The case for No Kings. Columnist Dan Froomkin spells out what’s at stake in Saturday’s rallies against President Trump’s Republican regime.
■ Eric Zorn: “Gotta march! We can’t normalize what’s happening in the Chicago area right now.”
■ Here’s the brief on Chicago’s edition.
■ Among what Popular Information calls “unhinged attacks on No Kings,” House Speaker Mike Johnson calls protesters—including many of you—“terrorists.”
■ Democracy Docket: “MAGA is afraid. They are rushing to recast … peaceful protest as anti-American and tantamount to terrorism.”
■ Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein: Major media are ignoring “the FBI and the Homeland Security Department … actively investigating ‘Antifa’ individuals and organizations that the Trump administration has branded domestic terrorists.”
■ The Wall Street Journal (gift link): Trump’s team is planning an Internal Revenue Service overhaul to enable pursuit of left-leaning groups.
■ Politico: “Trump is only accelerating as we head toward the end of his first year” of his second term.
Why march? Columnist Thom Hartmann: “In Chicago … America caught a glimpse of its possible future, and it was terrifying.”
■ After federal agents went wild on the Southeast Side Tuesday, community organizers—including the school board’s vice president—declared: “Leave our city. You are not welcome here.”
■ The Tribune (gift link) tracks a fresh round of immigration raids in the suburbs.
■ The TRiiBE followed action in the courts.
■ In what columnist Christopher Hale sees as evidence of an “anti-Catholic crusade,” ICE targeted a Chicago mass.
■ In a victory for demonstrators and the embattled suburb of Broadview, a temporary fence around the federal detention center there has been removed at a judge’s order.
■ With ICE-wary tenants skipping work and unable to pay rent and maintenance staff harder to find, landlords fear they’ll have to raise rent for others.
■ Block Club: “How Chicagoans are supporting their neighbors amid ICE raids.”
■ Portland-based CityNerd Ray Delahanty shares a video tour of our town: “Shockingly, they’ve been lying to me about Chicago.”
■ Correcting yesterday’s Chicago Public Square, ICE detained a WGN-TV producer in Lincoln Square, not Lincoln Park.
A general strike? Columnist Christopher Armitage says history shows that to be “the most powerful tool available to working people.”
■ The anonymously authored Closer to the Edge asks: What if, after these big protests, people didn’t just go home?
■ … but not The Daily Show: “Everyone else rejected it so hard that it honestly made us feel kinda bad for Pete Hegseth.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “It sucks that real reporters won’t be allowed in the Pentagon anymore, but with that little tyrant loser fluffing himself and calling himself the secretary of WARRRR, they’re making the gamble that if they work hard enough, the story will keep coming to them.”
Is he feeling lucky? Gov. Pritzker’s newly released tax records for 2024 show $1.4 million in gambling winnings. (Tribune gift link, courtesy of readers like you, supporting Chicago Public Square.)
■ Pritzker’s declined to take a salary from the state.
NBC News cuts. As the Peacock Network splits from MSNBC and CNBC, it’s laying off 150 workers—many devoted to covering diversity issues …
■ … although some can reapply.
■ The Wall Street Journal’s axed a dozen employees with its health and science team.
■ Indiana University fired its student newspaper adviser after he refused to tell the staff to remove, you know … news … from the upcoming homecoming issue …
■ … and then it eliminated the print edition altogether.
■ An alumnus of the paper writes for Poynter: “This situation makes me ashamed to be a graduate of the IU Media School. But I’ll never be ashamed to be a graduate of the Indiana Daily Student.”
■ Here’s a link inadvertently left out of yesterday’s Square: The Writers Guild of America and CBS have told CBS News employees they can blow off Bari Weiss’ demand that they tell her how they spend their workdays.
‘The opinion starts off with a bang.’ Law professor Joyce Vance dives into a federal judge’s ruling keeping Trump from firing workers during the federal shutdown.
■ The New York Times (gift link): “U.S. enters 15th day of late-night jokes about government shutdown.”
Kids without COVID shots. Trump administration delays have kept children from low-income Chicago households from getting their vaccinations.
■ A new report finds pedestrian traffic downtown has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
■ Oak Park’s West Suburban Medical Center and its now-closed sibling Weiss Memorial Hospital are in the hole for more than $69 million owed the state of Illinois.
Walmart shooting. Two people were hurt when gunfire broke out at an Evergreen Park store yesterday afternoon.
■ At least one guy was in custody.
Satan’s ‘secret abortion.’ Last night’s South Park took Trump to Planned Parenthood in an attempt to end the life of his unborn child with the devil.
■ Abortion, Every Day: A Senate bill would end Affordable Care Act abortion coverage—even in pro-choice states.
‘When will Time magazine issue a full retraction and republish its cover story with a photo of a muscular President Trump carrying a machine gun atop a soaring eagle?’ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: Time’s cover shot is “a national scandal.”
■ Daily Kos: “Trump finally realizes he’s really f-cking ugly.”
‘God, there is so much … news these days.’ That’s a fellow newsletter author commiserating with your Chicago Public Square columnist.
■ And it’s true: Square can’t give it all to you each weekday at 10, so you should check Square on Bluesky through the day.
A Square public service announcement
courtesy of a Square supporter
Rush in review. Former U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush will reflect on his long career as an activist, politician and pastor Sunday morning at 11:30. See it in person at Chicago’s Third Unitarian Church, just off the Green Line in the Austin neighborhood. For more information, visit thirdunitarianchurch.org. To request Zoom access, visit thirdunitarianchurch.org/contact.