Chicago

Trump Says Chicago ‘Probably Next’ for National Guard Invasion

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A protester holds a sign during a “No Kings” protest against President Donald Trump outside Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago on June 14, 2025.
 (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

“If Trump wants to take his ego trip on tour, he picked the wrong city,” said one senior Illinois official. “Chicago doesn’t bow down to kings or roll out the red carpet for dictators.”

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Chicago is the next city in his crosshairs for the kind of federal invasion and occupation currently underway in Washington, DC—a threat that sparked defiant pushback from officials in the Windy City and beyond.

“After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to his federalization of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and deployment of National Guard troops from the district and five Republican-controlled states.

“We’re going to make our cities very, very safe. Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent and we’ll straighten that one out probably next,” the president said, referring to progressive Brandon Johnson. “That will be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough.”

On August 11, Trump dubiously declared a public safety emergency in Washington, DC, despite violent crime being down 26% from a year ago, when it was at its second-lowest level since 1966, according to official statistics. Critics have noted that Trump’s crackdown isn’t just targeting criminals, but also unhoused and mentally ill people, who have had their homes destroyed and property taken.

On Friday, Trump threatened to completely take over Washington and oust Mayor Muriel Bowser if she does not stop pointing out that crime has decreased in the city, which the president called a “crime-infested rat hole.”

In addition to Chicago, Trump has threatened to send federal forces into cities including Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, and San Francisco. Violent crime is trending downward in all of those cities—with some registering historically low levels.

Unlike in Washington, DC, where home rule laws allow the federal government to take control of local police, Trump would face greater obstacles to intervention in other cities.

“President Trump can’t seize control of the Chicago police or any other local department outside of DC,” Congressman Raja Krishnamoorth (D-Ill.) noted on social media Friday. “The military cannot and will not patrol the streets of Chicago, and I will work with state and local officials to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Mayor Johnson said in a statement that “the problem with the president’s approach is that it is uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.”

“If the Trump administration is serious about driving down violence in Chicago, or anywhere else in America, then he should not have taken over $800 million away from violence prevention,” he added.

Other elected officials in Illinois also expressed anger and alarm at the prospect of a Trump intervention in Chicago.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued the following statement in response to comments President Trump made today threatening to deploy federal law enforcement to perform civilian law enforcement duties in the city of Chicago: tinyurl.com/5n89nt86

— Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul (@ilattygeneral.bsky.social) 2025-08-23T00:00:59.609Z

“After using Los Angeles and Washington, DC as his testing ground for authoritarian overreach, Trump is now openly flirting with the idea of taking over other states and cities,” Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on X.

“Trump’s goal is to incite fear in our communities and destabilize existing public safety efforts—all to create a justification to further abuse his power,” the governor continued. “He’s playing a game and creating a spectacle for the press to play along with.”

“We don’t play those games,” Pritzker added. “Our commitment to law and order is delivering results. Crime rates are improving. Homicides are down by more than 30% in Chicago in the last year alone. Our progress in lowering crime has been made possible with [community violence intervention] programs that they’re defunding.”

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, a Democrat running for US Senate, said that “if Trump wants to take his ego trip on tour, he picked the wrong city.”

“Chicago doesn’t bow down to kings or roll out the red carpet for dictators,” she added. “As a Black woman from the South Side, I can assure you… your political circus isn’t welcome here.”

Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) wrote on social media, “President Trump: You are not welcome in Chicago.”

“Sending the National Guard endangers Black communities already overpoliced and under-invested in,” she added. “If you cared about saving lives, you’d pass gun safety laws and fund community violence intervention.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
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Continue ReadingTrump Says Chicago ‘Probably Next’ for National Guard Invasion

Trump’s Military Occupation of DC Egged On by Corporate Lobbyists: Report

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Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

National Guard troops are deployed to the Washington Monument as part of President Trump’s mobilization of law enforcement on August 12, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)

In some cases, corporate groups have posed as small business owners besieged by rising crime rates.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s military occupation of Washington, D.C. has been egged on for months by corporate lobbyists. In some cases, they have posed as small business owners besieged by rising crime rates.

According to a report Tuesday in The Lever:

Last February, the American Investment Council, private equity’s $24 million lobbying shop, penned a letter to D.C. city leaders demanding “immediate action” to address an “alarming increase” in crime.

That letter was published as an exclusive by Axios with the headline: “Downtown D.C. Business Leaders Demand Crime Solutions.”

But far from a group of beleaguered mom-and-pops, the letter’s signatories “included some of the biggest trade groups on K Street,” The Lever observed:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which boasts its status as the largest business organization in the world; the National Retail Federation, a powerful retail alliance representing giants like Walmart and Target; and Airlines for America, which represents the major U.S. airlines, among others. These lobbying juggernauts spend tens of millions of dollars every year lobbying federal lawmakers to get their way in Washington.”

It was one of many efforts by right-wing groups to agitate for a more fearsome police crackdown in the city and oppose criminal justice reforms.

On multiple occasions, business groups and police unions have helped to thwart efforts by the D.C. city council to rewrite the city’s criminal code, which has not been updated in over a century, to eliminate many mandatory minimum sentences and reduce sentences for some nonviolent offenses.

The reforms were vetoed by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2023. After the veto was overridden by the city council, Democrats helped Republicans pass a law squashing the reforms, which was signed by then-President Joe Biden.

In 2024, groups like the Chamber of Commerce pushed the “Secure D.C.” bill in the city council, which expanded pre-trial detention, weakened restrictions on chokeholds, and limited public access to police disciplinary records.

At the time, business groups lauded these changes as necessary to fight the post-pandemic crime spike D.C. was experiencing.

But crime rates in D.C. have fallen precipitously, to a 30-year low over the course of 2024. As a press release from the U.S. attorney’s office released on January 3, 2025 stated: “homicides are down 32%; robberies are down 39%; armed carjackings are down 53%; assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 27% when compared with 2023 levels.”

Nevertheless, as Trump sends federal troops into D.C., many in the corporate world are still cheering.

In a statement Monday, the D.C. Chamber of Commerce described itself as a “strong supporter” of the Home Rule Act, which Trump used to enact his federal crackdown.

The Washington Business Journal quoted multiple consultancy executives—including Yaman Coskum, who exclaimed that “It is about time somebody did something to make D.C. great again,” and Kirk McLaren who said, “If local leaders won’t protect residents and businesses, let’s see if the federal government will step in and do what’s necessary to create a safe and prosperous city.”

Despite crime also being on the decline in every other city he has singled out—Los Angeles, Baltimore, Oakland, New York, and Chicago—Trump has said his deployment of federal troops “will go further.”

Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
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Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.

Continue ReadingTrump’s Military Occupation of DC Egged On by Corporate Lobbyists: Report

Movement against ICE raids spreads to cities across the US

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Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Photo: Wyatt Souers

“Our communities are being kidnapped and disappeared,” say activists protesting ICE raids throughout the country

US President Donald Trump sent in the military to suppress anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles this past weekend, but instead of stopping the protest movement in its tracks, demonstrations have taken place in cities across the entire United States to reject Trump’s immigration policies and crackdown.

Since protests erupted against immigration raids in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon, they have spread to cities throughout the US, including New York City, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Boston, and Atlanta.

Protesters rally in Boston outside of the Massachusetts State House on June 10 (Photo: Micah Fong)

As the Trump administration scrambles to meet mass deportations quotas, with officials ramping up the immigration enforcement arrest quota to 3,000 per day, ICE operations have escalated to new heights. In what activists have called “ICE terror” against immigrant communities, federal agents have taken more extreme measures including arresting young family members in “collateral arrests,” arresting immigrants seeking legal paths to staying in the country at immigration court hearings, and conducting militarized raids on workplaces.

These tactics have produced some results for Trump’s mass deportation regime: for the first time since 2019, the total number of ICE detainees has surpassed 50,000. 

Momentum builds against Trump’s immigration policies

On Tuesday, June 10, thousands of people rallied in New York City, filling the streets by ICE headquarters at 26 Federal Plaza. 

“We’re all out here today because like me, you are seeing your communities disappear,” said Cathy Rojas, a public school teacher in Queens. “Our communities are being kidnapped and disappeared. And I don’t use the word kidnap lightly. I use that with a point, because people are not being arrested, when all their constitutional rights are being violated, when all the laws are being broken. When they are put in concentration camps. When they are put in detention centers that violate their human rights, they are being kidnapped. They are not being arrested.”

Activists gather in front of US immigration court in Manhattan (Photo: Wyatt Souers)

Demonstrators marched through the streets of downtown Manhattan up to US Immigration Court on Varick Street, shouting chants in defense of immigrant rights and against Trump. 

In Chicago, thousands marched on June 10 after rallying in Federal Plaza. Demonstrators held signs reading “ICE out of Chicago” as some held a banner reading “El pueblo unido defenderá a las familias migrantes!”

Thousands march through Chicago on June 10 (Photo: Emma Noelke)

Protests continue in Los Angeles

Protests continued in Los Angeles despite repressive measures from local and national government. Since Sunday, the Trump administration had deployed 4,000 National Guard troops to the city, as well as 700 marines. LA’s Mayor Karen Bass, despite denouncing the ICE raids and Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, imposed a curfew for 8 pm local time. 

Demonstrations took place in Los Angeles and the surrounding area, with protests in a crowded Whittier City Council meeting on Tuesday, and activists reporting that they successfully pushed ICE agents out of a hotel in Arcadia. 

More protests are set to be held in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday, June 11, including at Pershing Square in DTLA in the evening. 

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

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Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
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Continue ReadingMovement against ICE raids spreads to cities across the US

Thousands Kick Off DNC With Protest in Chicago Over Gaza

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Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Police and demonstrators are seen at a march during the Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2024 in Chicago.
 (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“For Palestinian Americans, this is a fundamental issue,” said one marcher.

What’s expected to be the biggest protest march during this week’s Democratic National Convention kicked off in Chicago Monday afternoon, with demonstrators demanding that Vice President Kamala Harris support an end to unconditional U.S. military support for Israel amid its assault on Gaza, now in its tenth month.

Thousands gathered in Union Park before beginning their march to the United Center, where the convention is taking place.

Protesters carried signs and banners reading, “End State Violence From Chicago to Gaza” and “Dems’ Silence = Israel’s Violence.”

Organizers—who hoped to see 15,000 people in the streets—have expressed alarm in recent months over the Chicago Police Department’s aggressive response to pro-Palestinian protests, with a legal coalition last week expressing concern about Police Superintendent Larry Snelling’s intimidating comments about arresting protesters and other issues, and city officials have clashed with organizers about the route the march will take.

But threats of arrest did not deter groups including Jewish Voice for Peace from joining the march, with the local chapter saying its members would “make clear our commitment to freedom and safety for all people, from Chicago to Gaza” and as they demanded an “arms embargo now.”

Organizers of the Uncommitted movement, which emerged during the Democratic primary season to pressure President Joe Biden to end his support for Israel’s assault on Gaza, continue to press the Harris-Walz campaign to break with the administration’s position.

While Harris initially indicated to the group a willingness to discuss support for an arms embargo earlier this month, a top adviser for the Democratic nominee said soon after that the vice president does not support ending weapons transfers to Israel.

“For Palestinian Americans, this is a fundamental issue,” sociologist Eman Abdelhadi told Democracy Now! at the march. “We have spent 10 months watching our people die every day, and to ask us to simply just wait and hope that some change will happen… It’s just offensive and it’s completely insensitive.”

As the protesters assembled on Monday, journalist Mehdi Hasan warned in a column in The Guardian that Harris should see agreeing to the demand for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and an arms embargo not as a risk, but as “a moral, geopolitical, and—for the Democrats—electoral no-brainer.”

“Biden may want to continue sending more and more weapons to an Israeli government accused of war crimes at the international criminal court and of genocide at the international court of justice,” wrote Hasan, “but Harris should take a different stance—a bolder stance, a stance that is more in line with her party’s base, as well as with the American public at large.”

Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

‘Tell Kamala Harris – stop supporting genocide!’ Code Pink and other peace campaigners descend on Democrat National Convention in Chicago

Continue ReadingThousands Kick Off DNC With Protest in Chicago Over Gaza

‘Not Another Bomb’ to Israel Demand Grows Ahead of Democratic Convention

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Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators chant slogans before marching with placards and flags to commemorate Nakba Day at Lake Eola Park on May 11, 2024 in Orlando, Florida.  (Photo: Paul Hennessy/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“We must double down on our demands ahead of the DNC, where we’ll be marching in the streets for the liberation of all,” said one campaigner.

Leading up to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, calls for the U.S. government to stop arming Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip—widely denounced around the world as genocide—continued to mount on Friday.

“We join the millions of people who’ve taken action the last 10 months, taxpayers who don’t want to pay for genocide and are demanding an immediate arms embargo on Israel,” U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) executive director Ahmad Abuznaid said in a statement Friday.

“We know that politicians won’t change their unjust policies until it’s in their own self-interest to do so,” he continued. “We must double down on our demands ahead of the DNC, where we’ll be marching in the streets for the liberation of all.”

Pro-Palestine protests in Chicago are set to start Sunday, a day before the DNC officially begins. They will continue throughout the week, according to a schedule shared Friday by the Chicago Sun-Times. The March on the DNC is planned for Monday afternoon.

As Common Dreams reported earlier Friday, a coalition of progressive and legal groups and individuals expressed “grave concerns” about recent moves by the Chicago Police Department and the city to stop protests and vowed to take legal action as needed.

The Uncommitted National Movement’s Not Another Bomb campaign is also planning a nationwide day of action for Sunday.

The movement formed when Democratic President Joe Biden was still at the top of the ticket throughout the presidential primary process; hundreds of thousands of voters across the country selected “uncommitted” or took similar action, depending on the options for each state’s ballot, to send the administration a message that they don’t support giving Israel any more military aid.

After a disastrous debate performance against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, Biden dropped out of the race and passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has already secured the party’s nomination via an online process and announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Biden, Harris, and Walz are all set to speak at the convention.

“USCPR calls on the Biden-Harris administration, the Harris-Walz campaign, members of Congress, and the DNC to stop arming Israel now, as the Democratic Party currently has the power to end the genocide by cutting off the endless weapons supply to Israel,” the group said Friday.

Since last week, Not Another Bomb has been gathering online signatures for a petition urging Harris “to shift away from President Biden’s disastrous policy on Gaza, and pledge to enact an immediate arms embargo on Israel’s assault and occupation against Palestinians as a material step towards a permanent cease-fire.”

“Consider the overwhelming sentiment among your constituents: 86% of Democrats support the proposed cease-fire deal in Gaza,” the petition notes. “This is the mainstream view of our party’s base, as evidenced by a recent poll that reveals that 52% of Americans and 62% of Biden/Harris voters agree with halting arms sales to Israel. In addition, 70% of Democratic voters support withdrawing U.S. military funding to Israel if Israel rejects the proposed cease-fire deal, as Israel has continuously done.”

Polling released this week shows that Democratic and Independent voters in three key swing states—Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania—would be more willing to vote for Harris in November if she supported cutting off weapons to Israeli forces. However, one of her advisers recently made clear that “she does not support an arms embargo on Israel.”

March on the DNC spokesperson Hatem Abudayyeh told Reuters on Friday that coalition group leaders met after Biden bowed out of the contest to discuss whether they should revise their strategy if Harris became the Democratic nominee.

“There was absolute consensus,” Abudayyeh said. “She represents the policies of the administration and it’s full steam ahead.”

The Biden-Harris administration and current Congress have provided Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance as well as diplomatic support on the world stage, including multiple vetoes of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions.

Fresh calls have come this week not only in anticipation of the convention but also since the Biden administration on Tuesday approved roughly $20 billion in additional U.S.-made weapons for Israel’s military as the official death toll in Gaza neared 40,000. Local officials said Friday that at least 40,005 Palestinians have been killed and another 92,401 have been wounded.

Thousands more remain missing amid the rubble in Gaza and the vast majority of the Palestinian enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been forced to relocate, many of them multiple times. Israeli forces on Friday issued yet another evacuation order for areas in central and southern Gaza—including “safe zones”—leaving Palestinians with “nowhere to go.”

Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

dizzy: I’m experiencing disruption presumably by or sanctioned by the UK government. Evading it ;)

Continue Reading‘Not Another Bomb’ to Israel Demand Grows Ahead of Democratic Convention