ONE REPLY TO JUNIOR’S COMMENTS that echoed my sentiments was:(@betty bowers) “Your stupid father was busy dismantling and undermining NATO, much to Putin's delight. All of our European allies think he is a dangerous idiot, and they are absolutely right. This is no time for a showboating a half-wit like Donald.”

MEANWHILE, CLOSER TO HOME . . . I’ve never read the Port Angeles Daily News much and don’t imagine I ever will — and I’d suggest those who do read it switch now to The Seattle Times for their daily national news and to the Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader for in-depth coverage weekly of local-area news with daily overtones (including applicable going-ons in Olympia). Both of these latter newspapers are locally oriented and can use your support — in this day and age when the historic U.S. Free Press continues its valiant battle against the self interests of the money crowd allied with the likes of Donald Trump.

For some years I have read the Seattle Times with my morning coffee, thanks to personal carrier Tracy Martin of Chimacum, who drops it off around 4 a.m. More than 50 percent of the Times remains owned by the Seattle-local Blethen family, so it is not a mouthpiece in any way for a newspaper chain. Its editorial pages alone are worthy of the subscription cost.

Ms. Martin also handles The New York Times (still leader of the world’s Free Press) and USA. Phone her at 360-531-1270 or write at Box 393, Chimacum, WA 98325.

I’ve been associated with The Leader off and on since signing on as a part-time printer’s devil in 1944 at age 15. Most recently, I’ve been a blogger since around 2009 or ’10. Some may wonder about this — and I hasten to explain that blogs are unpaid and unedited . . . are sort of a glorified Letter to the Editor that appears only in the electronic edition of the paper. You can do blogs at any time — if you are willing to put your real name on what you have to say.

While the Leader remains basically a small-town weekly, generally unaffected by dependance on the USPS. It still handles breaking news of import between major weekly issues, so I give the electronic edition a look-see each morning, just in case. It comes with the subscription.

Brier Dudley, Seattle Times Free Press editor, wrote March 17 concerning the move of a newspaper such as Daily News to postal delivery: “The Port Angeles newspaper is canceling its Sunday edition . . . shifting it to Saturday, when mail is delivered . . . The Sequin [Gazette, a weekly] and Port Angeles papers are owned by Sound Publishing, a subsidiary of Canadian publishing giant Black Press that’s made cutbacks in Washington state papers since the pandemic began.” Dudley noted: “‘Sound Publishing’s president and its publisher in Port Angeles didn’t return my calls.”

Dudley did point to the difficulty in filling carrier positions . . . because of the late hours, remote areas, unwelcoming weather . . . resulting in unreliable delivery in areas such as Port Angeles.

But with most national holidays falling on Monday and a newspaper also not publishing on Sunday, how does a “daily paper” justify a two-day news gap about every time a reader turns around? Dudley said, “The Daily News publisher said in the announcement that its partnership with the postal service is a ‘win-win.’ I hope so, but I’ not sure readers will agree.”

Meanwhile, trustworthy carriers such as Ms. Martin are facing gasoline at around $5 a gallon for Lord knows how long. So we shall see what the near future brings us. And local papers such as The Leader (now in about its 133rd year) will just keep chugging along, bringing us the area news without becoming associated with a Canadian conglomerate.