Zorn: Nothing mattered, did it?

There were dozens of reasons to reject Trump's return to the White House, but the majority of voters didn't care. So now what?

11-7-2024 (issue No. 166)

This week:

• Now what, Democrats? — Where does the party go after this week’s thumping?

• A few thoughts on local election returns

• 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

• Mary Schmich — A thought for moving ahead

• That’s So Brandon! — An update on the misadventures of Chicago’s mayor

• QR codes to tip the housekeeper at a hotel — Will you use them? Take our survey!

• DuSable Lake Shore Drive vs. the Willis Tower — A final showdown in the renaming tournament

• Regrettables — Neil Steinberg remembers when he dissed the POW-MIA flag

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

• Quips — Take a break from political news with the winning visual joke and this week’s contest finalists

• Good Sports — Brackets of good cheer

• Tune of the Week — “We Are The World,” in memory of Quincy Jones

Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. 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.

Now what, Democrats?

In the end, all the glaring evidence that Donald Trump is uniquely, frighteningly unsuited to be returned to the White House didn’t matter.

• Not his criminal conviction or the looming federal charges against him for election interference

• Not the dire warnings of dozens of people who worked closely with and for him during his first term

• Not his boorish, rambling, profane rally speeches and media exposure of the many outright lies they contained

• Not his misogyny, racism and fondness for police brutality

• Not his embrace of the ludicrous yet frightening Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

• Not his role in goading on the mob that violently attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and his subsequent promise to pardon those convicted of violently confronting police officers who blocked the effort to overthrow an election

• Not the defections of many disgusted lifelong Republicans

• Not his insouciant mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic

• Not his ludicrous, vaporous and in many cases nonexistent policy proposals

• Not his dual impeachments by the United States Congress

• Not his manifest fondness for foreign dictators and his hostility to key U.S. alliances

• Not views that 55% of those surveyed in exit polls Tuesday said were “too extreme’’

• Not memories of the daily chaos and exploding deficits of his first term

• Not his threats to prosecute and imprison his critics as “the enemy within”

• Not his constant grifting — selling watches and sneakers and Bibles at exorbitant prices — or his record of numerous bankruptcies

None of these negatives — and there are many more — prevented Trump from winning resoundingly in both the national popular vote and the Electoral College in the election that concluded Tuesday.

And while it’s undeniable that the mainstream media failed to hammer relentlessly enough on Trump’s lies, his sordid character, his ignorance, his cruelty and his evident slide into senescence, that didn’t matter either. They were reported and amplified on social media. But every front page and newscast could have led every day with “Trump spews more appalling, false nasty shit,” and Trump would still have won.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris could have come up with sharper answers about the economy, immigration policy, her flips on issues and how she would govern differently than incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden. She could have submitted to more interviews, including one with bro podcaster Joe Rogan, and Trump would still have won.

Biden could have stayed at the head of the ticket or he could have stepped aside a year ago and let a proper primary contest take place, and Trump would still have won.

Fired up Democrats could have knocked on a million more doors and made a million more phone calls to swing-state voters, and Trump still would have won.

Really, America?

Harris ran a very good — not perfect — campaign given her late start, one that showed her to be a relatively moderate Democrat and decent, positive person. And she still lost to one of the worst human beings ever to run under the banner of a major party. There simply aren’t enough pejoratives in my thesaurus to describe him, yet most of his supporters are simply indifferent to his flaws.

One bit of good news is that we will never again have to take seriously lectures about civility and morality from the ethically bankrupt Republican Party.

Another is that Tuesday’s result was incontestable, and we can all now begin looking forward instead of dickering over voting shenanigans or speculating about minor woulda-coulda-shouldas.

How will those of us now sinking into despond challenge Trump’s agenda? How will the Democrats course-correct so that, next time, they meet key voting blocs where they are instead of where they would like them to be?

Yes, principle is important. But when your party loses the White House, the Senate and likely the House, you can’t implement anything that comports with your values and your agenda. You need to do a thorough autopsy on the corpse of your 2024 aspirations, identify the causes of death and make necessary shifts in emphasis, if not stated positions.

Trump rode anger, fear and grievance to victory. Those feelings will never be allayed among the vast swath of deplorables who comprise the MAGA base. But it was unpersuaded persuadables who caused a swing of some 12 million votes in Trump’s favor from 2020 to 2024 and cost Harris the election.

Raging about their credulity and priorities is satisfying but pointless. They are in the reachable center of the political spectrum, and without them, the Democrats will remain in the national political wilderness.

I don’t have the polling data or the experience as a political consultant to offer a plausible Rx for what ails the party with which I strongly identify. But the symptoms of a dangerous illness are obvious.

What can individual disappointed, defeated Democrats do? My only advice is to heed this passage from Harris’ gracious concession speech Wednesday:

Fight in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square. And … in quieter ways: in how we live our lives by treating one another with kindness and respect, by looking in the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbor, by always using our strength to lift people up, to fight for the dignity that all people deserve. The fight for our freedom will take hard work. … The important thing is don't ever give up. Don't ever give up. Don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place. … This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves. This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.

A few thoughts on the local returns

Split verdict in Chicago schools race

Four of the 10 Chicago school board candidates endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union won their races Tuesday — though one of the four ran unopposed. Three candidates endorsed by the union’s foes at the Illinois Policy Institute in this closely watched and very expensive race won seats on the new board, and three candidates who weren’t endorsed by either side won. Though the overall result is a rebuke to the union and former union employee Mayor Brandon Johnson, it’s not an overwhelming repudiation.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, with between 86% and 95% of the vote counted in the nine contested districts, I added up the votes for CTU-endorsed candidates and all the votes for IPI-endorsed candidates. At that time, the CTU-backed candidates had 246,181, or 50.3%, of those votes. Though it’s notable that Jennifer Custer, the CTU-backed candidate in the 1st District, has been critical of Mayor Johnson’s plan to take out a high-interest loan to pay school operating expenses, and is very unlikely to be a rubber stamp for the union.

Johnson will appoint the other 10 members of the board plus the chair. Elections for all 21 seats won’t take place for another two years.

Bob ‘America First’ Fioretti again goes down to defeat

“America First”is the nickname I give to all perennial candidates who just can’t take “no” for an answer from voters. It’s in honor of Lar “America First” Daly, a losing fixture on local ballots for decades as he ran for many offices under both party labels before his death in 1978. (I cut him some slack because he was a fiddler).

Since being redistricted out of his aldermanic seat in 2011, Fioretti has run for state Senate as Democrat, for mayor of Chicago (twice), for Cook County Board president (twice, first as a Democrat and then as a Republican), and for Cook County state’s attorney, where he ran as a Democrat in 2020 and a Republican this year. He lost that bid for state’s attorney this week more than 2-to-1 to Eileen O’Neill Burke, who will replace outgoing Democratic State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

Waiting now to see which office Willie “America First” Wilson will run for next.

Advisory referenda are worthless

By a 45 percentage-point margin — 73% to 28% at this writing — Illinois voters said yes to an advisory referendum that asked, “Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to create an additional 3% tax on income greater than $1,000,000 for the purpose of dedicating funds raised to property tax relief?”

Yawn.

Yes, it sounds like a good idea to me. But voters were asked a version of this same question in 2020 in a binding referendum that would have amended the state constitution to allow for graduated income tax rates, and they rejected the idea 53% to 47%. However, this was after a campaign in which total spending from both sides surpassed $100 million and voters were barraged with pro and con arguments that were barely heard this time around.

Advisory referenda are glorified opinion polls and, because advocates tend to spend very little time or money trying to educate or motivate voters, result in a reflection of gut opinions.

Ranked-choice voting approved in Oak Park

By a nearly 4-to-1 margin, Oak Park voters OK’d ranked-choice (instant runoff) local elections starting in April 2027.

Oak Park is the second municipality in Illinois to adopt ranked choice voting for local elections. Evanston was the first, in November 2022, and is expected to implement the system in April 2025.

In Peoria, the local township had an advisory referendum asking if voters would like ranked choice voting statewide. It passed with 67% of voters in favor.

I like the idea and hope it spreads, though, like all balloting systems, it has drawbacks. I’m glad to see these suburbs and other cities giving it a go, and wish that Chicago would adopt it for what is likely to be a multicandidate field in the 2027 mayoral race.

Last week’s winning quip

My kids wanted a spooky story from the olden days so I told them the internet used to scream when you turned it on. — @thedad

It was the truth, though.

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: Chicago police Officer Enrique Martinez was shot to death during a traffic stop in the Chatham neighborhood Monday.

View: What makes this tragic story even more frightening is the sound of the gunfire heard in this indistinct video of the killing taken from a neighbor’s window. The shots are clearly from an automatic weapon — a machine gun, in common parlance — and a terrifying reminder that even law enforcement is outgunned on our streets.

News: “Chicago regulators approve cannabis dispensary despite objections over its proximity to school.”

View: Every cannabis dispensary I’ve ever passed by or been in has been anything other than a dull, staid storefront with extra security to control traffic in and out. People who are high aren’t stumbling out the door. Stoners aren’t hanging around outside. That there remains a moral panic about legalized recreational marijuana is baffling to me.

News: “Bird Advocates Horrified After Pigeon Hunting Company Traps Hundreds Of Birds In Logan Square, Niles.”

View: Though I harbor dark thoughts about these pestiferous rats of the sky and would be glad to see most of them exterminated, some of the methods described in this story strike me as inhumane.

News: The Illinois Retail Merchants Association is balking at Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal that the city get all seven cents of the “bag tax” instead of the five cents it currently receives.

View: IRMA has a good point. The bag tax imposes some minor headaches and additional costs on retailers. But the city needs money — the Johnson administration estimates the additional haul at $4.5 million a year. And single-use bags are environmentally unfriendly. So raise the tax to 10 cents, let the retailers keep 3 cents and everybody (except the hapless customer who forgets to bring reusables) wins.

News: More than 50% of voters in eight states — including the red states of Arizona, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Florida — voted in favor of abortion rights Tuesday.

View: An effort to impose a national abortion ban is now less inevitable since voters have shown Republicans how unpopular their views on this subject are. That this sentiment didn’t oust more conservative lawmakers Tuesday is a mystery.

Land of Linkin’

• Steve Chapman — “On Tuesday, the nation witnessed a vast and majestic spectacle: the American people participating in a democratic election to strike a blow against democracy. Enjoying the powers entrusted to them by the Constitution of the United States, they elected a president who is no more willing to abide by it than he is to shave his head.”

• “How much has been spent on Chicago’s school board elections? Almost $7 million.” (Chalkbeat Chicago)

• “Many retailers offer ‘returnless refunds.’ Just don’t expect them to talk much about it” (Associated Press)

• “Dad, How Do I…?” is a YouTube channel that features “useful, practical content to many basic tasks that everyone should know how to do” such as “How to Tie a Tie,” “How to Fix a Running Toilet” and “How To Change A Car Battery.”

• CWBChicago’s ongoing “Brandon’s Bodies” series has so far counted 12 gunshot victims “found outside in a location previously served by ShotSpotter with either (1) no accompanying 911 calls about gunfire or (2) calls about gunfire in a general area that do not lead to the timely location of the victim.” Five of the 12 were fatalities.

• Tickets are on sale online and at the Old Town School of Folk Music for the 26th annual Songs of Good Cheer winter holiday sing-along show at the Old Town School of Folk Music Dec. 12-15. Mary Schmich and I host the event and front for an all-star band of local musicians. Join us!

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:

■ Park carefully. Chicago’s launched a monthlong test of a plan to issue automated tickets to those who block bus and bike lanes downtown.

■ Bloomberg: In the age of streaming, greatest hits albums have lost their mojo.

■ A former Ohio State University professor newly transplanted here: Chicago’s e-scooters are dangerous.

■ We’d never have to change our clocks again if the suburban-based Coalition for Permanent Standard Time gets its way. Their view is backed by The American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

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

Mary Schmich: A thought for the aftermath

My former colleague Mary Schmich posts occasional column-like entries and other thoughts on Facebook. Here, reprinted with permission, is a Wednesday offering:

She gave it her all.

So did a whole lotta people who wanted to make sure we don’t go back.

Now we go forward, though not on the path so many of us hoped.

It’s a good day to go outside and look at trees and remember some of the wisest words ever spoken:

Start where you are.

That’s so Brandon!

• “Just a week after he was sworn into office, Chicago Board of Education President Mitchell L. Ikenna Johnson (resigned Oct. 31) at the request of Mayor Brandon Johnson, amid growing pressure over a string of controversial Facebook posts supporting Hamas, backing 9/11 conspiracy theories, and making sexist comments.” (CBS-2)

• “Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointment of another pastor to a powerful transportation oversight board was voted down (Oct. 30) by the City Council. … At the (Oct. 28) hearing, (Jaxson) Medina sidestepped questions about the looming fiscal cliff and a proposal by state lawmakers to merge the CTA with Metra and Pace, adding that he stopped regularly riding public transit three years ago after his household got a second car.” (Block Club Chicago)

A tipping point?

I don’t stay in hotels and motels more than a handful of times a year, so last weekend when my wife and I stayed at the Hampton Inn in Ottawa, Illinois, was the first time I’d seen a card like this in a room not just suggesting a tip for the housekeeper but also providing an easy way to offer that tip.

Such tips should be standard — $5 a night is what we have left for many years— yet I received quite a few angry comments in 2005 when I wrote a column contending that those who clean rooms have a difficult, exacting and poorly compensated job and deserve a little something extra.

Most readers responded viscerally to what they saw as the mentally exhausting expansion of tipping culture in which more and more workers seemed to have their hands (or their suggestive jars) out. I got that. And I’ve become even more annoyed since by how seemingly every transaction involving food or drink results in the confrontation with a touch screen suggesting tips.

But Wendy, here, tidied up perfectly after those who occupied the room before us, and deserves a little something for the effort. The card featuring the QR code — this initiative is several years old and was in response to how fewer and fewer people carry cash anymore — is at the very least a reminder of what I consider to be an obligation.

CNBC:

The percentage of Americans who always tip hotel housekeepers is steadily declining, down to 23% this year from 28% in 2021, according to a recent Bankrate survey of more than 2,000 adults. … The average hourly wage for housekeepers in the U.S. is $14.40, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

I didn’t take advantage of the QR code because Johanna had a five-spot on her and ready cash is always preferable as a tip. But I will use it as needed in the future.

You?

Final renaming showdown: Willis v. DuSable

The recent Axios Chicago bracket poll to name the worst name change in Chicago history found overwhelming distaste for the renaming of Sears Tower to Willis Tower. But for reasons apparently related to cultural sensitivity, the poll stayed away from renamings that involved historical or political figures. Thus it didn’t include Cook County Hospital to Stroger Hospital, Waveland Golf Course to Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course, Circle Interchange to the Jane Byrne Interchange, Congress Parkway to Ida B. Wells and the addition of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable’s name to Lake Shore Drive, among others that prompted grousing and side-eye.

So I created my own poll of these excluded finalists, and 66% of 821 respondents chose the 2021 renaming of outer Lake Shore Drive for DuSable, the Black man of Haitian descent who established a trading post at the mouth of the Chicago River in the late 1700s and is widely considered the city’s founder.

Opponents of this move by the City Council noted at the time that a local park, bridge, high school and harbor already bear DuSable’s name and that “Lake Shore Drive” is an iconic name.

Supporters said the honor was well deserved and one aimed at all Black Chicagoans. And that the former name, far from iconic, is hackneyed since nearly every state has at least one Lake Shore Drive or Lakeshore Drive, and sometimes many, many more.

The 2009 rechristening of the Sears Tower occurred when the London-based Willis Group Holdings insurance company bought the naming rights as part of a lease on three floors of the building that had been known as the Sears Tower since it opened in 1974. Those who to this day resist the change do so mostly out of fondness for tradition and stubbornness, two qualities I personally hold dear.

Anyway, time for a final showdown:

Regrettables: Neil Steinberg disses the POW/MIA flag

I put out the call a while back for my current and former siblings in punditry to send along columns they particularly regret having written. Sun-Times ace pundit Neil Steinberg replied with a 2004 offering reprinted on his blog;

This column instantly came to mind, not because I think I was wrong — I don't think I was — but because of the blowback. Hundreds of outraged emails — so much that I felt the need to walk it back. I regret it because the point I was making — nix the black flags — wasn't worth jamming my arm into a hornets' nest the way I did. I remember being truly horrified by the reaction — I was 20 years younger — and felt the need to pour oil on the waters, which I did in an item I'll tag after the original post.

Minced Words

A very good post-election episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast featuring the post-mortem analyses of host John Williams, Cate Plys, Austin Berg, Marj Halperin and me. 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.

Quotables

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

Trump and Vance called Harris, the first Black woman to run for president, "trash," "low IQ," "lazy as hell," "a stupid person," not Black, and said nothing as their supporters have suggested she was/is a prostitute. Never let the racist GOP say the word "civility" ever again. — Mehdi Hasan

In the days, weeks and months ahead, we will not challenge the legitimacy of the voters' choice for president. We will confront his policies and his inevitable abuse of power. We will fiercely challenge him on his lack of moral character and decency. We will challenge him on his promotion of authoritarians at home and abroad, and his failure to stand for freedom in the largest war in Europe since World War Two. We will challenge him on the vulgarity with which he demeans the office of the Presidency. The Republican Party and QAnon are now in the same party. — The Lincoln Project of anti-Trump Republicans

I remember how disgusted I was with the country in 2016, to be taken in by the "successful businessman" con by Donald Trump. But I am far more disgusted by America today. It saw what a horrible, stupid human being Donald Trump is and knowingly responded, "That's what I want." — Betty Bowers

The first people Hitler sent to the concentration camps weren’t Jewish people. They were his opponents who disagreed politically with him. — Marlene Robertson

Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals and rule you like a king. — Sideshow Bob in “The Simpsons”

If you look at the breadth of the loss across the map and come up with “one weird trick for how Democrats could have won by being more left-wing” then you’re just not engaging with reality. — Matthew Yglesias

At this point, saying “this is not who we are” is gaslighting. This is who we are. — Minh Ngo

We need to be clear eyed that a huge swath of America likes what Trump is selling. Transphobia. Mass deportation. That's what he ran on. And here we are. — Aaron Rupar

The Supreme Court will be changed for a generation. I’ll never see a moderate court again in my lifetime. Alito and Thomas will step down and Trump will appoint 40-year-old partisans to the bench. The damage he is about to inflict on our institutions the next two years will be irreparable. — Wendell Pierce

We now have a special responsibility, as citizens of the greatest nation on earth, to do everything we can to support and defend our Constitution, preserve the rule of law, and ensure that our institutions hold over these coming four years. Citizens across this country, our courts, members of the press and those serving in our federal, state and local governments must now be the guardrails of democracy. — Liz Cheney

Women are bleeding out in parking lots and you idiots voted for the rapist who made it happen. — @emisback717

This might seem a strange moment for optimism. … But what else is there? Despair? Embrace ruin? If we are ruined, then we were ruined already and this is the diagnosis, the undeniable lump on the CAT scan. If we are sick, then maybe we can get better. Just not yet. … There are hells below this one, and the United States just bought a ticket there. … Half the country wants a liar, bully, fraud and traitor. On the bright side, he stopped talking about the election being rigged. — Neil Steinberg

Quips

I’m sure we could all use a break from politics, so here is a totally politics-free item.

In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers vote for their favorite, and I post the winner here every Thursday. This one won going away despite the spelling mistake:

The new nominees for Quip of the Week:

1. In England, "booster shot" is spelled "borchestershire shot." — @BobGolen

2. Accidentally turned my clocks back too far and ended up at a Wham concert. — @Writepop

3. A year ago today, I vowed I'd run in next year's New York Marathon. Today I remember I did that. — @kipconlon

4. Many people recall the lockdowns as the worst part of COVID. For me it was the sea shanties. — @Bedeapk

5. I’m still waiting for the day my parents will say, “It’s all fake, we are millionaires, this was just to teach you to be humble.”— @introvertsmemes

6.  A “Brady Bunch” prequel, but it's a dark Netflix series about what really happened to Mike and Carol's first spouses. — @RodLacroix

7. And for my next trick, I will turn yesterday’s sweatpants into today’s sweatpants. — @topaz_kell

8. Start every phone call with "My battery is at 5%," so you can hang up whenever you want. — @Dadsaysjokes

9. Hello darkness my old friend. Why are you here? It's 6 p.m. — @yeeeerika

10. Approach a woman in a bar and whisper, "Hey, wanna get out of here?" If she says yes, you can sit where she was. — @Teatank01

Vote here and check the current results in the poll.

For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.

Why the new name for this feature? See “I’m rebranding ‘Tweet of the Week’ in a gesture of contempt for Elon Musk.”

Good Sports: Thinking ahead to the football playoffs

Haven’t been thinking that much about sports this week, to be honest, but I was uplifted by online images of the current potential college football playoff bracket:

Eleven games that will really matter and that certainly stand to be competitive. Expanding the field to include the top 16 teams — that would add SMU, LSU, Texas A&M and Ole Miss if we made the bracket today — would create four more meaningful games, though 16 vs. 1 and 15 vs. 2 matchups might not be all that compelling. Winter madness!

For what it’s worth, I continue to say that the NFL is missing a bet — literally! — by not keeping its playoff bracket in place once the postseason matchups are set. NBC explains how it now works:

Once the seven teams (from each conference) are picked, they are each assigned a seed number based on their record and any required tiebreaking factors. The winningest team is the 1 seed, the team with the most losses is the 7 seed, and everyone else fills in accordingly. … The 1 seed team gets to skip the first round entirely and just rest up for the second round. The (first round) features three games per conference, for six games total, and each game is arranged according to seeding numbers, with the highest seed playing the lowest seed, the second highest playing the second lowest, and so on. … Once you get to the (next) round, the same seeding rules apply, with the lowest remaining seed playing the 1 seed , the second lowest remaining seed playing the second highest, and so on.

Yes, this way of conducting the tournament makes regular-season games somewhat more important, but at the expense of letting millions of fans fill in their brackets.

Tune of the Week

There were so many song choices to commemorate the passing of legendary producer Quincy Jones Sunday at 91, but this one is arguably his greatest achievement:

Jones assembled 46 of the biggest names in popular music in a studio in January 1985 and got them to cooperatively record a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie that still feels relevant and powerful nearly 40 years later:

When you're down and out, and there seems no hope at all
But if you just believe, there's no way we can fall
Let us realize that a change can only come
When we stand together as one

The Picayune Sentinel is a reader-supported publication. Browse and search back issues here. Simply subscribe to receive new posts each Thursday. To support my work, receive bonus issues on Tuesdays and join the zesty commenting community, become a paid subscriber. Thanks for reading

Contact

You can email me here:

I read all the messages that come in, but I do most of my interacting with readers in the comments section beneath each issue.

Some of those letters I reprint and respond to in the Z-mail section of Tuesday’s Picayune Plus, which is delivered to paid subscribers and available to all readers later Tuesday. Check there for responses.

If you don’t want me to use the full name on your email or your comments, let me know how you’d like to be identified.

If you’re having troubles with Substack — delivery, billing and so forth — first try “Picayune Sentinel Substack help, Frequently Asked Questions.” If that doesn’t work, check out the Substack help page. An if that doesn’t work, shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to help.