News – The Designer Monologues

January 9, 2026January 9, 2026

I Don’t Know How We Vote Ourselves Out Of This.

The above photo on the left is Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old mother who was murdered on January 7th in Minneapolis by ICE Agent Jonathan Ross. The photo on the right is bystander video at the scene, when she was shot in the face point blank.

Today, JD Vance shared a video, claiming that it proves that Ross was in fear for his life, and that Good was trying to run him down. The video shows nothing of the sort. It shows her turning the vehicle away from Ross (who is the one filming), and saying what turned out to be her final words: “I’m not mad at you, dude.” Ross then shoots repeatedly into her head. Afterward, he can be heard saying “fucking bitch.”

I’m not going to share the video. It can easily be found, if you so choose. But I’ve got to say this: in what world could anyone watch that and think it justified what happened? And it’s not just Vance (and other members of the Trump regime). It’s regular American citizens as well. I’ve seen comments posted to news stories where Americans are claiming it was justified, that she “fucked around and found out”, that she was “asking for it”, and even worse, mocking her death with glee that an ideological “enemy” was slaughtered.

I can’t see a way out of this. The only real power we have is our vote…11 months from now. God only knows what further horrific outrage will occur during those 11 long months… but even with a vote forthcoming, how do we vote ourselves out of this, when millions of our fellow citizens are eager to excuse the murder of their opponents… if not outright celebrate it? How the hell does voting fix that?

Dark times are ahead, folks. I wish I was more optimistic, but I’m not. All I see coming is violence and pain, and what might be the total collapse of a nation… and a not-small part of me worries that the collapse has already happened, and we’re all too shell-shocked to realize it.

It’s fucking hard to keep doing what I do, making distractions to entertain people with fantasy worlds. I know that in the broader scope of things, it doesn’t matter in the slightest. But it’s what I know how to do, and so I keep doing it — like a zombie going through the motions because it doesn’t realize it’s already dead.

Tell your loved ones that they matter. Hold them close. Right now, it may be all we have left.

January 7, 2021August 6, 2025

GOP Delenda Est

In the Debates held in the Roman Senate prior to the Third Punic War (149–146 BC) between Rome and Carthage, Cato the Censor is said to have uttered the phrase “Carthago Delenda Est” — Carthage must be destroyed.

The time has come for the Republican Party to also be left to the ash heap of history, after inciting and encouraging the failed (for now) coup attempt of 6th January 2021. Because that’s what it was, despite our media’s desperate attempts to call it anything else, for fear of being labeled “liberal” or “fake news.” An armed insurrection with the goal of overthrowing the results of a free election, and installing a leader of their choosing. That is the textbook definition of a coup.

August 22, 2016August 22, 2016

WorldCon Whirlwind (and a bit of a rant)

I’m currently catching my breath between the last 5 days spent at MidAmeriCon2 (the 74th Annual World Science Fiction Convention) in Kansas City, and later this week, when we take a cross-country drive to drop my youngest child off at his new college. (The picture, by the way, is author Brooke Johnson, with Laura and I. We’ve been on some panels together at ConQuest and now WorldCon, and had a good time hanging out.) Busy busy busy. But I wanted to get this down.

So, I had been lamenting that I’d missed the opportunity to charge my creative batteries at GenCon again — well, WorldCon took care of that. HOLY CRAP, I’m vibrating.

Spoke on several panels — kinda froze a bit when I noted that Larry Muhfuggin’ NIVEN was in the audience of one of them, hearing ME speak. WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN. Met many, many brilliant people. Had the opportunity for sharing physical location with people that I’ve known for years online — turns out, the people from Twitter have, necks and bodies and legs and stuff. They’re not just disembodied heads in squares. Enjoyed time with folks that I already knew “fer realsies”, even though there never seemed to be enough time.

Came away from the show excited about the future — both for stuff that I’m already working on, and stuff that is just at the “percolating idea” stage. Feeling a much-needed sense of actual enthusiasm for my work, which is wonderful.

A couple of other take-aways from the show:

I’m in my late 40s, and there were rooms where I felt like one of the “young folks.” Seriously. SFF Fandom (with a Capital F) skews WAY old. I’d love to see more effort made to attract a younger cohort, or this stuff is eventually going to die out. It’s been pointed out to me that younger folks often can’t take the time and spend the money to attend — which is true, and not much can be done about that. But content-wise, there needs to be stuff to attract those that COULD attend, by giving them a reason to WANT TO. The ‘fan-culture’ stuff that’s been kinda stale since the mid-70s is not the way to do it. I mean, sure, have that for those that want it — but make more of an effort to recognize and accommodate 21st-Century fan culture, too.

Today, I’ve been reading another spate of post-Con horror stories about creepers, sexists, harassment, social dysfunction. Again. (As an example, this twitter-thread from Alyssa Wong.) Seeing expected messages of support, ally-dom, etc.
But. BUT.

I had convos in person with some folks AT the con about this stuff… and the amount of “well, we shouldn’t ostracize” push-back was noticeable.

Here’s the thing, though: the socially dysfunctional won’t stop these behaviors without it, to say nothing of the purposefully abusive. Until we get over the “geeks don’t ostracize” bullshit, it’s never gonna change. So yeah, offer ally-ship & support. But start actively insuring that there are negative consequences for these behaviors. Now.

People do this in your presence? Ostracize the shit out of them. “But they’re socially awkward” can no longer be allowed to be an excuse. Learn how to behave in public, or you don’t get to BE in public. This is Basic Adult Socialization 101. Long PAST time to start enforcing it.

Rant over. The positives far, far outweighed the negatives, in the end.

Also? I need to take more pictures when I’m at a Con. Folks are posting them all over the place.

Now, back to work.