Man in orange shorts and white and black nike shoes
Rundown
As expected, Trump enacted several tariffs last week, causing markets at home and abroad to tank as the trade wars with Canada etc. intensify.
Spineless Dem in chief John Fetterman voted in lockstep with republicans on the continuing resolution to avoid a government shut. Said CR contained massive cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, and the VA. It also ceded he power of the purse to Trump.
Another of Musk’s Space X rockets exploded, flooding the air with debris and forcing planes to divert their flight path. Musk’s DOGE boys gained access to the Veterans’ Administration’s systems, but they’ve yet to wreak havoc on it as it uses an old operating system they have no experience with.
Small miracles, right?
Measles continues to spread while our incompetent Head of HHS pushes bogus claims that Vitamin A can prevent the disease. Likewise, the Trump administration is playing catch up on Bird Flu after hastily firing and then rehiring experts on the virus.
The administration announced a five-point plan for dealing with the virus, claiming it would lower the cost of eggs. However, experts say this isn’t true.
Regarding the cost of eggs and groceries not coming down like Trump said they would if he were elected, Trump reposted an article by Charlie Kirk that said, “People should shut up about egg prices.”
Trump also gave the first State of Union Address of his second term, and it was a tsunami of lies.
Only Rep. Al Green of Alabama had the spine to call out Trump’s lies, until the sergeant-at-arms removed him.
And what did the rest of the spineless Dems do? They sat there saying nothing, timidly flashing little signs with “lie” on them. Be for fucking real.
If they had an ounce of courage, they would have left in mass in solidarity with Green. Cowards, the whole lot of them.
If this is the best the Democratic Party can muster in the face of Trump, in the face of fascism, we’re cooked.
Which leads me to this week’s topic.
I’m Done with Spineless Dems
Nancy Pelosi and the democratic establishment have made it clear they lack the will and spine to bring the fight to Trump and MAGA. And rather than step aside so folks like Jasmine Crockett, AOC, Stacy Abrams, Maxwell Frost, and Pete Buttigieg can take the reins, they’ve clung to power well past their expiration date. Nothing will change while the same old heads are in office, so from here on out I will only be supporting progressive candidates who have fight in them.
And if I’m being honest, I think we need to form a progressive third party since democratic leadership has been drifting rightward for years and now is republican-lite. So no more donating to any democratic candidate, PAC or organization unless they’re pushing progressive causes and bringing the fight to Trump.
And you should too.
Republicans are running scared, refusing to have town halls because their constitutes are ripping them new assholes for selling them out.
Meanwhile, the only time I hear from Dems is when they want money. It’s the only thing these pigs seem to care about, so let’s starve them. They have gotten too comfortable and have forgotten they work for us.
Do something substantial instead of performative bullshit, maybe I’ll kick in a few bucks. But maintaining the status quo isn’t going to cut it. We the people need Dems to grow spines and fight, damn it!
Till next week, stay safe and don’t let the tangerine tyrant grind ya down.
Since last week, Trump met with President Zelensky and tried to strong arm him into a deal granting the US mineral rights in Ukraine in exchange for continued financial and military support. At one point Trump and Vance reportedly got into a shouting match with Zelensky before he left.
In response, European leaders have stepped up to fill the gap and called a summit to address Trump’s actions.
Trump also announced more tariffs set to take effect this week and the stock market tanked.
Bird Flu continues to spread and a measles outbreak in Texas has exploded to over 140 cases as of this writing. This all while the media gag order on the CDC and other health authorities continues.
In what has been the democrats’ response to the above?
Hakeem Jeffries tweeted a ten-point plan to deal with Trump and posted it to social media. However aside from the first point, which is to have House and Senate Dems refuse to vote for any legislation including the upcoming debt ceiling vote; they don’t have any teeth.
Pointing out everything Trump et al are doing wrong is pointless unless it’s paired with a plan of action to stop them and how it will affect voters in concrete terms. People need to see the Dems are actively fighting for them. That they have some fire in their bellies.
Instead, Jeffries gave us a massive nothing burger.
It’s not enough to tell people what Trump et al. Are doing. There are a million places that already do that. If the Dems are to form a true opposition party, they need to move with swiftness and urgency. And they should start by showing people exactly what Trump’s policy will mean for them.
Show Don’t Tell
Writers are often told to show not tell. As this relates to democrats, they need to lay out in full details how Trump and his policies will directly affect people.
First up, Trump’s picking RFK Jr for head of Health and Human Services and rolling back Biden-era health policies will mean the return of people buying thousands a month for insulin, and their children dying from preventable diseases like measles, Tuberculosis, and polio. And should we have another pandemic, we know the Trump administration will botch it leading to needless deaths and price gouging as the supply chain breaks down.
This isn’t to mention the millions who will go bankrupt due to medical debt should he gut Medicaid and Medicare and repeal the ACA.
Second, his immigration policy will mean higher grocery costs as migrant workers aren’t willing to risk being deported and farmers aren’t willing to pay a living wage to American workers, so crops are rotting in the field. And as some Latino Trump voters have already discovered, it will result in their undocumented friends and family being deported.
Third, Trump’s tariffs will mean higher prices across the board for everyone, but they will also mean higher food costs as the US imports most of its produce from Mexico, whose President has said she will respond with tariffs if he imposes them on Mexico.
And you think home prices are high now, just wait until Canada, from whom we get a lot of our lumber, imposes them on us. Ditto China with steel and other materials the construction industry uses, among other industries.
If that weren’t bad enough, The US gets most of its wheat from Ukraine, and since Russia invaded them in 2022, they’ve drastically decreased exports resulting in higher bread prices. Trump serving up Ukraine to Putin will only make things worse as Putin will no doubt jack up grain prices if Russia conquers Ukraine.
Fourth, Trump’s fiscal policies will lead to empty bank accounts. His proposed tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans will destroy what’s left of the middle class by siphoning billions to the one percent. You think roads are bad now, just wait until the tax cuts go through. Hell, forget any infrastructure project getting done that Trump and associates don’t get a kickback on.
Fifth, when it comes to education, Trump’s policies re: DEI, school funding, and vouchers will lead to a brain drain as foreign students no longer see the benefit of American university degrees. This anti-intellectualism will cause America to stagnant, resulting in lower job prospects for American citizens at home and abroad.
It’s not enough to just say, “Trump bad.” Dems must make their message personal and provide a clear plan how they will stand up to Trump and govern once they’re in control. Otherwise, they will continue losing.
Till next week, stay safe, mask up, and don’t let the copper tone conman grind ya down.
Grayscale photo of person covering his face with bandana holding a banner with words ” enough is enough” at protest
The Rundown
A month into the second Trump administration and all levels of the government are under assault from the manchild who would be king. More planes have crashed, yet Trump continues his slash and burn of the FAA and other federal employees, despite challenges in the courts. He’s also served Ukraine on a silver platter to Putin and signaled he would allow Russia to attack our European allies.
Thankfully judges and some federal employees are standing up to him, Musk, and DOGE.
However, democratic officials have been slow to respond. But some dems like Jamie Raskin, Corry Booker, and JB Pritzker are showing signs of having a spine. But I fear it’s too little too late as Trump purges the government of anyone who won’t bend the knee.
Meanwhile, due to Trump’s tariffs and immigration policies, inflation has skyrocketed along with gas and food prices. The latter has some in trump’s base reconsidering their vote. We tried to tell ya’ll.
And speaking of voting, there is growing concern Musk, or another actor accessed the central voting machine where all votes in a state are recorded and altered them, a possibility which Intelligence and national security expert Malcolm Nance says is a possibility.
But given democratic leadership’s failure to call for recounts when questions about voting irregularities first arose, I fear this will be 2000 2.0, only this time if we learn that Kamala Harris did win it won’t matter because Trump et al will have succeeded in dismantling our government and selling our country to the highest bidder.
Our only saving grace may be this administration’s incompetence. Because for the most part democratic leadership is still AWOL.
Which leads me to this week’s theme.
The emperor is Nude and Enough is Enough
In “The Emperor’s New Clothes” a tailor cons an emperor into believing he’s made new clothes for him out of a rare, expensive and invisible fabric. And as the emperor goes about town nude, his subjects pretend he’s wearing the most magnificent outfit ever, because they fear his wraith should they point out he’s naked. Finally, a child shouts, “The Emperor has no clothes,” breaking the charade.
Last week Trump referred to himself as a king and, as with the above emperor, people are afraid to point out his faults, especially the mainstream media.
When Trump first ran, they refused to call out his lies, instead abusing the thesaurus to use any words but lie and liar. And it was this dereliction of their journalistic duty that led to his first and second term in the oval office.
Time and time again the legacy media sane washed Trump, painting him in a positive light while holding the dems to ridiculously high standards. And those that dared say the emperor had no clothes, like Jim Acosta and the Associated Press, have been barred from the White Press Room.
On the other hand, with few exceptions, democratic officials have failed to respond to this administration’s rape and pillaging of our government and democracy. Week after week, they’ve said nothing, or worse expressed a willingness to work with republicans.
What the actual fuck.
Still worse are their social media posts filled with empty platitudes and milquetoast press conferences. The only time democrats seem energized is in the billions of fundraising emails and texts I get every day.
Sorry, but no!
Enough is enough. We need a concrete plan of action from democratic leadership, or they need to get the fuck outta there.
We can’t and won’t wait until the midterms. We need action NOW. Not two years from now. Not two weeks from now. Today.
Every second we wait is another second Trump et al has to destroy our country.
The emperor is nude and a demented fascist, and no amount of spin or sane washing will ever change that. Stand up or be stomped down.
Until next week, stay safe and don’t let Cheeto Benito grind ya down.
With primary season 2022 in full swing here in America, I thought it’d be a good idea to analyze political ads and what lessons they can teach us about storytelling. For those out of the loop, Americans vote for candidates in Congress every six years and the House of representatives every two years.
However, unlike in other countries where campaign spending is capped, in America candidates can spend unlimited funds on ads thanks to Citizens United, in which the Supreme court ruled corporations are people, money is free speech, and thus corporations can donate unlimited money to campaigns, political action committees (PAC) and superPACS. The former of which can donate directly to candidates and coordinate with them, while the latter can’t (but often do anyway).
As a result, in every election cycle, candidates flood Americans with emails asking for donations and bombard us with political ads.
Know Your Audience
But these campaigns don’t throw crap at the wall and see what sticks; they do their research and tailor each ad to a specific demo with a singular message that often boils down to their opponent is bad for X reasons but I’m good for Y reasons. And in recent years with the advent of social media, campaigns have been able to target their ads with laser precision to reach their intended audience, as seen in the 2016 when the Trump campaign used Facebook data harvested from Cambridge Analytica to target democratic voters disillusioned with Hillary Clinton and get them to vote third party.
He also spoke to the feelings of disenfranchisement among older and working-class white people by harkening back to a simpler better time with his slogan, Make America Great Again, often shortened to MAGA.
We also saw this in both Obama’s campaigns where he levied social media to connect with younger voters. In both cases, their ads spoke to their audience, admittedly in vastly different ways.
But how?
By speaking to their base, the hard-core fans who will go beyond voting for them to canvassing, calling, and taking people to the polls to vote.
How does this apply to writing?
First, if you don’t find your base, your tribe, you may sell a few copies, but that’s where it stops. There will be little word of mouth, and few if any reviews. But by finding your base, you’ll have a crew of readers who will ride or die for you and your work and who won’t stop talking about you.
Second, if you don’t identify your base, any marketing and ads you do will fizzle out.
As I mentioned above, political campaigns may seem like they want everyone to vote for them, but they actually want higher voter turnout among their base than their opponents.’ This is because historically voter turnout has been low, especially in non-presidential elections, so while there may be more of them than you, it all boils down to getting out your base.
But how do you find your writing base?
You go where they go, frequent the websites they frequent, and connect with them. You find their likes and dislikes, their hobbies, their personalities, and their problems.
And you give them what they want/need.
Give Them What They Want
Political ads often prey upon people’s emotions, e.g. fear, anger, or uncertainty about the future. Again, going back to the Trump campaign’s 2016 run, they played on the fears and anger that white Americans and their values were being ignored and becoming irrelevant.
Likewise, in Lyndon B. Johnson’s famous daisy ad, which featured a little girl on a swing holding a daisy before it cuts to a picture of a mushroom cloud, only aired once. But the message was obvious: vote for Barry Goldwater and it’ll end with nuclear war with Russia.
In the infamous Willie Horton ad, which spawned a genre of attack ads based on racial fears, the 1984 George H. W. Bush campaign painted Dukakis as soft on crime by implying he would allow criminals like Horton on the loose to commit more crimes.
Horton, a Black man serving a life sentence for murder without prole, while on release on Massachusetts’ weekend furlong program, failed to return, and physically and sexually assaulted a white woman before a civilian later shot him.
And more recently, Hillary Clinton’s 3AM ad with a red ringing phone, implied, then candidate Obama was ill prepared to handle the rigors of being president.
These quintessential attack ads did one thing: made people vote for the target’s opponent because they will stop the nightmare scenario from happening. They also created a us vs. them mentality, and if people are one thing, it’s tribal.
But how does this apply to writing?
Easy.
We all Want to matter
People want to be entertained. But more than that, they want stories that speak to them as a person. They want to be seen, to know they and their struggles matter, that they too can save the day and get a happily ever after.
The secret to giving readers what they want is to not try to please everyone.
Instead, focus on one person, be that you or someone else, and write for them. Be specific and write from your experience. Write what scares you, what hurts, because if it resonates with you, it’ll resonate with others. Tell your truth, regardless of how ugly it may be or who may take offense, because your story demands to be told. Do this and you’ll find your audience and please them. But that’s not enough.
You must hook them and keep them hooked.
Hook The Audience Early
Because we live in a capitalist society, everything costs money, and political ads are no different. They, in fact, cost so much that they only have 30 seconds to hook audiences, keep them engaged, and tell their story.
Likewise, you only have a brief window to hook readers before they put your book down to do one of a hundred other things vying for their attention.
One of the best ways to hook readers is by starting with a bang. While literal or metaphorical, you want your protagonists to be doing something when your readers meet them. One good way to insure this is by starting right in the middle of the action, aka in medias res.
Another way to hook readers early is by starting as close to inciting incident as possible, so they don’t have to slog through world building or character development that can come later.
Additionally, you could start at the end, then jump to the beginning, as masterfully done by Tarantino in Pulp Fiction.
You could also start by posing a question to the audience, such as in mysteries, and the quest to answer this question drives readers forward.
A similar technique is to add subplots with their own questions and move from one to another, answering one question as another arises to keep readers engaged and guessing what happens next.
But perhaps the best way to keep readers hooked is by making them care for your characters. They don’t have to like them, but they must feel something for them, and you do this by making your characters true to life.
We all have that one friend who reminds us of pretentious Holden Caulfield, bookish Hermione, or egotistical Victor Frankenstein; pull from your knowledge base and give your characters quirks and ticks of those you know. Make them act and sound like real people, complete with flaws and questionable morals.
And once you’ve made readers care about your characters, send them on a journey that matters. Have them grow and change as the plot demands, not vice versa, and make them earn their endings.
But once the story ends, the actual work of getting reviews and further sales begins.
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
One reason political ads are often highly effective is a combination of superb storytelling and repetitions. During campaign season, you can’t escape ads; they flood the airwaves, internet, your email, phone (robocalls and texts), even video games are no longer safe as candidates have taken to appearing in games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, MLB Live 08, and Burn Out Paradise.
The point being, repetition is key to building and growing your reader base. Research has shown it can take seeing an ad 3 times or more before people buy a product, which means you must be your own hype man for marketing your book. Of course, don’t engage in spam or dishonesty to get sales, but plug your book and talk about your writing often sopeople know it’s out there.
Yes, this means marketing yourself and your book (I know. It sucks.).
Go All In
If you don’t believe in yourself and your book, no one else will. Put everything you have into it and promoting it. Engage in hash tag games and Facebook groups, reach out to bloggers and your local media, run ads, do what you must to get the word out.
Because no one will care as much about your book as you.
One thing we can learn from political ads is how to be evangelists for our books.
Don’t back be shy about saying how much you love your characters and their story, how excited you are for people to meet them, and how much you hope readers get what you’re trying to do.
This too, means having an elevator pitch on lock and ready to go when asked what your book’s about, and what your next project(s) are. It also means having some way to connect with readers, be it on social media or via a newsletter, and keeping them posted on your work and yourself.
You could have the best book in the world, but if no one knows about it, then what?
This goes triple if you’re a self-published/indie author. If need be, take a public speaking course if you’re not naturally extroverted, read a few books or watch a few videos on Amazon ads, social media marketing, and growing your followers.
Do whatever it takes to let people know how outstanding your book is.
Conclusion
If you’re American,whomever you vote for in the midterms, do it because you’ve investigated them and their platform. None of the above matters if there’s no substance behind the candidate and the book.
Write stories only you can and fuck the haters.
In closing, I want to leave you with this quote from Marianne Williamson I think is apropos:
“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
Thank you for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments. Also, share this post if it spoke to you, and you can sign up to my newsletter for updates on me and my work here.
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