Random thoughts...8-15-2026

Hi, everybody! Hope you're doing fine! Still trying to completely get back in the swing of things in the wake of that 5-26-2026 prostate reduction...right now, I'd call myself 99.999% recovered.

One of the activities I'm trying to get back to on a full-time basis is...getting myself caught up on current events. And one of the many events making me cringe is the treatment of the crew on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

The USS Lincoln has been at sea since November 2025...and food shortages, plumbing problems, and declining health among crew members have marred the ship's deployment (lengthened by the ship being sent to Iran). That's no way to treat people putting their lives on the line to keep the United States on the map.

You're welcome to read an article on npr.org: "Families of USS Lincoln crew say Trump should be 'ashamed' of conditions on board." (This article was updated today.)

Speaking of keeping the US on the map...if you're registered to vote here in the US, please make sure you do so this coming November (earlier than that if you can). There's too much at stake right now, and all kinds of people through the nation's history put their lives on the line (even to the point of death) to make sure ALL American citizens of voting age can cast ballots.

On a lighter note...on 3-31-2026, I started a new business.

I'm not doing this alone: I've been getting help from fellow LinkedIn member Wil Bowers. (That's right, THAT Wil Bowers...the same Wil Bowers who's been a guest star on TV shows like "Young Sheldon" and "Scandal.")

Maybe you're interested in this new business of mine, too...and if you are, feel free to watch one or both of these two videos: https://PPLProtect.com and https://PPLEmpower.com.

It'd be great to hear from you!

Tomorrow, 1-30-2026

That's the day a general strike will take place all over these United States to protest the nation's move to a fascist government.

That means, if you're able to do so, you refrain from going to work, going to school, and going shopping...all to protest DHS' Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

If you can't walk off the job or attend demonstrations tomorrow, you can boycott large corporations that support the antics of the current White House...and that includes major retailers among those big businesses. (But if you've got to shop, small local businesses are okay.)

Think of all the major companies whose support of the former host of TV's "The Apprentice" in 2016, 2020, and 2024 helped lead to (among many other things) the drive to annex Greenland...tariffs galore...erasing non-White men and women of all colors from the American history books...to say nothing of masked ICE agents kidnaping, raping, and killing innocent people.

Maybe you can write letters (online or physical) to elected officials...especially Congressmembers. Urge them not to give any more loot to DHS and its ICE arm. Signing petitions and engaging in online political discussions is okay, too.

People on Facebook and on Instagram have sounded the call for a general strike...and you can also go to https://NationalShutdown.org for more information.

If this is the only way to get Corporate America's attention, well...so be it.

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 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.

What's left to say about 2024?

I can't help but say it...but here it is: 2024 was a year where, here in the United States, hate and bigotry won out at the polls.

And the price of eggs was used as a cover.

We, as a group, put a convicted felon back in the White House...a man who called for an insurrection when he didn't win the 2020 election...a man who, like his runningmate, ran with the nonetheless-debunked belief that immigrants in Springfield, OH, were eating their neighbors' dogs and cats...a man who won't take responsibility for his actions.

77 million voters showed they'd rather stick a twice-impeached man back in the Oval Office than put a woman of any color in there.

Yes...I admit that the Democrats would've been better off running a brokered convention at Chicago's United Center last August and finding Joe Biden's successor at the confab. (The leaders of America's legacy media probably would've trotted out the old "Dems in Disarray" headline.) And things would've been better if Merrick Garland and his people would've acted sooner (like on 1-20-2021) to make sure an insurrectionist never again held the nuclear codes...even if Garland would've been accused of doing this for political motivation.

I can't help but think the rest of the world looks at us Americans in light of last year's election and comes away feeling that our laws are toothless.

I remember what happened to Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and how that country's government dealt with him.

Power-abusing Bolsonaro lost his presidential reelection bid in 2022...and went on to cast unfounded doubts about Brazil's electronic voting system. So...in June 2023, that country's top electoral court ruled him ineligible to run for any political office until 2030.

What if America's government officials had mustered the courage to do the same to a former reality-TV host?

Instead, starting on 1-20-2025, we'll be taking a ride many of us just might regret...the kind of ride we've been on before.

We'll see what happens.

I've got my mind made up

I'm just going to come right out and say it. My White House choice for 2024 is...Vice President Kamala Harris. Okay...I've probably lost some followers for making this decision. Here's my reasoning: 1. If Harris wins on 11-5-2024, it's the one way that all Americans of voting age, regardless of their party affiliation (or lack of one), will be able to cast future ballots. 2. The former US senator from California wants to end the filibuster so that (among other things) the Roe vs. Wade precedent (1973-2022) on abortion can be restored. (Okay...how would you like it if a politician got between you and your doctor when you needed to make a decision that could save your own life?) 3. She doesn't want to raise taxes on those Americans who earn less than $400,000 a year. In addition, she'd roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest US citizens...cuts that were signed into law in 2017. And the tax rate for long-term capital gains for millionaires would go to 28%. 4. Harris would sign the bipartisan border security bill into law...you know, the Senate deal that fell by the wayside after Donald Trump told House Republicans to abandon it so that he'd have something to campaign on. 5. I like her proposal to get 3 million new rental units/affordable homes built...and her proposal to provide first-time homebuyers with $25,000 each for down payments (as well as legislation to outlaw new forms of price fixing by corporate landlords). 6. Harris is also in favor of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (to prevent states from passing laws that make it harder for non-White people to cast ballots), the Freedom to Vote Act (designed to set standards for early voting and voting by mail...as well as to curb gerrymandering), and the Equality Act (extending the 1964 Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation). 7. And the former California attorney general advocates term limits for Supreme Court justices as well as a code of ethics for SCOTUS members. What's more, Harris wants to end America's record as the only major country without a national paid-family-and-medical-leave policy. You can check this and more out by going to politifact.com and checking out its article on Harris' 2024 campaign promises. I don't want to sit this one out...and if you're a voting-age American, I hope you won't sit this one out, either.

Age ain't nothing but a number

He signed into law the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, the $1 trillion (or so) bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the 2022 climate-and-health spending bill.

He got an albeit modest gun-safety law on the books...one that expanded background checks (if not universally), made it easier to prosecute illegal gun trafficking, and provided federal money for red-flag laws. (Still, a modest gun-safety law is better than no gun-safety legislation if you've been tired of all the mass shootings going on here in the US...let alone years of inaction at the top.)

And he ended the Afghanistan War...America's longest-running military conflict.

The CHIPS Act (hiking stateside production of semiconductors), the passage of a long-awaited postal-reform bill, much-needed military aid for Ukraine, and the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act all happened under his watch. So did executive orders to forgive student loans and to pardon folks who were busted for possession of marijuana.

He's nominated federal judges at a breakneck pace...breakneck according to historical standards. Plus, he nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to this country's Supreme Court...and made some more history in the process.

COVID has claimed 400 American lives a day since this past April...far below previous rates of 2,000-3,000 dead per day. The United States has rejoined the Paris Agreement and has done away with that (fill in your favorite expletive) Muslim travel ban.

Speaking of travel...the Environmental Protection Agency has established new, higher fuel-efficiency standards for 2023-2026 vehicles. Service members have now been given a much-needed pay increase. We've now got legislation addressing acts of violence against Asian Americans partly by expanding access to the reporting of hate crimes and expediting the review of COVID-related hate crimes. And at long last, Juneteenth is a federal holiday...and at long last, lynching is a federal hate crime.

All if this under the watch of a man who turned 80 years old on 11-20-2022.

Still, some of his fellow Democrats are asking him not to go after a second term of office in 2024. (They want somebody younger to be the Donkeys' standardbearer.) The way I see it, though: Even with a lot more stuff needing to be done to get the US beyond the shadow of where it was on 1-6-2021, I'd love to see Joe Biden run for a second term in the White House.

How about you?