‘Humiliating’ / Disunion League / Quiz perfection

‘One of the most humiliating moments the United States of America has ever been through.’ That’s Wonkette’s Evan Hurst assessing Donald Trump’s visit with China’s President Xi Jinping.

■ New York Times analysis (gift link): “Trump was flattering, Xi was resolute. The difference spoke volumes.”

■ Columnist Robert Hubbell: Trump’s trip “was a bust.”

■ The Times explains Xi’s reference to the “Thucydides Trap.”

■ Stephen Colbert analyzed the presidents’ handshake.

■ Colbert also burned his own network over its failure to get evening news anchor Tony Doukoupil a visa to cover Trump’s visit: “CBS News: When events happen, we’re at most one country away.”

■ The Onion: “Trump Unwittingly Breaks Chinese Taboo Against Napping Facedown In Soup Bowl.”

Pritzker to the hospital. The governor’s staff says he visited a hospital—but wasn’t admitted—for treatment of a “minor complication” from his urology procedure.

■ He was poised for a full schedule today.

‘Didn’t we do that already?’ Mayor Johnson—a former Chicago school teacher—is ruling out any more Chicago school closings, even though dozens are mostly empty.

■ The Chicago schools superintendent has a date with a Republican-controlled U.S. House committee next month to answer questions about the district’s treatment of gender identity and sexual academic content.

Disunion League. The Tribune (gift link) details a lawsuit filed against the Union League Club of Chicago by a man whose membership was suspended for refusing to disinvite his date for a dinner there—the ex-wife of the club’s outgoing president.

■ A Chicago City Council member is suing the city over administrative findings that he directed an employee to issue “unfounded citations” against a vocal critic in his ward.

■ Spirit Airlines workers are suing the company, complaining that its abrupt shutdown violated their rights under federal law.

Dingi of the week. Lyz Lenz’s pick is a tie: Golden idols and cruise ships.

■ Law prof Joyce Vance: “Epstein is no longer front page news. But he should be.”

■ Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich recommends a vocabulary update for those covering Trump, including: Administration → Regime.

■ Everyone Is Entitled to My Own Opinion proprietor Jeff Tiedrich introduces you to “the smitten cultist who finds racist memes for Dear Leader to post.”

■ Columnist Dan Sinker serves up “a pep talk in the face of despair.”

Quiz perfection. In a rarity, your Square columnist nailed every one of the questions posed by The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel, in this week’s news quiz.

■ Also a perfect 5/5 here this week on City Cast’s Chicago news quiz.

‘Have you ever had mumps? How many total mumps did you have? Did you ever have just the one mump?’ Pulitzer winner Dave Barry questions those questionnaires patients get asked to fill out at doctors’ offices.

■ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina on the hantavirus outbreak: “Leadership at the federal level is nowhere to be found.”

‘A love letter with teeth.’ Critic Bill Carter reviews David Letterman’s farewell visit to Colbert’s show …

■ … in which they engaged in “wanton destruction of CBS property,” tossing stuff off the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater.

■ Letterman closed the segment with a note to the network canceling Colbert’s show: “In the words of the great Ed Murrow, ‘Good night and good luck, motherf*****s.’”

Actor turned cop. Kevin Michael Doyle—a Carl Sandburg High School graduate who went on to a memorable role as a police officer in the Chicago-based movie The Untouchables before enlisting with the Chicago Police Department for real—is dead at 68.

■ The Tribune profiled him in 2001 (gift link).

Facebook’s ‘slow death’? Columnist Neil Steinberg: “Young people increasingly view Facebook as a folly of the old. I’m starting to agree with them.”

■ Columnist Matt Pearce: “You couldn’t create a more anti-news internet if you tried.”

■ In a fresh Chicago Public Square podcast, local journalists and a gerontologist discuss the future of local media.

■ Not surprisingly, they were abuzz about the rise of—stop us if you’ve heard this one—email newsletters.

■ As the Trump regime targets NPR and PBS, The Onion offers tips for supporting public broadcasting, including: “While grocery shopping, text Morning Edition to see if they need anything.”

What’s Chicago Public Square worth to you? Hit the Square tip jar.

■ Mike Braden made this edition better.

What AI knows about you / Big loser / Bad to verse

What AI knows about you. Tech columnist Kim Komando’s crafted a copy-and-paste inquiry you can feed artificial intelligence engines to get an overview of their intel on you.

■ Matt Novak at Gizmodo: “ChatGPT gave out my address and phone number. … This raises questions about what’s considered private info in the AI age.”

■ Futurism: A large study concludes that replacing workers with AI is backfiring badly.

■ Also from Komando: Take 90 seconds to learn what your vehicle knows about you—because “cars sold since 2018 … store everything you tap.”

Bill shock. As AI data centers increase electricity demand, ComEd customers’ charges next month stand to jump at least 12%.

■ Chicago 312’s H Kapp-Klote: Illinois’ 244 data centers are quietly gobbling up the state’s water.

■ Concerned about AI engines’ climate impact? Orbit Media co-founder Andy Crestodina has tips for minimizing your queries’ cost.

‘They all have something in common.’ Columnist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says the CEOs who’ve traveled to China with Trump “couldn’t give a rat’s ass about strengthening America’s geopolitical power.”

■ Stephen Colbert: “These people can work magic. They’ve already made their taxes disappear!”

■ CNN alumnus Jim Acosta: “For years, Trump hid his tax information from the public. Now he could be paid billions by the Internal Revenue Service.”

Antiwar Republicans. As Democrats repeatedly try—so far, unsuccessfully—to halt Trump’s war with Iran, the number of Republicans siding with them is growing.

■ UMass researchers report a growing number of Trump supporters experiencing voter’s remorse.

Big loser. Politico’s analysis finds judges have ruled against the Trump administration’s immigration detention practices 90% of the time—an astonishing 10,000 times.

■ FBI insiders tell MS NOW that Kash Patel is “padding the stats” to boost the agency’s arrest record on his watch.

‘We are watching, in real time, the creation of a one-party state in the American South.’ Historian Heather Cox Richardson sums up Republicans’ mid-decade gerrymanders—shutting Democrats out of power.

■ Law professor Joyce Vance, a self-identified southerner, rounds up “a radical, racist transformation of voting maps” state-by-state.

■ Heads Up News columnist Dan Froomkin: “If you care about democracy, get fired up to fight white supremacy.”

■ NOTUS: The son of Sen. Rand Paul “drunkenly hurled antisemitic insults … at a Capitol Hill bar.”

■ Noting that Senate races can’t be gerrymandered, Contrarian Jen Rubin sees Democrats’ prospects “actually improving.”

Nice cash if you can get it. A Sun-Times analysis finds Illinois politicians spending millions in campaign funding on meals—acknowledging nevertheless that “it’s difficult to police whether a meal or a drink … is appropriate.”

■ Mayor Johnson’s off to see the pope at the end of the month.

‘No, you may not have public money to pay your private school tuition.’ Former Tribune columnist Eric Zorn rebuts a Trib editorial.

■ Lisa Needham at Public Notice: “The assault on higher ed goes deeper than you think. The regime is quietly working to create a permanent underclass.”

■ The University of Chicago says that, beginning in the fall of next year, students from families earning less than $250,000 a year will get in tuition-free.

Bad to verse. Broadcaster Salem Media—parent to Chicago’s reactionary WIND-AM—is selling itself to The Christian Community Foundation, doing business as WaterStone.

■ MS NOW—the former MSNBC—has settled on a revised lineup heading into the fall elections.

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