Out and over / Rat war / Hackers for democracy

OUT AND OVER. President Trump this morning tweeted: “Please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.”

Eric Zorn analyzes a Trump tweetstorm, tweet by tweet.
Trump’s continuing attacks on U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions have generated a Republican backlash that portends trouble for Trump.
CNN: “Matt Drudge is firing warning shots at Trump, and that should worry the president.”
Al Gore on Trump resisters: “We don’t have time for despair. … Despair is just another form of denial.”

JOHN McCAIN’S PLEA. NPR’s Ron Elving takes a closer look at the senator’s appeal for a return to “regular order” in congressional deliberation over health care.
FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver: Older journalists in particular “elevate style over substance” in their coverage of McCain.
The Republicans’ narrow path to … whatever it is they want to do.
An updating rundown of what to watch in the debate.

‘ON MY HONOR, I WILL DO MY BEST …’ In the aftermath of the president’s … oh, let’s just say memorable … speech to the Boy Scouts Jamboree, Stephen Colbert updates the Scout Oath.
Tribune columnist Heidi Stevens: “If I had a Boy Scout, I’d tell him this.”
The Daily Show is coming to Chicago in October, and the free tickets went quickly.

‘I THINK IT’S FABULOUS.’ Gov. Rauner’s neighbors willing to talk to reporters cheered protesters who showed up outside his Winnetka home.
The Sun-Times’ Mark Brown: Who knows more about Illinois school funding—the governor’s wife, or the superintendents of many downstate school districts?
 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy quietly reversed his request for a property tax break of the sort he’s been condemning.
■ Candidate Ameya Pawar’s anti-crime platform includes legalizing marijuana and ending cash bail requirements “criminalizing poverty.”

RAT WAR. Escalating Chicago’s war on pests, the city’s deploying a poison designed to make rats infertile.
With a crackdown on the secondary sales market, the city aims to make cellphone theft less rewarding.
Moved by a traffic accident that killed a mother and her two children, aldermen have moved to require the city’s truck fleet and those of its private contractors to add safety equipment—including more mirrors.
Reader watchdog Ben Joravsky: “Chicago’s TIF scam might be even more crooked than we thought.”

‘I HAVE SPENT A GOOD MAJORITY OF MY LIFE WONDERING WHY EXACTLY WOMEN’S SHOULDERS ARE SO OFFENSIVE.’ So a suburban high school student launched a Change.org petition to protest a rule that blocked her portrait wearing an off-the-shoulder sweater from the yearbook. And then she won.
Why your Square proprietor supports dress code protests—and the ACLU.



‘THE SECRET GIFT FROM OUR BELOVED GAME OF PRO FOOTBALL.’ Rick Telander reviews new evidence linking the sport to “memory loss, mood swings, sleeplessness, anger, depression, irrational behavior and, sometimes, suicide or early death.”
The Cubs championship seems responsible for a bumper crop of World Series babies in Chicago.
Over the last 40 years, sperm counts among men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand have dropped by more than half—a finding one epidemiologist calls “shocking.”

HACKERS FOR DEMOCRACY. In a first, attendees at an annual hacker conference this weekend will try to crack 30 voting machines.
A Democratic U.S. House staffer who Politico reports is “at the center of a criminal investigation potentially impacting dozens of Democratic lawmakers” has been arrested trying to leave the country.

RICK PERRY PRANKED. A couple of Russian tricksters enticed the U.S. Energy Secretary into a conversation about pig manure. And it went on for 22 minutes.
ComEd is boosting rebates for customers who buy smart thermostats.

‘THERE ARE NO DOG PARKS ON CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE.’
The Tribune editorial board protests.

ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Yesterday’s Square inadvertently repeated the word “is.” Which is not good.
This error was spotted by incessantly loyal (proof)reader Mike Braden.
If you’re first to spot an error in Square, email UhOh@ChicagoPublicSquare.com and see your name here in pixels.

Subscribe to Square.