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Eric Zorn: The Picayune Sentinel · Aug 13, 2026

No, Francesca Hong's defeat Tuesday was not a setback for the progressive cause

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Eric Zorn: The Picayune Sentinel · Eric Zorn: The Picayune Sentinel

8-13-2026

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Many progressive Democrats and lefties inclined to more socialistic policies were surprised and saddened Tuesday by the narrow defeat of Francesca Hong, a member of the Wisconsin Democratic Socialists of America, to a more mainstream candidate in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.

But someday, they will realize that Thanksgiving came early for them.

A victory by Hong, who is almost a caricature of a radical liberal, would not only have almost assuredly handed the governor’s office to Republican wingnut Tom Tiffany in November, but also have greatly advanced the Republican’s fall narrative that the Democratic Party has been co-opted by extremists who want to open the borders, close the prisons, defund the police and abolish the U.S. Senate, among other things.

Hong was additionally saddled by an old social media post in which she suggested we “cancel Thanksgiving” because it celebrates colonialism and was “the original superspreader event that killed Indigenous folx and women.”

Those who, like me, favor universal healthcare and pre-K; higher taxes on higher earners; smart, generous immigration policies; tough environmental protection laws; abortion rights; and so on will be far better off in the long run if voters elect Democratic candidates, even ones who don’t check every box for us.

Nominating Hong would have eased the path to victory for the election-denying, full-MAGA Republican gubernatorial nominee, which would not have been progress of any sort to those on the left.

There remains great momentum in the progressive movement, as evidenced by Hong’s strong showing Tuesday on the same night that progressive Peggy Flanagan easily defeated moderate Angie Craig in the Minnesota Democratic U.S. Senate primary and one week after Dr. Abdul El-Sayed beat establishment-backed Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

A victory for Hong would have been a millstone for progressivism, which is why Republicans spent millions in ads branding her as “too liberal” in a sneaky effort to increase her support among liberals. Gov. JB Pritzker and the Democratic Governors Association pulled a similar trick four year ago, paying for ads during primary season attacking Republican Darren Bailey as too conservative, knowing that Bailey would be easier to beat than moderate Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin.

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

View: I have a hard time separating my contempt for Trump from my general view that the safety of the president of the United States is of paramount importance. My temptation to call him a coward and a weasel for being willing to sacrifice those still on Air Force One for his own safety is tempered when I ask myself what if President Barack Obama had pulled a similar ruse to avoid the threat of his plane being shot down by malign actors? Would I be understanding or indignant?

Honestly, probably more understanding than indignant. I would save my indignation — as I do in this case — for those who planned a trip where the danger was high without having adequate plans to transport everybody safely.

View: Like most people, I have tipping fatigue now that more and more employees seem to expect a little something extra for the effort. But is this really much different than the touchscreen at a sandwich shop counter that prompts you to add a tip after the cashier has taken your order?

The screen on the kiosk at 12 Popeye’s locations where this idea is being tested reportedly gave customers the option to add a tip as “a small way to thank the folks behind your crispy, juicy meal.”

A viral video online shows Shake Shack not only asking for tips at the ordering kiosk at the Salt Lake City airport but also raising the price of the meal on those who don’t tip. The company issued a statement in response:

This is not a Shake Shack policy, and we’re currently looking into it with our licensee, HMSHost, that operates the Salt Lake City airport location and kiosk system.

I’d rather the folks in the kitchen and at the counter get paid a good wage by their employers and not rely on customer generosity. What do you think?

View: I don’t expect there will be much of a Stanton bump, as his was a long-shot candidacy from the start. Here is the updated list of mayoral hopefuls.

In the Tribune, Laura Washington argues not to underestimate Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chances for reelection next year:

Johnson’s ideology may save his day. He is the only true, prominent progressive in the race, and progressives are surging. He was an early adopter of left-leaning policies and was elected on those promises. He can remind voters why they supported him in the first place.

Like, for example, Johnson drove the effort to eliminate the subminimum wage for tipped workers and a 10-day paid leave policy.

“He reopened several city-run mental health clinics and increased funding for youth summer jobs,” according to an analysis by The American Prospect last year. “The city council approved his $1.25 billion housing and economic development bond and recently passed a plan to build ‘green social housing’ through public-private partnerships.”

And violent crime is significantly down in Chicago.

Voters who are cheering on this progressive moment and supported Johnson four years ago will think twice before abandoning an incumbent who has delivered.

The left will be with him. Their agenda and their movement are at stake.

Those of us on the left do love big ideas and grand plans. But we also look for steady and competent leadership, unifying rhetoric and fiscal responsibility. Most lefties I know are keeping an open mind and looking forward to the thrust and parry of vigorous debate.

In some ways, I regret bringing up the whole idea of “best lyrics” in that judgments are so incredibly subjective that the lists readers generated were not particularly useful. There are the memorable song lyrics, which are often distinct from the profound or cleverly wrought song lyrics. “You can’t always get what you want,” from the Rolling Stones, for instance, is famous but, on paper, banal and obvious. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave,” the final line in “Hotel California” by the Eagles, may sound deep, but on closer examination is a leaden oxymoron.

Anyway, I hope readers enjoyed thinking about song lyrics, which can be terrifically poetic. I was widely criticized in 1997 for my column “Nobel for Dylan? Don’t think twice, it’s all right,” which argued that his lyrics were some of the best writing ever generated. It preceded him winning the Nobel Prize for literature by 19 years:

While song lyrics are not generally considered serious literature today … the same was once true of plays and even novels, and the link between music and great poetry goes back at least as far as ancient Greece.

There may be writers who conjure the ache of lost love with more precision, who use metaphor more skillfully to express political outrage, who tell allegorical tales with more interesting imagery, who are more are better at expressing joy and who exhibit more insight about regret. But no one does it all better than Bob Dylan.

■ 5 scandals in 1: Former Politico editor Garrett Graff says Donald Trump’s sneak out of last month’s NATO summit constitutes “a Russian nesting doll of scandal and corruption.”

■ Jimmy Fallon mockingly recreated Trump’s escape.

■ “One of the most catastrophic failures by a president in American history.” That’s CBS News alumnus Dan Rather’s assessment of where the war with Iran is headed—under what Popular Information calls the “disastrous diplomacy” of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: Defense Secretary Hegseth “lied to Daddy about how he prematurely blew America’s entire wad and now they don’t have enough missiles to keep losing the war they started and were already losing.”

■ In states like South Dakota, Nebraska and Idaho, “where the Democratic brand is trash,” Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link) sees a stealth plan to end Republicans’ Senate majority.

■ Economist Paul Krugman explains “why MAGA wants children to get sick and die.”

■ Former AP D.C. bureau chief Ron Fournier: Dick Cheney’s doctor says Trump is unwell.

■ Public health alerts about hot weather often neglect to mention one big symptom: Chronic pain.

■ As AT&T prepares to kill its analog copper wire phone service in Illinois, your Chicago Public Square columnist has been exploring alternatives—and recalling how the answering machine changed things.

■ In an article that quotes Square reader and chief counsel at the Uniform Law Commission Ben Orzeske, Wired surveys the challenges of bequeathing your digital assets to your survivors after you’re gone. (If you hit a paywall, open that link in an incognito browser window.)

■ Tech columnist Kim Komando: Restart your computer tonight to get major security updates from Apple and Microsoft.

■ “Bizarro-world version of civil rights”: HBO’s John Oliver laid into the Trump Justice Department—with special attention to the department’s “absolute embarrassment” in prosecution of the Chicago area’s “Broadview Six.”

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:

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

The following passage appeared in Tribune reporter Jake Sheridan’s Monday article “As Chicago’s mayoral race takes shape, social media influencers step in — including for Brandon Johnson” (gift link):

Joanna Klonsky, a veteran Chicago campaign strategist who helped steer former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaigns, said the 2027 mayoral race will be the first in the city where content creators play a key role. To voters, she said, a favorite influencer seems more authentic.

“These influencers can give the vibe of being someone you know, someone on your block, someone you might meet at the bar, who cares about the teams that you care about,” she said. “It’s very different from a mainstream media reporter.”

Such ads will become a necessary way to reach voters, especially young ones, she said.

There is insight there for political aspirants — voters seeking guidance look to relatable people, people they know or feel like they know and whom they therefore trust. Such people are more and more often those who frequently post videos online weighing in on everything from the news of the day to sports, entertainment, food and lifestyle matters. You may wonder why tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people follow these self-appointed tastemakers, but they do.

Which is why there is also insight there for newspapers and news websites. Columnists are the print version of influencers — writers who “give the vibe of being someone you know,” even if you don’t always agree with them.

Chicago’s local papers have shed nearly all of their staff columnists in recent years — Mary Schmich, John Kass, Steve Chapman, Heidi Stevens, Dahleen Glanton, Phil Rosenthal, Greg Kot, Blair Kamin and I among those who took buyouts and left the Tribune (Chapman and Stevens still contribute regular freelance columns). At the Sun-Times, Mark Brown, Michael Sneed, Richard Roeper, Mary Mitchell and Ismael Perez are among the marquee names that no longer appear.

In an age when the value of personal connection in media is becoming increasingly obvious, newspapers and many online news sites are going in the opposite direction. The fact that Neil Steinberg at the Sun-Times is the last general-interest staff columnist at the city’s major dailies is an insanely bad business decision.

And no, I’m not angling for my old job back. Not in the least. I’m perfectly happy writing the Picayune Sentinel. But both the Trib and Sun-Times employ impressively talented young journalists who should be groomed for punditry and given platforms that would connect readers to the papers.

I was 28 when I started writing a regular column in the news sections. Mary Schmich was 38, Steinberg was 36, Kass was 41. Not giving today’s journalists of that general vintage a chance to connect with readers as personalities is managerial malpractice. It gives readers all the excuse they need to eschew subscriptions or even regular visits and go anywhere and everywhere for their news rather than return to a home publication.

Kyle Paoletta’s article in the Columbia Journalism Review notes that “two decades ago, (The Opinion department at the New York Times) had only about fifty employees, namely columnists and the editorial board. … (But) the section now boasts some two hundred employees,” including those who generate video and audio content.

The article deals with how many in the reading public don’t understand that opinion sections and news sections operate independently and the problems that can arise when the sections don’t communicate.

In Tuesday’s editorial headlined “Applause for Gen Z and their love of the moviegoing experience,” the Tribune Editorial Board wrote:

We attended a late-afternoon showing last month of (“The Odyssey”) at the Music Box Theatre and noted the multi-generational composition of the audience.

This might have conjured in your mind the image of a team-building field trip for the Tribune Editorial Board staff, with editor Chris Jones treating his employees to popcorn, Raisinets and a fountain drink. But of course, the “we” here is the anonymous royal “we” — one person from the group who went to the show and used his or her experience as a springboard for an essay channeling the institutional voice of the entire newspaper.

The editorial concludes with the opinion the collective “we” that editorials often employ:

We raise a bag of popcorn to the up-and-coming generation and feel confident that a night (or day) out at the movies isn’t disappearing anytime soon.

This reflects a paradox in newspaper editorials that I call “Schrödinger’s We” — the promulgation of an opinion or observation that is simultaneously singular and plural.

Seven of the 12 cuts were in the newsroom, including Executive Editor Lisa Friedman Miner, a 43-year veteran of the paper. Meanwhile, readers of the Arlington Heights-based newspaper are telling me that they’re been seeing lots of Chicago Tribune content in their pages since the Trib acquired the Herald in June.

Former suburban Trib reporter and author Eileen Norris died Friday at age 73. I knew her as the wife of former Tribune editor-in-chief R. Bruce Dold, who died last December. Condolences to the family.

■ Calling the FCC’s license renewal squeeze on ABC-owned TV stations “mere pretext … because the Trump Administration disliked what ABC’s on-air talent [Jimmy Kimmel] had to say,” the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the commission’s emails, meeting notes, legal memos and other records tied to the decision.

■ Award-winning former radio reporter turned media critic Rob Archer lays out in disturbing detail a nightmare scenario where the major news networks no longer exist and an earthquake hits Los Angeles.

■ Popular Information flags a network of fake news sites launched by Republicans in states facing key Senate races this fall.

■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob recommends 25 pro-democracy media people to follow—plus a bunch of honorable mentions.

■ Tech Crunch: Bluesky’s user base is shrinking—but it’s still the place to get between-edition updates from Chicago Public Square.

I would not normally bring up a politician’s size or weight. But since some of our area’s most prominent conservative idiots — as well Donald Trump — have repeatedly mocked Gov. JB Pritzker for his girth over the years, I’m wondering if they’ve yet turned their “jelly belly” scorn on hefty Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey. In the Tribune photo on the left, Pritzker — who has joked about being on GLP-1 weight loss drugs — appears at least as trim as Bailey, pictured on the right.

(Corrected image from earlier posting)

I’m asking those who follow right-wing trolls to keep me posted. Is weight suddenly no longer an issue for them?

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

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff — There’s something uniquely despicable about lying a nation into war. Treating citizens as fools and the selfless patriots who serve as pawns. Earlier this year, they claimed there was an imminent nuclear threat after last year they told us they had obliterated that threat. Both times lies. On day 12 of this war, the president said we won. On day 14, Secretary Hegseth said Iran’s military was destroyed. Five months later, we’re still bombing, Americans are still dying, Iran still has its uranium, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. I challenge anyone to defend this. A war built on lies told by a White House that is utterly absent any figures of integrity to dissuade this president from his delusions.

Thom Hartmann —Donald Trump’s pathetic bleats notwithstanding, people voting for progressive Democrats and “democratic socialists” aren’t voting for communism or even socialism; they’re trying to get America to the same sort of economy and form of government that works for everybody — a system somewhat like the one a majority of us had before Reaganism —that most other developed countries enjoy right now.

Bree — Living in an Onion article is a lot less fun than I thought it would be.

Wilde Thingy — Just think, there will come a time when you will take your pants off yourself for the very last time ever.

Donald Trump — I’ve seen proof of it. Where they have a vaccination thing — that looks like the size of a bottle of soda — poured into a little child’s body and bad things happen in many cases, in too many cases.

Haley Biddanda — Guys, I don't know what to do. Every single scientist in the world says mRNA vaccines are safe and effective, but a guy went to high school with says they make you trans. It's just hard to know what to believe anymore.

In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers then vote for their favorite. Here is the winner from this week’s contest, which pitted summer rerun entrants against one another.

Anyone can vote in the contest, but to have it delivered fresh to your email inbox each Tuesday morning along with the rest of the Picayune Plus, to participate in the comment forums and to ease your conscience, you can become a paid supporter:

  • Has any Spiderman villain ever tried just putting a big cup over him? — olivergravesirl on Threads

  • Strangers get all weird when I slide them a manila envelope filled with telephoto black-and-white pictures of their family, even when it’s only to promote my photography business. — @jakevig.bsky.social

  • Hi, I want to get a tattoo to express my individuality. Do you mind if I look through this book of tattoos you’ve done for other people? — @MelvinofYork

  • My parents have been married 60 years. My mom told me she has been giving my dad the same Valentine’s Day card for 20 years. And the beauty is he has no idea. He reads it in its entirety every year. And then she puts it back in a drawer for next year. Freaking genius. — @Parkerlawyer

  • “That’ll be $11.86 please.” “OK, hang on, I’ve got some coupons here. These six are for 50 cents off the loaves, and this one’s half price on the fish” … Christ the Redeemer. — @nickmotown.bsky.social

  • Son: “Dad, I think the bougie man is under my bed.” Dad: “Don’t you mean the boogeyman?” Voice from under the bed:“Wow, the thread count on these sheets is pathetic.” — @ThePunnyWorld

  • Your dog looks exactly the same in every picture. You can stop. — @jackboot.bsky.social

  • I hate it when people indulge a malignant narcissist just because he’s three months old. — @_NatalieWould

  • If you want to know what the ‘70s were like, imagine an ashtray everywhere you see a cup holder. — @jlock17

  • Calling me without texting first is basically like showing up at my house and trying the doorknob. — @sundaedivine

The last tweet on the list inspired a post in Tuesday’s Picayune Plus and a good conversation in the comments area.

Vote here and check the current results in the poll.

Since opening day in March, the Tribune has included “WCGB” — wild-card games back — in its MLB standings. The number reflects where each team stands in relation to getting into the playoffs if they don’t win their division. It was an irrelevant number then, but now that there are less than 50 games to play in the 162-game season, it’s become arguably the most important number in the standings.

For instance, the Cubs, who have the fifth best record in baseball but trailed the Milwaukee Brewers by 3 games in the NL Central, are 7 ½ games out in front in the race against other also-rans for one of three wild-card spots in the NL post-season.

Ironically, the division-leading White Sox are in a more precarious position. Though they lead the Twins and Tigers by 2 ½ games in the AL Central as of Wednesday, they would have been clinging to the third and final playoff spot — just 2 ½ games up on the Texas Rangers — were the Twins or Tigers to have a slightly better record.

I’m sure I’m in a minority, but I think divisions are dumb and outmoded and that the 12 teams out of 30 with the best records should advance to seeded playoff brackets.

Fight me!

DiJonai Carrington of the Chicago Sky wound up and clotheslined Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham on Saturday as Cunningham broke to the basket for a layup. She bloodied Cunningham’s mouth and was ejected from the game — understandable in that the WNBA really needs to get a handle on the rough, often retaliatory, play that can make the games hard to watch (and that Cunningham herself has engaged in).

While the game was still going on, Carrington posted this to Threads.

Former NFL linebacker Emmanuel ⁠Acho, who is Black, criticized Carrington on his podcast the following day:

This was not a race-based decision. To call that a white privilege-based foul is to completely undermine the term of white privilege and to ​also completely ignore the rules in basketball. You hit her in the head. You drew blood. You didn’t connect with the ball at all whatsoever.

So to me, it was just ​very ignorant and, to some degree, asinine by D.J. Carrington to suggest that that call was based on white privilege. Have we seen examples of white players make that same foul and get away with it? Have we seen examples of Black players make that same foul and get away with it? Yes. There was no white privilege involved in that specific call.

Carrington responded to Acho on social media:

I’ve ​never once claimed that the assessment of the foul was white privilege (that was your assumption). Try exercising your critical thinking skills, I know you studied psych. Furthermore, I’m the ​LAST thing from ignorant or asinine when it comes to speaking on ‘white privilege’, do ya research on that one. I actually went to school, one of the top universities might I add, to ‌educate myself ⁠on this exact subject. I would never use that term as a rhetorical weapon knowing the historical and social weight it holds without having the proper evidence to substantiate it.

So she wants the public to think that a “WHITE PRIVILEGE” post tagging the Indiana Fever was simply a random observation from the locker room? And that playing the Stanford University card would exonerate her?

Meanwhile, Cunningham has become the object of scorn and protest from the trans rights community for saying in an interview with ESPN that she opposed trans women and girls in female sports because she wants to “protect young girls in the locker room” and that “they shouldn’t have to go against biological men.” She later added that she considered her view “kind of common sense.”

It’s certainly common opinion. A Pew Research Center article published Tuesday noted:

Last year, two Pew Research Center surveys found that:

  • 73% of Americans were uncomfortable with transgender athletes competing on sports teams that do not match their sex at birth.

  • 66% of adults favored a law or policy that would require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex at birth.

The share of adults who said they favored such a proposal had grown in recent years among Republicans and Democrats alike. … (Though) a majority of Americans supported policies aimed at protecting trans people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces.

But the WNBA players’ union issued a statement characterizing Cunningham’s remarks as “hate, abuse and demonization … (that will) only fuel fear, division and harm.”

Trans women in sports is an issue that thoughtful readers and I have wrestled with here on this site, and I’m among those who hope we can find a middle ground between no never and yes always that will ultimately gain popular support. Vilifying and denigrating those who disagree with you on this issue will not lead to such a compromise position, as is suggested by the fact that after all the name calling, support in recent years for laws or policies “that would require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex at birth” has grown.

From Block Club Chicago’s report on “Pope Hat Night” at Sox park where the team honored area native (and White Sox fan) Pope Leo XIV:

The Rev. Tom Hurley, a Morgan Park native and pastor at Most Holy Redeemer Church in Evergreen Park, led the ballpark in a traditional Catholic “Sign of Peace” during the fifth-inning.

Hurley, a Marist High School alum, was joined by fellow Morgan Park native and comedian Pat McGann to lead the “Sign of Peace,” a rite in Catholic Mass that sees congregants greet and shake hands with those around them.

“We want to bring peace to the world, I think the pope would really love that, whether you are Catholic or not,” Hurley said to the crowd Tuesday. The crowd obliged.

I’m not a churchgoer, but whenever I have attended services, one of the most meaningful moments for me is when the officiant asks the congregation to turn to those around them, shake hands and say “Peace be with you.”

I guess it’s a bit corny and can feel quite forced, but the moments of human connection leave me with a warm feeling. Could it hurt for the Sox to make this a 5th inning tradition at home games?

See the bottom of the newsletter for the solution

Green Lights features recommendations from me and readers of songs, TV shows, streaming movies, books, podcasts, products and other diversions that, with only rare exceptions, can be enjoyed at home. This week’s green light comes from Chicago journalist, Substacker and “Mincing Rascals” panelist Cate Płys:

Check out the highly entertaining but also reliable history podcast “The Rest Is History,” hosted by historians/authors Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. They did a two-parter on the historical roots of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

Scroll down the episodes list to Part One — “The Odyssey: Hero of the Trojan Horse” — on July 12 , and Part Two — “The Odyssey: Return of the King”— on July 15. The hosts are super listenable on this and anything else. By the way, they’re referred to as “popular historians” which doesn’t inspire confidence. But they are absolutely trustworthy. Dan Carlin, in his deep dive “Hard Core History” podcast, often refers to Tom Holland’s books.

I have really enjoyed “Hard Core History” episodes, though some episodes are as long as audiobooks.

If you would like to offer a traffic light for the Rascals podcast, email a voice memo to johnwilliams@wgnradio.com.

I am a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. I began publishing the Picayune Sentinel on Sept. 9, 2021, roughly two and a half months after I took a buyout from the newspaper. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise. Browse and search back issues here.

You can email me at ericzorn@gmail.com or by clicking here:

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