AI video technology is getting scarier by the day

& why Mayor Johnson should at least give the "snap curfew" idea a chance

6-19-2025 (issue No. 198)

This week:

• Last week’s winning quip

• News and Views — Hot takes, fully baked

• Land of Linkin’ — Where I tell readers where to go

• Squaring up the news — Where Charlie Meyerson tells readers where to go

• A transcript of a portion of Jon Stewart’s scathing monologue Monday

• Google’s Veo 3 AI video generator is both impressive and ominous

• Quotables — A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately

• Quips — The winning visual jokes and this week’s contest finalists

• What’s on “The Mincing Rascals” podcast this week

• Good Sports — Angel Reese plans to trademark “mebounds” and the dreadful Colorado Rockies are showing discouraging (to Sox fans) signs of life

• Red Lights — This week, we go on the search for books everyone else seemed to love but that you hated

Last week’s winning quip

This morning my son said his ear hurt. I asked, “On the inside or outside?” So he walked out the front door, came back in and said, “Both.” Moments like this got me wondering if I'm saving too much for college. — unknown

Here are this week’s nominees and the winner of the Tuesday visual-jokes poll. Here is the direct link to the new poll.

News & Views

News: Over the vehement objection of Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Chicago City Council narrowly passed an ordinance Wednesday that would allow police officials to impose preemptive “snap” curfews to discourage teens from taking over city streets.

View: The mayor should give it a chance. He blasted the proposal Tuesday, saying, “It doesn’t make any sense. It’s a sloppy form of governance,” and adding that alders instead should have approved funding for an additional 1,000 summer jobs for youths.

But Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, usually a Johnson ally, said, “I believe we can and should do both. I’m not down here doing lazy governance. I’m down here to actively work and do what is necessary to protect my community. Stopping these potentially chaotic and violent gatherings will help everybody.”

Johnson has argued that research has not shown curfews to be effective in curbing youth violence — though my fellow “Mincing Rascals” panelist Cate Plys observed that Johnson has not acted to roll back the earlier curfews imposed by his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot. And he and others have said that hastily imposed restrictions — the geographically limited curfews would go into effect in just half an hour — risk criminalizing hapless kids who just show up somewhere to have a little fun.

That’s why I have suggested a trial period — snap curfew authority that will expire in three months and then be scrutinized, tweaked and perhaps abandoned.

Johnson told us to “ask deeper, more profound questions about why young people are gathering in spaces in the first place,” but he’s living in a dream world if he thinks kids come downtown to raise hell simply because they don’t have summer jobs or recreational opportunities in their neighborhoods.

And even if the snap-curfew idea is a lousy one, the next time a teen “takeover” gets out of hand, Johnson will get the blame for not at least giving the idea a chance.

In promising to veto the ordinance Wednesday, the mayor claimed it was “counterproductive to the progress that we have made in reducing crime and violence in our city. It would create tensions between residents and law enforcement at a time when we have worked so hard to rebuild that trust.”

I can’t speak for all residents, but it’s my sense that what most of them want is a mayor committed to trying creative solutions to keep a lid on chaos as he ponders “profound questions.”

News: A Highland Park resident reported to police receiving a threatening, antisemitic letter Sunday.

View: This is grotesque and ominous, and should be thoroughly investigated. But it should not have been a news story. The person who sent the letter was seeking attention and got it in a way that seems likely only to encourage more such acts. And as we saw in Minnesota over the weekend, the truly dangerous people tend to strike without warning.

News: Senate Republicans are holding hearings on Biden’s mental fitness when he was in office

View: Let it go! Look forward. Unless the Republicans want a full-blown retrospective on Trump’s deranged pronouncements once he finally leaves office. In the hearing Wednesday, Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin played video clips of Trump speaking that Durbin said cast doubt on Trump’s “cognitive ability.”

News: Tribune Publishing Co.’s new buyout offer to its unionized newsroom employees offers an incentive equal to the money members would be entitled to receive in the event they are laid off, according to the union.

View: What part of “incentive” do these corporate ninnies not understand? Taking a buyout is supposed to be something of a gamble: Take the money and go off in search of another job, or stay on the job and hope you won’t get laid off so quickly that you’ll end up with far less money.

Those of us who accepted the Trib’s buyout four years ago weighed a far more attractive offer than today’s offer against the possibility that the cost-cutters at Alden Global Capital, which owns the paper, would lay us off at the first opportunity. But when the financial outcome is the same either way, the smart move is to hang on and keep cashing paychecks as long as you can.

Either way — buyouts or layoffs — the looming newsroom reduction at the Tribune is bad news for Chicago.

Land of Linkin’

• “100 Students in a School Meant for 1,000: Inside Chicago’s Refusal to Deal With Its Nearly Empty Schools” by Mila Koumpilova, Chalkbeat, and Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica: “There are 47 schools … operating at less than one-third capacity, by the district’s measure. That’s almost twice as many severely underenrolled buildings as Chicago had in 2013, when it carried out the largest mass school closings in the country’s history, Chalkbeat and ProPublica found. The most extreme example is Frederick Douglass Academy High School, which has 28 students this year and a per-student cost of $93,000.”

• The Chicago Audiomakers Collective will present an evening of innovative, short-form audio from around the world with audio icon Julie Shapiro, co-creator of Audio Flux. Shapiro will be joined on stage by my wife, Johanna Zorn, with whom she co-founded the Third Coast International Audio Festival, to talk about how creative audio fits into today’s podcast landscape. It takes place at Sleeping Village, 3734 W. Belmont Ave., on July 31 at 7 p.m. More details and ticket info.

• My father turns 94 today and remains as sharp as ever as he faces the physical challenges of aging. He was a physics professor in his first life, but has had an amazing second career as a sculptor. Check out his work here.

• Is waving the Mexican flag at immigrant rights rallies and protests a good idea or a bad idea? I presented both sides in Tuesday’s Picayune Plus and asked you to vote.

• A benefit of the so-called “Pizza Tax” that I hadn’t thought of.

• “Are em dashes really a sign of AI writing?” Grammar Girl — delightfully nerdy podcaster Mignon Fogarty — says no.

• Tip of the press fedora to Minnesota Reformer’s Patrick Coolican, who quickly and emphatically debunked right-wing lies that sprang up after the assassination of Democratic Minnesota House leader Melissa Hortman and her husband over the weekend.

Squaring up the news

This is a bonus supplement to the Land of Linkin’ from veteran radio, internet and newspaper journalist Charlie Meyerson. Each week, he offers a selection of intriguing links from his daily email news briefing Chicago Public Square:

■ Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein: Minnesota cops fueled an “insane conspiracy theory” about the Minnesota assassin.

■ Columnist Mitch Jackson: Mike Lee “must resign, be expelled, or be voted out by the people.”

■ “America has just passed an important test”: Economist Paul Krugman compares Trump’s Saturday military parade with the nationwide “No Kings” rallies.

■ Columnist Andy Borowitz declared the protests “Trump’s worst nightmare” come true.

■ The Daily Beast: A billionaire Walmart heiress’s full-page newspaper ads condemning Trump and cheering on the protests has sparked a MAGA backlash.

■ Organizers have targeted July 17 for a “No Kings” sequel.

■ Columnist and former Democratic Illinois Rep. Marie Newman hypothesizes that the U.S. may have illegally deported someone who could have cured cancer.

■ Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was columnist Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week.

■ Andy Borowitz offers a two-line “Noem Poem”—and invites you to submit your own.

■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “Trump embarrassed himself and America at the G7, just like the good old days.”

■ Your Local Epidemiologist offers guidance for dealing with benighted folks who insist on “doing their own research” about health matters.

■ Pulitzer winner Mary Schmich: The late Brian Wilson “created the first, and to this day most beloved, record I ever owned.”

■ Motel 6’s longtime commercial voice—and NPR veteran—Tom Bodett is suing the chain.

■ A Square reader perk: Save 30% on tickets to “Faith is Funny: Comedy Writers on God and Religion” with Hari Kondabolu, Gibran Saleem, Kate Sidley and Peter Sagal under the auspices of the American Writers Museum—Monday (June 23), 6 p.m., at Chicago’s Studebaker Theater. The code AWM at checkout brings admission down to $18.

You can (and should) subscribe to Chicago Public Square free here.

Jon Stewart goes off on the ‘one death is too many’ Republicans

During an epic monologue on “The Daily Show” on Monday night, host Jon Stewart played several clips of Republican lawmakers justifying the harsh crackdown on immigrants because one death caused by an undocumented resident is “too many.”

Jump to the 20-minute mark in this video to follow along with the transcript below:

One is too many. One death, by the way, true, it is too many. Violence should never be accepted. It should never be tolerated. But that's for their issue. In the wake of Sandy Hook, and Uvalde, and Parkland, and El Paso, and Lewiston, and Aurora, and Buffalo, and Boulder, and Binghamton, and Highland Park, and Monterey Park, and San Bernardino, and San Jose, and San Francisco, and the Pulse Nightclub, and the Colorado Springs nightclub, and the Little Rock nightclub, and the Borderline Bar in Thousand Oaks, and the Ned Peppers bar in Dayton, and the Waffle House in Nashville, and Virginia Tech, and UVA, and MSU, and UCSB, and FSU, and NIU, and SMC, and the Sutherland Springs church, and the Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, and the Living Church of God, and the Tree of Life Synagogue and the Allen mall, and the Westroads Mall, and Fort Hood and Lockheed Martin. And what are we fucking doing? What are we doing? By the way, that is a wildly incomplete list. We kept it to the last 25 years, and it's still not everything. And what's their response to all that? …

Turns out, when it comes to mass shootings, one’s not too many. Actually, a shitload isn't too many. And, by the way, you can say “Second Amendment” all you want, but you definitely don't seem to mind throwing out the Constitution when it comes to deportation. And I am legitimately asking this question. This is truly legitimate, right? … I am genuinely baffled. Why is it when a foreigner or someone that shouldn't be here kills one of us, we're going to put $150 billion into border security. We're going to militarize our cities. We're going to spend trillions of dollars to bomb and destabilize foreign countries overseas. We're going to ban people from random countries from ever visiting here. We're going to take our shoes off at the airport forever. But when we do it to ourselves, nothing. Is it that the only acceptable deaths are those that are made in America?

AI AI AI!

It’s not terribly hard to tell that the video below is fake — generated by AI. The lip-syncing is a bit off, and though Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark is a bit of a trash talker, she would never say, “Angel Reese said people watch the WNBA because of her, too. That’s why you could get in to a game for a can of SpaghettiOs while I was gone. Nobody watches to see her shoot 22% and miss 17 layups. If it wasn’t for me, Angel would be playing at a Lifetime Fitness and getting worked by a 5th-grade boy.”

But, as I’ve noted several times, this technology is still in its relative infancy, and it certainly won’t be long before only video forensic experts will be able to sort out real videos from deepfakes. The recent introduction of Google VEO 3 has been as impressive as it is ominous and almost certainly spells the end of generic commercial acting as a career.

Here’s Mashable in “Google's Veo 3 AI video generator is unlike anything you've ever seen. The world isn't ready.”

Veo 3 brought with it several innovations that separate it from other video generation tools. Crucially, in addition to video, Veo 3 also produces audio and dialogue. It doesn't just offer photorealism, but fully realized soundscapes and conversations to go along with videos. It can also maintain consistent characters in different video clips, and users can fine-tune camera angles, framing, and movements in entirely new ways. … If you're not on your guard and simply casually scrolling your feed, you might not think twice about whether the videos are real or not.

The short film "Influenders" is one of the most widely shared short films made with Veo 3.

"Influenders" was created by Yonatan Dor, the founder of the AI visual studio The Dor Brothers. In the movie, a series of influencers react as an unexplained cataclysm occurs in the background. The video has hundreds of thousands of views across various platforms

“We used Google Veo 3 exclusively for this video, but to make a piece like this really come to life we needed to do further sound design, clever editing and some upscaling at the end," Dor said in an email to Mashable. "The full piece took around 2 days to complete." Dor added, "Veo 3 is a massive step forward, it’s easily the most advanced tool available publicly right now. We're especially impressed by its dialogue and prompt adherence capabilities."

Italics mine.

In “I've been watching Google Veo 3 videos, and they're genuinely terrifying,” Tom May, the former editor of Professional Photography magazine, writes:

As a society, we're not ready for this. Not even close. For centuries, humans have relied on a simple rule: seeing is believing. If you could film something, it probably happened.

Sure, movies have had special effects for decades, but those required massive budgets, teams of specialists, and weeks of post-production. Now, any teenager with a Google account and $249 a month can create footage that would have required a Hollywood studio just five years ago. …

Just like fake news and fake images, fake videos will get shared faster than fact-checkers can keep up. By the time someone debunks it, it's already been viewed by millions and shaped public opinion. … We're about to be hit with a tsunami of synthetic media that's exponentially harder to detect and debunk. … The technology is advancing faster than our ability to respond to it. By the time we figure out how to detect Veo 3 videos, there will be Veo 4, and then Veo 5, each one more sophisticated than the last.

Quotables

A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately.

The governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I’m not calling him. Why would I call him? The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So, you know, I could be nice and call, but why waste time? — Donald Trump on why he didn’t contact Gov. Tim Walz after the former Minnesota House speaker was assassinated over the weekend

This is the central dynamic to most of the Trump Administration’s legal strategies, including, most notably ‘til now, the deportations to El Salvador: A law says, “Under condition X, the president can do Y.” Trump says, “I declare X is happening! So I can do Y.” — Peter Sagal‬

If you lost your administrative job as a federal employee there are plenty of strawberry picking jobs in Oxnard now. — Frovo

What we're seeing right now … is not consistent with American democracy. It is consistent with autocracies. It is consistent with Hungary under Orbán. It’s consistent with places that hold elections but do not otherwise observe what we think of as a fair system in which everybody’s voice matters and people have a seat at the table and nobody's above the law. We're not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that. — Barack Obama

I am confused. Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been arrested and charged with the crime of providing transportation for undocumented migrants from Texas to northeastern states. This is exactly what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did on numerous occasions. So why wasn’t Abbott arrested? — Michael DeLollis

Millions upon millions of undocumented immigrants live in red states. In cities like Houston, Dallas, and Miami. They live and work in rural heartland areas, on farms in states like Iowa and Indiana. The President’s true motivations seem to be about political power. If they were truly about deporting “illegals,” why just target some but not all of the places they reside? — Paris Schutz

Well, I certainly hope (that the MLB All-Star Game comes to Chicago). I do. Look, I think at some point Jesus the Christ is going to return and claim my soul for eternity. We just have to wait till that great gettin' up morning, won't we? — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson

I want to thank the Chicago police officers who worked the “No Kings” protest over the weekend. I witnessed great patience and forbearance as protesters were given space to be seen and exercise their rights. At the same time, everything I experienced felt safe and peaceful at all times. I expect there will be more protests in the coming months, but I am impressed and encouraged to believe that CPD will be an asset to the citizens of Chicago who need to express themselves this way. — Drew Saunders in a letter to the Sun-Times

There is an argument to bring back the Mrs. degree, and just be clear that's why you're going to college. Don't lie to yourself. … ‘I'm studying sociology.’ No you’re not. We know why you're there, and that's OK. … That's a really good reason to go to college. … College is a scam, but if you're gonna find your life partner, like that's actually a really good reason to go to college. … And so yeah, you could go learn some stuff. That's fine, I guess, or whatever. Just don't listen to your professors. But (finding a husband) actually was the reason why a lot of women went to college in the 70s, 80s and 90s. And it worked. — conservative activist Charlie Kirk, responding to a request for advice from a 14-year-girl interested in studying political journalism

Quips

In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers then vote for their favorite. Here is the winner from this week’s contest:

The new nominees for Quip of the Week:

1. Dentists hate this one simple trick: Putting cellophane over the toilet seat. —@wheeltod.bsky.social

2. I’m getting a teardrop tattoo so anyone who wants to mess with me knows I cry easily. — @TheAndrewNadeau

3. If you show me a book cover, you best believe I'm judging that shit. — @jakevig.bsky.social

4. No offense your honor, but I disagree with your whole aesthetic. — @donni.bsky.social

5. If I ever see “a little silhouetto of a man,” I ain’t singing a song about it. I’m getting the hell out of there. — @oldfriend99.bsky.social

6. Susan B. Anthony is actually the perfect drag name. — @Cactuscali1991

7. Marinara is just ketchup that did a study abroad program — @lacroixboi.dadguy.online

8. Sometimes I feel like I'm a minor character in an interesting person's dream. — @MelvinofYork

9. Do rich people still drive around looking for mustard? — @BobGolen

10. Acting is really the only profession where you can put all your mistakes at work in a fun little blooper reel and people think it's great. Wouldn't fly for a plumber would it? Or an anesthetist. — @hlndtsn

Vote here and check the current results in the poll.

For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.

Why “quips”? See “I’m rebranding ‘Tweet of the Week’ in a gesture of contempt for Elon Musk.” Also, I’m finding good stuff on BlueSky now as well.

Minced Words

Cate Plys, Marj Halperin and I joined host John Williams on this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast. Topics included the City Council’s approval of the “snap curfew,” the effectiveness and purpose of “No Kings!” rallies, and the role of objectivity in journalism.

Recommendations:

Cate — A green light to the Trump regime’s plan to allow foreign nationals to gain a path to citizenship with the purchase of a $5 million “Gold Card” with Trump’s face on it. The 70,000 reported applicants so far would be investing $350 billion into our coffers, which, I pointed out, would pay for a lot of military parades.

Marj — A green light for “The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth,” a graphic novel by Ken Krimstein.

John — A red light for the “Trump Phone,” a vaporous offering from the grifters in the Trump Organization.

Eric — A red light for “A Gentleman in Moscow,” a novel by Amor Towles. It is my contribution to today’s Red Lights feature.

Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720.

Read the background bios of some regular panelists here.

Good Sports

Angel Reese seeks to trademark ‘mebounds’

I have no idea how trademark law works, but it doesn’t seem particularly wise for Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese to try to trademark the term “mebounds” that her critics came up with to highlight how many of the rebounds she is credited with are rebounds of her own missed shots. (See last week’s “Good Sports” entry.)

What, is she going to make T-shirts and caps with “mebounds” on them? All that’ll do is call attention to what a comparatively lousy shooter she is, which is the nub of the argument made by those who contend that she is merely a sturdy role player in the WNBA and far from the superstar she imagines herself to be.

The Tribune’s basketball writer Julia Poe did the research and, before Tuesday’s loss to the Washington Mystics, reported that just 15% of Reese’s league-leading rebounds were off her own misses. But Poe added:

The “mebounds” fixation misses the heart of the problem: Reese is a poor finisher at the rim. She’s shooting 38.2% within 5 feet of the basket, a decline from her 44.5% accuracy in the same zone last season. If her efficiency matched that of other bigs in the league — between 65% and 80% — Reese could score at least five more points per game.

The way for her to silence the “mebounds” critics is not to reclaim their insult — they’ll simply switch to “Reesebounds” or some other derogatory term — but to start making more shots in the paint. She currently ranks 57th in the league in field-goal percentage, which, for a forward who scores 64.5% of her points close to the basket, is dismal.

Reese has a fervent fan base — 5.6 million followers on TikTok, 4.9 million followers on Instagram and 692,000 followers on Twitter — that categorizes those who criticize her performance on the court as “haters” who, they say, are animated not by an analysis of her performance but by her brash confidence, on exhibit here in a video posted Saturday.

@angelreese10💋

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Rough transcript:

Oh my God, you see that body? … Look at me! … Whoever came up with the “mebounds” thing, y'all ate that up because rebounds, mebounds, crebounds, keybounds, tebounds ... anything that comes off that board, it's mine. It’s mine. And a brand? That's six figures right there. Whoever came up with that? The trolling, I love when y'all do it because, like, the ideas be good. Like, when y'all have to alter my face and shit because I'm cute, alright, whatever, like, that doesn't get to me. But when y'all came up with “mebounds” — because statistically, all the rebounds that I get aren't always just mine. They're, like, the defense’s, too, or somebody else who’s on my team — but, when y'all came up with “mebounds,” y'all ate.

(To my older readers, “ate” “is a slang phrase used to express admiration and praise for someone who has done a great job at something.” Do not attempt to use!)

Reese has the quintessential “influencer” attitude — the narcissistic “look at me!” aesthetic that has rocketed many people of far lesser talent and beauty to fame and fortune — which is bound to be polarizing among those of us who like to make our own judgments.

We are truly in an age when — to cite a quote often attributed to David Lee Roth, former frontman of the band Van Halen — an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance. Waiting for others to extol your cuteness or other fine qualities is very yesterday. The phenomenon is real, and finding it baffling to annoying may in part be a generational thing.

Reese has preened her way into a celebrity status that she has yet to earn on the basketball court. She’s an accomplished, tenacious, valuable rebounder, no question, but she’s only 47th in the WNBA in “Player Impact Estimate,” or PIE. From WNBA.com:

The PIE formula compiles everything a single player does in a game — points scored, rebounds, blocks, missed free throws etc. — and weighs that number against the same stats generated by everyone in that same game. … The formula then computes a percent value for each player which gives us, in layman’s terms, the percentage of positive things attributable to that player in that game. … Quantifying individual excellence is something that is not easy to do in a team sport such as basketball. The PIE equation, however, does just that.

Will Reese become the Sky’s go-to player at crunch time? The one everyone knows is going to get the ball with the game on the line and the clock ticking down? Maybe. She’s only in her second year as a pro. Until then, the jokes about “mebounds,” trademarked or not, will continue.

Break up the Rockies!

The hapless Colorado Rockies, still on pace to be the worst team in modern Major League Baseball history, have found a little hap. Since last Wednesday, the Rockies have gone 5-2, and are now on an auspicious four-game winning streak. After 74 games, their record is 17-57 (.230)

We here at the Picayune Sentinel have our eye on two questions:

1. Will the Rockies lose 122 games this season and take the record for most games lost in an MLB season away from the 41-121 2024 (.253 winning percentage) Chicago White Sox?

2. Will the 2025 Rockies finish with the winning percentage under .235, the low-water mark in MLB’s modern era (post-1900) set by the 1916 Philadelphia A’s? That team went 36-117 in a 153-game season (roughly equivalent to a 38-124 record in today’s 162 game season).

While these are still intriguing questions, I will post hypothetical standings featuring a team on pace to lose 121 games (a .253 winning percentage), a team on pace to lose 124 games (a .235 winning percentage) and the 2025 Rockies. As of Thursday morning:

For the record, the 1916 A’s never won more than two games in a row; the 2024 White Sox won four in row just once (from May 8 to May 11).

Red Lights

This week, I’m breaking format on the Green Light feature — recommendations from me and readers of songs, TV shows, streaming movies, books, podcasts and other diversions that can be enjoyed at home — to ask you to help build on this letter published in Tuesday’s Picayune Plus:

Shelley Riskin — Have you ever read a book that everyone loved but you hated? Mine was “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold. It wasn’t spiritual! It was awful awful awful!

Supporters can post their red-light book nominations in comments. Others can email me your nominations and please explain briefly your antipathy.

Info

Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise. Browse and search back issues here.

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