‘Election Integrity Army’ / ICEBlock unblocked? / He made amazing ads

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‘Election Integrity Army.’ That’s how President Trump’s billing his plan to dispatch a “much bigger and stronger” task force to every state for November’s vote.
■ The New Republic sees a “sinister” attempt to control the election with “his own personal army.”
■ Democracy Docket columnist and voting rights attorney Marc Elias, slammed by Trump in that post as “a terrible lawyer with a horrible track record”: It was personal when the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a new voter-approved congressional map—“because I was one of the 3 million voters disenfranchised.”
■ In what law professor Joyce Vance calls “a really bad decision,” the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to let Alabama wipe out one of two largely Black congressional districts.
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos: “Illinois Democrats, who control all branches of state government, remain hesitant to jump” into the nationwide redistricting fight.

At it again. The anonymous prankster artists who’ve been trolling Trump around D.C. for months deployed three video game cabinets at Washington’s War Memorial, inviting visitors to play a game called Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell …
■ … which you can also play online.

ICEBlock unblocked? A federal judge is ordering the Trump administration to stop squeezing Facebook and Apple over immigration enforcement monitoring apps and social media groups.
■ 404 Media: ICE agents have a list of 20 million people on their iPhones.

‘The 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was a roaring success.’ A Tribune editorial (gift link) encourages the party to hold its presidential convention here—again.
■ A City Council committee’s OK’d a big tax break for the United Center’s owners—the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families—to redevelop land around the stadium.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Chicago interview over the weekend with political mastermind David Axelrod* demonstrated why “Bezos and the oligarchs are terrified of AOC.”
■ See it here.

So much for ‘rampant crime.’ Popular Information: Violent crime’s plummeted in the “Democrat run cities”—including Chicago—blasted by Trump.
■ Newly released bodycam video seems to show a Chicago cop yelling “I’ll kill you” … before he shot and killed a man fleeing a traffic stop.
■ WBEZ’s Chip Mitchell: A man who says Chicago police beat him into confessing to the 1992 murder of 7-year-old Dantrell Davis is a step closer to finding out whether he’ll get a new trial—because of the alleged ties to Guantánamo Bay torture for a detective who worked the case.

‘This hantavirus ain’t even in monkeypox territory.’ Jon Stewart spent much of last night’s Daily Show mocking reporters’ efforts to gin up panic over that cruise ship outbreak.
■ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina: “The risk to the general public remains exceptionally low.”
■ With all passengers and most crewmembers off the ship, it was headed back to the Netherlands for a good scrubbing.
■ From The Onion’s FAQ about the outbreak: “Q: Do I need to worry about hantavirus? A: Statistically, 40% of us won’t be worrying about anything soon.”

Big Brother’s watching pregnant women. Abortion, Every Day columnist Jessica Valenti spotlights the Trump administration’s encouragement for expectant mothers to share their data on a website: “It’s exactly what it sounds like.”
■ Mother Jones says the site links to “deceptive crisis pregnancy centers.”
■ Dr Mehmet Oz, Trump’s administrator for Medicare and Medicaid: “One in three Americans are under-babied.”

He made amazing ads. Joe Sedelmaier, the Chicago-based director responsible for some of the 20th century’s funniest and most memorable commercials—including the iconic “Where’s the beef?” spots for Wendy’s—is dead at 92.
■ His legacy includes son J.J. Sedelmaier—co-creator of Saturday Night Live’s “TV Funhouse” and The Colbert Report’s “Tek Jansen” cartoons—who tells Chicago Public Square his dad “passed as a happy man, deeply loved by his entire family. Nothing left unsaid.”

■ This year’s Harold Washington Literary Award goes to Chicago-born musician and author Patti Smith.
■ In previewing a forthcoming biography of Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, the Tribune’s Rick Kogan touches on Trudeau’s Chicago ties.

‘No one should be surprised if it actually happens.’ That’s late-night critic Bill Carter reviewing last night’s Late Show, where Jimmy Kimmel offered Stephen Colbert the chance to host his show after CBS lowers the curtain.
■ As Colbert gathered his fellow late-night hosts for that show, Seth Meyers reflected on Trump’s attacks on them: “I appreciate that he is watching linear television.”
■ Colbert joked that the missing Jon Stewart was late night’s “designated survivor.”
■ He also unveiled the last batch of Late Show memorabilia being auctioned off for charity.
■ Press Watch columnist Mark Jacob: FCC chair Brendan Carr is the devil—“a straight arrow … aimed at the heart of democracy.”
■ Journalism critic Margaret Sullivan counts off five ways the media can do better.

‘Hasn’t it been done?’ Reader Mike Chamernik, unimpressed by news that Wordle will be a TV show, is experiencing déjà vu.
■ Robert S. Gold and Chris Koenig made this edition better.

‘Desperation and fury’ / Do your calls matter? / Be good, Chicago / Wordle, the TV show

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‘Desperation and fury.’ The New York Times (gift link) recounts a private discussion among the nation’s top Democrats in which they weighed “an audacious and possibly far-fetched idea” for addressing a major redistricting setback.
■ Law professor Joyce Vance: The Supreme Court’s decision last week “continues to make clear all the reasons we needed … a Voting Rights Act.”
■ John Oliver last night on HBO explained the court’s “shadow docket,” which he says “has empowered some of Trump’s worst policies to the point it’s now become his go-to method to get his way.”
■ See Oliver’s piece free on YouTube here.

‘What if we didn’t comply in advance?’ Wonkette’s Doktor Zoom (a pseudonym for senior editor Marty Kelley) cheers ABC’s decision at last “to fight back against the administration” on charges The View violated federal equal time rules.
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter says ABC’s “extraordinary legal letter” accuses the FCC of threatening “to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech.”
■ Columnist Melissa Ryan celebrates journalism watchdog Media Matters for America’s “complete and total victory” over a Trump-compliant Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into its work.

Do your calls matter? Columnist and Air Force veteran Christopher Armitage reviews the math on citizen appeals to legislators: “Form letters, petitions and automated messages are filtered out by office triage before staff ever read them. One real phone call, in the caller’s own words, outweighs hundreds of templated messages.”
■ Dialing finger itchy? Here’s whom you can call … about whatever.

‘He seems to understand that he must drape himself in glory, now, because perhaps nobody will do so in the future.’ Back from a visit to Portugal, Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg compares Donald Trump to that nation’s long-ago kings.
■ The A.V. Club, noting uncanny parallels between Trump’s second presidency and the TV series The Boys: “Nobody can plan to debut an episode of a satirical TV show with a golden statue of your Trump analogue being unveiled one week, only to have the man himself roll out his own 22-foot-tall gilded image just a few days later.”
■ If you find yourself thinking “golden calf,” you’re not alone.
■ Popular Information: “For 11 months, Trump Mobile has been collecting $100 deposits for a [gold-plated] Trump phone. No phones have shipped to customers.”
■ The What Did Donald Trump Do Today? blog says Trump’s Sunday social media posts consisted of “ethnicized insults, conspiracy-laden election rhetoric, historical distortions and theatrical exaggerations designed to inflame his supporters.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: The president concluded with “a complete fever-swamp hallucination.”
■ Democracy Docket columnist Marc Elias, whom Trump cited by name: “He called me a ‘disgusting individual’ and a ‘terrible lawyer’” even though Elias’ record “includes winning 64 out of 65 court cases in the aftermath of the 2020 election.”

‘That’s not classified, it’s a quote from you.’ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst really likes Sen. Mark Kelly’s retort to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s accusation that Kelly was “blabbing on TV” stuff from a “classified” briefing.
■ LateNighter recaps Saturday Night Live’s cold open: “A Supreme Court justice, the secretary of defense and the FBI director walk into a bar …”

Be good, Chicago. As the city bids to repeat as host of the Democratic National Convention, Politico’s Shia Kapos reports that national committee members are here for a three-day visit to see how we stack up against the other 2028 finalists—Denver, Atlanta, Boston and Philadelphia (March link).
■ Here’s Chicago’s video love letter to the committee.

Your tax dollars at work. Block Club: Chicago’s Environment Department, closed in 2012, is back as of this month—according to its commissioner, “fully equipped” to crack down on polluters.
■ WBEZ says the Chicago School Board’s blown almost $60,000 trying to figure out who leaked stuff to journalists.

Retro Chicago. Block Club reports the city’s pinball museum is moving downtown …
■ … and Navy Pier’s getting a roller rink.

■ That includes 17 from the U.S.—at least one of whom has tested positive.

‘Why can’t AI just admit it doesn’t know?’ Tech reporter David Pogue: “In their quest for global domination, the last thing these AI giants want to do is publicize their own lousiness. They want to hide it.”
■ Google’s paying $50 million to settle Black employees’ complaints of systemic racial discrimination.

Wordle, the TV show. It’s in the works at NBC, to be hosted by Savannah Guthrie and produced by Jimmy Fallon.
■ This could be the most exciting new game show since Homonym!
■ You can apply to be a contestant—on Wordle, not Homonym!—here.
■ In respect to his timeslot competitor, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel says he’ll air a repeat opposite Stephen Colbert’s final Late Show May 21.

Congrats to all. Here are the Chicago Headline Club’s winners of this year’s Peter Lisagor Awards.
■ Chicago Public Square’s entry failed to make the cut.

Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better. 

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