I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…

Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...

This is quite a story: the US employed every strongarm tactic available, including personal threats against delegates and their families, to derail an agreement on reducing shipping emissions that was almost finalized. on.ft.com/47lq3dZ

When Donald Trump Razed the Bonwit Teller Building, He Promised the Met Its Art Deco Friezes. A New Book Details How He Pulverized Them Instead | Artnet News Read an excerpt from the book 'Art and Crime: The Fight Against Looters, Forgers, and Fraudsters in the High-Stakes Art World.'

Thinking bout this right now for no real reason—

“When Donald Trump Razed the Bonwit Teller Building, He Promised the Met Its Art Deco Friezes. A New Book Details How He Pulverized Them Instead”

This sounds familiar.

NEW: A huge ice sculpture of the word “DEMOCRACY” is currently melting away in front of the US Capitol.

Organized by artists and activists, it was commissioned by the Up In Arms campaign, an effort led by Ben Cohen, the cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Here’s how tariffs work. Your costs go up, and that money gets transferred to the wealthy.

Whether you’re progressive, liberal, leftist, libertarian, communist, socialist, moderate, democrat, conservative, Christian, atheist, Gen Z, Boomer… we have the same enemy. It’s the oligarchs.

No Kings

"Authoritarianism, it's a cancer. The symptoms are here, today... We thought it couldn't happen here... and now the disease is growing, metastasizing in America. But there is a cure—it requires you. On October 18, Americans will stand up, peacefully, for what makes America, America." nokings.org

Documents Allege a Federal Agent at Portland ICE Threatened to Shoot an Ambulance Driver Feds delayed medics who had come to pick up an injured protester. Then, according to confidential incident reports, the agents became aggressive.

ICE agents blocked an ambulance that was trying to take an injured protester to hospital.

"We are still not being allowed to leave by ICE officers.” an EMT said on radio

When driver tried to get out, an agent yelled, "DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN, I WILL SHOOT YOU"

www.wweek.com/news/2025/10...

The RIFs that began Friday will reportedly cut 65% of CISA’s 2,540 employees, one of the dumbest and most dangerous moves imaginable. CISA defends the nation’s cyber and critical infrastructure. Destroying it now only makes sense if you’re afraid of election integrity.

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

Censorship Is the Authoritarian’s Dream The right to free expression must include the right to say horrible and evil things.

More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

You cannot trust information coming from Kash Patel's FBI. You cannot trust information coming from ICE. You cannot trust information coming the Trump administration. You cannot trust information coming from Republicans.

Esri at the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 Every four years, leaders, scientists, and innovators from around the globe gather to tackle the world’s most pressing conservation challenges at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. This year, the e...

The IUCN World Conservation Congress is coming to Abu Dhabi Oct 9–15! Esri will be there showcasing how GIS powers conservation action worldwide 🌱

Here's how you can connect with us at #IUCNCongress 👉 ow.ly/N5Pt50X0fIQ

How the Trump Administration Is Dismantling America’s Cancer-Research System

It’s horrific and inexplicable. Donald Trump and RFK Jr. are objectively pro-cancer. They’re destroying the entire infrastructure that has made so much progress and is poised to make much more. People will suffer and die because of them. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

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This may explain why there’s an aggressive response to people who merely post Kirk’s own words. It threatens the existence of the alternate Kirk - the motivational speaker that had been marketed to young kids and white Christian groups through selective quotation & clips.

The oldest man ever elected to the Presidency disappears from public view for a week with no explanation and now has very public symptoms consistent with a stroke.

bsky.app/profile/atru...

The grifting and corruption is infinite at this point. Follow the money, right @hcrichardson.bsky.social ?

At a profound level, MAGA's immigration policies are simply a way to transfer taxpayer dollars to private contractors whose job is to terrorize the American people. Fundamentally, leaders are using our own money to destroy our democracy.

Biden authorized the funding for this bridge. In any case, the finer point here is that the president of the United States is THREATENING TO DEGRADE THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF MAJOR CITIES IF THEIR LEADERS OFFEND HIM.

This is front page news!

Important. Clear, concise, imperative. Please watch.

THIS!!!
It was a grant from Biden Administration.
But after badgering and threatening CEO, Trump grabs an equity stake as a bribe.

I’m old enough to remember when free market Republicans and Libertarians would have been outraged by this government expropriation (hint - it was 6 months ago).

Nature doesn’t live in a PDF—and neither should our vision for it. Deep thanks to the Esri team for helping turn the United by Nature assessment into something interactive, beautiful, and alive. This partnership gives me hope.

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There’s a nonzero chance you will die from a cancer that could have been curable because people who couldn’t pass 7th grade biology and are scared of things like “mRNA” and “riboflavin” and “walkable cities” decided to make their ignorance everybody else’s problem

Seems like yet another good day to remember this

Nightmare fuel

A Showdown Made in Heaven By Marvin Kalb

open.substack.com/pub/contrari... phenomenal piece