‘Democracy is under assault.’ In what Politico describes as “an extraordinary address to the nation,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom last night condemned Donald Trump’s military intervention in Los Angeles after the protests that followed federal immigration raids …
■ … warning that “it clearly will not end here—other states are next.”
■ See it here …
■ … or read it here.
■ Law prof Joyce Vance: “Using the military to advance his personal political agenda isn’t legal, and Trump knows it. But if he can frame this as an insurrection, he might get away with it.”
■ L.A. police made arrests last night as the city imposed a curfew—but the AP says the National Guard didn’t seem to do more than stand watch.
■ Jen Rubin at The Contrarian: “Trump won’t stop with California.”
■ The Onion: “ICE Releases Gavin Newsom Beheading Video.”
■ Desi Lydic at The Daily Show: “Nothing calms down a situation like a military invasion.”
■ Jimmy Kimmel, who’s based in Los Angeles: “There’s no riot outside. We have more so-called ‘unrest’ here when one of our teams wins a championship.”
■ Stephen Colbert: “Trump has sent thousands of troops … to quell what historians will remember as ‘The Battle of That Video of a Burning Waymo Car They Kept Showing on Cable News.’”
■ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin: “The media is casting Trump’s decision to send in the National Guard and the Marines as an attempt to ‘quell’ the rioting, when in fact it is incitement … intended to stoke the violence.”
■ Chicago TV news veteran Jennifer Schulze: “I haven’t been able to find a single local L.A. news outlet that agrees with the ‘riot’ characterization.”
Drive-thru disorder. As thousands protested Trump immigration policies in downtown Chicago yesterday, a car sped through the crowd.
■ The demonstration went on nevertheless …
■ … with another planned for Saturday.
■ After 27 years in the U.S., a Waukegan family’s chosen to self-deport back to Mexico—including two kids who are American citizens, because they were born here.
■ A Chicago judge has approved release on bond for an immigrant falsely accused of threatening Trump.
‘No wrong way to protest fascism.’ Progress Report columnist Jordan Zakarin: “The political media, instead of rising to meet this perilous moment … is dedicating significant time to examining the etiquette and accessories of the protesters who assembled to protect their friends, families, and neighbors from illegal raids and indiscriminate arrests conducted by masked federal agents.”
■ Updating coverage: Demonstrations have been spreading across the country.
■ Encouraging protesters to “Show up! Your democracy needs you!”, lawyer/columnist Robert Hubbell nevertheless counsels, “We must avoid blaming members of the U.S. military and LAPD who have been thrust into a chaotic situation against their will.”
■ AI-powered social media is making disinformation about the protests worse.
Musk blinks. Backing down from his pass-the-popcorn feud with Trump, Elon Musk tweeted early today that he regrets some of his posts: “They went too far.”
■ Patch: What you should know about the Supreme Court’s decision to grant Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” access to your Social Security data, medical and school records, salary history and more.
■ ProPublica: Musk may be out at DOGE, but more than 100 of his followers are hanging around to implement Trump’s blueprint.
‘Unprecedented.’ That’s the word that Popular Information reports legal ethics experts are using to describe a Republican Tennessee congressmember’s decision to accept a job with an unidentified private firm for an undisclosed amount of money—but not to quit his seat …
■ The Downballot: Democrats had a strong night in yesterday’s special elections around the nation …
■ … but the AP perceives “a decisive win” for Trump in New Jersey’s gubernatorial primary.
Out at ABC. Correspondent Terry Moran’s been dumped after his social media posts condemning Trump and Trump sycophant Stephen Miller …
■ … but progressive site MeidasTouch has been quick to offer Moran work, praising his comments as “proof that you believe in telling the truth without fear or favor.”
‘That should tell you how dangerous today’s America is for Jews and for everybody else.’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg sees trouble in the Chicago Park District’s rejection of a hot-dog-themed ad about antisemitism.
■ See the ad here.
Guilty. In a case that spotlights the Chicago Police Department’s failure to investigate such cases, an ex-cop has pleaded guilty to felony charges arising from two incidents of sexual misconduct involving female colleagues—one at the police training academy and one at a police precinct …
■ … a case originally spotlighted by ProPublica and the Invisible Institute (May link).
■ In the nation’s fourth double-execution day of the year, Florida and Alabama yesterday put two people to death.
‘We just went to zero.’ An environmental science professor tells Chalkbeat how Trump’s cuts to the National Science Foundation have crippled science, technology, engineering and mathematics educational programs targeted mainly at girls.
■ Under intense political and budgetary pressure from the president, Northwestern University’s announced a hiring freeze and spending cuts.
Hey, kids! Learn about ‘Genshis Khan’ from a ‘whiite lady’! Indicator reports that Amazon is selling hundreds of seemingly AI-generated biographies targeted at children.
■ Editor & Publisher columnist Rob Tornoe: AI is gutting the news industry.
■ Editor & Publisher columnist Rob Tornoe: AI is gutting the news industry.
■ 404 Media: “A spam scheme is filling university, government, and tech giants’ sites with AI trash.”
‘Equal parts funny and amazing.’ LateNighter critic Bill Carter praises Jimmy Kimmel’s new web series, The Rabbit Hole, satirizing online conspiracy theorists.
■ You can see all six episodes here.
■ If you’re in that other 85%, come on over—for as little as $1, once—and see your name up in lights here.
■ PayPal works, too.
■ Mike Braden made this edition better.