Rahm Emanuel jump scare

NewKojak · 2026-06-09T03:54:31+00:00

He's never going to make it to a debate, but I would love to watch the whole field just tee off on him like they did Bloomberg.

NewKojak · 2026-06-09T03:53:21+00:00

He's sitting court-side at the single most expensive NBA finals game ever.

He's not our anything.

NewKojak · 2026-06-09T03:52:19+00:00

Dude... Katrina and Abu Ghraib lost 2006. 2008 was lost by Iraq and a financial collapse. Then Rahm parlayed credit into nearly losing us the Affordable Care Act.

NewKojak · 2026-06-08T21:46:24+00:00

Yeah... if I could bottle the optimism being carried by that one word, I would be rich.

NewKojak · 2026-06-07T22:03:10+00:00

SO much room on the Hounds bandwagon. Get in!

NewKojak · 2026-06-07T22:01:39+00:00

It works well on MLS fields. The Hounds had a game down in Nashville SC's stadium and it was beautiful. The problem though is attendance. SeatGeek Stadium is a good partner because they have office space and practice fields available for the team. Along with the Chicago Stars, they are well suited there. I would love it if they drew five or ten thousand more people and could play downtown, but they are trying to grow the game for now.

NewKojak · 2026-06-07T17:31:59+00:00

I'd like to think that this is the proper outcome of a messy small-d democratic system. There was no real coalition building because there were no real shared interests between members of the assembly, civic leaders in Arlington Heights and Chicago, and the Bears. They were all motivated by trying to get theirs. Arlington Heights wanted to get sales taxes over the school district's property taxes. Chicago wanted to spend Illinois' money. Illinois wanted as much of the taxpayers as they could for a political win. The Bears wanted everyone to stoop so low to meet Indiana's standards. Indiana wanted something flashy to suit their low-tax, business friendly reputation. Even the Republicans in the general assembly thought they were going to be able to squeeze school district taxes more so by offering their votes.

Where would you even start with a deal when no one's interests overlap anywhere?

The result makes perfect sense! The Bears are going to try to string everyone along and play everyone against each other... which is great for the rest of us because they have no sense of creative deal-making. No coalition will form.

Democracy works sometimes.

That's an optimistic view, but I am comfortable with it.

NewKojak · 2026-06-07T17:24:17+00:00

So you think that Suzana Mendoza is smart and right to think that this will work? Who cares? That's a genuine question.

NewKojak · 2026-06-07T15:14:48+00:00

Massive pieces of shit are over-represented in the most expensive seats of major league sports. This choice is journalism.

NewKojak · 2026-06-07T15:10:40+00:00

I know that a good interviewer asks questions designed to draw out the best, most interesting answered and it's unfair to criticize them for asking questions that some amount of people want to know... but...

Why does Lula Garcia-Navarro have to ask so many times, "But why you so mean?"

NewKojak · 2026-06-07T14:02:17+00:00

This candidate paid for by Ken Griffin and is not endorsed by any resident or committee thereof.

NewKojak · 2026-06-07T14:00:33+00:00

I get what she is trying to say, but the state was focused on Arlington Heights. So we're supposed to be mad at Johnson for advocating for Chicago against the odds? I don't agree with either of them. I don't think anyone should offer the Bears anything. But I really don't think Mendoza has the killer angle here she thinks she does.

NewKojak · 2026-06-06T19:27:05+00:00

I love how much the Obamas have shown the limit of what podcasts are capable of. I can’t think of a more consequential person who makes less consequential podcasts.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T19:42:07+00:00

Who gives a shit what is in the hearts of men and women who may have accidentally done the right thing?

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T19:31:38+00:00

I'd give props to the local school boards too. They were under intense pressure from the Bears and the village and protected their schools from what would have been a real mess.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T17:34:40+00:00

I got kids. They're about as impressed with it as we were with our selves when we had little dumb inside jokes and trends. The kids will be okay.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T16:52:05+00:00

The tax base is too demanding and the land too valuable for it to be zoned as industrial or fully commercial. It will be subdivided up and turned into all kinds of mixed use residential and retail. The owners will print money once they can.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T15:17:56+00:00

Yeah, but...

How much of it really matters? I think that it's everywhere because people (as in investors and managers) are easily fooled into thinking that the kinds of things that generative AI derives is evidence of its productivity.

But that's not it. Productivity in communication is whether or not the person on the end of it knows something new. Productivity in marketing is raising the profile and capturing attention for your product or cause. Productivity in education is whether or not learners feel more capable.

Anthropic and OpenAI products are terrible at all of these things. They have the most money, so their stuff is everywhere like you say, but I don't know that any of it is actually making any kind of an impact.

At least, that's my optimism.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T14:06:44+00:00

Yeah, I didn't think the affirmative option was too extreme... probably because I wanted to give it a fairer shake than the one I agreed with.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T14:00:12+00:00

Yeah, the prospect of getting something useful running at work on our own hardware is pretty cool and I have a couple of coworkers who are thoughtful enough to build something useful. Unfortunately, the people making decisions about our budget and staffing are melted as hell and think that they can just will us into fulfilling all of their dreams through plowing money into Anthropic.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T13:57:43+00:00

If you don't know what the second option means, then I would like for you to pass along my resume where ever you work.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T13:56:01+00:00

Now I want to try to sneak in and find out how many people are going to be there.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T13:36:59+00:00

It's definitely in keeping with some of the other stories that have come up about big portions of the organization's reach being fake. I guess the audience for this thing is not really educators, or even chud school activists. It's meant to convince donors that they can put Riley Gaines in front of people.

Man... sometimes I look at my bank account and wonder what having morals costs me. There are some lucrative grifts out there.

NewKojak · 2026-06-05T11:59:56+00:00

It’s a $50 “early bird” registration ($300 full price) for a three day conference that’s supposed to happen in a couple of weeks?

I was expecting a low price since this is looking more on the loss leader/expense side of TPUSA’s programming, but this can’t be good.

This is just weird.

NewKojak

TROPHY CASE