Bye Fel-ICE-a!

U.S. Border Patrol beats a retreat and takes its campaign of terror to North Carolina

To read this issue in your browser, click on the headline above.

Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. I talk with WGN-AM 720 host John Williams about what’s making news and likely to be grist for the PS mill. The WGN listen-live link is here.

U.S. Border Patrol flies south for the winter, and hopefully forever

Their ebbing reign of terror looks more and more like a reign of error:

The Trump administration has released the names of 607 people detained by immigration agents, and whose arrests might have violated a court order, and only 16 of them have been identified by the federal government as a “high public safety risk” because of their alleged criminal histories, according to court documents.

Operation Midway Blitz, now dramatically scaled back in the Chicago area as U.S. Border Patrol agents have taken their odious campaign to Charlotte, North Carolina, was ostensibly aimed at ridding us of “the worst of the worst” predatory undocumented immigrants. But 16 actual criminals — 14 if you don’t count drunk drivers — out of 607 suggests three possibilities:

1. The problem of undocumented immigrants preying on our communities is vastly overblown.

2. The Border Patrol is really lousy at its job.

3. The point was never to round up dangerous criminals, but to strike fear into the hearts of undocumented immigrants living and working here peacefully so that they’ll leave of their own accord, and to dissuade people coming from South and Central America planning to sneak into the United States.

I suspect there’s an element of truth to all three, and that the Border Patrol — many of us have been informally calling the enforcement goons “ICE” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, but the main thrust has come from Border Patrol troops under bantam commander Gregory Bovino — will produce similarly dismal results in Charlotte.

Speaking of Bovino, journalist Garrett Graff offered a withering analysis on his Doomsday Scenario blog:

Bovino is basically leading a rebel cavalry, a la Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who raided and terrorized communities in Kentucky and Tennessee in the Civil War. That latter analogy holds up particularly well in one specific respect: Forrest became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan after the war. In many ways, in fact, Bovino’s shock troops have the most in common with the Klan “night rides” of the Reconstruction and Jim Crow era South, where hooded Klan members on horseback — often “respectable” leaders of the White community like the local sheriff — terrorized Black families and abused their civil rights. Bovino seems focused on becoming the Nathan Bedford Forrest of the Trump immigration era, complete with the blatant racism, illegal tactics, and ignominious losing place in history. … All told, months into Bovino’s raid, it’s increasingly clear that his efforts would be a farce — except for the very real trauma being inflicted on lots of innocent Americans by their own government. Nevertheless, it’s important to realize they’re losing — not winning. History and the American people are not on their side.

The administration has threatened/promised to return in even greater numbers in the spring, but my guess — my hope — is that by then these “operations” will be seen as PR disasters and agents will go back to patrolling the actual border.

Related; “Texas National Guard departs Illinois.”

Notes and comments from readers — lightly edited — along with my responses

Many comments and letters in the past week concerned the Democrats’ surrender to Republicans in the government shutdown fight and my expressions of anger and dismay that they’d given up without extracting any meaningful concessions.

I didn’t tally up the pro and con arguments, but many, if not most of you, expressed variations on the following opinions:

Bob E. — What else did you need to see to confirm the depravity of Donald Trump? Already we’d seen mass layoffs, selective defunding of approved projects in blue states, pushing the air traffic system into chaos and a Great Gatsby gala the night before SNAP benefits expired. He’s a cold-hearted, narcissistic, arrogant bastard. There is no evidence he would have capitulated and agreed to Democrats’ demand for renewal of Obamacare subsidies. So the timing was right. The Democrats made their point, and now Trump and the Republicans own the health insurance issue. The Democrats who negotiated the reopening of the government are playing the long game.

Kevin Barr — How did you see this playing out if Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and company had not capitulated? Why would you assume that Trump, after showing he was willing to gleefully starve people to make his point, would capitulate to Democrats at some time in the near future and give up something meaningful regarding health care? Do you really think one or two weeks more would have made a difference?

C. Pittman — Can you really make an honest case that if the Democrats had held on longer, the Republicans would have bucked Trump and caved, or that the images of chaos at airports and 40 million people without food assistance would not have blown back on the Democrats?

William A. Cirignani — What was the Democrats’ goal? To actually get the subsidies extended, or to shift their political fortunes by illustrating Republican callousness and irresponsibility? They were never going to get the subsidies extended, and the longer the shutdown continued, whatever marginal favorability the Democrats enjoyed would be lost. There was no more political gain to be achieved by continuing the shutdown, and if they had, the Democrats would later need to justify the pain and loss such a strategy engendered. So, to those, like you, who keep saying that the Democrats quit while they were winning, I ask, “winning what?”

Zorn — As far as political strategies go, white-flag Democrats starting a fight they now say they seriously doubted they would win strikes me as ill advised. Even without the shutdown, the Republicans’ callous attitude about health care for the poor would have been underscored with the disappearance of the Obamacare subsidies and their lack of a replacement plan to protect people from medical bankruptcy.

That said, I hope my critics are right that the Democrats “won” by highlighting the issue of health care inspiring the Republicans to go to court to try to deny poor people Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and that this will result in political and policy changes that are good for most Americans.

Meanwhile, a few other readers saw things more my way:

Rick Weiland — Maybe the six-week standoff will result in a better outcome for Democrats in 2026. But in the meantime, millions of people will be going without health insurance due to the cost of premiums and therefore probably without healthcare, and a whole bunch of them are going to die. That’s the tradeoff disgraceful Durbin and the others caved to.

Ken Bissett — Republican zeal for inflicting pain on Americans was on full display. Voters will remember that in the next election.

Trish S. — Durbin and the other defectors took the only tool we had left and traded it away for a bag of magic beans. They capitulated to an administration that is gleefully starving people for political gain, depriving residents of this state of due process, attacking the free speech of protesters who are being physically attacked for shouting and blowing whistles and calling them names.

Wendy C . — Democrats would have been better off waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on SNAP payments, while pointing out Trump was willing to force over 40 million people to face starvation.

Christopher Sweet — Durbin and Company are as lousy at making deals as Trump himself. We saw Trump collapse in the arms of the Chinese; now we see Dick Durbin swoon into the arms of Speaker Mickey Mouse Johnson. Yes, I am ticked off about this.

The Epstein files

Steven K. — I’m not holding my breath that the Jeffrey Epstein files contain any bombshells about President Donald Trump. Those published exchanges between Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in which Trump’s name appears seem now to belong in the “much ado about not much” category.

My guess is that, at worst, we might find out that Trump frequently screwed around on the island, possibly with underage girls, and while that would be serious business, it wouldn’t be the sort of thing that would bring down a cult leader of his enormity.

More likely, they’ll just show that Trump was a creepo (stop the presses!) that knew about, but was not bothered by his rich, pervy pals’ systemic debauchery. Unless there emerges video evidence of goings on that are truly disgusting or criminal, I suspect that he’ll come out of this unscathed, as he usually does.

Janet Williams — Trump knows sleazy people and he himself is sleazy and creepy. Dems need to focus on jobs and health care. If there is proof that Trump is more than creepy, the justice department will not prosecute. And his base and his congressional minions just don’t care. Let’s get back to things voters need and that this administration can’t and isn’t going to deliver.

Zorn — Occam’s Razor tells me that if Epstein and/or Maxwell had truly incriminating evidence or testimony to give about Trump, they would have used that information to barter for their freedom or extreme leniency. Particularly Maxwell, who went on trial in late 2021 when Democrat Joe Biden was president.

At the very least we would have expected witnesses to come forth — victims, family members of victims — to directly implicate Trump if, indeed, he’s guilty of anything more than keeping quiet about Epstein’s crimes. The memoir of victim Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide, does not implicate Trump.

I suspect he’s been fighting to keep the FBI files under wraps to protect friends and allies from very damaging revelations and to protect himself from embarrassment. Of course I hope I’m wrong and that the files cause him political ruin, but the chances of that seem remote.

Darren Bailey’s appeal to ‘real people.’

Joanie Wimmer — The video in which Darren Bailey announced that he is remaining in the race for the 2026 Republican gubernatorial nomination despite a horrific family tragedy ended with his statement: “Together we can bring back common sense, honesty and leadership that serves real people again.”

His use of the term “real people” jumped out at me. Republicans use this type of language frequently. “Real people,” “Real Americans.”

Who are the “not real people”? And what are the consequences of categorizing certain homo sapiens as “not real people”? I am so tired of this. And I know I am more sensitive to this rhetorical device than most because I know that the Darren Baileys of the world do not consider me to be a “real person” because I am transgender. This rhetorical device of separating “real people” from “not real people,” of which we will see more and more as the midterms approach, really illustrates what the Republicans hate about “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The Republicans hate DEI because it recognizes the humanity in what the Republicans consider not to be “real people.” The Republicans need a world in which there are Menschen and Untermenschen.

Zorn — You don’t have to be a dog to hear that whistle.

U.S. against the world!

Jim Strickler —Making the NBA All-Star Game into a U.S. vs. the World contest seems like a bad idea. Considering how excessive nationalism is causing problems throughout the world, I don’t think we should encourage it.

Mark K . —It works well for hockey. The international players return to their US-based teams and the fans continue to root energetically for them. I think it works more toward appreciating foreigners than toward ginning up chauvinism.

Zorn — The fan ugliness at the Ryder Cup golf tournament recently lends some credence to the idea that it could be divisive, but no more so than the Olympic Games. And I kind of like the idea of Americans of all political stripes cheering together for their countrymen (though, as noted, I think we’ll lose).

Mamdani the commie cartoon

Steven K. -- I don’t get the pearl clutching over the syndicated cartoon in the Tribune showing newly-elected Democratic Socialist New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani wearing an t-shirt on which the O in New York is a hammer and sickle, a communist symbol. Jokes are, distilled to their essence, simply exaggerations, and that’s all that the cartoon was. How clever an exaggeration it was is debatable, but there was certainly nothing scandalous about it.

Zorn — If the exaggeration dramatizes a point that a serious political commentator might make in a column, then fine. But today’s Chicago Tribune would be highly unlikely to print an op-ed arguing that Mamdani is a communist because that argument would be “an absurd slander” in the words of political scientist Geoffrey Kurtz when speaking to Politifact.

“Mamdani is NOT a communist,” wrote Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University professor of international studies, in an email to PolitiFact. “Communism involves a centrally planned economy, with no market forces. Prices and quantities are set by a central government authority. There is no democratic political competition, and instead a single party rules the country. He is not calling for any of this.”

Accusing Democrats of being communists or communist sympathizers is a frequent misleading attack line by some Republicans. It is a red scare tactic that has existed in U.S. politics for decades. … Mamdani does not call for getting rid of private ownership. One of the goals included on his website is to “make it faster, easier, and cheaper to start and run a business.”

Unpopular opinions?

Very few movies are worth going to see in the theater.

I’ve gone to just two movies in the theater this year — “A Complete Unknown” starring “Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan and “Deliver Me from Nowhere” starring Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen — and for the purposes of this discussion I’ll say only that I would not have enjoyed these biopics any less had I waited a bit and streamed them at home.

Most movies lose nothing when viewed on the smaller — but still large! — screens most of us have at home.

That idea is heresy to those who wax poetic about the pleasure of sitting in the cavernous dark rooms and sharing the filmgoing experience with strangers. But I prefer watching movies at home. I like being able to start and stop the action when I want, to rewind when curiosity strikes and to sit with my feet up in relative peace. I like not having to build an extra hour of transit time into the experience.

So even if home viewing weren’t less expensive — which, given the ticket and food prices at the theater it certainly is — I’d still choose it over the excessively praised communal experience of the cineplex.

And, look, I’ve got nothing against theaters or against those who revel in the theatrical experience. It’s all a matter of taste, isn’t it? Let’s not judge one another on our indifferences.

If movie theaters competing on a level playing field with home video can provide an experience attractive enough to draw a sustaining customer base, more power to them. Sports teams manage to do it.

But things aren’t looking good for what the industry calls “exhibitors.” Under the headline, “5 Movies, Many Stars, 0 Hits: Hollywood Falls to New Lows —It has been a brutal three months for dramas and comedies” (gift link) Brooks Barnes of the New York Times writes:

Theaters in the United States and Canada collected $445 million across all titles in October, the lowest total on record, after adjusting for inflation and excluding 2020, when the pandemic darkened screens. … During the pandemic, Hollywood largely ended the long-held practice of giving theaters an exclusive window of about 90 days to show new movies. Instead, movies started to become available for digital rental or purchase after as little as 17 days. This diminished the incentive to see movies in theaters — especially dramas and comedies, which play just fine on living room TVs.

Barnes links to a commentary by Owen Gleiberman, chief film critic for variety (and a friend of mine from high school and college days), notes that “one high-profile, high-prestige film after another has opened to a deafening thud at the box office,” and he offers a list of reasons why, including:

1. The rise of streaming. … People no longer need to go out to the movies because the movies are coming to them.

2. The closing of windows. If it took longer for films to move from theaters to home viewing, there would be more incentive to see them. The collapse of the window has been a Hollywood catastrophe. …

3. Theaters suck. …We all know the litany of gripes (the floors are scuzzy, people are on their phones, the trailers last 35 minutes, and there’s now less of an avid populated hum to the whole experience).

4. TV is the new indie film. Quality television, and even not-so-quality television, now fills the space that indie films used to.

Gleiberman and I have a friendly disagreement about how regrettable this is, and I’m sure some readers and I will also agree to disagree.

Here are the options for the poll below, which I first spell out in greater detail because Substack’s poll template allows space for a maximum of 35 characters in each response:

Going to a theater to see a movie:

1. I always find it preferable

2. I prefer it for big, spectacular action movies with great special effects and powerful sound, but for rom-coms and other light fare, I’d rather watch at home.

3. I go a few times a year, primarily as a social activity with a date or friends, but mostly I like to wait for new releases to come out on streaming services.

4. I almost never or almost never go anymore

Last week’s result

My argument that honorary street signs are annoying, confusing, costly and a poor way of honoring a person just narrowly won the day with readers

425 votes

I got your uncontrollable rage right here

Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr reposted this weird rant from the thin-skinned Donald Trump.

The most recent “Late Night With Seth Meyers” before Trump’s post was Thursday night, and I would like readers to watch what Trump saw as “uncontrollable rage” from the affable Meyers:

Carr’s amplification of Trump’s bizarre evaluation of Meyers’ affect and suggestion that NBC fire him is ominous but unsurprisingly sycophantic.

NewsWheel

Inspired by the WordWheel puzzle in the Monday-Friday Chicago Tribune and other papers, this puzzle asks you to identify the mis

sing letter that will make a word or words — possibly proper nouns; reading either clockwise or counterclockwise — related to a story in the news or other current event. The solution is at the bottom of the newsletter.

The week’s best visual jokes

Here are some funny visual images I've come across recently on social media. Enjoy, then evaluate:

There’s still time to vote in the conventional Quip of the Week poll!

I don’t include cartoons in the visual joke of the week contest, though I know it’s a fine line sometimes between a cartoon and a clever comment on an image. So I’m just adding this from John McNamee simply for your amusement:

Thanks to paid subscribers for supporting the Picayune Sentinel. To help this publication grow, please consider spreading the word to friends, family, associates, neighbors and agreeable strangers.

Info

Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise.

Contact

You can email me at ericzorn@gmail.com or by clicking here:

I read all the messages that come in, but I do most of my interacting with readers in the comments section beneath each issue.

Some of those letters I reprint and respond to in the Z-mail section of Tuesday’s Picayune Plus, which is delivered to paid subscribers and available to all readers later Tuesday. Check there for responses.

If you don’t want me to use the full name on your email or your comments, let me know how you’d like to be identified.

Social media

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ejzorn

• Twitter: https://x.com/EricZorn

• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ericzorn.bsky.social

• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ejzorn

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ejzorn/

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ericzorn5

Help?

If you’re having troubles with Substack — delivery, billing and so forth — first try “Picayune Sentinel Substack help, Frequently Asked Questions.” If that doesn’t work check out the Substack help page. And if that doesn’t work, shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to help.

Answer to the NewsWheel puzzle

MARJORIE