for the record, charity

I don’t think charity is necessarily a negative or that it’s always motivated by selfishness.

My personal opinion is that all charities should exist to solve a problem (solve, not just mitigate), then close up shop and let donations flow elsewhere.

Where money is involved, there will be corruption. That’s an inescapable fact of money.

Where exists the possibility for greed, there will be greed. And greed has no place in charity or kindness.

That’s the point I’m getting at – after all. the Trump family runs numerous charities and we all know they don’t give a shit about anybody but themselves.

Solve the problem and get out. Exist only on what you need to exist; make sure the bulk goes where it’s needed, not where it’s desired.

And remember – kindness need not cost a damn thing.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1617 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne
Comics: Dynamo 5 14, Brit v2 5-6, Noble Causes 34 (reading this version of Brit makes me feel like I'm having a stroke; or the writer is having a stroke, or the writer's first language isn't English, and has used 2006 Google translate to create the English dialogue.  The sentences don't even make sense, and if it's for effect, the effect is unintelligible pseudo-babble.)
Music: Frankenchrist, Dead Kennedys (okay, Frank Turner on hold, getting too into it)

charity

Is charity the same as kindness? It certainly can be.

It can also be a way of keeping people dependent. Or making oneself look good at the expense of someone else’s suffering.

Is charity truly kindness, or does that depend entirely on circumstances?

Certainly, there are hundreds of charities that exist solely to be someone’s write-off, a billionaire’s scam, a business where the CEO still pays themselves like a Fortune 500 CEO (see Way, United).

An act of kindness does not have to be charity.

It does not even have to be nice. Sometimes, the greatest kindness is telling someone a hard truth. It may not seem kind, but lying to them, or allowing them to continue to live a lie is far more cruel.

Sometimes, the kindness is in saying nothing at all.

Sometimes, it’s not helping at all. Letting someone find her own way.

Sometimes, charity is another word for condescension. Another word for oppression.

Another word for kindness.

Context and perspective are everything.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 570 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jules Verne (here we go again with the cannibals)
Comics: Noble Causes 32-33, Dynamo 5 12-13
Music: Undefeated, Frank Turner

she’s here!

Grandbaby for the weekend. Apparently, she’s into watching Twister and Back To The Future, and the dinosaur scenes in Jurassic Park.

I mean, I watched Jaws at eight, so who am I to judge?

I could never judge the generations behind me for trying mushrooms or pot, or getting lousy, stinkin’ druink, let alone their choice of age-inappropriate movie.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1497 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat
Comics: Noble Causes 30, Dynamo 5 4, Invincible 42-43
Music: The Fragile (Right), Nine Inch Nails

the sky is orange

We’re in Mad Max now.

I’m so happy to have been born in an age of enlightenment, the most technologically advanced civilization to ever exist, just in time for the apocalypse.

These things are not unrelated.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 2555 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Grey Seas Under, Farley Mowat (I want this to be a TV show)
Comics: Noble Causes 27-28, Invincible 39, Dynamo 5 2
Music: Fox Theatre, Sublime

here’s the problem

And here’s why it so enervating and dangerous.

Accusations of sexual assault are serious – they need to be treated with seriousness, while maintaining the assumption of innocent until proven guilty for the accused. Balance is required.

However, in our hyper partisan, hyper sensitive climate, even the whiff of an accusation can sink a lefty, mostly because the left actually cares about these things. The right doesn’t, as their overwhelming protectiveness of a known rapist and very likely pedophile attests.

Establishment Democrats know this. They know that there doesn’t need to be any reality behind the accusations. That used to matter; Trump taught them that it no longer makes a difference. The accusation is enough. People still think Haitians were eating people’s pets in Ohio, despite the fact that it was an obvious fabrication.

A true progressive, whose message resonated with what most people want these days, won overwhelmingly in Maine. That’s bad for Democratic donors, and the “middle-of-the-road”, centrist Democrats, which is code for corporate sellouts fighting for billionaires and not people.

So, they come up with scandal after scandal against a grassroots campaigner and strong communicator with a message that really hits home for an overwhelming majority. None of it sticks. He addresses things head-on, apologizes, and to me, shows what we want out of people in reality (or should – many lefties want condemnation and eternal torture, not growth and compassion). He wins with seventy-three percent of the vote – an unprecedented asskicking for establishment politics.

In comes the sexual assault accusation. For years, the left has crowed about believing victims, forgetting about the presumption of innocence. For them to suddenly call for sanity and level heads and waiting for actual facts would seem hypocritical, even though it’s clearly the right thing to do.

The timing, like the last batch of scandals, is convenient; an establishment Hail Mary.

And here’s the thing. If it’s true, I hope they charge him and prosecute fully. If it’s not, I hope he sues the pants off her and the DNC.

But ultimately, it doesn’t matter. True or not, it makes no difference – it took him out as a candidate, and gave the DNC a way to wiggle back in their billionaire friendly candidate, who will lose and possibly doom the whole country by losing the Senate. They’d rather lose and keep their corporate donors happy than save the country from fascism.

And there’s the rub. Because the other thing that’s true, and that all of a sudden, a lot of people who are pissed about the timing and convenience of all this are realizing, is that centrist Dems do not care about them – they care about billionaires. For as much as they talk about being for the people, this makes it incredibly clear.

They absolutely do not. They do not respect the democratic process, and their overuse of the words “open and transparent” when talking about the new race for their candidate suggests that they’re monstrously overcompensating for the fact that they’re about to screw three-hundred million people.

So, what now?

New parties? Republicans are fascists, and Democrats so blatantly corrupt that their hypocrisy is now revealed. They are not just the Chamberlain to Trump’s Hitler. They’re fucking Mussolini.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 2254 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Wizard At Large, Terry Brooks
Comics: The Pact 4, Invincible 29-30, Noble Causes 19
Music: Fortune Faded, Red Hot Chili Peppers

i have thoughts

I have to organize them, because the political climate automatically stigmatizes certain things, which is why certain allegations will always kill a campaign, regardless of truth, unless you’re a Republican, in which child rape is apparently still not the boundary of disqualification.

However, I want to say it right, because there are important conversations to be had around consent, around the presumption of guilt, and on the growing conclusion that the core of the Democratic establishment is, in fact, little better than their Republican counterparts, and needs to be ousted just as decisively as any and all Republicans.

Perhaps new parties are needed.

Certainly, it seems that way to me.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1156 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Enchanter's End Game, David Eddings
Comics: Noble Causes 14-16, Invincible 27
Music: Forgiveness Rock Record, Broken Social Scene

too much anger

Not just in the world, but in me.

I’m angry at the world’s situation.

I’m angry at myself, for wasting so much time.

I’m angry at myself, for not being a better man.

I’m angry at circumstances beyond my control.

I’m angry at being blamed for things I didn’t even do, and never would.

I’m angry at greed.

I’m angry at corruption.

I’m angry at myself for allowing depression to dictate the terms of my life.

I’m angry at other people, for constantly invading my time and space.

I’m angry, because I’m not nice enough, and because I cannot be less nice.

I’m angry at my own frustation.

I’m angry, again, at my inability to change any of this.

I’m angry at my inertia.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1818 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Definitely Dead, Charlaine Harris
Comics: Noble Causes 8-9, Invincible 21-22
Music: For Those About To Rock, AC/DC

4th of bored with you

Seriously, we’ve put up with American ego for far too long.

You’re not exceptional; you’re delusional.

You love to make yourself out to be somehow better than the rest of the world, but that’s your obsession with ego talking – and that’s not just the deluded morons on the right. Mamdani spoke of American exceptionalism just this week, and he’s Lefty McLefterson.

You are not the greatest thing since sliced bread; your history actually demonstrates a great deal of the opposite.

Constant war. Constant hatred. Constant abuse of those least able to defend themselves. Constant rape of the planet in the name of shareholders.

As far as I’m concerned, we’re over it.

Time to move on, and find some humility to emulate in this world, instead of American ego-driven bullshit.

Out.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1564 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Definitely Dead, Charlaine Harris
Comics: Noble Causes 5-7, Invincible 20
Music: For My Friends, Blind Melon

in the olive of a dry martini

It’s funny, how ideas jump from place to place, little things that maybe the later progenitors didn’t even realize from where they came.

A bug in an olive in a martini. I first saw it in Danger Girl; turns out, it came as a suggestion earlier by “Count Diaz” in Wonder Woman.

J. Scott Campbell and I have seen the same shows (and if you’ve seen Campbell’s work, that he would have spent some time with Lynda Carter is unsurprising).

I feel like kindness is much the same way. Someone commits a small act. Someone else sees it; maybe it doesn’t register right away with them, but later, in a similar situation, they see that as a valid course of action.

Enough acts of kindness witnessed, and perhaps, in time, it will become the default course of action for us all.

One can only hope.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1357 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Definitely Dead, Charlaine Harris (definitely boring, already a third of the way through)
Comics: Noble Causes 3-4, Invincible 18-19
Music: For Blood And Empire, Anti-Flag

be kind

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

Be kind.

You get the point.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1353 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: 100 Side Hustles: Unexpected Idea For Making Extra Money Without Quitting Your Day Job, Chris Guillebeau
Comics: Tech Jacket 1-3, Invincible 1
Music: folklore, taylor swift (i gather she likes the lowercase and not, you know, LOUD NOISES)