Something I've never done before

Until two days ago, that is.

I'm also on LinkedIn...been a member for over a decade. And a couple of days ago, two of my fellow LinkedIn members asked me to...set up a GoFundMe page for each of them.

First, an evangelist named Sahil Nazir asked me to log onto https://gofundme.com so that he can finance his Christian ministry in Gulberg Town, Pakistan.

Sahil cares for 15 orphans; they also attend a Christian school. In addition, he has a street ministry where Sahil and another pastor go into poor communities to distribute food and Bibles. He'd like to take on more orphans...except money's extremely tight. Sahil's looking for money so that he can provide the orphans with food, water, clothing, and other basic necessities.

This on top of flooding currently taking place in Pakistan.

Mamadou Bah asked me to put together a GoFundMe page, too, so he can establish his own auto repair business in Brikama Nema, Gambia.

He's been spending the last ten years trying to get this firm off the ground in a highly-impoverished country.

Mamadou told me he needs wrenches, sockets, and lifts...as well as diagnostic software and hardware, a spare parts inventory, six months worth of rent, and money for both electricity and water.

https://gofund.me/b12481c0 is where to go to donate to Sahil's ministries. (Right now, the donation total stands at $31 USD.)

If you'd like to help Mamadou out, https://gofund.me/27796ddd is the spot.

My new TV news source

Actually, it's been new to me ever since I bought my present TV set in July 2023...my first Roku TV.

That month, I started watching TYT.

TYT (short for The Young Turks) is America's biggest online news network; it's been around since 2002 and available on all sorts of platforms...like YouTube TV, the Roku Channel, Twitch, and so forth. It's an independent news source...so, unlike mainstream media, it isn't beholden to corporate interests.

TYT presents the news first ("just the facts"), followed by analysis and perspective. It's a network that fights for rank-and-file Americans instead of for the nation's 1,000 wealthiest people.

Yes, TYT is a progressive network...but, according to the network's Website, opinions range from far left to center. And the network's reporters and hosts try their very best to tell the truth and try their utmost to be honest with viewers. They give credit where credit is due.

So...if you watch TYT, you're not only likely to watch Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian give Donald Trump credit for something...you're also likely to watch them put Joe Biden down. (As well as vice versa.) No wonder the TYT Network has racked up 30 billion views by 27 million subscribers since Day One.

Speaking of Kasparian and Uygur...they host "The Young Turks," the network's flagship program...a weekday two-hour newscast that airs live from 6:00-8:00 PM Eastern time (5:00-7:00 PM Central time). "The Young Turks" covers news events America's corporate networks touch...and quite a few events those corporate networks don't have the guts to address.

That's also the case with two other TYT programs: Dr. Rashad Richey's "Indisputable" (2:30-4:00 PM Eastern, 1:30-3:00 PM Central) and John Iadarola's series, "The Damage Report." (That one comes on live from 1:00-2:00 PM Eastern, 12:00 Noon-1:00 PM Central.)

If you're tired of the way ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNOW (the former MSNBC), and NBC try to inform you, just slip on over to TYT.

For more information about this online news giant, log onto https://TYT.com.

Omaha makes history...again

It's been three weeks now since John Ewing Jr. took the oath of office as Omaha's mayor...breaking the color barrier in the process of replacing Jean Stothert, the former City Council member who, in 2013, shattered the mayoral glass ceiling here in town.

I'm glad he's in there.

And I'm excited about Ewing surrounding himself with people who have a better grasp on how to handle the city's road reconstruction projects than Stothert and her people did. (I mean, if you're going to make a street repair, why not make sure the repair lasts a long, long time?)

A little bit about him:

Ewing turned 64 on 4-18-2025; he became the Douglas County treasurer in 2007 and had that job until he became Omaha's newest mayor. Before his stint as treasurer of Nebraska's most heavily-populated county, he spent 25 years in the Omaha Police Department...eventually becoming deputy police chief.

He could've been a US representative here in this House district (known as Nebraska's Blue Dot)...but in 2012, incumbent Lee Terry Jr. (he used to be on Omaha's City Council, too) nosed Ewing out by 4,197 votes.

High school sports fans around here might remember Ewing from his days at Northwest High School, where he was on the football and boys' basketball teams.

Just before the 6-9-2025 swearing-in, JWE talked about looking forward to being able to be mayor and wanting to "tell the people about the great progress we are going to make to economic development and addressing the issues we talked about, affordable housing." He believes in building good coalitions, because, to him, that's "the best way to get things done because then you're partnering with people who do the work and you're partnering with the people who are the beneficiaries of the work as well." Can't wait to find out what's in store for the Big O and its 52nd mayor!

Sources include Wikipedia and www.ketv.com.

Five years ago today...

That's right...it happened.

46-year-old Houston-born George Floyd was murdered in his adopting city, Minneapolis, by police officer Derek Chauvin.

Floyd was a father of five...and he entered a convenience store to buy some cigarettes. A clerk at that store suspected Floyd had used a $20 bill to purchase the smokes, so the store's manager called the police. When MPD officers arrived at the store, they pulled guns on Floyd...who cooperated with the cops during the arrest. But then, he told the officers he had claustrophobia...so he resisted going into the squad car. Once they pulled Floyd out, Chauvin pinned him to the ground.

The whole thing was caught on video...and the footage made it to Facebook.

After nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds underneath Chauvin, Floyd was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at a Minneapolis hospital.

Protests took place almost immediately...and Minneapolis was the first city where demonstrations took place in the wake of the murder. In the next week or two, two hundred US cities had imposed curfews. Roughly twenty-five states used the National Guard...on top of police departments nationwide using riot-control tactics.

Things got to the point here in America where more than 2,000 protests happened in the wake of the murder of Floyd...in a year where Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor had already lost their lives to police brutality.

Bigwigs in all walks of American life started talking about the role of police departments...and started talking about how to end racism (let's face it, this country's original sin...and I'm quoting bestselling author Jim Wallis) and how to make these United States a truly inclusive nation.

I can't help but ask: How much have we actually learned as a nation since 5-25-2020?

For starters, the same man who, in the light of these protests, wanted the police to "dominate the streets" is back in office.

Speaking of police...Chauvin was arrested on 5-29-2020; he was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. A jury found him guilty of all those charges on 4-20-2021. (Those seventeen misconduct complaints Chauvin racked up coming into 2020's Memorial Day weekend sure didn't help him.)

He's now serving a 22.5-year prison sentence...whether the Charlie Kirks of the world like it or not.

It's that time again...

It's that time when both NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments come down to four teams each.

Got to admit...I've slacked off a bit since last year when it comes to follow college hoops (2025 has been a year to deal with health issues, among other things)...but I'm still a fan.

I'm typing this in the middle of a game...but I'm going out on a limb to make predictions, anyway.

Women's: South Carolina over Texas, then Connecticut over UCLA...then the Gamecocks taking care of the Huskies on 4-6-2025.

Men's: Auburn over Florida, followed by Duke over Houston...with the Blue Devils stopping the Tigers on 4-7-2025.

Okay...now it's back to watching the games to find out what'll really happen.

Hope your favorite teams are still standing!

It's on, it's on, it's ON!

This is the day of a consumer spending boycott.

The man behind it: John Schwarz, who founded an organization known as The People's Union. The boycott's all about protesting corporate greed, corporate leaders doing away with their companies' diversity-equity-inclusion policies, and the current White House's efforts to cut out those same programs at the federal level.

In this boycott, consumers are encouraged not to spend a single red cent during this 24-hour-period...unless it can be done at a local business (and with cash instead of cards).

Major retailers are the targets (no pun intended) of today's boycott.

I know, I know...we're told consumer boycotts don't always work.

Still...what can rank-and-file Americans do to let corporate CEOs and the politicians these bigwigs bankroll know this country's everyday people, as a group, have real power, too?

If you'd like to learn more about Schwarz' group and the future events it's got planned to protest corporate greed and other maladies, log onto https://thepeoplesunionusa.com.

By the way...I'm also participating in the boycott.