Ghost of Tom Paine

(Sorry for the word salad)
The "normal" college schedule is also punishingly overloaded with work precisely to weed out people who won't put up with abusive work schedules. Capitalism all the way down, baked into the foundations.

Nuclear testing isn’t something you greenlight in a post, but turning national security into a fear show is how authoritarians rule.

Aggressive Nonengagement is the Middle (and Best) Path for Dealing with a Narcissist Freedom lies in the space between fight or flight

Aggressive Nonengagement is the middle path between fight & flight that offers the very best strategy for dealing with narcissists and their toxic behavior.
When they expect you to either flee or go to war, go to peace instead.

open.substack.com/pub/ghostoft...

Crucible A poem

Something I whipped up while dealing with the many people messing with my life & business.
Hope it helps you get through both your own personal challenges and those we all currently share.

open.substack.com/pub/ghostoft...

YouTube video by The Planetary Society Carl Sagan unveils the Pale Blue Dot image

There have been people messing in my life, my energy & my business.
It is being dealt with & I have big plans for after, but for now I wanted to leave you this message of perspective as you face your own challenges on this tiny blue dot in the vast ocean of existence.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgQ1...

Donald Trump on Fox talking about Charlie Kirk's killer & "left-wing extremism".

Gonna be hard to bring down the political temperature in this country so long as the furnace keeps raging about how hot the toaster is getting.

The fact that Matthew Dowd lost his job for pointing out Charlie Kirk’s hate speech, while Brian Kilmeade openly suggests we should euthanize the homeless and there is zero outrage, shows exactly what is terribly wrong with today’s political mainstream media.

Donald Trump on Fox talking about Charlie Kirk's killer & "left-wing extremism".

Gonna be hard to bring down the political temperature in this country so long as the furnace keeps raging about how hot the toaster is getting.

I'm guessing a lot of people would stop hating MAGA if they'd quit cutting their own safety net to make ultra-rich richer while being racist, bigoted cheerleaders for fascism.

I don't hate MAGA per se. I do hate how they're standing in the way of what needs to be done to fix most of our problems.

I want to talk about this real quick because I already know what people are gonna say and: this fucking matters. Sabrina Carpenter is HUGE with teens/tweens in particular and a bunch of little trans kids saw their idol get up on stage, ping at them, and say “I love *you*, specifically.”

They created so many new swing districts that this might turn out to be one of the biggest dummymanders of all time.

Social Security & Vet's Benefits might be tricky to convert, but I'm all for putting in effort to make it work.
I don't wish ill on anyone, people in red states included. However, not super inclined to do things like bail out soy farmers (who saw firsthand what tariffs did to them last time) either.

Garfield, looking at you smugly, says "You are not immune to propaganda"

If you are reposting the video of the salt trucks in Chicago, the one with no date on it, which gives no source or credit, which is not being reported by any news organization in town, big or small, then Garfield has a message for you

Why were farmers growing crops for China anyway?
Didn't they get memo that it's America First now?
Should've ditched those soybeans for something Americans eat!

MAGA loves free market but doesn't pay any attention to their place in it, elects a tariff maniac & now want a bailout?
GTFO with that bs.

The whole reason we can’t have gun control is because 2A enthusiasts believe we need guns to protect us from jackbooted government thugs. But now we have jackbooted government thugs and they honestly seem cool with it so I’m thinking they don’t really need their guns after all.

If a previously respected institution is co-opted by dipshits and these dipshits replace everyone in the department with other dipshits, the institution no longer deserves respect or any deference

At all

Apply this to whatever you like

And we'll soon be adding extra scarcity to the dumpster fire that is our joke of a health care system, so that'll be fun.

I travel a fair amount & haven't had much trouble in countries like this. The people that do?

Let's just say that MAGA & people who struggle in countries without firm societal structure in place aren't so much a Venn Diagram as a smaller circle inside a larger one with a tiny sliver poking out.

Oh yeah, the guns are very much a uniquely toxic American problem.

The crazy part is how much happier people in those other countries are in general compared to us, and while there may be theft & other property crimes, other than high-profile violence many tend to be much safer & less violent.

Been curious to see how certain Americans enjoy living like they do in countries they often love to denigrate.

Can't trust the cops; health care is sketchy, so you only access when absolutely needed; justice is what you can manufacture as a community, not something government guarantees; etc.; etc.

Bellygrowler

I believe it's easy for people with a lot of imagination or creativity to forget or not realize how it is for others.

When we talk about getting money out of politics, we imagine the world that is possible, forgetting most people live only in the toxic reality created by political parties & media.

Lord does comparing myself to others lead to a ration of pain. Social media is fuel to the fire. As my father says, "stop comparing your insides to people's outsides."

How often do victims of any crime other than sexual assault get called "accusers"?

The legacy media and its framing of important issues very much greased the path over the cliff into the hell we now find ourselves in...a hell where these same a-holes keep gaslighting us again & again.

Amazing!
Rays of sunshine creep in even during the darkest days and it's always darkest before the dawn.
If the expressions on these women's faces don't warm your heart even a little...

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour Minneapolis mourns 2 children killed in Catholic school shooting

As usual @NewsHour gets this right. The network focused on the victims and the community - NOT the shooter. This is how these events should be covered. Obsessive coverage of the shooters creates more shooters (IMHO) youtu.be/NmSIddB4jVI?... via @YouTube

Making America Burn Again....but only blue states.

Fortune: It’s time to unmask the Trump tariffs for what they really are: A giant national sales tax that will hobble U.S. economic growth.
#ProudBlue #Pinks #TrumpIsUnfitForOffice

My opinion as well, pretty much verbatim.