A year to remember—or perhaps to forget

When I launched my Substack newsletter in the summer of 2022, I wasn’t exactly sure how it would take shape. Having championed legitimate and humane alternatives to the brutal and ecocidal bipartisan policy framework in Washington as a congressional candidate for the previous six years, I knew that I wanted to continue speaking truth to power and exposing hypocrisy and corruption.

Little did I know how much grist for my proverbial mill current events would come to offer.

My observations this year covered a wide range of subjects, from genocide in Gaza to global climate agreements, dysfunction and corruption in Congress, the deference to yet another Pentagon coverup revealing effective state control over American journalists, and more.

Several of those themes unfortunately recurred over the course of the year. My stories included:

The 2024 presidential election

• An explanation of why the several criminal prosecutions targeting former president—and aspiring tyrant—Donald Trump could ironically help return him to the White House (April)

• An examination of why Dr. Cornel West poses such a threat to the Democratic Party given its relentless gaslighting of the racial minorities on whose support it relies (June)

• A reflection on the farcical presidential election of 2024 (July)

War & militarism

• A plea for international recognition for a renowned military whistleblower who played a crucial role in ending Washington’s fraudulent and failed war on Vietnam (March)

• An exploration of Star Wars, and George Lucas’ profound symbolism addressing militarism that most viewers unfortunately ignored (May)

• A review of how Congress bends over backwards to enable the Pentagon’s continuing corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse of the American public (September)

• A dark turn in the Middle East, published two days after the October 7 attacks that prompted Israel to escalate its longstanding human rights abuses in Palestine (October)

• The death of Senator Dianne Feinstein, and how California Governor Gavin Newsom failed the test it presented (October)

• A review of congressional unanimity supporting the military industrial complex despite the illusion of partisan rancor (October)

Depicting grassroots movements challenging Washington

• A national movement for peace that aimed to challenge the preventable proxy war in Ukraine (February)

• An examination of the resurgent labor movement and efforts by Democrats to limit, gaslight, and co-opt it (September)

• An explanation of how We, the People, could unplug Washington’s war machine on the heels of historic labor mobilization across the United States (November)

• A review of the global movement for peace challenging Washington’s support for Israel’s genocidal campaign to displace Palestinians from Gaza (November)

Congressional failure and bipartisan corruption

• Failures by congressional Democrats to demonstrate the same assertiveness as their counterparts across the aisle (January)

• Opportunities for right-wing Republicans created by Democrats openly embracing conflicts of interest and unconstitutional self-enrichment through insider trading, also released as a podcast (January)

• An analysis of congressional entrenchment explaining why thoughtful concerns about bipartisan gerontocracy ultimately miss the mark and overlook factors contributing more to the problem (September)

• How the removal of GOP Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy revealed the weakness of Democrats in Congress who accept, rather than challenge, the corruption of their own party’s leadership (October)

• A discussion of why congressional dysfunction could be a great thing for the world, even as it indicates the erosion of democracy in America (October)

• An analysis of the new Speaker of the House, and why Mike Johnson is poised to wreak such havoc across Washington (October)

• An examination of how the Israeli genocide in Gaza reveals the state of democracy in America (November)

• An analysis of Washington’s new McCarthyism, and institutional efforts to suppress and demonize voices speaking the truth in the face of a continuing genocide (November)

• An admission that I got it wrong when predicting that Congress would prove unable to stop another government shutdown (November)

The erosion of journalism and the co-optation of editors

• Failures by journalists that in turn emboldened corrupt local officials who benefit from (both institutional and, in one case, their own) racism (January)

• My election integrity lawsuit against the Hearst Corporation and San Francisco Chronicle, which continues in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and aims to hold editors and journalists accountable for documented racism and betraying journalistic ethics in order insulate a corrupt oligarch from accountability (January)

• The bizarre phenomenon of comedians depicting the White House more accurately than self-congratulating journalists punching down in retaliation (February)

• Journalists finally showing up to cover the dire constitutional threat posed by illegal government surveillance, decades after advocates raised our concerns and long after ignoring my congressional campaign that aimed to offer the public a chance to influence these suppressed issues (March)

• Journalists dropping the ball yet again by focusing on responses to Pentagon leaks rather than the corruption, fraud, and waste that they revealed (April)

• A discussion of yet another media failure enabling congressional corruption, particularly in coverage of the seat for which I ran from 2018-2022 (September)

• A review of predictable disinformation spread by Washington and Tel Aviv to enable the colonial aspirations of both Israeli and American officials (October)

• A rare admission by journalists about the corruption of their own profession that barely scratched the surface (November)

• A remarkable story by the New York Times representing a newspaper of record showing up a decade late to cover concerns about police body cameras that I & other advocates published years go (December)

Climate Chaos

• A climate-change driven catastrophe that hit close to home, and the irony of its bizarrely apt name (8/23)

• An analysis of the recent global climate agreement explaining why it might offer less promise than we all would wish (December)

U.S. History

• The radical—and ironically widely forgotten—history of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., also released as a podcast (January)

• A review of the tremendous life & legacy of military whistleblower and international hero Daniel Ellsberg (June)

• An analysis of race relations in the United States, and the cosmetic recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday even as white supremacy continues to grow ever more deeply entrenched (June)

• A reflection on a national holiday through the eyes of Black visionary Frederick Douglass (July)

• A reflection on the legacy of the 9/11 attacks over 20 years ago, and how they were co-opted by a military industrial establishment to entrench its corruption and unaccountable violence (September)

• A reminder, in the midst of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, that American support for genocide has been not only long established but also continued long after most Americans thought it ended (October)

• The long overdue death of war criminal Henry Kissinger (December)

My Creative Voice 

• A poem about a voyage that offered me vast insight as I worked to recover from loss (July)

• An invitation to join me on a nascent digital platform challenging major social media platforms (May)

• A song about police violence from “Ferguson to Jerusalem” (November)

• A few reasons why I remained grateful this year, despite the escalating madness around the world (November)

An invitation

I published eight articles in the month of November, largely because I had time in between my jobs working as a kayak guide and snowboard instructor while waiting for the weather to shift. Left to my own devices, I’d maintain a similar pace throughout the year—but the need to pay rent and put food on the table forced me to prioritize the jobs that pay my bills.

That’s why I’d like to invite you to join the dozens of paid subscribers who support my writing, research, and analysis. Over 20,000 readers receive this newsletter. With the help of a few more willing to help sustain it, I hope to cover an even broader array of topics in 2024 including developments in antitrust law, judicial corruption, holes in the bucket of neoliberal economics, and more.

Supporting this newsletter allows a unique voice to continue highlighting issues overlooked by most writers.

I know I’m not the only person struggling in today’s economy, and that many competing requests vie for your support. That’s why I’m so grateful to each of my readers, especially the dozens who support my writing & research. If you’re already subscribing and want to help a friend stay informed, consider giving them a gift subscription.

As we close the proverbial books on 2023, I hope that you, your family, and your loved ones enjoy a safe, abundant, and grateful new year!