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“This is ridiculous,” blared the subject line of the fresh email in my inbox Monday. “Will you join Trump’s new site? We’ve emailed you 13x. Fail to respond=Trump knows you’ve abandoned him.”

I guess the cat’s out of the bag — I have, indeed, abandoned Trump.

The fundraising email, which had the audacity to say it was “humbly asking 1 final time” for me to join former President Donald Trump’s new website — the one that just scrubbed his own blog — wasn’t from Trump or even one of his kooky surrogates. This one was from the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The stated purpose of the NRCC is uncomplicated and straightforward: it is “devoted to increasing the number of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

What does that have to do with joining a former president’s partly defunct vanity website? Back to that in a minute.

The NRCC email, which I indeed received multiple times, was hardly the first one like it. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, “solely devoted to strengthening the Republican Senate Majority and electing Republicans to the United States Senate,” also demanded I sign up for Trump’s new social media platform.

In fact, the NRCC and NRSC flooded my inbox in May with daily pleas and ultimatums, begging me to sign up for Trump’s new site. One claimed to be the “6th and final message.” Many of them warned, “You have 10 min to answer before we move on.”

Of course, they have not moved on. As I typed this, another email landed with a thud in my inbox.

The committees responsible for electing Republicans across the country are adopting the bizarrely aggressive, bordering-on-comical strategy that’s long been used by Trump and his surrogates to collect emails and raise money.

Throughout his presidency, leading up to his failed reelection efforts in 2020 and even after he was sent packing to Florida, Trump world sent weirdly harassing fundraising emails to his own supporters, demanding increasing pledges of loyalty — and dollars.

One scolding email from the Trump campaign in 2020 read, “I hate to be the one to tell you, but your Trump 100 Club offer has been RESCINDED.”

Another from Trump’s son Eric shamed its recipients: “You’ve received multiple emails from Team Trump, including my father, inviting you to join this brand new prestigious club, and you’ve ignored every single one of them.”

Others warned of a “list” Trump was keeping — “I want to know who stood with me when it mattered most,” one read, “so I’ve asked my team to send me a list of EVERY AMERICAN PATRIOT who donates to this email.”

Another signed by Vice President Mike Pence similarly threatened, “[Trump]’s requested a list of every Patriot who donates to this email in the NEXT HOUR. Will he see your name?”

The emails were so over-the-top, other malign actors tried to imitate them.

Democratic voters in Alaska and Florida received an email in 2020 with the following demand: “You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply.”

At first the emails were believed to have been sent by the Proud Boys, a far-right white supremacist group, but eventually U.S. officials blamed the mailer on Iran. It’s not a great sign when one of the nation’s worst enemies assumes we’ll be duped by an email threatening the actual lives of voters.

Back to the NRCC and NRSC. The intimidation, shaming and harassing emails from Trump world indeed raised a ton of money for the president, but did not result in his reelection.

So it’s odd that the organizations charged with electing and reelecting Republicans to Congress are copying the failed strategy — not just in the tone of the emails, but tying them to Trump at all.

A former Republican congressional operative I spoke to was pointed: “What a load of bulls–t. We lost the House because of our fealty to Trump, and the committee whose sole job is to try to win back the majority in Congress is pushing further allegiance to the guy who not only cost us Congress in the first place, but sent a mob to attack Congress on Jan. 6. Have they no shame?”

The emails are worse than ironic, they’re downright embarrassing. Begging and shaming people, presumably their own voters, to sign up for the website of the deplatformed loser who cost Republicans everything is a sign congressional Republicans have given up on attracting new voters.

Instead they clearly believe they can win only by getting every last existing Trump voter to continue to part with their money — and even they apparently require intimidation tactics.

“This is ridiculous.” I wholeheartedly agree.

S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.

Send letters to [email protected].

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Chicago Bears: The top 10 most important players of 2021 by Ryan Heckman

The Chicago Cubs have enjoyed a successful start of the 2021 regular season as the team is near the top of the National League Central division. With the Cubs appearing to be contenders and trade rumors beginning to bubble to the surface, the team now appears to be buyers for the Major League Baseball trade deadline on July 30.

The Cubs’ success this season is in large part due to the efforts they have received from a bullpen that is anchored by Craig Kimbrel, Dan Winkler, and Ryan Tepera. On days in which the Cubs’ bullpen may have fallen short, the offense has provided timely hits in order to keep the team in games.

Where the Cubs have fallen short this off-season and what could prove to be their eventual downfall is their starting pitching. With the exception of the month of May where the Cubs’ starting rotation boasted the best ERA in the National League, the Cubs’ rotation has been plagued with inconsistency.

The inconsistency for the Cubs’ starting rotation has started with Kyle Hendricks. After the Cubs’ front office was forced to trade Yu Darvish this past off-season in a trade that was a pure salary dump, Hendricks was cemented as the legitimate ace of the Cubs’ rotation. The issue is that Hendricks has not performed like an ace this season.

The Chicago Cubs need to acquire a starting pitcher at the Major League Baseball trade deadline if their season is going to amount to any form of success.

Through 12 starts this season, Hendricks has posted a 4.59 ERA but his 5.47 FIP, 1.413 WHIP, and 2.2 HR/9 speak to the struggles that the starting pitcher has had this season. The reason why the Cubs can not afford to have Hendricks be inconsistent is because the Cubs’ rotation also includes an aging Jake Arrieta, inconsistency from Kyle Davies and Trevor Williams, and a developing Adbert Alzolay.

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The Cubs’ starting rotation does not have a stopper. For instance, the Cubs have lost four of their last five games. Hendricks was on the mound for the Cubs’ victory on Sunday but needed to be bailed out by the team’s offense. The Cubs are in need of a starting pitcher that they an plug into their rotation and view his starts as “Win day”.

“Win day” was the mindset that the Cubs had last season each time that Darvish took the mound for the team. Darvish is the exact pitcher that the Cubs but, unfortunately, there is no rewind button in Major League Baseball.

There have been whispers that the Washington Nationals may make Max Scherzer available and the Cubs certainly should exhaust every effort in an attempt to acquire Scherzer. Even if Scherzer is not the starting pitcher that is acquired by the Cubs, it goes without saying that acquiring a starting pitcher is a necessity for the Cubs at the trade deadline.

Related Story: Three trades that land the Chicago Cubs Max Scherzer

If the Cubs fail to acquire a legitimate starting pitcher by the Major League Baseball trade deadline on July 30, then this would be the first failure by Jed Hoyer as the president of baseball operations for the organization. Failure in the sense that the Cubs are not a World Series contender without the addition of a starting pitcher. Meaning, the efforts from the aforementioned Kimbrel and offensive stars Kris Bryant and Javier Baez would all be for naught. Thus, once again, placing the Chicago Cubs in baseball hell at the end of the season.

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Cubs: 5 players ranked among MLBTR’s top trade candidates by Vincent Parise

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Chicago Bears (Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports)

When talking about Super Bowl favorites for the 2021 season, the Chicago Bears are rarely brought up. In fact, when talking about playoff favorites for the coming year, the Bears are rarely brought up.

But, that’s understandable when they are coming off of a season that screamed mediocrity, yet again. Chicago snuck into the playoffs at the tail end of the season thanks to some help from a couple of other teams losing crucial games down the stretch, so it doesn’t exactly feel as though they’re coming off a successful season.

Many people may even forget that the Bears made the playoffs last year, especially because they were embarrassed by the Saints in the Wildcard round. It was mostly a forgettable year, but the team does look different going into the 2021 campaign.

Although the national media may not like to give the Bears any hope to be a contender this coming season, there are plenty of reasons to believe they could be.

The Chicago Bears have enough talent in key players to make a run in 2021.

This roster still has plenty of talent at several positions. In fact, there are a handful of players who could easily end up as All Pro candidates this coming year.

For the Bears to have a successful season and make a playoff run, some of these players are going to be heavily depended on. Head coach Matt Nagy knows he has a talented roster. Despite a rocky start to the offseason, general manager Ryan Pace did a wonderful job in the draft and helped this roster get into much better shape.

Now, as they prepare for what ended up being the NFL’s third-toughest schedule this coming season, the Bears are going to need big years out of some players in particular. The following guys represent the 10 most important players on this Bears roster for the 2021 season.

Next: 10. Cairo Santos

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This week’s featured gig poster was created for an outdoor food, drag, and music carnival by Paul Octavious and Aaron Lowell Denton.

This week’s poster is for Eating Rainbows, an outdoor celebration of the rainbow and the LGBTQ+ community.…Read More

Robert Ford and Trent Adkins shaped the bold, subversive, gossipy, funny, deeply engaged voice of Thing, which was felled by the AIDS pandemic in 1993.

In February 2021, dance-music site Selector republished a list of 100 important house records taken from a 1992 issue of a short-lived Chicago zine called Crossfade.…Read More

Chicago power-ambient unit Chord find their art in small details; for more than a decade they’ve been exploring a single chord in each of their compositions, wringing every bit of depth, power, and resonance out of it. Their new fourth LP, Imperfect Authentic Cadence (Debacle), concerns a common progression that’s been baked into Western music since at least the 17th century: the V-I cadence.…Read More

In another attack, a man was fatally shot in a drive-by in the 3800 block of South Wells Street.

Fourteen people were shot in Chicago Tuesday, including a 9-year-old grazed in the head in Back of the Yards, three men wounded in a drive-by in Englewood, and two other men shot while riding in a car in Princeton Park.

The lone fatal shooting occurred around 1 p.m. in the 3800 block of South Wells Street in Wentworth Gardens, Chicago police said.

A car approached and someone inside opened fire, hitting the 27-year-old in the head. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Other shootings:

— Two men were shot and seriously wounded while riding in a car in Princeton Park on the South Side. The men, both 25, were attacked about 9:35 p.m. in the 300 block of West 95th Street, according to police. The car crashed into a tree in the 9300 block of South Harvard Avenue, where emergency crews responded. One man was struck in the back and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center. The other man suffered gunshot wounds to the side of his body and both legs and was transported to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Both men were listed in serious condition.

— About an hour earlier, three men were wounded in a drive-by shooting in Englewood on the South Side. The men were outside a home in the 6100 block of South Green Street just before 8 p.m. when a car approached and someone inside began firing, police said. A 30-year-old man was struck in the back and listed in serious condition at Stroger Hospital. Another man, 34, was also struck in the back and a man, 40, suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Both men were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.

— A 9-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet near his home in Back of the Yards on the South Side. The shooting happened just before 7 p.m. in the 5400 block of South Morgan Street, police said. The boy had been playing in the front yard when his mother found him bleeding and rushed him to Comer Children’s Hospital, according to community activist Andrew Holmes. He suffered a graze wound to the head and was listed in good condition.

— A man was shot in Gresham on the South Side. He was near the sidewalk about 2:53 p.m. in the 7600 block of South Seeley Avenue when someone approached and opened fire, police said. The 25-year-old was struck in the back and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition.

Six others were wounded in shootings across the city.

Eight people were shot in Chicago Monday.

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The shooting last week sparked a community meeting where neighbors demanded more safety measures at the North Side park.

A 17-year-old boy has been charged with shooting into a crowd of people last week in Oz Park and wounding a teenager.

The boy opened fire in the park in the 2000 block of North Burling Street about 7:30 p.m. June 1, Chicago police said. A boy, also 17, suffered a graze wound, according to police.

The shooter was found nearby in the 900 block of West Armitage Avenue and taken into custody, police said. A Smith & Wesson handgun was also recovered, according to police.

The boy faces aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm, police said.

Days after the shooting, neighbors gathered in Oz Park Friday to demand police and city officials do more to increase public safety in the area.

During the meeting, residents told Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) and 18th District police officers they’ve had concerns for years and complained of groups of minors drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana in the park.

The Chicago Police Department said it would add more foot patrols and surveillance cameras in the area.

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MLB Trade Rumors is a great website that has a lot of fun content. They just released their new ranking for the top MLB Trade Deadline candidates and there is some useful information in there. No Chicago Cubs players were listed in the top 40 but five of them were pegged as “players to watch”. […]

Cubs: 5 players ranked among MLBTR’s top trade candidates – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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