Donation-Based Media: How It Works

Or: I’m a Republican. Why the hell should I buy you a coffee, ya freeloader? Go get a job and buy your own damn coffee! I do my donating at church!

That’s what you’re thinking. I know because that’s the way I thought about it for a lot of years. Why should I pay for news when I get it for free? Why pay for a newspaper when I can just read it on their website? After all, I pay enormous sums for cable T.V., not to mention two different streaming services; CNN gives me news for free so everyone should!

(more…)

How Do I Publish My Book? A Guide

It’s the question I get asked most often. The short answer is, you probably don’t. A slightly longer version is, if you have plenty of money you don’t mind spending and never seeing again, you can.

The rule here is, If the percentages don’t get you, the con artists will.

I’ll break that down for you in a second. First, though, let’s consider what’s left that IS possible. Because, as I said above, if you have money, you can get published.

(more…)

An Unbiased Look At Trump’s Tariffs

Common wisdom has it that tariffs in general are bad for trade. They’re old-fashioned. The word “regressive” is thrown around by people who either aren’t certain what it means or really shouldn’t be.

And, in general, the common wisdom is quite correct: Tariffs, as a rule, are bad for business, which means they’re bad for the economy.

Mind you, most business experts will also be happy to tell you why exceptions ought to be made in order to protect their industry, but decidedly no other. Therein can be found the roots of a dirty little secret that most citizens don’t know about, most political partisans don’t care about, and most major media outlets didn’t bother to find out about.

(more…)

How To Begin?

Whenever I begin one of these with “I personally despise Donald Trump”, his supporters immediately tune out. “Another mindless liberal” is one of the nicest things I’ve been called. It’s a little sad, because the next word from me is likely to be “but”.

Whenever I begin one of these with “I personally despise Donald Trump, but”, the legion of his haters collectively throw up their hands. “Another Nazi lover” is usually truncated to “Another Nazi”.

And so it goes.

(more…)

Tariffs: Some Perspective

It’s easy to quote a simple internet meme and use it to point to Trump’s tariffs to call him an idiot. Thanks to memes, I now know that his list was generated by internet domain, that it’s a formula based on trade balance, that they’re effectively arbitrary numbers, and that it’s all theater. Thanks to a quick glance at my Robinhood account, I can tell that his tariff talk has wiped out a trillion dollars of other people’s money overnight (and, on paper, $200 of mine).

So, yes, I have cause to be irritated at the man. So do you. Fair enough — so far as it goes.

BUT.

(more…)

First Amendment Limits

TL;DR: It has some.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

You’re sick of reading about Elon Musk and the App Formerly Known As Twitter. I know this through observation and extrapolation. If it’s not true of you, you’re an exception; congratulations on being thus exceptional.

Either way though, I won’t take up much of your valuable time.

(more…)

The Price Tag Of Progress

We never even noticed the demise of the glossy magazine.  One day they were just gone, missing from waiting room tables everywhere as though they’d never been, with only empty racks and dusty outlines to mark their passing.

By and large they’re quite unmourned, it’s sad to say.  It’s tough to miss the sort of writing one only reads while killing time waiting for a haircut, articles you can put down unfinished without regret.

(more…)

Choose Your Hill Wisely

Buckle up, buttercup. This one’s going to be a ride.

My friends keep telling me that I should be more upset about Trump. I say: since when does panic help? We’re a month into Armageddon and I feel fine. Canned goods, artillery, and stockpiled toilet paper ease the anxiety some — and there’s a lot to ease, God knows. If it’s this or the fiscal cliff, we’re all screwed anyway.

The Trump Speed Circus is back in town, and it’s a howling beast of a thing: raw, unfiltered, DOGE tearing through Washington like a Cocaine Bear meet-cute. The air’s thick with confusion, a swirling fog of half-baked policies and wild-eyed firings that’s got the so-called Resistance stumbling around like drunks at a funeral. You can smell the panic, taste the disarray. It’s February 25, 2025, and the machine’s spinning so fast it’s throwing sparks — nobody knows where to plant their flag.

Friends, hear me. That’s the whole damn point.

(more…)