Bought the new Pynchon in hardcover today, at our local indie bookseller, fulfilling two promises to self. Read the first few pages while waiting for our lunch sandwiches to be toasted in a nearby patisserie, immediately getting that in-for-a-good-read feeling.

Fun fact, in the original text of Exodus, the plural form is not used. It’s not a plague of frogs. It’s a plague of frog. A plague of frog that will cover all of Egypt. Frogzilla. One Kaiju frog.

I don’t think you can “abuse” your right to protest

now more than ever

“The Pope from Chicago quoted Hannah Arendt on fascism, who herself long taught at University of Chicago‘s Committee on Social Thought,” is an amazing true sentence.

NEW: There’s a disaster unfolding in Alaska right now. And no major network is covering it. The remnants of Typhoon Halong battered western Alaska overnight. Homes, with people in them, have literally been swept into the Bering Strait. At least 20 are missing. No comment from any federal agency.

NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...

Welcome to the struggle, Sid and Marty Krofft.

From the Washington Post: “(Trump) has previously bragged about acing the (cognitive) test, suggesting it involved questions about various items including giraffes, televisions and whales. Experts have noted that there is no whale in the test"

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

Current view outside the Broadview, around 50 or so people with lawn chairs, yoga mats sitting a listening to speeches from Jane Goodall.

The Seventh Circuit has handed Trump yet another kick in the wingnuts.

Just one more thing... #IndigenousPeoplesDay

A friend ran the Chicago marathon today and said he couldn’t count the number of FUCK ICE signs along the way.

Sheer clownery.

Taysom Hill Saints touchdown - right after I shouted Put Taysom in! If only yelling at the TV worked for everything else...

Mood.

About a month ago, the Trump administration got rid of the de minimis exemption, whereby packages valued under $800 could slide in without import duties. Now there's a backlog as the government can't process all of this paperwork, leading to UPS just destroying packages

Amazon prime frog costumes are sold out. Good job, America.

Now make it permanent! #WeekendUpdate

Fey and Poehler are Noem and Bondi in: How Is This Our Country? #SNL

Here’s the trailer for the film: youtu.be/MOWlPV26yCk?...

It is now totally sold out.

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

My first concern, of course, is that this may not lend itself to high-end streetwear. defence-blog.com/wescom-defen...

Trump went for a Covid shot and then set the CDC on fire. If that ain’t that asshole in a nutshell.

RIP Diane Keaton, luminous in every era.

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education. America’s children deserve better than this.

My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking? Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but

Outside of the Broadview ICE facility, a state trooper tells the delegation attempting to have communion with detainees that ICE has denied their request.

Curious whether the judge would say this violates the consent decree…

ICE secretly kidnap autistic boy during bathroom break—never notify parents. Mother reported him missing a week ago—turns out ICE had him detained the whole time. He was helping sell fruit and asked to go to the restroom—by the time she was done helping a customer he was gone. Houston, Texas

Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world,... I feel like I can't take it. And my heart is just going to cave in.

After Trump got his Covid shot, he chose to fire the scientists protecting the rest of us from diseases.

Lived through this at a small paper. Every consultant pitch seemed like what someone would recommend if they didn't want any more newspapers.

Anti-vax onstage, Pfizer backstage.

We're sitting ducks. And that's the plan.

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

The frog of war...

I like how they gave the Nobel Prize to someone fighting for democracy in Venezuela, instead of someone sinking fishing boats off their coast.

Huh: TikTok took down my 8-second video featuring this image of Debbie Brockman — the news producer just detained by Trump’s CBP agents — saying it violates the “joy of TikTok”

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door. 

It wasn’t the feds —  it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help. He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days. chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Would I could find a fine frog!

BREAKING: Masked Border Patrol agents aggressively arrested WGN video producer Debbie Brockman in Lincoln Square Friday morning, supposedly for "obstructing justice." (Video via Josh Thomas on Facebook) Follow @heartlandsignal for more.

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight. Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s nominee to lead the office investigating Jack Smith, has recently been investigated for harassing a colleague, Politico reports. “Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him..”

Oh come on. On an official document?