If I wasn’t already so shell-shocked by the continuing (arguably, worsening) events of the last five or six years, I might have more emotional space to be amazed about the fact that The BRAD BLOG is now 18 years old.

Yes, as of this week we are finally old enough to vote!…

As we head into our 19th year (no, wait, that’s impossible…yet isn’t!), I am both exhausted and continuously mindful of the fact that whatever we’ve been able to do here over the past 18 years is solely due to the generosity of those who support and share our work — including a few who have done so for almost all of those years!

So, to old readers and new — including those who have discovered The BRAD BLOG thanks to our daily BradCasts across the nation over our public airwaves — thank you for your generosity, including both your financial support when you can afford it and for your other various means of encouragement that helps us keep going.

You, and only you, have made everything we do possible. Most notably, you’ve allowed us to continue reporting independently verifiable facts, for good or ill, without fear, favor, or influence from political parties or corporate interests on the critical stuff that actually matters.

Thanks to you, there is no one in the world in a position to tell us to do otherwise. To that end, of course, we also have only ourselves to blame for whatever we produce here. And, frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way…

When we “temporarily” moved our weekly radio BradCasts to a daily schedule back in early 2015 (in the month just before Donald Trump declared his candidacy to break America), we had hoped to cover the 2016 Presidential election on a daily basis until the end of that election year. But for its, let call it, Surprise Ending (one that wasn’t particularly surprising to us or BradCast listeners, as we had been one of the few outlets to warn about what could happen while others laughed it off as both an impossible joke and a financial windfall for themselves), we might have returned to our weekly schedule. Or, we might have even taken some extended time off to reassess the path forward after what had already been an exhausting two terms each of Barack Obama and, nearly as corrosively and corruptively as Trump (since so many seem to have forgotten!), George W. Bush.

But, here we are. After recognizing the Rise of Trump in the wake of the 2016 election as a full blown National Emergency (no, we never shied from warning as much!), we stuck with our daily radio dispatches — while re-assessing on a nearly daily basis how to move forward.

That assessment continues today, as so much of the nation feels as if it is running on fumes and auto-pilot. In no small sense, we share the feeling.

But we press forward for now, at what I have zero doubt will be viewed by history to have been one of the most critical and consequential moments in our nation’s history, no matter what happens next. Critical and consequential for American Democracy and, with it, democracy across the planet…and for the planet itself — which, if you haven’t noticed, also happens to be failing at the moment due to the same malignant man-made, corporate sources and violent aggressions. Moreover, corporate media have consistently misreported and/or under-reported these National Emergencies, Democracy Emergencies, Climate Emergencies at precisely the moment those corporate outlets were most needed to step up and report the truth without fear or favor in fulfillment of their unique, Constitutionally-protected function.

So, where exactly we — and the nation, and the planet — go from here in our 19th year at it, I’d be foolish to predict. But, here we still are. Thanks to all of you for that. You have only yourselves to blame for us still being here. But thank you.

And, no, the need for your continued support has not become lesser. It has become much greater. That, as we’ve been too busy trying to save democracy and the world itself over recent anniversaries to even mention them here, much less spend enough time trying to raise needed funding.

So, if you’d be kind enough to consider either a one time donation of any amount you like or — even better — an automated monthly donation for same, to help us “celebrate” the start of our 19th year of trouble-making, muckraking, blogging and broadcasting, we (Desi, PDiddie, Ernie, Nicole, me and all the others who have helped or continue to help keep this place moving two steps forward and one step back each day) I would continue to be eternally grateful. We cannot do it without you.

We remain accountable to you and only you.

Onward, hopefully. Upward, maybe. And forward with exhausted eyes wide open and hearts full of gratitude….

Thank you. All of you.

— Brad