Trump’s war on Chicago, abortion, higher education, and democracy

When I relaunched this newsletter over the summer, I planned to use it more frequently. I’m still committed to that,^[1] though an unexpectedly frantic September got in the way. Thanks for sticking around. I'll have more soon, but for now here are a few recent pieces worth your attention.

I tend to do more media criticism than praise in this space, though I've long had a mental sticky-note to do a better job of drawing attention to good journalism as well as the kind that makes my blood boil. To that end, Mark Jacob has a thoughtful piece at his Stop the Presses newsletter highlighting the important work local journalists have done documenting the Trump regime's invasion of Chicago:

One of the best demonstrations of the vital need for local news coverage has occurred in Chicago in recent weeks as the Trump regime abuses its power to crack down on America’s third-largest city.

Local journalists have documented violence against both citizens and non-citizens by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Local media have exposed false claims by Homeland Security and have captured gripping images of the ways Trump’s federal agents have escalated tensions.

This part rings true:

Former WGN news director [Jennifer] Schulze says what’s happening in Chicago is “not generating the national attention that I think it deserves.” One big difference, she said, is that local reporters seem to be more focused on the work than on raising their career profile.

“They’re less nervous about blowing the book deal or not getting the MSNBC hit or the CNN hit and just doing the job,” she said. “Being a local reporter means you’re part of that community. You have a vested interest in getting the story right.”

University of Virginia Media Studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan's essay about the Trump regime's attacks on America's colleges and universities makes clear that any school that signs on to Linda McMahon's maliciously stupid “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” should just shut its doors forever:

Any university leader who signs on to this compact would betray everything good and solid about the university and would do deep and permanent harm to the United States and the world.

TNR's Greg Sargent writes about Stephen Miller's "secred plan to normalize Trump's dictator rule":

Miller plainly believes there’s a latent majority out in the country that can be sleepwalked into authoritarianism. If Democrats sit this debate out, Miller has calculated, Trump’s deceptions can flood public information spaces, persuading low-info, low-attention voters that his autocratic encroachments constitute a proportional response to the civic unrest he keeps propagandizing about. [...]

It’s not clear many Democrats understand this. Some Democrats have confided to reporters that they see this topic as a “trap” enticing them into a losing debate about crime. But why assume voters will automatically believe Trump’s occupations are actually about combating crime? This throws in the towel, right up front, on communicating to voters what this debate is really about: that Trump’s abuses should be utterly abhorrent to anyone who values living in a free society.

Do Democrats, broadly speaking, have a theory of this moment that’s consciously matched to MAGA’s authoritarian politics? They need one. Because guess who does have a theory of the moment? Miller does. And he’s amassing unprecedented power to put it into practice as we speak.

In her essential Abortion Every Day newsletter, Jessica Valenti tells the story of Texas police using more than 83,000 cameras to try hunt down a woman who had an abortion -- an investigation "prompted by the woman’s abusive partner—a man who threatened her at gunpoint before turning her in to police over her abortion."

This isn’t about a few bad actors—but the predictable outcome of living in a reproductive police state bent on surveillance and punishment. And in a moment when pregnancy criminalization is on the rise, it’s vital we understand how this police state operates. After all, it was just last week that Pregnancy Justice reported there have been over 400 pregnancy-related arrests in the first two years after Dobbs [The 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade]. [...]

This case reached the attention of law enforcement because a woman’s vindictive, controlling partner tipped off police. That same man was later convicted for assaulting her: He hit her in the head with the butt of a gun, choked her, put the gun to her head, and demanded she “beg for [her] life.” Then he attempted to weaponize Texas abortion laws to further torture her.

Be sure to read the whole thing. You won't want to miss the reveal about the Texas sheriff who led the investigation.