‘A rancid buffet of bigotry.’ Chicago-based columnist Noah Berlatsky reviews last night’s debate among the not-Donald Trump Republican candidates for president.
■ Nikki Haley took more heat from the other candidates than Trump did.
■ Time: Asked whether Trump is mentally fit, “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis looked like he knew he was caught flat-footed” before he and ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie “devolved into a screaming match.”
■ Christie to Vivek Ramaswamy: “This is the fourth debate … that you will be voted … the most obnoxious blowhard in America.”
‘The time to stop him is not January 2029. It’s now.’ Tribune columnist Steve Chapman says a reelected Trump could make himself president for life.
■ Jimmy Kimmel: “In November, we’re going to be voting on whether we will ever vote again.”
■ Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer: Trump’s “running for president for himself, not the public … a desperate ploy to avoid facing the consequences of his many illegal actions.”
■ CNN’s Oliver Darcy says Trump’s vow to govern as a dictator on Day One amounts to journalism’s “gravest potential threat … in a generation.”
Nine pages of ‘crimes and bad acts.’ That’s how law professor Joyce Vance describes Special Counsel Jack Smith’s notice detailing evidence he intends to introduce in the election interference case against Trump.
■ Legal experts tell Salon the filing suggests “powerful evidence” and “the whole story of Jan. 6.”
■ Read it here.
■ Settling a civil lawsuit, Trump’s fake Wisconsin electors have acknowledged that Joe Biden won the 2020 election there and agreed that they won’t again serve as Trump electors.
■ A grand jury has accused six Republicans of pulling the same stunt in Nevada.
■ Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, contends that “turning into Donald’s lapdog” destroyed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s career.
■ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce: “He’s leaving the House to ‘serve America in new’—and surely horrifying—‘ways.’”
■ The Onion sarcastically revisits McCarthy’s “Hot Streak Of Utterly Embarrassing Low Points.”
■ Columnist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich: “Soon, any Republican lawmaker still possessing some integrity will also be gone.”
‘If I want to shock people about the Israel-Gaza war … I might mention that I don’t blame Hamas so much as I do Benjamin Netanyahu.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg explains: “While Hamas was merely doing what terrorist groups do—cause terror—Netanyahu, as prime minister of Israel, was supposed to stop them.”
■ The Conversation: New reports suggest “confirmation bias” helped Israeli intelligence underestimate the threat.
■ Discourse columnist Caitlin Schneider praises 20-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg’s “commitment to Palestine in the face of unhinged rancor.”
■ After the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania refused to answer a simple question at a congressional hearing—“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate (insert name of campus) rules on bullying and harassment?”—a Tribune editorial is calling for their resignations.
‘Now What? looks like it ought to be his nickname.’ Citing the collapse of plans for a migrant tent camp on Chicago’s Southwest Side, columnist Eric Zorn says Mayor Johnson’s again been “caught flat-footed, without a solid alternative.”
■ Three City Council members are calling for the resignations of seven officials responsible for the fiasco …
■ … but the mayor’s office rejects that demand as “not serious.”
Stickup surge. The Sun-Times marks Chicago’s largest spike in robberies in more than two decades …
■ … and tallies all the cash Chicago taxpayers have paid since 2000—nearly $700 million—in lawsuits by people who claim police framed them.
Grocery sale. The Ohio-based parent of the Chicago area’s much-maligned Save A Lot chain has sold all its stores in Florida.
■ McDonald’s is taking the wraps off its “small-format, beverage-led concept” chain, CosMc’s—opening this month in Bolingbrook.
He’s seen the damage done. Activist musician Neil Young is bailing on Twitter X: “I will now be using Threads as a replacement, and I encourage my friends to do the same.”
■ Here he is there.
■ And here’s Chicago Public Square.
Dark day. This afternoon brings Chicago’s earliest sunset of the year.
■ Block Club: This week’s warmer weather is an aberration that won’t last long.
‘Stop trying to hold back the future.’ News critic and ProPublica founder Richard Tofel calls on journalists to embrace advances in artificial intelligence: “I am certainly not advocating leaping before looking, but it’s possible to do one and then the other in the proper sequence.”
■ Protesting job cuts with their biggest protest in 48 years, 1,000 or so Washington Post workers are off the job today …
■ … putting the paper, owned by Amazon rich guy Jeff Bezos, in a bind.
Chicago Public Square readers write.
■ Valerie Denney on Chicago’s aborted plan to house migrants on contaminated land in Brighton Park: “It will be hard to find any sizeable site in Chicago where there won’t be some kind of ground-level pollution. … People should understand this not just as a specific problem for a specific location, but a generalized problem due to Chicago’s hard-working industrial past.”
■ Chris Goldrick was inspired by Tuesday’s item about the Tribune’s predatory subscription practices: “I just contributed $22 [to support Square], which is roughly the difference between what the Trib said they would charge me each month and what they are actually charging me. When I called them, they offered to charge me the original amount again. Now that’s service.”
■ Speaking of which: Eric Zorn flags an extraordinary bargain for Trib subscribers—$3 for a year’s digital access.
■ You can follow Goldrick’s example and back Square for any amount you choose—even just $1, once.
We made it! Thanks to your nominations, Chicago Public Square’s a finalist for Best Email Newsletter and Best Independent Website or Blog in the Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago 2023 Ballot.
■ Voting begins next week.
Thanks. Sherry Kent made this edition better.