Gun extremists’ ‘dream.’ That’s a gun safety advocate’s reaction to Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s speech to the Republican National Convention last night …
■ … when he called for the party to pitch “a big tent” …
■ … on which Stephen Colbert elaborated: “It’s a holding area where we’ll eventually keep the immigrants until we deport them.”
■ Bulwark columnist Marc Caputo sees the Trump campaign’s logic behind Vance’s selection this way: “Juicing turnout among white men.”
■ Abortion, Every Day columnist Jessica Valenti successfully pushed NPR and The New York Times to correct their reporting and explain that “Vance does, in fact, support a national abortion ban.”
■ Columnist Charlie Madigan says that, in Vance, Donald Trump has “a new, compelling sludge spreader.”
Zoo zooms into the future. Brookfield Zoo’s planning a half-billion-dollar transformation, overhauling more than half its property …
■ Late-night hosts spotlighted all the groveling.
■ Pod Save America cohost Dan Pfeiffer: “Calling Vance a hypocrite is a losing strategy.”
■ Columnist Robert Reich: Win or lose in November, Vance, Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk are Trumpism’s next generation.
■ An Illinois Republican went viral after confronting scandal-scarred Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on the convention floor: “Shut up, Gaetz. You don’t have to be an asshole.”
Dark money, darker. The Lever details how Wall Street cash helped fund the oppressive Project 2025 plan …
■ … which Public Notice’s Lisa Needham says is Republicans’ real platform.
■ Moline-based John Deere management: Sorry about embracing that Pride stuff and pronoun policies.
Well, it’s not the Trinity, but … Three of the nation’s top elected Democrats—Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—have now told President Biden (who’s said it would take “the Lord Almighty” to get him to drop out of the race) that he should consider stepping aside.
■ Washington Post columnist Charles Lane (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters): “The problem with Biden’s candidacy isn’t age. It’s honesty.”
■ The Bulwark’s Sam Stein on the mood within the party: “This isn’t panic. It’s terror.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “Give Biden the hook.”
■ A Tribune editorial: Democrats should kill a plan to have delegates nominate Biden remotely—weeks before the convention in Chicago.
■ The party has postponed that process—a bit.
■ The party has postponed that process—a bit.
■ Oh, and Biden has COVID-19.
‘Where’s the official report of Trump’s injuries?’ Media writer Tom Jones has questions about that shooting Saturday.
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “The public deserves to know exactly what happened to the Republican presidential nominee and what steps are being taken to help him process something that any of us would struggle with profoundly.”
How tossing a Big Gulp became a felony. CWBChicago’s Tim Hecke sorts out how what happened after suburban police labeled a man’s splashing of a soft drink on Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx just a misdemeanor.
■ Chicago’s inspector general unsuccessfully sought to put ex-Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown on the city’s do-not-hire list.
‘Unconscionable failure by successions of monopolist managements.’ Journalism professor John McClelland is astonished at the failure of Chicago’s two biggest papers, the Tribune and the Sun-Times, to publish print editions Tuesday: “Backup generators are small investments and moderately low maintenance in the scope of multimillion-dollar plants that have everyday roles crucial to an informed public. Four of the five dailies I served 1966-87, even a dinky 25,000 one in Arkansas, had them.”
■ A Sun-Times editor’s note explains that today’s papers also are affected by storm-crippled printing presses, blaming “unexpected issues … at our vendor, Chicago Tribune Company, which also prints the Tribune, the Daily Herald, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other papers.”
MSNBC’s ‘micro-scandal.’ Puck’s Dylan Byers explores what some within the organization see as a crisis of integrity (another gift link).
■ ProPublica cofounder Dick Tofel: News organizations’ growing embrace of CEOs with no news experience is a big problem.
Make that 25. Monday night’s tornado count has reached that number—and may rise further.
■ Days after a twister shut it down, I-55 is open again through Will County.
■ Among areas storm-afflicted yesterday: New York State, the Ozarks and Toronto.
Bear up. The Chicago-set TV series The Bear racked up a record-breaking 23 comedy series Emmy nominations …
■ … but the 17th-century Japan-set Shogun drama led all with 25.
■ … with a focus on “biodiversity loss and climate change.”
■ Read its “Next Century Plan” here.
Chicago Public Square loses a reader. This unsubscribe message arrived yesterday: “I subscribe to WBEZ daily and listen to The Mincing Rascals. That’s enough hot takes from libs for me.”
■ Square yesterday also gained a few new supporters, including William Lindsey Cochran*: “I was feeling particularly low after the events of the past couple of weeks. One of your recent issues made me feel connected to fellow human beings trying to puzzle through the unusual circumstances of our times. It’s good work that you do, and I have benefited from it.”
■ Bill joins The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians, whose other members include Jean Johnson, Tim Bannon, Jill Brickman, Jill DeVaney, Lucy Tarabour, Jean Remsen, Michael Weiland, Phil Prale, Brian Gunderson, Jim Burns, Tim Colburn, Alan Hommerding, Holly Wallace, John Metz, Kate Arias, Bill Herbert, John Meissen, Larry Dahlke, Lisa Krimen, Brent Brotine, Tanya Surawicz, Molly McDonough, Patrick Stout, Heather Alger, Angela Mullins, Jeff Hanneman, Jerry Wolin, Peter Chien, Edward Witt, Kristina Zaremba, Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, David Protess, Mark Miller, Jon Langham, Martha Swisher, Ed Nickow, Patrick Quinn and Rosemary Caruk.
■ You can see your name atop this list tomorrow by pitching in—even just $1, once—to help keep this service coming.
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Thanks. Ted Slowik and Mike Braden made this edition better.
* Former colleague to your Square columnist at WXRT and WNUA.