Chicago Public Square will take Monday off. Back at it Tuesday. And now the news:
Pritzker’s fighting words. Illinois’ governor has a message for the incoming Donald Trump administration: “You come for my people, you come through me” …
■ He held out a bit of hope: “Chaos, retribution and disarray radiated from the White House the last time Donald Trump occupied it. Perhaps this time may be different.”
■ Noting that “Trump seems to take delight in bedeviling Chicago and Illinois, meaning the governor and Mayor Brandon Johnson could find themselves tested after Trump returns to the White House,” Better Government Association president David Greising suggests that “an Illinois governor with big ambitions may find opportunity to distinguish himself as a leader—and the people who elected Pritzker need him to do just that.”
■ Former Republican Illinois Rep. turned Trump antagonist Adam Kinzinger: “I’m absolutely not afraid of Trump.”
Speaking of threats to freedom … The FBI’s investigating racist text messages sent to Black men, women and students—including middle schoolers—across the country.
■ Some of them referred to “slave catchers” and “picking cotton.”
Reconcile these headlines.
A first. Trump’s pick for his next White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, will be the first woman to hold that job.
■ She has a fraught history with her old boss, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis …
■ … whose role in the new administration, Notus reports, is up in the air.
■ Crooked on the prospect of the things Trump could do, unfettered by Congress—and the roadblocks he’ll face.
■ The AP, in updating coverage: “Democrats insist they still have a path to House majority.”
Supremely surprising. A CNN analyst suggests the Biden administration and Democrats who still control the Senate should act quickly to put Kamala Harris on the Supreme Court, replacing the aging Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
■ CNN analysis (behind a paywall): Justice Amy Coney Barrett is court liberals’ “last best hope.”
■ Lisa Needham at Public Notice: Attorney General Merrick Garland “left American democracy ripe for the picking.”
‘Our biggest challenge will be fighting for the truth.’ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina looks ahead to “a new world” of public health, as Trump plans to empower unreliables like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
■ Semafor’s Tim McDonnell sees a bit of light: “Climate science denial is far less common among Republicans than it was during Trump’s first term, and the fact that most clean-energy funding from the Inflation Reduction Act has gone to Republican districts will make it politically untenable to repeal.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump won the election in part by promising everything to everyone, but the actual policies of the MAGA party are unpopular, even with many Republican voters.”
‘They were just kidding about all the dictator stuff.’ Columnist Ken Klippenstein’s not down with the Biden/Harris administration’s pledge of “a peaceful transfer of power.”
■ The Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng: “I guess American democracy still works—as long as the guy who likes overthrowing the government wins the election because then he won’t overthrow the government.”
■ More late-night commentary here.
■ The Onion: “DNC Email Pleads For $20 To Cheer Them Up.”
What’s on your bookshelf? Sales of dystopian books—including The Handmaid’s Tale—have surged since Tuesday.
■ Also: 1984.
■ And: On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder, who tells The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch the most important thing for the moment is to avoid isolation and be around other people—because autocrats “want you to be alone.”
■ And if you’re seeing the phrases “can’t happen here” or “can happen here” a lot lately, here’s why.
■ In the 24 hours after the election, Google searches for “move to Canada” jumped almost 1,300%.
‘The press? Let me say goodbye to you now since we don’t know when the end will come.’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg ponders the possibility that “Trump will close the newspapers by executive order.”
■ Press Watch proprietor Dan Froomkin on Trump’s reelection: “I blame the media. The American people were insufficiently alarmed and insufficiently informed.”
■ ProPublica shares the issues its reporters will focus on most during Trump’s second term—and tells how you can get in touch if you have insight to share.
CloserThanThis. With thousands of votes still uncounted, a sitting Cook County Circuit Court judge was 1/100th of a percentage point shy of what he needs to retain his seat, but For What It’s Worth law blogger Jack Leyhane says he could lose his job regardless.
■ Injustice Watch: Two other judges are also on the bubble.
Got ’im—allegedly. A suspect was in custody in connection with the shooting that killed two Navy Pier workers, triggering a lockdown at the pier.
Don’t trash that mailer. A Chicago nonprofit will take and redistribute your hard-to-recycle packing materials.
■ Here’s where you can drop ’em off.
■ And speaking of mail: The guy who voiced America Online’s iconic alert “You’ve got mail!” is dead at 74.
‘Go 8 for 8 and give yourself two non-consecutive pats on the back!’ That’s past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel’s call to action for this week’s news quiz from The Conversation.
■ We get it. If it’s tough to read the news, imagine what assembling it’s like. But, you know, we knew the job was dangerous when we took it.
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