Kamala Harris for president. Chicago Public Square makes a rare political endorsement.
■ Columnist Stephen Robinson says Sen. Mitt Romney should back Harris: “His attempt to have it both ways is cowardly.”(Illustration: Jack Ohman.)
■ Harris makes her Fox News debut tonight tomorrow, sitting for an interview at 5 p.m. Chicago time with anchor Bret Baier …
■ … an appearance that columnist and Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer says is the right call.
■ Stephen Colbert reacts to the release of Harris’ medical report: “It’s great that just the words excellent health kind of feel like a dig at Donald Trump. They should follow that up with can walk up stairs and is potty trained.”
■ Trump’s Pennsylvania town hall went off the rails after “medical emergencies.”
Facebook doesn’t want you to read this. Once again, the increasingly capricious service has blocked the sharing of a politically pointed column …
■ … this one, in which Shift-key-averse Jeff Tiedrich assesses convicted felon Trump’s appearance on Fox: “Divisive Donny has sliced and diced America into three factions. one, his loyal MAGA cultists. two, the swarthy immigrants who are EATING THE DAWGS. and three, the enemy within. that’s you and me.”
■ TPM’s David Kurtz: “Trump’s increasingly fascistic rhetoric is setting himself up to declare any ensuing victory to be a broad mandate for disregarding the rule of law.”
■ Trump—or at least a montage of his video clips—last night made a guest appearance at Harris’ Pennsylvania rally.
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “The fact-less, white-supremacist-worthy version of America that Trump has ginned up can, conveniently, only be saved by Trump himself.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: Trump’s plan seems to be “to rile up his supporters to violence, and a few of them have been delivering.”
■ Jimmy Kimmel: “Trump’s newest vision of MAGA is to Make America Germany (in the 1930s) Again.”
‘We’ll just have to choose what we want to believe—and ignore everything else!’ Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow eavesdrops on a trio of Trump supporters.
■ News critic Mark Jacob: “Trump will keep lying as long as journalists enable it.”
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg calls out “various newcomers” to Trump’s cause: “Latinos willing to support the most anti-Latino president in history … Blacks who are more comfortable with a bigoted, mean, white man than a joyous woman of color. Palestinians … supporting … a hardened Muslim hater.”
■ Author and filmmaker Michael Moore: “STOP. OBSESSING. OVER. THE POLLS.”
‘We know where you live, we know what you’ve done, we are watching.’ That’s the chilling message investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein perceives in a visit to his home from a young special agent with the FBI—after he’d published a dossier on Trump running mate JD Vance.
■ In an interview with Notus, “Vance is sorry about putting his foot in his mouth.”
Elsewhere on the ballot … The Tribune surveys Nov. 5 referenda in Chicago’s suburbs.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “Chicagoans, your quaint notions about local democracy and an elected school board are, predictably, being exposed as a naïve dream.”
■ Ready to make your call—or help someone else register to do so? Check the Square Voter Guide Guide.
Walgreens woes. The chain’s closing about 1,200 stores—about one in seven of its locations.
■ 500 of ’em will close their doors within the 2025 fiscal year.
Chicago’s hurricane ‘wake-up call.’ Axios says Hurricanes Milton and Helene raise flags for the Midwest.
■ The American Prospect: “Hurricanes are a profit center for insurers. To compensate for exaggerated expectations of claims, they jack up rates and hollow out coverage.”
‘Lincoln was an executioner.’ Those words were scrawled yesterday, Indigenous Peoples Day (and Columbus Day), on a Lincoln Park statue of Abraham Lincoln …
■ … evidently in memory of Lincoln’s signature on an order for the execution of 38 men during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.
Another prize for Chicago. University of Chicago professor James Robinson shares this year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences …
■ … a thing that Eric Zorn notes isn’t a “real” Nobel.
‘There will be forces who will … attempt to degrade my leadership.’ In an interview with Politico, Mayor Johnson defends his rocky tenure.
■ The Onion: “Tourist Impressed By Size Of Chicago Residents.”
‘Journalists love getting … shit in their copy.’ Author and tech rebel Cory Doctorow, creator of the word enshittification, says “dirty words are politically potent” …
■ … and notes that he’s giving a speech on the subject next month at a conference where he’s opening for the Secretary General of the United Nations.
■ Here he is talking about that word in a Chicago Public Square podcast earlier this year.
Shirtstorm. An updated line of Chicago Public Squarewear is now available at the Raygun Custom website.
■ $17 for a shirt and $30 for a hoodie constitute a good deal these days. But a new contribution to support Square in any amount—even just $1, once—will get you a code to knock $5 off even those low prices.
■ And they all come with Raygun’s anytime, any-reason return policy …
■ … and you can use PayPal if you prefer.
Nominate Square? The Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago nominations are open again.
■ Square humbly seeks your nod for Best Newsletter and Best Independent Website.
Thanks. Jim Bray made this edition better.
A Square public service announcement
How can you help children who’ve experienced significant trauma? Join a free in-person panel discussion with Friends of the Children-Chicago, this Friday at 8:30 a.m., to hear experts explain how positive relationships with professional mentors can help kids thrive. Register here.