‘Natalie Harp is a major national security vulnerability.’ With The Daily Beast’s revelation of “intimate letters to Donald Trump,” journalist, lawyer and poet Seth Abramson says Trump’s political aide “ensures that the president of the United States doesn’t read anything of value.”■ Ex-Republican political strategist Rick Wilson: “In a White House populated entirely by sycophants, she has somehow achieved diamond status.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: The president’s team is “desperate to change the subject, so they coaxed Melania—who hadn’t been seen in public in over a month—to come out of her hidey-hole … to generate photos of the loving First Couple.”
■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “You think Natalie Harp is a weird home health aide Bible nurse? Wait until you meet Jennifer Hegseth!”
Now it’s ‘sir’ again. Trump’s former lawyer-turned-critic Michael Cohen is back to sucking up to the president.
■ NewsGuard debunks claims that departing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt quit because she was assigned to Trump’s “decoy plane” after the NATO summit.
‘Metaphor for a party.’ The Tribune recaps Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair—enshrouded by dense fog, “perhaps an appropriate weather condition” for politicians who have “long struggled to find their way in Illinois.”
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos: “One thing … Republicans largely avoided discussing … was President Donald Trump.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: Republicans are working to uproot one of the federal government’s greatest 21st-century achievements, the Affordable Care Act.
■ A Trib editorial celebrates the shutdown of conservative radio host Dan Proft’s political action committee, which has tipped the scale in favor of Illinois Republican losers over the last two cycles.
Two Americas. The American Prospect reports that, as some elected officials across the country fight the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, some bootlicking states are welcoming the shock troops.
■ CBS News alumnus Scott MacFarlane: Trump pardons have cost crime victims $1.7 billion and enriched his allies.
■ Wrapping up a week as Jimmy Kimmel’s sub, Rosie O’Donnell gave the president a nod: “It’s kinda weird to think he spent more nights with me this week than Melania.”
‘They’re building the excuse now.’ Columnist and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance says a Commerce Department report on noncitizen voting feels like a thing designed to give the president an out if his party does poorly in November.
■ Columnist and former Illinois Democratic Rep. Marie Newman: Don’t count on state attorneys general to protect your voting rights in November; sign up now to be a poll worker or other election volunteer.
■ Another AIPAC setback: The special election to replace scandal-scarred California Rep. Eric Swalwell is going to a progressive candidate opposed bigly by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Unrelated Items Dept.
■ Columnist and Tribune alumnus Charlie Madigan: “The president is clearly nuts.”
■ Science magazine Nautilus is out with a special Stupid Issue, including pieces such as “What Makes Humans Stupid” and “When Stupid Was a Diagnosis”—a thing “in danger of returning as support for people with disabilities withers.”
An endorsement Flock probably didn’t need. Darth Vader—well, a guy dressed up like him, anyway—took the microphone at a San Diego City Council meeting to encourage the town’s continued use of what Gizmodo calls “the dystopian surveillance company.”
■ See it here: “I need this so I can stalk my ex-girlfriend.”
Another tornado? It was a possibility for later today in the Chicago area …
■ … even as last week’s storms have left Northwest Indiana residents without power for a week and a half.
■ One woman tells the Sun-Times: “Even if I could afford the generator, the person on the next street got their generator stolen off the porch.”
■ Make it at least 13 Cook County heat deaths so far this year—all but one on the South and West Sides.
Surprise! In a rare pro-consumer move from the Trump administration, the Federal Trade Commission’s warning that companies secretly using your personal information to determine what you pay for their products and services could find themselves afoul of the law …
■ … but the policy’s open for comment over the next month.
Slow News Quiz. With Congress in recess and many newsmakers on vacation, it’s been what passes for—at least in the era of Trump—a slow news week. The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel, embraces that today with questions about some of August’s not-so-time-sensitive stories.
■ It was 5/10 correct here on Justin Kaufmann’s Illinois politics quiz for Axios.
AI’s cost—to your brain. The Conversation: By empowering a “strictly outcome-driven approach,” we diminish our ability to grasp what that output really means.
■ ZDNET’s David Gewirtz highly recommends a Google AI Professional Certificate you can get for free.
■ Platformer talks to the CEO of a company that created an AI clone of its editor-in-chief.
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■ Mike Braden made this edition better.