Helen Graves

Oy vey with these people. It is, alas, still my district.

I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…

Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...

I am one of your constituents. You have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. You have destroyed my son's future, and that of the vast majority of Americans who cannot afford health care (I am only "safe" because I have Medicare). You have disgraced your office and your state.

We have friends everywhere!

#ReleaseTheCuomoList

Great look at Zohran’s ground game. Worth a read.

Indeed. When I went to church on June 30 in New York, everyone in the procession, priests and all, was carrying a Pride flag. And they were handed out to the congregation. ... I may think God is a human construct, but I love progressive Christians.

Agree! This is especially weird.

When you strip away humanity

I am, every day, so grateful for the voice / eloquence / good sense of @jamellebouie11.bsky.social

I'm trying to get better at BlueSky w/o going totally Internet-crazy. But I miss my friends!

I am a menace with Reels. Sigh.

Yes! The Rob Jackson (Stanford, Global Carbon Project) wrote about this plant in last year's Into the Clear Blue Sky - a really good book about climate restoration that deserves more readers.

"Art can save your life, but entertainment will never be your savior."

YouTube video by Josh Johnson Why Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime Show Is America

Here you go! www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgKs...

Yes, and then the Super Bowl follow-up. So good!

Whoa. Thank you for this.

Exclusive | Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump. The leather-bound book was compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell. The president says the letter ‘is a fake thing.’

NEW: The WSJ article is out. Here is a gift link. www.wsj.com/politics/tru...

a man with an umbrella is walking through a puddle ALT: a man with an umbrella is walking through a puddle

We had HUGE thunder and lightning - and most definitely rain - last night. One bolt hit so close I jumped out of my chair. Wishing you rain (but not a crazy amount).

Hey, I laughed!

Yes, thank you. (Omitting obscenities at the moment.)

YouTube video by FRANCE 24 English 'Worse than murder': Ireland's dark history of criminalisation and diabolisation of unwed mothers

In non-US news, excavations have finally begun to unearth the nearly 800 children secretly buried in Tuam, Ireland. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7em...

Please continue to have no interest in selling! It's not just Vogue and Teen Vogue, it's Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Ugh.

As I've more than once commented on page proofs: "Webster's says "xx" but I stoutly disagree.

Goodness. That being said, I do think "filthylaundry" could be useful.

I grew up in Texas, and yes to all of this. Good use of Brammer's quote, and an excellent piece.

LOL, thanks for that! My own child is so thoughtful and decent, so I absolutely know what you're saying.

I'm fond of my neighbor "Thomas Pynchon" - who could, of course, be a dog. Almost certainly not a cat