‘Is Trump dead?’ / Good News, Bad News Dept. / ‘Taste elevation’

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Welcome back. While you were—we hope—taking it easy this weekend, the Chicago Public Square account on Bluesky was pumping out breaking news and commentary. A sample:
■ The Handbasket: “Officer repeatedly seen on camera in D.C. crackdown shows Trump agents … are out for blood.”
■ Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten’s Dispatch From an Occupied City: “If you are Hispanic with a menial service job, you are in jeopardy of mistreatment whatever your immigration status.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich, keeping score: “Illinois governor, hero. Puppy assassin, zero.”
■ Also from Tiedrich: “In the city of the big shoulders, Mayor Johnson’s are fucking huge right now.”
■ Journalism watchdog Margaret Sullivan: “Don’t be a ‘political hobbyist.’ Here’s how to harness your power.”

But now, onward:

‘Is Trump dead?’ Noting that searches for that phrase soared on Google over the weekend, columnist and former Politico editor Garrett Graff offers six questions worth asking about the president’s health.
■ Bill Kristol at The Bulwark: “I don’t know if Donald Trump has a personal health problem. But I’m confident he has a political health care problem.”
■ Tiedrich again: “The press continues to ignore Dear Leader’s obvious decline.”
■ Pediatrician, immunologist and columnist Zachary Rubin: “The CDC is unraveling. Where do we go from here?”
■ The president says he’ll give his hapless sycophant ex-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani—who was injured in a car crash over the weekend—the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Good News, Bad News Dept. The National Weather Service is hiring hundreds of meteorologists to replace those cut by Elon Musk’s abortive “Department of Government Efficiency” …
■ … but its job posting asks applicants to explain how they support Donald Trump.
■ David Dayen at The American Prospect: “The country is rapidly devolving into rule by an unpopular despot. The Democrats who blind themselves to this are causing great harm.”
■ Popular Information dissects Trump’s latest leverage of his public office for personal financial gain: After a tepid first day of trading for his World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency token, his stockpile emerged with a paper value of over $3.4 billion.

‘The desperate flailing of a failing autocrat.’ In a full-page newspaper ad open letter, dozens of Chicago’s faith leaders tell Trump “We are not afraid of your troops.”
■ Mayor Johnson yesterday led hundreds in a chant at a Labor Day rally: “No federal troops in the city of Chicago!”
■ The mayor’s signed an executive order calling on Trump to “stand down from any attempts to deploy the U.S. Armed Forces … to Chicago” …
■ … but Johnson says he expects the feds to arrive Friday …
■ … significant timing, just ahead of Mexican Independence Day weekend.
■ Developing coverage: A federal judge says Trump’s dispatch of the National Guard to the Los Angeles area is illegal.
■ Gov. Pritzker planned a news conference at 3 p.m. to update the situation …
■ … and you can watch live online here.
■ Chicago police report at least nine dead and 52 wounded over the holiday weekend—topping the Memorial Day and Fourth of July weekends.
■ The Sun-Times and WBEZ report that 22 new Chicago speed cameras contributed to a recent record number of tickets issued in June.

‘Thank you, dear President Forever Trump, for forgoing stereotypes tied to my age group and demanding we stand in an endless line like younger folks.’ Columnist Elaine Soloway, 87, mockingly complains that she’s “had it up to here (I’m only 4'8") with fellow oldsters who are condemning your latest brilliant command to cease mail-in voting.”
■ The Democracy Defenders Fund pledges to sue if he does it.

‘Taste elevation.’ That’s the mission of one of the two divisions into which Kraft Heinz is splitting—the one that’ll include ketchup, of course.
■ It says it’ll keep its current HQs in Chicago and Pittsburgh.
■ The AP: McDonald’s price cuts could signal a fast-food price war.

‘Note to self: Next time TV asks, just say no.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg shares his harrowing experience as CNN tried to talk him into appearing on a show at 4 a.m.
■ Ending long summer breaks, hosts Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and Jimmys Kimmel and Fallon return to the late-night airwaves this evening—Colbert for the start of what stands to be his final season at The Late Show.

‘When I make news, I wear a Chicago Public Square hat doing it!’ Square reader and supporter Joe Hass was out protesting Friday—sporting his Squarewear—when ABC7 Chicago rolled up to cover the scene …
■ … the answer to which is: Nowhere, except maybe at an estate sale …
■ … because that promotion has ended and those are all gone …
■ … but that prompted some thought about whether they should come back …
■ … and that prompted creation of this one-question survey, which maybe you’ll kindly take?

‘Surge manpower’ / CDC ‘courage’ / Quiz!

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Chicago Public Square’ll take the long weekend off. Be here Tuesday.

■ Meanwhile, get breaking news and commentary via the Square Bluesky account. (Hey, play your cards right and you could be the 1,000th follower there.)

‘Surge manpower.’ That’s what sources tell NBC News multiple federal agencies are planning next week in Chicago as they ramp up immigration enforcement.
■ President Trump’s border czar confirms a “large contingent” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is headed this way.
■ Columnist Jamison Foser: “Trump’s military occupation of American cities is unpopular. The media is trying to manufacture consent for it.”
■ The American Civil Liberties Union’s launched an online petition: “Tell Congress: No Troops on Our Streets.”
■ A Labor Day protest march through Chicago will target Trump, oligarchic billionaires and knee-bending corporations, including, um, Target.

‘May all who hold the reins to power be haunted.’ Poet Lynn Ungar marks the shooting at a Minneapolis church full of school kids with a different kind of thought and prayer, including this passage:
May the soul of each and every
child shot in school follow
those with AR-15 pins on their lapels
through the halls of Congress, poking them
and demanding with the dreary repetition
of a bored child on a long car trip to know
Where are we going? What are we doing?
What is the plan?
■ Or, to quote Everyone Is Entitled to My Own Opinion proprietor Jeff Tiedrich: “Shove your thoughts and prayers.”
■ Investigators say the shooter “expressed hate towards almost every group imaginable” and was “obsessed” with the idea of killing children.
■ A 12-year-old girl injured in the attack was sent to a hospital in whose intensive care unit her mom was working at the time.
■ Prosecutors say the shooting death of UnitedHeathcare’s CEO has inspired followers.

CDC ‘courage.’ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina praises Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees’ “solidarity and a refusal to be silent” in the face of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-science regime.
■ Columnist Robert Hubbell: “The chaos at the CDC makes all Americans less safe.”
■ The White House is backing Kennedy’s decision to fire the CDC’s director.
■ NOTUS: The Senate gets a say on whomever Trump picks as a permanent replacement.
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “Get on the phone and urge your lawmakers to get off their tails and boot this nutter out of the powerful seat he so clearly has no business occupying.”
■ The Bulwark: “RFK Jr. f*cked around. Now we get to find out.”
■ Stephen Robinson at Public Notice: “The White House is lying about Trump’s health. Their explanations are absurd and it’s time to start asking questions.”

An ‘erratic, vindictive’ call. Trump’s cutting off Secret Service protection for his 2024 opponent, former Vice President Harris—just as she launches a nationwide book tour. (Wall Street Journal gift link, underwritten by those who support Chicago Public Square.)
■ Investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein: In the Democratic Party’s first national meeting since Trump returned to the White House, chair Ken Martin complained the party’s brought just “a pencil to a knife fight.”
■ Columnist Paul Street: “Trump’s dictatorship is quite far along.”
■ The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols compares Trump to The Boys’ evil version of Superman, Homelander: “The corporations and public-relations spinmeisters who created and sold him to the public now realize that they are powerless to stop him.”
■ A year after Trump threatened to imprison Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Platformer says Zuckerberg “has the administration fighting battles for him around the world.”

Chicago’s lead problem. WBEZ’s analysis finds the threat of water contamination is worst in the city’s majority Black and Latino neighborhoods.
■ Enter a Chicago address to find out whether its water service is compromised by lead.

Mayor Johnson schooled. The Chicago Board of Education’s OK’d a new budget that rejects the mayor’s call for big-time borrowing to cover pension payments.
■ WBEZ: The Trump administration’s threatening to yank millions of dollars from the state unless it dumps teaching materials that acknowledge gender nonconformity.
■ Trump administration budget cuts have prompted layoffs and budget cuts at the University of Chicago.

‘A step toward drowning freedom of speech.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg sounds a warning about the president’s unconstitutional order to ban flag burning.
■ Neil Young broke out a new Trump protest song at his Chicago performance this week: “Big Crime.”
■ He’s released downloadable audio of the tune from his Wednesday soundcheck at Northerly Island.

One of our guys made it—and then didn’t. Chicago-born Emil Wakim’s among the casualties as Saturday Night Live trims cast members ahead of the new season.
■ Some fans note that he was the only SNL actor to deliver a pro-Palestine segment (October 2024 link).
■ The Hollywood Reporter praises as “thoroughly engaging” a new documentary profile of Chicago-born investigative reporter Seymour Hersh—still at it after close to 60 years.


‘This one’s for the workers!’ Past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel’s clocked in with a nine-question Labor Day weekend news quiz.
■ Get at least eight of those questions right and you’ll have topped your Chicago Public Square columnist’s score.

‘The audience experience must be flawless.’ Assessing The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s plan to eliminate its print edition as of Jan. 1, Poynter’s Tom Jones cautions, “That means no delays logging in, no issues using the app and no hurdles navigating the site. And, needless to say, the journalism must be elite.”
■ Media watcher Simon Owens: More papers should do the same.

‘All the cool newshounds know: It’s hip to be Square.’ Those kind words for this service from reader and Square supporter Al Slater make an apt epigram for our roll call of those whose financial support keeps this service coming—including Patrick Olsen again just yesterday.
■ Join their ranks anytime—for as little as $1, just once—and see your name added to The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.

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