Rebel alliances / ‘Forbidden terms’ / ‘A walking history book of the local stage’

Rebel alliances. As those concerned about Donald Trump’s presidency seek guidance for what to do, longtime political strategist Marj Halperin* suggests some plans of action “at least till the cavalry arrives with the midterm elections.”
Indivisible Chicago plans a rally Wednesday to press Illinois’ senators to step up their game. (Link revised.)
Immunologist, pediatrician and columnist Dr. Zachary Rubin applauds “individuals who are bravely putting their jobs on the line to speak out on what is happening at the CDC.” (See: “Forbidden terms,” below.)
Illinois and 21 other states have persuaded a second federal judge to block the blanket freeze on federal funding.
Amid the gathering gloom, law professor and Joyce Vance sees “some reason for optimism coming out of the FBI” …
Discourse Blog proprietor Jack Mirkinson to Democrats: “Have you considered something besides just posting through this?
Columnist Ali Davis shares “An Open Letter to the Majority of Congressional Democrats: The norms are gone. Wake the hell up!
But, The New York Times reports (gift link), “more than 50 interviews with Democratic leaders revealed a party struggling to decide what it believes in, what issues to prioritize and how to confront an aggressive right-wing administration.”

‘Private individuals in the data business now have access to your Social Security information.’ Author and former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens says attorneys general in every state should be pursuing criminal charges in connection with revelation that Elon Musk’s minions have access to the U.S. Treasury’s payment systems.
Activist Amy Savin Parker* shares her letter to—and contact information for—Illinois Attorney General Raoul, asking him to do just that.
Law Dork Chris Geidner: Musk “has no established legal or formal role in the federal government, let alone one that has been confirmed by the Senate.”
Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten: “The president of the United States has given the keys to the federal Treasury to … a Nazi sympathizer.”
Will Stancil at Zeteo: “Musk has plunged America into a constitutional crisis. He must be stopped.”
Wired spotlights “the young, inexperienced engineers” doing his bidding.
Media watchdog Margaret Sullivan: “When I looked for that story on major news sites late Sunday morning, it was not being shouted from the rooftops.”
Early today on Twitter X, Musk suggested the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—established by President Kennedy in 1961 to address poverty, disease and national disasters around the world—has “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics” and should be shut down …
 … after which staffers were ordered to stay out of their offices today.
Journalist and author Garrett Graff imagines an American reporter covering what’s happening to the U.S. if it were happening overseas: “Musk Junta Seizes Key Governmental Offices.”

‘Forbidden terms.’ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, now beholden to Trump, has ordered its researchers to retract or pause publication of any manuscript that includes the wordsgender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, biologically female.”
Inside Medicine columnist Dr. Jeremy Faust, who broke the story: “CDC employees I’ve been speaking to are genuinely afraid they’ll be fired.”
The pre-Trump CDC website’s been preserved by the Internet Archive.
Politico: Trump’s order ousting transgender troops from the military is something personal for Gov. Pritzker’s philanthropist and retired Army lieutenant colonel cousin Jennifer Pritzker—who transitioned from James Pritzker more than a decade ago.

Going up. The AP surveys the things likely to get more expensive as Trump’s tariffs take effect …
 … although (developing at our email publication deadline) Politico reports Mexico’s president and the White House say they’ve cut a deal to put at least some tariffs on hold for a month.
Former Treasury Labor Secretary Robert Reich says Trump’s game is really “huge demonstrations of power that’s wielded unpredictably … eliciting extraordinary deals for Trump and his family.”
Columnist Ilyce Glink: Tariffs will push up real estate prices.
Also: Guacamole.
The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg looks at the pain Trump’s “Gulf of America” declaration is bringing down on Chicago-based globemaker Replogle.

‘It’s almost impossible to imagine free and fair elections in 2026.’ Columnist Brian Beutler: “When everyone involved knows the president is immune from criminal process, that he will order federal law-enforcement (now fatally compromised) not to investigate them, and will pardon them if necessary…. Do these sound like people who will be respectful of election law?
Economist Paul Krugman: “Trump is doing exactly what he said he would. Who could have predicted that?
Conservative analyst Bill Kristol: The nation confronts a situation “like every past constitutional crisis rolled into one.”

‘Fears that Trump would stifle the media are coming to fruition.’ Poynter’s Tom Jones sounds an alarm about the Pentagon’s decision to kick NBC News, The New York Times, National Public Radio and Politico out of their dedicated workspaces—in favor of the Trumpian One America News Network, the New York Post, Breitbart News Network… and a token progressive voice, HuffPost.
Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob: “CNN is flailing between facts and fascism, sucking up to right-wing disinformation.”
Jeff Tiedrich at Everyone Is Entitled to My Own Opinion: “Let’s mock all the stupid shit Republicans said on the Sunday shows.
Lisa Needham at Public Notice: “Not only is Trump strong-arming media companies into cowed deference, afraid to cross him—he’s also lining his pockets.”
Retired ABC White House reporter Sam Donaldson—a thorn in the side of several presidents—tells Status (your email address required to read): “They’re going to find, just like the industrialists in Germany in the ’30s who supported you-know-who … their support was for someone who will turn on them.”

‘A veteran of a thousand productions, a walking history book of the local stage.’ Theater veteran Kevin Theis mourns the death of Chicago critic, playwright and schoolteacher Jack Helbig: “If there’s an afterlife, I’m sure you’re busy telling them how they’re fucking it up.”
Tribune theater critic Chris Jones recalls “a lovely man and what a fantastically fun and talented writer.”
Chicago Public Square owes Jack, a longtime friend, a profound debt for this.
Pioneering former WXRT program director John Platt—to whom your Square columnist owes much of his career—is, in his daughter’s words, “recovering from a stroke, slowly but surely.”

News happens fast and furiously. Especially under the Trump administration, Square can’t bring you all the important stuff in a single emailed edition—which is why it’s worth your time to check the Square Bluesky account frequently, for things that may not make the next newsletter. Yesterday alone brought these items—and more:
“The power of independent journalism: From her Brooklyn apartment, she ‘scooped’ the nation’s media.” — The AP, profiling newsletter publisher Marisa Kabas.
“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say we’re witnessing a coup by an unelected billionaire propped up by a felonious president.” — Kabas, on Sunday.
“Between website deletions, Pentagon booting news outlets and press offices switching from emails to X posts, there are lots of blackout curtains going up around government transparency, accountability and the dissemination of information to the public.” — AP reporter Michael Sisak, quoted by CNN’s Brian Stelter.
“These are not policy tweaks. They are a hostile corporate takeover of the federal state.” — Columnist Charlie Sykes.
“How can I do this after profound burnout over the past five years?” — Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, spelling out her guiding principles for weathering what she tactfully calls a political “magnetic storm.”
Ascerbic Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau isn’t worried Trump will come after him: “The court ruled that satire is protected! We were even cited in the winning argument!”
“Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow.” — Posted six times, because, you know, Groundhog Day.

‘No two hotel showers, even in the same hotel, shall have the same controls.’ Columnist Dave Barry, who’s launched a new email newsletter, found himself perplexed by what he found in his central Florida lodgings.

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Amy Dixon-Kolar and Janean Bowersmith made this edition better.

* Former WXRT News colleague to your Square columnist.

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