Another week in the books, and what a week it has been.
This week marked a historic low for America: for the first time since 2018, the U.S. government entered a full shutdown. Federal workers are being told to brace for delayed paychecks, vital services are grinding to a halt, and still there is no roadmap for resolution. This is not just gridlock. It is deliberate chaos, and there is no end in sight.
That is why independent journalism is essential in this moment. That is why I need your support. If you value fearless reporting that refuses to look away, subscribe today. Every single subscription keeps this work alive, and it means more than I can ever express.
Meanwhile, the White House formally notified Congress that the United States of America is in an armed conflict in the Caribbean with drug cartels. Think about that for a moment. A government in shutdown, yet somehow able to mobilize for armed conflict beyond our borders. Oversight is crumbling, but military escalations continue unchecked.
And then, earlier this week in Virginia, Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump delivered speeches to top military command. Trump went so far as to suggest something chilling: that Democratic-run cities should be used as training grounds for the U.S. military. Outrageous? Yes. Impossible? Sadly, no.
Because almost immediately after, we saw ICE officials unleash military-style tactics in Chicago. American citizens and noncitizens alike were thrown to the ground, families ripped apart, children dragged from their parents. Military-grade equipment in our neighborhoods. War-zone strategies deployed on our own streets.
And that does not even capture how the week began. We opened with bloodshed. Multiple mass shootings tore through communities across the country, from a church in Michigan where worshippers gathered in prayer, to a restaurant in North Carolina where families came together to share a meal. Everyday spaces turned into battlefields. Everyday people turned into casualties.
To say this is normal is not only dishonest. It is dangerous.
Before the 2024 election cycle, America experienced a week like this maybe once a month. A shocking news cycle stood out as the exception, not the rule. Policy was not dictated by the whims of a President posting on Truth Social at 2 a.m. The media cycle was not designed to exhaust. And ordinary Americans, for all our divisions, were not this tired. We were not this numb.
Now, relentless crisis is the point.
Here is what I want you to hear today: the exhaustion you feel is not an accident. It is the strategy. When every day brings chaos, when every headline feels like a gut punch, when every platform is flooded with disinformation, the goal is simple. They want you to turn away. They want you to give up. They want you to believe truth no longer matters.
I know how heavy this feels because I felt it myself. This week, for the first time in over a year, I took a break. A full break. For 25 hours, I fasted: no food, no water, no scrolling, no news. Nothing. And in that silence, I realized something important.
First: it is okay to take a break. In fact, it is necessary. None of us can fight if we are too tired to stand. None of us can speak out if our voices are worn to a whisper. A pause is not surrender. It is survival.
Second: journalism is not just my job. It is my passion, my calling, my purpose. The very fact that we are living through this moment makes the work matter more. Because in a world where truth is blurred, blurred truth becomes the most powerful weapon of all.
And third: we are just getting started.
We are building something bigger than one voice, bigger than one newsletter, bigger than one platform. We are creating a community that refuses to be silenced. A network of people who still believe in ethics, in accountability, in truth.
But here is the reality: it takes all of us. Journalism does not survive on courage alone. It survives because people like you refuse to give in. Every subscription, every share, every comment is not just support. It is defiance. It is a declaration that we will not look away.
So as this week closes, I want to leave you with this: do not let them tire you out. Take the break you need. Step back, breathe, rest. But do not check out. Because that is what they want. The fewer people watching, the more they get away with. The quieter the truth-tellers, the louder the lies.
We are living in a moment where media literacy is rare, where civics is neglected, where ethics are tossed aside. At the same time, disinformation spreads like wildfire across social media, consuming everything in its path. That is the reality. But it is not the end of the story.
The story is still being written, by us.
So I ask you again: stand with me. Subscribe, share, and amplify this work. Not tomorrow. Not someday. Today. Because the fight for truth, for ethics, for accountability cannot wait.
One subscription at a time. One share at a time. One voice at a time. That is how we fight back. That is how we keep going.
We are only at the beginning. And together, we are going to change the way media works in this country. Not by matching their chaos with more chaos, but by answering their lies with truth.
Take your break. Rest your voice. But then come back, louder, clearer, stronger. Because this fight is only just beginning.
And we are not backing down.
