‘He’s not gonna silence us’ / ‘See you in hell, DOGE :)’ / ‘Too much leftist bull shit’

■

Chicago Public Square will take a few days off. We’ll be back in your inbox Friday with a special “nice news” edition of The Conversation’s weekly quiz, returning to regular coverage here Monday.
■ Meanwhile, keep tabs on breaking news and perspective via the Square Bluesky account …
■ … and consider Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer’s guidance for handling “your MAGA uncle at Thanksgiving.”
■ For now, here’s what’s up:

‘He’s not gonna silence us.’ U.S. Sen., retired U.S. Navy Capt. and retired astronaut Mark Kelly dismisses as “absurd” the Pentagon’s launch—at President Trump’s urging—of an investigation into him and five other Democratic lawmakers who’ve encouraged service members to refuse “illegal orders.”
■ Kelly stands by that message: “You don’t want to wait for your kid to get hit by a car before you tell them to look both ways.”
■ Columnist and Army veteran Charlotte Clymer sees the charges as “a failed human being kissing the ass of another failed human being by slandering the character of a genuine war hero.”
■ Lawyer/columnist Robert Hubbell: “We must all be Mark Kelly.”
■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “Kelly is the man Pete Hegseth will never be.”

Two strikes. A federal judge has dismissed criminal cases against ex-FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James—concluding that the prosecutor who brought the charges at Trump’s prodding was appointed illegally.
■ In a video message posted to Substack, Comey called for Americans to “stand up and show the fools who would frighten us, who would divide us, that we’re made of stronger stuff.”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance says the law may yet allow those charges to be re-filed.
■ Yeah, but Trump was set to pardon two turkeys today.

‘These are in no way suitable conditions to be holding anyone—period.’ That’s U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood after visiting the Broadview ICE detention center yesterday.
■ Congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh on MSNBC MS NOW: What’s happening inside is “immeasurably worse” than what’s been caught on camera outside.

‘These conditions are not livable.’ Residents of the Chicago apartment building ransacked by federal agents in a horrific raid two months ago are forming a union.
■ They’re asking for repairs and help relocating.
■ WBEZ explores the fiasco that unfolded “when The Sausage King of Chicago bought a South Side housing complex.”

Obamacare reprieve? The White House is circulating a plan to extend federal subsidies for skyrocketing healthcare premiums …
■ … but The American Prospect says it’s still not great: “The insurance will get worse, and the poor will pay more.”

‘A day of reckoning for … hapless electronic monitoring.’ A Tribune editorial says the man accused of setting a young woman on fire on a CTA train makes a compelling case for overhauling Cook County court rules “to ensure that dangerous people who violate their terms of release face timely repercussions.”
■ Friday’s deadly “teen takeover” downtown is fueling renewed calls for police power to declare “snap curfews.”

‘See you in hell, DOGE :)’ Wonkette’s Marcie Jones sheds no tears over news that Trump and Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” exists no more.
■ The New Republic: “DOGE may be dead, but its crimes live on.”
■ Its website is moribund.

‘Parents may want to think carefully.’ The Public Interest Research Group is sounding a warning about AI-enabled toys.
■ Casey Newton at Platformer: The online game platform Roblox has a child safety problem—exemplifying “a world where CEOs no longer feel shame.”
■ Gizmodo: “Those viral photos of Elon and Zuck are AI. But Google launched a new way to check for fakes.”
■ A Boston College humanities prof writes for The New York Times (gift link): “AI has changed my classroom, but not for the worse.”
■ Popular Information: Tennessee public libraries have closed for a Trump-inspired book purge.

Thanks to viewers like you. John Oliver’s auction of Last Week Tonight memorabilia has raised more than $1.5 million for public broadcasting.
■ A gold-plated recreation of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s testicles went for $25,000.
■ Critic Bill Carter: “Trump keeps trying to silence late-night TV. He’s only making it louder.”

‘Chicago’s winter-parking rules … are … a cash grab.’ Columnist Eric Zorn points to other big-city bans that restrict parking just during “snow emergencies.”
■ The Pace suburban transit system is buying 36 new hybrid buses.

Chicago’s win, Chicago’s loss. “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” this year will feature Chance the Rapper as host for its first-ever Chicago-based countdown …
■ Longtime WBBM-FM DJ Joe “JoBo” [Bohannon] Colborn is dead at 70.

Corrections. Thanks to readers thoughtful enough to take the time to set things straight, yesterday’s Square has been fixed:
■ The Wisconsin woman apprehended in a Chicago suburb admitted to nearly stabbing a classmate to death in 2014.
■ That WXRT recording of Jimmy Cliff performing at the Park West dates back to 1978.

‘Too much leftist bull shit.’ Chicago Public Square yesterday lost a reader who offered that as an explanation. Then again …

‘It’s nice to have the news of the day … served up piping crazy.’ Those kind words accompanied another reader’s financial support for this publication.
■ You can join that reader—along with Bill Drudge, Pat Kelley, Louis Diamond, Pat Nash, Patricia Solano (again!), Michael Boyd, Chris Ruys (again!), Valerie Stankus, Dominick Suzanne, Jack Bizot, Sandy and Jeremy Lipschultz, Cat Reis, Cathy Sullivan, Mike Cramer, Roy Plotnick, Thomas Witt, Michael Weiland, Daniel Burke, Julie Martin, Gregory Dudzienski, Al Hoyt, Diana Lauber, Thomas Gradel, Ralph Culloden, Bob Tucker, Kathryn Loewy, John Greenwald, Mary Gannon Pittman, Avis Rudner, Jo Patton, Thomas Yoder, Ben Segedin, Christopher Giorno, Alan Dikty, Laurie Huget, Leigh Behrens, Bill Oakes, Gail Frost, Scottie Kersta-Wilson, Martha Swisher, Kevin Parzyck, Mary Kay O’Grady, Claire Barliant, Jordan Wilkerson, Andrew Mitran, Michele Prod, David Mausner, Jim Holmes, Helen Kossler, Cindy Allara, Frank Heitzman, Dave Rogers, Alternative Schools Network, Dave McGovern, Patrick Olsen, Zarine Weil, Anton Till, Chris Rhodes, Robert Alan Innocenzi, Jane Williams, Stephanie Blatt, Dan Shannon, Carolyn Roberta Berg, Anne Frederick, Maria Garvy, Arnie Weissmann, Karl Schuster, Steven Yandel, Crissy Kawamoto, John D. Abel, Cindy Moriarity, Ron Magers, Ann James, Susan Parks, Martin Fischer, Carolyn Potts, Mike Gold, Ed Hansen, Susan Beach, Angelika Kuehn, Gregg Runburg, Joan Berman, Lizzie Schiffman Tufano, Tom Williamson, Matt Baron, Patrick Quinn, Victoria Engelhardt, Conrad Wayne, Roger Blickhan, Matthew Brenner, Maureen Kennedy, Arlene Thurow, Rick Blankenbaker, Beth Botts, Vicki Seglin, John Metz, Robert Feder, Jennifer McGeary, Ryan Osborn, Avery Cohen, Elizabeth Denius, William Wheelhouse, Joe Germuska, Rob Renfro, Valerie Valenzo, Michael Soriano, Jeff Herden, Gordon Hellwig, Michael Rosenbaum, John Gehron, Barbara Cimaglio, Timothy Jackson, Mary Apcel, John McClelland, R Carney, Mike Nowak, Richard Osa, Betsy Blew-Ochoa, Brent Brotine, Craig Brown, Spring Belasich, Carolyn Hosticka, Christine Cupaiuolo, Jack Ohman, Lil Levant, Arlene Johnson, Anne Rooney, k.h. and Becky Bloom—in The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians by making a contribution of as little as $1, just once …
■ … and then see your name atop the concluding rundown of this season’s roll call.
■ Harry Politis made this edition better.

‘Whistle up’ / ‘Great job, Internet!’ / ‘Everyone hates data centers now’

■

‘Whistle up.’ Self-described “writer, podcaster and professional troublemaker” Dan Sinker celebrates Chicagoans’ embrace of “an effective weapon against the occupation”—explaining how everyone can “whistle up wherever you are.”
■ On MS NOW Friday night, Chicagoan and Onion publisher Ben Collins declared his anti-ICE whistle the week’s MVP: “I’ll keep it on me for the rest of my life.”
■ The Tribune (gift link): “Chicago’s immigration advocacy groups … are now sharing their information nationwide.”

‘ICE abducted someone here.’ Signs looking like temporary no-parking notices are showing up around town to memorialize the thousands arrested under “Operation Midway Blitz.”
■ The AP: The blitz’s Chicago aftermath includes lawsuits, investigations and anxiety.
■ McKinley Park News publisher Justin Kerr on reporters’ challenges in covering the incursion: “How do we report on supposed raids when ICE is operating as a secret police force?”

‘This little piggy was impeached.’ Columnist Steve Sheffey: “Trump’s call to execute members of Congress is a direct threat to our democracy and our way of life. If Republicans cannot break with Trump, then all decent Americans must break with Republicans.”
■ Columnist Christopher Armitage: “We don’t need more lawsuits. We need handcuffs. … Democratic state attorneys general can investigate and charge Donald Trump and his cabinet for seditious, corrupt and criminal conduct right now.”

‘The United States … doesn’t have a system of national health care … because white citizens are in horror at the idea of Black people receiving benefits, even if it means they are also uninsured.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg sees the tale of a Dolton mom forced to give birth at the side of the road as a symptom of our broken healthcare system.
■ The doctor and nurse who turned her away from an Indiana hospital eight minutes earlier have been fired.

‘Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines.’ Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. comes in for criticism from his cousin, who says she’s dying of cancer that research could help address.
■ An Atlantic cover story—based in part on exclusive interviews with RFK Jr.—explores how he became “the most powerful man in science.”
■ Historian Author and journalist Steven Beschloss: “The consequences of Trump inserting unfit sycophants in positions of power are tragic and immeasurable.”

Happy holidays? Your Local Epidemiologist offers a Thanksgiving week “infectious disease weather report,” along with tips for maintaining sanity and family peace through tricky conversations.

Loop shooting rewards. A total of at least $15,000 is on the table for anyone who can help police find those responsible for two shootings Friday night.
■ A Wisconsin woman who admitted to nearly stabbing and killing a classmate to death at age 12 in 2014—to please the fictional character “Slender Man”—has been found in the suburb of Posen after leaving a group home.

‘Great job, Internet!’ A.V. Club: “A Gmail simulation has made combing through Jeffrey Epstein’s [real] emails … as easy as opening your email.”
■ Surf his inbox here.
■ Author Anand Giridharadas for The New York Times (gift link): Those emails reveal “how the elite behave when no one is watching.”
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link): “The night America’s doomed ruling class gorged on lamb, blood and oil” dispelled “any pretense of ‘corporate social responsibility,’ let alone shame, in America’s C-suites.”

‘It would be more accurately described as a plan to intensify the war to the profit of a few Russians and Americans.’ On Tyranny author Timothy Snyder takes a dim view of the supposed “peace plan” for the Russo-Ukrainian war …
■ … or, as columnist Jeff Tiedrich puts it, more bluntly: “Liddle Marco and his ace team of shitwits got played by Russia—again” …
■ … but at least some European leaders see signs of progress.

‘A company turns a dial on a product used by hundreds of millions of people and inadvertently destabilizes some of their minds.’ The Times (gift link) says that’s what happened at OpenAI this year …
■ … making this a good time to revisit Chicago Public Square’s online presentation earlier this month, “A guide to AI and fact-checking tools.”

‘Everyone hates data centers now.’ Mother Jones sees a national rise of local opposition to the prodigious energy and water needs of next-gen computer tech.

Reggae pioneer gone. Jimmy Cliff is dead at 81.
■ The invaluable Internet Archive has WXRT’s recordings of Cliff performing 14 songs at the Park West in 1978.
■ Block Club: “Hundreds pack The Metro—and Lakeview streets—to honor Tony Fitzpatrick,” the artist, poet and actor who died last month at 66.

‘The Chicago Sun-Times makes no representation regarding the quality of the recipes contained in this guide.’ If that disclaimer on Sunday’s “Cooking for the Holidays” newspaper section puzzled you, you may have forgotten about this. (May link.)
■ Columbia University journalism ethics professor Margaret Sullivan to her students after reviewing three stories involving reporters this month: “Don’t ever do that.”

‘We’ve never needed Chicago Public Square more.’ That’s reader David Hammond, one of many whose financial support keeps this publication coming—you know, people such as Sara Burrows, Joan Pederson (again!), Kathy Manofsky, David Heisler (again!), Bill Weldon, Cynthia Martin, Martin Berg, J.J. Tindall, Jeff Currie, Sabrina Deitch, Tony Recktenwald, Neil Parker, Mary Sebahar, Chris Ruys, Kevin Shotsberger, Richard Milne, Bruce Pfaff, Libbey Paul, Ron Schwartz, Ted Naron, Don Moseley, Joyce Porter, Maureen Gannon, Amy Fazekas, Linda Biondi, Peggy Fogelman, Mike Hannigan, Judith Krzysko-Jakubowska, Logan Aimone, Jim Stafford, Andrew Nord, Adam Broad, Maryanne Peterson, Marj Halperin, Keith Huizinga, Susy Schultz, Mark Zegan, Eric Townsend, Kelly Martin, John Knox, Michael Carniello, L ShoulterKarall, Meg Tebo, Kathleen Hogan, Len Jaster, Tom Marker, Beth Mrkvicka, David Clauter, Brian Cassidy, Jill DeVaney, John Lewis, Karen O’Leary, Mike Janowski, Larry Dahlke, Charles Kepner, Mike Schultz, Lisa Colpoys and Catherine Schneider, Glenn Jeffers, Jean Davis, Peter Chien, Michael Kelly, Mike Krauser, Catherine Johns, Suzy Le Clair, Lisa Krimen, Anne White, Jeffrey Nelson, Margo Bristow, Paul Noble, Jeanette Ruby, Carol Morency, Kim Johnson, J. Michael Williams, John Culver, Catherine Tokarski, Craig Dellimore, Mary Godlewski, Karen Gray-Keeler, Craig Gunderson, Philip Prale, Lloyd Sachs, Scott Tindale, John Iltis, Jean Johnson, Ken Paulson and Amy Lee Goodman.
■ Pitch in as little as $1, just once, today and see your name atop tomorrow’s acknowledgements.
■ Edward M. Bury and Al Slater made this edition better.

Square up.

🟥 Subscribe free.
🟥 Search Square.

🟥 Square on Bluesky: