What The World Needs...NOW!

The Struggles Are Real

I made the mistake of watching the so-called “news” last night for the first time since 2026 started a little over two weeks ago.

Big, big mistake. My sleep was hijacked by stress dreams and low-grade nightmares. Our illustrious (and ridiculous) Chump-In-Chief and his collection of chaos monsters took turns renting space in my head (without paying the rent), just like they do during waking hours. So bawdy and gawdy. So loud and proud. Of their bad choices and bad intentions. Not a lick of common decency or sense among them.

I’ve been doing my best to refrain from talking politics lately. Not because I don’t have opinions. Trust me, I do. It’s just that my unfiltered thoughts tend to drift into imagery that’s better left out of blog posts and courtroom transcripts.

For example, I imagine Stephen Miller appearing on a “very special” episode of Dr. Pimple Popper. Miller has pus for brains. Dr. Sandra Lee removes pus for a living. “Pop! Goes The Weasel” is what the world needs now….

Let’s just say some of these people feel less like leaders and more like untreated venereal diseases in the body politic. And venereal diseases are not meant to be allowed to spread.

And yet…here we are.

Between grocery prices climbing like they’re training for Mount Everest, the constant drumbeat of “maybe war, maybe worse,” and a culture that increasingly rewards conmen (and women), crooks, and chronic liars, it’s hard not to feel like the hellscape of Xitter has infected the rest of the world.

And no, I’m not being dramatic. I’m being observant.

So I try to do the one thing I know genuinely bothers these felonious freaks: I refuse to give them oxygen. I refuse to pay (close) attention to anything they say or do. I refuse to doom-scroll their nonsense. I refuse to let outrage be my primary personality trait.

Starve the firestarters. Starve the egos. Pay those bitches no mind. Or try to.

Because they respond by throwing temper tantrums. Just like the toddlers they are.

The terrifying part, to me, is these tantrums now have a body count.

This isn’t “oops, someone’s feelings got hurt” territory. This is real lives, real harm, and real consequences. This is real people paying the price for the emotional immaturity of men (and women) who confuse control and cruelty with stability and strength.

No, I don’t/won’t negotiate with terrorists.
And I don’t/won’t negotiate with toddlers.

But here’s the part that hits closer to home, the part that doesn’t live on cable news panels or social media hot takes: The struggle to simply live is very real. The struggle to work, put food on the table, and pay the rent is harder than ever, in my opinion.

I’ve been freelancing off and on since 1994. Historically, January has always been my roughest month of the year. Clients reset. Budgets freeze. Everyone suddenly needs to “circle back” sometime around March.

So I do my best to plan for it, to brace for it. I do my best to squirrel away what I can and lower expectations to survive January.

But this year? This year feels heavier. And rougher. This year, the subscribers and views are few and further between. So my anxiety is more noticeable.

When I’m checking my bank balance before buying groceries, I try to remember the ebb and flow of it all. But I always remember that tariffs (and potential wars) don’t float in the abstract. They land in shopping carts. They show up on receipts. They quietly tax the people already doing the most juggling.

(And for the record, groceries is only an “old-fashioned” word if you’re a spoiled little rich bitch. Yeah, I say it loud and proud: Fuck Chump! And his little cult followers too.)

When the people supposedly “leading” the country are more interested in cruelty, chaos, and cash grabs than in competence or compassion, the pressure rolls downhill fast. It lands on freelancers and worker bees. On artists. On day laborers. On union workers. On anyone without a golden parachute, a private jet, or a built-in safety net.

So what does the world need right now?

It needs less noise and more love.
Less spectacle and more stability.
Less ego and more empathy.

It needs leaders who understand that people can’t thrive on jargon and slogans. We need groceries. We need healthcare. We need peace. We need room to rest without fear that the floor is about to give out beneath us. We need a break from the constant barrage of lies and misinformation.

Until that happens, I’ll keep doing what I know how to do:

• I’ll keep creating.

• I’ll keep telling the truth as clearly as I can.

• I’ll keep choosing connection over cruelty and curiosity over despair.

Because as messy, exhausting, and unfair as this moment feels—when the noise is constant and the weight feels personal—one thing remains quietly, stubbornly true: The world doesn’t need more monsters! It has more than enough already.

What the world needs now are more human beings who choose kindness over cruelty and conscience over convenience. It needs more people who refuse to be hard just to survive. It needs more people who remember that staying human is an act of courage. And rebellion.

Keep calm and “Rebel Yell” on!
Clint 🌈✌️

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BORN THIS WAY ON THIS DAY

• 01-16 = Francesco Scavullo (1921-2004) = American photographer 🌈

• 01-16 = George Kelly (1887-1974) = American writer, director, and actor 🌈

• 01-16 = Julie Anne Peters (1952-2023) = American writer 🌈

• 01-16 = Maybelle Blair (1927- ) = American baseball player 🌈

• 01-16 = Susan Sontag (1933-2004) = American writer and critic 🌈

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MAN CRUSH(ES) OF THE DAY

HELMUT BERGER + MICHAEL BENEDICT BY FRANCESCO SCAVULLO

“Coming together is a beginning;
keeping together is progress;
working together is success.”
Edward Everett Hale