While reporting this, I had something happen that's never happened. A comms rep for one of the co's disputed my reporting and said what I was telling them was untrue because it was not in Grok, xAI's chatbot. I was looking directly at the files. And this person was using AI to challenge the truth.

For $36/year not only do *I* not have to shovel the sidewalk but that means *everywhere* I'd walk in the entire city would be shoveled too?? Feels like a deal to me...

Raise your hand if you have been personally victimized by private equity firms open.substack.com/pub/yourbrai...

He didn't even call me back when I left a message asking him to support bills to decriminalize psychedelics and sex work.

Andrade attempting the "Natalie Toro" maneuver, capitalizing on a financial edge to flood the zone in every possible medium that Andrade is the "one true progressive" despite that being a load of horseshit if you critically review their voting records. Anyways, vote Miguel Alvelo Rivera for IL-40

💙💙💙

So I emailed the business unit about this, they did some research and.... yep. Frozen juice from concentrate is gone www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

Given his role in state, local, and university politics, want to make sure everyone has a chance to read the way Michael Sacks speaks of local politicians and Northwestern faculty

We are proud to endorse Miguel Alvelo Rivera for IL-40 State Rep! Miguel has a strong history of fighting for, *and delivering wins*, for our community. Full slate and how to join the movement: www.workingfamilies33.org/2026-primary...

Important thread: for a long time I have been waiting to see a clear critique of vendor influence over the safety net space. This maps out the political economy of vendor capture of safety net systems.

Thank you @ramirez.house.gov I’m so grateful to be your constituent!

As someone who's watched the immigration debate in this country since Arizona implemented a "papers please" law back in 2010, I used to dream of ICE Abolition becoming this normalized amongst Americans. Victory is inevitable; we will win.

I’ve seen enough. Voting for @julianastratton.bsky.social. Among other reasons, she’s the only one who didn’t entertain that idiotic “do you agree with Trump on something?” question. There is no agreeing with a madman on anything, and to say that you do is disqualifying.

All candidates asked if they would support Schumer as leader of Senate Dems. Just yes or no Raja: undecided Kelly: depends on who's running against him Stratton: no

no ❤️

SCOOP: Palantir Defends Work With ICE to Staff Following Killing of Alex Pretti WIRED obtained Slack conversations + an updated internal Palantir wiki defending the company's work for ICE to outraged workers. More here: www.wired.com/story/palant...

according to bluesky, working for ice is a protected class against discrimination lol

I’ll take any opportunity for a bean photo

finally, a political comms issue that i, the comics curmudgeon, am uniquely equipped to analyze

lmao the dotted line looks like she's whispering it

just gonna throw out a quick reminder that in America police kill a yearly average of 3 civilians per day, routinely in situations very similar to these ICE killings, and decades of explicit support for police impunity by US politicians is why ICE feels theyre able to get away with this right now

Scoop – Daniel Biss submitted a policy paper to AIPAC early in the campaign, a person privy to the document tells me But after speaking with Biss, they turned to Laura Fine, before trying to reach back out to Biss in August

One of the first things anyone learns about facial recognition is that it is often wrong and that it is biased. And yet ICE is using it all day every day to determine legal status & who to detain. And now we have a high-profile example of it being flat out wrong: www.404media.co/ices-facial-...

I think what the consultant class is missing is that the dems are always like “send money to save democracy!!” so then you send money and nothing fucking happens. why don’t you save democracy first and i’ll pay when you’ve done it

New list of acceptable names to rename Balbo Drive? forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...

clear my calendar. I'm reading every line of this lawsuit

don't write songs about it or make tv shows about how bad they feel about their actions or or movies or comics or music videos about it. they are fools. they are an embarrassment to humankind. they are the mcdonalds happy toy version of nazis. our job is to make sure they know it

Finally got around to watching Chicago Works on @wttw.bsky.social and it absolutely ruled — the wig maker! The bridge operator! The gold leaf sign painters!!! I learned so much

Imagine what mambo #5 would be like today

personally thrilled at the slim possibility of a Bills/Bears because even though I don't care about football, 1) Bills Mafia is my birthright, 2) Bears football is also my birthright, and 3) I got into sports betting with free money as a bit last year and i have bets riding on both teams winning 🤡

Everybody should watch this and see this woman, who has a baby in her arms and is thrust into basically a standoff, develop courage in real time.

first of all being a hater has gotten me so many friends. secondly, the newly common idea that venting means one friend bellyaching and the other being drained of their life force ignores the ideal, superior form of venting: mutual venting! sometimes we are mad together, nothing more energizing <3

that's my congresswoman 🙏

a truly inconsequential pet peeve: We've swung real hard in the direction of soft-sounding baby names these days. Emma? Sophia? Liam?! Did we run out of T's and K's? Truly, these are nice names but where is the phonetic diversity!

This is great, "Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death," a story where Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who administers the lottery from "The Lottery" archiveofourown.org/works/733964...

if paul vallas was mayor right now the trib editorial board would make him mayor for life, instead they get mad whenever johnson mentions this

Look, the Beatles were HUGE for me as a kid, and I still love them as much as, if not more than, the next #BeatlesGuy. But I’m BEGGING someone to put this kind of energy into the KINKS, for the love of god

Chicago just sold off its unpaid ambulance bills to debt collectors, to pay for an 8% increase in the police budget

Don’t know how these aldermen can live with themselves

A good omen for the solstice

Here’s the correct link, as the Chicago Shovels one above yells security warnings www.chicago.gov/city/en/dept...

Everyone else go home — this is the year we secure ABOLISH ICE on a Chicago Snowplow chicagoshovels.org

Anyway look at how cute the cover is. 80 pages of whimsy, science, and the esoteric!

😌

GIVE AWAY! // AKA WE DID IT AGAIN! Since The Night Guest is coming out in paperback we decided to try to gift another copy bitten by Uggi. And it went … a little *too* well. (See picture 🧵) Like and share this post and on December 30th I will select a winner and send them this teeth marked copy!

Chicago! If you're interested in... - gardening in USDA Zones 6a/5b - trees and all they do for us - neo-pagan reflections on the passage of time - the community orgs and businesses on the near NW side Might I recommend the hyper-local Avondale Gardening Alliance 2026 Almanac?

Obviously it’s way too early for 2028 polling to mean much. But also, now is the time to start poisoning the well against Newsom for your boomer parents who think his troll posts against Trump are really funny

I'm no purist when it comes to participating in things we all know are bad. I try to reduce my harm but I'm an honest hypocrite. I won't judge you for still using Spotify, just try this rad alternative. I'm listening to music from Dar es Salaam. Where will you listen to? radio.garden/listen/furah...