The mid-June heat hangs heavy over the Chicago skyline, thick with the ghosts of the stockyards and the lingering echoes of Haymarket. Out on the prairie and across the desert Southwest, another kind of heat is rising. The flesh-eating screwworm, a parasite unfelt in our livestock for sixty years, has broken through our southern defenses, Read More …
Category: Opinion
A Dream Deferred on Capitol Hill
I have always been a man who watches the avenues, who listens to the rhythm of the feet on the concrete. If I were standing on the corner of 125th Street or State Street today, I wouldn’t just be leaning against a lamppost with a notebook; I’d be watching the blue light of the smartphone Read More …
A Modern Simple Gospel
I look out from my window at a world that claims to be moving forward at the speed of fiber-optics, yet seems stuck in the mud of ancient greed. We have shiny boxes in our pockets with these “Large Language Models” that can attempt to mimic a soul, and yet the heart of our nation Read More …
The Ubiquitous Portfolio
There is something profoundly modern about a man who can manage to be entirely missing and yet universally present, provided the territory in question is the New York Stock Exchange. Consider the curious case of New Jersey Representative Tom Kean Jr., a gentleman who has elevated the art of the French exit to a federal Read More …
The Neon Mirage
We have traded the smoke stacks for server farms, and the assembly line for the algorithm. We feed our thoughts into glowing glass rectangles, hoping for a connection, but the only thing we receive is a beautifully engineered echo chamber delivered specifically for us through the magic of that algorithm. The tools have changed, but Read More …
The Money Changers’ New Clothes
Look at the latest financial disclosures. We’re seeing a sitting president’s personal account lighting up the tickers like a Vegas slot machine, more than 40 trades a day. Millions of dollars shuffling between Nvidia, Boeing, and discount stores like Dollar Tree, operating with the speed of an algorithmic hedge fund. All while his son-in-law juggles Read More …
The Digital Sharecrop
They say the soul is free, but in the year of our Lord 2026, the lease on your daily life is due every thirty days. I look out from my window, not at Harlem rooftops, but at the glowing rectangles held in tired hands on the Chicago ‘L’. We are living in a new kind of Read More …
The Gospel According to the Garment District
There is a distinct, suffocating modern aroma that smells remarkably like a blend of freshly minted crypto, expensive cologne, and the distinct, stale scent of a Sunday pew that hasn’t seen an honest tear since the Eisenhower administration. We are currently expected to bow our heads to a rather peculiar trinity: Capitalism, Christianity, and Patriotism. Read More …
The Neon Jungle and the Shrinking Ballot
Listen, I’ve seen the seasons turn from the red clay of Kansas to the steel-grey skies of Harlem, and I have maybe at least learned one thing in my life: Today the song of liberty sounds a lot like a cash register if you listen close enough. Today, we’re living in a high-speed, digital age Read More …
The Gilded Pew: A View from the Street
Channeling the Spirit of Studs Terkel The tape is rolling. It’s 2026, and the air in Chicago is thick with the same old promises, just wrapped in newer, shinier digital foil. We’re talking about faith today folks. Not the kind that moves mountains, but the kind that moves poll numbers. I’m sitting here thinking about Read More …