When I was a young, impoverished second lieutenant taking my Officer’s Basic Course (OBC) at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, the base Bachelor Officer’s Quarters (BOQ) was at capacity, so I was told to get an apartment off-post. I did so; I found an apartment building about a 10-minute drive from the Army Academy of Health Sciences, on Eisenhauer Road. It was a little place but cheap; a basic one-bedroom, second-story walk-up, with hot and cold running cockroaches – at no extra charge! Since everything I owned in the world at that time fit in the back of my pickup, it worked out pretty well, once I had applied some pesticides to deal with the bugs.
That pickup, by the way, was parked under a long carport out back of the building, but that was fine. The truck was covered, and since my truck was gas-powered, as they all were in the mid-80s, there was no problem.
But if I had somehow owned an electric vehicle (EV) back then? Well, then there would have been a problem. No place to plug it in, you see.
In the United Kingdom, that problem is already developing today with EV owners, causing a new class divide between those who can charge their EVs at home, and those who cannot.
But I have an advantage in the electric transition: the humble driveway. Unlike almost half of the country who live in terraced housing or flats, my dwelling has a dedicated parking pot where I have been able to install a wall-mounted charger.
In a petrol-powered world, the driveway divide did not matter. Whatever one’s domestic circumstances, we all had to queue up at the forecourt and pump fuel into our vehicle every few hundred miles. In the electric age, meanwhile, driveway ownership divides motorists into haves and have-nots.
In other words, people who own homes with garages and driveways can plug their cars right in, meaning they are topped up every day before they leave the house. But someone living in an apartment, like that one of mine from long ago? You are either dependent on fee-charging public charging stations, or you have to procure a really, really long drop cord. […]
— Read More: redstate.com
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
