The Writer's Poke

I first heard of Sean Davis last week. He created an online magazine called The Federalist in 2011, and he currently has about 500,000 followers on X.  It was about last week that he posted something amazing. He suggested if the Supreme Court doesn't rule the way they should, not only should Trump just ignore the ruling, if they keep obstructing the administration, he should just dissolve the Court altogether.  And I thought, wow. This guy is saying outrageous stuff like that, and there's an audience for it.  So, I decided I'd listen to an episode of The Federalist podcast: April 17, 2025 -- Deportation, Due Process, and Deference to the American People (40 minutes) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deportation-due-process-and-deference-to-the/id983782306?i=1000703904873 In the 40-minute conversation, the host and guest discussed why due process wasn't required for illegal immigrants.  The case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was mentioned for a brief second, but...

Heather Cox Richardson is American Historian.  Before last week, I had never heard of her, but she apparently does a daily podcast -- average length about 12 minutes.  The April 18, 2025, edition was 26 minutes long, and it marked the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's famous midnight ride.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s6bjnkOYUs Not surprisingly, when you listen to the Paul Revere story today, the present political situation echoes through. 1775 Boston is hard to imagine. It had a total population of 7,000. The British troops stationed there numbered 13,000.  While the patriots in Boston outnumbered loyalists, Richardson notes that the majority of Bostonians remained neutral. They just wanted to live their lives.  Overall, I liked this podcast, because it clearly and concisely presented the story of how Paul Revere and the colonial patriots stood up to the tyranny of the King. They did what they could, not because they thought they were going to change the...

His first name is Benjamin, but he usually goes by "Bald." Bald has been posting travel videos since 2018. His passion is anything Soviet Union, but he will take the time to learn a language before he visits a place -- not only Russian, but Spanish, say. It's important for him to have the ability to speak to people in their native tongue.  On Friday, April 18, Bald posted a video called "Solo on Ukraine's Eastern Front." So far it's generated 2.7 million views, and based on viewer average, it will likely go over 5 million views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3HRnwC6pso Most of his videos are in the neighborhood of an hour in length. In them, he usually establishes where he is and what his goal for being there is. He will start somewhere and then go seek out a place, without knowing exactly what he will find there.  For the latest Ukraine video, he starts at the Kiev train station. It's been 3 years, he says, since he last visited Ukraine, and he h...