Welcome to Chicago 312: 3 Headlines. 1 Big Question. 2 Red Flags. Every Wednesday. Subscribe here.

In my opinion, one of the most nefarious things about the right-wing media flywheel is how random it can feel. There's so much happening every single day—so many dog whistles, so many lies, so many attacks—that even when you know the strategy, I still can't predict the ones that catch fire.

Sometimes it’s a fake translation of a speech that gets picked up by both Fox News and a literal government agency within 24 hours.

Or — the arrest warrants for 50+ elected officials to stop a Trump-backed congressional map barely makes the radar.

When what gets treated as a crisis and what gets waved off as “political theater” is so random, everything feels a little warped.

The randomness isn’t accidental, of course. It keeps people confused, exhausted, and afraid to speak, with the bonus of being really profitable for a number of horrible people.

What To Know This Week — TLDR: the Tribune editorial board loves misinformation, Texas lawmakers in Illinois, COPA gets the the ICE/CPD hot potato investigation now, a hopeful organizing video, and ways to resist ICE.

Let’s dive in.

3 Headlines:

1. The Tribune Editorial Board Doesn’t Understand the Right-Wing Media Machine— But They Love to Cash In!

TNR: Last week, Rep. Delia Ramirez gave a speech in Mexico City and ended it in Spanish, saying:“Soy guatemalteca con mucho orgullo, primero que soy americana.”

Conservative media company Blaze Media posted a fake translation: “I’m Guatemalan before I’m American,” and, by design, the right wing outrage machine lit up, fast, racist, and coordinated. Rep. Andy Ogles: “Deport her. Strip her citizenship. Kick her off Homeland Security.” The Department of Homeland Security itself—a federal agency—tweeted the clip, pairing it with a quote about how there’s “no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.” I’m ignorant and my Spanish is elementary, but even I could understand that in this short clip… Rep. Ramirez did not say what they were pretending she said. (I also trust the two Spanish speaking people who hung on me because the whole situation made them so mad, and this X user).

As Rep. Ramirez said, “They’ve even gone so far as to call for me to be removed from my committees, stripped of my citizenship, and deported — a ridiculous attack meant only to rile the far-right with false narratives and dangerous precedents.”

Not to be outdone by the national right wing propaganda pros, the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board wrote a deliberately misleading hit piece about this lie. IMO, they don’t even understand the full scale of this machine, but that doesn’t make them neutral—it makes them more complicit. In a Classic Managerial Boomer move, they echoed the Blaze lie, barely understanding what was happening but happy to smooth it over, simperingly chide Rep Ramirez as losers on the internet demanded her deportation (??!!). Forget bothering to fact check or even read anything from Rep Ramirez and her statement as long as they could profit off the controversy. They took a racist, nationalist backlash campaign and gave it editorial cover.

Why It Matters: Whether it’s a Congresswoman giving a speech abroad, or a City Council vote on a routine budget measure—the right knows the formula:

• Pick a boring process or something that requires a single iota of effort to fact check,

• Attach a scary, emotional, identity-charged narrative,

• Repeat it and incentivize hot takes from every loser on X until it seems like reality.

  It’s a real problem when the board of a paper in a city with a massive Spanish-speaking population can’t—or won’t—accurately interpret a basic statement in Spanish. But it also shows how deep the right’s outrage machine goes: there is true incentive to be incompetent as long as its in service of pageviews and cruelty.

2. Redistricting Coup in Progress

The Guardian, Vox: Last week, over 50 Texas House Democrats fled the state to block a Trump-backed redistricting plan that would hand Republicans up to five new congressional seats, enough to flip the House and lock in a MAGA majority until 2030. Trump openly bragged about it: redraw Texas, win the country. Governor Greg Abbott called a special session, and within 24 hours, the state issued civil arrest warrants for elected officials who refused to participate.

Why It Matters: I know that the signs of chaos + descent to fascism are already everywhere, but I have been thrown by how everything about this particular piece of political theater feels… dire. While national Democrats scramble to figure out the right tone, with Pritzker at the forefront and chatting it up on Colbert, Texas Republicans are already doing what Trump asked them to do: rig the next map, flip the House, and kneecap any opposition before 2026 even starts. When over 50 elected officials flee their state because they believe staying would give the other party the power to rig elections for the next decade and that party issues warrants for their arrest… not a great omen for the escalating authoritarianism, no?

And as Illinois, New York and California discuss redraws of their own, hitting back at Trump, the headlines read like routine drama - even with a bomb threat at the hotel where Texas Democrats are staying in Illinois. That disconnect—the fact that this crackdown feels normalized—is the real danger here…

3. Still: What Did CPD Do During the South Loop ICE Raid?

Block Club: After federal agents detained at least 10 people in a surprise June 4 immigration raid in the South Loop, there’s still no independent investigation into what role Chicago police played. For weeks, city departments couldn’t agree on who had the authority to investigate the raid. Now, the Mayor’s Office says it should fall to COPA, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. They’re pushing to update the municipal code to make that power explicit—that proposal may go before City Council next month. Meanwhile, officials like Ald. Jessie Fuentes and Andre Vasquez are still demanding clarity: Who gave the order? What was said? Why were ICE contractors patched directly through to CPD via 911?

The raid happened at a check-in facility where immigrants were told to report under supervision. Protesters and neighbors showed up to bear witness. CPD officers showed up too—17 of them—and entered the building two minutes after arrival. They left 80 minutes later, after ICE had finished detaining people. Police now say they didn’t know it was an immigration raid when they arrived. But dispatch recordings prove otherwise: multiple calls mention ICE and Homeland Security by name, with one caller asking to keep the incident off the media’s radar.

Why It Matters: A federal immigration raid happened in broad daylight, and it looks like CPD helped facilitate it. This raid was a warning shot—and unless the city builds real accountability into its infrastructure, more will come.

1 Big Question: What is Organizing?

Ok, no more discussion of pageviews today (or at least, not the rest of this paragraph).

I’m not thoughtful enough this week for a big question, so I think it’s more productive for me to share something hopeful.

This is a message about organizing from Shaniya Taylor, a Florida Student Power + Public School Strong youth organizer (video created by Keisa Reynolds).

It made me feel more grounded in what matters — I hope it helps you too.

2 Red Flags Stressing Me Out Today: Stopping ICE, And Some Shameless Self Promotion

1. Other Ways to Resist ICE This Week

X: The incredibly vile “Libs of TikTok” accused Arizona State Senator Analise Ortiz of “actively impeding and doxxing ICE” by posting their live locations on instagram.

State Senator Oritz’s response: That’s true. Fuck you.

Why It Matters: It was cool.

You can also resist ICE: check out this rapid response training tonight from ICRR and Indivisible on Zoom at 6:30 PM CST.

2. Talking about Right Wing Media with Convergence Magazine

Convergence Magazine: I joined Convergence Magazine to talk about how the right-wing media machine picks off local officials, cooks up fake scandals, and scares city leaders into silence. If you’ve ever wondered how a mistranslated speech becomes a congressional deportation demand in under 24 hours, or why the Chicago Tribune editorial board is still stuck in 2004 — this is for you.

Why It Matters:  🎧 Listen here.
💸 Also: support their summer fund drive — because good media isn’t free, and bad media is apparently really profitable!

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See you next Wednesday, hopefully with more on pensions and some of the budget drama unfolding for both Chicago and Illinois.

Until then… here is a breaking first look at this year’s state fair butter cow.

H

_{All typos are intentional 4D chess.}