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The Weekend Desk Report

By Steve Rhodes

This is everything right here, isn’t it?

RINKEBY, Sweden – Johnny Castillo, a Peruvian-born neighborhood watchman in this district of Stockholm, still puzzles over the strange events that two years ago turned the central square of this predominantly immigrant community into a symbol of multiculturalism run amok.
First came a now-infamous comment by President Trump, suggesting that Sweden’s history of welcoming refugees was at the root of a violent attack in Rinkeby the previous evening, even though nothing had actually happened.
“You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden!” Mr. Trump told supporters at a rally on Feb. 18, 2017. “They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.”
The president’s source: Fox News, which had excerpted a short film promoting a dystopian view of Sweden as a victim of its asylum policies, with immigrant neighborhoods crime-ridden “no-go zones.”
But two days later, as Swedish officials were heaping bemused derision on Mr. Trump, something did in fact happen in Rinkeby: Several dozen masked men attacked police officers making a drug arrest, throwing rocks and setting cars ablaze.
And it was right around that time, according to Mr. Castillo and four other witnesses, that Russian television crews showed up, offering to pay immigrant youths “to make trouble” in front of the cameras.
“They wanted to show that President Trump is right about Sweden,” Mr. Castillo said, “that people coming to Europe are terrorists and want to disturb society.”

Looks like Trump and Fox News misread the dates on the memo and got ahead of Putin, so Putin had to send over some henchmen to retrofit the racist fake news.
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Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
As a follow-up to Friday’s column about journalese – the obscuring, misframing and cliched language of the media – here is George Carlin appearing before the National Press Club, ostensibly roasting the way politicians talk. But guess what? Replace “politicians” with “media” and you get a highly accurate depiction of journalese, which in part is due to journalists’ adoption of the language used by those they cover. And yet, they laugh as if the joke isn’t also on them.

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Reminder: The Tribune has no intention of correcting its March editorial when it built an entire editorial around a George Carlin bit – and got the bit exactly, oppositionally wrong. But then, they’ve never been big on accountability for themselves, just everyone else.
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Blinded By The Slight
Not hard to see at all. First, Trump loves the power to pardon; simple as that. Second, Jared told him, laughably, that this will help him get Democratic crossover votes in the 2020 election; they’re both dumb enough to believe it. Third, it’s revenge against the Obama DOJ, the Mueller FBI, and James Comey via his close friend Patrick Fitzgerald, who was the U.S. Attorney here who prosecuted Blagojevich. Fourth, Patti Blagojevich is now at least an ostensibly Trump-supporting voice on right-wing media, including Fox News. This would be both a reward and an appeal to keep it up. The real question is: What is the downside to Trump? One, it’s swampy, though that’s never stopped him before. Two, Republicans don’t like it, though that’s never stopped him before. Any others?


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Patti Blago
Let’s not forget what a miserable creature Patti Blagojevich is – as if her pleading to Trump through bullshit right-wing narratives could ever let us do that. Here is just one tiny reminder, I didn’t have time to more thoroughly catalog her inner corruptness:


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Oh, okay, one more:


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Plus, this classic:


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Finally:
Don’t let the Jackson family, perhaps guilt-ridden for their part in Obama senate seat scheme, fool you – Blagojevich was a disastrous governor even without the corruption, which is impossible to separate out from his performance anyway.
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Fact Check, Please


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Hero Herc
Such a momentous day in history.


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The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour
My co-host Jim “Coach” Coffman is out of town this weekend, so I’m planning to record a solo episode late Sunday afternoon after the Cubs-Reds series concludes.
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Weekend ChicagoReddit

Have always wondered what these slots in the alleys are for. Does anyone know? from r/chicago


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Weekend ChicagoGram

View this post on Instagram

This place.

A post shared by Allison Grote Gerlach (@allisugerlach) on


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Weekend ChicagoTube
Gloria Gaynor Performing “Killing Me Softly” At City Winery on Friday night.

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Weekend TweetWood
A sampling of the delights and disgust you will find @BeachwoodReport.


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The President Of The United States.


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The Weekend Desk McRibTipLine: Seize the day.

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Posted on August 11, 2019