Brian Mackey
Host of the @21st.show, the statewide NPR talk show and podcast for Illinois.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyA staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."
- Reposted by Brian MackeyNow seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.
- "I don’t fear losing. What has become apparent to me is that I now dread the prospect of winning."
- Reposted by Brian MackeyFulton County Courthouse in Lewistown, not far from one of our state’s more famous cemeteries. I had the great honor speaking with @brianmackey.com on @21st.show yesterday about some central Illinois gravesites. Link below!
- Reposted by Brian MackeyAt Broadview ICE facility, federal agents hurl tear gas and pepper spray at protesters blocking vans www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/19/t...
- Stark dispatch from Washington by my friend @danvock.bsky.social:
- Reposted by Brian Mackeyit does feel like a rubicon being passed today but does anyone remember the arson at the house of the most prominent jewish elected leader in america like two months ago
- Tuned into the White Sox game in the bottom of the 8th. Score was 2–2, and within a few minutes the Sox were up 7–2. Last night I tuned into the end of the NBA Finals, and Indiana went up for the first time in the entire game with 0.3 seconds to go. Any other sports teams I can help out tonight?
- Reposted by Brian MackeyThis is shocking. I directly worked on designing the integration and protections of CityKey. It was designed to provide an ID, be a transit card, library and discount card. It was to *never* create a digital record while being compatible with state and city laws. Subpoena-proof.
- ICE subpoenas Chicago for records of applicants in city ID program used by immigrants www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/06/i...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyAnd finally (for now), SCOTUS will consider Bost v. Illinois whether federal candidates have standing to challenge state laws that count late-arriving ballots postmarked by Election Day. Not the merits (yet), just the standing question. www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyThis is such a good example of "turn every page" journalism - nothing less fun/glam than clicking through every footnote. And it's roughly 10,000x more newsy than the thumbsucker RFK profiles reported with big travel budgets.
- The New York Times has found at least two more fake citations in the MAHA report. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyUpdate: Journalism has been purchased by a hedge fund which announced multiple amputations
- "A REMARKABLE RECOVERY BY JOURNALISM!" JOURNALISM WINS THE 150TH PREAKNESS STAKES! #Preakness150
- Reposted by Brian MackeyPope Leo spotted on the 2005 World Series broadcast
- Great short essay on Pope Leo, the White Sox, and the Beatitudes, by @soxmachine.com: "While I'd known at some level that every pope is a person [...] it didn't resonate like seeing a picture of the person who is now pope wearing a White Sox jersey in the stands of U.S. Cellular Field."
- Reposted by Brian MackeyWrote about the pope being a White Sox fan. It's pretty crazy! soxmachine.com/2025/05/so-t...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyCardinal Robert Prevost (center, blue shirt) visited the flagship @AureliosPizza location in Homewood in August with friends and family. Who could've imagined what would happen less than a year later! wgntv.com/news/robert-...
- Reposted by Brian Mackey"This is Hawk Harrelson with Ed Farmer and the Pope at US Cellular and this is the 2005 World Series..."
- Reposted by Brian MackeyPlease have your first draft of history here, via half the Tribune and captained by @stacystclair.bsky.social That was a fun day at work. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/08/r...
- And here I thought Chicago media reached peak “area man” stories in the Obama era.
- "It is now up to us to take the keys to freedom into our own hands."
- Implement a 100% tariff and ruin a movie. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, Her Lover, Their Accountant, His Shipping Agent, Our Trade Representative, & an Unemployed Longshoreman (1989)
- One heck of a fact-check story by @katierosman.bsky.social. Somehow manages to be heartwarming, heartbreaking, affirming and dispiriting — often in adjoining paragraphs. Be prepared for a rollercoaster.
- Update from the Illinois State Police, 5:16 a.m.: “The driver and sole occupant of the vehicle was uninjured and transported to an area hospital for evaluation. Toxicology reports are pending. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but this does not appear to be a targeted attack.“
- “CHATHAM, Ill. (AP) — A car smashed through a building Monday afternoon, killing four young people and injuring several others during an after-school program in a small city outside of Springfield, Illinois, police said.”
- Reposted by Brian MackeyPritzker calls for mass protests and disruption - “Republicans cannot know a moment of peace,” he says, swaying their portraits will one day be put in museums “reserved for tyrants and traitors”
- “I think what we’ll find in the end is there were multiple things that, had any one of them changed, it could have well changed the outcome of that evening.”
- Reposted by Brian MackeyThe decision of whether to run for re-election has not been easy. I truly love the job of being a United States Senator. But in my heart, I know it’s time to pass the torch. So, I am announcing today that I will not be seeking re-election at the end of my term.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyThis video shows the fire damage inside the Pennsylvania Governor’s mansion. Governor Shapiro’s reaction to the arson attack is on my timeline.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyThis Tufts student was grabbed off the street, cuffed and taken out of state solely because she co-wrote a completely respectful oped in the student paper. And Rubio’s State Dept now admits they have nothing more damning than that. Gift link wapo.st/4j8d5Uh
- Reposted by Brian MackeyWhen I went to the University of Illinois, we heard countless times about how UIUC made him mad because of licensing issues with Netscape/Mosaic. I hope that’s not what started this…
- Marc Andreessen really, really hates universities, which seems to be a pretty common sensibility from billionaires who have spent too much time online. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/o...
- “‘My understanding is that Trump promised mass deportations and the people you can find that are the easiest to identify are students,’ said Genevieve Lakier, a University of Chicago professor who specializes in freedom of speech and American constitutional law.“
- Reposted by Brian MackeyFrom my Atlanta home, to yours: Happy Confederate Surrender Day to all who celebrate— and doubly to all those who don’t. Perish all compromises with tyranny!
- Reposted by Brian MackeyNo criminal record, no gang ties, no tattoos, applied for asylum, father of a 9-year-old, government's case full of errors, sent to mega-prison anyway amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
- From 2009: "While lawyers and the Secret Service balked at Mr. Obama’s initial requests to allow him to keep his BlackBerry, they acquiesced as long as the president — and those corresponding with him — agreed to strict rules. And he had to agree to use a specially made device."
- Reposted by Brian MackeyUnidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time.
- Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying. They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks. From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY
- Reposted by Brian MackeyAmerican war planning usually takes place in highly secure facilities. But the Trump administration planned its strikes on the Houthis using a group chat—and accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. theatln.tc/IuULQFiY
- "We mark their loss today, but there will be a paper tomorrow, and another on Sunday. Each day is an opportunity to get it right." — @neilsteinberg.bsky.social's elegy for departing colleagues, with a vow to press on.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyThis is exactly what I wrote about on Wednesday. (Gift link: wapo.st/4iMGl2s) Because these people are accused of actions opposing the regime (hurting his friend's market cap), they deserve the worst imaginable punishment — a punishment outsourced to a country that escapes U.S. laws and judiciary.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyMy view is that the American South never fully took to liberal democracy. And I think we have to reckon with that to face the moment we’re now in. I wrote about it for @thebulwark.bsky.social www.thebulwark.com/p/liberal-de...
- John McWhorter offers a linguist’s analysis of the “English only” policy: “In our midteens — after the end of what linguists call the critical period — our ability to master a new language starts to atrophy. …”
- "When we say that all people have inalienable rights, we really mean that people who enjoy the protection of a state have rights. Once a person is stripped of that protection, purged from a state, his rights seem to vanish along with his proof of citizenship." — by @mashagessen.bsky.social:
- Reposted by Brian MackeyOne of the many things that pisses me off about Bezos is that the Post is doing its own amazing work on this story and he picked THIS moment to undermine it.
- "Wired takes a leading role in tracking Elon Musk’s team." By the AP's media reporter, David Bauder. apnews.com/article/elon... "Wired gained 62,500 new subscribers in the United States during the first two weeks of February alone..."
- Reposted by Brian Mackey“The federal employees wrote that they have spent thousands of dollars fleeing for their lives without knowing whether they will be reimbursed.”
- “Marcus began to feel “an intense sense of panic” that the U.S. government would abandon its workers in Kinshasa. When he finally made it to Washington after a harrowing journey by boat and plane, Marcus was put on administrative leave.” — www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyHappy to have a chance to talk about this book. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/b...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyJust to underscore the tension at DOJ at the moment, here's what one federal law enforcement official told me about the acting deputy attorney general: "I, along with other career FBI and DOJ personnel that I’ve spoken with, really have one message for him and that is, “go fuck yourself, traitor.'"
- Reposted by Brian MackeyWe're not going out like Rome, we're going out like Circuit City
- Reposted by Brian MackeyGovernor JB Pritzker jokingly (?) declared that Lake Michigan is being renamed Lake Illinois. The Newberry Library has a French map from 1718 that calls it “Lac des Illinois.”
- Reposted by Brian MackeyUSDOT is proposing to prioritize areas with high marriage & birth rates for funding. Our new analysis @urbaninstitute.bsky.social shows this approach would produce a massive redistribution of transportation funding to rich, car-dependent, high white population areas. www.urban.org/urban-wire/d...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyConservative budget wonks (Manhattan Instiutte, Tax Foundation) confirming that this is a consittutional crisis. Not liberal hysteria. Happening right now.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyMusk seeks to “delete” the federal agency—created in the wake of the 2008 housing crisis—that had been working to “crack down on predatory lending, reduce the burden of medical debt and cut fees that customers pay when they fall behind on credit card bills.” www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
- “Those who care about functional institutions must demand adherence to constitutional processes, not billionaire whims. Because if we don’t, we might find ourselves longing for the days when Musk was only breaking social networks instead of the basic machinery of democracy.”
- Frustrated there's not more I can do directly, but for now I can just try to document reality. Elon is bringing his Twitter destruction playbook to the US government, and it's impossible to explain just how serious and bad this is. www.techdirt.com/2025/01/31/e...
- Reposted by Brian Mackey"A private citizen with zero Constitutional authority is effectively seizing control of critical government functions. The Constitution explicitly requires Senate confirmation for anyone wielding significant federal power" www.techdirt.com/2025/01/31/e...
- Did not think we'd already be hearing this debate on *checks calendar* day 12.
- Appreciating @profhicks.bsky.social‘s data-driven analysis¹ of what separates the Illinois counties voting for secession² from the rest of us. ¹ www.thestarpress.com/story/opinio... ² I still think “partition” is more apt.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyBeen musing on the thin line that separates all of us from unexpected tragedy It’s confounding to think of how little we control about our fates Not sure what to do other than spotlight risks, work to address them, and cherish your loved ones every day. Very open to alternate suggestions
- The Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook, by @onthemedia.bsky.social:
- ❤️ a good "the mayor's texts" article, even if Johnson has fewer 🤦🏻♂️ messages than his predecessors. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/27/m... by @aliceyin.bsky.social, @jake-sheridan.bsky.social and @royalpratt.bsky.social
- I'd watch a documentary on the making of this trailer for another documentary. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDxY...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyTake back your attention.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyAuthoritarianism wants you to feel like you’re drowning in chaos — headlines of breaking news, after breaking news. Here are 4️⃣ questions you can ask yourself to help spot genuine threats to our democracy. Read more here: www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/how-to-pay...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyTikTok shut down in the US for a few hours, and then restarted again, praising Trump both times, even though Trump is not yet President, and has no formal power at this point.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyThe Wall Street Journal says there will be a splashy ICE operation in Chicago on Tuesday. While the headline is lurid, the actual operation described in the piece (100-200 agents) seems not that unusual for ICE (google Operation Cross-check). Expect a PR blitz, though. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
- Avoiding socials’ siren pings, the soul from purgatory springs.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyRevealing exchange between Douthat and Marc Andressen. Douthat says that DOGE won't save money b/c most programs are popular and you need people to run them. Reasonable! Andressen: the existence of the program reflects contempt for the taxpayer. Social media will allow us to weaken public support.
- Reposted by Brian Mackeylook at these beasts
- Reposted by Brian MackeyJoined @brianmackey.com yesterday to talk about what ideas Republicans are exploring to cut Medicaid right now.
- Reposted by Brian Mackeyfile under: two can play that game mexico president sheinbaum gets out an old map to show her own “territorial claims” on the united states.
- Happening now: Is this a DRONE over CENTRAL ILLINOIS?! … Wait maybe it’s just a street lamp, the Moon, Venus, and a lens artifact of the aforementioned street lamp.
- Reposted by Brian MackeyA List of Predictions Made in 1925 About 2025 🧵
- “On Monday, OSF said the initial requirement is because of the widespread respiratory illnesses in the community; including COVID-19, influenza and RSV. “Tuesday, OSF said the change acknowledges ‘the importance of personal choice.’”
- Reposted by Brian MackeyGood points here from @schatz.bsky.social about how these little language questions aren’t *just* about language — they are signals as to whether you think for yourself or outsource everything. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyAUSTIN REAVES GAME-WINNER AGAINST THE WARRIORS RIGHT AFTER STEPH TIED IT WITH A THREE 😱 A CHRISTMAS CLASSIC 🔥🔥
- Reposted by Brian MackeyWhere we are as a country: we need someone to get a non-Mercator map in front of the President-elect (Greenland isn’t that big!) blog.geogarage.com/2017/10/merc...
- “‘SUCCESS in Washington,’ Trump quipped about the second proposal that would pan out not to be a success.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
- Reposted by Brian MackeyA U.S. Congresswoman disappeared for the last six months of her term. Nobody noticed. Turns out she's in a memory care unit, & her staff (and apparently other people?) covered it up (though she was somehow propped up for an event a month ago?) WILD story
- Reposted by Brian MackeyIn the darkest, coldest time for most people on Earth, various cultures created holidays involving lights and family gatherings. It’s objectively not the most wonderful time of the year, yet we constructed something that makes it brighter. Way to go humanity.
