‘The castration of Donald Trump.’ Chicago-born journalist and documentary filmmaker Jonathan Alter compares Vice President Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech and her performance in Tuesday night’s debate to “Nolan Ryan or Max Scherzer pitching two no-hitters in one season.”
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch—writing from the city where the debate happened—recounts “The night Donald Trump choked like a dog (Kamala’s version).”
■ Trump niece Mary L. Trump: Harris “gave millions of us something we have needed for almost a decade—catharsis.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)■ More than 24 hours later, late-night hosts were feasting on Trump’s “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night” …
■ … but when Trump and Harris met at the 9/11 commemorative ceremony yesterday, The Daily Beast reports that he shook her hand and said, “Good job.”
■ Satirist Andy Borowitz: “Putin Upset to See Someone Else Controlling Trump.”
■ The Onion: “Dems Alarmed By Joe Biden’s Poor Performance As Debate Viewer.”
■ Way more viewers tuned in for this week’s debate than watched the June matchup between Biden and Trump.
‘She reclaimed family values.’ Abortion, Every Day columnist Jessica Valenti says Harris did something “unthinkable just two years ago.”
■ Law Dork Chris Geidner: “Trump can’t even explain the post-Roe reality. … Harris showed how it’s done.”
■ Wonkette’s Robyn Pennacchia: “Trump’s abortion answer was so stupid we had to make a flowchart about it”:
■ States Newsroom: Sterilization’s up among women in states that’ve banned abortion.
■ American Freakshow columnist Nina Burleigh: “The most important distinction between the two candidates—and the factor that will make or break the election—is gender.”
■ HuffPost: “The 2024 election is all about cats right meow.”
‘It’s a way to dehumanize us.’ Chicago’s Haitian Americans condemn Trump’s false claims of migrants eating pets.
■ Illinois’ Haitian American attorney general, Kwame Raoul: “I would take offense … but I know that Trump is just unstable.”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance: “It’s not just that the Haitian story is ridiculous. … It is also dangerous. Dehumanizing people is what makes inhuman treatment of them possible.”
■ Stephen Colbert: “This pet-eating brain-worm got into Trump’s skull through JD Vance. … Remember to spay or neuter your JD Vance.”
■ Trump + Springfield + Dogs + Cats = A meme jackpot.
■ Taylor Swift’s feline call to action may have unleashed a big wave of voter registration.
Fishy biz at Trump Tower. A Cook County Circuit Court judge has ruled the building a public nuisance that threatens the Chicago River with a water cooling system that has killed thousands of fish.
■ Attorney General Raoul says he’ll be seeking civil penalties.
‘The Magic Kingdom is under assault.’ Media monitor Oliver Darcy assesses the impact of Trump’s criticism of ABC and its hosting of the debate.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst revisits “Eight times the moderators were mean and hurtful to Donald Trump, very meanly, very hurtfully.”
‘F**king pigs.’ Three Chicago City Council members and the police union are calling for the firing of one of Mayor Johnson’s top aides—who applied that invective in 2021 to Colorado cops implicated in the 2019 death of a Black man.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “He’s got to let her go quickly.”
■ Johnson’s decided to give the police and fire departments a pass on his hiring freeze in the face of a city budget crunch.
Car schlock. ProPublica: “One of the nation’s largest auto lenders told customers, ‘We’re here to help.’ Then it took their money and their cars.”
■ Courage in journalism: In a footnote, ProPublica outs one of its board members for his ties to the company.
Late-night TV shrinkage. The Hollywood Reporter surveys the field’s struggle adapting to a streaming world.
■ ProPublica founder Dick Tofel sees “important signs that the business crisis is finally coming for local TV news.”
■ It’s already here for Trump’s social media stock.
■ Disney+ is trolling for new subscribers with a $1.99/month deal.
■ 60 Minutes is going digital.
We are not alone. It’s not just Chicago Public Square posts that Facebook has been yanking capriciously: The company’s also blocking emergency warnings about wildfires ravaging the West.
■ Almost two weeks later, the Facebook response to Square’s protest remains, “You’ll hear back from us soon.”
■ Haze from those wildfires has made its way to Chicago.
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