SALT vs. ICE / Trump’s ‘kiss of death’ / Downward bound

Chicago Public Square returns in force Monday. We’ll take a break Thursday to join this year’s Northwestern Medill Local News Summit …

■ … followed Friday by a fresh news quiz.

■ Through the weekend, you’ll find breaking news and perspective updates on the Square Bluesky account.

■ Now, the news for today:

SALT vs. ICE. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is celebrating Gov. Pritzker’s signature on a law reflecting its Safety and Action for Liberation Together agenda to melt the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s offensive here.

■ The package Pritzker signed outlaws warrantless arrests of people at or on the way to courthouses and directs schools and hospitals to implement procedures to keep law enforcement and immigration agents at bay.

■ It also expands the right to sue federal agents who violate civil rights.

■ Republicans are making noises about a court challenge.

■ The Trace: Immigration raids disrupted a program designed to protect Chicago kids.

■ Capitol Fax: Trump’s administration is ordering Illinois to devise a transit safety plan that’s actually in the state’s new transit bill.

‘Before you visit America, hand over your Instagram.’ Journalist Terry Moran—fired by ABC (June link) after he called Trump a “world-class hater”—mourns a Trump administration proposal that, before tourists and students from countries like Britain, France, Germany and South Korea can visit America, they’ll have to surrender as much as five years of their social media history (New York Times gift link).

■ Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein is gobsmacked at traditional news organizations’ failure to jump on “a story so creepy it seemed to write itself: A blacklist, a ‘cash reward system’ for public ‘cooperators,’ and a supercharged FBI tip line where anyone and everyone can tattle on their neighbors for ‘anti-American’ thoughts and activities.”

■ A federal judge is ordering Trump to call off his National Guard deployment in Los Angeles.

■ Liz Dye at Public Notice: That Trump’s interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba is history is a credit to “judges who did their damn jobs.”

‘A Trump endorsement is … more like a kiss of death.’ That’s law professor Joyce Vance on Eileen Higgins’ victory in the Miami mayor’s race—becoming the first woman ever and the first Democrat in almost 30 years to lead that city.

■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich—rarely a source of cheer—declares this “a Good News Wednesday.”

■ The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol: “Voters got us into this mess. They’re getting us out.”

■ Former Better Government Association CEO Andy Shaw sees hope in voters’ new attention to “the cynical cartographic gerrymandering contortions that have polluted our politics for decades.”

Trump’s ‘filthy’ rant. In a speech purportedly aimed at emphasizing his efforts (hah) to fight inflation, the president went off the rails to complain about immigration: “Why is it we only take people from shithole countries … hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia? … Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”

■ Reporter Aaron Parnas: Republican alarm’s on the rise after that “affordability” speech misfire. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman—who’s offering new and old subscribers cool perks that would make great holiday gifts.)

■ The AP: “Trump once denied using this slur about Haiti and African nations. Now he boasts about it.”

■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette, poring through Trump’s diarrhetic social media posts overnight, declares one “actually the most insane thing he’s ever posted.”

‘Declare a state of emergency. And … help us figure out how to survive it.’ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin appeals to The New York Times.

■ Poynter’s Tom Jones ponders the question “What should journalists do when President Trump attacks them?”

‘If my company’s got that kinda green, I’m sure they can afford to uncancel one of their best shows.’ Count Stephen Colbert among those (at least pretending to be) surprised by CBS parent Paramount’s hostile bid to take over Warner Bros. Discovery.

■ David Dayen at The American Prospect: “Why is Warner Bros. for sale at all? Its product has never been more critically or financially successful.”
■ Law prof Tim Wu in the Times (gift link): “Both plans to buy Warner Bros. are illegal.”

■ The Onion: “Study Finds Young People Now Watch More YouTube Content Than Zoetropes Of Galloping Horses.”

Downward bound. Chicago’s headed to the season’s first “dangerously cold” subzero weekend.

■ Colbert on the cold’s arrival in New York: “The kind of weather today that makes you wish you were someplace tropical—like on a boat in the Caribbean, but … not near Venezuela.”

■ Planning holiday travel? The climate-focused one5c newsletter helps you figure out what’s best for the planet—plane, train or automobile?

■ Or sticking close to home? Wired’s Adrienne So hails “the world’s safest bike helmet.”

Careful before you call. ZDNET: “Google AI Overview and Perplexity Comet are being tricked into suggesting scam support numbers.”

■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: When data-focused journalist G. Elliott Morris “asked ChatGPT to fact-check an article for him … the chatbot couldn’t get its head around modern America.”

Correction. The most-tapped item in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square misidentified Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten.

‘I will never back down’ / The conflict is Paramount / A garbage idea / Robots in the news

‘I will never back down.’ Joshua Aaron, the creator of ICEBlock, an app designed to help report Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, is suing top Trump administration officials for getting Apple to yank that program from its platform.

■ The federal lawsuit—which you can read here—doesn’t target Apple but accuses Attorney General Pam Bondi and “border czar” Tom Homan, among others, of violating the First Amendment by coercing Apple to censor speech.

■ Aaron also demands the president’s sycophants “stop threatening myself and my family.”

■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob calls on reporters to stop repeating the Trump regime’s “cutesy nicknames for its detention facilities and operations.”

■ Axios Chicago’s rounded up “12 of the biggest disputed allegations by DHS officials [one might say lies] and the evidence or court actions that overturned them.”

■ Block Club: “Chicago protest music is meeting the political moment.”

‘All the bullshit reasons we used to justify the disastrous war in Iraq, the … Trump regime are trotting out to justify war in Venezuela.’ The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart masterfully—and disturbingly—tracks parallels between the Trump administration’s aggression toward Venezuela and … well, you know.

■ Pulitzer winner Paul Gene Weingarten takes an unnervingly close look at the reprehensible tattoos adorning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s body.

FIFA ‘Appease Prize.’ HuffPost challenges you to unsee Stewart’s mocking recap of how the Fédération Internationale des Associations de Football came up with that phony-baloney trophy to satisfy the president’s lust for a peace prize …

■ … a thing that columnist Eric Zorn calls “the most pathetic prize in the world.”

■ Cartoon: Pulitzer winner Jack Ohman …

■ … who’s now offering perks—including original art, social media avatars and signed copies of his new book, WEIRD—to new and continuing paid subscribers to his newsletter.

‘What are your medical issues, Mr. President?’ Contending that Trump’s “certainly ‘aced’ the test of signs of cognitive decline,” journalist Dan Rather says the question as to whether he’s fit to hold office “has become front and center.”

■ Columnist Christopher Armitage: “Stop waiting for Trump to die. U.S. fascism doesn’t end with him.”

‘Republican women suddenly realize they’re surrounded by misogynists.’ That’s columnist Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times (gift link).

■ By one count, Trump’s now delivered at least seven personal insults to female reporters over the last month.

■ Time: House Speaker “Mike Johnson is miserable and many House Republicans are furious.”

■ Public Notice columnist Paul Waldman: “Speaker … is a tough job. But he’s particularly bad at it.”

■ On further review—and under fire from Senate campaign rival Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton—U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi says he’s reconsidering campaign contributions from ICE contractor and Trump adviser Shyam Sankar.

The conflict is Paramount. A Tribune editorial says the president should recuse himself from regulatory decisions on the fate of Warner Bros. Discovery.

■ Popular Information: Trump’s son-in-law “is funneling $24 billion from Middle Eastern governments to back a hostile bid for Warner … all while advising President Trump on foreign policy.”

■ Wonkette’s Marcie Jones: “The message is clear, no diversified media in Trumpistan.”

■ Economist Paul Krugman: “Social media giants have bought our government, and are trying to bully Europe.”

■ Columnist, author and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich backs a Democratic plan to rein in CEOs’ outrageous pay.

‘We’ve also never had Neil Patrick Harris order a military strike on a fishing boat before.’ Jimmy Kimmel is unmoved by Trump’s boasts about becoming the first president to host the Kennedy Center Honors.

■ Kimmel, who survived a brief, Trump-driven suspension, has signed a contract extension with ABC …

■ … but just for one year, which late-night critic Bill Carter calls “notable,” because “ABC could have underscored its commitment by locking in Kimmel for the long haul.”

A garbage idea. In the face of a budget crunch, Chicago historian Cate Plys calls for “a graduated garbage fee by tying it to, say, a property’s assessed valuation … [Mayor] Johnson’s chance to soak the ultra-rich!”

■ The mayor sees in the standoff over his budget proposal echoes of the city’s infamous Council Wars of the ’80s.

Obama Center sneak peek. The Sun-Times’ Lee Bey shares an exclusive look inside the first building in the complex, which includes—no kidding—an NBA regulation-size basketball court.

■ A South Side flower shop owner’s been named CNN’s Hero of the Year.

Robots (etc.) in the news.

■ Gizmodo: “Elon Musk’s Optimus robot collapses in a hilariously suspicious way.”

■ Right Wing Watch: “The AI George Washington created by Glenn Beck sounds exactly like what would happen if Glenn Beck built an AI George Washington to sound exactly like Glenn Beck.”

■ Columnist and former Los Angeles Times editor Jim O’Shea: Corporations’ “digital ambitions to support miraculous AI technologies face a far more mundane roadblock: Electrical power.”

Eccch. Beware freezing rain and more snow tonight.

■ But, hey, maybe you’ll see the Northern Lights again.

Thanks. Mike Braden and Eric Zorn (among many others who spotted the Weingarten error above) made this edition better.