Discourse, of Course!

I mean, what else should I be doing?

If you’ve found your way here, I’d like to take a moment to say something: I don’t really know what I’m talking about. In a past life, I wrote for a student newspaper. I even have one-third of a Journalism degree under my belt. But let’s be serious, I’m truly no journalist. Just someone with a loud brain and a lot of energy. I guess that’s why people start podcasts? Too many of those buzzing around anyway. If I could, I’d like to be a radio host. The chatting, the music, the phone calls, the funky theme song (anyone remember Delilah?). Anyway, sorry. Loud brain. My point is that I’m no expert nor professional. I just can’t shut up.

I decided to start this newsletter because I spent the last day keeping my close friends up to speed on the Federal Finance Freeze that the goons in White House tried to threaten. I’ve been teasing through the purpose of such a threat. I mean, prior to the Orange Cumrag taking office, I really thought that like…surely, he was all talk. Right? Like after 2016, he sure SAID a lot. Did anything get done? Other than appointing conservative judges to the Supreme Court, I can’t think of anything that he really did during his term. But this term doesn’t feel like the last one. It has an air of…horror. Anyway, the reason I was so compelled to share updates with folks regarding the freeze threat is because I work for a non-profit organization that essentially operates on grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Most client and service related costs come out of Housing Opportunity for People with AIDS (HOPWA) grants, but my salary comes from a different HUD grant that still very well would’ve been (and still could be) impacted by grant cuts from HUD.

So like…yeah. When the ability to pay your rent is at risk, of course you’re going to be paying attention! I’ll give myself some credit, I do generally pay attention to local, national, and global politics. I’m fairly well-read and I certainly do have strong opinions. I always feel a need to share them. Not because I think they’re anything special or to change anyone’s minds/lives/hearts, but because I just can’t shut up. Gossip? I’m all ears. And if I have gossip? Oh, will I spill. “Gossip is just everyday journalism,” or something. I actually don’t know what I was thinking of there.

Again, not a journalist. If I could pick any job in medieval society, it would absolutely have been a Town Crier. That’d be a blast. Anything in the realm of chatting, sharing information, alerting the village, gossiping, etc. As you’re reading this newsletter, imagine that you’ve just stepped out of your home in a medieval village and I’m standing right outside shouting, “Hear ye! Hear ye!” Because if I could, I absolutely would. Alas, I’ll just have a Substack. Think of me as the Harbinger of Discourse. I came up with that when I was previously on Twitter (not calling it it’s weird new name) and it was one of my various usernames that I would change out. I came up with some funny ones back in the day. RIP. Anyone on Mastadon?

I’m really trying to limit my social media activity. I’ll probably write more about that eventually. Some other topics I’d like to touch on soon: “degoogling” my life and boycotts. I read somewhere that BlueSky is working on a photo-sharing alternative to replace Instagram, however. I can live without TikTok and Twitter, but the brain worms have burrowed so deep into my brain that I need to be posting pretty pictures. Call me RFK Jr the way I’ve got brain worms! Something about me that I’d like to include: when I was in about third grade, I wrote a “Biography of Dick Cheney.” I was deeply impacted (for whatever reason, children really do fixate on the strangest things) by him shooting Harry Whittington in the face. Or, as I referred to him as, “his friend.” It’s a wild ride of a paper, but it was a humble beginning. It was my first venture into the land of Discourse (because what other child wasn’t enraptured by the notion that “Bush did 9/11,” right?). My interest in politics developed during that time and it’s no surprise that it occupies so much of my mind.

Back to the Orange Cumrag and the “air of horror” I mentioned. What I believe I saw from his administration over the last 30-ish hours wasn’t an organized approach to actually freezing federal funds. It was a scare tactic. You see, I’ve been doing a lot of independent reading and research on my favorite subject, the psychological and sociological overlaps between religious cults and fascism. I mean, think about it this way: the Roman Empire never collapsed, it just became the Catholic Church. Right? Okay, so, fear is at the heart of control. If you perceive chaos and collapse all around you, you’re going to run towards whatever seems “safest,” whatever can promise you your survival and need for stability. It’s a way to burn people out, too. The more little fires you start, the more occupied you keep your enemies putting them out. What I’m saying is that this is the first of many stunts from the administration to force people into fear, burn-out, and, ultimately, submission.

To quote one of my favorite posters in my home, “Stay vigilant, for the enemy is cunning.” It’s a marathon, not a sprint, folks. It’s week 1 of the next 4 years. Let’s try to take care of each other, okay? Laugh a little. Follow along for news, opinions, and discourse. I may not know what I’m talking about, but it’ll make you laugh.