BFD - February 1 2026

 Rather than focus on outrage only, I am going to spend the month of February highlighting the things I think are worthy of the label BFD. Big fucking deal was a frequently used phrase in my family - specially by my mom - who taught us to look deeper to understand things that really meant something. Today's BFD is the blowout state Senate race in Texas that a Democrat won for the first time in 30 years. What makes it special is that tRump's endorsee spent more than $2 million (or 10 times what the Dem spent) for nothing and Trump so obviously doesn't understand how Americans really thinks if he says the local election didn't involve him - despite his support and endorsement. Right.

Oh yeah, the icing on the cake: I would LOVE to see the imbeciles that are lining up for Trump's endorsement in the US Senate Rep. primary in Texas to determine who runs in November. All his friends are running. Won't that be fun? 

What are the chances only Dems, Indies and third party voters are scrubbed from registration lists? Especially after the state turned over it's ENTIRE voter roll to the federal government. No signs anywhere saying "Hands off my Voter info" - we may need something a bit catchier.

UPDATE: More from the "free" press

 Unclear to me what CBS gained by holding the story for an obvious move to kill it. Could it be that withholding it from TV didn't prevent it from going viral online so they were caught with their proverbial pants down? Lord, what I wouldn't have given to be an outraged fly on the wall at CBS HQ this week. I won't watch CBS or Paramount until Weiss is removed from a post she is most decidely unqualified for. Bill Paley and Ed Murrow are rolling over in their graves without a doubt.

The Truth Will Set You Free

That was a favorite line of my mom's. I was a government reporter on Long Island, covering state county and village government activity. And I covered state and federal regulation of the hazardous waste industry for about a year in DC. I moved from print news to broadcast news to online news and eventually to UX research. As much as I love UX research, journalism is still the favorite phase of my career.

The thing that outrages me so about the decision to hold the 60 Minutes piece on CECOT prison is the reasoning used. When government officials stonewall, refuse to respond and will not comment, that's when the story MUST get out - not the opposite. 

how many lies is too many?

As 2025 comes to an end, I found this headline the best one to sum up my feelings: Politifact names 2025 the Year of Lies. Since 2009, the great team behind Politifact has been able to pick out one lie that merited their Lie of the Year award - not this year however. There were so many "distortions or fabrications of fact that they couldn't chose one. My 2026 outrage will be if I cannot find a way to better fight the war on truth. The players and the circumstances are ever changing - the fact that we have no sense of a shared truth is what kills democracies and will be the undoing of the United States. 

Fear and Forgetfulness

 I wrote the previous post in September - and then decided to wait to publish for cooler heads to prevail. I never got back to it - mainly due to my forgetfulness, but also due to the fact that the insanity just keeps getting worse.

And now, the King of Hypocrites once again defies all logic and does something so grotesque in the wake of Rob and Michele Reiner's murder that it defies all imagination - of anyone with even just an ounce of moral fiber. From one old goat to another - Jonathan Alter sums it up nicely.

Every day, I will post something until Trump and is minions are no longer in power. Many of whom hopefully will end up in jail. None of this is normal. And we cannot forget a SINGLE thing.

Fear Will Not Win

 

In the shadows of threats and lies, we rise together and refuse to be silenced.

I have been struggling to figure out what I am feeling in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's murder in Utah last week. I knew the immediate grifting that would follow from the Trump administration and I fully expected to hear fury in the voice of Kirk's widow. As a widow myself (for those who do not know, I lost my best friend and husband to a non-violent, yet sudden death), I am trying to have empathy for her - though threats and false accusations are usually barriers to empathy - for me anyway.

If there is a list underway, as a former journalist and a true believer in the Constitution of the US of A, I hope I am on it. There is no place for murder - anywhere - but nor should there be room for falsehoods, hypocrisy or the double standards of haters, racists, grifters, misogynists and xenophobes.

WTF

I can't believe I have to explain this to the new york times another baffling example of how mainstream is failing us... https://substack.com/@jefftiedrich/note/c-134250144?r=2ck22f