Leave law abiding immigrants alone!

& do we really need local TV weather forecasters?

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Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. I talk with WGN-AM 720 host John Williams about what’s making news and likely to be grist for the PS mill. The WGN listen-live link is here.

Trump’s reign of terror

The sad thing is, you know there are tens of thousands of people in the Chicago area who were elated to see this front-page headline in the Tribune Monday —They broke the law to get here! I’m glad they’re terrified! Most of those celebrating are people whose ancestors came from other countries themselves — as my father did when he came from Germany — probably at a time when it was much easier to establish citizenship.

Those undocumented immigrants who have continued to break the law — committing serious crimes after their arrival — ought to get the heave ho, most of us agree. But hardworking, law-abiding immigrants who jumped the line and are now contributing to society? They should not be terrorized. They should be welcomed. They should be given a path to legal status. We need people in this city, this state and this country.

Scaring the crap out of them with gleeful deportation threats and ICE theatrics is unconscionable.

Notes and comments from readers — lightly edited — along with my responses

Trump’s so-called ‘mandate’

Rick Schwartz — You wrote that we should not refer to Donald Trump’s narrow victory as a “mandate.” Though I couldn't be more disgusted and depressed about the results of the presidential election, I disagree. Consider: He won despite having several major criminal charges against him, despite being detected lying at every possible turn, despite his election denialism and call for an assault on the Capitol, and despite his love for Putin, Netanyahu and the Proud Boys. Fine, don't call it a mandate. But it will take two very long years until the midterm elections to find out what the voters meant to do.

Jim -- Trump’s was a clear victory, but not a mandate. To use a Wrigley Field analogy, he did not hit a Dave Kingman shot onto Waveland, but he also did not barely hit it into the basket.

Zorn — I object to the term “mandate” here because it’s empowering. Trump and the Republican Party will crow about their “overwhelming” victory, but journalists and pundits ought to realize that a narrow plurality is not at all a ringing public endorsement of all or even most of his positions. I’ll note again that the Tribune did not refer to Brandon Johnson’s 4.4 percentage point victory in the 2023 mayor’s race as a “mandate,” perhaps — hmm, just guessing, because the Tribune backed his opponent. Or perhaps the editorial writers recognized that quite a few people voted for Johnson because they thought his opponent, Paul Vallas, would be worse.

A narrow rejection of Harris — and, by extension, a rejection of the Biden presidency — is not a mandate for Trump and Trumpism.

Are presidential pardons out of hand?

Jake H. — I understand why you argued that the presidential pardon power has gotten out of control and why you’d seek a constitutional remedy. But there are good reasons for keeping it as is.

One of the original rationales for the pardon power was to advance national security, a use presidents have made of it from Washington to Lincoln to Biden. Alexander Hamilton argued that without the pardon power "justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel."

"A well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels," he argued, "may restore the tranquillity of the commonwealth," and should not await concurrence of a "body of men." And, sure enough, Washington used it in just this way in the Whiskey Rebellion. Adams did much the same. Lincoln pardoned deserters who would agree to return to their units. Lincoln also offered clemency to rank-and-file confederates during the Civil War, seeking to undercut the Confederacy by offering a chance to return to the fold without severe punishment. (Congress didn't like that.) Though not necessary to achieve war aims, Lincoln's preference for leniency after the war, along with Jimmy Carter's pardon of thousands of Vietnam draft dodgers, may similarly be seen as serving Hamilton's goal of restoring tranquility in the wake of inflamed conflict.

Biden pardoned numerous people as part of prisoner exchanges with Iran, Venezuela, and China, deals he could offer only because the Constitution gave him the power to follow through.

Will the pardon power escalate out of control following these most recent uses of it by Biden and Trump? Will presidents now routinely grant blanket pardons to all of their friends and family members and cult members upon leaving office? I'm not so sure.

In my view, Trump's norm-busting conduct is the chief offender here, and future events, including Trump's passing from the scene, may deescalate the situation. Biden may well have pardoned his son Hunter in any case, but I'm not sure about those other family members, and he certainly wouldn't have pardoned the various officials except for the fact that Trump and friends made outlandish threats of retribution against them.

I'm worried about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. This particular baby is among the oldest aspects of our law, extending into the distant past in Merrie Olde Englande. It's worked pretty well, all things considered.

Praveen Puri —I'm wary of curbing presidential pardons. The Founders wanted checks and balances between the three branches of government, sort of like rock, paper, scissors. The pardon power is the executive branch's check on the judicial branch.

Cate Plys — Yes please on amending the constitution to rein in the pardon power. But allow me to lend you some of my extra outrage— I have plenty to spare — so you can equally condemn both the Biden and Trump pardons. The January 6 pardons are so awful they don't need more condemnation here. But Biden's are awful too, cancerous to the entire judicial system which means cancerous to the rule of law. He himself said so four years ago when speculating on whether Trump would issue preemptive pardons as he finished his first term. Soon we'll have presidents routinely pardoning their entire administrations and families down to the third cousins on their way out the door — and then what motivation will there be not to commit crimes while serving in government?

Ken Bissett — I didn’t like Biden’s pardons, but Trump is openly vindictive and I have s little doubt he would have tried to prosecute those who served on the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. The Republican House has already started investigating the investigators, and Trump yanked the clearances of former intel people who signed a letter expressing their opinions. He had the IRS go after the two former top FBI officials. He fired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s brother, who was not involved in the impeachment process. So while I didn’t like Biden’s pardons, I completely understand the basis for them.

Zorn — I wish Biden had simply commuted Hunter’s sentence, not pardoned him, and I’m very wary of preemptive pardons, but I fully understand the desire to insulate certain people from the costs and distractions and heartaches of utterly meritless witch hunts. That said, Cate is right that Biden’s move certainly sets a precedent for future administrations to offer sweeping preemptive pardons for entire administrations, which essentially provides anyone in the president’s employ with immunity.

Digging out of my disappointment over shovels

Paul Ditlinger — I saw your plea for an angled snow shovel (a thought I've had many times while out there on the driveway!) similar to the angled blades on snow plows. In the archives of the South Bend Tribune as long ago as the 1950s or 1960s I found a story and picture of a guy in South Bend who built himself an angled shovel and tried to get it on the market but couldn't do it.

Zorn — I was sure someone would point me to just such a product, but the closest anyone came was to the Snow Shovel Pusher Plow with Wheels, a $102 product that advertises “Adjustable Shoveling Angle: blade rotates left or right for clearing snow in any direction.” It’s not so much the expense that stops me from making this purchase, but the need to store such a large contraption and the annoyance of having to haul it out when it snows. There is evidently not a simple angled snow shovel on the market that you can just lean up on your porch .

Why did I feature '“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” as the Tune of the Week?

Rich Gage — I love The Band, but I wished you'd chosen a different tune to commemorate the death of Garth Hudson, the last surviving original member.

The singer in “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” sorrows over the demise of the Confederacy, a group of states that decided to war against the north to preserve slavery. And Robert E Lee, who gets a mention, was a slaveholder.

Why not "The Weight,” "Up On Cripple Creek,” or, my favorite, "Don't Do It,” which begins the Scorsese concert documentary "The Last Waltz."

Zorn — I considered “The Weight” and”Up on Cripple Creek,” both of which are memorably good Band songs (“Don’t Do It” is a Marvin Gaye cover) but Google told me that “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” was their best known hit.

In 2020, Jack Hamilton wrote an essay in Slate titled “The Troublesome Case of ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’— Is the Band’s classic song really a requiem for the Lost Cause?”

It’s come to resonate among a certain good-old-boy set as a musical emblem of regional chauvinism and neo-Confederate nostalgia … but, with the possible exception of the line “They should never have taken the very best” (an ambiguous they that could refer to either the Confederate war machine or the Union army), which prompts some audible applause in “The Last Waltz.” there’s not much in the song that rings as an explicit endorsement of the Confederacy. In fact, the song’s chorus refers to “bells ringing” and “people singing” and is notably major-key, almost triumphant. …

I don’t believe the song was intended to be anyone’s “anthem,” and people who embrace it as such are doing something much worse than missing the point. But songs don’t get to choose to whom they mean what, and I certainly don’t fault anyone who’d rather never hear this one again.

Why is Sammy sorry?

Garry Spelled Correctly — You blasted former Cub superstar Sammy Sosa for his “shitpology” a vague and ultimately meaningless statement of apparent contrition, but he never did anything wrong. I don't care if he or any other athlete takes steroids, then or now. It's their bodies & if they want the immediate glory, but the shortened lifespan, it's their business. Back in the late 1990s there weren't any rules against steroid use.

Zorn — This story suggests that MLB banned steroids in 1991 but “there was no testing, penalties, or rehabilitation for players who used them” so the ban “amounted to self-righteous finger-wagging — a bunch of toothless, empty words.” So I would not say this means Sosa did nothing wrong.

Denis — I prefer the more homophonic "crapology" to your “shitpology.”

I now do too!

A pro organ recitalist

Patricia Motto — I’m 77 and I agree with most of your advice on how to be a good old person, but would take issue with your organ recital complaint:

Limit organ recitals. The term “organ recital,” one of my father’s favorites, refers to a long explanation of or conversation about aches and ailments, particularly of the chronic variety. Our maladies preoccupy us, naturally, but they tend to bore others and can come to define us if we’re not careful. Unless circumstances are dire, the proper answer to “How are you?” is “Fine, thanks. You?”

The fact is, how we are doing physically is as important to us now as who we were dating and how the babies were pooping in the old days. At my age, I spend a lot of time taking people to various doctors when I'm not going myself. I really want to know how that cataract operation went because mine is down the line. Please tell me if the hip replacement really is easier than the knee was and if eating earlier has helped you sleep better.

Zorn — Point well taken, and congratulations on your cataract diagnosis. I had cataract surgery 10 years ago and haven’t worn glasses since. I recommend monovision very highly.

Trouble at the Sun-Times

Suzanne— Your report on the coming major staffing cutback at Chicago Public Media (WBEZ-FM and the Sun-Times) was depressing.

This crisis has been fueled by many inputs, such as a loss of captive audience for radio as fewer people commute to work on a daily basis, more and more annoying pledge drives, and the decision to build fancy studios in an out-of-the-way location on Navy Pier when there's plenty of more affordable and accessible real estate in the Loop. While we're talking about costs, it seems to me that some of the top CPM executive salaries are excessive.

Maybe the acquisition of the Sun-Times wasn't the right fit for Chicago Public Media -- and perhaps a merger of the Tribune and the Sun-Times makes more sense financially now. I realize that this is not a new idea, but these are different times than when it was first floated in 2017. God knows the Tribune isn't getting any better, though it's getting more expensive and losing subscribers as a result. Would we be better off with one strong(er) merged newspaper than two weak ones?

Zorn — WBEZ has a very generous lease at Navy Pier — basically zero rent for 99 years — which explains the inconvenient location of the, yes, luxe studios. The salaries of executives are substantial. Former CEO Matt Moog made $722,861 last year— presumably in line with what new CEO Melissa Bell is earning — and the announcement of coming buyouts and staff reductions indicated that upper management will not feel the pinch. It will be hard not to think about that at pledge time.

Both major dailies are still doing good work but with far smaller staffs than in previous years. I have no idea what a merger would look like but the city is well and better served by competition — more reporters on the scene of more stories.

Unpopular opinons?

Every TV station does not need its own meteorologist

Melinda A K wrote in to decry the since rescinded decision by the Allen Media Group to replace local meteorologists at its nearly two dozen TV stations and replace them with a reports from The Weather Channel based in Atlanta.

UPDATE — Unrescinded, I guess!

Melinda blasted the initial move by Allen Media Group founder Byron Allen as “brutal” and “ruthless," and the backlash was strong enough that the company reversed course.

But I can see it. TV weather segments strike me as interchangeable as far as the forecasts and data points. One weather segment on a local station is pretty much like the next since information comes from common sources. And with the advent of weather apps on phones, most weather segments have become unnecessarily long. Though I hate to see people lose their jobs, I see no reason why centralizing such services with the best of the best — retired local favorite Tom Skilling comes to mind — is bad for business or bad for broadcast journalism.

The opposing view would be that TV meteorologists are personalities in their own right, and that even if they’re dispensing information that’s nearly identical to what’s on other stations and that can be found on your phone or computer, viewers identify with them and simply enjoy watching them, as they apparently like watching Vanna White gratuitously revealing the letters on “Wheel of Fortune.”

Last week’s result

My view that recall elections are a bad idea is not in step with the sentiments of the disgruntled voting population.

426 votes

This occasional Tuesday feature is intended to highlight opinions that are defensible but may well be unpopular. If you have one to add, leave it in comments or send me an email, but be sure to offer at least a paragraph in defense of your view.

Love story for the ages: Happy 71st anniversary to my mother and father

They met 79 years ago in high school. Were married on this day in 1954. I owe them everything

The week’s best visual jokes

Here are some funny visual images I've come across recently on social media. Enjoy, then evaluate:

There’s still time to vote in the conventional Quip of the Week poll!

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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.

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