Blacklash / Project 2025 shakeup / ‘One of the best movies of 2024’

An almost Olympics-free edition:

Blacklash. With Donald Trump set to be interviewed at noon during the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago, the conference co-chair, Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, is quitting in protest.
 Writing in The TRiiBE, NABJ member Tyler J. Davis says, “It feels like our convention … is being used.”
 Former Sun-Times columnist John W. Fountain compares the appearance to “inviting a Latin King street gang to a Gangster Disciple party.”
 Mayor Johnson: “My administration’s values and practice are in complete opposition to … Trump’s agenda, but … city departments and agencies are fully prepared to uphold safety during his scheduled visit.”

‘A crisis of masculinity.’ Ex-Illinois Republican Rep. turned Trump antagonist Adam Kinzinger: “Trump and his type are destroying young men with lies about manhood.”
 Reader columnist Ben Joravsky gives Trump running mate JD Vance the prize for “the year’s most insincere political apology.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman’s You Betcha newsletter.)
 Notus: “A Democratic fixture has spent months working out a plan to move memes into action. Kamala Harris is giving them the opportunity they’d been missing.”
 Usually fatalistic economist and self-described former “evil hedge fund guy” Umair Haque: “To everyone’s surprise, including mine, American democracy is in a good place.”

Project 2025 shakeup. The director of the Heritage Foundation’s regressive vision is out.
 Trump niece Mary L. Trump: “Project 2025—and all of the dangerous anti-democratic plans it contains for the next Republican administration—needs to be hung around his neck like an albatross.”
 Trump’s nephew—and Trump’s father’s namesake—Fred Trump III plans to vote for Harris.

Her race to lose. As the Democrats begin their pre-convention virtual roll call for the presidential nomination tomorrow, Harris is alone on the ballot.
 Chicago’s denied firefighters a permit to protest during the actual Democratic National Convention.
 Harris last night in Georgia, taunting Trump for his refusal to debate: “If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.”
 Harris reportedly will name her running mate within a week.
 Critic Bill Carter on Transportation Secretary—and possible VP pick—Pete Buttigieg’s Daily Show appearance: “Pete is flat-out brilliant on television, as every embarrassed Fox News host has learned the hard way after inviting him on as a guest.”
 Columnist Rafi Schwartz: “The ‘Tired of All These F**king Guys’ vote is real.”

Green light. Heated: “A coalition of lefty green groups that had not publicly endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2024 are planning to formally endorse Kamala Harris” …
 … although Politico says she’s holding a hot potato on the matter of fracking.
 American Prospect columnist Harold Meyerson (no relation): “Crypto mega-investors and media monopolists threaten the Democrats.”
 Political analyst Nate Silver says Harris faces “one big problem”: The Electoral College.
 PolitiFact slaps a “Mostly False” rating on Trump’s assertion that Harris “wants to defund the police.”

Boeing’s new pilot. Plagued by a rash of legal and safety problems, the company’s appointed its next CEO.
 Illinois-based tractor maker Deere & Co. is laying off almost 300 workers.
 Popular Information: Meet the anti-LGBTQ extremist pulling the strings at Deere and other major American corporations.
 Gov. Pritzker’s signed a bill tightening Illinois’ protections against child labor.

Can you name the anchor of the CBS Evening News? That person’s out after five years …
 … in what CNN’s Oliver Darcy calls “a massive demotion.”

‘One of the best movies of 2024.’ Critic Richard Roeper raves about “the gloriously lionhearted and brilliantly rendered” prison movie Sing Sing.
 Former Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas, writing for The Hollywood Reporter on his credit in the Deadpool & Wolverine movie: “My name should have come first.”

‘Ignoring stuff you don’t like is an important life skill.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg counsels those offended by the Olympics’ opening ceremonies …
 … who include Turkey’s repressive president, Tayyip Erdogan.

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