Donald Trump as Lt. Col. Kilgore from 'Apocalypse Now.' Yes, that tracks

& readers push back on JB Pritzker's demurral on the weight-loss question

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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.

I hate the smell of batshit in the morning

On his social media platform, President Donald Trump posted the above AI generated image of himself along with the words “I love the smell of deportations in the morning” and “Chicago (is) about to find out why it’s called the Department of War. 🚁🚁🚁"

I do hate to lunge at every bit of outrageous chum Trump throws on the water, but this is extraordinarily ominous. The image is of Trump as the character Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall in the 1979 Vietnam War movie “Apocalypse Now.” Kilgore, a remorseless war criminal, is the source of the famous quote, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. Kilgore.

Kilgore is “a bloodthirsty, sadistic and amoral warmonger” in the description at Villains Wiki. “He and his men … mercilessly kill, shoot and blow up numerous innocent civilians, showing a complete and utter disregard for civilian and human life.”

Here is SparkNotes on the Kilgore character: “A lunatic, swashbuckling commanding officer … Kilgore’s methods are senseless and absurd. … He is a sort of western cowboy, arrogant and heroic and seemingly invulnerable.”

One of Kilgore’s air raids targets “a school building filled with Vietnamese children, all garbed in pristine white uniforms that clearly reflect the innocence of the village.”

Historian Heather Cox Richardson notes that the three helicopter emojis in Trump’s post are “symbols the right wing uses to represent former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s goons’ disappearing political opponents by pushing them out of helicopters.”

It’s hard to overstate how batshit crazy this post is, how unprecedented and frightening it is that the president of the United States has in effect declared war on an American city. Over … what?

Trump as the deranged Kilgore is quite apt, though of course the fictional Kilgore did serve in the military while Trump dodged the draft by claiming bone spurs in his feet.

Even more apt would be Trump as the other nutjob in “Apocalypse Now,” Colonel Walter Kurtz, described in the SparkNotes summary as “archetypal evil genius.”

He speaks in lofty, grandiose statements about “the horror” of war, yet he is fully, willingly complicit in these horrors. He has given himself full reign, freeing himself from all moral judgments. … Thus, Kurtz has become a dark, godlike figure. No one holds him accountable for his actions, not even himself. … (He is) a character that is out-of-bounds mentally, spiritually and physically.

At this writing, we’re still waiting to see if Trump’s threat to send an invasion force of National Guard troops to Chicago on incredibly flimsy pretenses is a head fake — as I suspect — or a real determination to expand his powers and provoke a confrontation with the federal courts.

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

A journalism ethics question: Which personal details about suspects are relevant?

Last Tuesday’s item, “The shooter was transgender. So what?” touched off a disappointingly hostile exchange in the comment thread that I should have but didn’t nip in the bud. I’d like to take this opportunity to remind commenters to try to keep it civil, even in the face of incivility, and to apologize for not monitoring the comments for several days. My argument was that it was premature and prejudicial to identify the shooter in the Minneapolis church-school shooting as a transgender woman when her gender status may have played no role in her motivation to kill.

Kevin Barr — When discussing the "why" or cause of mass shootings, one thing often pointed out is that the shooters are overwhelmingly young males. In this case, the shooter was a woman. A woman shooting up a school is certainly out of the ordinary and newsworthy. But to report this story in that way would clearly be misleading. This does not mean that being trans is the cause of this shooting, just part of the identity to consider.

Mark K. — Searching for a pattern in the identities and circumstances of the shooters is a fool's errand, it will not help identify a solution to the problem. The fundamental cause of these shootings is that guns are plentiful and easily obtainable in our country. A solution to this problem needs to be stricter gun control laws or stricter enforcement of the existing ones.

A person deciding to go on a shooting spree is disturbed by definition. Instead of focusing on the specifics of that disturbance, journalists should focus on the ways the perpetrator obtained the guns so that lawmakers can implement ways to close off that kind of access to them.

Joanie Wimmer — Can anyone give me an example of a news story about a mass shooting where the story reported that the shooter was cis-gender? Even one? If you can’t, and you’re attempting to justify the reporting in the Minnesota case about the shooter being transgender, that sort of illustrates what I said about living in a culture awash with anti-transgender bigotry.

Jake H. — I come down on the side of saying if it's possible that a fair-minded person would find the fact at least potentially relevant, I struggle to agree to what sort of feels like a cover-up of something the investigators know, the reporters know, something that no doubt enters into their thoughts about it, and yet we're not permitted the same thoughts because it would support a bigoted narrative. I bristle at the idea of avoiding potentially inflammatory facts in news coverage if they otherwise have some potential relevance to understanding what happened. If there were a mass shooting at a Chick-fil-A and the shooter was gay, wouldn’t that be relevant and suggest a possible motive because of the chain's history with anti-gay causes and stances?

Zorn — The standard of relevance has to be high for any potentially inflammatory details to be reported. And though we don’t see news stories saying a suspect is cis-gender, it’s not uncommon to refer to the suspect having a spouse of the opposite gender, which would be widely understood as a cis-gender marker. The fact that the U.S. Justice Dept. floated the idea in the wake of Minneapolis that trans people should not be allowed to own guns is stark proof of how prejudicial that information is.

Guarding Chicago

M. de Hendon — Crime always goes down in a police state. It would go down even further if there were government cameras in every space, public and private, and a vast Stasi-like police force were monitoring them, employed a network of informers, and executed all criminals and dissenters.

Ken Bissett — Flooding an area with troops will deter crime, but it’s not a solution to eliminating crime. And it is unsustainable because of the cost. What’s going to happen when the National Guard is withdrawn? Crime will return, and all that money spent to put the guard in place will have been wasted.

Lynne Allen Taylor — I am so tired of being told to play nice while Trump and his buffoons trample over everything I hold dear. All of us liberals need to parse our words and prance around so as not to appear soft on crime and fall into some Republican trap? That's what we did under Clinton and we got workfare, three-strikes laws and the highest incarceration levels in the world while driving minor offenders into poverty with fees and penalties. Any attempt to rectify that is "soft on crime. " Sending the National Guard in is the damn crime and I'm not in the mood to be soft on it.

Matt Greenberger — I’m quite disappointed in your take on the threats of sending the National Guard to Chicago. First, it sounds like you're sane-washing another of the regime's actions that ignore the Constitution. Second, are you afraid Pritzker and other Dems might — what? — alienate Republicans?! That ship has sailed. Democratic leaders need to worry about the Constitution first and Democratic voters second.

RFK Jr.

Laurence E Siegel — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not 100% wrong. Many Americans do need to live a healthier lifestyle. The problem is that he ignores reality. I don't see him trying to solve the problem of food deserts in poor neighborhoods. The corner liquor stores are selling snacks, not fruits and vegetables. I don't see him demanding that the price of groceries go down so that a family with kids can actually afford healthy foods, rather than packaged high sugar and sodium foods. I don't see him insisting that his boss restore funds that help schools fund programs that feed hungry kids. And don't even start with me about cutbacks in school physical education programs. Most aren't that vigorous to begin with. A bunch of kids standing in line to play kickball isn't doing much to help the cardiovascular system. Do I need to even bring up the vaccine debate or cuts to medical research?

Ashli Babbitt, martyr or traitor?

David Leitschuh — You wrote that Ashli Babbitt was a traitor who does not deserve military honors in death. She was unquestionably a participant in the January 6th, 2021 riot, and she was attempting to enter into the Capitol through a broken window in an entry door when she was shot and killed.

All reports confirm that Babbitt did not have a gun, knife or any instrument that could be used as a weapon when she was shot.

Babbitt was not attacking any person at the time she was shot.

So how in the world does this meet the standard for use of deadly force against someone who represents an imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm??

When the George Floyd rioters were storming the police precinct building in Minneapolis, the city Administration made the decision to abandon the building to the rioters who then burned it to the ground. What do you think would have been the consequence if one of the police officers had shot through the doorway and killed an unarmed woman who was part of the crowd? I think we all know the answer to that.

The decision by the Biden Administration to deny military funeral honors to an honorably discharged US veteran who was killed while attempting to force her way inside the Capitol building was a ghastly offense to her grieving family, and kudos to the Trump Administration for righting this hyperpartisan wrong.

Mark K. — Babbitt was not "attempting to enter into the Capitol building", she was already in the building, leading a mob of rioters through barricaded doors defended by officers. She may not have been armed herself, she just happened to be the first of many, who were known to be armed with blunt weapons and had attacked and injured officers immediately prior. This was clearly not a conduct that should be rewarded by military honors.

Here's a video of exactly what happened. And here is an interview with the officer:

"[Officer] Byrd articulated why he believed an imminent threat was immediately present, and he explained the factual scenario a trier of fact could have used to back up his claims: other officers were reportedly injured; he ordered lawmakers to evacuate; and he was confronted by a mob which allegedly refused commands to back down. "

"Holt reminded Byrd that the Capitol Police said in a press release that the then-anonymous Byrd's actions saved lives.

Joanie Wimmer — Quoting Wikipedia: “U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin, a witness to Babbitt's attempted breach, said that Byrd ‘didn't have a choice’ but to shoot, and that his action ‘saved people's lives.” Mullin is an uber-conservative Trump supporting Senator from Oklahoma.

Zorn — It’s revealing that Trump supporters consider this seditious traitor a martyr. She was inside the Capitol. Watch the video. She was not trying to enter a space that had been evacuated, but a space in which high-ranking elected officials had sought refuge from a violent mob. Who knew if she was armed?

Notes from Tribune subscribers

Ann H. — Inspired by an email from the Washington Post that it was renewing my digital subscription for about $100 a year, I finally got mad enough to call the Tribune about my $56 a month digital subscription. Oddly enough, you get put through to a real person very quickly when you say you're calling to cancel. Now my rate is $3.50 a week. Still more than the much better Washington Post but something I can live with without steam coming out of my ears — at least for now.

Jay G. — By canceling one promotional subscription when it was about to renew, and signing up for a new promotional subscription, I was able to take advantage of a 2-year digital subscription for $1.00 per year. The Trib's circulation "strategy" is effin' bonkers.

Zorn — $56 per month and $1 per year are both absurd prices. I was amused to see the Tribune Editorial Board write disapprovingly the other day, “Price discrimination (getting rich people to pay more for much the same thing) is all the rage these days.” Yes it is! It is, in fact, central to the Trib’s business model, which eschews setting a fair price for a good product and instead jacks up rates as high as possible on the inattentive and the wealthy.

Unpopular opinions?

I wrote last Thursday that Gov. JB Pritzker should have been more forthcoming when NBC-5’s Mary Ann Ahern asked him if he were taking Ozempic or other weight-loss drugs, given Pritzker’s noticeably slimmer physique. Quite a few readers disagreed.

Monica Melzer — Pritzker’s response to Ahern ought to have been “My physical appearance has absolutely nothing to do with my job as governor of Illinois, a state currently facing an illegal invasion of federal troops ordered by a dictatorial president drunk on power. I don't want to be too rude to you. But at the same time, have you had your hair dyed or any plastic surgery done? By not answering, there will be those who assume the answer is yes."

Roberta B. — Why does his matter? He does his job. That matters.

Martha Rudy — Gov. Pritzker walks a lot. Not that it matters, but diet and exercise goes a long way. Maybe he is just being healthy. If he is on Ozempic, I don't care or need to know. But good for him for being healthy.

Marty Welfeld — It’s his business. Nobody else’s. He doesn’t owe anyone an explanation of how, why, when, etc that he reached the decision to seriously reduce his weight.

Mary Lenehan —Who gives a F? Sounds like tabloid level distraction to me.

Aaron Cohen — If he did say, "Yes, I take Ozempic and it's been helpful," you know that every Republican in our state and nation will be doing a deep dive into if Pritzker holds pharmaceutical stocks. He probably does, as do millions of others through mutual funds, pensions, etc. Still, the resulting right-wing memes about Pritzker being in the pocket of big pharma would be endless.

Shay Ayes — I asked an attorney friend a couple of years ago if he thought JB could ever be President—his response, no because he’s fat. Shocked by his answer but realizing it’s probably true. Whatever JB is doing in terms of self care, is great and his own business!

Pat Griffin Matsey — MYOB ever hear of that? Especially when it involves a person’s physical appearance, guess what, he knows he is fat. What bothers you about your appearance? Let's discuss that.

Steven K. — Questions about personal medical information are considered to be fair game for politicians. Why do you think there’s been so much speculation about Trump’s health? When you’re a high ranking public official, your medical status is everyone’s business.

Public life is different from private life. Any politician that doesn’t want reporters pressing them about their medical status can always seek employment in the private sector. Do you honestly think that the public doesn’t have a right to know if their officials are on Vicodin, Dexedrine or Xanax?

Stuart Senescu —What makes you think taking weight loss drugs is a ‘stigma?” Any more than other drugs? With the benefit of time you created a nice hypothetical reply Pritzker should have given to Ahern’s question. Did you write your hypothetical reply while walking and being interviewed and without the opportunity to edit and rewrite? Easy for you to answer questions sitting at your desk with an hour to contemplate the answer.

Zorn — The question was inevitable, c’mon, and Pritzker has a whole political team behind him to game out answers to all sorts of potentially awkward questions. It took me three minutes, max, to craft my proposed reply, which, for the record, went: “(Yes, I have benefited from those drugs, and … / No, I’m not taking those drugs, but …) they are clearly beneficial for most people who struggle, as I do, with trying to lose weight. Those on Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound and other GLP-1 drugs often experience wide-ranging health benefits. And if we’re talking about making America healthy again, the government needs to work to bring down the high cost of these medications so more people can afford them.”

Last week’s result

I got clobbered!

I objected to how lawyers had filed a class-action suit on behalf of passengers who booked window seats but found that their “window” seat was one that didn’t actually have a window. The following letter objected to my objection:

William A Cirignani — Your disdain for class-action suits based on the small amount recovered by users versus the lawyers is, I think, misplaced. The very reason 90% of class actions exist is to remedy small harms that impact large numbers of people. Think about the bank that wrongly adds a “$2.00 transaction fee” every month. What person has the time, money, or energy to file a suit against the bank for such a small amount? Yes, lawyers make a lot of money with class action suits but the work is often complex and time consuming. But even if this were not true, the real benefit of class actions is holding accountable that bank who profits from small harms to lots of people or which holds airlines accountable to give their passengers what they promised. Your suggested alternative remedies — a public negotiation with the carriers to refund any extra charges paid by passengers who got windowless window seats or an initiative from the Federal Aviation Administration to force all carriers to clearly inform passengers of windowless window seats when they are selecting their seats — are, in practice, impossible and really naive. Can you cite one example where anyone was able to remedy the kind of volume of small harms seen here via any way other than class actions? There’s a reason why companies routinely and increasingly put arbitration and no-class action provisions in their contracts with consumers—because they hate being held accountable.

NewsWheel

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

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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.

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Answer to the NewsWheel puzzle

HELLHOLE