‘The worst bill in history’ / ‘A terrifying threat’ / Oh, Brother

[You’ll note an embarrassment of riches in this edition’s raft of gift links to paywalled publications—because, you know, it’s the end of the month. Thank Chicago Public Square supporters.]

‘The worst bill in history.’ Columnist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains why Donald Trump’s giant “big beautiful” tax and budget bill merits that label.
Video: At Chicago Public Square’s email deadline, the Senate was voting on amendments.
The Washington Post (gift link): The bill includes the biggest cut ever to programs for low-income Americans …
 … enabled partly by what The New York Times (gift link) portrays as a Republican strategy of “red tape for the poor.”
The Wall Street Journal (gift link): The Senate bill stuns the clean energy biz with a new tax on wind and solar.
No. 6 on Popular Information’s seven things to know about the bill: $45 billion for new immigration jails.
 Check out detailed accounting of what’s in there from the AP, The Washington Post, the Journal and the Times (gift links).
Political strategist David Axelrod explains why Democrats are doing what they can to slow things down: “The longer it goes … the closer you look … the uglier it gets.”
John Oliver on Last Week Tonight (video here): “If it becomes law we’re going to be looking back on it decades from now the same way we look back on all the destructive shit Reagan did. … Everyone who votes for this should be held accountable.”

‘If it costs them control of the House, the Senate and the presidency, they are willing to swallow that bitter pill.’ Lawyer Robert Hubbell: “Congressional Republicans … understand this is their last chance ever to gut health and social benefits.”
Contrarian editor-in-chief Jen Rubin: They’re “daring voters not to hold them accountable for their monstrous hypocrisy.”
Noah Berlatsky at Public Notice: Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis’ announcement of his decision to step down next year—after opposing Trump’s scheme—is “an ominous sign” for Republicans.
Andrew Egger at The Bulwark: “Tillis is one of the guys D.C. insiders have in mind when they talk of Republicans who speak about Trump one way in public, another way in private” …
 … but Wonkette notes that Tillis “went scorched-ass last night.”
A potential candidate to replace him: Presidential daughter-in-law and Fox News host Lara Trump.

‘They’re farting in his general direction.’ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich channels Monty Python in sorting out the war of (for now, again, just) words between Iranian officials and Trump’s administration.
The Post: “Intercepted call of Iranian officials downplays damage of U.S. attack.”

‘We’re all rats now.’ Economist Paul Krugman on the rising tide of Trump administration racism: “I personally don’t have any illusions of safety. Yes, I’m a native-born white citizen. But my wife and her family are Black, and some of my friends and relatives are foreign-born U.S. citizens. Furthermore, I’m Jewish …”
The Tribune (gift link): “A mistake by ICE put her husband in jail. She got him back 3 weeks later.”
ProPublica: While Homeland Security (and ICE overseer) chief Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota, she secretly took a cut of political donations.

‘A terrifying threat to the community.’ That’s a Cook County Circuit Court judge’s assessment of a Chicago Park District lifeguard who shot two teenagers—killing one and critically wounding another—outside the Douglass Park pool last week …
 … in what prosecutors describe as a dispute over the lifeguard’s bike.
One man was in custody after a man was stabbed to death—and the suspect himself was seriously stabbed and wounded—at Navy Pier’s Beer Garden Sunday.

‘Virtual workers are … not just assistants.’ Gizmodo says out loud what CEOs are saying quietly: AI is replacing you.
The Conversation: As technology’s disruption accelerates, the traditional notion of a “college major” is ripe for an overhaul.
Contending that Harvard failed to protect Jewish students, the Trump administration’s threatening to cut all the university’s federal funding.

Oh, Brother. Millions of Brother’s well-reviewed printers are at risk of hijacking by cybercriminals.
Got one? Make sure it’s running the latest software …
 … and then consider columnist and science fiction author Cory Doctorow’s counsel (March link): Don’t connect it to wifi.

‘Yeah, but what are we supposed to pay?’ A Chicago Public Square fan eager to support this publication asked that question over the weekend. The answer, as usual: Whatever you think it’s worth. And really, if every reader kicked in just a buck a month—about a nickel an issue—that would be peachy.
Those who pay more get embarrassingly modest perks.

‘A complete meltdown’ / Nasty, brutish and short / Quizzes! / Weekend hardware tip

‘A complete meltdown with Trump leading the charge.’ Longtime Chicago journalist Jennifer Schulze: “Forget important questions like whether Iran was actually weeks away from building a nuclear weapon. … No, the biggest issue, per Trump … is whether or not the entire press corps is falling in line behind the president’s yet-unverified claims that three Iranian nuclear sites weren’t just damaged but ‘obliterated.’”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s getting slammed after a heated news conference yesterday.
Poynter’s Tom Jones: After Hegseth targeted a Fox reporter, the journalism community—including her competitors—came to her defense.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Hegseth seemed to be performing for an audience of one.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter: “Trump has ratcheted up his rhetorical battle … by having an attorney send legal letters to CNN and The New York Times demanding retractions of accurate reports.”(Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)

‘Big, beautiful’ … but not all that healthy. Republicans’ draconian budget cuts are in trouble following a Senate parliamentarian ruling that a Medicaid provider tax overhaul doesn’t follow the rules.
The American Prospect: The declaration “kicked out a key provision that would have generated hundreds of billions of dollars in service of tax cuts for the wealthy” …
 … but Politico says Trump could still get his way by July 4.

‘This is bullshit.’ Doctor and Inside Medicine columnist Jeremy Faust “watched large portions of this week’s CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices so that you didn’t have to.”
The Prospect again: A pandemic of fear is gripping the nation’s “safety net” hospitals and their patients.

‘A meteor that hasn’t quite hit.’ The Washington Post: As the Trump administration works to claw back billions of dollars in federal funding, cities are “prepping for the worst.”
Yet, WTTW News reports: Sued by Chicago, the Trump administration’s unfrozen more than $1 million in anti-terrorism funding for the city.
Planning for its next five years, the Chicago Public Library is asking Chicagoans to take a survey.

‘Attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion are attacks on us.’ In a full-page newspaper ad today, a coalition of civil rights groups issues a call to action for working women fed up with “manufactured hysteria” fed by “extremist politicians and corporate billionaires.”
They’re aiming for 75 million signatures.

Tech fears come true. 404 Media reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using a new mobile phone app that can identify someone based on fingerprints or face—simply by pointing a phone camera at them.
The Supreme Court today handed Trump a big win—ending district court judges’ power to issue nationwide injunctions blocking federal policies …
 … although it also leaves unclear the fate of Trump’s effort to deny citizenship to U.S.-born kids of people in the country illegally.

Nasty, brutish and short. The Illinois Answers Project and the Sun-Times report that a Chicago cop who shot and killed his partner—the first Chicago officer to be killed by “friendly fire” in almost 40 years—has acquired a long disciplinary record over a brief career.
Public policy columnist Richard Day: The CTA needs to start enforcing its own rules with “a more visible police presence.”

Haunting developments.
In the works for a vacant building at 700 W. Chicago Ave.—not far from the old Tribune Freedom Center printing facility: A Universal Studios “immersive horror experience.”
The upper stories of Chicago’s emaciated Water Tower Place are for sale.

Streets beat. Chicago’s heat dome casualties include buckling pavement, forcing the city to close streets for repair ahead of next week’s NASCAR race.
Chicago, the U.S. city with the most lead service lines, doesn’t expect to finish replacing them until 2076.
Windy City Times offers a guide to Sunday’s Chicago Pride Parade.

‘Go 9 for 9 and win a golden summer tan.’ That’s the challenge past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel lays down with his latest weekly news quiz for The Conversation.
Go at least 8 for 9 and you get to brag you beat your Chicago Public Square columnist (XX).
Got some extra quiz energy? Try City Cast’s Chicago-centric quiz, on which your columnist scored a middling 3/5.
Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week: Everyone who is mad about the Democratic primary victory for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

Weekend hardware tip. Once upon a time, Master Lock required anyone hoping to retrieve a long-lost combination for a lock to submit a notarized request. You now can get that combo just by uploading a photo of the lock, clearly showing it unattached to anything.
Here’s the submission form.

Did that tip save you the price of a new lock? Kick a buck or two back to Chicago Public Square.

Subscribe to Square.