[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.”
■ Post columnist Philip Bump surveys what ICE is doing with the tax dollars you already provide it.
■ 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.
‘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.
