‘Mayor should be in jail. … Pritzker also!’ President Trump took to his social media platform this morning to complain that Chicago and Illinois’ top executives aren’t protecting immigration officers.
■ Pritzker on Twitter X: “I will not back down.”
■ That followed Pritzker diagnosing Trump’s deployment of troops to Chicago and Portland as “dementia.”
■ Mayor Johnson: “This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested.”
■ The Guardian: Republicans have been using photos from South America to illustrate their support for National Guard presence in Portland.
■ Reporter Aaron Parnas: “A sitting president using his power to threaten, punish or imprison those who disagree with him … is an alarming sign of democratic backsliding.”
■ Protect Democracy columnist Amanda Carpenter: “The most immediate threat to our constitutional order is not on the streets. It is coming from inside the White House.”
■ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin: Trump consigliere Stephen Miller “wants to start a civil war.”
They’re heeeeeeere. The Texas National Guard has arrived in a far southwestern suburb …
■ … whose name is shared by one of the Blues Brothers.
■ A memo obtained by NPR calls for the troops to stick around for 60 days …
■ … but the operation’s field director says he sees “no end date” for “Midway Blitz.”
■ Axios: Remember when Texas bused more than 30,000 migrants to Chicago?
■ Parnas again: “ICE is lying to the American public.”
■ Trump’s own Labor Department says immigration raids are causing a food crisis.
■ Mayor Johnson says federal agents who violate his ban on the use of city land for deportation operations should face criminal charges.
■ In ICE raids, author and radio host Thom Hartmann perceives echoes of Ku Klux Klan terror.
■ Comparing the present moment to the tinderbox that was America around 1969, cultural critic Bob Lefsetz writes, “as calm as the country might look today … be ready for tomorrow.”
‘There’s an ICE facility in my backyard.’ Columnist (and former Tribune TV critic) Maureen Ryan writes in Vanity Fair (paywalled article, but you can access it free in an incognito browser window): “Friday, with a newly purchased gas mask in my backpack, I went to the ICE building in Broadview.”
■ The feds have dropped charges against a couple who carried guns lawfully outside that facility—after a grand jury refused to indict ’em.
■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob reviews the ways journalists have demonstrated the “vital need for local news coverage” in the present crisis.
■ A mental health expert offers WBEZ tips for coping with the stress of immigration operations.
■ Amid rumors of an ICE presence at this weekend’s Chicago Marathon, the mayor’s nevertheless “encouraging everyone to get out to celebrate.”
‘A true American patriot.’ Journalist Terry Moran—you may recall that ABC fired him (June link) after he called Trump a “world-class hater”—talks to Chicago City Council member Jessie Fuentes, handcuffed by ICE agents as she asked them questions in a hospital.
■ The TRiiBE: 13 council members didn’t sign a letter of support for Fuentes.
‘I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.’ Attorney General Pam Bondi—with what columnist and lawyer Joyce Vance calls “a level of snark better reserved for a high school gathering”—got into it with Sen. Dick Durbin during Senate hearings yesterday.
■ Lefsetz again: “If I acted this way at the dinner table, my father would have reached over and hit me.”
■ Moran again: Bondi “trashed a Senate hearing, but only soiled herself.”
Taking off again. After a ground delay triggered by a shortage of air traffic controllers in the federal shutdown, O’Hare was reportedly operating as scheduled today.
■ Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich: “As I said last week, the shutdown ends when air traffic controllers have had enough.”
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link, possible because readers like you help cover the cost of publishing this newsletter): “Democrats need to hold a nationally televised news conference and announce … they won’t fund the federal government if Trump is going to use those dollars to invade blue cities.”
Illinois’ ‘hidden’ gunmakers. The Campaign for Gun Industry Accountability says hundreds of Illinois residents possess a federal license to manufacture firearms.
■ You can search by address and ZIP code to see if there’s one near you.
■ Former Washington Post columnist Philip Bump: A red-state invasion has worsened Chicago gun violence.
Scam alert. The Illinois Revenue Department’s warning taxpayers to ignore text alerts claiming a tax refund has been processed.
■ Here’s where to check for real.
‘These activists want to dismantle public schools. Now they run the Education Department.’ ProPublica documents “a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars.”
■ The American Prospect: The department’s cutting funding to colleges that primarily serve minorities.
‘They want to replace women with AI.’ Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz—marking that column’s fifth anniversary: “It matters that one of the first AI bots forced upon us as a new vision of the future is a woman. It matters that in the cultural imaginings of men, she’s a pliable virgin.”
■ In an eye-opening Daily Show interview with Jon Stewart, tech ethicist Tristan Harris laid out the dangers of unregulated AI …
■ … which reminds us:
■ Join us for a deep dive into the world of AI tools and fact-check tech—free. Chicago Public Square and Northwestern University’s Local News Accelerator are teaming up to offer you interactive online coaching already received by thousands of professional journalists—but it’s not for journalists only. Online, Nov. 3, noon-2 p.m. Registration details here. Tell your friends, too!
Thanks. Not only did yesterday’s edition of Axios Chicago include a kind shoutout to Square from reporter Justin Kaufmann, it also inspired a dive into the archives for an audio tour of Chicago’s Harold Washington Public Library, which opened this week in 1991.
■ Mike Braden made this dispatch better.
Soundtrack for production of today’s edition. Last night’s WDCB Bluesday Tuesday performance at FitzGerald’s by The Mike Wheeler Band.
■ Tedium’s David Buck marks the retirement of novelty radio icon Dr. Demento.
