‘Trump’s invasion’ / R.I.P., Monday papers / ‘None of them were real’

Remember when you could take a break from the news on weekends and evenings? Not so much these days. Check the Chicago Public Square Bluesky account for updates between editions.

‘Trump’s invasion.’ That’s what Gov. Pritzker is calling the president’s order to dispatch members of the Texas National Guard here—without consulting Pritzker or his administration.
 That’s on top of the federal co-option of 300 Illinois National Guard troops.
 The state is suing to block that deployment …
 … hoping maybe for a deal like Portland, where Wonkette notes that Trump’s forces “got kicked out! Twice!”—by a judge Trump appointed.
 Columnist Mary Geddry: “From Portland to the Fed to the DOJ, judges and prosecutors told [Trump] no, and still he storms around shouting ‘off with their heads!’
 The home of a South Carolina judge who ruled against the Trump administration burned to the ground yesterday in a fire whose cause was under investigation.

‘Well, they lie, right?’ Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth is among those casting doubts on immigration agents’ allegation that a woman and a man allegedly rammed their vehicle into a government car on the Southwest Side …
 … before she was shot and wounded.
 Columnist and former U.S. Rep. Marie Newman, who was at the Broadview detention center last week: “I saw it first hand … ICE threatening and roughing up police.”
 The AP: “Using helicopters and chemical agents, immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago.”
 Oak Park Township Trustee Juan Muñoz, taking video in Broadview Friday, was pulled down by Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino and handcuffed as a federal agent held him down with a knee on his back.
 Author and Evanston RoundTable photographer Richard Cahan shares “the view from the ground” in the Broadview’s “free arrest zone.”

‘Terrorizing American citizens.’ Popular Information says ICE’s assault on a Chicago apartment building exemplifies the Trump administration’s “systemic violations of U.S. citizens’ Constitutional rights.”
 Contrarian Jen Rubin: “A military attack more akin to an overseas military operation than a domestic police action unfolded in that Chicago apartment building.”
 Chicago congressmembers toured the scene yesterday, calling for an end to all federal immigration enforcement here.
 Reviewing “nauseating footage” of the attack, John Oliver went on to celebrate protesters striking back with humor.
 The American Prospect: A “well-intentioned” Illinois law ending immigration detention here has played into ICE’s hands, helping it hide detainees from their lawyers.

Next: Hunger. The federal shutdown threatens the disappearance within two weeks of a food aid program that helps millions of low-income moms and young children.
 Journalism watchdog Margaret Sullivan: Beware the phrase “partisan bickering” in reporting on the shutdown.

‘The greatest politician you've probably never heard of.’ That’s how a new episode of This American Life celebrates Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington …
 … who once read “The Night Before Christmas” for WXRT listeners.

R.I.P., Monday papers. Lee Enterprises—publisher of mid-market midwestern newspapers including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Quad City Times and The Times of Northwest Indiana—is abandoning dead-tree publication on Mondays effective next month.
 That follows big layoffs last month.

The end of CBS News as we’ve known it? In what Axios describes as “the latest in a string of moves … to shift CBS News’ coverage to the right,” parent company Paramount’s bought reactionary Bari Weiss’ Free Press website, naming her the network’s editor-in-chief.
Zeteo: The general sense among all those inside CBS ‘who are interested in fairness and journalism and accountability’ right now is: ‘What the fuck?’”
 Today’s the first day of MSNBC’s split from NBC News—and it has a new code of principles.

‘Book banning is everywhere in Trump’s America.’ That sad observation comes from John K. Wilson, the Chicago coordinator of Banned Books Week—which begins today.
 A University of Illinois Springfield professor: Beware the “academic neutrality playbook.”
 The Onion reacts to a report that Stephen King is the author most banned in U.S. schools: “Censor him all you want, but eventually young people will learn that cars can get possessed.”
 USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “A university censorship conference gets censored? This is Trump's America.”

‘The Oct. 7 attacks engaged Israel into betraying its humanitarian core.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg marks the second anniversary of the horrific attack that triggered a horrific war: “I just want to draw attention to all the lives lost, on both sides.”

‘None of them were real.’ PolitiFact exposes a buttload of fake musical tributes to regressive martyr Charlie Kirk—purportedly from artists including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and Imagine Dragons—all generated by artifical intelligence …
 … and offers guidance for identifying such phony songs—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. Online, Nov. 3, noon-2 p.m. Registration details here. (Share with your friends!)

ICEBlock blocked / ‘F*** them kids’ / Quizzes! / Weekly Dingus

ICEBlock blocked. Under pressure from President Trump’s Justice Department, Apple has yanked from its App Store applications people have been using to report the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
 Joshua Aaron, creator of the most prominent of those, ICEBlock—which has been downloaded more than a million times—tells CNN: “This is protected speech under the First Amendment. … We are determined to fight this with everything we have.”
 At the Department of Homeland Security’s request, the FAA’s established unprecedented drone restrictions over the whole Chicago area—a move the American Civil Liberties Union sees as an attempt to limit the public and media’s ability to learn what’s going on …
 … and that the Freedom of the Press Foundation sees as DHS “taking their war on civilians—and especially on journalists—to the sky.”
 After firing dozens of existing immigration judges, the administration’s tapped National Guard and Army Reserve lawyers as temporary replacements.

‘F*** them kids.’ Fresh details are emerging in ICE agents’ early-Tuesday raid on a Chicago apartment building—where children were pulled out of bed …
 … and dragged to U-Hauls.
 At least four kids were reportedly U.S. citizens.
 Chalkbeat: Elected officials and union leaders are calling on the community to help protect immigrant kids and their families.
 Block Club: Veterans are condemning ICE’s “mob tactics” at its Broadview detention center: “Our democracy is being crushed.”
 The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland recounts “My travels through Chicago: Tear gas, resistance and Trump’s big immigration crackdown.”

‘It’s time she be held accountable.’ Gov. Pritzker says Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem “should no longer be able to step foot” in Illinois without taking journalists’ questions.
 Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin prescribes new rules for reporters covering Trump.
 CBS News reportedly has a new editor-in-chief: Conservative editor and writer Bari Weiss.

Out-of-office politics. Some federal employees say their voicemail messages have been altered in the federal shutdown to blame Democrats.
 Chicago’s out at least $2.1 billion in transit funding …
 Here’s Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s full list of Illinois programs affected.
 Columnist Christopher Armitage suggests blue states fight back by refusing to send cash to Washington: “They’re … the ones bankrolling the entire federal system.”
 Columnist Charlotte Clymer: “Remarkably, Democrats are winning the shutdown debate.”
 Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says air traffic controllers are key to ending the shutdown.

Cops gone wrong. The Sun-Times: Two officers accused of Paycheck Protection Program fraud and domestic violence are the sons of two former Chicago police superintendents.
 The chief of Chicago’s police union is out—at least temporarily—at the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police board as investigations probe charges of financial misconduct.

Ethics cases, begone. Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin will pay a $30,000 fine to settle charges that she diverted taxpayer cash for personal and political things and improperly fired whistleblowers.

‘Go 8 for 8 and award yourself a tiny gold chimp.’ With a nod to the late Jane Goodall, The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel, lays down a fresh news quiz.
 Your Chicago Public Square columnist racked up another disappointing 6/8—as the image above illustrates, flubbing Qs 1 and 6.
 Up for more? Try Justin Kaufmann’s Axios quiz about Chicago-area shopping malls (8/10 right for Square) …
 … or the latest from City Cast (4/5 correct here).

Weekly Dingus. Lyz Lenz’s pick: “Dunning-Kruger poster boy Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”
 Wonkette’s Evan Hurst bestows the official “Hegseth Microdick” award on FBI Director Kash Patel.

‘From a fitness standpoint, it is best to just leave the newspapers on the ground, in their natural state.’ Embracing Trump’s physical fitness challenge, Pulitzer-winning columnist Dave Barry comes up short.

Saturday Night Live’s back. LateNighter lists five things to watch as the show returns—with an overhauled cast and writing staff and a history-making return host.
 Let the Tribune’s Chris Borrelli (gift link, possible because readers like you have pitched in to underwrite the cost of creating Square) introduce you to the photographers who for half a century have shot those SNL host photos that lead into the show’s commercial breaks.
 Here’s a video montage of those shots from the show’s first 50 years.
 Comedian—and Columbia College Chicago alumnus—W. Kamau Bell: “$1.6 million wouldn’t be enough for me to go to Saudi Arabia and take the government’s money. And I could use that money. These kids won’t stop eating.”
 USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke explains why Taylor Swift’s new album, “which I have not listened to because I’m wokeness-intolerant, is deeply anti-American and something you should feel enraged about for at least the next 10 weeks.”

Feeling unmoist? September was one of Chicago’s driest months in 150 years.


Thanks. Chris Koenig made this edition better.

Square up.

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