The state of things

Was asked recently how I’m feeling about things. State of the world stuff. And if I’m being honest, I’m not feeling too good. Why? Because what the fuck is happening out there?

The very idea of democracy, the thing that has driven America since its founding, is under full-on assault. Leading to this point, it of course hasn’t been utilized to its fullest, but it seemed like we, especially over the last few decades, were generally on its team. We were rooting for it to win, and collectively thought when it won the day it would be a universally celebrated good thing. But now, I don’t think that’s true. Not at all.

We have a large anti-democratic force in America. It doesn’t care about you, it doesn’t care about me. It only cares about its own blood thirsty power. It doesn’t want truth, it doesn’t want voting rights, it doesn’t want checks and balances. This is an ugly force. It’s mean and it’s nasty. If it could, it would sell you for a pittance just to see you weep for your sorry state.

Yes, it is the force of Trump. And the dark force that surrounds him. It hates our democratic institutions, a free press, common decency, and the shared norms we all used to think worthy of practicing. None of that matters for this dark, ugly, anti-democratic force currently in power in America. It only wants to manipulate, steal, lie, and use its power for its own ill-gotten gains. And not enough of us citizens care.

We are living in absurd times, marked by the loss of a common understanding of where we all live, and because of that, when we speak to each, we mumble no more than nonsense, ending in a ever spinning cycle of failing to understand, and failing to understand, and failing to understand, and failing to understand…

The brand promise of Trump America is a lie

– My latest on Medium –

Setting out with hundreds of millions of his father’s money along with the help of tabloid journalism and primetime television, it was easy for Trump to be whatever he wanted to be. It would be easy for anyone to be whatever he or she wanted with that much on their side. Smoking makes you a man and Donald Trump is out for the little guy. Both have been believed in the core being of millions of people. Both are not true.

Read on Medium »

Content population is a lot like mowing a yard

Last week in a meeting, I compared the populating of content in the CMS of a website to mowing. The rhythm and the rhyme, down and back, to and fro. With effort, one row at a time. After I said it I thought it may have sounded wrong. But with more thought, I think I was right in the moment. Keep it steady, get in the flow, row by row, and get that website content populated. Done and done.

On Editing

Just because there seems to be infinite space on the Internet, doesn’t mean you should post everything you can to it.

Nonsense Privilege

That’s it. I’m coining a phrase. “Nonsense privilege.” This is when you are so goddamn comfortable, so secure, so coddled, that you feel it’s your god given right to believe whatever the hell you want. You see no need to participate in commonly understood politics and debate. You have no need for facts. No need for data. No need for research. Instead, you see your truth and apply it outwardly without any evidence whatsoever. Whether climate change denier, birther believer, or anti-vaxxer, you use your privilege to peddle in nonsense because you can. And your nonsense threatens us all.

Poster: STRIKE!

Pro-Union, Pro-People. The power of the collective, to organize and to demand, to work and to earn, to bargain and to strike, is one of the great American powers. The collective helped build the middle class, end child labor, implement the 40-hour work week, and earn a respectable living for millions. Because of ruthless conservative policies, they have been weakened in the last couple decades. But no more, they are on the comeback. Whether or not America actually becomes a country where anybody, anywhere can create a meaningful life will in large part depend on the effectiveness of unions. Because without them, where people work together for a better tomorrow, America will remain a place where only the rich thrive and the rest of us toil away with little hope for the future.

For the workers and the teachers out there in need of a sign for their next protest. Download, print, mount, take to the streets!

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Recruited in the USA

The misreading of one of the greatest protest songs ever recorded has always struck me as odd. Isn’t it obvious what “Born in the U.S.A.” is about?

Growing up on the great plains, basketball was my game of choice. I’d enter 3-on-3 street ball tournaments in the summer with a couple friends and we’d hit the pavement. A handful of games over a weekend was always a good time.

Aside from the games, it was also fun mingling about. Walking around, looking for girls, being a little rowdy, sometimes acting a fool. In the mix of all this were the tents. Places covered from the sun where sponsors set up to sell you something.

Inevitably, there was an Army tent. Ready to convince you to join. Sign up, be somebody, be an army of one. And always blasting out of the tent speakers on regular rotation was “Born in the U.S.A.” Always, without a hint of irony. The slick recruiters obviously never stopped to listen to the lyrics.

I suppose it didn’t matter. That chorus was all they ever needed. And whether the Viet Cong, Al-Qaeda, or the Taliban, they’re still there while we’re all gone, also of no concern to the recruiters. They just wanted our signatures.