Sunday Mailbag

This is one of those mailbags with unusual breadth.

Politics: American Badass

D.C. in Portland, OR, writes: Wow! There is no greater badass than D.O. in Eastern Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, of whom I am in complete awe. Thank you and thank you, again.

I have no idea what it must take to make such a noble and selfless decision, sacrificing safety and comfort to aid the strangers of another nation. And to do it alone, voluntarily, rather than as part of one's own army.

Think on the impression that ambassador D.O.'s actions must leave with the Ukrainian individuals who they help, and what that means for us all. The American who helped them.

Politics: The Resistance

D.E. in Lancaster, PA , writes: The legacy media is failing us once again. In regards to Donald Trump's military occupation of Washington, DC, they are definitely putting their heavy fingers on the scale for Trump. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has been trying to appease Trump's ego by stating that the "surge" has worked. My guess is she is hoping he will take that as a win and turn his attention elsewhere. Like so many of our institutions, Bowser has clearly not been paying attention to Trump's past actions. I think her political career is over because Democrats are looking for someone to fight and Bowser is not a fighter. Nonetheless, the legacy media is taking her at her word and not investigating any further.

CBS published a disingenuous map, I guess as part of their payment for their sweetheart Paramount/Skydance deal, that they say shows how the military and ICE deployments are not just to gentrified areas of the city, but rather to crime-ridden neighborhoods from the darkest of apocalyptic video games. Having lived in D.C. for 20+ years, I know the layout of the city and the overwhelming majority of the deployment areas are the spots the city goes for enjoyment, dining, recreation and to let their hair down. They are the cultural centers of the city. The CBS map adds dots for each arrest since the occupation and sure enough they are clustered around where the troops are deployed, which makes it seem like these areas are a no-man's-land of rape and murder. When I investigate those individual dots for the crime involved, most of them are ICE arrests. The ones that aren't... well, let's just say that because I know the city, I have found the dots for some of the ludicrous "crimes" that have been reported. I have found the dot labeled "assault" right outside the Subway Sandwich place where Sean Dunn famously threw his sandwich at the ICE agents. I have also found the dot at the Trader Joe's that represents Torez Riley's arrest on gun possession that a U.S. Magistrate Judge would call the most illegal search he had ever seen. I'm sorry, but if you're using a map of "crimes" to justify why these agents are there when the majority of those crimes are ones they instigated through bad police work and bad policy, then you'll have to understand why I don't trust anything CBS or the other legacy media prints regarding this situation. Their map confuses correlation with causation—post hoc ergo propter hoc.

When one watches the media of late, there is a lot of footage of the Guards cleaning the parks and picking up trash, an occupation that is not well served by the nearly $100,000 per soldier that it costs to train them. It would be easy to come away thinking that D.C. is an appalling trash heap of filth and garbage. Yes, it is a city and there is always some sort of litter, just like every part of America, urban, suburban, or rural, but for the most part the cities' parks were always kept clean and pleasing to the eye. Even the tiny park (you could walk through it in about 15 seconds) nearby where I used to live was nice and clean of most trash, so that I would have thought nothing of taking a book to read on one of its benches on a nice sunny day. Sometimes people spread blankets for picnics and sunbathing and people don't do that among piles of rubbish. All of the city's numerous parks are run by the National Park Service. They had about 200 employees whose jobs were to keep all the parks clean. Now there are only 20 employees to do what 200 once did. If you're wondering what happened to the other 180 employees, well, simply put, DOGE happened. So Trump is spending millions of dollars to bring troops in to do a job that is beneath their training in order to solve a problem that Trump created. If there's a term for that, I can't think of it—perhaps we should call it "Pulling another Donald." Yet, no one in the media bothers to question why our National Guard are being employed as groundskeepers.

To get a better idea of what's been going on in the District, I've been turning to neighborhood blogs, local reporting and videos on YouTube—and everything is not sunshine and roses in D.C. Everyone is talking about how quiet the city is, as everyone is staying hunkered down inside their homes. Last week was Restaurant Week, which is usually a big deal in D.C. This year, the Restaurant Association, usually a conservative bunch, reported that reservations were down 50% and that many tables remained empty. From videos I've seen, the streets look empty and the areas that are being shown are usually thriving and bustling, especially considering that D.C. has had some gorgeous weather with low humidity the past few weeks. Some officials are concerned that between the loss of so many federal workers, the loss of a great amount of tourism this summer, and now the economic fallout of this occupation, that a usually recession-proof city is now headed towards economic hardship. Again, everything that Trump touches rots and dies.

Out the side door of the apartment building I used to live in is a very short walk to the wonderful neighborhood of Mt. Pleasant, a mostly Latino neighborhood with a fair number of gentrified white and Black families. It is a mixture of restaurants and beautiful houses on tree lined streets—not what one pictures as city living. This area displays a lot of its Latino culture, often with regular musical performances. I saw a video of one last weekend, with only a couple of people in attendance. I have listened to these events often with 30-40 others who stopped by to enjoy a few songs as they go out for their evening walk. With the risk of being redundant, people don't go on strolls through the middle of gang wars. That same week, I saw a video of an ICE raid in Mt. Pleasant, which took place right as the neighborhood children were going to school. ICE agents pulled a man, who owned his own business, from his truck, in front of his wife and children, to arrest him. Crowds of his neighbors, of all races, gathered to scream at the ICE agents to leave this man alone, that he was a good man and an upstanding neighbor.

There was another video I saw recorded by someone having lunch al fresco in another delightful neighborhood in D.C. He recorded a bunch of ICE agents, who pulled a man off his moped as he was about to deliver a DoorDash. A group of people gathered around demanding to know what was going on. These agents were masked and aggressive towards the bystanders. After one bystander said "Get out of our city," one of the ICE agents said "You liberals have had control for too long!" Oops, I guess someone said the quiet part out loud.

I also saw this great article in The Nation about how D.C. is resisting:

When the night comes, it is not just the National Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a jumpy police department walking the streets. In an otherwise eerily quiet city, the people are present as well. Armed only with cell phones, medical kits and the confidence to assert their dwindling rights, groups of local residents trail and record Trump's occupation forces. They are known as the night patrols.

These night patrols watch over the city to ensure that people are protected from state violence, false arrest, abduction and harassment. Failing that, their goal is to document the constitutional violations or brutality they witness, so people can see the truths about the occupation that a compliant, largely incurious media are not showing. Their footage has gone viral and exposed the mainstream media's lies about how happy D.C. residents are to see the South Carolina National Guard marching by their kid's elementary school.

These patrols constitute a variety of organizations trying to stop the occupation, including FLARE USA, which stands for For Liberation And Resistance Everywhere, and is comprised of fed-up military veterans, who want to stop these unnecessary ICE raids. People participating in these patrols tell of a man who was almost arrested for having a burned-out tail light. He had been pulled from his vehicle, while his two children were left frightened and crying inside. The only reason he escaped arrest was because a crowd had gathered to record the events. Another instance involves Paul Bryant, a Black corporate lawyer and West Point graduate, who was arrested for walking through Logan Circle, another beautiful gentrified D.C. neighborhood, at 2:00 a.m. because he refused to say what he was doing, which is, after all, his constitutional right. A judge later released him and then tore into the prosecutors.

Just this week, I watched a video by one of these patrols, although this one was in the daytime. The reason this one caught my eye was that I recognized the Metro Station (Columbia Heights) as the one I used every day to go to and from work for almost 20 years. Most readers probably don't remember, but back in 2020 I wrote a letter that was published in the Sunday Mailbag, in which I talked about seeing then-Vice President Joe Biden picking up a pizza at a shop by a Metro Station. Columbia Heights is that Metro Station, and I can assure you that the Secret Service would not have allowed Biden to walk 30 feet from his limo to Pete's Pizza if there had been bullets blazing and people being murdered nearby. In this video from last week, a group of watchers were closely following the ICE agents, all masked of course, as they descended on the station. At one point in the recording, an ICE agent turns around and glares at the camera with such rage and loathing that I wondered if a crime was about to be committed by him. After all kinds of pointless folderol by the agents (going up and down the escalators trying to look tough), the agents swoop in to make an arrest. Before I tell you what the person was arrested for, I would like for you to imagine you're at the movies, watching the coming attractions. Now imagine you're watching a trailer for the next Spider-Man or John Wick film and that the trailer says these heroes would be going against the dastardly, vile and despicable Fare-Jumper, you would laugh out loud. Yes, that was the sole arrest of this group of about 10 heavily armed agents, someone who tried to jump the fare gates to ride the Metro without paying. Thanks to their actions and having such scum and villainy off the streets, people can now safely wear watches and jewelry while walking the streets of D.C., as our Adolf Eichmann lookalike Stephen Miller is fond of yelling.

In a move that is so typical D.C., in that it references a book and HBO show, a group of watchers surrounded the arresting officers and started chanting "Shame," a reference to Cersei's nude walk of penitence through King's Landing in A Game of Thrones. All that's missing is the bell. Between the eye of the cell phones, the standing up for constitutional rights and the chanting of "Shame," the brownshirts and thugs scurry quickly away, like rats from the light. For all their posturing, tough talk, intimidation and their cosplay, surplus-store-bought camouflage and tactile gear, these thugs really are allergic to the light of the real law.

A person involved in the Resistance said in The Nation article, "that there is 'joy in the revolution,' and that it is important to show the occupation forces that they are unafraid: 'There are police everywhere. We are outside. We are not scared of you. This is our home!'"

It overjoys my heart to know that the Resistance in D.C. is alive and well. It really should garner greater attention from the media, but then they are always a month late and a ton of money short. The barricades are not quite up yet, but everyone knows who the Javerts and Thenardiers are. They are willing to fight for what they hold dear while the rest of America sits on its ass. Contrary to popular belief, resistance is NOT futile!

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R.M. in Pensacola, FL, writes: I just got home a few hours ago from a trip to Chicago that lasted several days to see a concert with my wife and son.

We stayed at the Palmer House, right in The Loop. A block from Millennium Park. Six blocks to the Willis Tower. Numerous other places of interest within a short walk of the hotel. Presumably, according to Donald Trump, this is Ground Zero for the hellhole that is Chicago.

However, what Trump fails to mention, when he trashes Chicago, is that just outside The Loop, is... Trump International Hotel & Tower. Not once in the decade that Trump has been on the national stage as a politician have I heard him complain about anything that has impacted the business at his building, which is the second-tallest building in Chicago.

While my family was in Chicago these last several days, we never felt unsafe. My wife, 7-year-old son and I went wherever, whenever and never saw anything resembling crime. It was the same last year, when we went to New York City.

Everyone needs to keep pushing back on Trump's attempts at an authoritarian takeover. He is completely making everything up. Everything Trump does is to benefit himself, and yet, he doesn't mention anything negatively impacting his towers in Chicago and New York?

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S.B. in Los Angeles, CA, writes: So, if Donald Trump is exhibiting Nazi tendencies and is now threatening to send his paramilitary forces to Chicago, Illinois, wouldn't that make him an "Illinois Nazi?" I stand with Jake and Elwood!

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A.R. in Los Angeles, CA, writes: Abbe Lowell: I'm available. Hire me.

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M.B. in Washington, DC, writes: You have such a great point about thousands of people burning the U.S. flag to protest TCF as well as to expose his impotence with enforcing his XO. What a hoot that would be!

Some enterprising person should sell pre-packaged flags that are made of burnable material and pre-soaked with lighter fluid, just to "own the cons." I'd love to see SCOTUS and POTUS twist themselves into knots trying to challenge the legality of such a free-market capitalist venture: The People vs. Larry Flynt redux.

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P.S. in North Las Vegas, NV, writes: Some other flag desecrations to consider. Are they illegal?

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C.Z. in Sacramento, CA, writes: I like the suggestion I've read for California's congressional redistricting, to simply divide the state horizontally, west to east, into districts based on population. The districts would be geographically compact, contiguous, not irregular, and easy to understand. Since the districts would be based on population and latitude, the case could not be made that minorities were being discriminated against. In-person "town hall" meetings are being replaced by on-line or telephonic "meetings," so regardless of how far the district extends laterally, the public would still have a way to express their opinions to their congressperson. Of course, the fact that the majority of our population live on or near the west coast and are majority Democratic voters, means that most of the districts would be majority Democratic. That's just a bonus.

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S.S.L. in Battle Creek, MI, writes: Chef's kiss!

Politics: Trumponomics

J.P. in Chicago, IL, writes: Having imported multiple items under the de minimis limit, I have seen countless packages moving through bonded warehouses. It's a major disruption and your analysis is spot on regarding Christmas. The original tariffs are already causing issues and many companies have transitioned to direct shipping in small quantities in order to avoid the tariffs. This has caused headaches for the companies paying the tariffs. I would imagine they may have also influenced this move.

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L.S.-H. in Naarden, The Netherlands, writes: The only true part of Peter Navarro's statement is that the "create thousands of jobs" part of eliminating the de minimus "loophole" will be for all the extra inspectors that will have to be hired to inspect Every. Damn. Package.

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D.B. in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, writes: I really think that the best name to describe the tariffs is: "Tariffornacation" as we are all going to get fu**ed in the end.

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T.F. in Craftsbury Common, VT, writes: I am confident that our esteemed president did not single out Lisa Cook because she was Black or female or both, but because of his deeply held belief that people who commit real estate tax fraud have no place in government. I wholeheartedly concur and would encourage him to pursue that initiative, perhaps starting with any officials who have already been convicted of such a heinous crime. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Politics: The Latest School Shooting

J.C. in Fez, Morocco, writes: It seems like this whole thing with the shooter at the Annunciation School is incredibly complicated. For instance, it appears that he regretted being trans and decided he was no longer a woman, shortly before he murdered the children. (I use those pronouns because they appear to be the ones that he wanted at the end.) And he was going through all the depression and difficulty of attacks from society that people do who work through these issues. I don't even know where to begin to try to break this one down.

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D.A.Y. in Troy, MI, writes: This Friday, I went to lunch and the person at the other end of the counter was talking about the mass shooting in Minnesota and how the perpetrator was trans. Along with misgendering the individual, he began spouting the finding of some supposed mental health expert (though "quack" is probably a better description, considering what was about to leave his mouth). According to these findings, transgenderism is linked to autism and both "conditions" are prone to increased violence.

I told him where he could shove this supposed information, and the head waitress also told him off.

However, in blaming mental illness for mass shootings, we reinforce the prejudice against people with mental illness while also labeling people who are different. Transgenderism and autism are not mental illnesses because mental illness suggests they can be "cured," which has been attempted through campaigns of abuse against transgender and autistic individuals (up to and including killing them). But even if someone has an actual mental illness, they should not be treated as a criminal who should be locked up or executed because their existence might be inconvenient for others.

There is a dangerous mindset we have allowed to fester in this country. It has already allowed for people to be killed with impunity, and I am afraid it will only get worse under the current president.

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R.P. in Seattle, WA, writes: I'm retired now but my background was psychiatry and I still keep abreast of updates in the field.

For many years there's been a growing body of evidence that the modern understanding of depression and its causes as neural chemical imbalances was either oversimplified or even completely wrong. SSRIs were always prescribed based only on a theoretical understanding of their mechanism of action which has, still to this day, never been observed on a cellular level in a laboratory setting.

The University College London in 2022 finished an exhaustive multi-decade study culminating what many of us already knew: There was no evidence that depression was caused by a chemical imbalance of the brain. Even large media outlets reported on this, although often with large caveats given their pharmaceutical sponsors and fear of advertising backlash.

I watched patients for years struggle with depression and I can say, in my own experience, injecting random chemicals into the brain with no understanding of how they operate on a cellular level was not even a 50-50 proposition, and it made people's situations worse most of the time. The handful of people they would help were likely placebo effects.

Eventually, when medicine catches up and comes to accept this, there will be a reckoning. For several decades we've been giving people drugs that we don't have the faintest idea of how they operate and they've been targeting the brain, the seat of our consciousness. If we thought Alzheimer's and Parkinson's were bad, I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of gerontological neurological illnesses we will have when the Prozac generation turns 80.

I'm not sure if you will print this, I have no idea of your personal attitudes towards this or if you have any professional or advertising conflicts but you should know that more people are becoming aware of this and the outrage and anger from the public will only get worse as people continue to mock and deny the science clearly showing the situation here.

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K.F. in Berea, KY, writes: Some years ago, I was fortunate enough to study abroad in China with a great group of students from all over the Commonwealth of Kentucky. We spent six weeks in the summer studying history, religion, art, language, and philosophy. It was one of the seminal experiences of my lifetime. We had a group of students from the University of Louisville known as "McConnell Scholars" who joined us on this trip (no they did not resemble turtles). Unfortunately, one of those students was a young Scott Jennings. The passage of time has done nothing to bring the concepts of compassion and self awareness to this bloviating fool. One of the biggest reasons I don't bother to watch CNN anymore is because they continue to allow this cheap person to have a "MAGA"phone to "Trump"et his nonsense to people in the interest of bothsidesism. Now, the only time I hear about him is when (V) or (Z) mentions the latest garbage to come out of his mouth.

Politics: Cracker Barrel

M.S. in Canton, NY, writes: As you suggest, the Cracker Barrel controversy (8/26/25) may well be the strangest culture war battle ever, but there has been an equally dumb one already this month. Apparently, the right-wing echo chamber has been rejoicing over how much the libs have been triggered by recent sorority dance videos online. The only problem is that when actual journalists looked into it, there was no evidence of any liberal anywhere objecting to the videos. When this was pointed out to one prominent right-wing influencer, his answer was simply, "I don't believe that." I'm sure that's sufficient proof for MAGA-world.

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R.C. in Newport News VA, writes: The fuss over Cracker Barrel may be financially/politically motivated: Check out "Less Fun Than a Barrel of Crackers":

That it's a controversy at all is the work of activist investor Sardar Biglari, CEO of midwest chain Steak 'n Shake. (Biglari's father was a general under the Shah of Iran, and the family had to flee after the revolution.) Biglari has been trying to take over Cracker Barrel, Carl Icahn corporate-raider-style, for 15 years. That's why Steak 'n Shake has been stoking the supposed controversy about Cracker Barrel on its X account. And Steak 'n Shake, under Biglari's leadership, has been all-in as a MAGA brand whilst closing over 200 restaurants in the last 7 years. You can like or dislike the Cracker Barrel rebranding, but it's not "woke." It's just minimal. The idea that it's "woke" is just nonsense promulgated by Biglari to get the result we're actually seeing, where pro-Trump media outlets (like Fox News) pick up on the rebranding as somehow "woke," Cracker Barrel gets bad publicity and their stock price suffers, and maybe Biglari gets a chance to take over the chain, which is all he cares about."

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L.G. in Wimberley, TX, writes: I've been boycotting Cracker Barrel since I learned that they supported Tom DeLay back when Texas had its first mid-decade redistricting. I think that is a good reason to continue boycotting Cracker Barrel.

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R.H. in San Antonio, TX, writes: I have it on unimpeachable authority from a person familiar with the situation that the Cracker Barrel logo is not going to release the Epstein files.

Politics: The Gay Agenda

D.A. in Hermosa Beach, CA, writes: Thank you for including my comment in the Sunday Mailbag.

You wrote: "(V) & (Z) respond: We must observe that 'the LGBTQ+ agenda' is... that they want to be treated no differently from anyone else. So, it's pretty hard—one might even say impossible—to argue that a party can be opposed to 'the LGBTQ+ agenda' without being opposed to gay people."

I will try to clarify. I agree that consenting adults should not be discriminated against. I own and manage apartments and I treat gay tenants and gay prospective tenants no differently from anyone else. At the same time, here are some things I am opposed to: Transgender surgeries and puberty blockers for minors, males competing in female sports, LGBTQ+ themes being taught in public schools to young children. I believe that makes me opposed to the LGBTQ+ agenda. I suppose you can argue that makes me opposed to gay people, but that's not how I view myself.

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K.R. in Austin, TX, writes: D.A. in Hermosa Beach stated that Republicans are not against gay people but are against the LGBTQ+ agenda.

This is nonsensical, as you pointed out. However, this is consistent with two common phrases I've heard in my life from people: "I support gay people. I just don't know why they need to shove it in our faces," and "Hate the sin, but love the sinner."

I find both of these sentiments to be dehumanizing. They say that I will be tolerated as long as I don't say anything about my life to anyone.

The people who say these things have difficulty understanding why the phrases are dehumanizing. They should consider the reverse.

I am OK with people who live a heterosexual lifestyle, but I want them to stop throwing it in my face. Why do they need big, public weddings where they kiss each other in front of everyone? Why do they wear a white dress at the wedding to represent their sexual purity in front of everyone? Why do they wear rings after they're married to show everyone they encounter that they're living a heterosexual lifestyle? Why do schools have dances that they sponsor where they encourage children to live a heterosexual lifestyle? For prom, they even have kids vote for a boy and a girl to be king and queen of the heterosexuals.

The schools are indoctrinating children into a heterosexual lifestyle by carrying many books that promote such a lifestyle. Most movies and TV shows targeted at children prominently feature heterosexual relationships, and some, like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, even have a man kissing an unconscious woman, teaching children that they should force their heterosexual lifestyle onto those who can't fight back.

In my life, people living the heterosexual lifestyle have often told me about who they were dating, and spoken about their plans to have children. I don't need to know those details.

In addition, I've experienced heterosexuals flirting with me and assuming I was one of "them." It made me very uncomfortable.

Like I said, I'm very supportive of the heterosexual lifestyle, but it's incredibly disturbing how freely they throw it in all our faces.

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G.W. in Avon, CT, writes: D.A. in Hermosa Beach claimed that the Republican Party is "against crime, abortion, immigrants, brown people, gay people, illegal immigration, the LGBTQ+ agenda, DEI, and wokeness."

You (correctly IMO) observed that the "LGBTQ+ agenda" is simply to be treated as human beings. I would add on to this that, at least from personal experience, the rest of that list is equally flawed.

People of all political stripes are against "crime," but MAGA voters seem to have a very distorted notion of what the realities of the current crime landscape are, and thus routinely support "anti-crime" moves that are nonsensical or even counterproductive. In 55 years on this planet, I've never met a single person who is "pro-abortion," but MAGA voters seem to both reject that notion that sometimes it's the least-bad option and also to oppose many policies that are known to reduce the number of unwanted, non-viable, or dangerous pregnancies. Finally, they seem to have no coherent notion of what the terms "illegal immigration," "DEI," or "wokeness" even mean, conveniently using all of them as throwaway terms to demonize or diminish in varying degrees anyone who isn't a straight, white, Christian man.

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M.J.M. in Lexington, KY, writes: D.A. in Hermosa Beach edited out the pure bigotry in your description of the Republican Party. I'm a Kentuckian and I see it as similar to defending the Confederate flag. If you don't want your party to come across as being against immigrants, brown people and gay people, do what is necessary to stop your elected officials from acting against immigrants, brown people and gay people. To act on such prejudice is wrong, and your party is doing so. In fact, I believe DEI will lead to a meritocracy. I'm going to make a poster to say that for my office door.

Politics: The Democrats and Their Mojo

C.B. in Springfield, MO, writes: (V) wrote: "The most important fact here is that 60% of the voters do not have a 4-year college degree. If Democrats write them off as ignorant racist sexist yahoos, they are lost as a party. They have to come up with an agenda that a large number of noncollege voters see as working for them."

Understood, but how do Democrats call out the racist, sexist behavior that is exhibited by some of this 60% in a way that lets the others know we'd be glad to have them join us? I ask because simply ignoring the racism and sexism is absolutely a non-starter for me, and I suspect for many Democrats. I'm not willing to pretend I don't see a thing that I see, and merely calling the thing what it is seems to enrage a lot of Trump voters, so I don't know where to go from here. I'm all for pragmatism, but I insist it be reality-based.

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M.G. in Piscataway, NJ, writes: You quoted Doug Sosnik as saying that for Democrats to get their mojo back, they have to come up with an agenda that a large number of noncollege voters see as working for them.

Coming up with an agenda that appeals to a large number of noncollege voters seems pretty easy to me. Over 30 years ago, James Carville said "it's the economy, stupid," and for over 20 years economic populists have been saying the same thing. Bernie Sanders almost beat Hillary Clinton by running as an economic populist. Donald Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016 by pretending to be an economic populist. Zohran Mamdani became the Democratic nominee in New York City by running as an economic populist. Here are a few ideas for a Democratic agenda: Increase the minimum wage, paid family leave; improve the healthcare system, increase Social Security payouts. The Democratic Party must embrace its FDR roots.

IMO, the main reason Democrats lose to Republicans is because most of them have not embraced economic populism. The reason most elected Democrats don't embrace economic populism is because their big donors are against those policies and elected Democrats almost always side with the big donors over the voters. That's why I believe Democrats running for office should not take any money from big corporate donors or billionaire funded super PACs.

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J.W. in San Francisco, CA, writes: I would consider myself a progressive who used to be a Democrat, but is now independent. What Ronald Brownstein said is actually a major reason why the Democrats need to move left on economic issues, and focus not necessarily on winning disaffected Republicans, but winning disaffected non-voters.

Who are the disaffected non-voters? They are often people who are not super woke, but hate rich people even more, and have no loyalty to Israel. They tend to be a mix of young, working class white and Latino people, many of whom work in the gig economy and thus have trouble accessing healthcare, have college debt, struggle to afford rent and are concerned about the planet. They are people who would turn out in droves for a Bernie Sanders-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez style economic agenda and could very well flip the swing states and even put some new states within reach for the Democrats.

Millennials have been burned by George W. Bush as well as the broken promises of change by Barack Obama, as well as Joe Biden. And as a transgender woman, I can say a majority of these disaffected people may not be the biggest trans allies yet, but they also aren't gonna consider it a litmus test. Gen Z is also a group where economic progressivism can drive turnout.

I remember in July 2018, AOC came to SF and spoke about converting non-voters to Democrats instead of Republicans to Democrats. She greatly overperformed Kamala Harris in her own district. Could she find fertile ground in places where mainstream Democrats don't dare go?

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L.G. in Wimberley, TX, writes: Every congressional representative you cited in "Congress Has a Geriatric Problem" needs to follow the example set by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), who, if the Texas gerrymander goes through, will withdraw his candidacy in the district that represents Austin to support Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX).

I am certain Congressman Doggett will always be available to Congressman Casar to provide advice, support and guidance. He has been very supportive of local Democrats for decades. His wisdom and insights are invaluable. It is very appropriate that he share them with up-and-coming Democrats.

I have always respected Congressman Doggett. For me, that announcement just cemented that respect for all eternity. I think representatives over 75 who decided to run again should rethink their roles. Being a respected advisor and mentor to younger candidates before shuffling off the mortal coil would have more long term value than hanging on until they need to be carried off the floor in a pine box.

Just as an aside: I was recently at an event for a local Democrat and Congressman Doggett was there. He asked me who represents me. When I replied that it is Chip Roy (R-TX), he said, quite correctly, that I have no representation at all.

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N.S. in Barrie, ON, Canada, writes: The list of geriatric congressional members neglected to include Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). If she runs for reelection and wins, she will be 3 months shy of 87 when she assumes office in January 2027.

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D.F. in Corcoran, MN, writes: Thank you for running the letter from T.B, in Centennial; it is a stellar example of one of the things in politics that give me fits, that being the refrain: "since the Democrats won't do X, I won't vote for them" (X being move to the left, move to the right, fight dirty, refrain from stooping to Republicans' level, etc.).

Hopefully T.B. has had a chance to rethink their position since writing, for it is the very height of personal immaturity and self-centeredness to expect a political party to behave as though it were just for that person's self. For anyone who would have preferred the policies of a Democratic administration to a Trump administration, but withheld their vote in 2024 because they loved Biden, disliked Harris, thought the Democrats were insufficiently or overly zealous on Gaza/the environment/racial equality/etc., I would ask, "are you satisfied when you look outside of your bubble?" We've had damaging tariffs, brutal cuts to social programs, gutting and weaponization of crucial parts of our government, essentially the biggest data breach in our lifetime happening with the consent of the President, just to name the crises that come immediately to mind... and you chose to waste your chance to stop all of that so that you could "teach the Dems a lesson"? How does that make you any better than the Trump voter who justifies voting against even their own interests just to "own the libs?"

I liken our electoral system to a unique sort of restaurant—the only source of a meal in a town without grocery stores or other restaurants, but one that serves the same meal to all based on whichever item on the menu gets the most votes. If you walk in on a night where the two frontrunners in the voting are pizza and manure sandwich on rye, and you abstain from voting, or you cast your vote for the Cobb salad because you had pizza for lunch, you have no cause to stand on principle (or on the table) to complain about the sandwich. A rational mind would have understood the situation and cast a vote for the best outcome, even if they didn't like the rules of the restaurant and didn't want another slice of pizza. It disappointed me bitterly in 2016 and 2024 that there were so many manure-sandwich voters in our country, and it disappointed me equally to hear from so many enablers afterward. "I'm not voting for the Democrats until they come around to my way of thinking" is their mantra, apparently not understanding that there might be just as many or more votes lost on the other side of the same spectrum for any movement that party makes. Meanwhile, Republican voters continue to hold their noses and vote for their manure sandwich, if for no other reason than to watch the rest of us try to choke it down. And they consistently win.

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M.F. in St. Paul, MN, writes: The letters about "fixing" the Democratic Party almost always suggest that Democrats would win, if only Democrats would support the same beliefs that the letter writer supports. The Democratic Party is the big tent party, and that's the root of its problems. The Democrats can't please all of their voters, because subsets of their voters want contradictory things. The Democratic Party will support things that are broadly popular, but cannot reach a consensus on every issue.

Given this, I do not expect the Democratic Party to support all the same things I do. But the beauty of a (functional) democracy is that I have a voice. If I want others to adopt my beliefs, I have agency. It's on me to try to educate and persuade people to come around. I can contact my representatives when there's a bill I want them to support or oppose, and I can urge other people I know to reach out as well. There are many opportunities to speak up and be heard, both formally and informally. If I advocate and work hard, I can make my beliefs more popular and more salient, and the Democratic Party will (eventually) move in the direction I want.

Our society and our politics deeply frustrate me, all the time, pretty much every day. But I try to put that frustration into action to make things better. I support the Democratic Party, because they are a big tent party that is responsive to public opinion, and they are at least trying to make things better, even if they don't always do what I want them to do.

Politics: Fire Codes

M.D.H. in Coralville, IA, writes: You wrote: "That's for the buildings that did not first get burned down in the all-too-common urban conflagrations of the [19th century], of course. No fire codes back then, either."

I once had a boss who had previously worked for UL, the safety testing company formerly known as Underwriters Laboratories. The old name reflected its history: It was founded by a group of insurance companies in Chicago (which famously had a great fire) who wanted to reduce the dollars they paid out for rebuilding by making it a condition of coverage that clients use electrical equipment approved by their lab.

Due to the decentralized structure of the U.S. government, many of our national safety standards are written by private organizations whose codes are adopted in whole or in part by local authorities. Many of these standards only acquired legal status long after the private sector had adopted them as de facto standards.

Much of the research being cut by Donald Trump would have influenced future standards of this type, so the lives lost will be future lives not saved by improved knowledge.

The boss who had worked at UL said to me once, "Behind every paragraph of the National Electric Code is at least one preventable death."

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R.T. in Arlington, TX, writes: The paragraph about building codes caught my eye because it related to my professional work. The readers may not be aware that there is a war going on to simply preserve the benefits in safety and durability we get from our building and fire codes. The National Fire Protection Association has published articles to explain the details. There has long been a tension between fire marshals and real estate developers, where the advantages flow to the developers because they have more money and infiltrate the elected government, while the fire marshals are civil service and are inherently constrained in the lobbying power.

Over the last 10 years, the NGOs that draft model building codes for cities and states to choose from have been under financial attack under a "sovereign citizen" concept seeking to force the model building codes into the public domain, stealing the copyright revenues that the organizations need in order to be able to pay for their work. The recent change is that the MAGA movement, in its thoughtless, bone-headed, and unneeded efforts to cut regulations, is passing state laws that prevent local jurisdictions from updating their codes. The most extreme example is Ohio, which passed a law that for every new regulation, two old ones must go. This is only half crazy until you find that they count the renewal or update of a regulation as a "new" regulation. The effect is that 2/3 of the content in each building code must be deleted. The code officials are going crazy trying to figure out what is most essential to keep because they won't have a choice but to discard most of the code. It is stunning that we now find ourselves in a world where reasonable people are actually doing things that are absolutely nuts because the mob (voting public) elected crazy people to office.

Politics: Legal Matters

S.G. in Newark, NJ, writes: Thanks to R.E.M. in Brooklyn for the excellent and amazingly concise analysis of the New York Appellate Division's resolution of Trump's appeal. I would add the following:

• It's almost impossible to imagine the New York Court of Appeals declining to hear this case. Not only because of the case's visibility, but also because of the bizarre way the Appellate Division decided, and because of the stakes for future civil fraud actions by the New York AG.
  
  
• The odds strongly favor the Court of Appeals agreeing that the AG had the authority to pursue this case.
  
  
• If so, that leaves the "excessive fines" question as the critical question. On that question, the controlling decision of the Appellate Division is that the disgorgement judgment against Trump, et al., violated both the state and federal constitutions. The NY Court of Appeals is the last word on the New York State Constitution, but not on the United States Constitution. In other words, unless Trump wins in New York's highest court, we all know where this case is heading.

I assume that if the Court of Appeals reinstates the judgment, it will also issue a stay. If it doesn't, then not only do we know where the case is going, we'll know that our first clue will come from the shadow docket.

History Matters: Ann Smith Franklin

L.S. in Greensboro, NC, writes: I really enjoyed the item on Ann Smith Franklin. I especially welcomed the chance to read her obituary, since I now see where President Trump gets his rules of capitalization. Perhaps he should change the name of his movement to Make America Use 18th Century Capitalization Rules Again. Perhaps he could use the Stasi and the National Guard to enforce them.

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K.C.W. in Austin, TX, writes: A hearty welcome to (A), and a belated welcome to (L). As a former resident of Rhode Island, and student of printing and the book-trade, thank you for recounting the history of Ann Smith Franklin. You wrote, "Identifying Ann's exact contributions to these projects is a tricky business," which is true. I would add, however, that it is no less tricky to identify the exact contributions of many men in the trades as well. It is by no means clear how many men owning presses and signing their books, "Printed by John Smith," or "At the press of James Doe," etc., actually got "ink under the fingernails." In many cases, the best we can say is that they owned the press and took ultimate responsibility if the law came calling.

While it is true that women have been involved in the book trade from the 15th century, just about as early as the press appeared in Europe, the statement that "typesetting was nearly always done by women or children because of their smaller hands" is utterly risible. There is, on the other hand the 1898 pamphlet by Emmanuel Riviere, Etude sur le salaire, bemoaning women's employment as compositors (the correct term for "typesetters"), this nevertheless appeared at the last gasp of the hand-press era when mechanical means such as the Linotype were taking over. (Ahem, the eternal fight between labor and management.) For the 16th-early 19th centuries, there is precious little documentary evidence that women, much less children, were composing type. As above, equally true of the men owning presses.

As for children, it is true that apprenticeships could start as early as 10 or 13 years, which certainly qualified them as "children." At the same time, the bar for entry, particularly apprenticing as a compositor, was basic literacy in the local language. There was one shop, I forget whose, perhaps Plantin in Antwerp, where it was literacy in both the local language and Latin. If that was the high bar set for young men, how many women could meet it?

I've been researching the topic of printing and the book-trade in Mexico (and more generally, Latin America and Spain) for over two decades, and by necessity I've had to be VERY attentive to women's roles. The most prominent and productive press in Mexico was that of Bernardo Calderón and his descendants. He died in 1640, and for the next 40+ years it was owned and managed by his widow, Paula de Benavides, until her death in 1684. From there it went to her daughter and granddaughters until its final extinction in 1815. By 1650, Benavides had achieved an effective monopoly on printing in Mexico, though there were other printers at work. Though the day-to-day operations were managed by male administrators, she held ultimate legal responsibility and high-level oversight. Hers were not dainty hands setting type. She was no shrinking violet, though, and instead, a total badass, facing off against the Inquisition on more than one occasion. Again, "dainty hands" is diminishing the role of women.

In all my research in the archives, I've only come across one document attesting to a woman's active role in a press in Mexico or Spain (though I know of a couple of others). At various points in Mexico and Madrid, there were visitas, visits to printing houses. Though they might have occurred for diverse reasons, from them, we get the staffing of the presses. In all but one, all staff were adult men. The lone exception is a document from Mexico from 1669 in which one Feliciana Ruiz, granddaughter of Juan Ruiz, perhaps the greatest typographer of 17th-century Mexico, is clearly identified as an employee of his press. In his testament, years later, he gives his press to her, since she is "so expert in the art." Sadly, she did not continue printing.

Again, this is not, in any way, to diminish the role of women in the book-trade, rather than to elevate it. "Dainty hands" is cute, perhaps, but these were some badass women, kicking ass in an unfriendly environment.

P.S.: Paula de Benavides, widow of Bernardo Calderón, who ran his press from 1640-1684, never signed her name, stating that she didn't know how. The "signatures" that we have were penned by an amanuensis, which can be confirmed by the archival record. I doubt her dainty hands were setting type.

Computer Business

B.J. in Arlington, MA, writes: I'm offering my own answer to the question from B.B. in Dothan about the impact of AI/LLMs on computer programming. I am 55 years old. I started programming when I was 10 and have been a professional software engineer for my entire career. I currently work on the video processing platform team at YouTube. My day job gives me a front-row seat to the changes that AI is bringing to commercial software engineering.

I believe that it is impossible to overstate the impact that recent AI coding tools will have on software engineering. I think it will be even larger than the invention of compilers and high-level languages. It absolutely will "replace programmers" in the sense of someone typing out the function names, parentheses, curly braces, and the like. For typical data processing business logic, which is what most programmers spend most of their time writing, describing in plain English what is needed and having the AI write it, along with the associated test code, is probably 10 to 100 times faster. Even the most senior, experienced engineers who have been writing code by hand for decades, like myself, discover that under these conditions their ability to write code and interest in doing so degrades much faster than they expect—in months, not years. This is not speculation. I am living it every day.

This insane level of productivity brings its own problems. The code is often quite good, but not always. Sometimes it is worse than terrible, namely when it is almost but not quite just right. With so much code being written so fast, the burden of checking for correctness increases. However, just as it is sooooo easy to read and believe the AI Summary at the top of the Google search results instead of doing all the "hard work" of reading the linked web pages, it is very easy to decide that the AI-written code is probably fine and not check it too carefully. The speed at which the code can come in makes this all the more likely.

(V) is certainly correct that the AIs cannot yet "write Facebook," where that means designing the massively distributed, highly complex, very large scale, subtly interacting systems that comprise such a platform. For that, experienced human engineers are still required. Today, all those senior engineers developed their skills by coming up the ranks as programmers. Very soon, the senior engineers will have developed a different set of skills by coming up the ranks as AI-assisted programmers. We do not know yet what that will ultimately mean.

One thing that we know is happening today is that entry-level software engineering jobs are very difficult to find. I personally have heard from several people who just graduated with CS degrees from top universities that cannot find a programming job. Whether this is due to AI or some other force in the economy, I cannot say. However, if we make up for the lack of entry level programmers with massive productivity for senior programmers, then in short order we will find that we do not have the experienced senior engineers we need. I do not know how that will work out.

We live in interesting times.

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C.R. in St. Louis, MO, writes: (V) wrote: "Writing code for something new does not fall into that category. Maybe LLMs will be able to do some simple programming, but 'Write Facebook'? Not going to happen anytime soon. In 50 years? Who knows."

I had just that discussion with a friend over a few whiskeys two weeks ago. He has been a programmer by trade for 20+ years and did not believe that entry-level coders would become an endangered species. I am not a programmer at all. I decided to try vibe-coding an app with ChatGPT 5 while on painkillers for some oral surgery the next day. In 2 days, I had successfully created a MacOS/iPadOS/iOS calculator application and had it on the Apple App Store. Cost me $99 fee for joining the "Apple developer" thing. At $0 for the app, I'll make it up in volume.

The next Wednesday, my friends were surprised when they downloaded my app from the App Store and my developer friend ordered a double.

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J.H. in Grays Harbor County, WA, writes: Let me add to the story about Bill Gates and "his" O/S. The company I worked at had many contractors. One Tuesday morning, one of them walked in (all I can remember is his last name was Fox, and I believe he was an Australian, plus he was brilliant), and announced he had just sold the rights to his O/S to a guy named Bill Gates for $50,000 so drinks were on him at a local bar that night. On Thursday, after the announcement that Gates had sold the rights of his O/S to IBM, he was devastated (he never got another cent out of that deal, though he did maintain the rights to market his O/S in Australia).

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B.B. in Dothan, AL, writes: As I have mentioned previously, I was a bit player during the IBM PC heyday. It was fun, though, as it was the center of the PC universe at the time. Anyway, my recollection is a bit different than (V)'s. I remember that both PCDOS and CP/M were offered for sale. For reasons likely only known to the bean counters, PCDOS was sold at a substantial discount to CP/M (according to Wikipedia, "CP/M-86 shipped a few months later six times more expensive at US$240, and sold poorly against DOS and enjoyed far less software support"). As consumers noticed no significant difference between the 2 OSes, they went with PCDOS until it established market dominance and became the de facto standard.

I also recall that there were a few products that permitted multiple users to share the same processor (à la MP/M), but they never took off. My guess is that the zeitgeist of the time was that people could have their own computer for the first time in history, so it wasn't very popular among consumers. Interestingly, we are moving back to shared resources nowadays.

Comedies...

M.A. in Park Ridge, IL, writes: Stretch your list of the best comedic film for each decade a little and include the 1920s, and I nominate The General.

(V) & (Z) respond: That, or Safety Last!

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M.M. in El Paso, TX, writes: Anyone who loves Blazing Saddles and Animal House and thinks Brian Cashman should have been gone a long time ago is my kind of guy!

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L.S. in Greensboro, NC, writes: I enjoyed your list of funniest movies by decade. I have just one quibble: Young Frankenstein is MUCH funnier than Blazing Saddles. Talk about memorable lines: "Walk this way. No, this way;" "Put... the... candle... back;" "He was my... boyfriend;" "Werewolf? There wolf. There castle;" "What hump?"; "The taffeta;" "Abby someone;" "A riot is an ugly thing ... and I think it's just about time we had one;" "Stay close to the candles. The stairway can be treacherous;" "Destiny, destiny, no escaping that for me" and many more.

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J.C. in Glens Falls, NY, writes: The seventies were definitely tough. However, in a squeaker, I woulda picked Monty Python and the Holy Grail—if nothing else, the constitutional peasants scene is a perfect fit for Electoral-Vote.com, and, politics aside, the French taunting scenes, among others, are unsurpassed laughs.

And, in the eighties, This Is Spinal Tap shoulda been the obvious choice—turn it up to 11!

But, for the sixties, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a great choice.

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M.M. in San Diego, CA, writes: Hmm, I see your Airplane! and raise you Ghostbusters.

(V) & (Z) respond: "Yes, it's true. This man has no dick."

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M.C. in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, writes: Thank you for the call out to Office Space. I am reminded of it every week: my employer has us use the OfficeSpace platform for booking our desks, and the software's logo is rather blocks-in-perspective like Initech's. Given that I work for a software company, I daren't ask if anybody else notices the resemblance, in case they consider it a comment on the working environment!

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J.D. in Greensboro, NC, writes: Oh come on—no Galaxy Quest? This is my go-to movie to lighten up the day. Plus, a fantastic cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shaloub, Tim Allen and Sam Rockwell.

"By Grabthar's Hammer, by the Suns Of Warvan, you shall be avenged!"

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B.W. in New Windsor, NY, writes: By far the best Scrabble play, from 1978 movie Foul Play:

(V) & (Z) respond: Note that this clip is NSFW.

...And Other Films

T.J.R. in Metuchen, NJ, writes: Regarding music, my main interest is in what I call 20th Century American Music and its derivative forms. While my main interest is in rock and R&B, I try to engage with any music that might fall into my general metier. That means I listen to Jazz, Country, Vocals, pre-rock Pop, etc. I may not love all of it, but I want to hear the vast majority of it.

Because of that, I do have to consider Frank Sinatra. He is an essential 20th century musical artist, as are, say, Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and The Beatles, to name a few. In addition, Sinatra was a fascinating person, at times compelling (in his artistry) and at times repellent (his relationships with women were problematic, he did consort with Mafiosi; it is more than likely they helped his career, if not in the specific ways that are rumored) and other bad people, he had a prickly temper, he was most likely an alcoholic, etc.

As for his acting, I have seen many of his dramatic films (I'm not a fan of musicals in general) and studied him. What strikes me about his acting is that he is not reactive. He waits to say his lines and says them. He is not an active listener and that comes across. He was famous for wanting to do only one take, saying he got bored after. This makes him mannered. You build the right movie around him, with talented actors and directors (and if he gives a damn), and these shortcomings are covered over. You go wrong (Oceans 11, most notably) and it's disastrous. Frank is always Frank. He never inhabits or disappears into his character, unlike, say, Al Pacino, who, when you're watching him at his best (The Godfather 1 and 2, Dog Day Afternoon, Heat, Glengarry Glen Ross and, yes, Scarface) you forget you are watching Pacino.

For a relatively short book on Sinatra and the Rat Pack, I heartily recommend Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey and the Last Great Show Biz Party by Shawn Levy. It is well written, insightful and gives one a full picture of the Rat Pack and their times.

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R.C. in Des Moines, IA, writes: I wanted to add to your answer to E.M. in Pasadena, who asked if Frank Sinatra was a good actor: Sinatra won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in From Here to Eternity.

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E.V. in Derry, NH, writes: K.F. in Berea asked about the role of Jaws in the zeitgeist of the time it first came out.

I experienced it right on the seacoast. I lived in Gloucester, MA (the other cape, northeast of Boston), and was an early teen when Jaws first came to the theaters. Up to that time, no one worried about sharks at the beaches. Of all the warnings I got from my parents about swimming in the ocean, watching for sharks was not one of them. The only shark one ever saw was the smallish spiny dogfish, which you might catch fishing, and was harmless if you knew how to unhook it.

Out comes the movie. On the beaches near our house, suddenly my friends are looking for sharks. Some of it was in good fun, some of it serious. A favorite prank was to swim behind someone under water, and grab their ankles. Never mind that the water is pretty chilly, even in July, and most people are up to their waist and inside the breaking waves—not a prime shark zone. It was a real concern, quite vivid for some of my friends. And there were no reported sightings, as far as I recall. And it stuck, even if it faded a bit with time.

Fast forward to today. More real sightings now, perhaps due to warmer water, perhaps due to drones being able to see from above. If there is a sighting, the beach not only closes, but it makes the local/state news. Some of this is probably a symptom of all the shark documentaries (and the classic movies Sharknado and The Five-Headed Shark) which scream "Sharks are cunning killers!" and "They are just acting natural, and are misunderstood." The 50th anniversary release of Jaws fits right in.

In my own family, my twenty-something daughters will not swim where there has been a shark sighting, or attack (very rare on the northern New England coast). We may have spent time at beach X in Maine, but there was an attack nearby 4 years ago near that beach, so beach X is no longer safe. Statistics and probability be damned. I have learned to go with the flow.

Television

M.J.M. in Lexington, KY, writes: (Z): I'm sorry but one cannot talk about cliffhangers at all without mentioning, "Who shot J.R.?" I never saw Dallas, but it was everywhere in 1980.

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J.E. in San Jose, CA, writes: In response to S.B. in Hood River, who observed that recreated shows often do not maintain past glory, I would add that Match Game has been reattempted multiple times during the past 40 years, and it's been awful, every time. The current iteration that Martin Short hosts is the worst of them all.

Also, (A) knows Star Trek even better than (Z)? Lord help us all.

(V) & (Z) respond: It depends exactly what we're talking about. (Z) is stronger on the older series, and historical context, (A) is stronger on the newer series.

Fight the Power

A.C. in Kingston, MA, writes: I was bringing my daughter back to college last week and missed the music question, but boy was it energizing to read everyone's recommendations this week!

Making playlists is one of my favorite hobbies, so I started one that included almost all the recommendations from readers, along with a few songs I added on my own.

(As an aside, I really wish Spotify would allow us to share folders. I have a whole folder of playlists, both my own and those others have made, labeled "Good Trouble." But I think anyone who goes to my profile should be able to see at least the lists I've made, even though they won't show in the folder.)

Have a great weekend, and really excited about the official introduction of (A)!

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G.R. in Carol Stream, IL, writes: At least four readers (R.P. in Salt Lake City, A.B. in Lynn, and A.S. in Black Mountain and L.S. in Black Mountain) nominated Jesse Welles. Surprisingly, I had never heard of him. I cannot thank you enough. He's in my top rotation now.

After I sent my e-mail last week, it occurred to me that in style, content and attitude, David Rovics is the Woody Guthrie of our time. Look him up. Somehow, he makes all his music available for free.

(V) & (Z) respond: We ran four letters about Welles, but there were actually more than a dozen suggesting him.

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A.G. in Scranton, PA, writes: The reader who commented about American Idiot, the transcendent Green Day album, was 100% right about it.

"Wake Me Up When September Ends" is the music video I had my first public flashback to (the M2's spot-on sound), my second favorite song to weep to, a song that touched the nerve of anyone connected closely to 9/11, and a song that keeps resonating because I have yet to wake up from the nightmare in slow motion that terrible, beautiful day (in tears writing already) without a cloud in the sky until it was filled with the reeking, billowing clouds of human flesh, office furniture, plastic, white copy paper, and jet fuel.

Can there be any question in anyone's mind that without that day there is no Donald Trump as a President?

That love and brotherhood—first evidenced to me in the flowers and candles on the cars at Morris Plains with sad vigils around them that ruined my safe space, the one I could see from the window of my reserved "good patient" room at Greystone Stare Hospital—turned to division and hate because of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Colin Powell, all men who have or had the fu**ing gall to speak out against what they created by using the ashes of my friends, my career and my marriage, and the bodies of our servicemen to guarantee the "permanent Republican majority" that Trump is delivering them, the gift to America they fu**ing wanted.

Fu** that day.

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S.B. in Hood River, OR, writes: I loved the variety of songs listed. Sorry that I missed the question. For me, the best example of recent musicians would be James McMurtry. Many of his songs address the American Condition. His "We Can't Make it Here" is just as powerful and on point today, as it was when it was released 20 years ago.

Nothing else I can think of comes close; happy I got to see it live.

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J.L. in Roseville CA, writes: Kudos to A.H. in Newberg—we are definitely kindred spirits. In particular, Dylan's "Masters Of War" is just incredible. I would add a few more choices, First "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore" by Phil Ochs. And, in a lighter tone, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" by Arlo Guthrie and "The John Birch Society" by the Chad Mitchell Trio.

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G.M. in Salt Lake City, UT, writes: As a child of the 60's myself, I must make one addition to the list from A.H. in Newberg: "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield.

The Sporting Life

E.D. in Saddle Brook, NJ, writes: First, I would like to agree that, in baseball, it's hard to pin the blame on the field manager for much. Outside of some really extreme cases, like Joe Torre's obsession with overusing his favorite reliever, or a really bad decision in a key playoff moment, we don't see the manager's work. The manager's main job is managing personalities in the dugout and trying to get the best out of people. We rarely know the full picture of what he's dealing with—there are often hidden injuries and personal issues they're working around.

That said, I will mostly defend Brian Cashman. He has generally done a great job at the major league level. The vast majority of his "mistakes" were his following orders from the Steinbrenner family. You can advise the man signing your paycheck that you don't think something is a good move, but if he insists, you have to do it. He has done a great job of identifying young talent, and has worked well within the limits of the system. He's generally been good at recognizing which players should be kept and which should be traded. It all falls apart when they hit the player development department. His greatest weakness is a complete inability to create a successful player development system. Many highly talented players fail to reach their potential in the Yankees farm system.

All of that said, I'd gladly take Cashman over the vast majority of GMs. Having player development be your weak spot isn't that bad for a team that's almost always at the end of the draft order.

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D.R. in Alaska and Chicago, IL, writes: Hats off to R.C. in Des Moines, who gave a great summary of individual sports dynasties. As an Alaskan, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Iditarod, the 1000+ mile dog race.

From 2004-2024, Mitch Seavey has won the race three times (2004, 2013, 2017) and his son Dallas has won six times (2012, 2014,2015, 2016, 2021, 2024).

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K.H. in Maryville, TN, writes: Al Oerter's daughter was on an Antiques Roadshow episode that we saw recently (not sure when it originally aired) with a display of his medals!

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T.B. in Leon County, FL, writes: I knew there was something wrong with (L), and I thought it was just the lawyer thing (my brother being one, you see). Now I know it's a two-fer. How can anybody claim to be a Gator when not living in Gainesville (where it's a crime to be anything but)? For those in the hinterland, Leon County is dominated by Tallahassee which is dominated by FSU's Seminoles. (Well, also by FAMU's Marching 100.) What? Me biased?

Gallimaufry

J.C. in San Diego, CA, writes: This is regarding your answer to A.O. in Kitchener, I found it fascinating to know the size of the core groups of people who write in.

I'm probably in the next tier, or the tier after that; I've probably written in several dozen times in the last decade plus and gotten a question or comment published about 2 times in 5. I only send in trivia answers when I think I'm early enough to make the top 50—for instance, I got the watch one and the prime minister one immediately (off "hand" and "Truss") but didn't read the site until a little later in the day.

It's probably a bit of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, but I note with interest that there are several other people who write in regularly that have my same initials of J.C. (including yesterday's J.C. in St. Louis). If any of them have had similar thoughts, I wanted to reveal I'm part of the problem. I move around a lot and always use my current city. I've been "published" in this way from several states and countries.

So, I just wanted to say hello to my fellow J.C.s! And to thank everyone else who has written in over the last 15+ years who has entertained, educated, and enthralled me. The real fun is always in the comments.

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B.S. in Ottawa, ON, Canada, writes: I just wanted to say I really like the change to the Saturday Q&A. And while it's not new for (A) to be part of the team, thrilled to see a new member posting as well. Thanks again for all the incredible content over the years.

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D.S. in Layton, UT, writes: Regarding (Z)'s PoFolks story, even though we are still relatively fit, as Lady DS and I are getting closer and closer to 70 (we will both be there in two years), I just want to say, on behalf of grandparents everywhere, thank you for your example.

(V) & (Z) respond: That jerk just didn't realize he was pulling on Superman's cape.

Final Words

R.H. in San Antonio, TX, writes: In David Brenner's 1983 book Soft Pretzels With Mustard, he wrote that he wanted his epitaph to read "If this is a joke—I don't get it!"

According to a family spokesman, his final request was to have $100 in small bills tucked in his sock—"just in case tipping is recommended where I'm going."

If you have suggestions for this feature, please send them along.

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• questions@electoral-vote.com    For questions about politics, civics, history, etc. to be answered on a Saturday
• comments@electoral-vote.com   For "letters to the editor" for possible publication on a Sunday
• corrections@electoral-vote.com To tell us about typos or factual errors we should fix
• items@electoral-vote.com            For general suggestions, ideas, etc.

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---The Votemaster and Zenger