Martha Bayne

Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You’re doomed Bari Weiss has sold her company, The Free Press, to manage the decline of broadcast news at CBS. How many ways can it go wrong?

please read my memo www.theverge.com/business/793...

Going Rackless

Happy pub day to Dylan Taylor-Lehman's "Going Rackless: Chicago's Amateur Pool Players and the Quest for Glory in the Biggest Tournament in the World"! A gripping piece of narrative journalism exploring the wild world of Chicago's amateur billiards scene, out today from @illinoispress.bsky.social

From the Broadview Village Board meeting:

Let it never again be said that a woman with no real reporting experience who fell for a Twitter account called "Official Antifa" cannot be the head of a huge news organization

That’s right

Dan is as ever righteous and true

MEMORANDUM OPINION By way of context, a federal prosecutor is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all. The obligation to govern impartially concerns, above all, the state’s exercise of coercive power—meaning its power to deprive its subjects of life, liberty, or property . . . As a representative of the state, a prosecutor’s exercise of coercive power must be impartial . . . [in] that prosecutorial power may not be exercised vindictively—meaning that the prosecutor may not punish a defendant for exercising a protected statutory or constitutional right. United States v. Zakhari, 85 F.4th 367, 384–85 (6th Cir. 2023) (Kethledge, J., concurring) (citations and quotations omitted). This context frames review of Defendant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s (“Abrego”) motion to dismiss his indictment for vindictive and selective prosecution. (Doc. Nos. 104–05). The Government opposes the motion (Doc. No. 121), and Abrego has replied (Doc. No. 127). Abrego’s motion is not ripe for decision because he seeks discovery and an evidentiary hearing because there is some evidence of vindictiveness here. For the reasons that follow, the Court holds that the totality of events creates a sufficient evidentiary basis to conclude that there is a “realistic likelihood of vindictiveness” that entitles Abrego to discovery and requires an evidentiary hearing before the Court decides his motion. United States v. Andrews, 633 F.2d 449, 457 (6th Cir. 1980) (en banc), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 927 (1981).

BREAKING: Federal judge in Kilmar Abrego Garcia's criminal case finds that "there is a 'realistic likelihood of vindictiveness' that entitles Abrego to discovery" in response to his motion to dismiss the case for vindictive or selective prosecution. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I'm furious on behalf of everyone who was brutalized by ICE today in Chicago. My GOD, this is completely horrible.

I've been in meetings most of today and I just checked messages and see that comrades & friends were part of the people they brutalized today.

What are you doing to *hold them accountable* though?????

ICE just blatantly violated the law and arrested sitting Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes while seeking to illegally arrest a patient in a hospital. Fuck these fascists.

Today in Chicago: ICE raiding a Walmart, snatching up a man unloading coconuts, and handcuffing Ald. Jessie Fuentes in an emergency room at the hospital. “Thr worst of the worst,” they said.

I’m so struck by this video. A regular day in Logan Square in front of a grocery store and ICE pulls up and tear gassed people. Funston Elementary School is right across the street as well. This is a major corridor in Logan Sq. No concern for human safety

Video from: www.reddit.com/r/chicago/co...

A protest with several hundred people at the ice facility in Broadview Illinois.

I went to the protest this morning at ICE facility in Broadview. Some photos if you wanna follow along. My guess is that at its height there were 300-400 people there, all protesting the inhumane treatment & illegal kidnapping of our neighbors. #broadview #iceprotest #abolishice #broadviewprotest

Logan Square neighborhood, Chicago. Man wearing a balaclava in a white, unmarked vehicle, pulls the pin on a tear gas canister and tosses it in the road.

"Just trying to grab some lunch and these fucking losers showed up. FUCK ICE!"
source: www.reddit.com/r/LoganSquar...

ICE just gassed a group a civilians near the Rico Fresh supermarket intersection on Armitage in Chicago - bystanders say this was in response for being heckled from the street.

Adding "feds fucking choking a man in broad daylight" to the list.

Absolute terror across Chicago today. Begging for national attention that matches the level of crisis on the ground here feels like screaming underwater at this point.

FBI Director Kash Patel & @ @FBIDirectorKash X.com James Comey wrote "love letters" to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them - a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans. That era is OVER. This FBI won't partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs. FBI Patel cuts ties Comey's FBI made with ADL as organization faces backlash for TPUSA criticism That era is finished. This FBI formally rejects Comey's policies and any partnership with the ADL, Patel said By Rachel Wolf • Fox News 3:32 PM • 10/1/25 • 758K Views

Posting this three hours before the start of Yom Kippur is quite a choice

People in the complex said they were zip tying kids and they didn't have names or anything. They took you first, then ran to see if you had any outstanding warrants - not just immigration. And the FBI helped them.

When Women Say “Ta-Ta” to Ta-Tas An anthropologist fighting cancer navigates the social pressure in the U.S. to get breast reconstruction after a mastectomy.

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins, anthropologist Arianna Huhn describes her experience fighting breast cancer and her decision to “go flat," in an essay for @sapiens.org. #breastcancerawareness #goingflat

www.sapiens.org/culture/wome...

I don't think there has been a generation before which has been so thoroughly failed by the adults around them at every stage. It's amazing that they still have such moral clarity and initiative. God bless them.

Boy, I really want to re-use that description as much as possible going forward.

Well at least some things are still working

Barbara Gomes Marques is documentary filmmaker who risks imminent deportation to Brazil. Loud voices in the film community could be especially helpful right now.

Puzzle pieces on a yellow background, with speaker photos. Text reads: Finding the Right Publisher for Your First Book, October 8, 12-1 pm, part of the Ideas on Fire First Book Publishing Series

Dawn Durante wearing a blue shirt

Dominique Moore wearing a grey shirt and glasses

Mike Baccam wearing a green shirt in front of trees

October 8: Hear from these 3 acquisition editors at Finding the Right Publisher for Your First Book:
- Dawn Durante @dawnd.bsky.social, @uncpress.bsky.social
- Dominique Moore, @illinoispress.bsky.social
- Mike Baccam @mikebaccam.bsky.social, @uwapress.bsky.social

ideasonfire.net/first-book-p...

Exhibit A at The Hague just dropped

I don't know if I can make it to 2028 but the thought of the Pritzker administration ripping the gold-painted medallions off the walls of the Oval Office is keeping me going.

"Females," as ever, is the biggest red fucking flag

In other news, happy royalties week to all who observe. The enduring best argument for smaller publishing advances -- surprise money every 6 months for something I did seven years ago.

Bring on the war crimes

The AP ticker montage at the end of All the President's Men runs through my head a lot on my better days.