An important read if you're from Chicago, because this is the lens some people in the rest of the country are seeing us through right now

Federal agents pulling a woman out of Rayito Del Sol, a daycare by Lane Tech high school

This was horrific to watch. Agents entering a daycare, wrestling with and abducting a teacher in front of small screaming children. I just… what the fuck are we doing here.

District Judge Sara Ellis on the bench for today's injunction hearing re: federal immigration agents' violent behavior in Chicagoland.

If entered, the injunction will replace a restraining order Ellis entered against the feds in early October - which attorneys say the feds have repeatedly violated.

this morning, ICE went into a Spanish language immersion daycare and took a teacher from the building in front of screaming and crying kids and parents at dropoff and the daycare had to shut down for the day (near Lane Tech, where they were yesterday). Really hoping today's "theme" is not "daycare."

This is very good - thanks. The one point I'm skeptical about is extrapolating from the Virginia results to the 2026 generic ballot margin. My uneducated guess is that Virginia's large number of Federal (ex-) workers may exaggerate the swing away from Trump.

Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/

Seven data-driven lessons from the 2025 elections Democrats outran their polls and swept statewide races from Georgia to New Jersey, on an agenda of affordability and a broad anti-Trump backlash

Seven data-driven lessons from the 2025 elections

www.gelliottmorris.com/p/seven-data...

WOW. A federal judge says he's going to issue a Temporary Restraining Order requiring ICE to make changes at the Broadview facility in Chicago, a facility that until January was only for stays under 12 hours "absent exceptional circumstances," but has become, in Judge Gettleman's words, "a prison."

A picture of a sandwich labeled "Armour-piercing discarding sabot projectile with sabot (left), without sabot (center), and without jacket (right)." Diagram of all the layers of the sandwich, labeled :APFSDS long rod penetrator separating from "double-ramp" sabot." Diagram showing the operation of a discarding "spindle-shaped" sabot on an APDS-projectile.

This is a disturbing court filing: A top ICE official “shockingly answered ‘No’ when asked if he agreed ‘agree that it's unconstitutional to arrest people for being opposed to Midway Blitz?’”

Sep 30: USDA issues guidance saying they can use contingency fund
Oct 10: USDA tells states to prepare for lapse
Oct 23: USDA deletes Sep 30 guidance
Oct 24: USDA says it can’t use contingency fund
Oct 31: Courts tell USDA to release funds
Nov 1: no funds go out
Nov 4: Trump says he’ll defy courts

Court back in session for a restraining order hearing on the class action alleging inhumane conditions at the Broadview ICE facility.

Class rep Pablo Moreno González still on the stand for cross-examination by the govt's legal team.

Holy shit

three short whistle blasts on my street in Wicker Park just now #chicago #ice

Out on patrol. ICE very active on the far North Side including Edgewater and Lincoln Square. Multiple abductions. Vulnerable folks should get off the street if they can. Street vendors should be bought out, landscapers warned. If you’re in Chicago and you’re not ICE watch trained, pls get trained.

ICE/CBP is rampaging through the burbs again this morning. Sightings and kidnappings reported across Bolingbrook, Summit, Addison, Bensenville, Melrose Park, Brookfield.

Woese’s phylogenetic tree of life diagram.

OTD in 1977 Carl Woese and George Fox redrew the tree of life. They proposed a third “urkingdom”—the “archaebacteria”—in addition to eukaryotes and bacteria. Woese later called this taxon “Archea.”

AFAIK, he didn’t publish his famous tree diagram until the late 80s.

🐋🌱🧪 #HistSTM 🗃️🧠 #evobio 🐡

🧵🧵 This thread highlights some of media people and organizations energetically covering the Trump regime’s campaign to terrorize Chicagoans. These folks are well worth a Bluesky follow.
Of special note is Unraveled, the kind of independent journalism we need when some legacy outlets are in retreat.

11Alive news headline: "Woman sits in car for 14 hours to get food during New Birth Baptist church food giveaway More than 2,000 people waited in their cars in line Saturday morning in order to receive food."

Here in Atlanta yesterday, more than 2,000 people waited in their cars—one woman for 14 hours—for a box of food. The giveaway ended early; there wasn't enough to go around.

Multiply this scene by countless others across the country, and you get a sense of how crushing the desperation is right now.

“Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.”
William Zinsser #NationalAuthorsDay

Some context to the viral videos:

Around 9am Friday, ICE/CBP *encircled* several square miles of a safe suburb and *stormed* it using multiple units.

They were in cars, on foot in alleys & gangways, and in helicopters. They demanded papers, threatened residents, pointed guns, kidnapped people.

Outside Chicago—

State police and sheriff's officers at Broadview detention center are out in riot gear.

A large Halloween demo is being prevented from doing a Jericho walk through the intersection.

Arrests of protesters ongoing. Troopers have also assaulted multiple reporters already.

Relief from a gravestone: two hands clasped, with three rings above, set in an oval and sprinkled with lichen

#photography #cemetery #gravestone_iconography #BlueSkyArtShow

Halloween gravestone reading “I Did My Own Research” in a yard with two skeleton arms sticking out of the grass.

Happy Halloween

On top of everything else, you can hear people blowing whistles in the background of this video as ICE rampages through the Chicago suburbs on Halloween.

The feds won't pause immigration blitz during Halloween and Día de los Muertos, the secretary of Homeland Security said. blockclubchi.co/4odsmpl

this is blood libel gutter racism of the kind that you only encounter if you or your staff are spending a lot of time in online spaces that are avowedly white supremacist

Graphic displaying a joint statement from Illinois 9th Congressional District candidates condemning the federal indictments of six Illinois activists. The statement, signed by State Senators Laura Fine and Mike Simmons, State Representative Hoan Huynh, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, Skokie School Board Member Bushra Amiwala, and candidate Sam Polan, calls the indictments “an appalling abuse of power” and “a direct attack on American freedoms.” It expresses solidarity with those charged, denounces intimidation tactics, and urges unity and courage in the face of injustice.

Graphic displaying a joint statement from Illinois 9th Congressional District candidates condemning the federal indictments of six Illinois activists. The statement, signed by State Senators Laura Fine and Mike Simmons, State Representative Hoan Huynh, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, Skokie School Board Member Bushra Amiwala, and candidate Sam Polan, calls the indictments “an appalling abuse of power” and “a direct attack on American freedoms.” It expresses solidarity with those charged, denounces intimidation tactics, and urges unity and courage in the face of injustice.

Today, leaders across Illinois’ 9th District are speaking with one voice: this is an appalling abuse of power and a direct attack on our democracy.

Ahead of the 1st shutdown of US food aid to hungry Americans in 60 years, some of the 200,000 Little Free Library locations are converting into food pantries. Thanks @littlefreelibrary.bsky.social