‘Make America Cruel Again.’ Assessing a “horrifying weekend” in Los Angeles, a Tribune editorial is “serving advance notice, Mr. President, that we don’t want to see the National Guard, or the Marines, or any other branch of the U.S. military on the streets of Chicago.”
■ Trump was showing no signs of retreat—overriding California’s governor to put another 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines on the streets of L.A. to address days of protest over Trump’s immigration crackdown …
■ … captured in AP photos here.
■ A Syracuse University professor: “Are there any legal roadblocks that could curb the president’s authority to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles? The short answer to this question is no.”
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones sees “a troubling pattern of police injuring journalists” covering the demonstrations.
■ The host of the about-to-be-canceled After Midnight, Taylor Tomlinson, on the stage in L.A. yesterday: “I just don’t know how to make it funny” …
■ … but Jon Stewart went there, asking Angelenos: “Is your city ever not on fire?”
■ Chicago-born columnist and comics editor Mike Gold—a veteran of the Chicago 7 trial press relations staff: “If you’re pissed off at our refusal to uphold our constitution and you live in a Blue State, you’d better prepare for tanks and rifles.”
■ Live updates: Protests have been spreading across the nation.
■ WBEZ: In contrast to Trump’s first attempt eight years ago, his new travel ban on a dozen mostly African and Middle Eastern countries didn’t trigger a massive protest at O’Hare.
‘I hope you have plans for this coming Saturday.’ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob* encourages everyone to “show up at one of the many ‘No Kings’ protests … to declare our support for a government of the American people, not just the lobbyists, the tech bros, the crypto investors, the Heritage Foundation, the Murdochs, and the Qatari royal family.”
■ Here’s where to find one near you …
■ … pointedly, though, not in Washington itself.
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: “The protest story is much bigger than Los Angeles now. It’s time for the news coverage to be reframed accordingly.”
■ Journalism critic Ken Klippenstein says coverage of the protests has lacked a key element: Protesters speaking in their own words.
■ Popular Information identifies 22 Trump administration actions that have undermined freedom of speech.
■ Today’s primary to watch: The New Jersey governor’s race could signal what the public’s thinking about Trump.
‘RFK Jr. is as bad as we all imagined.’ The Bulwark reacts to the health secretary’s dismissal of all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices …
■ … which is to say every member of the group advising the CDC on how to use vaccines.
■ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina sees “a system that empowered 90% of Americans to protect their children and families confidently … becoming unrecognizable.”
■ The Onion: “CDC Publishes Female Body Hair Guidelines.”
Tuesday TACO trepidation. Message Box columnist Dan Pfeiffer sounds cautionary notes about Democrats’ embrace of the funny acronym for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst shares a couple of clips from Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show last night: “It will make you feel better and give you perspective on how everything Donald Trump is doing right now is because he is weak, he is a loser, he is panicking, he is made of expired beef and shower drain pube clumps.”
30 minutes, 4 robberies. Chicago police report four people were forcefully robbed over the course of a half-hour overnight across the Lincoln Park, Lakeview and Northalsted neighborhoods.
■ Block Club Chicago: “Did you get a decades-old traffic ticket in the mail? It’s not a scam.”
Thanks, Obama. Mayor Johnson’s losing his chief operating officer, John Roberson—departing for a job leading the Barack Obama Presidential Center.
■ That may be a relief for transit advocates worried that Johnson was positioning Roberson to head the CTA—without first conducting a thorough search.
■ A Chicago City Council member celebrates the body’s remarkable new independence from the mayor’s office: “Under Lightfoot we were toddlers. Under Johnson, we are teenagers.”
‘These products … probably worsen your skin integrity over time.’ A Northwestern University study sounds an alarm about skincare regimes targeted at teenage girls on TikTok.
■ On this week’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver flags the dangers of injectables being administered at largely unregulated “med spas” across the country.
Fake students. The AP reports that scammers are using artificial intelligence to enroll imaginary people in online classes—and then to steal college financial aid.
■ ChatGPT was down for a time overnight.
■ Apple’s AI features for the next generation of its operating software have failed to bowl over analysts, but iPhones, Macs and all the rest are in for a dramatically different look and feel.
‘An opportunity for brutally honest self-examination.’ As the threat of climate change elevates nuclear power’s upsides, a Trib editorial (gift link) says a dangerous incident at Illinois’ Quad Cities plan raises fresh concern.
■ Illinois is joining 15 other governments in suing the Trump administration over plans to return confiscated devices that can make semiautomatic rifles fire even faster.
‘ABC News, like much of corporate media, does not want to speak truth to power.’ Public Notice columnist Noah Berlatsky defends correspondent Terry Moran, suspended after rendering what Berlatsky calls “an unusually frank, and unusually accurate, mainstream media assessment” of Trump acolyte Stephen Miller.
■ Moran’s colleagues at ABC reportedly want him fired “for screwing things up for the network” …
■ … but journalism prof Margaret Sullivan says anything more than suspension “would amount to the cowering capitulation we’ve already seen far too much of, including from ABC News.”
Funk revolutionary. That’s how the AP celebrates the life of Sly Stone, dead at 82.
■ The Reader recalls that time Stone fronted a Chicago-area bar band (2023 link).
■ PayPal works, too.
■ John Herrbach made this edition better.
* And kind recommender of Square (September link).