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-...

Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts The dramatic shift in oversight comes at a time when the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food, which accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s seafood and more than half its fresh fruit.

NEW: Foreign food safety inspections have hit a historic low after Trump staffing cuts. The dramatic shift in oversight comes as the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food.

“It’s only a matter of time before people die,” one expert said.

The simplest reason why the Trump administration is cutting off SNAP, despite adequate reserves, is that they hate the program and don't care about the people who depend upon it.
They are breaking the law not to provide SNAP while also enforcing the "equal treatment rules" to hurt SNAP users.

AMERICANOS TODOS LUCHAMOS POR LA VICTORIA * AMERICANS ALL * LET'S FIGHT FOR VICTORY

Mexican WWII poster: “ AMERICANOS TODOS LUCHAMOS POR LA VICTORIA.”

“Biblical Justice, Equal Justice, for All”: How North Carolina’s Chief Justice Transformed His State and America Paul Newby, a born-again Christian, has turned his perch atop North Carolina’s Supreme Court into an instrument of political power. Over two decades, he’s driven changes that have reverberated well be...

“I’m sure you’re aware of our connections with the Trump Administration,” the North Carolina Republican Party's communications director wrote in an email response to us. “I would strongly suggest dropping this story.”

We didn't. Read the story that he wanted dropped:

Light colored T-shirt with a graphic that looks like a local tortilla brand and the text says "Chinga La Migra". Preorder it and $8 per sale will go to benefit the Street Vendors Association of Chicago.

¡Chinga La Migra!

Chicago street vendors are being targeted by ICE & Border Patrol agents. As a result, many are staying home and not able to work. Preorder and $8 per shirt will go towards the Street Vendors Association of Chicago who offer financial assistance to vendors who stay home.

Leaked document. Yikes, things are about to get much worse. It looks like we’re on the verge of becoming a military state across the country. Step out of line, and the man come and take you away.

One example of the price increases on the horizon. People are literally about to be priced out in the same way landlords price people out of apartments. It won’t stop here either

How many of us have already put off going to the doctor/dentist, simply because we can’t afford it? This is unacceptable

Oh hai sounds like the concentration camps are starting to ramp up.

Revealed: Pentagon orders states’ national guards to form ‘quick reaction forces’ for ‘crowd control’ Pentagon memo details plan to train over 20,000 national guard members across the US to carry out Trump’s order on subduing civil unrest

Yikes

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

JUST IN: The U.S. Senate has voted 52–48 to overturn Trump’s 50% tariffs on Brazil. Five Republicans joined Democrats: Susan Collins (ME), Mitch McConnell (KY), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Rand Paul (KY), and Thom Tillis (NC).

The measure is DOA in the House.

ROLLING STONE: “The current Congress has dropped the pretense of public service altogether… Congress enjoys ultraluxe health care as it fights to gut yours.”

@RepTimBurchett @MarshaBlackburn why don’t you care about anyone but yourselves? www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

I am interested in starting to hear from care workers on SNAP about your concerns. I'm @motherjones.com's disability reporter. Please be in touch. My email is jmetraux@motherjones.com and my Signal is juliametraux.49. Reposts are appreciated.

This is what is happening to immigrants and citizens in Chicago right now | Opinion Right now in Chicago, immigrants are fleeing the militarized city at night, helped by U.S. citizens who fear for their own safety.

This is what is happening to immigrants and citizens in Chicago right now

Right now in Chicago, immigrants are fleeing the militarized city at night, helped by U.S. citizens who fear for their own safety.

One of my gift links:
share.inquirer.com/WLGoGt

Do populists always crash the economy? Argentina is counting the cost of its turn to Javier Milei. Politicians from Donald Trump to Giorgia Meloni and Nigel Farage will be closely watching what happens next

Yep.

At least 2 historic magnolia trees, Kennedy Garden appear to have been removed to make way for Trump's White House ballroom Satellite images show that President Donald Trump's project to build a $300 million grand ballroom has appeared to take down at least six trees on the White House grounds

So what would stop Trump from waking up in the middle of the night, saying "fuck it," and ordering that the rest of the White House be torn down and replaced with a tall golden tower in the shape of a T?
abcnews.go.com/Politics/his...

Exclusive: ICE, Border Patrol agents to receive pay during government shutdown President Donald Trump's administration has promised tens of thousands of federal agents carrying out his immigration crackdown that they will be paid during the government shutdown, according to emails seen by Reuters, even as other federal workers go without pay.

www.reuters.com/world/us/som...

Bird Flu Is Back

After a quiet summer, the bird flu virus H5N1 is hitting poultry flocks hard in the run-up to the holidays — and in the midst of a federal government shutdown.

w/ @emilyanthes.bsky.social
(Gift article)

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/h...

ICE is stockpiling arms, including chemical weapons, guided missile warheads and explosive components. The spending dwarfs anything we've ever seen in the agency - a 700% increase.

The President is building an army to attack his own country.

40 million Americans may go hungry in November because their SNAP funding is at risk.

40 million people at a time when most are already struggling to put food on the table.

Trump just gave 40 billion to Argentina.

That could feed every American.

That could easily fund SNAP.

America first?

I love how he gets to see the face and use the name of the officer. The whole half hour is incredible. An ICE agent would have beaten an immigrant with his attitude to the ground multiple times over. Incredible unmasked, named professionalism local PD.
t.co/J8tBhmYtPe

Trump Is Accusing Foes With Multiple Mortgages of Fraud. Records Show 3 of His Cabinet Members Have Them. The White House has targeted opponents, including a Fed governor, for having more than one primary residence on their loan papers. ProPublica found that, in one case, a Trump cabinet secretary got two...

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Reporting live from Chicago, there’s no “hellscape” I’d rather be in.