Richard RatheI agree completely! #Pritzker's speech should be heard by everyone.
Clean (no commentary) link to full speech...
Karen Conlin
Orrock LXXXVI XLVII
Ron FrankePart 2 - "Gov. Pritzker Just Did Something VERY Important to Fight MAGA”, #DailyKos
The remainder of: "There is a lot Democrats can legitimately say... if they have the courage:”
- Are you a Country who aided and abetted Trump’s deportation schemes? Listen, I’m not saying the CIA has a rich history of toppling governments, but maybe you should second guess your cooperation.
- Are you National Guard? Are you breaking the Law while federalized? You’re going to Leavenworth.
- Are you a foreign government cutting deals with (bribing) Trump? You will face stiff sanctions.
- Are you a media company carrying water for Trump? Democrats in Congress will investigate you.
Part 1 - "Gov. Pritzker Just Did Something VERY Important to Fight MAGA”, #DailyKos
The important part of the article is halfway down "There is a lot Democrats can legitimately say... if they have the courage:”
- Are you a member of ICE? Are you breaking the law? Democrats could theoretically threaten to make private information for lawbreakers public when back in power.
- Did your corporation illegally bribe Trump? Democrats could jail your executives and even pursue the corporate death penalty. Or maybe nationalize you?
- Did your University bend the knee? Democrats can threaten to withhold funding to Universities who discontinued DEI and targeted transgender individuals.
- Did your law firm do free work for Trump? A Democratic Administration could threaten to blacklist those firms.
- Are you MAGA and on a visa? Democrats could threaten to deport you this time. See how you like Uganda.
Mastodon MigrationNews: Full text of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker's speech at news conference on reported Trump military plan for Chicago
Full text of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker's speech at news conference on reported Trump military plan for Chicago
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker spoke at a news conference Monday afternoon, addressing reports President Trump is planning to send the military to Chicago. Here is the full text of his remarks.
Catherine Schmidt#Politics #Pritzker #Trump #Fascism #TakeOver #Crime #PublicSafety #Police #Republicans
Heather Cox Richardson 8/26/25
If Trump were serious about combatting crime, Pritzker asked, why did he, along with congressional Republicans, cut more than $800 million in public safety and crime prevention grants? “Trump,” Pritzker said, “is defunding the police.”
AnnaAnthroThe speech by #Illinois governor #Pritzker after #Trump called him a ‘slob’ and threatened to send in the National Guard to ‘save crime ridden’ #Chicago was impressive, data driven, reasoned and firm.
Full speech video:
JB Pritzker BLASTS Trump: POWERFUL SPEECH protecting Illinois’ largest city
Carter P. HayesPritzker: “Over the last 4 years, homicides have dropped in half. The President should pay attention.
I know he doesn’t read — but maybe if someone from Fox or Newsmax is here, he’ll catch it on TV.” 💀🔥
#Pritzker #ShotsFired
Dave FenichelWhy has Don Trump brought his authoritarian war against the USA, against Americans, their Society & their communities -- "the actual crisis" -- to the City of #Chicago? #Illinois governor speaks truth to power. Excellent reporting, contextualized simply by Heather Cox Richardson as the complex #history that it is. Because #journalism has become unable to do that anymore.
August 25, 2025
Yesterday, “Trump talked to reporters as he signed several executive orders in the Oval Office. Trump sat behind the Resolute Desk as he has been doing lately, seeming to put its bulk between him and the reporters. Also as he has been doing lately, he kept his left hand over the right, seemingly to hide a large bruise.
“Trump was there to announce an executive order charging Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with creating 'specialized units' in the National Guard that will be 'specifically trained and equipped to deal with public order issues,' apparently setting them up to take on domestic law enforcement as part of Trump’s attempt to take control of Democratic-run cities.
“At the press opportunity, Trump claimed that he saved Washington, D.C.—where crime was at a 30-year low before he took control of the Metropolitan Police Department and mobilized the National Guard—from such rampant crime that no one dared to wear jewelry or carry purses. 'People,' he said, 'are free for the first time ever.'
“Although in 1989 the Supreme Court ruled that burning a flag is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment, Trump ordered the Department of Justice to prosecute anyone who burns a flag, claiming they would automatically go to prison for a year (he has no authority to make such an order). After seven European leaders rushed to the White House to stabilize the U.S. approach to Russia after Trump’s disastrous meeting with Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on August 15, Trump claimed that the seven leaders actually represented 38 countries and that they refer to Trump as 'the president of Europe.'
“Calling Chicago, Illinois, 'a disaster' and 'a killing field,' Trump referred to Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker as 'a slob.' Trump complained that Pritzker had said Trump was infringing on American freedom and called Trump a dictator. Trump went on: 'A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator. I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense and a smart person. And when I see what's happening to our cities, and then you send in troops instead of being praised, they're saying you're trying to take over the Republic. These people are sick.'
“This afternoon, standing flanked by leaders from business, law enforcement, faith communities, education, local communities, and politics at the Chicago waterfront near the Trump Tower there, Governor Pritzker responded to the news that Trump is planning to send troops to Chicago.
“He began by saying: 'I want to speak plainly about the moment that we are in and the actual crisis, not the manufactured one, that we are facing in the city and as a state and as a country. If it sounds to you like I am alarmist, that is because I am ringing an alarm, one that I hope every person listening will heed, both here in Illinois and across the country.'
“He acknowledged that '[o]ver the weekend, we learned from the media that Donald Trump has been planning for quite a while now to deploy armed military personnel to the streets of Chicago. This is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against. And it’s the reason that they established a federal system with a separation of powers built on checks and balances. What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional. It is un-American.'
“Pritzker noted that neither his office nor that of Chicago’s mayor had received any communications from the White House. “We found out what Donald Trump was planning the same way that all of you did. We read a story in the Washington Post. If this was really about fighting crime and making the streets safe, what possible justification could the White House have for planning such an exceptional action without any conversations or consultations with the governor, the mayor or the police?'
“'Let me answer that question,' he said. 'This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city in a blue state to try and intimidate his political rivals. This is about the president of the United States and his complicit lackey Stephen Miller searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities, and end elections. There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention. There is no insurrection.'
“Pritzker noted that every major American city deals with crime, but that the rate of violent crime is actually higher in Republican-dominated states and cities than in those run by Democrats. Illinois, he said, had 'hired more police and given them more funding. We banned assault weapons, ghost guns, bump stops, and high-capacity magazines' and 'invested historic amounts into community violence intervention programs.' Those actions have cut violent crime down dramatically. Pritzker pointed out that 'thirteen of the top twenty cities in homicide rates have Republican governors. None of these cities is Chicago. Eight of the top ten states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states is Illinois.'
“If Trump were serious about combatting crime, Pritzker asked, why did he, along with congressional Republicans, cut more than $800 million in public safety and crime prevention grants? 'Trump,' Pritzker said, 'is defunding the police.'
“Then Pritzker turned to the larger national story. 'To the members of the press who are assembled here today and listening across the country,' he said, 'I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story. This is not a time to fall back into the reflexive crouch that I so often see where the authoritarian creep by this administration is ignored in favor of some horse race piece on who will be helped politically by the president's actions. Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidents, and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab.'
“Pritzker continued: 'Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, "Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?" Instead, I say, "Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here. Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy."”
“The governor called out the president for his willingness to drag National Guard personnel from their homes and communities to be used as political props. They are not trained to serve as law enforcement, he said, and did not 'sign up for the National Guard to fight crime.' 'It is insulting to their integrity and to the extraordinary sacrifices that they make to serve in the guard, to use them as a political prop, where they could be put in situations where they will be at odds with their local communities, the ones that they seek to serve.'
“Pritzker said he hoped that Trump would 'reconsider this dangerous and misguided encroachment upon our state and our city's sovereignty' and that 'rational voices, if there are any left inside the White House or the Pentagon, will prevail in the coming days'.”
#history #news #Pritzker #uspoli #politics #disruption #counterdisruption #tyranny #authoritarianism #enforcement #Sturmabteilung #breaking #civilisation #journo #demolition #unraveling
