Wesley Ratko

"M.A.G.A."?
Be specific.

I grew up near a major city with people of all ethnicities, incomes, & perspectives. We communicated & learned from our differences. There was respect & consideration for one another. THAT was great.

The US is its diversity. If you hate diversity, you don't love the US.

I use my mailfence account for important emails and I’ve been unable to access it for more than 24 hours. Starting to panic a bit. As one of your paid subscribers I really need to get this resolved.

I did so last evening.

Hey @mailfence.com folks…I've had trouble accessing my email all day. What's the story with the North American server?

“in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”
Common sense, indeed.

Photos: See how the drought is affecting Central Texas lakes Before and after images show how Hill Country reservoirs, including Canyon and Medina lakes, are continuing to shrink.

My latest for Express-News. Reporting by Liz Teitz.

…US Rep then… Evans? Dean?
You're from NJ…Kim and Booker?
You might disagree with Fetterman on Israel but he's no friend of this administration.

McCormick would be no help, I agree.

Might not be a terrible idea to give your congressperson and your state rep a heads up about your itinerary and your dates of travel.

Strange times we live in.

My new favorite president. I didn’t know!

Mazel tov Doctor.

Musically I'm on a Sam Fender kick. It's good stuff… curious how I never heard of this guy before this month.

I can picture my eight year old saying that.

Season 2 of The West Wing might be the strongest single season of TV I've ever seen. Twenty-five years later the whole thing holds up. It starts strong, it ends strong. Twenty-two solid episodes, not a weak one in the bunch. Aaron Sorkin is incredible.

Getting artificial dye out of the food isn't the worst thing in the world. It's not worth an assault on the safety and efficacy of vaccines or an attack on the capability of people on the spectrum. I'm just saying…not the worst thing.

Listening to my five year-old daughter singing "We Will Rock You" while getting dressed in her room is giving me the smiles this morning.

I’m also a Jewish guy and I, too, am sad about the Pope.

“Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.” -The Great Gatsby.

The Mack truck assembly plant in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley is laying off 250 to 350 people due to “market uncertainty.”

I’m willing to bet those guys weren’t Harris voters.

Abrego Garcia wasn’t deported. He was kidnapped. He’s not in a prison. He’s in a 💀 camp. He was denied his right to due process and everyone in the U.S., including those without legal status, have constitutional rights to due process under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. 1/

New season of Black Mirror is on Netflix and the episode Eulogy with Paul Giamatti (in an AMAZING performance) is easily my very favorite segment of the entire series run. Credited writers:

Charlie Brooker and Ella Road.

A beautiful use of science fiction to tell a really heartbreaking story.

I'm reading The Great Gatsby for the 4th time in my life. I read it in high school, again in my 20s, a third time ten years ago, and now again in middle age. Tom Buchanan gets more awful with each reading and I'm seeing more interesting details emerge this time.

Nick remains elusive to me.

Me too.

I can't remember where I saw this but somewhere this morning I read: "Deleting pages from a government website isn't really any different than burning books." And I can't stop thinking about that.

Perhaps that's the intent…but all I see is rage and disgust.

This morning I referred to someone as the "Teddy Savalas of Capricorn One" and now I need to schedule that colonoscopy.
(…because I'm old).

My money is on microplastic accumulation coupled with the lasting effects of the era when there was lead in the gasoline.

I was about to say the same thing.

I just heard you on Fresh Air and then immediately bought the ebook. That’s not something I often do but you make a compelling argument and I’m eager to read it.

I’m a data journalist and I’m interesting in exploring how to illustrate the lasting impact of these things.

I read your story and I came away thinking there was more you left out. Is this the “more?”

A lot of people were liberated from their money today.