‘Attila, Genghis Khan, Trump.’ Harold Meyerson (no relation) at The American Prospect says Donald Trump “is the 21st-century version of Attila or Genghis Khan, heading a horde that is defined by an exterminationist loathing of cities and all that they stand for and promote.”
■ The Prospect’s Ryan Cooper sees an “ethnic cleansing campaign in Minneapolis. Every part of this illegal, violent occupation is based on lies.”
■ Wired (behind a paywall): “ICE can kill with impunity. Over the past decade, U.S. immigration agents have shot and killed more than two dozen people. Not a single agent appears to have faced criminal charges.”
■ Law Dork Chris Geidner: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem yesterday asserted that “virtually anyone in the U.S.” could face a Kavanaugh stop—named for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s endorsement of a law enforcement practice in which federal agents can detain a person based on their perceived ethnicity, spoken language or occupation.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “You know what Americans aren’t talking about very much today after Trump’s threat to … invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota? They aren’t talking a lot about the fact that the Department of Justice has released less than 1% of the Epstein files.”
■ The AP: The Trump administration’s erased centuries of Justice Department experience.
Twin Cities terror. Video caught a U.S. citizen on her way to a medical appointment in Minneapolis being dragged out of her car and detained by immigration officers.
■ The New York Times presents a millisecond-by-millisecond analysis of newly available video of an ICE agent’s killing of Renee Good …
■ …. who newly released records show was shot three times—twice in the chest and once in the forearm.
■ Columnist/cartoonist Jack Ohman: “Trump’s attempts to blame Renee Good for her own killing are a bridge too far.”
■ The Minnesota Star Tribune is live-blogging the latest—paywall-free.
■ The Minnesota Reformer surveys the ICE arrests you’re not seeing.
■ The Atlantic (gift link) shares photos: “Minneapolis neighborhoods vs. ICE.”
■ Law prof Joyce Vance says all of this forces the question: “Is there a deliberate effort to provoke protestors into acts of violence?”
■ Poynter ethics chief Kelly McBride: This moment in history will be defined by what reporters and private citizens choose to record.
Dingus of the week. Lyz Lenz’s pick: Nick Shirley, “the ferret who … made a bunch of videos alleging fraud at Somali-run daycares in Minnesota.”
■ Chicago TV news veteran Jennifer Schulze says Shirley’s no journalist: “There is a straight line from Nick Shirley’s viral video about alleged fraud at Somali-run daycare centers in Minneapolis to the shooting death of 37-year Renee Good.”
‘If they missed the fact that I was an anti-ICE journalist who didn’t fill out her paperwork, what else might they be missing?’ A Slate reporter who set out simply to learn what it was like to apply to be an ICE agent was surprised to get offered the job.
■ Columnist and ex-Illinois U.S. Rep. Marie Newman: “We want congressional phone lines ringing off the hook with constituents demanding … restrictions on ICE and Border Patrol.”
■ Author and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich: “Tell your members of Congress not to vote for the DHS spending bill unless it stipulates that ICE be disarmed.”
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link): Economic boycotts are melting ICE—“but we can do more.”
‘Well-known steps toward autocracy.’ The Conversation: The FBI search of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home this week pushes the U.S. closer to the edge.
■ Natanson in December (gift link): “I am The Post’s ‘federal government whisperer.’ It’s been brutal.”
■ The paper’s owner, Amazon founder and Trump enabler Jeff Bezos, has been silent on the raid.
■ Democracy Docket: “Trump told us how he really feels about the midterms. … ‘We shouldn’t even have an election.’”
■ The Times (gift link) lists all the things named for Trump, and how long other presidents had to wait.
Trump takes the prize. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has given the president her Nobel Peace Prize medal.
■ She told Fox News “he deserves it.”
■ Columnist Charlie Madigan: “It is gold and garish. Perfect for the president.”
■ The Onion: “Pundits Praise Strength, Dexterity Required For Trump To Successfully Lift Middle Finger.”
■ Jimmy Kimmel’s offering Trump any award that Kimmel’s won—if he gets his goons out of Minnesota.
■ Meanwhile, PBS—or at least its social media team—has embraced Kimmel’s proposed new slogan: “We’re still here, bitch.”
Chicagoans behaving badly. Among hundreds of inspector general investigations of city workers: At least two cops who got fraudulent pandemic loans.
■ Former DePaul University players and an ex-Bull have been charged in a scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games.
Calling all quiz whizzes. The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel, has crafted a challenge that again puts your Chicago Public Square columnist back in the ol’ 75% hole. Can you do better?
■ A 5/5 here on City Cast’s Chicago-centric news quiz.
■ And 8/10 on Axios’ match-the-frequency-to-the-radio-station test.
■ But … ahem.
‘We all remember a world before Wikipedia.’ A Tribune editorial somewhat grudgingly wishes it a happy 25th birthday.
■ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg observes the passage of Google parent Alphabet’s market capitalization past $4 trillion by trying to relate that number to something on a human scale.
■ Were you hit by Verizon’s service outage this week? Expect a $20 refund.
■ Would you like to have a celebrity—dead or alive—to read you the news, or a book … or, well, anything? You can do that now.
