‘No Kings’ protests. Hundreds of cities have been targeted for demonstrations tomorrow—Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.
■ Block Club: What to know about Chicago’s anti-Trump march.
■ Today’s Edition author and lawyer Robert B. Hubbell: “If you have been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the right moment to join peaceful protests in defense of democracy, this is the moment you have been waiting for.”
■ Uncensored Objection columnist Mitch Jackson: “Stand up now or lose it all.”
■ Here’s a map showing where you can find a protest near you—to join or avoid.
■ Columnist Robert Reich: “We will be demonstrating against Trump’s decision to turn our army into a domestic army of occupation. … We will not allow this to happen any more than did our forebears.”
■ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin cautions reporters: “‘How many people were arrested?’ is a lousy way to cover protests” …
■ … but, for the record, yeah, an Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights-led protest in Chicago last night took place without incident.
■ Closer to the Edge: “It’s time for a law that protects journalists from rubber bullets.”
‘Dictator chic.’ The Guardian: What to expect from Trump’s birthday military parade in D.C. Saturday …
■ … although the skies may rain on that parade.
Guarded optimism. Trump critics and constitutional scholars celebrated a federal judge’s stirring 36-page ruling yesterday that deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles—over the mayor’s and the governor’s objections—violated the Constitution …
■ In troops’ Los Angeles occupation, Jennifer Mascia at The Trace sees echoes of 1970’s Kent State massacre.
■ The Onion: “ICE Vows To Restore Order Using Whatever Force Unnecessary.”
No masks. American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois communications director Ed Yonka: ICE officers’ masks “send a signal … that they are not accountable for their actions. … This must change.”
■ The Sun-Times: “Chicago police say they don’t ‘assist in immigration enforcement’ but have turned over key records to feds.”
■ Chicago’s top cop tells a judge he would “never” use the power some City Council members want to give him—to declare a curfew with just 30 minutes’ warning.
■ A veteran Chicago police officer caught on video published by the Tribune showing him hitting a 14-year-old boy during an off-duty visit to an elementary school is leaving the force (gift link).
A senator in handcuffs. California Sen. Alex Padilla was forcefully removed—pushed to the ground and cuffed—after he tried to confront Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about her immigration raids on Los Angeles.
■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “We can all watch the video and see Noem’s Gestapo thugs assault Padilla.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “What Noem was saying before Padilla spoke out is crucially important. … The Trump administration is vowing to get rid of the democratically elected government of California by using military force.”
■ Noem is columnist Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week.
■ Andy Borowitz offers a two-line “Noem Poem”—and invites you to submit your own.
■ In a seven-hour-long House hearing on “sanctuary state” policies, Gov. Pritzker yesterday came under attack from hostile Republicans—including Illinois’ Darin LaHood.
■ He laughingly dismissed it as “a political circus.”
‘A declaration of war.’ That’s what Iran is calling Israel’s wave of strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program and military sites and killing at least two top military officers.
■ Bill Kristol at The Bulwark: “This crisis provides an opportunity for the Trump administration to rethink many of its dangerous and self-defeating America First doctrines.”
Oh, what a fragile web we weave. A massive Google Cloud outage yesterday disrupted a broad range of internet services.
■ Columnist Vyom Ramani: “It was a wake-up call, a glimpse at how delicate our digital dependencies have become.”
■ Have you been playing around with Meta’s AI app? Know that the questions you pose get displayed in a public feed.
■ Gizmodo reports that, at 18 years, Apple’s about to relinquish the iPhone’s “vice [sic] grip on its alarm snooze feature, which grants nine more minutes to your alarm. No more, no less.”
Trib shrinking. Again. In what the Chicago Tribune Guild calls “a short-term profit boost” in pursuit of “a sugar high,” the paper’s offering a fresh round of buyouts to union members.
■ Congress is now a big step closer to cutting government funding for public broadcasting …
■ … leaving it to the Senate to back down from what CNN’s Brian Stelter declares “the closest NPR and PBS have ever come to a complete loss of federal funding.”
■ Voting rights advocate and Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias: “Legacy media … is too weak, too compromised from years of pulling its punches. … This is how democracy dies.”
Almost perfect. Chicago Public Square nailed all but one of the eight questions on past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel’s latest news quiz for The Conversation.
■ Your Square columnist’s score: 7/8 correct. (Flubbed Q. 6.)
■ Bonus: Can you top Square’s 4/5 on this week’s City Cast Chicago quiz?
Square is free for all because of generous support from readers. You can join them with a one-time tip (nice!) or an ongoing pledge (nicer!)…
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■ Ben Goldgar and John Teets made this edition better.
What could go wrong? Happy Friday the 13th.
