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Reposted by Michael Mann

Bill Grueskin

@bgrueskin.bsky.social

Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...

I Want You to Understand Chicago
Politics Chicago
2025-11-08

I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.

Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again.

An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next.

Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st.

Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…

November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM

Reposted by Michael Mann

Michael E. Mann

@michaelemann.bsky.social

Yes David. I didn't direct Heat, but I sure predicted it!

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · Jul 6

Finally watching this classic from @michaelemann.bsky.social. 😄

Screenshot from the movie Heat. Text on the screen reads "WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY MICHAEL MANN." In the background, a person wearing sunglasses and another individual with a yellow hat are partially visible.

July 6, 2025 at 8:55 PM

Reposted by Michael Mann

Bradley P. Moss

@bradmossesq.bsky.social

Welcome to the era of thought crimes.

Adil Haque @adhaque.bsky.social · Apr 10

"The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil"

"Rather, Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs."

Free this man immediately.

apnews.com/article/mahm...

Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs

The U.S. government has submitted a two-page memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio as its main evidence in its deportation case against Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil.

apnews.com

April 10, 2025 at 7:16 PM

Reposted by Michael Mann

George Takei

@georgetakei.bsky.social

If you think this can’t happen, remember that of the 125,000 Japanese Americans who were interned during WWII for years without charge or trial, two-thirds were U.S. citizens. Including me.

The image is a screenshot of a tweet from Brandon Bradford (@BrandonLBradfor
). The tweet reads: "Deporting Americans without due process then saying they no longer get due process because they aren’t in America means no one has rights, FYI. Nightmare scenario."

April 4, 2025 at 7:51 PM

Reposted by Michael Mann

Adam Weinstein

@adamweinstein.bsky.social

Was just reading John Quincy Adams' oral arguments before SCOTUS in the Amistad case and this part seems, uh, pretty relevant

A portion of John Quincy Adams' Amistad argument before SCOTUS: "I will not recur to the Declaration of Independence--your Honors have it implanted in your hearts--but one of the grievous charges brought against George III. was, that he had made laws for sending men beyond seas for trial. That was one of the most odious of those acts of tyranny which occasioned the American revolution. The whole of the reasoning is not applicable to this case, but I submit to your Honors that, if the President has the power to do it in the case of Africans, and send them beyond seas for trial, he could do it by the same authority in the case of American citizens. By a simple order to the marshal of the district, he could just as well seize forty citizens of the United States, on the demand of a foreign minister, and send them beyond seas for trial before a foreign court."

March 26, 2025 at 3:29 AM

Reposted by Michael Mann

Timothy Snyder

@timothysnyder.bsky.social

The people Attorney General Bondi is calling “terrorists” have had no trial and no chance to defend themselves. We do not know who they are. Ignoring the Constitution does not make us safe. It puts us all in peril.

March 17, 2025 at 1:34 AM

Reposted by Michael Mann

Robert Reich

@rbreich.bsky.social

The Trump regime will arrest you in the middle of the night because you spoke your mind.

And federal agents in plain clothes who refuse to identify themselves will be the ones to do it.

If you think I'm being hyperbolic, watch this clip.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · Mar 14

NEW: Family of Mahmoud Khalil just released footage of his arrest

“Stop resisting”
“He’s not resisting”

Agents seen continuing to ignore Mahmoud’s wife as she asks basic questions

March 14, 2025 at 9:57 PM

Reposted by Michael Mann

Peter Sagal

@petersagal.bsky.social

"You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also." -- some lib, now owned

Karen Swallow Prior @karenswallowprior.bsky.social · Mar 11

Dave Brat, a Senior VP at Liberty University, said today on a local news interview that the tariffs are following “reciprocity,” which he said is the Golden Rule: “whatever you do to us, we’re gonna do to you.”

March 12, 2025 at 2:42 AM

Reposted by Michael Mann

Senator Ed Markey

@markey.senate.gov

Rep. Delia Ramirez, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, and I are urging the Biden administration to condemn the prosecution of indigenous Guatemalan environmental defenders who have spoken against harmful energy projects—and advocate for an investigation into the violence against these activists.

Letter addressed to Secretary Blinken. Full text linked in the reply.

December 21, 2024 at 2:10 AM

Reposted by Michael Mann

Rabih Alameddine

@rabihalameddine.bsky.social

A photo I posted of graffiti in Syria in 2014.
"One day the war will be over and I will return to my poem"
I hope they will return to their poem

December 8, 2024 at 2:51 AM

Reposted by Michael Mann

Chris Pierson

@justpeacecafe.bsky.social

Following his assassination, I remember my father taking me by the location and discussing it briefly with me. Years later, I would meet Akua and Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr. and provide space for them to meet at my church in Chicago. They were two inspiring young adult leaders taken from us all.