Notes from a Leftist without a party
The Republican and Democratic parties have become so splintered and broken that many politically educated people are refraining from identifying with either of them. In the GOP there are wings of the party that span a long axis from libertarian to conservative on issues of the economy and culture. …
A letter
Your parents asked me to housesit for them while they went to Outer Banks on vacation. We’ve grown pretty close since you passed away, so I’ve been over there for dinner plenty of times and have helped them with some yardwork. Two weeks after you died, I was there every single day. But this time was different because I was alone. Your sister wasn’t there to hug. Me, your mom wasn’t there to share her wild and silly thoughts, and your dad wasn’t there to crack is lame but silly jokes. It was just me, Kiki the cat, and that…
How my car nearly got swallowed by the ocean
I was driving North on the Outer Banks in search of wild horses on day eight (or nine?) of my road trip. The tarmac turned to sand.
No problem. I thought. I’m in a fucking Subaru. Subarus are like the U.S. Postal Service. Nothing stops them. Not snow. Not rain. Not heat or gloom of night. And definitely not sand.
I zipped along in four-wheel drive, stomping the clutch and downshifting to accommodate the slipping tires. There were no cars in sight. It was the middle of January and the Outer Banks of North Carolina was a ghost town.
Despite…
A Brief Synopsis of Harris and the General State of American Politics
Joe Biden has finally decided on his vice-presidential candidate— Kamala Harris. Harris gained clout during this year’s Democratic primary but is preceded by a notorious record as a California Attorney General, and a mixed tenure as California Senator.
Biden, 78-years-old and seemingly in cognitive decline (along with his equally ancient orange-skinned opponent), will likely need to rely on the strong-headed Harris for much of his presidency. The former Vice President’s need for assistance compounded with the high chances he could die in the office make this the most important vice-presidential nomination in recent years.
My Gradual Dissociation from News Networks and Stumbling onto a Path Towards Truth
It started over a decade ago, before I could sniff out bullshit and call it for what it was. I was in middle school, and Jon Stewart was on The Daily Show. I started watching because he was funny, but I kept watching because he was showing me something I hadn’t seen in the news before — honesty. Every time my parents had the news on, I felt the anchors were faking their smiles and attitudes and behaviors. But Jon was different.
Those who remember Jon remember that he regularly trashed Fox News and CNN. Fox was the news channel…
Here’s what I recall after this trip through the universe
The night before my road trip through America, I took a winding psychedelic trip through the universe with my best friend, Jesus. (No, not the Arab-Jew on the cross, but a Mexican man with whom I shared many a troublesome story. Pronounced ‘Hay-Zeus’). We had each taken the biggest hit of our life at seven tabs each. At least, we guessed it was seven tabs. I had five strips of the stuff (ten tabs on each strip for a total of 50 tabs) in my freezer. I snipped two of them with a pair of scissors at what looked like…
FDR’s Right Hand, a progressive who led us out of the Great Depression and shaped the future for Americans
Henry A. Wallace was the shining knight in America’s darkest hours, but his light has faded into obscurity due to the unforgiving passing of time and a corrupt group of leaders who did everything to silence him and his work.
Wallace was FDR’s right hand as a Vice President and other important positions during some of America’s darkest hours. Wallace stood for equality between sexes and races, equal pay for equal work for all peoples, disestablishment of oligarchal type corporations that controlled politics, and a stop to American Imperialism. …
Slave. Freedman. Spy. The untold story of a national hero.
History — particularly military history — is written by the winning side. As such, there are many details that are deliberately excluded from the records. These bits of historical information eventually slip into the endless abyss of lost knowledge, never to be seen or heard again, forever skewing our version of history. Some of these historic details are erased not just for the sake of discrediting the loser, but because of misplaced morality, outdated cultural ideologies, or simply because they weren’t considered important enough.
One man who has neared the edge of vague historical memory is March Haynes. A freedman…
How a young boy waged war against his mother and founded Europe’s oldest nation.
Origins
Most young teenagers have contemptuous relationships with their parents. As children enter puberty, the desire for freedom arises, and parental figures are viewed as ruthless and unfair rulers of a life children wish to lead themselves. I recall being a twelve or thirteen years old, defying my curfew, drinking a couple of beers, and thinking myself to be quite the rebel for doing so.
All of my acts of youthful revolution pales in comparison to that of the founder of Portugal — Sir Afonso Henriques.
To begin, Sir Afonso Henriques’s father, Count Henrique De Borgonha, was granted the position of…
The first time somebody told me I was balding, it was a joke. That person will never know that the punchline finally hit about two years later.
It was the summer of 2018. I was 23 years old and bartending at a beautiful lakeside restaurant. It was summertime, and things were good. The lake was busy with boaters and vacationers, my friends were in town, and I was making a good amount of money (for a bartender, anyway).
The head chef of the restaurant was a thin, quiet, stand-offish man with a long beard, skinny tattooed limbs, and a bandana…
D.C. Gonk
Writer. Facts Matter.
