‘The Donald dumpster fire’ / Choice words / ‘Walking through soup’

‘The Donald dumpster fire.’ CNN’s Oliver Darcy on Trump’s appearance yesterday before the National Association of Black Journalists’ Chicago convention: “Despite the sharp questions … Trump was able to overwhelm them with his trademark bluster.”
Poynter’s Tom Jones perceived no “unified strategy among the three moderators.”
The first question: “You’ve used ‘animal ‘and ‘rabid’ to describe Black district attorneys. You’ve attacked Black journalists … saying the questions they asked are, ‘stupid and racist.’ You had dinner with a white supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort. … Why should Black voters trust you?
PolitiFact: He Pants-on-Fire lied when he said Vice President Harris had in the past only promoted her Indian heritage.
The Bulwark: “Trump claimed repeatedly that the mics weren’t working. Unfortunately for him, they were.”
Law professor Joyce Vance: “The only thing worse than the overt racism that came out of his mouth was his apparent belief that he could get away with it.”
Columnist Robert Reich: “Cornered by his naked bigotry, Trump shifted to naked pander.”
Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer: The interview shows Trump’s afraid of Harris.
He said he’d “absolutely” pardon Jan. 6, 2021, rioters.
Public Notice’s Aaron Rupar’s assembled “an 11-minute supercut of all the lowlights” …
 … or see the full session—which lasted just 37 minutes, instead of a full hour.
Wonkette: “He did so great that his own people made it stop halfway through.”
Mayor Johnson, speaking to the convention later in the day: Trump “ran into Blackness and he felt it.”
Yet, Washington Post columnist Colbert King cautions, Trump was courting not the Black journalists in the room but “a MAGA audience … that loves mocking people of color.”
Still, Politico reports, Capitol Hill Republicans “are privately freaking out.”

‘If Trump isn’t having buyer’s remorse, he certainly should be.’ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “You picked the worst VP candidate ever!
In Chicago, Trump didn’t exactly sing Vance’s praises—instead celebrating himself: “You’re voting for me.”
Vance tells NOTUS he still has Trump’s confidence.

Choice words. Axios notes a change in Democratic campaign strategy with the shift from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris: Less democracy, more freedom and the future.
Believe it or not, all of this happened in July.

‘The aim is to create a high energy for four days and snare a massive viewing audience.’ The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet: To capture the jolt Harris has brought the campaign, Chicago convention organizers are shifting from prerecorded presentations to more live stuff.
Coming next week: Community meetings at which neighbors to the United Center and McCormick Place can learn more about how the convention will crimp their lives.
Harris’ vice-presidential campaign chief of staff lived—and still owns a home—in Oak Park.

‘Democrats have finally learned the value of shitposting.’ Wired’s Makena Kelly: The party’s strategists have figured out how to go viral.
Teen Vogue columnist Rebecca Fishbein: “Screw maturity. Send couch jokes.”
Ex-Sun-Times CEO Edwin Eisendrath: “An outbreak of happiness threatens to end Trumpism in America.”
Saturday Night Live’s bringing Maya Rudolph back to play Harris.
Personal note from Chicago Public Square to the presidential candidates: Holler if you need our one of these.

‘Please don't send no combative policemen that are prejudiced.’ 911 recordings reveal that the mother of Sonya Massey, a Black woman shot and killed in her Springfield-area home by a sheriff’s deputy, believed Massey was having a “mental breakdown” and feared that cops could “make the situation worse.”
The shootout that left a Cook County sheriff’s deputy dead involved more than 65 shots.
Doctors call a 3-month-old shot in the chest Saturday in Little Village a “miracle baby.”

‘Walking through soup.’ If this summer feels worse than usual, Illinois’ state climatologist tells the Tribune you’re not alone—and climate change is the culprit.
This weekend’s Lollapalooza might be a slog.

Stuff it, management. Gov. Pritzker’s signed a bill forbidding employers from forcing workers to sit through anti-union meetings …
 … but not until Jan. 1.
A Bloomberg expose: Companies that farm out IT workers are exploiting flaws in the visa lottery system—at the expense of businesses and talented immigrants playing it straight.

9/11 resolution. Eleven years after his capture, the man accused of being the main plotter of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America has agreed to plead guilty.
The U.S. and Russia were today reportedly at the threshold of a major prisoner swap.

CBS Evening News overhaul. The show’s backing away from, in Variety’s words, “trying to run down dozens of items … in the space of less than 30 minutes,” instead—as the network news chief says—“to curate what’s important.”
Journalism prof Jeff Jarvis rounds up a sampling of liberal disgust with The New York Times.

Thanks. Joel Meyerson and Mike Braden made this edition better.

Subscribe to Square.