‘An image that will knock you sideways.’ Handbasket columnist Marisa Kabas on the Twin Cities under attack: “As snow falls, an elderly man wearing nothing but blue boxers and white Crocs with his hands restrained behind his back is forced out of his home by ICE agents.”
■ He was in fact a U.S. citizen, arrested in front of his young grandson and held for nearly an hour in freezing weather before he was released without an apology.
■ St. Paul’s mayor is “livid.”
■ The St. Paul Pioneer Press: Hours after ABC News ran a story about a St. Paul toy store* that has been distributing free whistles for citizens to alert neighbors of immigration enforcement activity, ICE agents were at the door.
■ The Justice Department’s considering criminal charges against former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who livestreamed a Sunday protest at a St. Paul church whose pastor is a top ICE official.
Your tax dollars at work. The AP: Billions in President Trump’s spending cuts across the federal government are funding the massive increase in ICE’s budget.
■ Popular Information: “ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment.”
■ In a surprise performance Saturday in New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen memorialized slain Minneapolis woman Renee Good and echoed Minneapolis’ mayor—telling ICE, “Get the fuck out.”
‘We have no choice but to be in the streets.’ As Chicago shivered under some of the season’s coldest weather, anti-ICE protesters marched from the Water Tower to Trump Tower.
■ After a slight warmup midweek, temperatures are headed back toward zero by Friday. (Photo: A Chicago Public Square reader.)
■ Your Local Epidemiologist: Measles is off to an ugly start.
■ A 3.8 magnitude earthquake rattled South-Central Illinois around 1 a.m.
‘Basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace.’ Without naming Trump, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich and other U.S. Catholic leaders denounced the president’s assault on Venezuela and his coveting of Greenland.
■ Cupich elaborated last night with MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow—a self-described “kid who got kicked out of CCD [Confraternity of Christian Doctrine].”
■ The New York Times (gift link) has the texts between Trump and the prime minister. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
‘This is too stupid even for him.’ That’s Trump’s niece Mary’s reaction to a letter the president sent to Norway’s prime minister, whining/threatening about his failure to get the Nobel Peace prize—or control of Greenland …
■ … even though the Norwegian Nobel Committee is an independent body and Greenland is part of Denmark, not Norway.
■ Times White House correspondent Peter Baker: After a century of defending other countries from foreign aggression, the United States is now positioned as an imperial power trying to seize another nation’s land.
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “Other countries are now lecturing us to get our shit together.”
■ Seth Meyers: “‘You didn’t give me the Nobel Peace Prize, so now I have to invade another country’ is an insane thing to say.”
■ The Daily Beast: Trump early today continued his “deranged posting frenzy.”
■ Reviewing the president’s social media posts during this first year of his second term, the AP concludes that he’s signed off his social media posts 242 times with the catchphrase “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
■ Economist Paul Krugman: “What is incontrovertible is that he’s deeply unwell and rapidly getting sicker.”
Meanwhile … The Washington Post reports Trump’s Justice Department is considering weakening federal gun regulations.
■ As the overwhelming majority of federal files on dead sex offender—and Trump pal—Jeffrey Epstein remain unreleased, that anonymous group of resistance artists known as “The Secret Handshake” has posted a massive replica of Trump’s birthday note to Epstein on the National Mall.
Hey, Chicago—want your parking meters back? Mayor Johnson’s reportedly considering buying back the whole shebang from the company that predatorily jacked up prices …
■ … under a 2008 deal that, as the Sun-Times puts it, Chicagoans love to hate.
‘In Memoriam: CBS News, 1927 - 2026.’ Columnist Charlotte Clymer calls it.
■ 60 Minutes finally got around to airing that story.
■ Columnist Mary Geddry: “The delay effectively tested whether an administration can control coverage simply by refusing to participate.”
Square mailbag. Taking issue with Friday’s link to an American Prospect column in which Harold Meyerson (no relation) called Trump “the 21st-century version of Attila or Genghis Khan,” reader Elizabeth Austin responded: “I consider this an insult to Attila and Genghis.”
■ Ross Martinek writes: “Comparing Trump to Genghis Khan is extremely unfair—to Genghis. … Now if you want to compare him to Hitler, you are spot on. … You can bet that Trump and his cronies know history, and are taking their playbook from the man who wrote Mein Kampf.”
Yeah, yeah, yeah … We’ve spent a lot of time teasing you about the arrival of the 2,000th edition of Chicago Public Square. That was before we did the actual counting. It’s coming—but not before Square’s ninth anniversary next week. Special announcements will follow. Stay tuned.
■ Mike Braden made this edition better.
* A delightful place, once visited by your Square columnist.