US Politics Round Up - April 2025: Unions Win, Kids Lose—Chicago’s Costly Education Stalemate and the National Fallout
The Unions win, and the Kids lose. In Chicago , education doesn’t seem to be the top priority for teachers—and not just in Chicago. That the Teachers Union secured a pay raise while student performance declines suggests a glaring double standard.
It tells you something when a dismal public school system negotiates a costly contract and the general sentiment is, well, it could have been worse. Such is the depressing news from the Windy City, where the Chicago Teachers Union has landed a roughly $1.5 billion agreement that sentences the city’s children to four more years of the failing but still expensive status quo.
Remember Signal gate , where a reporter made headlines out of nothing for political points? For Jeffrey Goldberg , the responsible action would have been verifying if he was meant to be on the call—and remaining silent. Instead, we assume he’s aligned with the “resistance,” based on his Politico background. Waltz, however, seems to have taken the fall— was he a war hawk from the Bush-Cheney era, or just the victim of an oversight?
He served in the Bush administration as a defense policy director in the Pentagon and as counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney .
Some administration officials circulated video clips of Waltz criticizing Trump in 2016 for avoiding Vietnam and urging voters to “stop Trump now.”
“All this has reminded everybody of those facts,” said a senior administration official, “and those were things that were best conveniently forgotten.”
Here’s an interesting interview that offers another perspective on the Russia–Ukraine war. Consider a wide range of sources. While Zelensky still believes in victory, some argue he’s risking a full European war.
The voices of the Democratic Party— the underground , individual voices, and the Pryer —are best reflected by “The View,” where opinions are shared with no substance. Cory Booker demonstrated that for 25 hours on the floor. Polling shows they’re fighting Trump with nothing—and if they want relevance, none of the current names (Kamala, Newsom, Waltz, etc.) have national credibility. Hopefully we avoid another Weather Underground moment.
The book "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House" , published by William Morrow and Company, claims Obama was never a Democratic loyalist. Instead, he relied on a group of “Black professionals” for his campaigns—unlike Biden, the Clintons, and others. Joe Biden.
Just a reminder on the Democratic Party’s founding and evolution into its current loose structure. Factions led by Henry Clay formed the Whigs, who later collapsed over slavery. Out of that collapse came the Republican Party , alongside the Free Soil Party , founded by Martin Van Buren.
So what’s the point of allowing trans athletes in women’s sports? Is it simply to give them a winning edge? Why are politicians —many of whom never competed — making decisions instead of sports authorities?
Silicon Valley: built by the government? Or an example of how public-private partnerships can work. Read more.
Fight —likely written after the Trump assassination attempt—is a worthwhile read if you want to understand the internal dynamics of Democratic politics.
The book claims Harris’ communications director Jamal Simmons developed a full communications strategy in case of President Biden’s death.
