the foco dad
a stay-at-home dad muses about raising his two children
Category: Current Events
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Two years ago the winner of best documentary feature at the Oscars was a movie called 20 Days in Mariupol, directed by Mstyslav Chernov. The movie includes compelling and tragic footage and interviews from the first few weeks of Ukraine’s war with Russia following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It was one of…
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Trump’s party and their “Christian” message is probably creating more atheists and agnostics than any other point in American history. I’m making an assumption here, an accurate one, I think, but certainly not one for which the necessary studies have been conducted. What leads me to conclude this about Trump and his party are the…
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Way back in October of 2024, Elon Musk and his DOGE shock troopers, which included a man with the social media handle of Big Balls, claimed that they would cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. (That would be nearly a third of the entire budget.) It was a new era of austerity and employment…
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The war with Iran will stir me to write more about politics, current events, and international relations, but not now. Today I am just a swirling mess of ideas I can’t quite put down on paper and so I looked at a long note on my phone, which is full of some of my favorite…
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I check in once a day with my dear friend in Israel. He and his family already live in a volatile region of the world and what Trump did in the wee hours of Saturday morning has made day-to-day life in Israel and the Middle East even more fraught with peril. Trump and Hegseth live…
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Cognitive Dissonance is defined as “a mental phenomenon in which people unknowingly or subconsciously hold fundamentally conflicting cognitions. Being confronted by situations that create this dissonance or highlight these inconsistencies motivates change in their cognitions or actions to reduce this dissonance, maybe by changing a belief, by explaining something away, or by taking actions that…
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I am not a devoted hockey fan, but if it’s the Olympics or the Avs in the playoffs, I’ll watch a match. So I was Sunday when I saw Jack Hughes’ golden goal just 1:42 into overtime. To see the excitement of the team was absolutely contagious. I replayed the final minute of the match…
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I do not once remember my parents implying that the key to happiness is money. They expressed that money is important, of course. It pays for a roof over your head, food on your plate, a car in the driveway (or other means to easily get around town), and, if you’re lucky, it pays for…
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I love a good documentary. This time of year between Oscar nominations and the Oscars show is like Christmas for documentary lovers. A lot of the films become available to stream on some platform or at least become available to rent. In 2023, one of those movies was titled Navalny, after the Russian lawyer and…
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I just want one person, any person, who I know voted for Trump, to express some sadness about his policies, any misgiving at all. That would be great. That would restore some of my faith in this country. I don’t need to hear you say you regret voting for him. Even if you just expressed…
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After all the things Trump has done with his first year of his second term, threatening to invade and completely take over Greenland, strikes me as the most dangerous action yet. Never in my wildest dreams did I foresee a day in which the greatest threat to European sovereignty would be the United States. But,…
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Watching the video of Renee Good’s murder is essential viewing in America today. It’s a prerequisite if you deign to defend ICE. And, if you don’t defend ICE, congratulations! You have a conscience. I have many thoughts about the tragedy, the political implications, the hypocrisy of our “leaders,” and about how I would absolutely love…
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“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” – George Orwell, 1984 In the aftermath of ICE murdering a woman in Minneapolis today, this quote from Orwell’s classic filled up social media feeds, and rightfully so. Like many people, I have seen all…
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I wrote the following on November 6, 2024, after Trump was elected the 47th POTUS. These are my gut reactions, overreactions, and, in italics, what I now think about what I wrote then. Honestly, I’m not sure how any dad with a daughter could cast a vote for him. Pretty much, still feel this way.…
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I am just one of many Harris voters who know people who voted for Trump. They are in my family. They are friends. Some of them are acquaintances. I know people who abstained from voting because they could not bring themselves to vote for any presidential candidate. Odds are, if you voted for Harris, you…
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Soft power in international relations and diplomacy, as I understand it, is a power (or tactic, if you will) that is utilized by global powers, in the US’s case, superpower, to gain favor with a great number of countries around the world that the US, quite possibly, would otherwise have little to no interaction with.…
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During the first week of his administration, President Trump issued a number of directives concerning the federal workforce. Among those directives, the President required that employees return to in-person work, restored accountability LOYALTY for employees who have policy-making authority, restored accountability for senior career executives, and reformed WHITEWASHED the federal hiring process to focus on…
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Just in case you have not read the now infamous email sent to federal employees over a week ago I have included it in this post. As a reminder, Elon Musk sent an email to Twitter employees in 2022 similarly titled. Ultimately, he fired 80% of Twitter employees. The email to federal employees reads as…
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As I drive Dayton Street north to take my kids to school the city boundaries are so zig-zagged that I may be in Denver one block and in Aurora the next, never really quite knowing which city I am in from the moment I turn onto the street until I turn off of it in…