‘Whistle up.’ Self-described “writer, podcaster and professional troublemaker” Dan Sinker celebrates Chicagoans’ embrace of “an effective weapon against the occupation”—explaining how everyone can “whistle up wherever you are.”
■ On MS NOW Friday night, Chicagoan and Onion publisher Ben Collins declared his anti-ICE whistle the week’s MVP: “I’ll keep it on me for the rest of my life.”
■ The Tribune (gift link): “Chicago’s immigration advocacy groups … are now sharing their information nationwide.”
‘ICE abducted someone here.’ Signs looking like temporary no-parking notices are showing up around town to memorialize the thousands arrested under “Operation Midway Blitz.”
■ The AP: The blitz’s Chicago aftermath includes lawsuits, investigations and anxiety.
■ McKinley Park News publisher Justin Kerr on reporters’ challenges in covering the incursion: “How do we report on supposed raids when ICE is operating as a secret police force?”
‘This little piggy was impeached.’ Columnist Steve Sheffey: “Trump’s call to execute members of Congress is a direct threat to our democracy and our way of life. If Republicans cannot break with Trump, then all decent Americans must break with Republicans.”
■ Columnist Christopher Armitage: “We don’t need more lawsuits. We need handcuffs. … Democratic state attorneys general can investigate and charge Donald Trump and his cabinet for seditious, corrupt and criminal conduct right now.”
■ The Onion: “Ken Burns’ The American Revolution Ends With Number To Call If You Considering Founding Nation.”
‘The United States … doesn’t have a system of national health care … because white citizens are in horror at the idea of Black people receiving benefits, even if it means they are also uninsured.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg sees the tale of a Dolton mom forced to give birth at the side of the road as a symptom of our broken healthcare system.
■ The doctor and nurse who turned her away from an Indiana hospital eight minutes earlier have been fired.
‘Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines.’ Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. comes in for criticism from his cousin, who says she’s dying of cancer that research could help address.
■ An Atlantic cover story—based in part on exclusive interviews with RFK Jr.—explores how he became “the most powerful man in science.”
■ Historian Steven Beschloss: “The consequences of Trump inserting unfit sycophants in positions of power are tragic and immeasurable.”
Happy holidays? Your Local Epidemiologist offers a Thanksgiving week “infectious disease weather report,” along with tips for maintaining sanity and family peace through tricky conversations.
■ The AP serves up a guide to Thanksgiving travel in the federal government shutdown’s aftermath.
Loop shooting rewards. A total of at least $15,000 is on the table for anyone who can help police find those responsible for two shootings Friday night.
■ A Wisconsin woman who admitted to nearly stabbing and killing a classmate to death at age 12 in 2014—to please the fictional character “Slender Man”—has been found in the suburb of Posen after leaving a group home.
‘Great job, Internet!’ A.V. Club: “A Gmail simulation has made combing through Jeffrey Epstein’s [real] emails … as easy as opening your email.”
■ Surf his inbox here.
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link): “The night America’s doomed ruling class gorged on lamb, blood and oil” dispelled “any pretense of ‘corporate social responsibility,’ let alone shame, in America’s C-suites.”
‘It would be more accurately described as a plan to intensify the war to the profit of a few Russians and Americans.’ On Tyranny author Timothy Snyder takes a dim view of the supposed “peace plan” for the Russo-Ukrainian war …
■ … or, as columnist Jeff Tiedrich puts it, more bluntly: “Liddle Marco and his ace team of shitwits got played by Russia—again” …
■ … but at least some European leaders see signs of progress.
‘A company turns a dial on a product used by hundreds of millions of people and inadvertently destabilizes some of their minds.’ The Times (gift link) says that’s what happened at OpenAI this year …
■ … making this a good time to revisit Chicago Public Square’s online presentation earlier this month, “A guide to AI and fact-checking tools.”
‘Everyone hates data centers now.’ Mother Jones sees a national rise of local opposition to the prodigious energy and water needs of next-gen computer tech.
■ Wired: “The data center resistance has arrived.”
Reggae pioneer gone. Jimmy Cliff is dead at 81.
■ The invaluable Internet Archive has WXRT’s recordings of Cliff performing 14 songs at the Park West in 1975.
■ Block Club: “Hundreds pack The Metro—and Lakeview streets—to honor Tony Fitzpatrick,” the artist, poet and actor who died last month at 66.
‘The Chicago Sun-Times makes no representation regarding the quality of the recipes contained in this guide.’ If that disclaimer on Sunday’s “Cooking for the Holidays” newspaper section puzzled you, you may have forgotten about this. (May link.)
■ Columbia University journalism ethics professor Margaret Sullivan to her students after reviewing three stories involving reporters this month: “Don’t ever do that.”
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