AndySLyon

Endless Gossipy Chatter About Epstein. One Glaring Omission. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/o...

Worth the read.

If you like history then “Forget the Alamo” should be on your list. Written by Texan historians, it conclusively makes the argument that the main freedom most of those at the Alamo were fighting for was the freedom to have slaves. The John Wayne version is pure hogwash.

It may take years but I will eventually block every number with a 771 area code. Maybe democrats should stop BEGGING and start LEADING. MTC

“There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong and independent press to our continued success in what the founding fathers called our ‘noble experiment’ in self-government.”

- Ronald Reagan

An historic cabin in Yosemite National Park is dwarfed by giant sequoia’s nearby. Snow covers the ground and a fence is in the foreground.

Keep up the good work! Wandering among these giants (without another soul around) was the highlight of my year last year.

Male coaches and male athletic trainers have been far more harmful to female athletes than transgender athletes.

If you want to talk about the dangers to women in sports, talk about that.

@tomtomorrow.bsky.social Congrats on your award and I agree with Maria!

Hmmm.

Not yet too familiar with Rep. Auchincloss but great to hear a Dem talking about big ideas and what needs to be done to win back voters instead of just saying “MAGA is evil.”

Don't Believe Him | The Ezra Klein Show YouTube video by The Ezra Klein Show

From @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social. "If you’re always consumed by the next outrage, you can’t look closely at the last one. The impression of Trump’s power remains; the fact that he keeps stepping on rakes is missed. The projection of strength obscures the reality of weakness. Don’t believe him."

That US was in shock and in turmoil, too. Many more shocks were ahead that year and more, no doubt, lie ahead now. We may have Google Earth in our pocket now, I daresay that journalists, today as then, will help us through by shining light into dark corners. #journalismmatters

A 1968 map showing North Vietnam in red, South Vietnam in green, Laos in blue and Cambodia in orange.

A map of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia , from the Greenville (MI) Daily News, Feb. 23, 1968. This became a fixture in our kitchen, taped to a door so my elementary school self, my mother and brothers could try to follow what was happening on the other side of the world.

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As a wildfire Information Officer here’s something tickling my brain: what happens when people already living in the shadows, won’t evacuate because they fear “la migra” may be waiting? Not trying to stir a political pot here, just wondering how we avoid getting people killed? #wildfires

Sagan was a prophet.

Littwin: For progressives who have taken a vacation from the news, Monday is your wake-up call | The Colorado Sun
coloradosun.com/2025/01/19/d... Sun App

Opinion | MAGA Is Misreading Its Mandate America’s political future belongs to the most competent, not the most ideological.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/o...
Am appreciating David French’s writing more and more. Government, delivered competently, is a winning platform.

Opinion | Standing Up to Donald Trump’s Fear Tactics There is a real risk that the nation’s institutions will succumb to Trump’s campaign of intimidation and not do their jobs.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/o...

Didn’t know about the plaque. Which park is that?

“Denigrating one another is a decision, not an inevitability. Could we opt for inquiry over invective?” From NYTimes Opinion piece today on the meaning of Hanukkah.

A political cartoon satirizing the news media from thismodernworld.com

From thismodernworld.com

Donald Trump didn’t win by a historic landslide. It’s time to nip that lie in the bud | Mehdi Hasan In 2024, we have a new post-election lie – Trump didn’t just win, Republicans say, but he won big. He won a landslide. That’s false

"Repeat after me: there was no 'landslide'. There was no 'blowout'. There was no 'sweeping' mandate given to Trump by the electorate. The numbers don’t lie."

My new Guardian op-ed on the new GOP election lie - and why it's important to rebut it! I brought (lots of) receipts:

The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
Oh, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.

But I send you a cream-white rose bud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips. — O Reilly

I’ve made some money in my life from negative political advertising. Maybe it still works but it’s clearly not enough and name-calling is not a substitute for reasoned arguments. Sure, some people can’t be reasoned with, but we’ll never reach anyone if insults are our standard opening gambit.

put up roadblocks. Congress people, of both flavors, appropriate money and point at that as success in itself without worrying about the necessary follow through that must be done by overworked federal employees. Hypocrisy is rife on both sides of the aisle and a reason so many say “why bother?”

Look at any government website that is still operating on code that must’ve been written in the 2000s if not the late 90s and ask yourself how anyone could have faith in a government that hasn’t been able to modernize despite widely available technology to do so? Yes, Congress loves to

How do we get those people off their butts, not just in four years but for local elections in four months? How do we address not only inflation but legitimate concerns about immigration, over regulation, and the ineffectiveness of an often sclerotic bureaucracy?

If calling MAGA voters “idiots” etc., makes you feel better in some way, well okay I guess. Therapy through social media doesn’t seem to do much good but you keep screaming into the void. IMO the anger would be better directed at citizens who didn’t bother to vote at all. More critically…