1/Good morning fam! Sorry to be away so long. BSky feels like a secret garden of friends after weeks pumping my new biz on LinkedIn. Suzanne are on our annual anniversary vacation to Santa Rosa Beach, and I have to say, I've been few places as beautiful as FL in the fall. The weather is perfect.

I've been a big fan of Matt Stoller's work for years now. He's pointing out the corrupt heart of our society for all to see. Know why it feels like the system is rigged? Because IT IS - open.substack.com/pub/mattstol...

1/Good morning fam! Long overdue time for a book review! Today's tome is "Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism" by Bhu Srinivasan - www.goodreads.com/book/show/34... - the fantastically well-written story of how we got here. For the unaware, America has always been a brutal place. 💙📚

This one made me spit coffee out my nose this morning. "I also like long walks on the beach, piná coladas, and getting caught in the rain..." 😂

Who would have guessed "Du Hast" was a song about...*checks notes* marriage?? Ah. Er, hmm. 🤔 Given the lack of reliable Internet lyric sites in the late 90s, I spent 2 decades believing "hast" was "hate", when in reality it's "have". Although, "you hate me" in a song about marriage works too. 😜

Good morning fam! Back from Chicago and on the trip home, I played for my son Daniel (becoming quite the metal aficionado), "Du Hast" by Rammstein - youtu.be/U5HAEzEk8QM. In German, it sounds like the Blitzkreig theme song. In English? Let's just say it's a good thing Americans don't know languages.

My God, I hope so! open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia...

Good morning BSky fam! In Chi this weekend in honor of my father-in-law Bill. I was reminded by those who knew him best of what a GREAT MAN he was. Talk about impact! Guys he worked with 40 years ago were there. Don't worry Bill, we got an extra order of Gene and Jude's for when we see you again. ❤️

If I'd had one shot in a time machine, I'd be right there. 👇

Boy, it's raining Jimmy Choo's out there! (iykyk)

Good morning BSky fam! In honor of the 35th anniversary(!) of the Rust in Peace album, ladies and gentlemen I present...Megadeth! youtu.be/hM3jpNfxFUg (Deadheads might want to sit this one out 😜) "This group busts your brain" - Arsenio Hall. Truer words were never spoken!

Good morning BSky fam! Wanna get your blood pumping on a lovely Thursday morning? Check out Albert Lee and the boys from 1973 - youtu.be/EA8VIQhG_QE. If those riffs don't rip your face off, check your pulse and make sure you're still breathing! 😜

1/BSky isn't the place for ads, but I'm proud of something I put together at #Kyloson and yes, I'm tooting my own horn a bit: AI Unplugged™ business learning sessions - kyloson.com/ai-unplugged/ - where I boil down the countless hours I've spent learning this stuff into a 4-hour session.

It's a Jerry Wednesday, so let's go with something soul-searching, shall we - youtu.be/9e6Sn46aRlg. I know album versions aren't cool. Don't care. David absolutely kills the solo. "Well they're putting up resistance but I know My faith will lead me on..." #JerryGarcia #DavidGrisman

Grrr.... medium.datadriveninvestor.com/betting-380k... House Rep. Tim Moore "recently made waves by purchasing up to $380,000 worth of TZA, a[n]...ETF that profits when small cap stocks decline...Moore...sits on the House Financial Services Committee..." This BS is so tiresome.

1/Back in my rakish younger days, one of my guiding principles was that nothing good happens at 4:00 am. Responsible ppl are sleeping, the party's over, and cops are bored; a dangerous combo for a midnight toker. For older me, 4 am has a new purpose: Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations on PBS.

1/Book review this morning is a modern classic - "The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene (bookshop.org/p/books/the-...). If you want to understand the world we live in, read this book. There's a reason why it's read by convicts, politicians, generals, and CEOs. It's literally a blueprint. 💙📚

After a long week, sometimes you just want to sit back, chill, and listen to some good ol' Grateful Dead on a Saturday morning - youtu.be/IC4QWv3doDE?... New Minglewood, 5/8/77 @ Barton Hall, maybe the best version ever and 2 of my fave Jerry solos.

Good morning fam! Matt Stoller has a great piece on sports and monopolies - open.substack.com/pub/mattstol... - including the (likely true) rumor that former M$ potentate Ballmer brought in *paid ringers* for his son's HS bball team. Billionaires are just gross.

Fellow admins: even when you trust the source, double-check the output of EVERY downloaded script before piping it to bash! Better safe than sorry!

Google dodges selling Chrome and Android in latest do-nothing-to-tech-monopolies govt action - www.cnn.com/2025/09/02/t.... "A significant win for the Justice Department, Google will now have to something something...huge success", says Pam Bondi, whose portfolio is up 8% in afterhours trading...

After much soul-searching and contemplation, I made the decision to relaunch Kyloson, LLC with a focus on #AI and secure infrastructure. Check it out BSky fam - kyloson.com/relaunching-....

1/Happy Sunday, fam! It's been a while, but I'm back with a book recommendation this morning: "Careless People A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism" by Sarah Wynn-Williams (bookshop.org/p/books/care...) tells the story of the early years of Facebook from the trenches with Zuck. 💙📚

I keep coming back to this, bc it speaks volumes: How much "screen time" do the tech oligarchs' kids get? Almost ZERO - daddysdigest.com/silicon-vall... What else do you need to know?

1/My great friend @therealcavey.bsky.social's comment reminded me of a Ted Gioia piece that everyone should read, "The Glorious Future of the Book" - open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia.... I'm predicting a comeback, not only for books, but newspapers, CD/DVD, even handwritten notes - *physical* media.

Happy Sunday fam, and shout out to @colingorrie.bsky.social of the Dead Language Society (open.substack.com/pub/colingor...), which has fantastic posts about the history of "English and its relatives". It stretches the boundaries of my nerdery into uncharted territory, which is a good thing! Dig it!

1/They really haven't learned - open.substack.com/pub/kenklipp.... I will try to make this as simple as I can for the 70+ yo cognitively declining crowd (aka the entirety of DC Dem leadership): what you've been doing is NOT WORKING, not even a little bit. Maybe an example will be more instructive.

Serious question for my own curiosity's sake. Are there any million follower accounts on BSky? Anybody? Bueller?

Things have been so hectic lately, I hadn't even had a chance to celebrate a BSky milestone, 4k followers! It may not be much in the world of social media, but to me it's pretty awesome. The town I grew up in didn't have 4000 ppl. I love interacting with all you guys, and much love fam! 🫶

1/You guys ever wake up with a song in your head? This morning's tune for me was Mario Winans "I Don't Wanna Know" (youtu.be/KCHgxoXv4g4?...). FANTASTIC tune and one of the best grooves of 90s R&B, made slimy by "the producer all up in the video" to paraphrase Suge. That's not the worst part tho...

Good morning fam! Very cool show on Nat Geo channel, "Trafficked" with Mariana Van Zeller. Last night I caught an episode about illegal fishing that made me despair for the state of our natural world - m.imdb.com/title/tt1763.... She covers global crime at the sources in a unique way. Check it out!

One other thing from yesterday. We had to chuckle at the fact that Bill - a dyed in the wool union Democrat, got a letter with Trump's signature thanking him for his service. Probably a good thing Bill wasn't alive to share his thoughts on that 😜😂

1/Good morning BSky fam! I gotta say something here. We had my father-in-law Bill's service yesterday at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffers...) in #STL. He was buried with full military honors as a USAF vet. Y'all know how I feel about our govt. most of the time.

1/Good morning BSky fam! Our Great Leaders are again preparing to nuke the barn after the horse not only has left it, but has traveled around for a while and taken up a 2nd career in the rodeo - open.substack.com/pub/kenklipp.... The barn being Mexico and the horse being, well, synthetic horse.

1/One more thing that needs to be celebrated - my wife Suzanne and her sister Dorothy took care of *2* parents with dementia, rearranging their lives to make sure their parents were cared for in their final days, and ensuring they both would pass away at home surrounded by family.

1/Good morning BSky fam! Paying tribute this morning to my father-in-law Bill Loebig who passed away last Friday after a long battle with dementia. I tried to put into words who he was and BSky is just too constrained, so I'll just say I respected him tremendously and considered him a close friend.

Good morning BSky fam! I've missed you all lately. Between my father in law in hospice and starting a business, there just aren't enough hours in the day. Know that I'm with you all in spirit and I will be back to full strength once I have some time again. Keep fighting the good fight! ♥️

*sigh* if only this attitude was everywhere - open.substack.com/pub/theregen...

Did you know that Big Telecom was hyping fiber to the home in the *90s*, yet in 2025, we're still arguing over copper lines - kushnickbruce.medium.com/in-plain-eng.... It's not like they had $BILLIONS in taxpayer subsidies over those years...oh, wait.

Presented with no comment - www.onxmaps.com/onx-access-i.... Things that fall through the cracks without mention in 2025 would have held an entire news cycle in the 00s...ah, oh! I see now...

apnews.com/video/hot-do... @apnews.com

Ah, an "experiment". Makes total sense - techcrunch.com/2025/07/31/y...

1/Good morning fam! This week is a 2-fer on the history of MLM: "Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing" by Robert FitzPatrick (www.amazon.com/dp/B09MR9FVL...) and "Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America" by Bridget Read (bookshop.org/p/books/unti...). 💙📚

Had to laugh at a couple of recent commercials. Instacart using Third Eye Blind's ode to crystal meth - "Semi-Charmed Life" - to invoke the 90s is pretty spot on, but it pales in comparison to Dove using Khia's "My Neck My Back (Lick It)" (youtu.be/SceZOlxT5jY) to sell full-body deodorant!

1/No discussion of Chicago cuisine would be complete without discussing pizza, of which Chi really has *2* types: deep dish and "thin crust" which is similar to an NYC hand-tossed. Fair warning - a couple rounds with a deep dish and a pitcher of Old Style and you WILL resemble George Wendt on SNL.

1/After years of dodging bullets, I caught a summer cold last weekend. Ugh! Running a fever and simultaneously shivering with chills, smack in the middle of a 95°/90% humidity extreme heat week. Chicago relatives brought Portillo's Italian beef on Sunday, which I was totally unable to taste.

Excellent piece by @ioangrillo.bsky.social about not only Ovidio, but the bigger issue of govt. cooperation agreements. Imho, they MUST have a political fish on the hook to give him an agreement, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

1/A couple more. Jack Black, Marilyn Manson, Hamburglar(?), and Big Bird 👇 (Would've loved to have been at THAT party!)

1/A thread on Xitter today with pics of odd celebrity pairings grabbed my attention. There are some doozies, but here are my favorites. Rob Halford and Andy Warhol 👇