Tuesday morning link dump

I have a chunk of work to do this afternoon, but I'm hoping I can sneak in some time to read all of these:

• Dan Rather cheers on the Democratic Party for finally finding the fight.
• Francis Fukuyama says: move over Berlusconi; the Clown Prince of X has done considerably more to harm Western civilization than you ever did.
• David Daley puts responsibility for the exploding fight over Congressional maps squarely on US Chief Justice John Roberts.
• Jennifer Rubin wants us to stop using the word "guarantee" when we don't mean it—which would include every single time the OAFPOTUS utters it, obviously.
• Matthew Yglesias points out that mothers leaving the workforce has very little to do with "tradwives" and everything to do with "the economy."
• Rick Harnish and Theo Anderson argue that Illinois needs to expand and improve Metra if it wants to lead the quantum computing revolution: "Converting Metra to electrified regional rail is the key."
• Yascha Mounk asks "how we got the Internet all wrong."
• Meghan Daum looks on with some amusement at the new feud between New Yorker culture critic Doreen St Félix and conservative activist Christopher Rufo.
• Ellen Steinke, writing for Streetsblog Chicago, argues while that getting former Chicago Transportation Authority president Dorval Carter, Jr., out of the agency ended his reign of incompetence, the impending $771 million shortfall in State funds will keep his successor from fixing the damage.
• Paul Krugman argues that consumers are paying more because data centers are demanding so much more electricity than even a couple of years ago, to the point of creating the giant pin that will burst the AI investment bubble without regulation.

Finally, after complaints up and down the lakefront that the US Air Force Thunderbirds caused a sonic boom during Chicago Air and Water Show practice on Friday, University of Illinois aeronautics professor Matthew Clarke says that while none of the F-16s appear to have exceeded Mach 1, he is confident that part of one of the planes did. “Even though the global flow may not be faster than the speed of sound, there are places locally faster than the speed of sound, creating shock waves,” he said. “While I can’t say that the whole plane went supersonic, I can say — from the video — shock waves [were created] from parts of the aircraft.” The mini-sonic boom broke the lobby windows of four Lakeview high-rises but caused no significant injuries.

Also: I am beyond overjoyed that the National Weather Service predicts dewpoints below 18°C by Wednesday and below 15°C by Saturday. We have had the most uncomfortable summer that I can remember, with dewpoints at Inner Drive Technology WHQ lingering above 20°C since 10:30 Friday morning after a very brief respite on Thursday. If I have time this week, I'm going to analyze the data to see exactly how humid it's been here lately. But this prediction is delightful: