Thinkfest: 2025

Things to look forward to in the new year

My 2025 has gotten off to a slow start so far. I’ve posted sparingly over the last few weeks, due to the holidays and some developments in other aspects of my life.

But even a thinker can use some time off from thinking too much. And 2024 required so much thinking that I was a bit more wiped out than usual.

I’ll be back on a more regular schedule again soon, posting 1-2 times a week, or as events warrant.

But 2025 did start off with some great news for my publication:

Thinker at the Gates Joins The Banter!

I am excited to announce that I will be a regular contributor to The Banter, a pro-democracy, pro-sanity newsletter run by long-time fearless journalist Ben Cohen.

This is quite an honor for me. I started writing from scratch, out of nowhere, with very limited professional history or background, and certainly no name recognition. I did some writing when I was younger, and have always wanted to be a writer, but it just never got off the ground until the last couple years.

Ben took a chance on me and allowed me to submit work as a guest writer, and now here I am, invited to write regular columns by one of the more prominent and respectable publications out there.

I’ll be writing about one piece every two weeks for The Banter, while maintaining my pace as mentioned above on my personal newsletter here.

Many of you, my subscribers, have come to me directly from Ben and his writers, so you are somewhat familiar with his work and that of The Banter.

For those that aren’t familiar, The Banter is the kind of publication you want and need in today’s media and political environment. It is common sense, sane journalism, with a diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints.

It’s biased in the sense that it’s pro-democracy and anti-autocracy. For example, if you’re a MAGA cultist, you probably won’t enjoy reading it, or if you do, you definitely won’t admit you enjoy it. But if you voted for Trump because you’re tired of and angry at the state of things and have an open mind, you might like at least some of it, and at the very least you’ll walk away being a smarter citizen for having read it.

For everyone else, you’ll appreciate and respect it, even if you don’t agree with all the arguments, and find reading it time well spent.

If you are seeking new sources of news, analysis, and entertainment to replace the out of touch large corporate journalistic entities that have been relied upon for decades, then The Banter should be on your list.

If you’re a subscriber to me, you’ll almost certainly like it. I highly recommend you read, subscribe, and support it, just like you do with me, so that quality independent journalism can continue to grow and thrive.

Here’s Ben’s announcement of The Banter’s changes for the new year, including the addition of Thinker at the Gates:

Resolutions

I admit that I did not think that this newsletter’s 2025 would be spent the way it most certainly will. I expected, and greatly hoped for, different results in the elections of 2024. I was hoping to be writing about a new era of tolerance and progress into the future.

Things didn’t turn out that way, and now my writing will likely turn towards preserving the ability to make the hope for progress come to fruition. This will include pointing out and analyzing the hypocrisy, incompetence, and bad behavior we are very likely to see from the new federal government.

I’ll admit I was discouraged and had low energy in the weeks following the election. But I’m entering the new year with a new energy, and feel very much up to the task.

I hope you stay with me and find my work useful and entertaining. I hope it helps you stay sane and comforted knowing that there are others out there like you, that just want to be able to live and thrive while letting others live and thrive.

Part of that is staying informed and being open to new ideas and arguments. Some of that is simply enjoying yourself and laughing. As regular readers know, I like to include humor and satire in my work. I will go back and forth from deadly serious to sarcastic and downright silly at times. Sometimes humor does a better job than anything to convey the points being made.

Please consider sharing my work with others and becoming a paid subscriber. I don’t post much behind a paywall, but I do plan on doing it more regularly from here. Writing does cost time and money, and it really helps to have that support. Plus, who knows, with enough support this publication could continue growing and become even more of what you need and want from independent media.

Anyway, I hope I can help you navigate through the next chapter of America. Let’s dive into the new year, new government, and a new era of our ever-evolving culture together.