And still counting...
By Brad Friedman on 1/28/2024, 1:54pm PT  

I was exhausted after about four. It hasn't gotten any easier since. Nonetheless, incredibly enough, The BRAD BLOG has now officially turned 20 years old. And I'm still not sure who actually won the 2004 election...

On our 19th Anniversary last year, as we rolled into our 20th year of trouble-making and muckraking, I took some time to reminisce. I don't have the time (or strength) to do much of same this year in the wake of a recent illness or two (and all the other madness ongoing). So I'll refer old-timers back to last year's posting if you're in the mood for nostalgia.

But I do want to thank yet again all of those who have supported our work. I am very proud to say that we are still 100% funded by readers and listeners year after year, now comprising the past two decades! I also must thank the hundreds who have supported what we do here by contributing as guest-bloggers at various times and in various ways over the the past 20 years --- including those who have moved on or have passed away --- and especially those still slogging regularly here, like our friends Ernie Canning and Desi Doyen.

I have told the story many times when asked, how when, back in early 2004 --- after coming off of a completely unrelated long-term project which required pretty much daily writing (and which I thought had been exhausting after "only" five years) --- that I began to miss that daily grind.

"Why don't you start a blog?," Desi helpfully suggested.

It being 2004, I naturally responded: "What the hell is a blog?!"

She explained. And, welp, two decades later, here we are.

I never intended this to be a place for journalism. It was simply called "BRADBLOG" because the original blog software could only be installed into a directory that had 8 characters or less. My plan to come up with a better name for the site itself never seems to have panned out.

The blog was initially meant as a distraction. For me. Here is the first blog item. (Ironically, as noted at the time, Desi had also, presciently, suggested I do a radio show at the time.) Then, the 2004 election happened and few others --- virtually nobody in the mainstream corporate media --- were willing to investigate and cover the multitude of questions, concerns and just a mountain of corruption that took place around that year's election. Specifically in Ohio, where thousands of votes were never counted or publicly verified as tabulated accurately by human beings.

So I did investigate and report on such things. And, yes, two decades later, here we are. Ironically (and hilariously) it is now Republicans --- such as the disgraced felon Sidney Powell --- who have combed through our years of back catalog to falsely cite my exclusive reporting on voting systems from years ago as "evidence," somehow, of "fraud" in the 2020 election.

But, has the mainstream corporate media improved their coverage of elections and so much else since we first began? Yes. Marginally. Not so much when it really really counts, however. And, right now, it really counts.

So here we still are. The media a mess, still failing to adequately cover elections and inform the electorate about our worsening climate crisis and so much more, as we head into yet another Presidential election. This time though, it is one that could, as they warn, end all Presidential elections --- in a nation that has been broken by decades of corruption and lies and failure, which has paved the way to allow a GOP candidate to become President, dictator, autocrat for life.

As much as I worried when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney led the Republican Party off the rails and over the very cliff they are now eagerly diving over (aided, abetted and facilitated all the while by the corporate media), our Constitutional republican democracy may this time be slipping away for good. It may now be more critical than ever that we remain vigilante and push back hard and loud against the rising tyranny of straight up fascism in the U.S., as fully embraced by the virtual entirety of the once Grand Old Party.

To be frank, I am actually embarrassed that I haven't been better able to better help prevent us from arriving where we now are. But, here we are. Still trying to rally "6 or 7" of us to do everything that can be done to save the world...one blog item at a time.

Thank you for being there with us for part or all of the past two decades. Here we are. Still. After 20 years...

And we still count on you.

- Brad (et al)

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