‘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.
■ 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.