Alejandro A. Riera

Wepa!

Chicago is now showing the world what we are made of. And, boy oh boy, I've never been prouder of my adopted city.

2025. They are all blending together.

Tchéky Karyo, star of Nikita and The Missing, dies at 72 The French actor was known for supporting roles in films that spanned nearly 40 years.

This sucks. Fuck cancer! And fuck this ungodly year of 2026 (and I know 2026 won't be much better).

Best headline of the day. Wonder how long that headline writer will keep his/her/their job.

No little girls crying for their mummy from inside a TV set? Nah, that apartment did not have no poltergeist.

YouTube video by CRITERION Nick Offerman’s Closet Picks

Gotta his love his mischievous laugh (and his love for Laurie Anderson):

Cue Kraftwerk's THE ROBOTS ( seen outside my periodontist's office in Lincoln Park).

Such a good point here from @davekarpf.bsky.social: If Dems don't engage forcefully enough on Trump's terror raids, Trump/MAGA propaganda filters down to the "inattentive public" and risks persuading people this is normal and acceptable.

Check out our full exchange:

newrepublic.com/article/2025...

Journalism tip: If someone says drop the story, that’s a sign to keep reporting.

Back reporters who won’t flinch. Support our independent journalism ➜ propub.li/43MugoG

Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne Announce Separation Arcade Fire co-founders Win Butler and Régine Chassagne are separating after more than 20 years of marriage.

Wow, I did not see this coming said no one.

Please note what happened here. By challenging Trump to pause his terror raids for Halloween, Pritzker forced Kristi Noem to come out *for* continuing to traumatize kids. Polarizing these debates draws attention/forces MAGA depravity into the light.

newrepublic.com/article/2023...

a plainclothes federal agent walked into a brighton park barber shop pretending to be a customer this morning.

the agent came back half an hour later with two other feds and abducted someone, then threatened to arrest anyone else who stepped in.

I've noticed that White film critics are notorious for doing this, most commonly chastising non-White people who see movies differently than the interpretation White critics have. See the comments about ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER for the latest example of this bullshit. Yeah, I said it.

For the last four months I have dug deep in the archives of the International Latino Cultural Center in an attempt to tell the story of the organization's many accomplishments in these past 25 years. It was tough going but well worth it.

Here's the fifth and final column:

Karine Jean-Pierre and a Book Tour Most Authors Would Not Dream Of

Yikes!

Crap not cream.

Inside a cage, MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERSTORM-style. And after you beat the cream out of Miller, go after his tocayo, Bannon. Oh, yes, and all the proceeds should go to a pro-immigrant organization.

Boy, North Carolina Republicans sure don't want the attached story to circulate. I sure hope that this stupid threat from their spokesperson doesn't boomerang on them and have a lot more people read and share the story, which once again, is conveniently attached below. That would be a shame.

Yes!!!

if you think that’s what’s keeping left-leaning political takes from being seen on Twitter is that they aren’t being posted rather that they are being actively suppressed by the site’s white supremacist owner, you are either too dumb or too dishonest to listen to, even on Bluesky

ADL removes ‘Protect Civil Rights’ from website as it narrows its mission amid right-wing attacks The removal took place after FBI Director Kash Patel said he would cut ties with the ADL, though it is unclear if that has happened.

there are two schools of thought on protecting Jewish safety in America: we either fight for a pluralistic democracy where we are safe because minority rights are protected or we seek junior partner status in the MAGA white nationalist alliance

the ADL has chosen a side

forward.com/fast-forward...

Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”

New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

ICE and CBP Agents Are Scanning Peoples’ Faces on the Street To Verify Citizenship Videos on social media show officers from ICE and CBP using facial recognition technology on people in the field. One expert described the practice as “pure dystopian creep.”

New: Videos show ICE/CBP agents are scanning peoples' faces on the street to verify citizenship. ICE has tool to instantly look up unprecedented number of databases with just a photo

“I’m an American citizen so leave me alone”

“Alright, we just got to verify that”

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

It is astonishingly ugly. People I once thought were decent are spouting delusional, baseless, vile stuff about what they "know" Mamdani believes and about what he's going to do. In NYC, this has turned into a real "Well, now we all know who we are" election. There'll be no bridging that rift.

Reminder that most little free libraries can also accommodate a few cans of food.

Daaaaamn.
Quite a mike drop.

For the early evening crowd:

Truck carrying monkeys with hepatitis C, herpes, and COVID crashes in Mississippi; 1 still missing Authorities in Mississippi are searching for a monkey still on the loose after a truck carrying rhesus monkeys infected with Hepatitis C, herpes, and COVID crashed on Interstate 59.

Planet of the Apes was a documentary.
www.fox32chicago.com/news/mississ...