You're Kidding?

I’m in the middle of moving my Substack over to Ghost—just a slight glitch that should be cleared up by Monday. While that sorts itself out, I’m taking a quick breather and cook up You’re Kidding. Stay with me. I'll be back in force

Steinbeck

No PrumpTutin today other than to say Rupert reports trump is in the Epstein files. John Steinbeck: California’s Patron Saint of Lettuce-Based Suffering Let’s talk about John Steinbeck — the man, the myth, the dude who made California’s dust storms more famous than its beaches. If Hemingway was

A Song for Trumpers

Originally posted on Substack before Substack cheated me of three months' work. America was cranky; folks were screeching “Sad!” They wanted someone spicy, loud, and fabulously mad Then came Don with orange, tan, and hair like cotton candy He promised gold and winning streaks and slogans oh-so-dandy! (Chorus) Springtime

EU Strikes Back

the 27 are not amused Europe gets the bill for another PrumpTutin tantrum—and this time, they brought receipts Listen0:00/270.4293651× So here we are again: another week, another economic grenade tossed across the Atlantic by Donald J. PrumpTutin, who seems to think global trade is just another

Epstein & trump

This Is What Breaks Him? Wouldn’t it be something if this is what finally does him in? Listen0:00/369.8197731× Not the coup. Not the stolen classified documents next to the toilet. Not the blatant extortion of a foreign leader, or the attempt to overthrow democracy in a

Taming the Press

PrumpTutin vs. The Press: How One Man Declared War on Truth, at Home and Abroad TamingthePress0:00/372.7175281× Donald J. trump—PrumpTutin in full makeup and grievance—hasn’t just attacked the media with insults and slogans. He’s tried to sue it into submission, defund it into silence,

Blockchain Nation, Banana Republic

How Trump turned decentralized finance into a centralized swindle—and made off with billions while the regulators were fired. Crypto is here. Not the outlaw version. Not the digital revolution. Not the decentralized, power-to-the-people fantasy it sold itself as. What we got—again—is the con in a suit. A

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Are ICE Agents and Marines Happy Deporting People? It’s not a question anyone in Washington seems interested in asking. Are they happy? The agents. The guys in uniforms. The ones who yank people out of bed at 3 a.m., pull sobbing kids from their parents, shove families onto

Stolen by Any Other Name

Hi, we're in Santa Cruz, California near Wilder Ranch and I was reminded of its history. This is also an attempt to stop writing about PrumpTutin and Elon. I don't think it will last as TrumpPutin offers lots to write about. Wilder Ranch: Where the Land

Congress to PrumpTutin: Please Sir, May We Watch Silently?

So, Can the President Slap Tariffs on Whatever He Wants? A lot of folks—including trump—think the President can just wake up, spill his coffee, and slap tariffs on anything he’s mad at that day. Not quite. The Constitution gives Congress the power to impose taxes and tariffs.

A Merry-Go-Round: Medicine and Money

Money brings out the worst in our medical system. I asked how much the procedure would cost. “Don’t you have insurance?” Yes. “Then your insurance will cover it.” Right. But again—how much does it cost? She smiled. Not the helpful kind. Nobody knows—or so they say. Not

AI (2)

AI (2)0:00/18.4366441× The number of programmers is falling. Fewer students are enrolling in computer science programs. Meanwhile, the tech industry keeps insisting AI is the perfect replacement for human coders: tireless, cheap, and improving at a pace that’s hard to track. But here’s the

A Song for Trumpers

(Verse 1) America was cranky, folks were screeching “Sad!” They wanted someone spicy, loud, and fabulously mad Then came Don with orange, tan, and hair like cotton candy He promised gold and winning streaks and slogans oh-so-dandy! (Chorus) Springtime for Trumpers and MAGA! Winter for truth and for math! They’

Zero Sum Game

It’s the Core of the Republican Party Fear isn’t just lurking around the Republican Party like background static—it’s the beating heart that keeps the whole machine humming. It pulses through speeches, fuels slogans, and vibrates across talk radio at 3 a.m. Scratch the surface of

California

summer in the bubble My family and I are spending the summer in California, where my daughter works and lives. It’s gorgeous here—the ocean breeze, kale smoothies, solar panels sparkling like jewelry on every roof. But let’s not kid ourselves: this is a bubble of liberalism so

Destruction

Audio0:00/260.945851× Trump’s return to office isn’t politics as usual—it’s something colder, faster, and far more dangerous. What we’re watching isn’t just policy change. It’s a controlled demolition of the American state, carried out with a grin and a bulldozer. The

Texas

This was a hard one. I poured hours into researching it and gathering citations, but writing it felt heavy and joyless, because it’s all so unbelievable. Thanks for being here. Joe Texas0:00/425.1125851× Cutting government “waste” sometimes means cutting the people who tell us when we’re

Deficit

Funny thing about the deficit: it’s only a crisis when Democrats are in power. The moment a Democrat walks into the White House, Republicans clutch their pearls and warn we’re teetering on the brink of national ruin. Suddenly, every dollar spent is a mortal threat to our grandchildren.

What?

by Barbara Finnicum (I haven't figured out how to change authors. I will. In the meanwhile, Barbara wrote this). Please help me get my readers back that Substack(assholes) stole. I don't normally curse, but there comes a time ... Sometimes I wonder what’s really going

What's the plan?

the story of the site May 12, 2025 Writing is how I stitch meaning into a world unraveling at the seams. It grounds me—quieting the static, ordering the storm, giving shape to thought, sometimes just letting me shout into the void with a semicolon. This is where I turn

The Enemy

Enemy0:00/149.4185711× We have met the enemy, and it is us. Pogo said that in 1970. A cartoon possum nailed the dark heart of American life better than most politicians ever manage. But the idea wasn’t new. In 1838, Abraham Lincoln stood up in Springfield, Illinois, and

a wretched situation

There was a time I felt proud of the United States. Not blindly, not without criticism, but with a sense that we were striving toward something better. Our history has always been contradictory—liberty proclaimed by slaveholders, equality promised but rarely delivered—but there was, for a time, a belief