Byates

The Commencement Speech Graduates Need To Hear Graduates, faculty, families. I am the ground you walk on. I am the air you breathe. I am the quiet constant force that made this moment possible for you to experience. I am Mother Nature, and this is my message to you.

Growing Up "In the Wild." My generations childhood was perhaps the last generation to grow up almost by definition “in the wild.” We survived. open.substack.com/pub/byates28...

"Resist Much, Obey Little." The prophecy of Walt Whitman

There are many metaphors for moving along the timeline called life. A journey, a garden, a roller coaster, or, as Forrest Gump famously said, a box of chocolates. All holding the essence of the "motion of life" through happiness, sadness, worry and doubt while searching for contentment.

Today, May 1st, is Law Day, a national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law. When better than National Law Day to look back to 1973 and to one man who spoke up about corruption and lawlessness in the Nixon White House.

What we should have learned from Artemis II but didn't.

It is too late for us to switch to a parliamentary form of government. A snap election sounds real good right now!

No Kings 3.0 was a huge success and MAGA know it!

When America Was Actually Great Hey Baby Boomers, as my Pappy would say "something ain't quite right" and you know it.

Trump Won't Declare a National Emergency Before Midterms Same old tired playbook. Just a bigger, big lie.

Amazing, almost 70% of "America First" Republicans support the United States involvement in another foreign war. What is this? Mass amnesia? How many times did you hear Trump supporters cheer when he promised "no new wars"?

Trump’s War on Iran Is Illegal "The 'other presidents did it' argument is no justification to depart from constitutional limits. Indeed, this argument is one of the reasons abuses of presidential power have now reached crisis proportions."

Leonnig: "The whistleblower says in Dec. 2025, when there was a mass shooting at Brown U, Kash was on his FBI director jet in FL & there was only one other available jet, but Patel ordered it to be put on standby for another team. That meant an evidence review team had to drive through the night..."

Finally, Trump is releasing the files! No, no, not those files. The UFO files.

U S Women’s Hockey Team wins Olympic Gold in 3 on 3 extra time.

The Comply or Die Policy is Here “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” – Kevin Roberts, President, Heritage Foundation, 2024

Yesterday, February 9th, was Gulf of America Day. How did you celebrate?

It’s not just words/ memes from this sick tyrant. It’s his horrible racist actions brutalizing communities across our country. Trump has the Black and Hispanic community in his cross-hairs. This must stop. I’m running for the U.S. Senate to be the fighter for all Floridians.

One year ago today. This didn’t age well.

When our government acts contrary to the will of the people, when our government fails to protect voting rights, and hinder public participation in governance by martial force, legitimacy ends and tyranny begins. To quote C. S. Lewis, “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”

Sympathetic plaintiff, video evidence, multiple witnesses, clinicians' evaluation. This one will cost taxpayers at least $20million. And that is not enough to every pay her for her suffering and abuse from ICE!

Is anyone keeping a data base on MAGA supporters.

Four Faces of Innocence.

When you realize it all started with a lie!

Coming to a newsstand near you next week.

During his one-hour rambling PC Trump talked more about oil that Drugs. He wants the oil. Denmark/Greenland are you listening. He wants your mineral deposits!

With the expiration of the ACA Premium Tax Credits Congressional Republicans are holding a ticking time bomb and they only have one chance to disarm it when they return in January.

What do you think about a man with a reported net worth of $7.3 billion trying to convince you that what you see with your own eyes, and what you feel with your own wallet isn’t real?

Thank you Phoenix @phoenix509.bsky.social ADD FIVE AND KEEP GOING @allie6179.bsky.social @arlie.bsky.social @neverstopthefight.bsky.social @bluebird4us.bsky.social @mlipsitt.bsky.social

@raykwong.bsky.social @bluestormcomin1.bsky.social @allie6179.bsky.social @amyg8907.bsky.social @docmurphydog.bsky.social @hopeful66.bsky.social @texasresister.bsky.social @ltwlauren.bsky.social @peppapaxpippa.bsky.social @lake-life-girl.bsky.social @moberzan.bsky.social

Brian Cole, accused of planting pipe bombs at the RNC and DNC on January 6th has reportedly told investigators that he planted the bombs because he thought the 2020 election was stolen. You can’t get more MAGA than that! Not an “inside” job, not ANTIFA, just another fool who believed a lie.

Are you telling me that not one cabinet member sitting around this table for three hours didn’t notice this misspelled word? Come on man!

Pete Hegseth either ordered the murder of the two boat attack survivors or he has lost control of his operational commanders if they made the decision. Either way, he needs to fired.

The Songs of Resistance and Reform Music has always been a powerful force in shaping societies, giving a voice to the voiceless, and, most importantly, inspiring collective action.

The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Maria Corina Machado for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

A Bad Idea Then, A Bad idea Now I wrote this a year ago but now seems like a good time for a reminder of what happens when the U S Military is used against U S citizens.

Whoever brokered a cease fire in the "war-ravaged" City of Portland so 12,000 people could run in the Portland Marathon deserves to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Fear and Loathing America's New National Sport

Some earn it, some disgrace it. The men and women I spoke to on this day earned that right in the jungles, rice paddies and hills of Vietnam. I've known many Troopers who, with blood, sweat and death, have earned that Trooper Stetson and you deserve no such honor. Take off that hat!

The Authoritarian’s Secret Weapon: They Never, Ever Leave Voluntarily "What Nixon tried to do in secret with plumbers, burglars, and hush money, Trump is doing in the open, loudly, and with the full backing of the Republican Party and its billionaire benefactors." - Thom Hartman

But my faith is hollow these days. Not because God left me but because those who claim to speak for Him have poisoned His name with their power-lust, their racism, their cowardly silence, their monstrous disguise. - Lucinda Lambert, 2025 www.facebook.com/share/p/16sJ...

Monday night Defenders of Democracy SP! I added a few folks I haven’t seen in my feed since n awhile!! Let’s go! Like comment RP!! Vetted! @oneveteransoath.substack.com @fireeyebooks.bsky.social @gigialexander123.bsky.social @free2beme.bsky.social @markymark757.bsky.social go.bsky.app/Eo8vudr

“There are only so many lies you can take, the President “should get his ass of the White House-today.” Senator Barry Goldwater, August 1974.

Come on man,

If you want to know what we are, read a political commentator. If you want to know who we are read a poet. Lucinda Lambert, a former English teacher, now writer uses words to describe “us.” You can find more of her beautiful lyrics here www.facebook.com/share/p/15T8...

Eighty years ago, today at 5:29:45 a.m., the first atom bomb was successfully tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Every person alive that day and everyone born after that day has lived under the threat of that mushroom cloud. “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” - Robert Oppenheimer

Obituary-The Republican Party, 180, passed away without a whimper July 3, 2025. Predeceased by Abaraham Lincoln and John McCain and survived by Jeff Flake and Bob Corker who tried to mend the fractured family but eventually gave up and went home. Cause of death has been ruled a suicide.

For decades Clyde Butcher and his camera have captured the beautiful landscape of the fragile Florida Everglades. Today his words capture a fragile society where human dignity is in danger of being lost. www.facebook.com/share/p/1HK4...

On Sunday, during an interview Trump said that he loves farmers and taking away people that have been working our fields would destroy farmers. Yet the raids continue. Question, does Trump want to stop raiding and rounding up farm workers, and if so, has ICE gone rouge?

This will be the best three minutes of your day today.