I wasn’t able to watch the Tuesday gubernatorial forum between incumbent Governor JB Pritzker and GOP challenger Darren Bailey. It aired on WTTW Chicago, our local PBS affiliate. I’m not giving much of an opinion until I watch it.
I’ve already said where I believe this race is headed in November. Early voting in Illinois began in late September—some collar counties opened sites on September 24, Chicago’s downtown supersites on October 1, and suburban Cook on October 7. The question now is narrower: does this forum change the mind of any voter who hasn’t already cast a ballot?
Noted further is the absence of independent candidate Collin Corbett.
I had been keenly interested in races outside Illinois, especially California. I couldn’t find the full CNN debate between GOP candidate Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra, a former cabinet secretary. Regardless, it is important to keep my focus on home.
CBS Sunday Morning still has the feel of appointment television, even when you’re watching it on Paramount+ at a later time. In the most recent edition, one of the segments featured political strategist Steve Bannon interviewed by senior contributor Ted Koppel. (Yes, that Ted Koppel—the longtime host of ABC’s Nightline.)
Who is Steve Bannon?
Steve Bannon is a former investment banker, media executive, and political operative who became widely known as executive chairman of Breitbart News and as a key strategist in Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. He served briefly as White House chief strategist early in the first Trump administration before returning to media as host of the War Room podcast, where he has remained a prominent voice for the MAGA movement, populist nationalism, and Republican electoral strategy. He has also faced legal consequences, including a 2022 contempt-of-Congress conviction related to the January 6 investigation and a guilty plea in a fundraising fraud case tied to a border-wall charity.
Last week I wrote about the attempted execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike. As of this writing she is still alive and appears to be doing fine. It was expected that she had suffered brain damage. Instead she is conscious and talking, according to reports.
Then another piece of news hit this week. President Trump approved the execution by firing squad of former U.S. Army officer Nidal Hasan. We also learn that Hasan’s execution will be live streamed.
Bill O'Reilly's NewsNation special, The Siege of London, aired Sunday. He was a student at the University of London. The hour opens on street footage from London, Southampton, and Belfast, then the line he says Americans give him when they go back. O'Reilly was here a few decades ago. What the hell happened?
This showed up on Steve Bartin’s Newsalert Tuesday afternoon. Sunny Hostin, on the liberal morning show The View, talking about the Cornell case. Journalist Glenn Greenwald posted the same clip on X: if even she is saying wait, the point should not be hard.
Last week a former student filed a civil suit. She says that in October 2024, at Chi Phi, she was drugged and assaulted by seven fraternity members. A group chat from that night is out. A site went up naming the seven. None of them has been criminally charged.
The governor’s race already looks settled. They are selling Durbin’s seat the same way.
March 17 named the tickets. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won the Democratic nomination with 40.4 percent. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi took 32.7. Rep. Robin Kelly took 18.3. Former Illinois Republican Party chair Don Tracy won his primary with 40 percent over attorney Jeannie Evans at 22.8. The general is November 3.
They have sat for television. They have not sat together.
I wanted to get into these videos on the Illinois governor’s race. JB Pritzker is seeking a third term. His Republican opponent is the same man from 2022, Darren Bailey, running this time with Cook County Republican Aaron Del Mar. Given that Illinois is a solid blue state, the Republicans have a very steep climb in 2026.
The first clip is Del Mar. FOX 32 got a recording of comments he made about George Floyd. He sat down with political reporter Brandon Pope to answer them.
Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive Democrat who narrowly won Michigan’s Senate primary earlier this month, sat down Monday night for what appears to be his first appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime. The setting was deliberate. El-Sayed is now the nominee in a pure toss-up race against former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, a Trump-aligned candidate for the open seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters. Polls remain tight—RealClearPolitics averages show El-Sayed up by less than a point, with individual surveys scattering in both directions—and the contest could help decide control of the Senate.
El-Sayed used the interview to test how his message travels outside the progressive primary electorate. He also made sure to land a few direct shots at Rogers for dodging debates and avoiding the same Fox stage.
Watters opened by pressing El-Sayed on abolishing ICE, a wealth tax on fortunes above $100 million, Medicare for All, the ongoing conflict with Iran, biological males in women’s sports, medical decisions involving minors, and past comments about Sharia law. El-Sayed repeatedly tried to redirect toward gas prices, grocery costs, and health-care affordability, arguing those are the issues Michigan voters actually raise. He defended his progressive economic positions while framing many of the cultural questions as distractions.
I didn’t follow the recent Florida primaries closely. Among other races, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds won the Republican nomination for governor with about 48 percent in a crowded field. President Trump endorsed him early. Donalds is a Black Republican. If he wins in November, he would be the first Black Republican elected governor in American history. (During Reconstruction, P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana, a Republican, served briefly as acting governor after the sitting governor was impeached.) Florida is no longer a swing state. He is the heavy favorite against Democrat David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who switched parties.
He’s not the only Black Republican with a real shot this cycle. In Michigan, John James won the GOP nomination for governor. Michigan is more of a blue state than Florida, so his path is harder, but it’s a race worth watching.
What conservatives have been talking about this week is the Democratic Senate primary. This is a special election for the remainder of Marco Rubio’s term after he became Secretary of State. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed former Attorney General Ashley Moody to the seat in January 2025. State Rep. Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat who joined the Democratic Socialists of America during the campaign, beat the well-funded former Army officer and national-security official Alexander Vindman. Vindman outraised her by a huge margin—roughly $16 million to under $1 million—and still lost. That tells you where the energy is on the Democratic side right now.
I’ve seen enough of Nixon’s clips to be tired of the act. Since the primary she’s tried to sound a little more moderate in interviews. So far it looks thin. Florida being as red as it is, she still has an uphill climb against Moody. Beating a better-funded, more “electable” candidate anyway shows the direction of the party’s base.
Nixon is not new to theatrical protest. In April, during the House vote on DeSantis’s mid-decade congressional maps, she marched the floor in a hot-pink jumpsuit with a matching pink bullhorn, shouting that the maps were “illegal” and a “violation of the Constitution.” The vote still passed 83-28. The House later reprimanded her. She and colleagues did a similar floor sit-in in 2022. Here’s one of the April clips: Fox News.
On Vindman: He was the National Security Council’s Ukraine director. He listened to the July 25, 2019, Trump-Zelensky call and later testified that Trump had improperly asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens (and Burisma) in connection with a White House meeting and military aid. Vindman reported the call internally as improper; he brought his twin brother, Yevgeny (Eugene) Vindman, an NSC lawyer, along when he went to the NSC’s top counsel. Alexander became a central witness in the first impeachment. After the Senate acquitted Trump, both brothers were removed from the White House in February 2020. Eugene later won a House seat in Virginia in 2024.
The below meme says it better than most commentary. A guy offers basic health advice and gets told he’s not a doctor. Then comes the punchline: “Your doctor invoked the 5th 111 times.”
Yesterday’s Senate Homeland Security hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci was less a fact-finding session and more performance art. Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment over and over—refusing to answer even basic questions. At one point Rand Paul asked what day of the week it was. Fauci still took the Fifth.
In a sudden blow to South Carolina and Washington, longtime GOP Senator Lindsey Graham passed away Saturday evening at age 71 after a brief illness. His office confirmed the news, with the D.C. medical examiner citing aortic dissection due to heart disease.
Bill O’Reilly addressed the loss directly in his July 14 video, “Sen. Lindsey Graham Dies — Bill O'Reilly on the Political Aftermath.” O’Reilly recapped Graham’s long service: Air Force JAG, four Senate terms, and his evolution into a staunch Trump ally and foreign policy hawk.
The senator strongly backed hard power—supporting Ukraine (he had just returned from there), Israel, and confronting Iran, Russia, and terrorists. O’Reilly played clips from Graham’s final interview on deterrence and global threats, praising his consistent vision while noting past disagreements like Iraq intel. He dismissed conspiracy theories and highlighted their personal friendship, including golf outings and Middle East calls with Trump.
Check out O'Reilly's comments on Sen. Graham here [VIDEO]
Been a while since I’ve covered a local South Side story, but this one stands out.
Father Michael Pfleger, the longtime pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church at 79th and Racine on Chicago’s South Side, is facing renewed scrutiny. This weekend, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced a new allegation of sexual abuse of a minor dating back decades. Pfleger has stepped aside from ministry during the investigation and strongly denies the claim, calling it “an absolute lie.”
Bill O’Reilly’s NewsNation special, The Decline and Fall of San Francisco, doesn’t pull punches. It shows a city that once welcomed the world now struggling with open drug use, tent encampments, retail theft, and random violence. The root cause? Progressive policies that prioritized compassion without consequences.
The numbers tell part of the story. San Francisco spent roughly $106,000 per homeless person annually. It handed out cash assistance and harm-reduction supplies — needles, even pipes — while “Housing First” programs placed people in apartments with no requirement for sobriety or treatment. Prop 47 turned theft under $1,000 into a misdemeanor, fueling smash-and-grabs that drove stores to close. Overdoses climbed. Mental illness went largely untreated on the streets because involuntary commitment was politically toxic.
Former Mayor Willie Brown put it plainly: once public-safety laws stopped being enforced, the city spiraled into anarchy. Frustrated residents fought back by recalling District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022 and electing new leadership that is now rolling back some of the most extreme policies, including stepped-up cleanups and enforcement.
The White House YouTube channel recently shared a video from Trump Tower titled The Golden Escalator That Changed History. It was posted on Wednesday, but it takes us right back to June 16, 2015 — the day Donald Trump announced his historic run for President. [VIDEO]
The video is nicely shot — kudos to the videographer. At the time, though, I honestly wouldn’t have paid much attention. In the years since, that Golden Escalator moment has become an iconic event. It launched a successful campaign that defeated a formidable opponent: a former Secretary of State and U.S. Senator who seemed poised to become America’s first female President.
Big changes are shaking up one of television’s most iconic news programs. Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley was fired this week after a heated clash with new management. The story, covered sharply in this PBD Podcast video (“Bought His Own Hype”), highlights the tension between legacy journalists and the fresh direction CBS News is taking under Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss.
Here you can watch the clip from the PBD Podcast [VIDEO]
[VIDEO] I will trust Bill O'Reilly's take on the recent Trump administration actions against the President Dictator of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro. He gives you a basic rundown of Operation Absolute Resolve and that the police and military of Venezuela allowed the Army Delta Force to apprehend Maduro. There are a lot of moving parts to this mission I see.
Just so you know CBS News (60 Minutes is produced by CBS News) has been undergoing changes under Bari Weiss. I do wonder how much this iconic TV news magazine is affected by this new direction.
I'm showing the one hour plus extended, most importantly unedited, interview of Pres. Trump with Norah O'Donnell that aired last night on 60 Minutes. [VIDEO]
They covered a lot of ground. The immigration actions, sending Nat'l Guard to American cities, the ongoing War Dept campaign against drug smuggling from Venezuela, potential American nuclear weapons testing, foreign policy with regards to the Middle East in addition to China & Russia, etc.
And Trump isn't afraid to take on his predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama. They even talked about his attempt to take care of "Obamacare".
And let's not forget about this gov't shutdown that's gone on for well over a month. It forced the President to scramble to insure our military servicemembers still continue to get paid.
The extended interview I trust more than the edited one that aired last night I saw most of the 28 minutes of that edited interview.
Just bear in mind Pres. Trump won a settlement with CBS over their rather skewered interview in 2024 with then Vice President Kamala Harris. It almost makes me wonder if Weiss was brought in to repair the damage from that.
Before sharing the recent news video from Des Moines, Iowa regarding the schools superintendent there.
I was shocked to hear he attempted to flee and was detained by ICE. It turns out he was not an American citizen, and it caused me to wonder how could this happen in of all places Iowa.
From what I've see so far it appears that soon to be former Superintendent Ian Roberts lied about his immigration status. And perhaps the folks at the Des Moines Public Schools had failed to adequately vet Mr. Roberts. This article from the Des Moines Register says the Des Moines schools had used an outside firm to vet him.
And reading that article further he seemed to have not be forthcoming about where he actually got his degrees. He misrepresented his doctoral degree at Maryland's Morgan State University although he later got his doctorate at a private for-profit university.
I just got to say this whole story was a mess. This is what happened yesterday in Des Moines. From the start we hear students had walked out in support of Mr. Roberts via this report from KCCI. Roberts had submitted his resignation. [VIDEO]
I have to say, the immigration issue is a charged issue right now. There's no middle ground here so perhaps I shouldn't be too surprised if there are people who want to support Mr. Roberts.
However, where I stop at is the fact that he misrepresented his citizenship and his academic record. That really bothers me and I wonder if the people who are supporting him actually realize how he arrived in this position.
My position is to point the finger at him as much as I would at the school district who hired him.
