How to throttle the fire hose

“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention” will be a lingering memory if I live beyond this current American era. There are many reasons we don’t pay attention. One is the overwhelming nature of the news.

My way to throttle, or filter, the news flow is to read several Substack bloggers. “Several” means “too many” and “not enough.” Change happens on many fronts simultaneously. I never know enough. I always know too much. This is our world. How do we tame the fire hose of information? How do we discern fact from fiction? How do we maintain sanity? Here are two tidbits:

One is a brief read from Joyce Vance about the federal invasion of Minnesota, highlighting a judge who’s doing right by the Constitution. It’s her February 4 post at Civil Discourse, entitled “Today in Court: What a prosecutor in Minnesota said.” It includes both hope and outrage because Joyce is both hopeful and honest.

The other is a longer piece by Quico Toro at Persuasion, on February 3, “Rubio Wants Democracy, Trump Wants Oil,” sub-titled “One month on, it’s clear which approach to Venezuela is winning.” An excerpt: To the extent there’s any reason for Venezuelans to be optimistic, it’s because Venezuela policy is being implemented not by Trump, but by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. … Rubio laid out a three-phase plan: first, stabilize oil flows; second, create conditions for political reconciliation, including amnesty and the return of exiled opposition figures; third, democratic transition.

From PeaceResourceProject, at Etsy

May this be your insightful day

Several strands of thought to begin the workweek:

“Shape-shifting,” from yesterday’s post about Noa Tishby on antisemitism, posits that the current “shape” of antisemitism is opposition to the existence of the nation of Israel. Her historical analysis is an important starting point for conversation.

Why have the financial markets seemed to be “whistling past the grave yard” by discounting the horrific policies of the current US administration? Josh Brown said it succinctly in a delightful conversation with market guru Tom Lee: The market pays more attention to the big CEOs than the US president. See the video “What Tom Lee’s Worried About in 2026.”

But, after the President’s embarrassing performance at Davos, global markets are paying attention, as global leaders increasingly exclude the US from their economic and political policies. We’re not in Kansas, anymore. (See Sean Conlon’s article below.)

From “Political risk: How Trump 2.0 is affecting investment in U.S. assets,” by Sean Conlon, CNBC, February 1, 2026

May this be your grateful day

Following yesterday’s blessing for a peaceful day, another blessing is in order: May this be your grateful day. I’m saying it to myself and I wholeheartedly recommend it as a companion to a peaceful day.

Fifteen days into treatment for the virus known as RSV, I’m grateful for breath, for life, for you. The African tradition of Ubuntu declares: I am because we are. Joyce Vance says, “We’re in this together.”

The bitter cold has tethered me to my recliner. I’m grateful to have discovered more TV resources in the last two weeks than we’ve watched in several years, primarily through Roku and PBS.

One of the most engaging programs I’ve seen was the January 30th Firing Line with Margaret Hoover. Her guest was Noa Tishby, who helped me more fully understand Hamas, Iran, the Israeli war in Gaza, and the historical “shape-shifting” of global antisemitism. The 27-minute video (linked below) is available online from PBS.

From “Defining Antisemitism,” an interview with Noa Tishby, Firing Line, PBS, January 30, 2026