The problem with social media becoming people’s primary source for news is that its algorithms are simply not set up to perform the critical task of serving as the fourth estate!

Fridays are for poetry, and I thought of you.

Here is one effective way to prevent social media from destroying our democracy. The problem is, it will likely lead to less engagement, so they may not deploy it unless they have to. Perhaps they should. I have a new article talking about this next week, but check this out in the meantime.

Goodbye to my dear Uncle Bob. We will miss you.

I really wish I could be in Montreal this weekend to see the show. It's going to be another great one.

Friday’s are for poetry. Thinking of love, loss, and family.

Thinking about family memories on this day of Thanskgiving and wishing all of you a merry one!

Fridays are for poetry. I'm late with this one, but better late than never.

All too often we are too busy focusing on the issues at hand and don’t realize we are not standing on the same common ground.

Two-thirds of Americans agree that the rich should be taxed more, including 51% of Republicans, yet economists are stubbornly holding on to the refuted belief that it would harm the economy despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Fridays are for poetry. A central part of growth is being open to change.

"Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women... have rendered the notion of 'capitalist democracy' into an oxymoron." Oligarch Peter Thiel, CEO of Palantir

American Dream update: average age of first-time home buyers is now 40. The wealth lost by the average person between buying at 30 and buying at 40 is $150,000. That money is instead redistributed to the upper classes.

Does it really have to be an either/or proposition?

Truth.

Not a good look internationally for the US!

The more impatient we are, the less we are willing to hold on to our ideals.

Can you imagine how much we could do for Americans if we taxed billionaires at the top 37% tax rate we tax lottery winners instead of the 23.8% rate they actually pay?

Fridays are for poetry. Music opens a portal to the truth of the universe.

Capitalism and democracy need not be at odds. We just have to agree on a framework that achieves true freedom for both.

I am currently in Portland, OR, and this is spot on! "From the moment the armed services violently engage their first civilians, their prestige will be gone forever, and service members will be destroying the Republic they are sworn to serve." open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

Millions of Americans (about 12.5%, in fact) are going hungry, and he hosts a Great Gatsby Party. He obviously didn't read the book! This is nothing less than a giant middle finger to the American working poor! You just can't even begin to make this stuff up!

Fridays are for poetry: This one is for Rick Because he asked me for it Here is his haiku

We can all be fooled into reacting the way a demagogue wants us to, no matter what side we are on.

At The Westport Suzuki Music School about to hear a lovely concert steeped in high-end jazz by Julian Shively and Emma McDonald @shiveman.bsky.social

Friday is for poetry.

Control of what people know or think they know is at the heart of political power.

Democracy thrives in the space between me and we.

America does not have a hereditory monarch. That is what it's based on. It's a shame we constantly have to remind people of this.

WE the PEOPLE in order to form a more perfect UNION, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the COMMON defense, promote the GENERAL welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to OURselves and OUR posterity. This was never meant to be a country of the few or the one.

I was a bit lazy this week. I only published one article and missed my Friday morning poem. To make up for it, I offer this as recompense.

When you can no longer rely on the structures of government to operate within the frame of their own rules, you are in real trouble. We didn't get here overnight. It has sneaked up on us with an accelerating pace. That's what monsters do, and we are nearly within their grip.

Once again, Fridays are for poetry. Have a great holiday weekend for all my fellow Americans.

I like this winning better than our current "winning."

It strikes me that the real problem for some when it comes to empathy is that it brings people together when their goal is actually to keep the people divided. Empathy diffuses power which is the real reason why individuals with power fear it. #itstrikesme

Today when you hear the phrase "Heritage American," you can often simply think of it in historic terms the way others once used the term "Arian."

We have to look backward to fully understand how to move forward.

How do you see yourself and how do your think others see you, and how are the two connected? This is a thought experiment in understanding that question. open.substack.com/pub/shiveman...

When the people's will is so clear, this would suggest that this might be one of the greater tests of a democracy regarding control of its government by the people.

This is breaking the law! It is a blatant violation of the Hatch Act. www.npr.org/2025/09/30/n...

Freeing the markets unchained corporations, but that, in turn, chained most of the rest of us!

The greatest scam in our economy! This is how these guys become billionaires without paying into the system that allows them to become billionaires.

Trump has designated Antifa as a terrorist organization, which will likely have all sorts of repercussions, none if them good, for American cities www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

The world is a better place with Andy Borowitz in it!

Fridays are for poetry. This week’s verse is a direct reaction to the news of the week.

All of our democratic freedoms start first with the freedom to speak our minds. It's literally the first right in the Bill of Rights. If we lose that, we lose it all.

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How do you remove references of slavery from a place known for an attempted slave insurrection?

Partisanship has created a situation where many Americans don’t just disagree, they are disgusted by each other, but is the disgust based on truth or myth?