Sitemap - 2023 - Fred Klonsky in Retirement

A year in pictures. (Mine)

Biden ignores Congress and sends more bombs to Israel.

Stephen Miller comes to Skokie.

Remembering the racist Eddie Burke.

Wishing for ceasefires in the new year.

"It's always the old to lead us to the wars. It's always the young to fall. Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun. Tell me, is it worth it all?" - Phil Ochs.

Israel's war on Palestinians splits the Democratic Party and give Republicans an opening for 2024.

If the election were held today Joe Biden would lose.

Mom's for Liberty and Sarasota's X-rated school board meetings.

U.S. public pension funds investing in China growth.

The war on Gaza gives rise to free speech limits at home.

Calls for ceasefire get louder.

Mark Fishman, Logan Square's biggest landlord, is trying to evict a tenant over her Palestinian flag.

Bears on our Lakefront?

Americans are divided over support for Israel.

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg stands with Gaza and is erased from Israeli school books and classrooms.

Israel bans reporters from covering its war on Gaza.

American Jew-hater John Hagee and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer share a stage.

The UAW, representing a million current and retired workers, calls for a ceasefire.

Be a Medicare Advantage whistle blower?

Netanyahu's destruction of Gaza recalls Kissinger's carpet bombing of Vietnam and Cambodia.

Make the pause permanent.

The invisible children of Palestine.

The Palestinian children in Israeli prisons.

New York stories. The former Obama official and the halal vendor.

Make the pause permanent.

Thanksgiving, masking and the racial gap.

The level of Biden's arms to Israel's war on Palestinian children is kept under wraps.

Medicare Advantage is losing providers.

Friday Links.

WEP/GPO. Will Congress finally end Social Security theft?

Fraternal Order of Police wins a pension boost but the state's Tier II public worker pension remains in violation of federal law.

The death toll of children in Gaza is staggering.

Big money astroturf group, Mom's for Liberty, crashed and burned on Tuesday.

Bruce Rauner's school voucher program is dead for the time being.

The "Palestine Exemption" to free speech.

And the U.S. House censors Congresswoman Tlaib?

Gaza is a graveyard for Palestinian children.

The worst Chicago alder of the week: My ward's Carlos Rosa.

Biden and the Democrats are looking weak in 2024. He should do the right thing and not seek re-election.

Chicago's Columbia College adjuncts hit the bricks.

Friday links.

Ukraine/Russia stalemate. The moment for talks.

This week's worst Chicago alder. Ray Lopez of the 15th Ward.

The Blacklist, the Nixon enemies list and now those who want a ceasefire and who defend Palestine.

A war on all Palestinians, not just Hamas.

Artists under assault. They dared to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

GOP House unanimously elects Christian Nationalist to be Speaker.

UN Secretary General under attack for suggesting Israel stop attacks on Gaza.

When it comes to school vouchers Pritzker has done more twists than Chubby Checker.

Gaza, Ukraine and the hypocrisy of the West.

The secrecy provision in the Chicago/FOP contract that the city council should reject.

Pritzker vows to sign school voucher extension.

Blacklisting Harvard's pro-Palestinian students.

Eddie Burke. Chutzpah in the first degree.

Water as a weapon.

Medicare's open enrollment period starts today. Buyer beware.

Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

Democratic Party leaders return to their policy of allowing no criticism of the Israeli government.

You can't say Palestinian in Israel or in the U.S. Congress.

Defense Department schools. Money, integration, wrap around services and high teacher pay might be the secret sauce.

18 Illinois legislators call for middle east de-escalation and justice for Palestinians.

Were Palestinians unprovoked?

Netanyahu's provocation. Netanyahu's war.

Chicago votes to end sub-minimum wage for tip workers. They work hard for the money.

Medicare open enrollment time. Roll the deceptive ads.

Healthcare workers and patients are on the same side. Privatized healthcare is the enemy.

Biden administration AWOL while Chicago needs help with refugee arrivals.

Letter from France. The French defense industry seeks an expanded position in the Ukraine military marketplace.

Healthcare in France. Unrecognizable to an American.

When the fascists came to Gorde.

Letter from France. The U.S. has the worst healthcare system of the 11 wealthiest nations.

Taking a break.

U.S. poverty reaches record levels.

This proxy war and the Global South.

Countdown to UAW strike against the Big Three.

As school starts, cuts to support for childhood vaccines.

Hollywood producers refusal to bargain threatens public pension investments.

The Stacy Gates private school controversy is as phony as they get.

Covid, flu, heat and classroom air.

Teachers under assault. Now it's teachers of the year. You're welcome in Illinois, Karen Lauritzen.

If Medicare "saves" we pay a cost.

Labor Day. Teacher union membership is down.

U.S. complains Ukraine is too worried about casualties. Easy for the U.S. to say.

If ProPublica can't figure out how to appeal an insurance denial of pre-authorization, what are we supposed to do?

Adventures in Medicare Part D.

CPS boards of ed come and go. Why can't we get our special needs students to school?

You can't say the word racism in the murderous state of DeSantis.

Illinois should lift the ban on rent control.

Bidencare falls short.

Ukraine's failed offensive. Now is the time for talks to end this proxy war.

To the courageous women who brought down Tim Mapes and soon, hopefully, Michael Madigan.

Pre-approval is the new pre-existing condition.

Writers Guild strike update. After 102 days of being on strike and of AMPTP silence, the companies began to bargain with us on August 11th, presenting us for the first time with a counteroffer.

The fascists are threatening to bomb the libraries. The next step in 'anti-wokeism'.

Back in Rhode Island where they are still paying for Gina Raimondo's pension thievery.

Illinois' Teacher Retirement System's risky investments in private equity.

Former Representative Lou Lang takes the stand in the Mapes (Madigan) trial.

Carlton Lenoir and the lack of transparency at Illinois' Teacher Retirement System.

For Downwinders, Oppenheimer is more than a movie.

Chicago fires its health commissioner. A teacher union's lack of democracy. The New York win signals a new movement to preserve healthcare.

New York public employee retired win big on healthcare. UFT President Michael Mulgrew and Mayor Eric Adams suffer a humiliating defeat.

Stop outsourcing school discipline to the cops.

The feds are overpaying Medicare Advantage plans over $12.8 billion in bonuses.

You can smell the stink all the way to Chicago. Every teacher unionist should be alarmed at what going on in the UFT.

Covid uptick. We're on our own.

CNN poll: The majority oppose more U.S. involvement in Ukraine. And a majority of independent voters.

A decade since Rahm closed the schools. A historic failure of public policy.

The UFT's Mulgrew is the poster child for what's wrong with too many union leaders. "Bargaining is too hard."

Note to Greg Hinz. Mayor Johnson was a teacher and knows pensions are deferred income, not a gift.

15 million will lose Medicaid coverage, most because of paperwork and bureaucracy.

Our city is becoming unaffordable. #Transfer tax.

Leaving it to Marjorie Taylor Green to be the voice for ending the war in Ukraine? We should be the ones calling for peace. It is our tradition.

Big Pharma is trying to kill Medicare price negotiations.

In Pennsylvania retired teacher pensions leaves them impoverished.

No means no. Except to United Federation of Teachers president Mulgrew.

When the freedom to read and learn was threatened. And, no. It wasn't in Florida.

What a stupid healthcare system we have.

When I went to school in the sixties, the history curriculum wasn't very woke. DeSantis would have approved.

Alabama ignores the law again. And the passing of an American hero, Catherine Burks-Brooks.

If Chicago has a minimum wage, why is there a "sub minimum wage"? Minimum is minimum.

It's never good news when the Illinois legislature starts talking pension reform.

Illinois will become the first state in the nation to entirely eliminate cash bail.

I repeat, Mr. Maltz. Are you a member of the Screen Writers Guild?

Oppenheimer. Growing up downwind.

When it comes to striking, practice makes perfect.

SAG/AFTRA President Fran Drescher to Hollywood producers: "Shame on you!"

Privatizing healthcare and Medicare?

Is congress listening to complaints about Medicare Advantage and pre-authorization?

A rant about Medicare Advantage and pre-authorization.

NYC judge puts a temporary halt to retiree healthcare privatization. A win.

Biden's hypocrisy and Democrats divide over cluster bombs to Ukraine.

Ukraine and the Orwellian language of war: "Bomblets" and "dud rates".

Cluster bombs in Ukraine. Biden to send more.

Chicago's new school board and the coming elected one.

Biden picks Elliot Abrams, defender of genocide and one of the worst men in the world.

Pregnant workers at risk.

Funded by t-shirt sales? Hell no. Mom's for Liberty is pure astro-turf.

Waist deep in the Big Muddy.

Justice Jackson's dissent.

Pritzker caves to Republicans on immigrant health care.

Smoke gets in your eyes. Climate change is real. And the end of personal care doctors.

James Crown of the military-industrial complex is dead.

Russia's coup attempt and ours.

Globally, over 1.2 million new cases and over 7100 Covid deaths were reported in the last 28 days (22 May to 18 June 2023). And me.

Overturning Roe has put the Supreme Court on shaky ground as an institution.

Barbara Lee for Senate in California.

Investing my teacher pension in affordable housing instead of Lincoln Yards-like developments.

I’ll be back soon.

California addressing long term care. Where is Illinois?

Starting my 76th year and the threat of a global disaster.

Sharing a birthday with the fascist Orange Man.

Monday twofer. Vallas gets a job with IPI. Illinois on the hook for pension billions.

Anti-LGBTQ+ politics is the not-so-new McCarthyism.

Smoke. Last night my eyes were scratchy and my lungs hurt.

Sterling Bay, Lincoln Yards and the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.

The merger of the PGA and the LIV. I'm suspicious of the outrage.

DeSantis' human trafficking paid for with Covid relief money.

Abandoning talk of peace to the MAGAs.

If this was a win, what do the Democrats consider a loss? Biden's version of "mission accomplished."

The Great Unwinding. Millions thrown off healthcare rolls. Many are children.

Americans were hungry before the credit compromise cuts food stamps. The compromise makes it worse.

Good paying jobs, not work requirements for government assistance.

Nuclear testing. The whole world was downwind.

The credit limit fight. Money for the wealthy and the war machine. Work requirements for the poor.

Is the Illinois backdoor voucher program about to end?

The debt crisis. Instead of a work requirement, how about a peace requirement.

Our failed healthcare system.

While Washington debates cutting spending on the poor, Black babies in southern red states are dying at rates far higher than white babies.

The feds are failing the refugees. Immigrants housed in police stations.

Book banning is an assault on public schools.

Florida teacher investigated for showing the Disney cartoon with a Gay character.

The Illinois legislature's Tier 2 public pension creation is the chicken coming home to roost.

DeSantis and the GOP's "anti-woke" crusade includes pension investment friendly to the environment.

Chicago's Mayor Johnson and Democratic Party education policy.

My Mom and the "parent rights" wedge issue.

Not "migrants." Refugees.

Biden: "His aides say they know what they’re doing."

From Paris to San Juan. Protesting pension cuts and other austerity measures.

May 8, 2015. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that public pensions could not be diminished or impaired. Thank you Henry Green and Helen Kinney.

Teaching history. Don't worry about the NAEP scores.

Picket signs from the writers' strike.

I got my Spring Covid booster today. There was no waiting.

My dinner at Saputo's. The ComEd Four and Michael Madigan.

Chicago and Illinois tier 2 teachers are screwed.

Why I celebrate May 1st and May 8th.

Mass incarceration and the decline in U.S. life expectancy.

My Crohn's and the outrageous cost of drugs in America.

Whoever follows Kim Foxx must continue the work of criminal justice reform.

The DeVos, Rahm, Rauner, Cupich tax credit voucher plan is up for renewal. Kill it.

Paul Vallas and the sound of dollars being flushed down the toilet.

It takes very little time for Harvard to name a building after a corrupt billionaire, but a long time to take it down.

Dominion gets millions. What did we get?

In the Chicago election, money couldn't buy you love.

As Biden escalates, Brazil's Lula calls for peace in Ukraine.

NYC healthcare. Mulgrew threatens to sue a a rank and file member over a parody. AOC steps up again.

“To qualify for Medicaid, I have to wait for my cancer to be incurable,” she said, “which is very depressing.”

Repost: Mayor Johnson and the city's public pension debt.

Read and sign the petition for NYC retiree healthcare.

Mayor Johnson and Chicago's public pension debt.

Cuts to Social Security would hurt mostly young and low wage workers.

Chicago will host Democratic convention. Will Biden be crowned or challenged?

No Justin, no peace.

The Chicago election and why Biden shouldn't run.

The Tennessee Three. Echoes of the overthrow of Reconstruction and the establishment of Jim Crow.

"Tough on crime," and other post-election thoughts.

The morning after. Chicago dodges a bullet. Big win in Wisconsin. Trump indicted.

Looking for free, unbiased Medicare information?

Racism and Crohn's Disease research.

Vallas is no "centrist Democrat." He's a right-wing Republican. So why is the Democratic establishment supporting him?

Betsy DeVos, Paul Vallas and Awake Illinois. Defunding public schools.

DeVos funding Vallas’ campaign.

Vallas has learned nothing about schools except how to destroy the public ones.

"Parents' rights" are like "states' rights."

Republican MAGAs target Illinois school boards.

David's penis and the Right's Trojan Horse of "parent's rights."

When things go bad Vallas blames everyone else and then runs away. The Philadelphia story.

Arne Duncan endorses his doppelgänger, Paul Vallas.

Bailey predicts "dark days" if Johnson wins. The whiteness of the skilled trade unions.

Quinn endorses Vallas. Pension stealing birds of a feather.

War, peace and climate change.

Vallas, Paris and the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War.

No love lost for Paul Vallas when he fled the City of Brotherly Love.

Lou Lang about Michael Madigan: “I wouldn’t do anything to damage my speaker... He’s been very good to me.”

In Ron DeSantis' Florida the story of Rosa Parks is too woke.

The Vallas leadership style.

Medicare Advantage. Preauthorization is malpractice.

Paul Vallas in New Orleans.

Paul Vallas never met a natural disaster that he didn't make worse.

Paul Vallas: "Defund CPS."

Fact checking Paul Vallas on teacher pensions.

Vallas is the candidate of the extremist FOP and funded by the 1%.

Biden to DC home rule: "Drop dead."

Under his watch at CPS Vallas covered up for pedophile teacher. What I wrote in 2018.

FOP union MAGA president Catanzara is re-elected. If elected mayor, "take the handcuffs off the police" Paul Vallas, will be his partner?

In DeSantis' Florida it's goodbye Roberto Clemente.

Paul Vallas, pension thief.

Daniel Ellsberg, an American hero, has inoperable pancreatic cancer.

Chicago doesn't need Paul Vallas as Mayor.

Illinois emergency food stamp benefits end Wednesday.

China's peace proposal.

DeSantis' Florida has the highest teacher vacancy rate in the country. 48th in teacher pay.

Vallas, DeSantis, union PACs and dues.

The U.S. aging prison population.

Defund reading. Fire the teachers. DeSantis 451.

Medicare Advantage pre-approval. When Aetna says no.

Mickey won't pay a living wage. Workers at the Magic Kingdom can't pay their bills with magic.

I taught third graders about John Audubon. Not that he was an enslaver and a white supremacist. But I should have.

Killing public schools. The Christian Nationalists and others have a plan. It's not a new one.

Ron DeSantis' cynical appeal to ignorance.

Social Security, Medicare and Ron DeSantis.

Public pensions are a feature not a glitch.

Lift the sanctions against Syria.

Biden barely mentions Ukraine in one of the longest SOTU speeches in 60 years. Public support for war is shrinking.

With the end of the Covid emergency, over 15 million people will be thrown off Medicaid. Then what should they do?

Is Vallas a Democrat or a Republican? He's a Republicrat.

The China balloon.

Ralph Martire: Chicago's pension underfunding. The state is "the gorilla in the room".

Biden on Covid. "You're on your own."

Medicare Advantage commits the perfect crime.

Florida's Ron DeSantis wants to expand executions and no gun permits required.

Medicare Advantage plans scam the taxpayer. Billions in profits.

The Quazzo/Vallas connection.

Doomsday Clock moved to 90 seconds to midnight.

Florida's Ron DeSantis' war on public schools, teachers, Black studies and LGBTQ+ rights.

The MAGA House wants cuts in Medicare. Dems want it privatized.

Teaching race. When Aetna sold insurance policies to slave owners on those who were enslaved.

Chicago mayoral debate, UFT Mulgrew fail and DeSantis wants to ban masks and vaccines.

DeSantis, gas stoves and the culture wars.

Union UIC faculty says, "UIC works because we do." On strike Tuesday.

The Chicago teacher pension debt. That's Paul Vallas.

The Chicago mayor's election, cops and crime.

Striking NY nurses win agreement. More nurses strikes to come.

Brazil's Lula acts decisively against the coup plotters.

Florida public college of free thinkers under attack by DeSantis.

Vallas endorsed by FOP. Illinois assault weapons ban. Fascists in DC and Brasilia.

Why are NY city unions hurting their own retirees?

Biden expands Trump deportation program.

The latest on Randi-Care. AKA, Medicare Disadvantage.

While Lightfoot pays the pension debt, the WSJ calls for defunding.

Covid deaths among immigrant detainees.