Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Good News! Speaking Truth to Power.
Hi Friends, let's take a minute or two and consider the truth seekers who often work at great personal risk to let the sunshine in. Organizations, professional individuals and everyday people all record, witness and spread the information that will be critical for creating a better tomorrow.
Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American
Let's face it the free press is not what it used to be. The News Room has become another profit center driven by ratings, dollars and entertainment (with a healthy portion of outrage). Remember, there are good alternatives. Seek them out and ask questions, lots of questions. I think good journalism is good news in and of itself.
Monday, January 12, 2026
Three Women to Help You Understand These Times
https://www.youtube.com/@KnittingCultLady
Meet Daniella, a cult and US Military expert. About the US military as a cult, religious cults and of course the cult of MAGA. Not all doom and gloom. Daily videos.
https://www.youtube.com/@ParkrosePermaculture
Meet Angela, an expert in nonviolent resistance. She gives updates from the Portland area as well as what's going on nationwide. Definitely worth your time! Daily videos.
https://www.youtube.com/@AccordingtoNicole
Meet Nicole, an expert on corporate malfeasance, income inequality and money management for regular people. Weekly well throughout videos.
Saturday, January 10, 2026
Rebuild Community
Only January 10th and as one rediditor put it, it feels like 10 years! There are so many things happening all at once; the murder of Renee Good, the kidnapping of a head of state, Maduro, more ranting about Greenland and mass protests in Iran to name a few. Each one of these could easily be a blog post or hell, even a series! It's easy to write about the ongoing outrages, especially when there is a new one every damn day it seems. Let's step back from that. I'd like to share a way to help solve many of our ongoing problems. The idea is simple, rebuild local community.
Our problems are not left versus right, they are top versus bottom. Rebuilding local community cannot fix everything on its own. We need to ask ourselves if we can afford billionaires when people are going hungry and homeless. If the poor are just a cost of doing business as usual, isn't it time to improve or replace this system? Think of it this way, have you ever stopped and thought why do we need charities? We constantly remind ourselves that we are the richest nation on Earth, have the most powerful military in history and we think we are the envy of the world. Two out of three might be correct but we conveniently forget those without health care, the homeless and our history that is less than stellar. The billionaire class has mastered the art of turning our weaknesses against us. They constantly use our phobias to pit us against each other while they jet off of the bank with all the money. Occasionally, we get a few scraps like the New Deal of the 1930s, the economic growth of the 50s and 60s and sometimes, even more freedoms! That said, the power structure remains the same. The good times of the 50s and 60s had something else, community. At least according to our nostalgia fed mythology, this was the case. Please don't run away, stick with me for a minute.
Try to think back what it was like before the onset of air conditioning, TV certainly the internet. This was a time when people knew their neighbors by more than their car. They knew each other's children, names and what they did for a living and so on. In short, neighbors were not strangers to each other. Had to work and leave the kids at home? No worries, the neighborhood would watch out for them. This was a time before we were taught to fear one another. There would be neighborhood get-togethers, like cookouts, holiday parties and card games. It's a lot harder to be afraid of someone you and your kids hang out with. The labels and stereotypes just don't hold up so well. But wait, you say, “…wasn't society highly divided along racial and socioeconomic lines?” Sure, things were far from perfect. I'm trying to separate the good from the bad here.
Community can take place at home via inviting people over or going to their house, a local church, school or community center. Local parks can also be a place where community can happen. The central idea in my mind is to pull people away from their TVs and computers into the warm sun of the community. The isolation of the television along with the World Wide Web are creating a loneliness and suicide epidemic the likes of which we've never seen before. We are social animals after all that have not evolved to live in isolation. You can create a community! Invite people on your block over for a simple potluck. Start a group to keep the park clean, a community watch or to simply play games outside. Knowing your neighbors makes everyone more secure.
Building community is a great way to counter the power of the oligarchs and their algorithms and talking heads on TV. Community alone cannot solve all of our problems but I think it is an important step in the right direction. The biggest cost is mostly time.
Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Monday, December 29, 2025
The Boondoggle Administration
Follow the money as they say. Where are these cats spending (or not) spending money? We started off with the whole DOGE fiasco. It was sold as a way to make government more accountable and efficient when in reality it was a way to stop numerous investigations into Elon Musk's shady business practices. Ever get your DOGE check? Me neither. It is not even been a full year yet and to cover all the boondoggles so far would turn this blog post into a three volume novel. That's even if we set aside all the merch, investment and opaque crypto scams. Of course Boondoggles are nothing new and created by both political parties. Let's check out a more recent boondoggle, the XM7 (a new army rifle).
The M-16 has been around more than 50 years and used from Vietnam to Iraq (the M4 carbine). The rifle has been able to adapt to new technologies through the decades. The power is adequate for most situations. It is not a long range sniper weapon and may have trouble penetrating the most advanced body armor of potential foes like Russia and China. Great! Let's get rid of all of them and replace them with something more heavy, able to carry less rounds and more expensive! Let's give the huge contract to only one company, Sig Sauer. Ammo? Yup, made by one company. I'm sure nothing could go wrong with that. All of this for only 4.5 BILLION dollars. If you would like to learn more, check out this video. This is on going. Let's check out a few other current boondoggles; the Epstien Ball Room (that's what I'm calling it, 50 Billion for Argentina and a stratospheric ICE budget. There are more but let's shine light on these three.
So Mad King Donald unilaterally decided what we really need is a massive Ballroom instead of the East Wing of the White House. Because that will Make America Great or something. He says he will pay for it, not US taxpayers. Great! I'm sure he will keep his word this time. But let's face it, that's not the issue. The White House is not his to renovate. Rather, it belongs to we the people. A President is nothing more than a temporary caretaker. Somehow, I think Washington D.C. has plenty of places for large events, parties and so on. This is about one man's super fragile over inflated ego. It's also about Pay to Play. Corporations and rich individuals also donating are not giving for fun. They will expect a return on their investment. This is a gross scheme that in no way shape or form helps the American people in any way. America first, my ass!
Let's do Israel's bidding and blow Putin! No, that's for another time. Let's give 40 Billion for Argentina! I know we often throw our financial weight around but this one is different. Why? The cash was tied to a specific election outcome desired by Mad King Donald. Sounds a bit underhanded and shady to me. That money is gone. No amount of cash will prop up really bad ideas for very long. Here's a fat middle finger for you farmers, ranchers and anyone in need of disaster relief! Keep in mind those massive dollar figures always lead to more corruption, not less. Hey, speaking of massive amounts of cash, consider the ICE budget.
Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) got a windfall budget larger than the funds for many militaries around the world. Where money goes, corruption follows. Bad hiring practices, violations of people's rights and an ever growing list of sleazy deals are only the beginning. Privately run detention AKA Concentration Camps, airlines going into the deportation flight business all with no independent oversight is going to be one hell of a hairball to unwind when accountability comes. It will, friends. All storms pass. "I was just following orders," is not a viable defense. Our country will never be able to undo all the damage these ass-clowns are causing but we got to try.
I'm confident I'm missing many more on-going boondoggles and this is only year one of four. What can we do? Sunshine! That's right, shine a bright spotlight on all the corruption, cruelty and on going theft. Make the lives of unresponsive congress people utterly miserable and vote them out. Show up to your local protests, courage is contagious and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, don't give these assholes any more power by doomscrolling, whining and giving up. Trump is polling in the toilet, ICE is far below its goals and being resisted every day. The whole damn Administration is staffed by incompetent sycophants who are already turning on each other. 2026 is gonna be bumpy, very bumpy and also hopeful.
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