Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is acting like a dictator

Who could have imagined that Chicago would end up with its own petty dictator like the one at the White House?

“Cleaning house” of people who are not “loyal” has the look of an unqualified leader.

Staff isn’t hired to be loyal. It is hired to be competent, and demonstrations of competency are in very short supply on the fifth floor at City Hall or in the Oval Office these days.

Don Anderson, Oak Park

Mayor Johnson is Trump-like

Mayor Johnson recently said, “If you ain’t with us, you just gotta go.” That’s exactly what President Donald Trump has been doing and getting hammered by the Dems along the way.

Why the double standard?

Mark Moran, Downers Grove

Johnson, Trump lack competence

Mayor Johnson has now proven his incompetence. Announcing a purge of City Hall, he lays claim to be the dictator. This, while the president, who was already the poster boy for incompetency, is doing the same thing in our capital.

Kevin Berg, Fox Lake

Henry Hyde was not upstanding

Thank you, DuPage County Board, for removing Henry Hyde’s name from the courthouse for his anti-abortion views. Hyde is responsible for putting millions of women’s lives at risk by denying basic health care to marginalized women.

In 2017, Illinois corrected this tragedy with House Bill 40 (to allow women who rely on Medicaid and state-employee health insurance to use their coverage for abortions).

Describing Henry Hyde as an upstanding man conveniently glosses over his biography of carrying on a five-year affair while married with his own children and destroying the marriage of a woman and her family.

The name Henry Hyde is a stain on Illinois and our nation.

Terry Cosgrove, Edgewater

A tip for Madigan

Well, now that Mike Madigan has been found guilty of corruption and likely faces stiff penalties, I’d like to advise him on a very sophisticated but little-known legal maneuver (pro bono, of course).

Hey, Mike, phone the White House. Then, in your most obsequious tone, tell President Trump how truly all-knowing and benevolent he is and that you believe the 2020 election was stolen from him. Before you can say “lack of public accountability,” you’ll have a full pardon. No crime, no problem.

You’re welcome, Mike. Except, now that I think about it, I do have one small ask I’ll consider as payment: Put in a good word for me with the president. What with my brilliant legal mind — with zero law school education to boot — I just might be able to parlay this into a higher-up position in the Trump Department of Justice.

Jim Koppensteiner, Niles

Hyde was a builder

In the late 1980s, I owned a home in Henry Hyde’s district. In both 1987 and 1988 heavy August storms caused the Des Plaines River to flood neighborhoods in DuPage County and sections of Park Ridge and Des Plaines. In my neighborhood about 3/4ths of my neighbor’s homes flooded.

Since they were built on slabs the homes had no basement for water to drain. So the living area of each was flooded. People were forced from their homes to rebuild. Since we did not live in a designated flood plain, nobody had flood insurance. Neighbors were at risk of losing their homes. Hyde was instrumental in helping my neighbors obtain low-interest loans to rebuild. He also was helped pass financing for Deep Tunnel. The construction of it and other included modifications have secured those homes.

How is it that DuPage County Board Chair Conroy is ignorant of the history of Congressman Hyde? Des Plaines River floods were as prominent in DuPage County. Congressman Henry Hyde was a builder. Clearly the DuPage County chair is not.

Jim Halas, Norridge

Trump will make mess of economy

Our president, who has declared bankruptcy multiple times and basically bankrupted the entire USFL football league, said he would quickly “fix” the economy. He inherited an economy that is actually in good shape overall, excluding grocery prices.

While running for office, he declared that he would quickly fix grocery prices (false). After he won, he said that he didn’t think he could do anything about grocery prices (true).

For those who still believe that he will be able “fix” the economy and lower grocery prices with drastic measures, such as tariffs, I share the following analogy, which I used to describe to high school students how the economy needs to be handled.

Imagine the economy as oatmeal cooking on a stove. One does not want oatmeal boiling over and causing a mess, such as a recession or a depression. If you are cooking the oatmeal on an electric stove, and that oatmeal begins to boil up to the top, can you just reduce the heat to stop it from boiling over? No, you need to remove the pot from the stove (a radical action) to stop it from boiling over. If you cook the oatmeal on a gas stove, can you just turn down the heat to prevent the oatmeal from boiling over? Yes, you can. This allows you to adjust the heat to the proper temperature to properly cook the oatmeal.

Our president does not understand that the economy must be handled carefully, in a constant series of small adjustments, to prevent it from boiling over and causing a mess.

Wayne Boeckelman, Hoffman Estates

Canada, thanks for being a good neighbor

Thank you, Canada. We’ve never met, but reliable sources highly recommend a trip north. You’re on my bucket list of places to visit.

Thanks, too, for Gordon Lightfoot, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Neil Young, The Guess Who and many others.

In America, we say “Good fences make good neighbors.” I’m not sure our two countries even have a fence. Truly good neighbors don’t need one. America, you may have heard, loves walls. We’re building one down south. It’ll go well with the symbolic barriers we’ve erected where unity once lived.

An editorial cartoon suggested Canadians might be tempted to build a real wall between our two countries. For our sake, please don’t. The word here is that Canada would make a lovely 51st state. Some of us wonder if America becoming your 11th province makes more sense.

I’m being a little facetious here, but our presidential election results suggest that about 75 million of us like the present arrangement of two sovereign nations continuing as good neighbors. Another 77 million follow the “Canada as 51st state” trial balloon like lemmings racing off a cliff. The rest of us are too young to vote, or old enough but didn’t.

Thank you for your eternal patience, being a great ally in World War II, your support in fighting Southern California’s wildfires and being the ultimate good sport.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m also drafting letters to Greenland and Denmark.

Jim Newton, Itasca

Trump’s a con man

Years ago, a con man worked the CTA Howard Line. He roamed the cars playing a three-card monte. He often let people win. He’d say “Show me a 10 and I’ll give you a 10.” A happy winner would pull out his wallet, show the money and collect his winnings.

What the winners didn’t see was that the con man had two accomplices on that L car. They would lift one or two of those winners’ wallets, and the three of them would step off at the next platform.

Folks didn’t learn. They forgot that they should ignore the silly banter and instead watch the actions.

Now, we have a con man in the White House. He’s trying the same thing. He’ll keep talking nonsense to distract us while his accomplices clean us out. Don’t listen to his spiel. Watch his hands! Focus on what he’s doing, not on his nutty talk. And fight him at every turn! More than our wallets depend on it.

Todd Hensley, Skokie

Vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. is health secretary?

Long ignored by the public sphere, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has consistently railed against the process of disease control provided by, among other preventions, vaccines. Now he has been confirmed to head the nation’s top health post. Can anyone explain the head-spinning logic of this action, unless the aim is to undermine ongoing disease prevention? This inconsistency hardly reinforces voters’ faith in the decision-making in Washington. Let’s see if this changes his tune.

Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde Park

Fraudulent claims by DOGE

The stated aim of Elon Musk and DOGE is to “root out fraud, waste and corruption.” If this were truly the purpose, why would you bring in computer coders? Coders tell a computer program what it can and cannot do and structure how a program will operate. The search for fraud and waste would be done by forensic accountants and auditors. Are coders the people who should be inside the Treasury and the State Department searching for fraud, waste and abuse?

Katharine Nathan, Rogers Park

Reject Trump (and Musk)

Reader Elise McSwine’s recent comment that Trump’s order to cease the production of pennies to reduce federal spending is a wise fiscal move illustrates the one-dimensional, simplistic thinking that plagues the president’s policies. The fact is that this may have the reverse effect since it may increase the reliance on nickels, which are a bigger money loser.

We live in a very complex society, and it requires much more thoughtful and careful planning and analysis than is being conducted by the president and Elon Musk.

The penny issue is a very small one, but the haphazard approach being taken by this administration in cutting cost and waste is affecting programs and institutions that have a major impact on tens of millions of people, not to mention the potential unintended consequences to this country and the rest of the world.

The actions by this president and his surrogates are not something to be emulated but something to be rejected.

Marvin Kirshenbaum, West Ridge

Felon, demagogues take over

“Make America Great Again” will only be possible by removing Donald Trump and his band of thieves from office. Power and money are their gods and they will do anything to obtain them.

It seems that Republicans aren’t knowledgeable or capable of leadership or not willing to do the right thing and honor our Constitution and laws. Trump’s goal is to be a dictator, like Putin, described by the dictionary as a person ruling absolutely and often brutally with impurity. Democracy will no longer be possible.

We need to fight against this group of self-serving, morally corrupt demagogues, who only care about their own welfare. No more felons and lunatics should be allowed in the White House. We must be vigilant and take action before it’s too late.

Margaret Saphir, New East Side

White House is Big House

With all this talk about changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, Denali to Mount McKinley and Lake Michigan to Lake Illinois, why not change the name of the White House to the Big House since that’s where all the felons are starting to hang out?

Tom DeDore, Garfield Ridge

Silver lining to Trump

While I’d be lying if I said President Trump’s methods don’t worry me, I’m sure that taking a meat ax to the federal behemoth is long overdue.

Is he behaving like a dictator? It’s hard to say no. Is what he’s doing good, and within the bounds of the law? Those are two separate questions, and the answers depend on whom you ask.

Hopefully, when the smoke clears we’ll have a federal government that’s been reined in and perhaps some beneficial curbs on executive orders and other unilateral actions that allow presidents — be they Republican, Democrat or otherwise — to dictate what they can’t get through Congress.

David Vancina, Manhattan

View from South Africa

How can people vote for an insane and convicted felon? Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the two are the worst racists on this planet. By the end of his term, the U.S. will be fully isolated and poor. Hands off South Africa. Viva Russia, China and India.

Berkerly Mtamila, Rustenburg, North West province, South Africa

Will Trump turn out to be weak?

If Putin’s invasion of Ukraine becomes successful, and China invades Taiwan, Trump will just be another weak U.S. president.

Ed Rios, Berwyn