPR:

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The Gunn conundrum continues. Good enough for an hour, not quite for another, but enough payoffs (Krypto; Lois Lane; Mr. Terrific; Nathan Fillion's singular mastery of under/overplaying) to mitigate the semi-endless bouts of Snyder-level brutality. chicagotribune.com/2025/07/09/sup…

"Most important, the {weather] service had issued three increasingly dire warnings early that morning — at 1:14 a.m., 4:03 a.m. and 6:06 a.m. What Kelly didn’t mention, but which has since become well known, is that the Weather Service employee whose job it was to make sure

When you emphasize it has nothing to do with Colbert’s “content,” it’s probably a U.S. President getting fussy about the content. nytimes.com/2025/07/17/bus… via @NYTimes

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.