Reasons to be thankful. The Bulwark: “We don’t want to jinx it, but … some notable elected Republicans are showing faint signs of independent thought” as convicted felon Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump is old and weak, and … it is also possible that Republican senators will … begin the process of restoring the balance of the three branches of government.”
■ Above the Law columnist Liz Dye: “Pam Bondi, Trump’s runner-up attorney general, is … probably the least worst pick we were going to get” (although The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch says she’s “arguably more capable of carrying out his autocratic revenge agenda” and Politico says her nomination has career employees at Justice worried she’ll carry out Trump’s desires for retribution).
■ Former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan credits the downfall of Trump’s first pick, Matt Gaetz, to investigative journalism—a thing that she says will become tougher and more expensive “since Trump will be aggressive in seeking retribution, including through a weaponized Justice Department.”
■ Poynter employees list things they’re grateful for in media in 2024.
■ Tribune alumnus Charlie Madigan: “We are stronger than you think, Donald! We’ve already gone through incredible shit without collapsing.”
■ The American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson (no relation) suggests strategies for union survival as Trump & Co. take aim at the labor movement.
■ Law professor and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance takes heart from The Hobbit movie: “The small everyday deeds of ordinary folk … keep the darkness at bay.”
The gathering of the clouds. Historian and On Tyranny author Timothy Snyder serves up 13 reasons to oppose Trump’s defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth—including his “calls for a ‘holy war’ …against Americans who think differently than he does because ‘God wills it.’”
■ Lisa Needham at Public Notice: Trump’s rewarded Russ Vought*—who said before the election that Trump would implement a national abortion ban—by giving him back his old job as head of the Office of Management and Budget.
■ ProPublica: As Texas doctors avoid riskier miscarriage treatments, a third woman has died under the state’s abortion ban.
Flies and spiders. Columnist Melissa Ryan: “No one qualified for these jobs will take them” …
■ … although columnist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich takes heart in Trump’s choice for treasury secretary: “A protege of the MAGA arch-villain George Soros (he’s also gay, which the MAGA base may not like, either)” …
■ … and The Lever’s David Sirota shares his application letter to work in Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Out of the frying pan into the fire. The Washington Post: Trump’s picks to lead federal health programs are “largely untested in fighting disease outbreaks.”
■ Joyce Vance again: Get your vaccines.
■ Route Fifty: Local governments have been slow to adopt a tool against misinformation: The .gov web domain, which the feds have made free.
‘Compromised.’ Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth tells CNN she’s concerned about Trump’s would-be director of national intelligence.
■ The American Prospect’s David Dayen: “The unifying thread of the team around the president is that they sell their services to corporations for money.”
‘Don’t let the government hide the cruelty.’ Ex-Trib and Sun-Times editor Mark Jacob, now proprietor at Stop the Presses, offers reporters and the public “10 ways to defend democracy.”
■ Former Trump White House director of communications Anthony Scaramucci doubts Trump will curtail press freedom: “He certainly would like to do that. But I don’t think he will be able to.”
■ A lawyer for the National Press Photographers Association expects journalists to find themselves increasingly on the front lines covering volatile events.
Festival of fright. Chicago police had taken a juvenile into custody on weapons charges after a shooting that left a young woman wounded outside the Macy’s store on State Street amid downtown holiday celebrations Saturday.
■ The victim was listed in fair condition.
■ Macy’s reports that a single employee hid up to $154 million’s worth of expenses.
Illinois in the crunch. Politico: Caught between a budget deficit and uncertainty about federal funding from a Trump administration, state agencies are under a directive to identify budget cuts.
■ Crain’s: Chicago-area transit agencies could find federal cash “more challenging to secure under another Trump administration.”
Lame duck to pardon fowls. Over animal-rights activists’ objections, President Biden was set today to spare two turkeys’ lives for Thanksgiving.
■ Politico: Vice President Harris is telling her aides and allies to keep her political options open.
The clouds burst? They could descend on Chicago Tuesday night through Thanksgiving …
■ … but the National Weather Service says the region could dodge the worst if a couple of storm systems (creatively dubbed “A” and “B”) don’t hook up.
■ Mayor Johnson’s pledge to test a plan for the city to clear the city’s sidewalks in four neighborhoods has run afoul of budget reality.
Riddles in the dark.
■ Axios Chicago’s Justin Kaufmann offers “The Ultimate Chicago Improv Quiz,” on which your Chicago Public Square columnist scored 100%.
■ City Cast Chicago’s Sidney Madden asks, “How Well Do You Know Chicago's Native American History?”—and, hey, another perfect score there.
Square mailbag.
■ A reader unsubscribed last week, explaining: “I appreciate the news, but it is sooooo liberal, worse than MSNBC, no attempt at understanding the other side at all. … I just can’t stand it anymore.”
■ Coincidentally, another reader—in fact, a Square financial supporter—writes: “Sympathies on the not-fun reporting. We’ve devolved from Man Bites Dog to Man Bites, Chews Up And Spits Out Man. Sigh.”
■ Ed Sackley didn’t unsubscribe—but observed nevertheless: “When you launched … you led with Chicago news. When you do feature it now, it’s buried under your obsessive Trump links.”
■ Let the record show that Square is right back where it started in 2017.
The thanks keep coming. We’re near the end of this roundup of gratitude for those whose support has kept this service coming for close to eight years—today including John Metz (again!), Gene Paquette, Louise Dimiceli-Mitran, Ruth Hroncich (again!), Orin Day, Lynne Stiefel, Laurie Huget, Phil Huckelberry, Jeanne Loshbough, Alice Cottingham, Sally Donatiello, Victoria Long, Clive Topol, Brian Gunderson, Jerry D. Mason, Kevin Wallace, Scott Baskin, Mike Leiderman, Sandy Ridolfi, Jamie Aitchison, R Carney, Carol Hendrick, Helen Marshall, Molly Allscheid, Ryan Osborn, Julie Ross, Anne Rooney, Patricia Winn, Paula Weinbaum, Rebecca Ewan, Fritz Mills, Gregg Runburg, Ricky Briasco, Ann Keating, Terry Locke, Jayson Hansen, Peggy Conlon-Madigan, Cathy Schornstein, Paul Noble, Tom Pritchett, Ann Fisher, Susan Stucki, Gil Herman, Donna Barrows, Thomas Gradel, Eric Zorn, Bruce Dold, Stephanie Zimmermann, Joyce Porter, Kevin Parzyck, Tom Revord, Ken Scott, Bob Tucker, Athene C, Craig Koslofsky, John Culver, Tim Brandhorst, Elaine Soloway, Marc Magliari, Art Golab, Jim Peterson, Jeanette Mancusi, Dan Shannon (again!), Kathleen Hogan, Joseph Pesz, Jennifer Thiele, Avis Rudner, Steve Newberger, Heather Alger, Scott Sachnoff, Paul Buchbinder, Suzanne Vestuto, Charlie Pajor, Alan Solomon, Lawrence Weiland, Maureen Stratton, Daniel Forden, Tom Shepherd, Jill DeVaney, Zarine Weil, Chris Schuba, Mark Miller, Joel Hood and Sherry Skalko, JM, Marianne Griebler, Don Moseley, Lisa Colpoys and Catherine Schneider, Scott Watson, Maureen Gannon, Ronald B. Schwartz, Tom Williamson, Stephan Benzkofer, Jan Kieckhefer, Jo Patton, Tom Wethekam, Peter Kuttner, Linda Biondi, Alan Hoffstadter, Beth Botts, Tim Woods, Dave Tan, Lucy Tarabour, Ann Marie Testa, Ellen Siciliano, Mike McDonagh, Nancy and Barney Straus, Janean Bowersmith, Jane Hirt, Sheridan Chaney, Michele Prod, Mike Cramer, Ellen Mrazek, Ed McDevitt, Timothy Jackson, Jan Czarnik, Virginia Mann, Paul Wedeen, Ken Hooker, Alternative Schools Network, Judy Karlov, Joan Pederson, Sharon Halperin, Vidas Germanas, Philip Prale, Wendy Greenhouse, Colleen Fahey, Jean Remsen, Darold Barnum, Mike Chamernik, Edward White, Rich Gage, Anne Frederick, Rick Lunt, Robert Clifford, Patrick Stout, Susan Yessne, Jim Owens, Susan S. Stevens, Marj Halperin, Keith Huizinga, Denise Joyce and Jack Hafferkamp.
■ You can join their ranks here—for as little as $1, once, really—and see your name lead off the listing in tomorrow’s final pre-holiday edition.
* Who, coincidentally, shares a name with the evil corporation at the heart of the comics and TV series The Boys.