Kelli Klymenko

It was an honor to speak at the No Kings march — standing with so many voices for freedom and democracy. We will not let them take it away. We’ll fight, like Ukrainians fight — with courage, unity, and hope. ✊🏼 🎥 Vyto Starinskas / Verde Independent #NoKings #WeHaveFriendsEverywhere

Apparently, defending Ukraine against Russia now comes with terms and conditions. Musk and the Trump regime keep changing their explanations while Putin benefits and Ukrainians pay the price. Read the fine print. The terms can change while you’re fighting for your life.

Nine days until the midterms. I’ve already voted, and I’ve been thinking about what public service should mean. Food, healthcare, housing, public schools, dignity, and human rights. Government is supposed to serve people. All people. What if we started there?

This morning belongs to art! 🎨 It’s the final day of the Sedona Plein Air Festival. Let’s celebrate the professional artists, emerging creatives, and community painters who make our world richer. Art matters. And so does supporting the people who create it.

Betrayal isn’t just political. It’s personal. And every American should be concerned when our leaders abandon the democratic principles they’re sworn to defend. My Weekly Reflection, Betrayal Is Personal. 🇺🇦 wehavefriendseverywhere.substack.com/p/betrayal-i...

An American envoy praises Vladimir Putin as a humanitarian while Ukraine suffers under Russia’s invasion. As a first-generation Ukrainian American, I’m furious. This isn’t just a betrayal of Ukraine. It’s a betrayal of every American who believed our country stood for something better.

Political appointees wanted voting-machine vulnerabilities kept secret and sent to the White House. Now states are preparing for possible federal election interference. Who is protecting our elections from the people entrusted with protecting them? We deserve answers before November 3.

European allies paid for Patriot missiles Ukraine desperately needs. Zelenskyy says they’re waiting for Pete Hegseth’s signature. Russia keeps attacking Ukrainian cities while Washington delays their defenses. Who is accountable? And whose interests are being served?

There’s so much happening that taking a break can feel irresponsible. I know I feel that way sometimes. But we all need space to breathe, recover, and simply exist. Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean you’ve stopped caring about everyone else. We have friends everywhere.

As a first-generation Ukrainian American, watching Ukraine fight for freedom fills me with immense pride and heartbreak. We remember centuries of oppression, and we see extraordinary resilience today. Freedom and democracy survive because people refuse to surrender them. Слава Україні! 🇺🇦

Nearly 1,000 armed private security guards at U.S. postal facilities, including Arizona. Who authorized this? What safeguards protect election mail? We have questions. We still have our votes. Vote early. Track your ballot. Don’t be intimidated. We have the power. Let’s use it.

We are compromised. Musk reportedly proposed restricting Ukraine’s military communications. Trump allegedly agreed. Now he’s waiving new sanctions against Russia. How many concessions does Putin get before Congress demands accountability? The pattern is impossible to ignore.

The Life We’re Still Living How do we stay engaged with a frightening world without losing the ability to enjoy our own lives? This week’s reflection moves between Ukraine, unexpected family discoveries, and the artists arriving in Sedona. We don’t have to stop living to prove we care.

Ukraine is fighting for its survival while American satellite restrictions disrupt its defenses and Russia keeps bombing its cities. Trump announces a ceasefire that doesn’t exist. I’m a first-generation Ukrainian American. I’m angry. Whose side are we on? Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦

Why do we accept pooling our resources for roads, schools, emergency services, and national defense, but hesitate when it comes to guaranteeing the necessities of human life? Food. Healthcare. Shelter. Not the finish line. The starting point.

From #95 to #80 Rising in U.S. Politics on Substack! My essays remain free for everyone. Paid subscribers help keep independent writing accessible and receive my Friday Weekly Reflections as a thank-you. If you value my work, please consider supporting it!

Honoring What We Refuse to Protect Arizona’s border wall construction destroyed a centuries-old cottonwood and damaged a 6,500-year-old Indigenous geoglyph. We cannot honor Indigenous peoples while treating their heritage as expendable. You can’t investigate a tree back to life.

A little milestone worth celebrating! We Have Friends Everywhere is back on Substack’s Rising in U.S. Politics list at #95. Thank you to everyone reading and supporting my work. You keep me going. Read and subscribe for free: kelliklymenko.com

The federal government is supposed to serve all Americans, not just those who voted for the president. From disaster relief to justice and voting rights, a troubling pattern is emerging: accountability is treated as an obstacle and loyalty as a requirement. Us and Them.

Trump is easing economic pressure on Putin while Russia continues killing Ukrainian civilians. Ukraine is pressured to stop defending itself, and Congress offers too little accountability. As a Ukrainian American, I regard this as a betrayal of Ukraine and democracy. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦

Every October, Sedona becomes an outdoor studio. For sixteen years, I’ve watched extraordinary artists bring these landscapes to life. The 22nd Annual Sedona Plein Air Festival begins October 16, and I can’t wait. We need art. And we need the things that bring us together.

People are dying. We’re destroying the natural systems that sustain us while rewarding wealth, power, and entitlement. What the hell are we doing to ourselves? We could be building a better civilization. So why do we keep allowing this destruction? My latest Weekly Reflection.

For nearly 25 years, presidents of both parties invited independent observers to monitor U.S. federal elections. Trump’s administration is the first to shut them out while expanding DOJ election monitoring. Apparently the problem isn’t monitoring. It’s who gets to do the watching.

Sedona always reminds me to stop and be present. Storm clouds, sunlight, red rocks, and a rainbow appearing at exactly the right moment. All from my own backyard. A nice reminder that the world is still capable of astonishing beauty. And sometimes that’s enough.

Trump talked about Iran “taking out” Los Angeles and San Diego—and people applauded. Those cities are America. The people there are Americans. History warns us what happens when enough people stop being appalled by what should appall them.

The next thirty days will be loud. Stay focused on what matters: elections, presidential power, institutional limits and participation. Democracy requires more from us than outrage. It requires practice.

If you can, go outside for a while. Let the world get bigger than the noise. Rest is not surrender. Fear is not surrender. You are still here, and you are not alone.

I’m 7 subscribers away from 1,000 on We Have Friends Everywhere. If you’ve been reading, following, or meaning to subscribe, help me get there. Free or paid — I’d love to have you. wehavefriendseverywhere.substack.com

Rape culture survives in the space between what happens to women and what society is willing to excuse in men. It survives through blame, silence, humiliation and institutions more interested in protecting themselves than protecting women.

Last night I spoke in Prescott about power, citizenship and finding each other. The machinery can look enormous. But power is built by people. We have power too. We really do have friends everywhere.

Force isn’t the only thing that changes a landscape. Persistence does too. We don’t have to accomplish everything today. We have to do what we can with the part of the world we can reach. And keep going.

Three Red Flag Alerts have now been issued concerning anti-trans policies in the United States. Genocide prevention means recognizing an accumulation while there’s still time to interrupt it. The warning comes before the worst happens. Listen while there’s still time to act.

We do not have to wait for someone else to tell us when the emergency has begun. History is ordinary people living through today and not yet knowing what future generations will call it. We still have the chance to decide what we do next.

Turning Point USA spent years accusing educators of indoctrinating children. Now its $115M+ political machine says it has 3,570 high-school chapters and 58,000+ student activists. You don’t get to define indoctrination as everyone else’s ideas and education as your own.

War. Health care. Federal spending. Voting rights. They can look like separate stories. They aren’t. Behind all of them is a question we should ask much more often: Who does this serve? Public power should serve the public. That shouldn’t be a radical idea.

The Haudenosaunee Clan Mothers select chiefs—and can remove their authority when they stop serving the people. These days, I find that idea enormously appealing. Human beings have organized power differently before. The world we inherited was never the only one we could have built.

How much of the world we live in was actually inevitable? We treat dominance, hierarchy and accumulation as human nature. But cooperation is human nature too. What if we didn’t eliminate ambition — but changed what earned our admiration? Today’s Weekly Reflection: What Else Could We Become?

Eli Crane has a record. Residence. Access. Judicial independence. Voting rights. Medicaid. War powers. Russia and Ukraine. Campaign language can change. The public record can’t. Public office leaves evidence behind. And I think records matter.

Russia’s election. Ukraine at the UN. NATO preparing for what may come next. Trump (State) TV and journalists fighting for access. Different stories. Same underlying question: What happens when institutions created to restrain power are tested by people who don’t want to be restrained?

The wheel turns again. 🍂 There’s magic in the changing light, even when we understand the science. Maybe especially then. Notice the season changing. Gather what you’re grateful for. Set down what you no longer need to carry. Blessed Equinox.

LGBTQIA+ people are being turned into political arguments while actual human beings are trying to live their lives. You don’t have to understand someone else’s life to recognize that it belongs to them. When we say everyone has rights, everyone has to mean everyone.

There’s a lot happening at once. Press freedom. Ukraine and NATO. Epstein. AI. Measles. These are some of the stories I’m watching this week—not just for the headlines, but for what they reveal about power, accountability, expertise and the institutions we depend upon.

For more than a decade, people have explained, translated and cleaned up what Trump says until it sounds more coherent and presidential than what we actually heard. Strip away the translators, the excuses and the bullshit. What remains is the actual president.

Three news organizations. Three sets of journalists turned away from the White House. This cannot become someone else’s problem while everyone waits to see who gets banned next. The First Amendment protects their right to report. And it protects our right to know.

Nearly 300 million years ago, reptiles walked across wet sand near what is now Sedona. Their footprints remain. The mountains didn’t exist as we know them. Before We Were Here — a little journey through deep time beneath a morning mist.

Time is one of the few things we can’t make more of. And power seems especially good at wasting other people’s time. Today’s Weekly Reflection: The Time We Keep Losing.

The people who built and accelerated the AI race are now warning that development may be moving too fast to safely control. That doesn’t make them neutral observers. It makes the warning harder to ignore.

One dead predator. One jailed predator. Millions of pages. Congress ordered the Epstein files released. DOJ declared compliance. A federal judge granted preliminary relief in a challenge to that compliance. DOJ appealed. So what are we still protecting?

Trump said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy wanted guarantees Russia would actually stop. Overnight, Russia attacked again. If Russia won’t stop, why is Trump asking Ukraine to?