[Link fixed] ’Dangerous’ / Thanks, Trump / COVID’s ‘wimpy wave’ / ‘I was digitally snuffed’

[Republishing, to make the Inquirer article—one of today’s most-tapped links—accessible to all. Also to correct the spellings of painting and grafitti☹️]

‘Dangerous.’ That’s the National Weather Service word of the day, as the Chicago area faces another round of heat and humidity …
 … and storms.
 A heat advisory’s on until 8 p.m.
 Ryan Cooper at The American Prospect explains a cheaper and simpler way for homeowners to go solar: “You don’t have to pay for contractors or a grid hookup.”

‘What the Epstein scandal is—and isn’t—about.’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters): “Hours of TV coverage fail to grasp … the anxieties of the U.S. middle class.” (Link fixed!)
 Columnist and AP alumnus Ron Fornier translates reporting on how President Trump’s faring the Epstein scandal: “Two people familiar with his thinking are telling The Post what we all can see with our eyes. Dude’s spiraling.”
 Law prof Joyce Vance surveys the week ahead: “Trump’s ongoing effort to confuse his base about what’s in the Epstein files involves asking a federal judge to release just a limited bit of them.”
 USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: “You have a choice, MAGA: A harsh reality or the comfort of lies. I have no confidence you’ll choose reality. But I at least hope the decision is tougher than usual.”
 Bill Kristol at The Bulwark says Trump’s flunking Scandal 101: “If you’re going to stonewall, stonewall.”
 Pod Save America cohost Dan Pfeiffer—a White House intern when then-President Clinton perjured himself about an extramarital affair—offers questions reporters should be asking about the Epstein scandal.

Thanks, Trump. The Tribune’s Dan Petrella explains the one change under the president’s “big beautiful bill” that can actually help Illinoisans: An increase in the limit on how much of your state and local tax bill you can deduct when paying your federal taxes.
 Go figure: The Revolving Door Project and The American Prospect report that Trump frenemy Elon Musk has a “secret army of progressive lobbyists” … people taking money from Musk while also being paid to fix the problems his “Department of Government Efficiency” created.

‘Fear-based cleansing.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg: “Trump 2.0 came out of the blocks swinging at immigrants—who now can be arrested on sight by masked police, without due process, and shipped to foreign countries while we race to build our own domestic gulags.”
 A suspect in the spray-painting of swastikas and “ICE rules” graffiti has surrendered to Chicago cops.

‘Chicago … actually scrapped their databases. … It has not resulted in an increase in reported crime.’ The city got a nod from John Oliver during last night’s dive into just how lousy police gang membership databases really are.
 See the full segment here.

COVID’s ‘wimpy wave.’ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina says the summer surge is on—especially in Hawaii and Florida.
 One of Chicago’s few for-profit “safety net” hospitals, Weiss Memorial, has been booted from the Medicare program after state investigators found it out of compliance with federal standards.
 Dr. Jeremy Faust at Inside Medicine: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly ready to fire all voting members of the agency in charge of deciding what preventive measures private health insurers have to cover.

Who’s next? Media watcher Tom Jones: Emboldened by that $16 million from Paramount, Trump’s now targeting ABC and NBC.
 Critic Bill Carter: Josh Johnson’s breakout week as host of Paramount-owned Comedy Central’s Daily Show offers a demographic glimmer of hope for late-night comedy.
 Popular Information concludes that Axios has rebranded conservative ideology as “objectivity.”

‘I was digitally snuffed.’ Longtime Chicago journalist Andy Shaw shares how he came to be banned from Facebook—for no fault of his own—and how he found his way back.
 A Florida school board member has apologized for a Facebook post celebrating wrestler Hulk Hogan’s death.

‘A temple to the people’s art.’ That’s how Star Wars creator George Lucas, in his first appearance at San Diego Comic-Con, describes his new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, opening next year in Los Angeles.
 It coulda been here—but for what a 2022 Tribune editorial (another gift link) labeled “one of Chicago’s biggest mistakes.”
 Speaking of mistakes: As the present longest-serving member of the City Council gets ready to retire—in the hope his son will replace him—City Cast serves up a quiz on other council nepo babies. (Your Square columnist scored 3/5 correct.)

Rest in parody. Tom Lehrer, the prodigy Harvard math professor and song satirist who took aim at—well, almost anything—has died at 97 …
 … but not before putting all his work in the public domain: “So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.”

A Square public service announcement
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Thanks. Mike Braden and Judy Graf made this edition better.

Suburban explosion / ‘Make America Racist Again’ / Tribune layoffs

Suburban explosion. In the worst of yesterday’s rough weather, a Berwyn gas station was leveled and nearby buildings were damaged as two natural gas lines ignited.
The manager of a neighboring restaurant tells ABC7 the station’s roof “shot about two-three hundred feet in the air and then it just came down.” (Photo: Ben Meyerson.)
The Tribune takes a look at the danger hot weather poses for baseball fans and players—and how it’s changing the physics of the game.

‘This was corruption.’ A federal judge has sentenced convicted ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan confidant Michael McClain to two years in prison for his role in a ComEd scheme to bribe Madigan.
The judge reprimanded McClain for calling those who rejected his requests for favors “dumbshits”: “That’s not dumb. It is, sadly, courageous.”

‘This column … is the one I hoped I’d never write.’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters) says concentration camps have come to America.
ProPublica: “His former company got caught employing undocumented workers. Now he’s profiting off an immigrant detention camp.”
The American Prospect: In a resetting of priorities with “tragic consequences,” FEMA’s withholding homelessness grants while spending bigly on migrant prison camps.
With an executive order that critics tell The Washington Post (another gift link) threatens a return to the practice of unjustly locking people away in mental health institutions, Trump’s urging cities and states to clear homeless encampments nationwide.
Trump was bound for Scotland …
 … where The National is waiting:
‘Make America Racist Again.’ AP alumnus Ron Fournier: Three ways Trump exploited presidential powers this week.
Cartoonist and columnist Jack Ohman condemns “Trump’s racist name games … part of his systematic attempted rewriting of American history.”
Speaking of history: The last remnant of the Columbus Park’s Grant Park’s Columbus statue was yanked yesterday.

Endangered mayors list. Politico’s Shia Kapos says Mayor Johnson’s off to Cleveland this weekend for a summit of fellow big-city Democratic leaders finding themselves increasingly on the defensive.
The Cook County Board’s bragging about $80 million in funding to improve transportation in Chicago and throughout the county.

Tribune layoffs. The paper’s laid off eight journalists—about 10 percent of its shrunken news team* …
 … even as parent company Alden Global Capital bids to buy The Dallas Morning News.
Media watcher Simon Owens suggests that newsroom buyout offers may be serving as “seed funding” for new independent media.
Columnist and ex-U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich sees the silencing of a Post columnist, the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show and more as consequences of Trump’s efforts to silence media criticism.
The Wall Street Journal (another gift link): Having extracted cash from a cowed Columbia University, Trump’s now seeking payments from other universities.
Dan Froomkin at Press Watch asks: “Why can’t journalists cover democracy like they cover Epstein?

‘We put eyes on the penis.’ South Park’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, told San Diego’s Comic-Con how they got around network censors’ insistence that they blur Donald Trump’s privates in a brutal parody broadcast on Comedy Central Wednesday night.
Calling it “the best satire in years,” columnist Charlotte Clymer notes that South Park portrayed Trump exactly as they portrayed Saddam Hussein years ago: “Same voice inflections. Same love affair with Satan. Same dictatorial chaos. In fact, Satan references this by telling Trump he reminds him of a guy he used to date.”
The White House whines: “This show … is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention” …
 … which, based on a check of Google searches, it’s getting.
USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “In Trump’s America, we have a new way to define comedy: A show mocking naked Trump = NOT FUNNY! A fake Obama arrest video = FUNNY!
On the same day Trump signed legislation killing government funding for public broadcasters, Stone told the audience that he and Parker first bonded over PBS broadcasts of Monty Python.
Comedy Central and CBS parent Paramount has won FCC approval for its acquisition by Trump-compliant Skydance.
If You Can Keep It: “Paramount gave in to Trump. What they get in exchange might not be what they expect.”

Animal quiz! Past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel’s taken the week off—but here’s a collection of questions about past animal stories at The Conversation.
Your Square columnist scored a disappointing 6/9 correct …
 … but missed just one on City Cast’s Chicago-centric news quiz.

Dingus of the Week. Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz’s pick: Jubilee Media, “a company that puts out bold videos that ask hard questions like, ‘Have you ever thought about being more racist?’”
Columnist Evan Hurst says Jubilee’s producers “put one decent, intelligent human being … in a room surrounded by just the absolute vilest fascists, Nazis and otherwise deplorable people,” but adds: “I’m not saying everything Jubilee does is shit.”
WLS Radio, the conservative talk station that once was a giant among Chicago’s music stations, hosts an on-air reunion of its legendary DJs Saturday at 10 p.m.

Thanks. Mike Braden and John Herrbach made this edition better.

* Which included your Square columnist for about 11 years (2009 link).

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