A CONFESSION, AN APOLOGY AND A RESOLUTION

EPIPHANY - To all my "friends" - Facebook friends, old friends, new friends, real friends, pretend friends, wannabe friends and those of you who just wandered into this space - here's a New Year's message for you.

SOME HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE - As some of you already know, two decades ago, following my retirement of my consulting practice,  I began paying attention to events - political and otherwise - and wrote the occasional note to the local newspapers, which published them.  That got the juices flowing, so I began this blog because I thought I had more stuff to say than space to say it.  As a result, between this site and it's earlier predecessor, I've produced more than 3,400 posts, have more than 4.2 million page views (which, inexplicably, continue at the rate of more than 10,000 per month) and have many loyal, patient readers.  Thanks for that.  I've semi-retired the blog - I spend most of my energies posting stuff on my Facebook page these days, which leads us to the point at hand.

A CONFLUENCE OF EVENTS - The distasteful political turmoil of this last year has generated LOTS of stuff on the internet.  There are many clever memes shared plus many short and long screeds infesting many social media sites to the point that it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.  This morning I read an excellent Wall Street Journal commentary by author Christopher Mims entitled "Your Key Survival Skill for 2026: Critical Ignoring", addressing the current state of affairs with our unhealthy addiction to internet activities.  I'd link to it, but it's protected by a paywall.  You may be able to access it elsewhere.  AND, recently some folks have taken serious, nasty umbrage to a few things I shared on my page - stuff, quite honestly, I had not independently vetted for accuracy.  Most of those were, in fact, accurate but my critics just didn't like them.  A couple others turned out to be fabrications.  I'll try to do better.   

GIANT SLAPS IN THE FACE - These things, all of a sudden, got my attention like a couple whopping slaps in the face.  I realized that I had disappointed folks who had, for more than 2 decades, relied on what I wrote to be accurate, factual with a strong dose of my personal opinion based on how I perceived events.  It was quite an awakening.  I CONFESS to being lazy lately - to not reading something others contributed, then vetting them for accuracy before sharing them broadly.  My bad!  I APOLOGIZE for that shortcoming.  I can blame it on a lot of things - the sheer volume of negative stuff we see every day combined with negative things we actually KNOW to be factual and the expectation that ALL negative stuff we see and read about the Trump regime is factual.  None of that excuses my slothfulness.

I RESOLVE - Although I almost never make New Year's Resolutions because I almost always fail with those things, I'm going to do my very best to verify the source and the validity of the claims on important issues before I just blindly "share" them.  Although some of you have recently been very caustic in your accusations on these kinds of issues - to the point where I actually blocked a couple people recently because they were not just accusatory, but really nasty doing it - I will honestly try to do better.

HOWEVER - This is NOT a commitment to be kinder to Trump and his sycophants.  If you expect that please just stop following me, because it's just not going to happen.  As I have said many times, on many posts, I believe Donald J. Trump is the WORST president in the history of our country and, perhaps, in the top five WORST humans ever to inhabit the planet.  Since he took office again almost a year ago he has demonstrated, on an almost daily basis, that he is supremely unqualified for his job and is a clear and present danger to the perpetuation of our republic.  And, yes, as a student of history, I DO believe his actions are a direct parallel to those of Adolph Hitler as he began his rise to power in Germany.  Don't take my word for it - look it up.  Trump's actions since last January are those of a power-mad, ignorant, vicious, vindictive dictator-wannabe.  I cannot possibly list all of his transgressions here because just contemplating them makes my head hurt.  Others have done so - look it up.

WE WILL PERSEVERE - So, please bear with me, my friends. I will TRY to do better. Together, I honestly believe we can get through this.  It's unlikely Trump will complete his term because of his health, both physical and mental, and/or the legal challenges that he now faces that may, in fact, disqualify him from his post.  Please do continue to be aware and speak out when you feel it's appropriate.  I accept all criticism when honestly offered without the unnecessary vitriol.  In the words of our Buffoon-In-Chief - "Thank you for your attention to this matter."